First look at Klingons in 'Star Trek: Discovery'?

[BillJ]

None of that really matters, Daxestablished through dialogue that the TOS look was basically a design trend of that time period, which is something that is backed up by Paris controlling the Delta Flyer over in Voyager using 50s B-movie style controls. The basic set-up of Trekhasnt changed from TOS right through, even if the styling of stuff changed with the times. There's simply no 'looks more advanced' as an argument, when you can build a computer keyboard that looks like its from the eighteenth century now, and still have it be functionally the same. TOS era tech came in black leather and silver, TNG era favoured grey, white and beige ceramics and polymers in appearance. It's not a knickers in a twist scenario. If the DSC Tricorders are all wrist mounted transparent Perspex, it really won't go against that established precedent.

Except the fact that those very elements were in abundance ten years prior to TOS, in "The Cage".

 

[jaime]

If Sarek is an astrophysicist ten years prior to being one of the Federation's top diplomats, I'll have a hard time fitting that into the Prime timeline. Especially considering he was already working as an ambassador in "Yesteryear".

I will go with him being an astrophysicist, but he also has to forget his handbag, and when he moves to the diplomatic corp, he has to insist on handing out Vulcan chocolate balls, or no deal. It's just not realistic otherwise.

 

[BillJ]

I will go with him being an astrophysicist...

I have no issues with him being an astrophysicist, I have a problem rectifying it with what we know of the Prime universe character. But then, I don't need them to cram Discovery into a universe to satisfy a few sad folks who can't let the past go.

 

[Kemaiku]

If everyone just treated Discovery as a new third universe, which it is, it would help things a lot.

 

[Kor]

If the DSC Tricorders are all wrist mounted transparent Perspex, it really won't go against that established precedent.

Actually, that would be an interesting nod to "The Cage"-era tech. See the communicator here, made of clear resin or something: http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=20&page=2

Kor

 

[Hey Missy]

"Oh cool, new Klingons, so much better than that biker chain gang shit from the TNG era" - this thread
Okay but now they're straight out of Mad Max...

 

[jaime]

If everyone just treated Discovery as a new third universe, which it is, it would help things a lot.

Except, it has been stated by the production team who started it, that it is not.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"Oh cool, new Klingons, so much better than that biker chain gang shit from the TNG era" - this thread
Okay but now they're straight out of Mad Max...

And their skulls are so elongated they look like Xenomorphs.

 

[Kemaiku]

Except, it has been stated by the production team who started it, that it is not.

They said Prime to get the TruFans off their damned back. It's rebooting whatever it pleases. If you want to interpret that as lying, go ahead. But this show is not going to do much but pay minimal attention to Star Trek that happened before.

 

[jaime]

Actually, that would be an interesting nod to "The Cage"-era tech. See the communicator here: http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=20&page=2

Kor

Though for the record, I was never a fan of that look.

I do like the old tech manual explanation...the reason everything looks vaguely like sixties tech is to avoid contamination of the timeline when we saw it.

 

[jaime]

They said Prime to get the TruFans off their damned back. It's rebooting whatever it pleases. If you want to interpret that as lying, go ahead. But this show is not going to do much but pay minimal attention to Star Trek that happened before.

Whether it is a lie remains to be seen. And as to the power of these TruFans that would so need to be placated....I am not sure lying would do that, nor why they would wish to. 'It harms sales' is the only reason that gets rolled out for everything, along with 'brand confusion' and to be honest...a third universe is going to do that whether or not you try to hide it to begin with. So...why say it? Why hire from a pool of people tied by post association to the Prime Universe? Why focus on the Prime universe in all currently released publicity? There are oddities, but until it airs, it's a cat in a box and we are all Heisenberg compensators. Then we will see if it was a marketing lie, or if we should actually recognise the words as spoken.

 

[Kemaiku]

Fans have not mattered to Paramount on that scale in a very long time, it's an unhealthy entitlement from them, and a pain in the ass for the studio to have to keep dragging it out.

The Kelvin and Discovery universes are about weening Star Trek away from them and back to being a generally accessible entertainment franchise again.

