What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
- Start date
Agreed about Kruge being best villain Klingon.
Overall Klingon, though, I have to put Martok as the best (and favorite), with Kor right next to him. Worf next, followed by Kang.
Kruge being directly behind them.
Chang belongs up there as well. Plummer's scenery-chewing ham is just the chef's kiss.
Probably tied with Kruge, for me. (Very memorable performances, especially since they were one-off appearances.)
A Shakespeare-quoting Klingon with very subtle ridges, almost a TOS-like appearance and an eyepatch bolted to his skull. Just....brilliant.
The problem with naming the characters Kang and Chang, though, is that it just underlines how the original concept of the Klingons was rooted in the unthinking anti-Asian racism of the era, defining them as "space Mongols" with Fu Manchu facial hair, crossed with Communist Chinese authoritarianism and spycraft. James Blish's "Errand of Mercy" adaptation actually describe them as being "originally of Oriental stock," though it's unclear if he thought they were a human offshoot or if he meant they were the "Oriental" branch of their humanoid alien species. (I was going to say "of the sixties" rather than "of the era," but the level of Asian stereotyping and xenophobia in a lot of 1980s-90s American TV is often shocking in retrospect.)
Fortunately those names were the exceptions rather than the rule. Names like Kor, Koloth, and Korax don't evoke any ethnicity in particular to my ear. Kras just sounds like "crass." Mara sounds Hebrew or Eastern European. Kruge and Maltz sound Germanic, and Torg and Valkris sound Scandinavian. Klaa, Vixis, Azetbur, and Kerla don't suggest much of anything, though Gorkon sounds a bit Russian, appropriately, as the story was inspired by the end of the Cold War, so Gorkon's name was presumably a reference to Mikhail Gorbachev.
I could never figure out what TNG's creators were thinking when they decided "Worf" was a good Klingon name. It doesn't have the hard consonant sounds of most Klingon names, and it's always struck me as kind of goofy, like the name for a comical dwarfish figure. Although I did realize some years back that it sounds like the first part of "warfare," so there's that. (Which leads us to Alexander, the Worf heir.)
Fortunately those names were the exceptions rather than the rule. Names like Kor, Koloth, and Korax don't evoke any ethnicity in particular to my ear. Kras just sounds like "crass." Mara sounds Hebrew or Eastern European. Kruge and Maltz sound Germanic, and Torg and Valkris sound Scandinavian. Klaa, Vixis, Azetbur, and Kerla don't suggest much of anything, though Gorkon sounds a bit Russian, appropriately, as the story was inspired by the end of the Cold War, so Gorkon's name was presumably a reference to Mikhail Gorbachev.
I could never figure out what TNG's creators were thinking when they decided "Worf" was a good Klingon name. It doesn't have the hard consonant sounds of most Klingon names, and it's always struck me as kind of goofy, like the name for a comical dwarfish figure. Although I did realize some years back that it sounds like the first part of "warfare," so there's that. (Which leads us to Alexander, the Worf heir.)
While I loved Plummer as Chang, I still kinda wish it had been Kor or Kang instead, just to tie the whole thing together. No issues either way. And yeah, I'm on the Valeris should have been Saavik team as well. Preferably Kirstie Alley.
Chang is tied with Kang for my favorite Klingon. Third place goes to the Klingon in Into Darkness.
It's more Kruge is just odd and deeply unsettling as a character. Not one I find enjoyable.
GORbachev + linCOLN = Gorkon
Fair enough, but at the time the film came out Klingons were still brutal, generally, and the enemy. I think given the writing and characterization he played that part to the hilt. Even though initially they were supposed to be Romulans, but whatever.
Ooh, yeah. Plummer's pretty good, but imagine what Colicos or Ansara would've done with the role.
Incidentally, by an interesting coincidence (?), General Chang is practically the same character that Christopher Plummer played seven years earlier in the Dennis Quaid film Dreamscape -- a conspirator seeking to assassinate a peacemaking leader because he saw it as surrendering the cold war. Which is weird, since Dreamscape was co-written by Star Trek V screenwriter David Loughery, and had no creators in common with TUC.
I don't think that feels right for Saavik. I can't see her betraying her mentor Spock. And by the time of TUC, she'd be older and more seasoned, so it's easier to believe that a younger person like Valeris would be led astray by the conspirators.
Absolutely. It frustrates me when people look at a character actor and insist on defining them by the first role they were known for. I mean, the very essence of character acting is versatility, the ability to transform oneself from role to role, so saying "I can only see them as one character" is tantamount to saying that they're failing at their job.
Christopher Lloyd has a distinctive voice, but he makes each of his characters quite different otherwise. Reverend Jim has very little in common with Doc Brown, who has very little in common with Kruge, who has very little in common with Judge Doom, etc.
He was also frozen one time.
This is bizarre to me. John Colicos and Michael Ansara were both great actors, but they just weren't in the same league as Plummer.
That actually sounds like a Klingon name
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