Alexander's age at episode "Reunion"

[marsh8472]

As it appears, Worf and K'Ehleyr fooled around during episode "The Emissary" (stardate 42901.3). Alexander states in a later episode ("New Ground") that he was born on startdate 43205. Then we see Alexander for the first time during episode "Reunion" (stardate 44246.3). This would suggest that Worf sees Alexander for the first time when he was about 1 year old. But by this time Alexander is already walking, running, and talking pretty well. Do Klingon children just age quicker or was Alexander older than 1 year old?

Then during episode "Firstborn" the Alexander from the future says this:

K'MTAR: I am your son Alexander. I have come to this time from forty years in the future.
WORF: P'tak! Tell me the truth or I will kill you.
K'MTAR: Look at me. When we first met you said I looked familiar.
WORF: I could have seen you on the Homeworld.
K'MTAR: No. Look closely. I am your son.
WORF: If you are Alexander, you will remember your mother's last words before she died.
K'MTAR: I was three years old. She was dying when we found her. She barely managed to whisper my name and then she took my hand and placed it in yours. Then she died. And then you howled in rage and said, look upon her. Look upon death and always to remember. And I always have.

Suggesting that Alexander was 3 years old during episode "Reunion". This would mean that Alexander was already born and about 2 years old already during episode "The Emissary" which would mean K'Ehleyr was hiding him back then. But according to episode "The Emissary" K'Ehleyr and Worf had not seen each other in 6 years. So how would have Alexander been conceived 2 years prior to episode "The Emissary"? I was curious how this is reconciled in canon. Is Alexander not really Worf's biological son?

 

[USS Firefly]

There is no cannon reason but I asume that Klingons age faster when they are young

 

[Trek Survivor]

Alexander's rapid ageing can be explained by Klingon genes I suppose. In a warrior environment, perhaps evolution has decided that baby Klingons can't afford to be babes-in-arms for long.

As for the "three years" line in "Firstborn", perhaps a Klingon year is shorter than a human (or 'galactic standard' or whatever) year?

 

[Tosk]

Klingons just age faster than humans. By the time we see him in DS9 he is fully grown by human standards, despite being only 12 of "our" years old.

And yet they get to live longer than us too. Bastards!

 

[Timo]

Are we trusting a child to get a stardate right here?

Alexander probably said "four-tee two oh five" anyway. And was conceived back when Worf and K'Ehleyr really were an item, rather than during "The Emissary". ("Reunion" is remarkable for completely omitting any scenes where Worf would demonstrate or discuss surprise at the existence of Alexander.)

Still doesn't mean he'd grow up at human pace. Although whether the fact that he looks like an advanced teenager in "Sons and Daughters" is due to him being Klingon or hybrid vigor from him being one quarter human is left unclear - we don't follow pure Klingon kids through their early years for comparison, as we have no idea what K'Ehleyr looked like at the age of one, three or eight. We also miss out on the early years of Miral.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Six of Twelve]

Are we trusting a child to get a stardate right here?

Alexander probably said "four-tee two oh five" anyway. And was conceived back when Worf and K'Ehleyr really were an item, rather than during "The Emissary". ("Reunion" is remarkable for completely omitting any scenes where Worf would demonstrate or discuss surprise at the existence of Alexander.)

Still doesn't mean he'd grow up at human pace. Although whether the fact that he looks like an advanced teenager in "Sons and Daughters" is due to him being Klingon or hybrid vigor from him being one quarter human is left unclear - we don't follow pure Klingon kids through their early years for comparison, as we have no idea what K'Ehleyr looked like at the age of one, three or eight. We also miss out on the early years of Miral.

Timo Saloniemi

Alexander was conceived during The Emissary, as Worf and K'Ehleyr had not seen one another in six years at that point and she mentioned, "Why didn't we do this six years ago", right after they did the deed on the holodeck.

I find it eye-rolling that they have half human/half whatever kids ALWAYS grow much faster than full human kids, with Naomi Wildman being another prime example. Usually a species that has a short childhood, also has a short lifespan, so this doesn't really make any sense when you think about it. Of course, the only reason they do this is to make for easier storylines on the shows, as kids who had can talk are much more interesting than babies who can just eat and crap their pants.

 

[JJohnson]

As it appears, Worf and K'Ehleyr fooled around during episode "The Emissary" (stardate 42901.3). Alexander states in a later episode ("New Ground") that he was born on startdate 43205. Then we see Alexander for the first time during episode "Reunion" (stardate 44246.3). This would suggest that Worf sees Alexander for the first time when he was about 1 year old. But by this time Alexander is already walking, running, and talking pretty well. Do Klingon children just age quicker or was Alexander older than 1 year old?

