ENT: Divergence

[MrL1992]

The biggest bother to me with this story is how it gives such an unnecessarily contrived explanation fir the differences in Klingon behaviour between ENT and TOS. Focus is out on the appearance change (which I don't feel was necessary to address but whatever) but it s also heavily implied that it altered their brain function too.

This only exists to fix a problem that. ENT itself created when the Klingons first showed up in the series' debut. There was virtually no difference between the Klingons of the 22nd Century and 24century, further presenting them as a homogenised, on-note race. The more organic route would have been to start off with TOS-style Klingon behaviour (ignoring appearance) or something even more different and show just how their society developed and altered over the centuries like any civilisation. Their relationship with the old belief systems, fluctuating over time with how conservative or liberalky they followed them. It would also neatly fit with their differing characteristics in tge TOS movies as well as the recent Discovery.


It further gives the impression that Star Trek races aren't living, breathing communities with ever evolving cultures but rather one dimensional archetypes that can only ever change by means of science magic.

[clearspira]

I'm not sure if I can really explain myself, but I felt this explanation for the Klingons was "Too Much." I can't back this up with a primary source, but it seems like the official word throughout the 80s and 90s was that the canon was that the Klingons always had the forehead ridges, and that the original series look was just the limitations of budget, (or, more accurately, probably something closer to what Tv tropes calls "Early Installment Weirdness.) Under this view, there was nothing to account for. Chuck was right in his Trials and Tribulations review that they probably felt cornered into addressing by having worf in the same room with TOS Klingons, but his Non-Answer was exactly right. Still, in the over all scheme of things, even that small line "canonizing" the change probably was a mistake. And I found this story a lame explanation.

Chuck's Specualtion about how to account for Discovery's Klingons Mark 3 is probably fair enough. I too think the Discovery Klingons would look less odd if they had their hair. But I still view Discovery as a third splinter timeline. Remember, Many Worlds is fully canon for Star Trek. (Another implication of that? There's more than one Mirror Universe.)

And speaking of discovery klingons, I wonder if/when Chuck will talk about the implication that Klingons have more than one penis. It was first hinted at subtly in the one where Lorca is a prisoner, but it gets overt near the end of the season. honor and courage indeed.

I stopped watching STD so I am going to tentatively bite at your last question assuming that it may be a joke: we learn in TNG ''Ethics'' that klingons have ''doubled up'' on all of their internal organs: they have an eight chambered heart, three lungs, multiple stomachs etc. This is what makes them such a hardy race. As canon breaks go, this one isn't actually that unlikely from a canon point of view.

What I would politely point out though that far from honor and courage, this is realistically not going to be the pair of udders that you might be imagining. Imo it is more likely to be something that can be tucked away for safety.

[chaos42]

also the new klingons might be the product of a strain of virus that not only gives them their bumpy foreheads back but also makes them more aggressive and violent hence why they need something to unite them

[Fianna]

I would have preferred if the explanation for smooth-headed Klingons was that, for a decade or so, getting your forehead surgically smoothed out was a popular fashion trend, one which modern Klingons now look back on with the same embarrassment as we would a flock-of-seagulls haircut.

[CharlesPhipps]

Any explanation would have been silly.

[Deledrius]

Any explanation would have been silly.

At this point, since it was clearly not an intentional story-based divergence but a blanket dismissal of the established look, I agree. If they come around to giving some tedious explanation for it in Discovery, it's going to be layered on top of already having done that once before, and it's debatable whether that was already too silly the first time. Twice isn't really defensible; they knew what they were doing, and they chose to do it anyway. They could have made it work if they wanted to, but they didn't, so anything now will just be walking it back. Which then adds another layer of tortured lore onto this mess.

And it's not even important, which I think is why it's so frustratingly stupid. Ironically, it's probably best to just ignore it, as we were always meant to do back in TMP.

It's telling when the only statement on this entire topic is that they wanted to make the aliens of Star Trek look more alien, which given everything else is at best stretching the truth so far that many would call it a lie. They barely changed the Andorians and the Tellarites, and the Vulcans are wholly unchanged. Why not make them alien too? Perhaps strangely gaunt, ethereal, yellow-tinted aliens with an inhuman devotion to logic. Why are only the Klingons given this cartoon stereotype overhaul?

For good or ill, it's all just a distraction from the story. Which is why I didn't mind Enterprise's go at this: they actually tried to tell a story with it, and tied in previous elements well to make it work. It's been a while since I watched these, so my opinion may be more in line with a 6 these days, but relative to the rest of the show I would probably have put this more around a 7 or 8. Not the best the show had to offer, but it turned a silly production footnote (and an in-universe joke about said makeup change) into a decent asset and filled in some universe lore. Not a bad effort, in my opinion.

[clearspira]

also the new klingons might be the product of a strain of virus that not only gives them their bumpy foreheads back but also makes them more aggressive and violent hence why they need something to unite them

The problem though is always going to be the smooth-headed Kahless that the rock monster made Kirk, Spock and Lincoln fight.

[chaos42]

ya i know that is a failure to think this through, thou it could be that the aliens made him look like what they expect him to look like as he isn't real but simulation.

[Beastro]

I don't like the explanation of the human Klingons. I find it's an unneeded explaination that winds up ruining things.

(Yes, I posted without reading the thread).

If they had to tackle the issue I wished they'd gone more with an organic explanation: They were actually a natural, preexisting Klingon ethnic group that are looked upon with suspicion and loathing by most other Klingons for their more "dishonourable", ruthless ethos that rejected Kahless and the Warrior Culture he founded. However, because of all of that, they are tight knit, known to punch above their weight and manage to gain power over the Empire at various periods of Klingon history, inevitably leading to technological Rrenaissances that collapse once the Warrior Culture reasserts itself.

Once out of power they become discriminated and thus explains why by DS9 Kor, Koloth and Kang look "normal". They were helped by their reputations as heroes of the Empire to avoid being made pariahs, but there was still unspoken pressure for them turn their back on their people and adopt the Warrior's culture to avoid further antagonism and trouble down the line. This fits perfectly with how the subject of their new appeance is awkwardly touched on and quickly dismissed in DS9, though I forget by which.

Their latest heyday should have been around STD and ended sometime before the end of the TOS era when the Warriors retook power and preceded to drive the Empire into the ground resulting in what we see in Undiscovered Country.

Doing that would undermine Trek's annoying trend of monocultures in species while giving nuances to the franchises most iconic species that would open up room to explore racial themes and the issues around them in politics and national interest that are encountered when a dominant minority runs a nation: The Flat Heads are ruthless, but more reasonable lacking a pragmatic outlook towards war compared to the Warrior's love of war for wars sake - which is better for the Fed? To try to work to help the Warriors regain power even if that might make the chances of war more likely (but as we found out, fatally undermined the Empire), or come to a balance with the Flat Heads so they can keep the Warriors in check and prevent larger or more frequent wars that no one wants but the Warriors.

[cdrood]

The DS9 scene was a great funny line, but everything since has just complicated things. Enterprise should have either ignored it or just started with smooth head Klingons.

If they're going to do something different with the Klingons (or Romulans or Cardassians, for that matter), why not address their "Empires". If their sections of the galaxy are as teeming with life as the Federation and their territories are of comparable sizes, where are all the subject species? As far as we can tell they have no say in military and government, nor are they apparently even welcome on the home planets. What do they think of arbitrary "Neutral Zones" that prevent them from escaping to the freedom of the Federation? I get some of this was covered with the Cardassians with the Maquis, but it was still with mainly Federation and Bajoran citizens. As far as I know, we've never seen a single non-Klingon citizen of the Klingon Empire.