Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Has Subtle Callback To Discovery's Klingons

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 4 - "Vox in Excelso"Star Trek: Discovery left its controversial Klingons behind in the 23rd century, but Star Trek: Starfleet Academy keeps those Klingons alive in one big way. Directed by Doug Aarniokoski, and written by Gaia Violo and Eric Anthony Glover, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 finally delivers an update on Klingons in the late 32nd century.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 reveals that The Burn caused the dilithium reactors on Qo'noS to explode, which destroyed the Klingon homeworld. On the verge of extinction, the Klingons scattered throughout the galaxy as refugees. Yet the Klingons' fierce pride refused offers of help from the United Federation of Planets.

Following a plan conceived by Starfleet Academy cadet Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) successfully coaxes the Klingons to accept Faal Alpha as their new home planet by recognizing the Klingons' cultural need for conquest. What Jay-Den revealed about the Klingons harkens back to what the Klingons wanted at the very beginning of Star Trek: Discovery.

Starfleet Academy Recontextualizes What Star Trek: Discovery's Klingons Wanted

As Jay-Den Kraag explained in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4, what the Klingons wanted wasn't Federation "charity," but the recognition of their need to "remain Klingon," even in the face of extinction. "Remain Klingon" was the underlying theme and motivation behind the Klingons' villainous aggression in Star Trek: Discovery season 1.

When Star Trek: Discovery begins, the Klingons feared the expansion of the Federation and the potential erasure of their culture. The Klingon houses united under the Messiah, T'Kuvma (Chris Obi), under his promise to "Remain Klingon." Even after T'Kuvma's death, the Klingons waged war and nearly toppled the Federation in pursuit of their need to "Remain Klingon."

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy recontextualizes "Remain Klingon" as the great warrior race's non-negotiable pride to maintain their core beliefs. Despite their desire to help by gifting the Klingons with a new homeworld, the Federation failed to understand that it was even more important for the Klingons to "Remain Klingon" because they faced the end of their race.

Honor and the preservation of their ways are what's most important to Klingons, whose society was born from the myth of Kahless the Unforgettable. This was true in Star Trek: Discovery when the Klingons were aggressors. It remains fundamental 900 years later in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which keeps the warrior race's "Remain Klingon" mantra alive and makes it even more paramount to the survivors of Qo'noS's destruction.

Will Discovery's Klingons Ever Return To Star Trek?

While their "Remain Klingon" philosophy endures in the 32nd century, Star Trek: Discovery's controversial re-imagined Klingons do not appear in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. It's likely those Klingons may never be seen again in Star Trek after the hostile fan reaction to their redesign, which remains a sore spot long after Star Trek: Discovery left them behind after season 2.

Although traditional Klingons appeared in other Star Trek on Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Discovery avoided the Klingons after its 930-year jump forward in season 3. What happened to the Klingons in the post-Burn 32nd century was a question Star Trek: Discovery dodged, but has now been clarified by Jay-Den Kraag and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

An alternate timeline version of Star Trek: Discovery's Klingons were briefly seen in Star Trek: Lower Decks' series finale, and this may be the last time Discovery's bald, heavily armored, and grotesque Klingons will be seen in Star Trek.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy recontextualizing "Remain Klingon" is a subtle nod to Star Trek: Discovery's Klingons that preserves a fundamental aspect of the great warrior race. Star Trek may never explain Star Trek: Discovery's very different Klingon variant, but their core beliefs live on in a different way in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.