Klingon SPOILERS

[JuanBolio]

I'm betting the Klingon BOP was originally a Romulan design, probably the last vestige of the alliance between them. Of course, to accept this you have to ignore several incidents in ENT, but I tend to do that anyway.

 

[Captain X]

Abrams admittly isn't a huge Trek fan, and his comment kind of shows how casual his interest is, despite his considerable involvement in rebooting it.

 

[WendellM]

Regarding "Bird of Prey" being the common/accepted designation for a Romulan ship and not a Klingon one, some graphics to back that up...

In TOS, we were told... unambiguously... that the one Klingon ship design we ever saw was a "Klingon Battle Cruiser."

Matt Jefferies' drawings from when TOS was in production:

The description of the Romulan ship as "Bird of Prey" comes from the line by Styles about the ships being recognizable because they're painted as "Birds of Prey."

Subtitled screencap of Stiles' comment from TOS DVD:

Now, in the years between the end of the series and the first flick, everything was fandom-based. The use of the terms "Klingon Battlecruiser" and "Romulan Bird-of-Prey" became totally accepted during this time (including being the officially-sanctioned names given to the AMT kits).

Blueprints:

Star Trek Maps:

AMT model kit:

I'm betting the Klingon BOP was originally a Romulan design, probably the last vestige of the alliance between them.

That's my take as well. Thus it appears well after season 3 of TOS.

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah, I don't see why Klingons can't have both Birds-of-Prey AND Warbirds.

 

[Timo]

And Raptors.

Really, to claim that "battle cruiser" and "warbird" are somehow mutually exclusive designations is beyond my comprehension. "Battle cruiser" is a generic expression - all the Trek cultures probably have those. "Raptor" is clearly a designation for a specific model or family of small Klingon ships; "Bird of Prey" essentially becomes such a designation as well in the movies and in ENT. Basically, we're talking about the Raptor class torpedo boat and the Bird of Prey class scout here. Why not speak of the Warbird class battlecruiser as well?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[cooleddie74]

No Romulan ship was ever called a "Bird of Prey" on screen. ( just saying)

TRUE. And thanks for mentioning that!

Actually all the Romulan ships on TOS were called "scouts," "scout craft'" "Romulan ships" or "Romulan vessels." And in the 24th century shows they were either "Warbirds," "ships" or "warships."

 

[Sector 7]

AMT model kit:

I had this kit. It was a real biotch getting that big BOP decal on there... never could get all the air bubbles out.

 

[cooleddie74]

AMT model kit:

I had this kit. It was a real biotch getting that big BOP decal on there... never could get all the air bubbles out.

I had some ERTL STAR TREK kits but never this one. The pride and joy of my childhood TREK ship collection was the 1976 Dinky Toys NCC-1701 that fired yellow "torpedo" discs out of the front of the saucer by rotating the silver metal bridge. I still have it even after over 30 years.

The little orange shuttlecraft that parks inside a hatch under the engineering section is also still intact and plugged into my Enterprise! It was probably the first and easiest thing to lose on the toy back in the day as it was smaller than even the yellow "torpedo" discs but I somehow managed to hold onto it.

 

[Sector 7]

Back in the day... when they still had paperboys delivering newspapers... my paper route money went into AMT's models. I had all of them... Enterprise, Klingon D-7, Romulan BOP, Spock with snake monster, Bridge set, and at least 3 (original and 2 replacements) Tricorder/Phaser/Communicator sets. Darn things would eventually wear out on my landing party treks through our pastures, woods & creeks!

 

[Peacemaker]

Despite several years of Klingon Birds of Prey, and yes, Enterprise's mention of Klingon Warbirds, I tend to agree with JuanBolio. Klingons should have Battlecruisers.

To to respond to the OP, 47 is a lot of ships to lose, but I don't think it's actually a large chuck of the Klingon fleet which would be responsible for patrolling and making war within and around the three dimensions of a large space empire. I don't think it would cripple them. I think it would piss them off severely, however. It would surprise me if there was no plot thread in the movie or a possible sequel about Klingon reprisal.

May not cripple them, but it may make them crinkle their foreheads a bit in anger.


Seriously, though, it may well cripple them. That may be Nero's aim...to cripple both the Federation and the Klingons so that, by Nero's time, the RSE is the dominant force. If Nero comes from post-Nemesis in the timeline, that may be his aim - particularly if the RSE is about to permanently ally with the Feds and Klingons, or at least be so weak that he knows the Empire will never be strong enough to resist either one again.