Synopsis: Cadets from Starfleet Academy engage in a debate on the fate of the Klingons and Cadet Kraag finds his voice.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of James Hillman’s acorn theory, that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, we all have inner daimons that contain all the information we need to become who we were meant to be.
In “Vox in Excelso,” on the U.S. S. Athena, The Doctor instructed the Starfleet Academy cadets in the art of the debate in preparation for the Aaron Satie Debate. Jay-Den Kraag, the Klingon cadet who joined the academy to be able to study medicine, felt uncomfortable with public speaking. The Doctor told Kraag and the other cadets that he debated himself into existence. Calib Mir advanced over the other cadets until he was paired against Kraag. Kraag froze. Chancellor Nahla Ake summoned Kraag to her office to tell him that his family may have been aboard a Klingon vessel that had been lost.
In a flashback on Krios Prime, Kraag remembers his brother on the day he became a warrior when Kraag told his parents that he did not want to become one.
On the Athene, the topic chosen for the competition was how the Federation should address the Klingons being on the brink of extinction. Admiral Charles Vance sent a message to Ake about a planet, Faan Alpha, that the Federation believed would be a match for the original Klingon homeworld, Qo’noS. He asked her to meet with an old Klingon friend of hers, Obel Wochak, whom the Klingon houses considered their leader, to ask him if Klingons might consider it. Obel Wochak visited Ake. She showed him Faan Alpha. He said that it would be charity and that the Klingons have nothing left except tradition. He said that the houses would only unite by conquest.
In a flashback, Kraag remembered his father wanting him to be a warrior and Kraag telling him that he was honoring his brother by not being a warrior.
On the Athena, Darem Reymi came to see Kraag told him to use his voice. The Doctor Judged the Aaron Satie Debate Competition. Mir argued that the Federation should provide and enforce asylum for Klingons. His authority was Federation law which called for aiding sentient beings unless it violated the Prime Directive. Kraag argued that Federation law was irrelevant. He asked if without self-definition were Klingons Klingons? The debate turned personal and was ended. Commander Lura Thok came to visit Kraag in the role of a Klingon elder. She told him about the Federation wanting to gift a planet to the Klingons. Kraag told her he wanted to go back to the debate stage. Once there he told those assembled that the Federation cannot save Klingons unless Klingons are Klingons. That there needed to be a Klingon solution to a Klingon problem. The vessels of Obel Wochak’s fleet were hailed and Ake commanded the Starfleet forces against Wochak’s. After a brief skirmish, the Starfleet forces surrendered, and Obel Wochak seized the planet of Faan Alpha as a spoil of war.
In this episode, in the flashbacks in which Kraag remembered past occurrences and in the present when he listened to advice that he was receiving to finally understand not only what he had to do for himself, but for the future of all surviving Klingons, this can be compared to when an individual listens to their inner daimon in order to become who they are meant to be. Hillman taught that we all have an inner daimon that knows who we were meant to be, but that individuals needed to listen to them for that to happen.
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