Philistine wrote: ↑Mon May 24, 2021 12:58 am
I'm surprised by the lack of comment on the weirdness of the Klingons sending out a ship with its crew in cold sleep a mere 75 years before TNG - well into the TOS era, when we know quite well the Klingon Empire had warp drive. (And if we didn't know that we could deduce it without reference to anything outside the episode, as there'd be no reason for the ship's crew to believe they were "still at war with the Federation" if they had launched from a pre-FTL civilization.)
Why would they do that? Even if warp drives were scarce at the time of launch, why not wait a few years (or even decades) until a warp drive-equipped ship became available? The cold sleep ship took 75 years to reach its destination, and presumably would need another 75 to return; a warp-capable ship would be back with the goods sooner even if it had to wait almost the full 150 before starting the trip. It is baffling.
First I think a half step back is needed and go meta. The threat from these klingons is that they think there is still a war and they will continue to follow their last orders till a verifiable counter command can come. There were Japanese soldiers that did not know WW2 ended years later and they were still fighting. They were forgotten about pockets that would lash out at everyone till an old commander was found and brought out to get them to stand down.
Mix that with the idea of the nuclear attack submarine. A counter strike weapon you are not supposed to be able to find or track. So you can't defeat us without accounting for all of them.
So in universe these klingons began a deep cryosleep. They would be on station, hidden by being too small and in the middle of no where to be noticed. On receipt of a certain signal (Or loss of one) the system wakes them up. Their orders to take vengeance on the enemy.
If this had been a drone or similar doomsday device then you don't need an ambassador or negotiation. Enterprise swats a seventy-five year old war machine. Put a crew on it that is not inherently evil and doing what they think is right and warranted? That is the tragedy they need to avoid.
If they had played that bit a little more than the "these klingons are beyond reason" thing they toss onto old mentalities. Then I think it would have rated higher.
There is a huge effect in TNG to make TOS klingons seem darker than they were. But we saw three klingon captains and had reason to respect if not like all three.
Kor for his taking a world and respecting Kirk for not licking his boots.
Kang for despite not needing a reason to hate humans. Knew not to fight in a burning house.
Koloth a charismatic captain that was willing to concede being out maneuvered and withdraw when the spy in federation space was discovered.
These are not blood thirsty murderers that kill for the sake of it. They are soldiers doing their duty. And a bit of something I think was lost on the TNG era 'military is bad' vibe.
