Strategically General Chang’s plan is quite brilliant, opening with a lighting strike on Federation listening posts along the border to blind them to Klingon fleet movements. Klingon Academy gives us a look at what a war in Star Trek would probably look like on both its strategic and tactical levels. Yet as someone who loves watching documentaries on various wars, and loves playing strategy games like Waterloo, Stalingrad, and D-Day with my friend BJ, I love the examination of tactics and strategy. That’s not a criticism, that wasn’t the story it was trying to tell, Deep Space 9 used the war as a backdrop to explore how the optimism of Star Trek and the Federation itself holds up in the face of adversity, and to explore its characters. Star Trek as a whole has never done war well, even Deep Space 9 whose Dominion War was a centerpiece of the show, never quite made the war feel real in terms of strategy and tactics.
General Chang is the chief instructor of the academy, and his lesson plan is leading his students through a simulated war against the Federation. However interacting with the other members of the Academy, and in particular, General Chang is an absolute pleasure. Torlek never gets much characterization, but then the player character is meant to be a bit of an empty shell in these kinds of games. Star Trek: Klingon Academy has you playing the role of Torlek, son of Ro’Vagh, entering the titular academy to train to become an officer in the Klingon Empire. More than that thought, it had a great story anchored by a terrific performance from Christopher Plummer, an outstanding soundtrack, and better production values than most episodes of Star Trek. I never understood why because it had the best capital ship space combat I’ve ever played, to this day nothing has been that satisfying. He wasn’t wrong, Klingon Academy was a commercial and critical failure. I still remember the store clerk laughing at me when I asked him to hold a copy for me.
And by we, I of course mean her, because I was only 12 years old. Klingon Academy came out in 2000, and I was so excited for it as a kid I did something I hated in order to get it: I actually called my local Gamestop to reserve a copy for me so that when my mom got off work we could go buy it. To this day I don’t know how they got Christopher Plummer to appear in a Star Trek video game, or how the game developers could afford it for that matter. My dad was staring at Christopher Plummer as General Chang and the video game was Star Trek: Klingon Academy, and his surprise was understandable.
Who? Oh, only an academy award winner starring in a Star Trek Video game.
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