. . . Or at least all of us who want to know.
Here’s the explanation for why Klingons in the 23rd century were human-appearing, while those before and after are forehead-ridgers.
The episode of Star Trek: Enterprise that establishes the on-screen explanation should have aired in everyone’s town by now, but lest anyone not want to know, I’ll put the spoilers in white-on-white, so you have to select the text (by swiping it or hitting Ctrl-A) to see it.
Here goes:
- In the late 20th century, a group of scientists created a "master race" of genetically altered humans, among them Kahn Noonien Singh. This led to the Eugenics Wars on Earth in the 1990s.
- In the 22nd century, scientific genius Arik Soong (played by Brent Spiner) incubated and birthed a number of embryos from this time. These embryos, because of their augmented DNA, were known as "augments." They had the increased intelligence and aggression of the key players in the Eugenics Wars.
- When Arik Soong unleashed several augments in the 22nd century, the Klingons perceived it as a threat.
- Subseuquently, when several augmented embryos fell into their hands, they exploited their DNA to create Klingon augments to compete with human augments.
- One Klingon augment had a virus that combined with the human augment DNA.
- This virus spread to other Klingons, making them not only have augmented abilities but also to appear more human.
- By the 23rd century (the time of Star Trek: The Original Series), this virus had spread throughout the Klingon race.
- By the 24th century (the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation), this virus had been cured, making Klingons of that era profoundly uncomfortable in discussing why their appearance had temporarily temporarily lurched human-ward a over hundred years before.
So there!
That explains:
- Why the difference existed.
- Why characters in Enterprise’s time had the forehead-ridge appearance.
- Why characters in the TOS period had the human-looking appearance.
- Why characters from the beginning of the movies onward were back to the forehead-ridge appearance.
- Why characters introduced as human-looking in TOS were forehead-ridgers later on.
- Why it seemed to affect the whole race.
- Why Klingons were embarrassed to talk about all this with outsiders, and:
- Why the human-lookers were so . . . human . . . looking.
for this week’s episode, which spells it out in more detail.
Seems like an awful lot of work to explain.
“We changed makeup designers and had a larger budget, so we were better able to approximate the true Klingon appearance in our TV/movie dramatizations of (future) historic Klingon events” works for me.
I’m with mio. They should have just ignored the whole thing and let everyone have their fun making jokes about why the original Klingons didn’t have brow ridges. But I guess all that’s moot now.
Your web page seems messed up. Your list doesn’t show up unless I highlight it. The problem I have is both in IE and Mozilla.
Anon: This is deliberate. I printed the text as white-on-white to avoid exposing people to the spoiler who didn’t want to know it. This is a common technique for shielding people from spoilers on the Web.
I agree with Jared and mio. It seems like they went to way too much trouble to explain the fact that they had better make-up technology and a bigger budget in the movies and in the later series. Maybe my outlook is different because I tend to be a more “casual” Trek fan (i.e., I enjoyed the original series, but wasn’t impressed with TNG or Voyager, and never took the time to watch DS9), but that’s the way I see it.
But having said all that, I did enjoy this episode of Enterprise, and I’m anxious to see the continuation of it this weekend.
I always wanted the Enterprise series to be, at least partly, about edifying the continuity and art direction of the original series. That’s what’s been the biggest dissapointment for me. This era they’ve created just isn’t “neat” to me. It’s not a place I’d really love to go to (not like the world of TOS or TNG).
Having said all that, I really like this episode. Now, if they can explain why female crewmembers will be wearing miniskirts and beehive hairdos 100 years in their future, I’ll be ecstatic.
Ah ha! So that explains it.
My husband would like to thank you Jimmy for posting that bit of information.
He’s a Star Trek fan and loves that stuff although he hasn’t been able to keep up with this season.
Now, if they can explain why female crewmembers will be wearing miniskirts and beehive hairdos 100 years in their future, I’ll be ecstatic.
For the same reason the original NCC-1701 had ’60s style keyboards: because retro came back big time in middle of the 23rd century.
I agree with Publius. Once we were more experienced with making starships we were able to toy around with the look rather than having the functional almost submarine like look of the original starships. 60’s style clothes and do’s were the rage so the ships also started to reflect this cultures creativity.
Boooo. I liked how they left it unexplained and I thought it was clever how in DS9 they got Worf to say, “We don’t like to discuss it with outsiders.”
They should have just left it at that.
Booo hiss I say!
I’m amazed at the negative feedback. I think it’s a fabulous explanation that does a great job at preserving established continuity without simply adopting any of the existing fan theories (which would have been anti-climactic).
I think the negative reaction is largely coming from those who aren’t as into the show. I think the more hardcore fans appreciate it.
I’ve got to disagree with you there Jimmy. I’m a hard core Trek fan and have been since I was a child.
I think it’s a spuriously silly explanation that was totally unnecessary.
Hi arthur!
I think I have to disagree with your disagreement. So much of Star Trek is already spuriously silly (transporter beams that violate the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, a Federation economy that appears to be based on socialism, marital relations with aliens and the suggestion in several episodes that humans are capable of artificially creating new life) that I find this explanation for the Klingon forehead issue kinda cool.
These sorts of explanations are just a geeky-cool kind of entertainment, that’s all. Sherlock Holmes fans do the same thing – working out explanations for all the inconsistencies in the stories, figuring out the exact dates of stories, etc.
Who are you calling lukewarm?!!!!
I’m as die hard a Star Trek fan as there can be. I’ve even been to a couple of conventions. I love the Original Series and Next Generation. I kind of fell away during the first couple of seasons of DS9 though, the acting was just so bad and they weren’t going anywhere. But it was also because that’s about the time I discovered girls. I had high hopes for Voyager but that sorely disappointed.
Just because we don’t like this pathetic attempt at tying up lose ends doesn’t mean we’re any less Catholic than you! I mean, any less fans of Star Trek…
Don’t make me pull out my batleth!
So, does this rationale also explain the retroactive forehead ridges the Romulans have worn in every series except TOS and the original-crew movies?
I always thought the neo-Klingon forehead ridges looked sorta like a horseshoe crab. Could be me!
And, as a casual ST fan, I dig the explanation! But I love stuff like that. I thought it was way clever.
So, does this rationale also explain the retroactive forehead ridges the Romulans have worn in every series except TOS and the original-crew movies?
No, but since there was no Romulan equivalent of “Trials and Tribble-ations,” you can just pretend that they’re there in TOS. Besides, Romulans have never gotten nearly as much screen time as Klingons in the spinoffs, nor (I believe) in TOS.
So much for the FASA (Star Trek: The Role-Playing Game) explanation. That one was premised on the Klingons engineering “fusion” races to deal with humans and Romulans, with the old original stock being called the Imperial race. The idea was that the fusions would be better able to outwit their opponents, and lull them into a false sense of security. There were also Orion fusions and hints of Vulcan fusions, too. A great, and greatly underrated game, snuffed in its prime by Paramount, and now all-but-useless to the canon.
Yes, I’m an uber-geek.
Still, I have to applaud the solution–it is quite elegant, and very faithful to the Trek canon. Too bad the show’s going away in the next two months.
I know this is a very late post but the geek in me demands it.
What about Kahlass in TOS Vs Kahlass in STTNG?
This doesn’t work. I say we rebel & accept the FASA (Star Trek: The Role-Playing Game)explanation.