those krazy klingons: an unnecessary retcon

And, while we're on the subject of Star Trek, let's talk about Klingons.

Original series Klingons with bronzed skin and upswept eyebrows

Specifically, I want to talk about the Klingon appearance, and the way Star Trek's powers that be (STPtB) retconned an explanation.

By way of background, in the original TV series, with its limited budget, Klingons looked more or less human.TV of the time being what it was, there was some inconsistency.
In some cases they had bronzed skin and bushy upswept eyebrows. In other cases, the makeup was very minimal, and they looked like ordinary guys in stupid costumes.

Original series Klingons -- ordinary guys in stupid costumes

Klingon Captain in the first movie

WHen the first movie came out in 1979, the Klingons were redesigned. They had prominent bony ridges going up and over their heads, ending in the nose. Of course, we all know that the change can be wholly attributed to the fact that the movie had a budget that allowed for the elaborate makeup. I recall reading at the time in some geeky publication that the ridge covered the Klingon spine, which extended up and over the head. By the time they made ST:TNG, that whole spine thing had been rethought. Now Klingons had bony plates in their forehead. It wasn't the same kind of pronounced ridge as in the early movies. In subsequent movies, they split the difference; the Klingon foreheads were generally some mix of ridge and plate.

I never really thought much about it -- it was just a TV show. OK, a bunch of TV shows and movies. But still. But the Geekerati were unhappy. The inconsistent look of the Klingons was...well...inconsistent. And how could that be!

Worf, with his bony plates

The STPtB left it pretty much unexplained (which was fine by me). That lasted until the DS9 episode, "Trials and Tribble-ations." That was one of the major geekfest episodes. In it, Sisko and a few of his crew go back in time and (through the magic of computer hoo-hah-ery) interact with the TOS cast in the original "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode.

It was beautifully done (as you can see from the clips below). ANd the second clip shows the first instance in the Star Trek universe where the inconsistency is explicitly addressed. But Worf refuses to discuss it. It's a long story that they don't discuss with outsiders.

For a real explanation, fans would have to wait until Star Trek Enterprise, the prequel series. A whole explanation is provided, involving genetic engineering, and an attempt by the Klingons to develop a breed of super-warriors. That is summed up here.

I acknowledge that the whole retcon was done reasonably well, and the explanation sounds as plausible as any other fantastical techno/bio-babble that you hear in the series. But it has always seemed unnecessary to me. Assuming the STPtB really had to address it (a questionable assumption in my book, but...whatever) it would have made more sense (and been simpler) to simply say that there are various races of Klingons. Some look more like humans than others.

There are various races of humans. Some have dark skin and some have light. Some have straight black hair, and eyes with epicanthic folds. Others don't. One could go on and on. It's true that the differences between the original Klingons and the redesigned ones are lager than the differences between Blacks and Whites and Asians. But so what? Think about dogs. Irish Wolfhounds, Schnauzers and Labrador Retrievers are all part of the same species, but look vastly different. There are various breeds of housecats, and they look different than each other, though the differences aren't as pronounced as the differences between dog breeds. And don't get me started on daylilies and hostas. Is it really so hard to believe that there are bigger differences between races of Klingons? I don't think so.

Now, there's one problem with this. "Blood Oath," a second season episode of DS9, featured Kang, Kor and Koloth -- the main Klingon antagonists from TOS. In TOS they appeared human-like. But in DS9 they had all the new Klingon makeup and prosthetic ridges. Of course, that was before the "Trials and Tribble-ations" episode, so it was before the writers had thought to acknowledge the issue. But that change in how these specific individuals look doesn;t jibe with the race explanation. Of course, it doesn't jibe with the genetic engineering retcon either. Maybe something about how, sometimes a Klingon transforms from one to to another? They are an alien species, afterall, with biology different than ours.

Either way, the whole genetic engineering angle was unnecesarilly complicated and didn;t really contribute anything useful.