Star Trek (ENT): Affliction

[MrL1992]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/e191.php

Honestly there's a lot more I have to say on the attempt at explaining the Klingon retcons but I'll save it for the next part where its more appropriate.

In other respects the episode really does show many of the qualities that was making the show better, pity it was too late.

[BlackoutCreature2]

So interesting bit of casting for the episode, K'Vagh, the Klingon general in charge, was played by James Avery. Avery is probably best known for playing Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and voicing The Shredder on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. I'm kinda sad Chuck wasn't able to fit in a joke about that anywhere.

[clearspira]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/e191.php

Honestly there's a lot more I have to say on the attempt at explaining the Klingon retcons but I'll save it for the next part where its more appropriate.

In other respects the episode really does show many of the qualities that was making the show better, pity it was too late.

Hey, at least they made an attempt. More than STD and the Wrath of Khan 2 did.

[MrL1992]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/e191.php

Honestly there's a lot more I have to say on the attempt at explaining the Klingon retcons but I'll save it for the next part where its more appropriate.

In other respects the episode really does show many of the qualities that was making the show better, pity it was too late.

Hey, at least they made an attempt. More than STD and the Wrath of Khan 2 did.
[/quote

I really do not believe it was necessary. It was a make-up update, whatever. My misgivings see more about how it altered their behaviour.

DIS only cemented my issues with this story infact but again, more on that later.

[SuccubusYuri]

So, off the bat, I -kinda- wish that the DS9 team did that joke Chuck made about Dorn coming out with a flat forehead and no one notices.

But for being forced into that, I think this episode handles two bits of canon well. Admittedly, it's probably the best explanation we could hope for when we consider how many canonical characters hop between flats and ridges.* I mean the only other idea I can really come up with is the whole Klingon-sub-species thing.

*Taking into consideration Berman and Braga forced them into a mid-stream switch by not starting Enterprise out with flatheads.

But the other bit of canon that it explains, rather ingeniously, is why the Federation maintains its hard-on against genetic engineering so many centuries after the Eugenics Wars, and the fact they only affect the humans. In hindsight, the Klingon Empire that Kirk wages a Cold War against for decades is one dominated by augments. That is probably enough emotional scarring to keep their anti-genetic engineering stuff on tight lockdown, at least in the TNG era.

That and the sheer amount of smug floating around the mid-24th century that feels they already ARE the superior race.

[FlynnTaggart]

These episodes with the Augments I think were some of the best episodes, exploring a section of Trekdom that really wasn't given alot of love except on DS9. I like that the Klingon bits too though I also find it funny they are pretty much based on a make-up change.

Though I do wonder how this meshes with STD. This is a Prequel that show the Klingons looking like....well Klingons before turning into damn dirty humans that the Klingons from TOS look like. But STD has Klingons that look like generic ugly nasty nosed aliens. How does that work with canon?

I bet 20 years from now we are going to get another series that has a retcon for that, maybe the STD Klingons developed another augment virus (maybe code named Discovery) to fix the last one but wound up using too much Klingon and it spread throughout the Empire by sexual contact. Essentially the virus made them more like the damn dirty mutant Worf from Genesis, certainly look more similar to that version of a Klingon then any other.

[Trooper924]

These episodes with the Augments I think were some of the best episodes, exploring a section of Trekdom that really wasn't given alot of love except on DS9. I like that the Klingon bits too though I also find it funny they are pretty much based on a make-up change.

Though I do wonder how this meshes with STD. This is a Prequel that show the Klingons looking like....well Klingons before turning into damn dirty humans that the Klingons from TOS look like. But STD has Klingons that look like generic ugly nasty nosed aliens. How does that work with canon?

I bet 20 years from now we are going to get another series that has a retcon for that, maybe the STD Klingons developed another augment virus (maybe code named Discovery) to fix the last one but wound up using too much Klingon and it spread throughout the Empire by sexual contact. Essentially the virus made them more like the damn dirty mutant Worf from Genesis, certainly look more similar to that version of a Klingon then any other.

My own (probably wrong) head canon is that Discovery's Klingons are a more monstrous-looking sub-species that managed to avoid getting the augment virus and took over the empire after the rest of the species lost their forehead ridges; at some point between TOS and STD, the TOS Klingons forced the STD-Klingons out of power and forced them into seclusion.

[BlackoutCreature2]

My head canon, in the century or so between the breakout of the Augment virus during Enterprise and it finally being cured at some point during the TOS movie era, the Klingons made several attempts at trying to reverse the virus' effects. The version we see in STD manages to restore their cranial ridges, but as a side effect discolors their skin and causes their hair to fall out. When possibly more serious side effects show themselves, the Klingons decide they're just better off going back to the TOS look.

I have nothing to support this canonically, but it makes sense.

[Killerbee256]

These episodes with the Augments I think were some of the best episodes, exploring a section of Trekdom that really wasn't given alot of love except on DS9. I like that the Klingon bits too though I also find it funny they are pretty much based on a make-up change.

Though I do wonder how this meshes with STD. This is a Prequel that show the Klingons looking like....well Klingons before turning into damn dirty humans that the Klingons from TOS look like. But STD has Klingons that look like generic ugly nasty nosed aliens. How does that work with canon?

I bet 20 years from now we are going to get another series that has a retcon for that, maybe the STD Klingons developed another augment virus (maybe code named Discovery) to fix the last one but wound up using too much Klingon and it spread throughout the Empire by sexual contact. Essentially the virus made them more like the damn dirty mutant Worf from Genesis, certainly look more similar to that version of a Klingon then any other.

Given how Discovery doesn't mesh with cannon at all, this being only one minor example. I prefer to believe it takes place in another universe.

[AlucardNoir]

To everybody arguing about STD and their Klingons: didn't someone from the show announce recently that next season of STD will bring changes to the Klingon prosthetics?