What was your reaction to Star Trek: TMP's Klingons?

[Mikey]

My favourite explanation came from Worf in Trials and Tribble-ations.

"We do not discuss it with outsiders"

The way Worf pulls off this line and the others reactions to it, it clearly states the show isn't even going to attempt explaining it -- and to me that was a plus.

It gave Trials a wink-wink to the oldtime fans --- meaning - WE'RE NOT GOING TO EVEN ATTEMPT MESSING WITH YOUR BRAINS

For me, that little hardly noticeable almost forgettable scene was one of the last highpoints in Star Trek.

[bobws]

i was a trek fan whenit came out and thought it was a mistake to change them. they just wanted something to make them more alien so it could compete with all the aliens in Star Wars. why do you think they showed the whole crew in the rec room with about another 10 aliens running around? and yes the pajamams were stupid and i didn't care for the starburst going to warp either!

[The Bat]

I didn't like them...still don't! Kang was my favorite...from "Day of the Dove".

[david_b]

My favourite explanation came from Worf in Trials and Tribble-ations.

"We do not discuss it with outsiders"

The way Worf pulls off this line and the others reactions to it, it clearly states the show isn't even going to attempt explaining it -- and to me that was a plus.

It gave Trials a wink-wink to the oldtime fans --- meaning - WE'RE NOT GOING TO EVEN ATTEMPT MESSING WITH YOUR BRAINS

For me, that little hardly noticeable almost forgettable scene was one of the last highpoints in Star Trek.

TOTALLY AGREED..! I don't particularly like how shows have to strive to answer EVERYTHING that doesn't make sense. Leave it up the fan's imaginations.

Granted with 'Enterprise' and other later-Trek incarnations, they were running short on story ideas (and viewership..), it's natural to start grasping at old mysteries to pull in the older fans, but eh, leave it be..

Seeing the new makeup in TMP, I knew it was primarily the 'larger feature film' budget allowing more makeup and prostetics, but I too missed how the old klingons looked. Frankly, their TOS performances had several layers of subtlety (especially Kang and Kor) with such excellent performances, that I found it difficult to ever see that behind all the dark makeup. Dorn made it work alright in Next Gen, but those later makeup jobs was severely reduced from the initial TMP excess.

'Guess when I saw TMP, like everyone else, I just thought, 'well, this is the way it's going to be from now on...'. Like other aspects of TMP, it was overkill on the effects and budget, but underkill on the storytelling and performances.

david_b

[YANOULI]

I first saw it a few years after release on TV and wondered why they'd change the Klingons look.

The old RPG was scrutinized by the show's producers and HAD to conform to the established continuity. According to the game, the old tv ones were hybrids of human and Imperial (bumpy headed) Klingons, engineered to better fight the humans in their own environment. Just before the first movie there was an uprising, and most of the hybrids were killed off. (They were second class citizens in the Empire.) I wonder how much of that was the official explanation, considering how the old new show made a point of demonstrating how advanced Klingon biosciences were.

Don C.

I don't think that really flies, especially seeing as John Colicos played Kor in TOS without head ridges yet appeared again as Kor in DS9 with head ridges.

[Nefud]

My favourite explanation came from Worf in Trials and Tribble-ations.

"We do not discuss it with outsiders"

The way Worf pulls off this line and the others reactions to it, it clearly states the show isn't even going to attempt explaining it -- and to me that was a plus.

It gave Trials a wink-wink to the oldtime fans --- meaning - WE'RE NOT GOING TO EVEN ATTEMPT MESSING WITH YOUR BRAINS

See, I agree with this, but I also really like the explanation on Enterprise. Hell, I'd say in regards to Enterprise Season 4 there hasn't been a better season since TOS.

[wyldpny]

I thought the Klingons new look was actually very cool. What was so disappointing was right at the beginning the movie starts out with three Klingon battle cruisers flying into battle and we are all thinking "Yeah! It's about time! We are going to see one hell of a starship battle here with the federation ships against the Klingon ships". And then...well...you know what happened next :(
But it was a big screen update for the Klingons and even though the movie was ok, it was pretty darn cool when we finally got to see all of the main Trek cast all together again like that
But if that beginning scene with the Klingons had been a big space battle and had gone in that direction that first movie would have been huge!
But it didn't and it wasn't :(

[ctc]

>I don't think that really flies, especially seeing as John Colicos played Kor in TOS without head ridges yet appeared again as Kor in DS9 with head ridges.

I kinda thought that too; but by the time the three old Klingons showed up on DS9 a lot had changed for the show, and I kinda thought the old explanations would have been retconned by the new producers. (Since that was around the time the new bunch were trying really hard to make everybody forget the original show.) The game one was from the early 80's, and Roddenberry would ahve still been calling a lot of the shots.

As for an in-continuity explanation, I'd always figured they would have been regenom'd, since the three were heroes of the Empire.

Don C.

[Gorn Captain]

Klingons originally looked mostly humanoid.
Then they encountered Humanity, and the sugar addiction that goes with it.
Soon the Klingons started feasting on Snickers bars, Mars, and tons of other sugary treats. Being Klingons, they did everything OTT, and ate too much.
"It is a good day to snack....."
Then their skins started breaking out, resulting in the dreaded Acne of Doom.
Hence....bumpy heads.
Those M&Ms really messed up the Klingon Empire, I tell you.

Just a theory, mind you.....

[Mikey]

It bugs me that fans are so intense on explaining the Klingon head thing, but at the same time they just disregard or don't care about the continuity screw-ups of Zephram Cochran and the entire First Contact movie.

[david_b]

Klingons originally looked mostly humanoid.
Then they encountered Humanity, and the sugar addiction that goes with it.
Soon the Klingons started feasting on Snickers bars, Mars, and tons of other sugary treats. Being Klingons, they did everything OTT, and ate too much.
"It is a good day to snack....."
Then their skins started breaking out, resulting in the dreaded Acne of Doom.
Hence....bumpy heads.
Those M&Ms really messed up the Klingon Empire, I tell you.

Just a theory, mind you.....

Sure beats any explanation you'll hear from 'THE FRANCHISE'..

I'll see whether the online Trek encyclopedia Memory Alpha references this explanation..

[Nefud]

It bugs me that fans are so intense on explaining the Klingon head thing, but at the same time they just disregard or don't care about the continuity screw-ups of Zephram Cochran and the entire First Contact movie.

Maybe because (TOS) Klingons are awesome, and Zephram/First Contact suck?

[wyldpny]

First Contact was a really good movie and did very well at the box office.
It did so well they even made chocolate bars based on it
All of the films have problems and mistakes if you want to get really anal about any of them

[garagesale]

I always just went along for the Klingon bone ridge ride... I knew they would address how they got the bone ridges sooner or later... or not.

I felt that the switch from the sneaky avaricious Klingons to the noble savage Klingons was handled well, esp. during Undiscovered Country and the TNG Worf episodes when we begin to see that--like humanity-- they have a mix of both.

JamesD

[Nefud]

First Contact was a really good movie and did very well at the box office.
It did so well they even made chocolate bars based on it
All of the films have problems and mistakes if you want to get really anal about any of them

I just didn't like it for whatever reason, I wasn't trying to say it's objectively a bad movie or anything.