WHY WE LIKE IT: Extremely quotable.
WHY WE DON'T: I dunno... the battle isn't long enough?
REVIEW: The Klingon script in the CBS opener heralds a welcome spotlight on Kraag, delving into his backstory, but also just what happened to the notably-absent Klingons in this century. All told in the shadow of Academy shenanigans, in this case, a debate competition graded by the Doctor. It's a classic school activity, here linked to the Satie family (see The Drumhead for the connection), and to the personhood the Doctor gained on Voyager. I love his line about arguing himself into existence. And while you'd think a Klingon could be good at arguing - a combat of words - Kraag is crippled by anxiety over speaking in public. Again, basic school stuff, but it leads to Darem helping him learn to deal with, a nice moment of grace for the character, but one could believe he's only doing it because his rival Calen is on the other side of the debate (and surprisingly good at it). Or are they floating a romance between the two guys from "warrior species"? Either way, Darem shows more sincere feeling than he usually does.
As the competition nears, we also hear of the Klingons. They suffered greatly during the Burn and lost their homeworld. Only 8 Houses survived, and they travel together from planet to planet, essentially cosmic refugees. They have become, as Star Trek VI once unkindly put it, "the trash of the galaxy". There's a solution, a planet just like Qo'noS, but they've refused every attempt by the Federation to give it to them. Klingons don't accept charity. Even more personal entreaties - such as Ake contacting an old flame (oh my!), now leader of the Klingon diaspora - fail. I do love that Vance found out about this connection through her lengthy (and apparently juicy!) logs. So it's clear, when Kraag argues (so he CAN argue) that the tragedy at hand - Klingon ships thought lost - IS a fair topic for debate AND takes the side that the Klingons shouldn't be helped AND closes himself off from friends in the exact same way the former Empire does from the Federation, that the debate would hold the solution to the bigger problem. You might even be able to guess what it should be, but it's nice to be right rather than surprised, sometimes. Empathy imposes a responsibility to speak in the other's language, and since everything is combat to the Klingons, a brief little fight "for show" so the new planet can be "won" is, of course, appropriate. My heart soared when they played the old Klingon theme from the Trek movies and loved Ake shouting Qapla'. Hey, looks like Kraag could turn out to be the most important person in Klingon history since Worf!
Not that he doesn't have anything to learn ABOUT his heritage. He is, after all, a most uncommon Klingon, one incapable of killing even animals. Here, Lura Thok, usually comic relief, helps him in earnest thanks to her own Klingon heritage, and makes him understand that what he believed to be his father's rejection of his path was instead his admitting defeat in the face of his son's differing values. Combat as language. And that, more than the debate, provides the solution. We find a lot to love about the rhetoric and how it plays against the thoughtless colonialism in Caleb's argument, and there are many lines, whether from the Doctor's own history or Kraag's statements about Klingon self-determination, that could apply to many situations, and indeed, seem to speak to the present moment. There's an awful lot of wisdom in this episode.
LESSON: Talk to people in their love language.
REWATCHABILITY - High: Starfleet Academy's first unconditional winner, its relevance evergreen.
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