Starfleet Academy just reimagined Klingons as polyamorous refugees

[Ed. note: This article contains major spoilers for Starfleet Academy episode 4.]

In the original Star Trek and the prequels Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Klingon Empire is portrayed as a fierce adversary of the United Federation of Planets. The Empire settled into the role of a powerful geopolitical rival in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which continued the series’ emphasis on inclusion by adding the Klingon security officer Worf (Michael Dorn) to the command crew of the Enterprise. “Vox in Excelso” reveals that the Burn, the catastrophic event that shattered the Federation in the 31st century, also devastated the Klingons. Their homeworld, Qo’noS, was destroyed, and the species is on the brink of extinction, mostly living in refugee camps.

“There are so many refugees at any given time in the world. It is a part of the human condition,” Starfleet Academy co-showrunner Noga Landau told Polygon in a video interview. “We feel that on a show like Starfleet Academy, it’s important to tell that story.”

“Vox in Excelso” focuses on Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), Starfleet Academy’s only Klingon student. When a ship carrying members of eight Klingon Great Houses to a refugee camp suffers catastrophic mechanical failure, the Federation wants to offer assistance, but the proud Klingons refuse aid. Jay-Den becomes a voice for his culture when the issue is discussed in the school’s debate class.

Following the long history of rhetoric-focused Star Trek episodes, Jay-Den faces his fear of public speaking to make his argument, coming up with a way for the Federation to give the Klingons a new homeworld without violating their sense of honor. The episode redefines what it means to be a Klingon warrior.

“I think every soul alive in the galaxy right now at some point has to go to war,” Landau said. “That’s a very Starfleet idea — that war shows up in all forms — and it’s about how you meet it when it comes to you.”

Jay-Den is a pacifist studying to become a doctor, and as a Klingon, he’s strikingly different from Worf. Diané told Polygon he was worried about how his character would be received until he spoke to Dorn.

Photo: Brooke Palmer/Paramount Plus

“For four months straight, I was just a ball of anxiety. Klingons are iconic, and I know naturally people would compare me to the Klingon,” he said. “Michael Dorn helped me just relax and said, ‘Just have fun and do it in your own way.’”

Jay-Den also struggles with other people’s expectations for him. His choice to pursue medicine and refusal to participate in a hunting ritual deeply upsets his parents — all three of them. Starfleet Academy mentions polyamory in episode 3, when cadet Darem Reymi (George Hawkins) talks about his complicated love life, and Landau said introducing a Klingon triad – Jay-Den has two fathers and a mother – is just another way the show is holding up a mirror to the modern world.

“There are a lot of folks alive in the world right now, and there always have been, who have three parents,” Landau said. “We put our heads together when we were [writing] the episode, and we said, There are going to be people in our audience who’ve never seen their kind of family before on screen, so why don’t we do that? Klingons are fun. They seem like the sort of people who wouldn’t hold back from having a three-parent household.”

The first four episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy are available to stream now on Paramount Plus. Future episodes release on Thursdays through March 12.