Then during episode "Firstborn" the Alexander from the future says this:




Suggesting that Alexander was 3 years old during episode "Reunion". This would mean that Alexander was already born and about 2 years old already during episode "The Emissary" which would mean K'Ehleyr was hiding him back then. But according to episode "The Emissary" K'Ehleyr and Worf had not seen each other in 6 years. So how would have Alexander been conceived 2 years prior to episode "The Emissary"? I was curious how this is reconciled in canon. Is Alexander not really Worf's biological son?

It's very possible that he's talking Klingon years, which could theoretically be shorter than human years. Maybe a Klingon year is 2/3 of a Human year. They do like doing things in 3s. Their directions are pretty much east, NW, and SW, roughly, if you follow Marc Okrand's new words on KLI.

 

[Tosk]

I find it eye-rolling that they have half human/half whatever kids ALWAYS grow much faster than full human kids

Humans do it too. Molly O'Brien jumped three years. Jake Sisko was better though, he aged a little under four years in three. Not too shabby.

 

[Six of Twelve]

Humans do it too. Molly O'Brien jumped three years. Jake Sisko was better though, he aged a little under four years in three. Not too shabby.

They always used the same actress, Hana Hatae, for Molly, however. There were three actors playing Alexander to account for the age jumps, and two for Naomi Wildman.

 

[Tallguy]

If they had stuck to John M. Ford's rapidly aging Klingons they would have been fine. But then they made them live as long as Vulcans.

 

[MAGolding]

This is a TV trope call Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome, I believe.

Waring! Here is a link to the addictive TV Tropes site:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome?from=Main.SORAS

But Star Trek fans may want a more scientific approach to it.

That would be counted as a Plot-Relevant Age-Up according to TV Tropes (Warning again!):

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotRelevantAgeUp

So I suggest that in advanced Star Trek civilizations the parents of newborn kids take leave from their jobs and spend months or years in time warp facilities with accelerated time and return to work after a few days or weeks pass on the outside with their newborns now grown to toddlers. And maybe they do that several times during the early years of their children.

Such facilities fall under the Year inside, Hour Outside trope (Warning again):

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YearInsideHourOutside

Thus their kids seem to grow very fast to outside observers like Star Trek fans and viewers during their first years of life, and then seem to age and grow at a more normal rate.

Some episode hint that Federation science may be able to create artificial time warps. IMHO accepting that Federation science can create artificial time warps and that one use is for rapidly aging children (from the viewpoint of the outer world) so that their parents don't have to take a lot of time off from work in their early years seems like the most simple explanation for Plot-Relevant Age-Up in order to avoid unexplained Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome.

 

[Tosk]

They always used the same actress, Hana Hatae, for Molly, however.

On DS9, sure. But not for her very first appearance, being born on TNG.

 

[Timo]

If they had stuck to John M. Ford's rapidly aging Klingons they would have been fine. But then they made them live as long as Vulcans.

Why should these two be incompatible?

Klingons grow out of childhood fast. They then die young in violent ways - or manage to kill their way to a ripe old age, which happens to be much riper than with humans. Ford's books don't rule that out. (It also ties to the statistical illusion of people in, say, the Middle Ages living short lives. Naah, you could live to be eighty easily enough - but the statistics reflect the fact that fifty others would die before they saw their first birthday.)

Vulcans, too, live long and prosper. Which may be why these two species both are so awfully warlike: the elders lack the decency to vacate the resources to the next generation.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mojochi]

Klingons just age faster than humans. By the time we see him in DS9 he is fully grown by human standards, despite being only 12 of "our" years old.

And yet they get to live longer than us too. Bastards!

I wouldn't want to wager on that bet lol

 

[Tosk]

I wouldn't want to wager on that bet lol

What bet?

 

[Forbin]

This happens in soap operas all the time too. Character gets pregnant, has baby in less than 3 months, a year later they hire a 5-year-old to play the kid...

 

[Mojochi]

What bet?

The bet that Klingons would outlive humans. It was a joke about how even if Klingons have a longer potential life span than humans, given their proclivities, it's pretty rare any of them ever survive long enough to benefit from it. Apparently the joke fell flat. lol

 

[Tosk]

The bet that Klingons would outlive humans. It was a joke about how even if Klingons have a longer potential life span than humans, given their proclivities, it's pretty rare any of them ever survive long enough to benefit from it. Apparently the joke fell flat. lol

Sorry.

 

[diankra]

The John Ford books state that Klingons grow, and age, fast. DS9 would later have healthy if ageing 140 year old Klingons, but that was several years after Alexander's TNG appearances, which fit with the Ford idea.