Chancellor Kelrec hasn’t really impressed, up to this point in Starfleet Academy. He’s been played mainly for laughs in the first 5 episodes, but underneath the jokes about a deflating blobfish and his being weirdly obsessed with making tea, he’s been shown as a rigid thinker. He’s not someone who expects his cadets to be creative or insightful, but rather he expects them to follow the rules and procedure. I’ve heard some commentary YouTubers compare him to Arnold J. Rimmer from Red Dwarf, an ineffective and incompetent leader who is too obsessed with regulations and wears a blue jacket for much of the series.
Kelrec is clearly there to be a foil for Nahla Ake, who is much more about free expression and encouraging individual thought, which is why I was glad to see that in Episode 6 of Starfleet Academy, “Come, Let’s Away,” Chancellor Kelrec isn’t portrayed as a caricature or a buffoon, but rather as something Rimmer is never seen as: a competent officer. Kelrec introduces the exercise with authority, and when the crisis begins, he has confidence that his cadets will be able to handle themselves. Throughout the episode, even knowing he’s had interpersonal problems with Nahla, he puts those feelings aside and works with her in a way that shows a growing respect for her.
Admiral Vance is in the position of trying to find balance between the two. When introduced in Discovery, Vance was a man in crisis mode, focusing on keeping things together through rules and regulations, but throughout Discovery he learns to loosen up. This is why, I believe, Vance didn’t close the War College when reopening Starfleet Academy, because he knows that Kelrec’s ways of thinking got them through the Burn, but Ake’s ways of thinking will help them lift their eyes back to the horizon.
One of the earliest College Student Development Theories is Nevitt Sanford’s 1966 theory, a major component of which is the concept of development through challenge and support. Sanford believed that if an environment is too challenging, a person won’t develop. They’ll retreat and shut down, so you need to have support to make sure things aren’t too hard. But, if you provide too much support, you take away too much of the challenge, and then the person does not develop and grow. Colleges, then, should strive to find a good balance, encouraging challenges and providing just enough supports to encourage growth, without making things too easy. In the triad formed between Nahla Ake, Kelrec, and Vance, Nahla is the embodiment of the supporting educator, Kelrec is the embodiment of the challenging educator, and Vance is Sanford’s theory, trying to find a balance between the two.
Vance is creating a trinity between the three of them, similar to the way Kirk, Spock, and Bones operated in TOS. Vance is in charge, and he has two equal advisors, one more focused on logic and rules, the other more focused on feeling. Vance knows that Starfleet will be served best by having officers trained by both, working together, both challenged and supported from both perspectives.
These philosophies play out in the way that the various cadets are seen to handle themselves in this episode. The Academy cadets are shown to be creative problem solvers, encouraged to think in unique ways that the War College cadets aren’t used to. When Caleb uses programmable matter to get the U.S.S. Miyazaki’s life support system back online, the War College cadets ask if that’s allowed. It does not occur to them that the rules that they were given might have allowed for some flexibility. It is Genesis who figures out how to track the cloaked ship, and SAM who comes up with the idea of having the Miyazaki’s computer read the comic book to help it understand the cadets are it’s new crew. Both are examples of thinking outside of the box, the exact kind of thinking that is needed at the time.
As the Furies attack, the War College cadets demonstrate that their way of thinking and operating is equally valuable. When Commander Tomov sacrifices himself to save the cadets, Caleb is shocked, but B’avi understands the reason, quoting Spock’s famous line about “the needs of the many.” Kyle, similarly, throws himself into combat to protect his comrades, joking after that a few scars will be good on a soldier.
But the War College cadet that really impressed me this week was Tarima. There is a moment where she is trying to convince Kelrec and Nahla that she is willing to take the risk to herself to act as a communication conduit with Caleb, who is trapped on the Miyazaki. Tarima says to Kelrec that “One of the things that the War College has taught me, that you taught me, is to see the task clearly. I can see what I have to do. And I can see I’m the only one on this ship who can do it.” Tarima specifically says that she learned this lesson from Kelrec, that his instruction has shaped her thinking. She has learned from him a clarity of purpose, an understanding that she has unique gifts and abilities that will make her the only person for the job.
Here, we see that Tarima has grown through Kelrec’s style of challenging his cadets. In this scene, he offers her a way out, he offers her the chance to back down, he offers her the safety of support, but she does not take it. She she learned that she is the only one who can accept this particular challenge. She shows that she has grown and developed and she accepts the risk. The supports are there, she takes this risk with The Doctor monitoring every step of the way, but she still steps up.
When I first watched this episode, I thought to myself “wow, Kelrec is actually competent!” But on further reflection, I understand that Kelrec is actually a good educator, he understands that it is important to challenge his students, to support them as they go through the challenges, to get them to understand what they have to do to be successful.
I look forward to seeing the dichotomy between Kelrec’s and Nahla’s approaches continue to be explored as the show goes on.
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