New Here: Klingon Question

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by Roswell, Jan 3, 2013.

  1. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    But it wasn't glorious because it pretty much said that there WAS a difference rather than just simply not addressing it at all.
     
  2. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Never saw that before, thanks. Yeah, that would've been better than the cross between McCoy and Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
     
  3. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    I recall reading that the makeup in "Encounter at Farpoint" was based on what was used in "The Deadly Years".

    That test footage looks like De with gray hair.
     
  4. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Sort of, yeah. Remember that the McCoy we see in TNG is supposed to be nearly 80 years older than the McCoy we see in the movies! Some gray hair and a few more wrinkles isn't going to cut it.
     
  5. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Maybe he took up plastic surgery in his later years of practicing medicine.
     
  6. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That is probably what they'd use today, since what the novelverse would later establish about the human lifespan - 100 is considered prime physical condition - would make 137 years not anywhere near as ancient as McCoy looked on TNG.
     
  7. A beaker full of death

    A beaker full of death Vice Admiral Admiral

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    But a face that looks like a jello mold is?


    This is convincing:

    [​IMG]

    This is not:

    [​IMG]

    The original makeup worked with Kelley's face. The Westmore makeup is "generic old man #12".
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2013
  8. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    The hair from the TOS episode isn't.
     
  9. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I'm not going to argue that the makeup used in the episode was great, it wasn't. I don't think it was terrible but it was certainly lacking. (I thought the old-age makeup used in "Too Short a Season" was far worse, however.) Jut that the original old-age look wasn't far enough to depict a 137-year-old man where they essentially took Kelly and added some slightly grayer hair and some wrinkles. The old-age makeup in the TOS episode is very good, and the old-age makeup used on Pulaski in "Unnatural Selection" was decent, but, yeah, the makeup in EaF wasn't great.

    Still, that McCoy looks more like a 137-year-old man than the original test makeup.

    Look at the pictures, I also sort of think the difference is less about the makeup and more about the lighting used. The corridor scene is way overlit and makes the makeup look poor, the TOS scene seems to have much more natural and subdued levels of lighting, making things look better.
     
  10. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    No they didn't have to come up with a canon explanation they could have just left it as a mystery.

    WORF: We do not discuss it with outsiders

    Acknowledge it and move on.
     
  11. Seven of Five

    Seven of Five Stupid Sexy Flanders! Premium Member

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    It was just a joke in DS9, and should have been left as such. I didn't really like the explanation ENT gave.

    But yeah, add me to the chorus who would have loved to have seen Worf as an old style Klingon, but with no one noticing. :techman:
     
  12. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Or, again, not acknowledge it at all so that there's no explanation needed. Don't even touch it or address it, treat the Klingons as if they look like present ones, or do as above and have Worf look like a TOS Klingon. But don't acknowledge that there's a difference because that opens the doors for questions! I think up until that point people had already pretty much chalked up the differences just being due to different production values and not indicative or any "real" difference. But DS9 came out and said that there WAS a difference which brings up questions.
     
  13. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    As relates to the smooth/bumpy forehead issue, no. We are to assume that all Klingons we see on screen are of the same species. Enterprise foolishly decided the "real" answer was a forehead-smoothing plague. :rofl:
     
  14. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's the FASA games that assume that there are several different species inside the Klingon Empire who enjoy the right to call themselves Klingons. The idea also appears in some novels, most notably in the two John M. Ford ones because Ford was involved in writing FASA background material, too.

    The FASA species are pretty close to the ENT excuse, actually: "Imperial" Klingons have the full ridges, but people with mixed blood are still Klingons if they have at least a bit of Imperial blood in them. They just lose their ridges if they are tainted with human blood, as the result of interspecies mating or deliberate devious manipulation. And ENT emphasizes the latter means of giving human DNA to Imperial Klingons...

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  15. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    I said out, dammit!
    Leave it to the Trek universe to come up with the most roundabout, complicated way to explain something.