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Klingon WARBIRDS?

'Warbird' is a fairly generic term, anyway. Anybody could have come up with it. If it's an outside observer, then this is the most likely explanation. If it's a Klingon using that term, you can chalk it up to translation issues from Klingonese to English.
 
Warbird, Bird of Prey... call me crazy, but weren't the ships seen in the movie neither, but Klingon battle cruisers instead?
 
There's our 'fan-swer' then... Warbirds are battlecruisers, Birds of Prey are the smaller attack/scout ships.
 
I remember a good, classic TOS novel, called "The Romulan Way," which gave a lot of background on Romulans. It's also a McCoy book.

I remember that one. A really good book. I just checked Amazon and it's available for the Kindle so I grabbed it for a reread. Ah ha, so is Ishmael! I bought that too.
 
Well, they've made this goof before. Romulans were known for having birds of prey painted on their hulls, so "bird-of-prey" and "warbird" were originally designations for Romulan warships.

Of course, the brief Klingon-Romulan alliance led to the exchange of technology - Klingons got cloaking technology and apparently birds-of-prey (the damn things look pretty Romulan to me), and the Romulans got Klingon battlecruisers.

So, since apparently the Klingons in this new universe have cloaking technology at the time Kirk's academy days (since the Kobayashi Maru sim had them de-cloaking), perhaps warbird is the designation for a Klingon battlecruiser outfitted with Romulan cloaking technology.
 
Neither "bird of prey" or "warbird" were ever used in TOS as terms for a kind Romulan or Klingon ship. In the episode which introduced Romulans, "Balance Of Terror," the character of Stiles described Romulan ships as being "painted like giant birds of prey."
 
Does it make me a bad Trekkie since I didn't even notice this in the theater?
 
Where did that come from? Only the Romulans have Warbirds. Klingons have Birds-of-Prey and battlecruisers in this century.

Yeah, it's a goof. Then again, so was using the term "Bird-of-Prey" for a Klingon ship in "The Seach for Spock". Prior to TSFS, only Romulan ships were known as "Bird-of-Preys". Klingons had battle cruisers. And had there been Internet forums in 1984, Trek fans would have certainly complained about that as well back then. But since 1984, the goof from TSFS has been widely accepted as "Canon".

Clearly, TSFS isn't Star Trek, and it's director should be shunned by real fans.


Whuh?
 
I remember a good, classic TOS novel, called "The Romulan Way," which gave a lot of background on Romulans. It's also a McCoy book.
I remember that one. A really good book. I just checked Amazon and it's available for the Kindle so I grabbed it for a reread. Ah ha, so is Ishmael! I bought that too.
Yes! I noticed they reissued some of those great classics. Any McCoy fan should like Romulan Way, too; in fact, I think I will mention that to the Urbanites. Enjoy your read! :cool:

Here's a clickie, for convenience: Romulan Way at Amazon
 
Where did that come from? Only the Romulans have Warbirds. Klingons have Birds-of-Prey and battlecruisers in this century.

Yeah, it's a goof. Then again, so was using the term "Bird-of-Prey" for a Klingon ship in "The Seach for Spock". Prior to TSFS, only Romulan ships were known as "Bird-of-Preys". Klingons had battle cruisers. And had there been Internet forums in 1984, Trek fans would have certainly complained about that as well back then. But since 1984, the goof from TSFS has been widely accepted as "Canon".

:sighs:

In TOS we know that the Romulans and Klingons had a technology exchange/short-term alliance. When you see the Bird of Prey in STIII, you even see the Romulan style wing paintings at the under carriage. This is because originally the bad guys in STIII were Romulans, so a Romulan ship was designed. Then they figured, when they were changed to Klingons, do we need to create a new ship? And they realized that no they didn't, because of that technology exchange. What can happen one way, can happen in the other. Thus, Klingons gained Birds of Prey, but ONLY Birds of Prey, and NOT before the mid-to-late-2260s. Before that, the Klingons neither had Birds of Prey, let alone Warbirds. All they had were Battle Cruisers and similarly called ships.
 
To me, it's just a simple case of the Klingon-Romulan alliance during TOS. "Warbird" was a term that crossed over from Klingons to Romulans and "Bird of Prey" went from Romulans to Klingons.

In that light, Trek has been pretty consistent with both terms, IMO...
 
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