As some of you know we're in the studio this week and next working on our production of "Kitumba." We now have a couple of publicity shots: The first is Vic Mignogna and Michelle Specht as Malkthon and Kali, respectively: Another of Malkthon and The Kitumba (played by Kario Pereira Bailey): And lastly, one of just The Kitumba: We'll see both ridged Klingons and good, ol' "regular" Klingons. But I don't want to reveal too many plot points.
Nice photos. I love how the Kitumba has Kahless-like ridges. Very nice touch. And the lady playing Kali is, well, quite lovely.
You can find a few more pictures of Michele at her website: http://michelespecht.com/ The pictures do not do her justice.
Definately looks like a good one. Sorry for going off topic, but what's the latest on 'Blood and Fire part 2'? I'm dieing to see how this one ends.
Indeed. She also has the same sort of, ah...'attributes' as some other Klingons we've seen. Valkris, the Duras sisters...I'm not suggesting that is why she was hired, but it does give her a definite Klingon aspect. Malkthon looks suitably menacing, there's something reminiscent of General Chang about him. The Kitumba, on the other hand, reminds me of Worf's son, Alexander. If nothing else this indicates the professional quality of the make up.
Agreed. On the other hand, I like the fact that she has a kind of funny yet wolfish smile. I don't know about her character, but I think it's time to have a Klingon girl which can exude a sense of humour.
Wait. Why are the Klingons the ridged head variety? Does this episode deal with the Klingons finding a cure?
Yes, there's something about her smile that reminds me of Suzie Plackson. Always a good thing! Given the time this episode is set, between TOS and TMP, the ridged heads would be beginning to reoccur. Whilst the episode probably doesn't deal with the cure itself it's a pretty fair assumption that it has recently been developed. The OP points out we get both 'regular' and 'ridged' Klingons in this, so I guess we're at the transition point.
The original "Kitumba" script by John Meredith Lucas had three castes -- the royalty, the warriors, and the technocrates (scientists and such)-- in the Empire. Perhaps in this version the ridge Klingons and smooth-headed Klingons represent two different castes fighting for power in the Empire.
That's a good point. The original story fleshed out the Klingon society in some detail. Will the Phase II version follow that as written, or will it be adapted to include the TNG interpretation?
I know from their forum that the PII producers have tried to incorporate what is part of the Prime Universe canon in this webisode.
Well, the original John Meredyth Lucas script actually had four castes: the Klingons (warrior ruling caste)--which we have tweaked a bit for our episode: we call this caste the caste of the "Great Houses"--in an effort to integrate stuff established in the TNG era; the Technos (the technical/scientific caste); the Servos (the Service class) and the Subjects--which is everyone else. "Our Subjects may be lucky enough to join the ranks of [the Servos] one day." We do retain this aspect of the original script--not only explicitly in dialog that was retained from the original script, but also in the way we costume our numerous Klingon extras we see on the Homeworld. We also have the two kinds of Klingons (ridged versus smooth) vying for power at a tumultuous time in the Empire. But in this case, the ridged versus smooth Klingons (two different kinds of Klingons not contemplated when Lucas wrote his script) represent two different (but equal) factions in the Warrior caste. We might find that although both kinds of Klingons are created equal, some are more equal than others. It was a complex script: we wanted to remain faithful to Lucas' approach to the Klingons, yet there's a lot of "new" information we know about Klingons since the story was written back in the mid '70s. We tried to do justice to both visions of the Klingons--without it being a crazy nonsensical mess on the one hand and without it devolving into fanboy retcon wankery, short on plot and long on arcane cultural details on the other hand.
The kid playing the Kitumba is pretty spot-on. Somehow, I'd envisioned the Kitumba with a top-knot. I'm not sure why. Anyway, I'm very excited for this.