The upcoming series "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is set in the 32nd century, within the ivy-covered walls of the titular college-like institution. Starfleet Academy, as Trekkies can tell you, is the incredibly rigorous school that future Starfleet officers must attend before they can serve as senior staff members on a starship. Starfleet Academy typically takes four years to complete, and involves complex studies into engineering, history, ethics, biology, piloting, athletics, and personal integrity.
There are a lot of lessons about cultural understanding, but just as many about the inner workings of warp manifolds. It's very difficult to get into the Academy and just as difficult to graduate. Once a student's tenure is fulfilled, they are promoted to the rank of ensign, and, in many cases, given a ship to serve on. Many Starfleet cadets are allowed field experience as well, and some will serve on starships prior to graduating.
People come from all over the quadrant to attend classes at the San Francisco campus, and, like all colleges, it's a melting pot of hundreds of cultures. Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Benzites, Bolians, Betazoids, Tellarites, and a hundreds other species attend. On "Star Trek: The Next Generation," it was stated that Worf (Michael Dorn) was the first Klingon to attend. On "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," Nog (Aron Eisenberg) was the first Ferengi.
"Starfleet Academy" also seems to be boasting another breakthrough of the species barrier. The character of Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), one of the faculty at the Academy, is half-Klingon and half-Jem'Hadar. "Deep Space Nine" fans will immediately tell you that the Jem'Hadar were one of the show's scariest villains. They were specially bred to be aggressive soldiers, all of them were male, and part of their genetic conditioning forced them to be addicted to a powerful drug called Ketracel-white.
If the Jem'Hadar can now be female, and have children with Klingons, then Trekkies will have many questions and/or speculations as to what happened in the "Star Trek" universe since "Deep Space Nine."
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The Jem'Hadar Are Now Starfleet Officers
To remind readers, "Deep Space Nine" took place mostly in the early 2370s. "Starfleet Academy" takes place in the 3190s. A lot can happen in 815-ish years. The Jem'Hadar first appeared in the "Deep Space Nine" episode called, fittingly, "The Jem'Hadar" (June 12, 1994), and their background, character, and genetic makeup was explained in detail. They were the soldiers for the Dominion, the aggressive, all-spanning empire that ruled over the galaxy's Gamma Quadrant. The Jem'Hadar were trained to worship the Dominion's higher-ups, the Founders, as gods, and they reveled in the idea of combat. The Jem'Hadar had axioms and prayers they would chant before going into battle, reminding themselves that they weren't truly alive until they charged into battle. They didn't relax and don't require sleep. Their ships didn't even have chairs.
The Jem'Hadar were all artificially grown, and, as mentioned, were all males. They were hatched out of tubes and grew to adulthood within three days, already knowledgeable of fighting and incredibly aggressive. As far as anyone on "Deep Space Nine" knew, the Jem'Hadar were no longer capable of reproducing on their own.
Of course, after the events of "Deep Space Nine" concluded and peace was made with the Founders, the fate of the Jem'Hadar was up in the air. Given the welcoming nature of the Federation, it's possible that they reached out to the Jem'Hadar and offered to re-engineer their genes to free them of their addiction to Ketracel-white and their reliance on the Founders. It would likely take several generations of engineering and social re-training to free the Jem'Hadar of their soldierly instincts, of course, but that could certainly happen within the 815 years that connect "Deep Space Nine" to "Starfleet Academy."
The Fate Of The Jem'Hadar
This isn't explained too deeply in "Deep Space Nine," but it's possible, too, that Jem'Hadar once had more genders than just male, or at the very least, are capable of sexual reproduction. Expanded universe lore (like novels) would explain that the Jem'Hadar possess both male and female biological features, and merely appeared to resemble males. They were, in fact, only possessed of a single gender. Expanded universe lore, however, isn't widely accepted as canon, so those rules can be changed at the whims of a TV writer.
Trekkies, meanwhile, have never seen what happens when the Jem'Hadar are left to form their own society. We don't know how much of their physical and social characteristics are a matter of their very careful genetic programming. As such, it's possible that they might naturally develop sexual reproductive capabilities and start having babies on their own, if left to their own devices. Perhaps the Jem'Hadar even petitioned the Federation's best geneticists for the capability of sexual reproduction. That request would have made for a great "Deep Space Nine" episode.
Then, once the Jem'Hadar had become liberated, they could explore the galaxy, and start falling in love. Naturally, the Jem'Hadar would meet and marry other species. It's wholly possible that a Jem'Hadar and a Klingon met, bonded through their mutual heritage of combat, and had a child.
This would all explain Lura Thok's ancestry. The nature of her character and her personality, however, will not be revealed until "Starfleet Academy" debuts in early 2026.
The main characters of "Starfleet Academy" also include one human, one half-Lanthanite, a Klingon, a Khionian, a Betazoid, a Dar-Sha, and a holographic being called a Kasqian. Paul Giamatti plays a villainous character who is half-Klingon and half-Tellarite. It's a glorious multicultural tapestry of people, and holds a lot of promise.
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