I went with Worf and Kang. I always thought that Kang was very cool. Michael Ansara was awesome as Kang!
Thanks for this Shat Happens. I always knew Kruge's badassery was baddest but never put it all together like this. I never understood why Chris Lloyd got mocked for this, which I seem to remember. As if he didn't make not just an acceptable Klingon but an awesome one! Maybe people were overlaying his comedic roles in their minds? That's all I ever came up with to explain why his Kruge was mocked as unconvincing by many peeps when TSFS came out. Although, pollwise, 'tis Martok, although I obviously voted for Kruge first myself.
Well, Kruge is having fun. Any setback, he's quickly back on his feet ready for some more fun. "It's exhilarating isn't it?" he tells an exasperated Kirk. He's an old school frontiersman without a care in the universe. He's out in the wilderness doin' his thing, lookin' for glory. Martok is uncomplicated by nature as well - but he shoulders incredible burdens and is often pulled into political intrigue that disturbs and frustrates him.
DC Comics' Konom would like a word. I went with Kor (the first Klingon) and Chang (C'mon, it's a bald Christopher Plummer with an eyepatch bolted in place! Tell me that's not cool). If John Schuck's Klingon Ambassador had been on the poll, it might have been a tougher choice for me.
Had to pick Kor. I'm so used to seeing him in DS9 from watching episodes of that more often in the last few years (and he is great in it), but I just watched Errand of Mercy the other day. He's too cool. And he so perfectly plays his Klingon respect for Kirk wanting to fight back. If anybody votes for Alexander Rozhenko, I'll take your d'k tahg from you.
Happy to see some people agree with me on Kruge. I forgot of when he almost shot Torg too. "My lord?" "Say the wrong thing!" You really can't out-Klingon him. But as JonnyQuest here said, These two are #2 and #3. Chang was a man with simple likes. He liked to smile. He liked Shakespeare. He would like a war. He would like to roam the galaxy in his custom bird of Prey shooting at spaceships. Because it's so great fun. So he got to work. He went aboard the Enterprise to have dinner and piss Kirk off. He gave Gorkon a tough time reigning him (oh, and he also got him killed). He let the Klingon chancellor chick and the other generals argue until they're out of breath while he was enjoying the view of the stars out the window and then just said some words, did a hand gesture and all went his way - that's Jedi stuff. He screwed Kirk thoroughly. He fired torpedoes and made Kirk think it was HIM ("are we firing torpedoes?" "I wish I knew"). He made a speech in Klingonese and didn't want Kirk to wait for the translation. The Jedi Mind Trick didn't work on the Klingon Judge somehow, but he perseverantly arranged for Kirk to be killed anyway (and very nearly succeeded). He battled the Enterprise. He made a hole in the Enterprise. He wrecked the Enterprise. He had the Enterprise decomissioned. But he was doomed: if it wasn't for those gas-seeking torpedoes he would still have died -- of laughter. And he loved his eyepatch. He didn't want to lose it. Now the Klingon #3: The Ambassador. John Schuck stole Star Trek IV. I mean it. I believe the film should be re-titled "Star Trek IV: Kirk won't go back to Earth until that Scary Klingon leaves". He was not a type to do actual killing himself, nevertheless he had balls of pure neutronium. He went to the enemy power's capital and called their hero a "quintessential devil". He called Spock's dad a "personal biased intellectual puppet" to his face (this alone could win any insult contest). He called "there will be no peace as long as Kirk lives" in the face of the POTUFP in front of all other Ambassadors. And walked away. And nobody said a word. Next time we saw him in ST6, he was shouting at another President. Man, I love the ST movies.
Kor was my number 2, and it was a tough decision--he WAS so perfect in Errand, cruel and honorable and likeable at the same time (affably evil), and DS9 increased his coolness significantly by upping him to Dahar Master--and then showing us WHY he's a Dahar master. As I recall Martok and the other Klingons were stunned ridgeless by his tactical win against the Jem'Hadar.
Yeah, John Schuck really did an awesome job in that part. So much so that they brought him back five years later in STVI. Not bad for a character with just a single scene. Heck, before Schuck, the very concept of a Klingon Ambassador might have seemed laughable. After he played that part, it made perfect sense.
I wonder how different Kruge would have been if Edward James Olmos had played the part. (He was up for the role. I can't remember which is which, but either Nimoy wanted EJO and Harve Bennett overruled him, or the other way around. But EJO was definitely in the running to play Kruge.)
Then we have Klaa. Klaa was a Klingon captain straight out of the Klingon Venice Beach who customized his spaceship because he wanted to fire the weapons himself. That was badass, but he had nothing to do and was bored. One day he heard Kirk was in the neighborhood and decided to kill him. Actually this prospect made him very excited and focused, but unfortunately for him Kirk had his hands full at the time and had to get off without a proper battle. Klaa insisted a bit but he had to kill a god, and after that there was a party and the mood was ruined. Klaa clearly was not happy, he much rather had killed Kirk. Klaa was a good Klingon, but had bad luck. At least he had a girlfriend with vonderful muscles.
My favourite is Gowron. For the simple reason that I love his crazy facial expressions. I always looked like he was on the verge of just totally losing it and going Klingon crazy. Only to bring it back and for everyone to breath a sigh of relief. Until he went off again 5 minutes later. Those bulbous eyes as well...amazing.