I was a big TOS fan. I never really followed TNG, DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise with the same devotion that TOS once inspired.
So I was thrilled when DS9 did the “Trials and Tribble-ations” episode. And the moment I heard the premise I wondered how they’d handle the Klingon’s vastly different appearance.
I was pretty satisfied with the way they did it… acknowledging the difference but never really commenting on exactly why it was.
My question: since there was a whole bunch of canon DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise episodes subsequent to “Trials,” did the franchise ever return to this issuse and answer the question more definitively? And if they did… spoil me. What were the details?
Ah, I don’t think so. Someone may come along and correct me but the last I remember was it was a Thing You Do Not Mention. Something had happened in the Klingon world, or history, that the Klingons wouldn’t talk about. Admittedly it’s been a while for me.
Right – that was what happened in “Trials.” Worf, simultanouesly offended and embarrassed, saying, “It is a… long story. We do not discuss it with outsiders.”
“Enterprise” did a couple episodes last year wherein the Klingons steal some Augment (Khan’s group’s genetic material) DNA, inject it in prisoners to see if it makes them superstrong. But one prisoner gets some Klingon flu and the virus spreads to many Klingons and their bumpy foreheads smooth out.
I don’t know why everyone freaked out about this. I thought this was handled great by the ST:ENT episodes. And it was extremely plausible.
Had the Klingons found out the humans were working on augments they sure as hell would have started their own program. It provided a reasonable explaination for the Arick Soong / Kahn name thing. And Brent Spiner was great in it.
Ok, the bit with Archer turning Klingon at the end was a bit of rat chow for the masses, but other than that I found it to be a great episode arc.
I always thought John Ordover’s explanation was the best:
The adventures of ST:TOS were broadast in a lower resolution than later series. The bumps were always there, but the primitive cameras of the time did not show them. As camera technologies improved, the bumps became more visible.
I’m with Hail Ants. In general I thought it was a dumb topic to base two episodes on, but the execution was very good. The 4th season of Enterprise was really good IMO, in great contrast the earlier, sucky, seasons. It’s especially worth a look to TOS fans, as most of the entire season is amplification on ideas first broached in TOS.
Ordover didn’t need one. He’s a very important name in Trek. You’ve probably never heard of him, but he’s been editing the Star Trek novels for over a decade.
Another Ordoverism:
SF Writer: In one ST episode, they say it was five hundred degrees below zero. Absolute zero is -459. How is -500 possible?
Ordover: Wind chill factor.
He also submitted to the powers at Star Trek (the actual novels are published elsewhere, with ST approval) the outline for the world’s worst ST novel: Kirk and Tasha in Love:
He wrote this and let it loose on the old GEnie SFRT in 1993, with additional paragraphs added by various SF writers. Then he submitted it on April Fool’s Day.
