Star Trek: “Starfleet Academy” strongly focuses on both when and how to fight—as it should given the setting. The spotlight on education—on an educational system that is integral to the existence of the Federation and thus the fate of the galaxy itself—is timely. Academe is both a foundation and a bulwark for any society from the socio-economic to the cultural, political, communal, and ontological not just within one country but worldwide. Without education, without learning based on critical and creative thinking, truths, and the exploration of truths both concrete and intangible as well as the exploration of the possible, without the ability to develop the mind and the heart, the body and spirit through the dynamic relationship called education, there is . . . nothing.
In “Starfleet Academy”, the cadets learn how to communicate and cooperate, forming bonds that strengthen belonging and community, inspiring loyalty, dedication, and the humanitarian while helping to better ensure success in battle. Cadets learn their place within the fight—quite like Arjuna, to put it simply, learned his. In Episode 4 “Vox in Excelso”, Jay-Den Kraag, a Klingon with a comparably gentle nature, moves into self-definition: he exists in the fight and in the service of his people. He learns that his father purposefully loses their battle to let Jay-Den to realize that he is a warrior—one who fights with words. He had, though, to understand his father to arrive at self-definition. Those at the Academy learn that a best way to win a battle is to know the enemy from their own perspective (a repeated trope), which, in this case, also results in saving the Klingon race. In the end, as Cadet Kraag states, “[b]attle exists in as many forms as there are warriors”.
In episode 6, “Come, Let’s Away”, also learned is that harming someone, even if in accordance with boundaries, polices, laws, and/or right action can result not in the containment or the cessation of the problematic behavior but in the growth of something greater. In this way, Nus Baraka, a pirate and murderer, becomes an even more powerful enemy of the Federation with deep hatred for Captain Nahle Ake. Karma never ceases as actions lead to actions lead to complexity lead to a ball of tangled string with no evidence of the end. Right action, though, allows the re-visioning of that layered and cross-layered ball as a tapestry of a greater story that ultimately expresses the greater good.
The thing about education is that even as the students learn from each other and from expert teachers, the teachers learn from the students and from each other as well. Everyone is of value. Just as challenges are lifelong so is learning, and academe seems to operate best as part of a unit with honorable and inspiring values that can lead to the general betterment of all societies everywhere.
Indigo Fall 