Discovery Klingons: Flat or Bumpy?

[T'Nara]

Depends how you interpret canon, in my view the events in enterprise never existed and the new show runners would be wise to flush all that rubbish out of the nearest airlock.

Even if the absurd augment disease with its convenient 100 year time limit had really happened, then it would not be believable that Bashir wouldn't have known at least part of the reason they had no ridges, since it would be contained in medical records that he would have studied.

If the new show runners decide to ignore the enterprise revisionism, then they could come up with a much more imaginative (and believable) alternative reason if they do decide to address the question.

Whatever is in your head canon, ENT is part of the established canon. You can ignore the event in ENT, but others (including me) may not.

 

[Mudd]

"Head canon" is a kind of ridiculous synonym for "opinion."

No one gets to decide canon except the people making the show.

 

[Lance]

I say use both. It *is* canon now that both coexist, after all....

 

[Timofnine]

I'm going with the Into Darkness look for Discovery Klingons... I think that the new series will use the Kelvin films for inspiration for some of it's updated looks in order to give a bit of familiarity to new fans who might have only got on to Star Trek through these films. Same for the Romulans maybe?

 

[PixelMagic]

Anyone who thinks that Star Trek Discovery is going to be a slave to 1966 aesthetics in a 2017 show is not thinking rationally. There will be people who complain about the bridge not being made of cardboard with jelly bean buttons. Mark my words.

 

[Cinema Geekly]

Anyone who thinks that Star Trek Discovery is going to be a slave to 1966 aesthetics in a 2017 show is not thinking rationally. There will be people who complain about the bridge not being made of cardboard with jelly bean buttons. Mark my words.

They were slaves to it in a 2004 show. In Enterprise they may have mocked the uniforms a bit but otherwise they showed that TOS bridge and treated it like the future of technology.

Maybe they can get away with a hybrid of ENT and TOS but it should be closer to TOS in look and feel. One of the many problems of doing yet another prequel in the "prime" timeline.

 

[Sarek@Vulcan]

I remember in 2004 or 2005 making a poll on this forum in Enterprise subforum about should we see an explanation of how Klingons lost their bumby forehads or not, and poll votes were about 50-50%, but more votes went for the explanation. So we got episodes about augmented virus, and it worked for me. Now I vote for both. I would like to see them without and with bumpy forehads.

 

[TalonCard]

I think it would be cool at some point to see a little bit of everything--the helmets, the Motion Picture-era Klingons, the TNG-era Klingons, the TOS/augment Klingons, the more subtle TUC look, the Into Darkness piercings and baldness, maybe throw in a few we haven't seen yet and a few that hadn't been known as Klingon up until now. Show some diversity in the Empire. I suspect too that having all of them in one place would show that all of the various looks work as a spectrum of the wider Klingon race.

TC

 

[lstyer]

This is not a prediction because (1) I have no basis for a prediction and (2) the poll clearly seeks preference.

I'm an Orignaln Series guy, so my preference would be a "modern" spin on smooth foreheads Klingons in uniforms somewhat approximating what they wore on TOS, and acting like TOS Klingons (for more examples, see also TNG Romulans). I don't mean identical because I'm not sure it would be possible to recreate the old makeup and look good at 1080p. Just close enough to be evocative.

My second preference would be to see both kinds, both in terms of look and feel. So, conniving TOS Kilngons and Bumpy guys going on about honor (though maybe not quite so obsessively as in the TNG era.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Flumpy.

 

[Lord Garth]

The foreheads will be bumpy like Bumpy from Shaft. Wait, no. Bumpy's forehead was smooth.

Hopefully at least some people will get that.

 

[DarKush]

I would like the flat foreheads, but I'm okay with a mix of flat and bumpy.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

The foreheads will be bumpy like Bumpy from Shaft. Wait, no. Bumpy's forehead was smooth.

Hopefully at least some people will get that.

Bumpy was crooked.

Now Shaft, that was a smooth cat.

 

[ElScoob]

I think it would be cool at some point to see a little bit of everything--the helmets, the Motion Picture-era Klingons, the TNG-era Klingons, the TOS/augment Klingons, the more subtle TUC look, the Into Darkness piercings and baldness, maybe throw in a few we haven't seen yet and a few that hadn't been known as Klingon up until now. Show some diversity in the Empire. I suspect too that having all of them in one place would show that all of the various looks work as a spectrum of the wider Klingon race.

TC

I haven't posted much in years but I keep up with the board, and I just wanted to chime in with my wholehearted endorsement of this idea. It's exactly what Doctor Who did with the last couple Dalek stories--using a mix of Dalek designs from the original 60s look to the most current, including everything in between. It'd be a great little (slightly belated) 50th Anniversary present for the fans--a subtle acknowledgement that 'it's all true'.

--g

 

[Kemaiku]

Into Darkness variety for the majority of the encounters.
Human form Klingons appearing in the background or shown very briefly to tease TOS connection, but an updated look.
TNG-esque "biker" Klingons shown on Qo'nos, but with the variety shown in TUC so a lot of different bumpiness.
Unthawing of Hur'q experimented upon early Klingon 'shock troops' for a nice horror episode.

 

[Lance]

I think it would be cool at some point to see a little bit of everything--the helmets, the Motion Picture-era Klingons, the TNG-era Klingons, the TOS/augment Klingons, the more subtle TUC look, the Into Darkness piercings and baldness, maybe throw in a few we haven't seen yet and a few that hadn't been known as Klingon up until now. Show some diversity in the Empire. I suspect too that having all of them in one place would show that all of the various looks work as a spectrum of the wider Klingon race.

TC

Perfect! This is what I'd love to see. Instead of homogenization of every alien species into a single 'look', instead embrace the wide diversity of different Klingon designs over the years and throw them all into scenes together.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

Yes! And lots of variation of each type. No more species-wide hairstyles.
But more important, show us different Klingon castes (like the Minbari but to the next level) and what it's like for "regular" Klingons as opposed to the warrior caste whom we already know look down on their own "lesser" people. We learned a little of what it's like to be a Klingon lawyer. More of that. We should care about the aliens the way we do about our own species and the ones that look like just us.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

Also, the flatheads are an opportunity to let the federation's racism show a bit, in that they might relate to the flatheads more than the bumpies and the Klingons call them on it.

 

[TalonCard]

[QUOTE="ElScoob, post: 11740229, member: 249"It's exactly what Doctor Who did with the last couple Dalek stories--using a mix of Dalek designs from the original 60s look to the most current, including everything in between. It'd be a great little (slightly belated) 50th Anniversary present for the fans--a subtle acknowledgement that 'it's all true'.
[/QUOTE]

I was thinking about that when I posted! (Although the Dalek design is consistent enough that seeing it on screen wasn't quite as exciting for me as hearing that they were going to do it in the first place. Now, if they end up doing the same thing with the Cybermen... )

TC

 

[Tim Thomason]

Also, the flatheads are an opportunity to let the federation's racism show a bit, in that they might relate to the flatheads more than the bumpies and the Klingons call them on it.

Maybe Section 31 helps install a flathead Chancellor in the hopes that it would relieve tensions with the Empire.

And that turns against them when the flathead Chancellor turns out to be more brutal and conniving than any of the bumpies before him.