In the space station bar scene, shortly before the fight, there’s a sequence where the Klingon leader is at the bar next to Cyrano Jones. It happens so fast you can hardly see it, and it looks like there was an unfortunate splice there, but it seems that the Klingon grabs Cyrano’s empty glass, pours some of his own drink into it, and then Cyrano drinks, nodding in thanks.
Sharing your drink with a virtual stranger seems so un-Klingon-like, somehow, but it almost appears to be a sort of custom.
Is there any evidence elsewhere in the ST canon, or in the many novels, of such a practice among Klingons?
You must bear in mind that these were smooth-headed Klingons, the sneaky and treacherous subspecies. It was a part of his act, allowing him to use Jones as a foil as he said things to provoke the Enterprise crewmembers. The fight was staged to keep the Feds’ attention on the Klingon ship and its crew and away from the secret agent.
If that explanation isn’t good enough, I can wave my hands some more.
WAG, script first called for Klingons to drug or otherwise influence Cyrano to introduce Tribbles to Enterprise. Then time constraints had couple of scenes cut.
I’m not sure I recall the scene you are talking about.
I do remember Cyrano drinking other people’s drinks during the fight, and doing several funny bits as he was ‘saving’ the drinks only to have them taken from him by the bar tender at the end of the fight.
Who played that bar tender? He’s one of those character actors that have done a million things.
It was explained in Enterprise. The Klingons took human genetically engineered *Augment *dna (KHAAANNNNNNNN!) and spliced it with their own in an attempt to make the race superior. The splicing caused a disease that spread through the Klingon territories and only the Augmented Klingons were immune. So for a few decades the Klingon population was smooth domed.
I used to have David Gerrold’s book on the making of the episode (autographed by James Doohan) and I don’t recall any mention of that action in the various versions of the script that were published in it. But it’s also been over a decade since I read the book.
If the action happened, WAG cultural explanation would be that Klingons have shall we say trust issues. Pouring part of your drink into their cup is a guarantee that the drink isn’t poisoned. Klingons being so highly ritualistic, the artefact of the shared drink endures long past any possible usefulness as a deterrent. Sort of like how shaking hands supposedly evolved out of an assurance that the other person didn’t have a dagger up his sleeve.
Of course by the time DS9 rolls around we’re seeing Klingons dunking random cups into communal barrels of blood wine so not sure how well that fanwank holds up.
