TOS Klingons vs. Movie Klingons

[Punkrabbitt]

To me, there is only TOS, TAS, and the first four movies. But we see a big change in the appearance and culture of the klingons between TOS/TAS and the movies. Although there was some handwavium about in later series, I 1) don't count the subsequent series as canon, and 2) I don't buy what they try to sell as the explanation.

Here's the way I see it:

The klingons of TOS/TAS were clearly in the market as arms dealers. They sold ships to the Romulans, at the very least. And although the crew of the Enterprise had a few dealings with them, I'm pretty sure most of Star Fleet and the Federation at large had very little contact with them, or even much news and information regarding them. Kind of like most people in the USA are unlikely to be abke to identify what Boko Haram is, let alone what uniforms they wear.

So, I think the klingons probably sold ships and guns to another humanoid, albeit ridge-headed, spacefaring species with an overlapping sphere of influence. As this new species began aggressive intrusions along the Nuetral Zone, they were probably mistaken for klingons by a reasonably ignorant Federation, and were identified as such in english regardless of their name for themselves.

Thoughts?

[Finarvyn]

I love your chain of thought on this, but it's possible you have it backwards.

"True Klingons" (which we perhaps never got to see in TOS) are these ridged-headed dudes who are out to kill everyone and wage wars. The selected some sort of lesser half-Klingon species (which looked mostly human) to be their representatives and arms dealers, thinking correctly that aliens who looked more like humans would be able to deal with the Federation better.

So, the ridge-headed Klingons are the puppeteers and the humanoid Klingons are the contact men.

[Punkrabbitt]

That was how they presented it in the FASA Star Trek RPG, wasn't it? Also a good explanation.

[Falconer]

Thanks for crossposting it to the Star Trek board; I responded there.

[Finarvyn]

Apr 9, 2020 8:24:36 GMT -6 Punkrabbitt said:

That was how they presented it in the FASA Star Trek RPG, wasn't it? Also a good explanation.

Is it? I haven't had a copy of that game for several decades, but it wouldn't surprise me if I saw it there and remembered it without recalling the source.

Apr 9, 2020 8:46:57 GMT -6 Falconer said:

Thanks for crossposting it to the Star Trek board; I responded there.

I saw it here first, so I replied. I'm more than happy to continue this over there instead of here.

[thegreyelf]

Apr 9, 2020 5:34:46 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I love your chain of thought on this, but it's possible you have it backwards.

"True Klingons" (which we perhaps never got to see in TOS) are these ridged-headed dudes who are out to kill everyone and wage wars. The selected some sort of lesser half-Klingon species (which looked mostly human) to be their representatives and arms dealers, thinking correctly that aliens who looked more like humans would be able to deal with the Federation better.

So, the ridge-headed Klingons are the puppeteers and the humanoid Klingons are the contact men.

I don't remember where, but sometime back in the early 80s there was an article in a Star Trek magazine, or an interview with someone involved in the production somewhere that gave a similar "official," if not strictly "canon," explanation at the time. I can't remember where it was or who it was with, it was so long ago, but basically it was the same idea: the non-ridge-head ones were the bottom of the food chain for the Klingons. They were looked at as barely people by the others, and they had "polluted" blood from family lines that had mated with outsiders for generations.

After the Klingon/Federation War (which WAS alluded to in TOS), the ridge-headed Klingons withdrew and sent the half-people out to deal with the rest of the galaxy while they consolidated their power at home. If I recall correctly, the interviewer said that eventually the non-ridged Klingons simply died off because their gene pool wasn't robust enough to continue the sub-species, and the ridge-headed Klingons made themselves known in the galaxy once more.

I always kind of liked the explanation better than the "augment virus" one they gave in Enterprise, though that was an admirable effort on their part.

[coffee]

I prefer the explanation I heard shortly after the movie came out.

The ridge-head was what happened to the Klingon race after Scotty transported the tribbles into their engine room.

[Falconer]

Here’s another take. There is an early “tech fandom” booklet called From the Files of Star Fleet Command which I normally don’t really pay any attention to because it’s entirely devoted to new developments from TMP, such as refit tech and uniforms, which are N/A for my campaign. However, it gives one possible solution for the two types of Klingons:



Again, the events described will never occur in my campaign. And I mainly intend to feature TOS-style Klingons only. But, I like the nomenclature, here, and I think I will keep it up my sleeve for if/when the issue arises. Because the “Imperial Race” and “Human Fusion” nomenclature just doesn’t work for me—it diminishes the latter. So to be able to rely on the terminology of Kazh and Kahless is much better. After all, why shouldn’t it be a multi-racial empire? And since the events of TMP simply never arrive in my campaign, Kazh remains dominant.

[asaki]

I just don't let it bother me. Obviously, they had a bigger budget for the films, and decided "Yeah, let's make the Klingons actually look like some kind of alien."

Though I am amused by one of Roddenberry's explanations that the ridges were always there, we just couldn't see them on old 60s TVs.

[Falconer]

I prefer to keep them distinct because they have such obviously different values and characterizations. In essence, this allows me to “quarantine” the TOS-style Klingons and allow them to retain their more Machiavellian style of villainy with little to negative emphasis on personal honor.