 

[jaime]

Fans have not mattered to Paramount on that scale in a very long time, it's an unhealthy entitlement from them, and a pain in the ass for the studio to have to keep dragging it out.

The Kelvin and Discovery universes are about weening Star Trek away from them and back to being a generally accessible entertainment franchise again.

It was a 'generally accessible franchise' when it was made before, trying to appeal to fans, and then others came along (unless you are referring to the original sixties run of say series one...) and became fans. Now, it should be easier than ever, because SF itself is no longer a black sheep. And the KT had Nimoy, with events in the Prime universe being the reason for the entire 'new' universe in the first place. There has pretty much never been an actual Trek reboot. Retcons as we wander along, but never an actual reboot.

 

[Kor]

Trek is unique among all media franchises, in that fans expect everything to fit together into a perfectly coherent universe (even when some stuff already contradicts other stuff).

I've got no problem if this is more of a "broad strokes" depiction which might not fit in all the little nitpicky details. Just give me good stories and characters.

It's like how Gotham is not in continuity with the Arrowverse, and neither are in continuity with the current DC movies, and none of the above are in continuity with the 70s/80s Superman movies or the Burton/Schumacher Batman movies, or the Dark Knight trilogy, or the 60s pop-art Batman show, or any of the various comics continuities for that matter, but you can still enjoy all these interpretations without getting hung up on making everything fit together.

Kor

 

[uniderth]

just purists getting upset over trivia yet again.

It's not trivia. It's consistent story telling, which is an important aspect in GOOD story telling.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's not trivia. It's consistent story telling, which is an important aspect in GOOD story telling.

We haven't seen any story yet. All we've seen is a change in design.

 

[cultcross]

Off topic - but many franchises have manged to grow new audiences whilst completely satisfying existing ones

Out of interest, which franchises were you thinking of? I can't think of any, especially sci-fi ones, which have rebooted or had modern versions or new rounds of sequels where there hasn't been a TruFan nerdrage not dissimilar to this one. Episode 1, nuBSG, nuWho, Casino Royale, the XMen continuity clusterfuck, Force Awakens...

 

[uniderth]

But this show is not going to do much but pay minimal attention to Star Trek that happened before.

If that's the case, then it's already BS.

We haven't seen any story yet. All we've seen is a change in design.

Design, and world building, is part of the story. I don't have a problem with creating/adding an additional variety of Klingons. How many years on this boar have we heard people complaining about how Klingons(and other aliens) are so two dimensional. Well here's a chance for the Klingon Empire to be really depicted as a multi-ethnic Empire.*

The established canon/continuity says a lot, but there is also a lot that it doesn't say. So I'm fairly liberal when it comes to what hasn't been mentioned, seen, or implied, but very purist when it comes to stuff that has.

That's why I'm trying to keep an open mind for this series. I'm fine with explaining things away in at least a somewhat logical fashion. But totally disregarding the story that has already been told, just becasue you want your kewlingonzzzz, or iBridge, or awesome-smooth-greeblie-touch-screenzzz, (in other words just becasue you want to change things up) is just lazy production efforts, and grounds for expulsion.

*My only nit pick would be that the armor in the picture looks completely impractical(but i can give that a pass).

 

[Kemaiku]

Storytelling is not dependent on the aesthetics in the background. You mean to say one detail of stitching on a uniform will ruin one of the best episodes ever written?

The two have nothing to do with each other, something Trek has had a hard time figuring out during the 90's and early 2000's

 

[Nerys Myk]

People keep bringing up previous instances in which the designs of certain aliens were altered as a way of justifying this latest apparent change, but there's a significant difference between what Star Trek was then and what it is now. At the time previous design changes were made, there was actually "room" to make said changes because the "visual Canon" was less rigidly defined because of the size of the franchise at the time.

With over 700+ hours of released content having defined a much more rigid "visual Canon" by this point in time, making sweeping changes to the way that certain species look is far less doable than it ever was in the past, making what has apparently happened with regards to Discovery fundamentally different than what has happened previously.

There's always room for change. Fiction is infinite. Long lasting franchises are constantly changing. The "rigidity" is in your head.