I think that Klingons should've stayed as they were in TOS.

[RobinSpace]

A klingon that is a black faced white person from the 60/70's Is a bit... not done in these times.

but changing Klingons just because they can.... sure whatever. Will the vulcans sprout insect antenna and a 3rd eye in STD/DIS(co)/DCV, I am sure they had them after they tried to genetically enhanced themselves in that century. It was just a very well kept secret as only part of the Vulcan race had the defects and it took time to kill them all.

 

[KennyB]

Will the vulcans sprout insect antenna and a 3rd eye in STD/DIS(co)/DCV, I am sure they had them after they tried to genetically enhanced themselves in that century. It was just a very well kept secret as only part of the Vulcan race had the defects and it took time to kill them all.

 

[1001001]

I liked the Klingons from STID. I say go with that.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I like the idea that the Klingon Empire is made up of different kinds of Klingons, and that they all don't look alike. Throughout its long history, different types of Klingons have had dominance for periods of time.

 

[Nyotarules]

I don't think that the racial-cultural bias angle is appropriate here, there's a big difference between hating another human who is a different colour than you, and having a feeling of revulsion towards something that isn't human, doesn't look human, and worse yet looks like a beast. The former is stupid, the latter is healthy.

The former used to be the norm for some humans and in some cases still is today. Its easy to dismiss this when one is not treated as The Other in RL society. Its not too long ago certain humans were considered to be no more than monkeys, and dig a little deep and that attitude is still around. I've experienced it.

As for Devil in the Dark, we (viewers) felt bad for the Horta the same way we feel bad for a wounded animal, but I don't think that the Horta can be identified with, because we can't identify with something that is nothing like us.

Which explains the world we live in right now. If you don't look, speak or live like my kind of human then I cannot identify with you. And you want this attitude to be a Star Trek norm but transferred to aliens instead?

 

[Timo]

...The thing is, in-universe, our heroes (and villains) must have come to grips with this a long time ago, considering the diverse universe they live in.

If they haven't, then this projects them back to the audience not as moderately conservative 21st century folks reasonably wary of bug-eyed monsters, but as incredibly backward and unreasonable 21st century people who think left-handed or curly-haired people should be burned on stake as a matter of principle and natural order.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[RobinSpace]

View attachment 2833

LOL, I mean that is the kind of script writing you can do to justify changing any race in Star Trek.

and i also wanted to point out that other races never get a visual upgrade.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

LOL, I mean that is the kind of script writing you can do to justify changing any race in Star Trek.

and i also wanted to point out that other races never get a visual upgrade.

The Trill look very different in TNG than they do in DS9.

 

[KennyB]

and i also wanted to point out that other races never get a visual upgrade.

But they have. Romulans were updated for TNG, Tellurides and Andorians were in ENT.........I am sure there are more examples as well.

 

[KennyB]

I was not a fan of the addition of a forehead V ridge.............

 

[MacLeod]

I know it's not realistic for most aliens to look essentially human, but neither is FTL travel or many other things from Star Trek. However, I think that keeping the Klingons as they looked in TOS would've been better, than their transformation into grotesque monsters in the films and series' afterward.


My reasoning is that when the villains look like monsters, the audience dismisses them as monsters and sees them as unquestionably bad. However, if they looked like you or I, it's easier for the audience to identify with them, which makes stories more compelling. I feel the same way about Romulans, they should've stayed more or less identical to Klingons (Sarek played the first Romulan on screen IIRC) instead of adding those triangular forehead bumps.

Thoughts?

Isn't that kind of the point to say just because we might see their looks as monstrous doesn't mean we should dismiss them as monsters and unquestionably bad . i.e not judging a book by it's cover

 

[RobinSpace]

But they have. Romulans were updated for TNG, Tellurides and Andorians were in ENT.........I am sure there are more examples as well.

The romulans still looked like they decended from vulcans, The tellarites and andorians just had a overhaul of makeup but still look like pigmen and blue man group with antenna. Minor tweaks I can understand

And the romulan is good one, because they added this weird canon thing that their "V" head was cause by some illness caused by radiation. That is what I mean, you can explain anything with the changes made to a race.

with an in canon prequel, it is difficult to do a lot of changes of one race before it doesn't look like the same race any more. If they have done it for all the Major races of the show in the fashion they did the Klingons, that wouldn't make it star trek any more since they don't identify as their races

 

[Balok's Decoy]

If they have done it for all the Major races of the show in the fashion they did the Klingons, that wouldn't make it star trek any more since they don't identify as their races

So the true essence of Star Trek, the quality that defines the series and gives it meaning, is....makeup and costume design??

 

[Prax]

I'm going to make a prediction about Discovery Vulcans. They will look them same, dress the same, and be smug a-holes that look down on humans.

If I am totally wrong on at least one or two of these points, I will refreshingly pleased.

 

[KennyB]

I'm going to make a prediction about Discovery Vulcans. They will look them same, dress the same, and be smug a-holes that look down on humans.

If I am totally wrong on at least one or two of these points, I will refreshingly pleased.

I think you are pretty safe with that prediction.

 

[zar]

This. This is exactly what I think they should do. They'll have to eventually anyway, when 2063 comes and goes and we still don't have First Contact.

They won't "have to". Star Trek Prime is already a parallel universe where, in the 60s, there was never a show called Star Trek; in the 70s, Enterprise OV-101 was named after an aircraft carrier instead of in response to fan letters; in the 80s, transparent aluminum was invented; in the 90s, a transhuman race was born, and Chronowerx beat Microsoft and Apple to the market; and in the 2000s, a kilometer-high tower covered in solar panels called the Millennium Gate was built and a probe called Nomad was launched.

 

[Mel Tenorio]

Game of Thrones basically stole the Dothraki look from TOS Klingons

 

[Paradise City]

I like TOS-Kor. I liked TOS-Kang too.

But I'm happy with the space-Vikings evolution of the Klingons. You need a species of space Vikings. You could argue we got Klingon overkill and maybe we did - but the vast majority of those episodes were well executed and gave us some exquisite characters like Worf, Kurn and Martok.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Game of Thrones basically stole the Dothraki look from TOS Klingons

And yet the Dothraki somehow come off as a more dynamic and interesting society than the TNG Klingons...

 

[USS Triumphant]

I would've said, "They'll have to eventually anyway, when World War III doesn't happen," but given what's going on in the news lately... Well, let's just say I'd be very glad to be wrong about what I'm currently thinking.

Off topic, but I feel like we got some good news on this score today, so I wanted to share it in case you hadn't seen it: China says that while they will defend NK if the US or SK strike first, they will remain neutral if NK strikes first. Since I find it HIGHLY unlikely that the former will happen (regardless of what anyone might think, good or bad, of the current POTUS), and I think NK is likely to cool it a bit now that China has made it clear they won't be lead by the nose into war, this is a relief. At least, I find it to be a bit of one.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming...