Captain Klaa - translator
 

Does anyone else find it really neat to learn that the Klingon who is in the booth running the Klingon Translation program (you can hear him say "...that Enterprise fired on Kronos One") is actually Klaa from the previous film?

Pretty awesome

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

Thought it was cooler to realize he was the same actor playing the guy next to Peter Preston in the engine room in TWOK.

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

I feel bad for Capt. Klaa. He went from commanding his own ship to being a translator? That can't be a promotion in the Klingon Empire.

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

What a career path, spy on a federation ship to being a captain of a bucket of bolts and finally ending up as a translator.

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

Why is this 23rd century "UN" using live translators when Kirk used a hacked "universal" translator to talk to a creature they had never encountered before in "Metamorphosis"? Heck, even today's smartphones are getting into the act.

Yes, Klaa was demoted to furniture.

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

Because Nicholas Meyer gave Trek a huge technological downgrade in STII and the movies carried on from there.

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

And because Meyer wanted to emulate Adlai Stevenson questioning Zorin about the Cuban Missile Crisis. "Don't wait for the translation..."

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

It was probably part of Klaa's punishment for screwing up in ST V.

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

Not to get too nerdy (says a Trek fan), but didn't the translator have different forehead bumps to Klaa. Same actor, different bumps (said the nerdy...).

Sir Rhosis

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

In a state show-trial*, why would the Klingons be using a universal translator anyway? Live translators are much more show-offy and "special".



*Kirk and McCoy are accused of murdering Gorkon, remember.

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

Umm...what? Let me think: warp drive, phasers, communicators, transporters and some new tech like the Genesis device. Were there some faxes or chemical powered rockets I'm not remembering? Really, I'm drawing a blank here—what "huge technological downgrade" are you talking about? Kirk's print book and spectacles? (The glasses were explained due to Kirk's allergy to retinox.) Was there the squeal of a 1400 baud modem from Uhura's comm station? Wooden wagon wheels on the Enterprise? Solutrean spear points on the photon torpedoes?

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

Lots of little things:

Spray-n-wear clothing in TMP vs Jackets on clotheshangers (ST III)

Perscan belt buckles in TMP, gone by ST II

Wrist communicators in TMP vs return to TOS handheld in ST II

ST II's photon torpedo track grates...

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

If anything, TMP was the movie to dumb down treknology big time. Suddenly, robust small spacecraft that had looked like something Flash Gordon or Dan Dare would be comfortable with (the TOS shuttle) were back to looking like fragile NASA hardware (the workbees and their container trains). Docking maneuvers took aeons, compared with the swift shuttle launch and recovery procedures of TOS. Sturdy space stations like K-7 were "succeeded" by 20th-century-realistic scaffolding. Getting out of the ship suddenly required docking ports and airlocks, with dedicated operating crew operating dedicated control consoles for said. And transporter rooms went from utilitarian staging areas with lots of vanity covering to techno-temples with exposed machinery and a glass booth to protect the operator.

I'm surprised the movie didn't insist on having the phasers spit out spent cartridges...

As for Klaa in STVI, a quick comparison:

ST V forehead here

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/a.../tffhd1946.jpg

ST VI forehead here only...

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/a.../tuchd1100.jpg

Any ideas on backstage pictures where the latter could actually be seen?

Timo Saloniemi

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

None of those indicate a technological backstep, just a preference. Just because something is no longer used, doesn't mean it no longer exists. Especially the communicators...when's the last time you saw a calculator wristwatch?

Re: Captain Klaa - translator
 

...Of course, ST2 did have wristwatch communicators. But only on the Reliant crew.

And we never saw any spray-n-wear clothing or "perscan" buckles in TMP - merely a series of bad fashion choices. If there was any functionality to these items, it was off screen, off dialogue, like about 90% of the ideas regarding TMP.

Timo Saloniemi