skfsh

re: Obel Wochak's complexion, I saw a Youtube recap that said he was an albino Klingon. I don't know if the show really confirmed it, but I thought it was an interesting takeaway, because we've seen a couple in previous shows already.

Just to your point about the debate being pointless, it wasn't even meant to be in the curriculum until the students fought for it.

We could mince words about whether or not the writers forced the debate plot, but what really matters is whether they sold that it was within the characters' motivation to hold one. And for me it did.

Aha. This is the reasoning that made the whole thing click for me. Thank you!

Well, plus the Burn that made it difficult to traverse space. The "Klingon Zone" that was hinted at in Discovery probably meant that the apparatus of empire was no longer in place, but that only individual houses remained, scattered wherever they were across the region of the empire.

I wonder how much do the Klingons know that Starfleet pulled its punches?

I thought the contrivance of involving Starfleet Academy was done very well.

From an upper decks perspective, a tragedy happened, and Starfleet was compelled to act. No need to involve the Academy, but it just so happens that the highest ranking official in Starfleet with close ties to a member of the Klingon house is the current chancellor of Starfleet Academy. (That she's 400 years old is going to be a pretty handy plot device for getting her involved in all sorts of things... but it hasn't hit the point of being annoying yet.)

Separately, it also tracks that the chancellor needs to see their only Klingon cadet privately to offer support. That's a good school administration right there. No need to involve him in the diplomatic negotiations that are going on behind the scenes.

The only reason why these converged was because of the debate class, which makes total sense that it would be a required course at the Academy, and then only because the students debated the Doctor into allowing it because they were already talking about it.

I think this would be ridiculous if it was literally every episode, but this actually worked.

Rebuilding in the wake of global disaster (and honestly it's been one after another my whole life) is exactly the kind of inspirational content I think we need right now. 90s Trek was all about "things have been great, it could be better!" and I think our message today really should be "things have sucked for a bit, but how do we recover the greatness we know we're capable of?"

Glad you're back! You were down right when I just finished watching Starfleet Academy and I feared for the worst 😅

Holy shit. All so that eventually all the young folks turn on the older officers on their ships. Wesley finally getting his revenge for the way he was treated growing up. He was playing this 4D chess all along

You hear that yelling and screaming in the background? That's the sound of Ben from Greatest Generation raging because he needs to come up with alternate names for Admiral Your Mom's Coworker Who Is Just a Little Too Friendly With Her To Be Comfortable For Your Dad, for the next 6 years

I had placed a huge bet on Owo and Detmer warping the ISS Enterprise in at the last minute to save everyone's bacon, and now I'm homeless

The problem is that the Burn is space magic, but the problems of today's world is being caused by ourselves. These cadets have all the support of their political structure to enact change. We don't have that. Our entire political and economic system is stacked against us right now. You'll need to take a lot of power and money away from people who will salt the earth rather than give it up.

I love the sentiment behind it, but I can only hope it delivers on a truly revolutionary premise.