Klingon First Encounter

[Anwar]

There was an explanation in an RPG book that in 2218 a Federation ship found Qo'nos and after a short observation (so they didn't really know what the Klingons were like) they made immediate contact. The Klingons then slaughtered the crew, stole their ship and reverse engineered Federation technology to catapult the Klingon Empire into a s Spacefaring Superpower.

The tied the 2218 and 2223 things together by saying it took the Klingons 5 years to fully reverse-engineer the stolen tech and set up their first colonies and spacefleets, so full on hostile space contact between the Feds and the Klingons didn't happen until 2223.

 

[jealousblues]

Also, in the episode "First Contact" (as opposed to the movie), Picard tells the alien of the week that the Prime Directive was adopted after a disastrous first contact with the Klingons led to decades of war - "centuries" before the episode, and thus in the 2150s or earlier.

Whether this matches what was shown in ENT "Broken Bow" et al. is up to debate. Certainly the timing would be perfect as such - but people don't like the fact that the ENT first contact was not all that disastrous, nor did it immediately lead to decades of war. More damningly, the ENT first contact doesn't sound like something that could have gone any better had there been a Prime Directive in place.

This is why it is speculated that Picard speaks of first contact between the Klingons and some Federation member species other than humans. Vulcans would be a nice candidate, as ENT establishes them as early proponents to the Prime Directive, as well as knowledgeable about the Klingons but hesistant to deal with them. There may well have been a disastrous Vulcan/Klingon contact that led to decades of Vulcan/Klingon war, which was won by the Vulcans and thus prevented the Klingons from conquering Earth. But that's all speculation; Picard's speech from the episode is not.

Then again, Picard may have been lying, as he was trying to defend the concept of the Prime Directive to some aliens who had no conception of Federation history.

Timo Saloniemi

to be fair if they had made Broken Bow into disasterous first contact, and lead dircetly to years of war...we would have been wiped out as the ship was fairly pathetic and the only one out there. right?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Might have been an interesting scenario. Because of the Vulcan reaction to an attempted Klingon invasion on Earth.
I guess Archer and crew would have fought bravely, but it would have been the Vulcans who saved their asses.
Similarly to later events, caused by the Romulans, it could have been a catalyst for the Andorians and Vulcans to set aside their differences to stop the Klingons. Because everyone knows after destroying mankind they would continue on their warpath until someone causes them a bloody nose themselves.

 

[Timo]

I'd like to think that Vulcans had already given the Klingons a bloody nose some years before ENT. Perhaps this would have happened as the result of a disastrous first contact that would have gone much better had a Prime Directive been observed, with covert advance surveillance etc. That would explain both the Vulcan knowledge of things Klingon, the Vulcan eagerness for PD-like policies and hesistancy to disrupt the fragile state of affairs, the Klingon failure to conquer Earth, and the Klingon state of stagnation and moral bankruptcy in the wake of a military defeat. It would also jibe with Picard's words in "First Contact" and with a couple of classic novels.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Therin of Andor]

I doubt it was just one thing. Just a string of events that lead to conflict.

As I've always maintained. Picard's comment about the events stemming from Klingon/Earth First Contact is said from the relatively isolated (from the events of First Contact) 24th Century.

Hindsight and history always lumps little events into one bigger one. For example, during World War I, all the little skirmishes that led into bigger battles weren't thought of as being a "world war", and definitely not #1. Sure, in the years after, there are references to "the Great War", and then it isn't until after WW II that we start seeing cultural references to WW I.

Archer's interference with Klaang in "Broken Bow" led to several more incidents with Klingons. One early culmination of this annoyance was shown in "Judgment" - and then there was the event in Season Four where, through the Klingons own shortsightedness in dabbling with Arik Soong's eugenics-style research, we had Archer's own DNA leading to almost a century of Klingon physical deformity.