Why are Vulcans and Klingons more popular than any other alien species in Trek?
Logic and Honor - Why Vulcans and Klingons?
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
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They appeal to two of the primary forces that drive much of humanity, rational mind and emotional mind. Honor is driven by emotion, a sense of commitment and bond with a common goal. Klingons are often self-indulgent, yet unite together against a common foe.
Vulcans, well, they are what humans like to think we are most of the time. Rational, only appealing to facts, and not driven by emotions. It's not accurate but it appeals to us.
Vulcans, well, they are what humans like to think we are most of the time. Rational, only appealing to facts, and not driven by emotions. It's not accurate but it appeals to us.
It's rooted to TOS. Spock was a Vulcan and therefore most identifiable to TOS viewers, while Klingons were that show's recurring villain.
Because talented people, like DC Fontana, Gene Coon, and Ronald D. Moore, worked on them.
Why didn't Andorians or Tellarites enjoy the same popularity initially, then?
Vulcans are so popular because of Spock. Klingons are so popular because of Kor, Koloth, Kang, and particularly Worf. Andorians got a major boost in popularity when Shran came along. We've never had a regular or semi-regular Tellarite.
Audiences aren't interested in species in the abstract. They're interested in characters and actors. The species that become popular are the ones represented by interesting characters played by engaging performers. And species represented by regular characters get more stories written about them and thus get fleshed out more. Look at how much more we learned about the Ferengi once Quark came along.
They were only background aliens in TOS. And in the 90s Berman was against having them show up as he felt they looked silly. He relented with the Andorians on Enterprise because they made much more sense to be in conflict with the Vulcans than the first species suggested, the Gorn. While the Tellarites showed up when Berman was having less input into the show.
Tellarites reminded people of Miss Piggy, perhaps.
my opinion: TOS Andorians and Tellarites look goofy, and neither were fleshed out very well (and Andorian's are still somewhat portrayed as Low Calorie Blueberry Klingons with Antennae, imo). Jeff Combs almost single-handedly made Andorians interesting.
One, not nearly as much presentation. Maybe 2 appearances in TOS, for both. Vs. Klingons who enjoyed very charismatic performances, and Spock was seen regularly.
Vulcans and Klingons became popular because of Spock and Worf -- characters with rich inner lives who felt torn between human society and their alien societies, played by charismatic actors.
If Strange New Worlds gives us a Tellarite played by a charismatic actor who has a rich inner life and is torn between human society and Tellarite society, I think we'll see a jump in Tellarite popularity.
If Strange New Worlds gives us a Tellarite played by a charismatic actor who has a rich inner life and is torn between human society and Tellarite society, I think we'll see a jump in Tellarite popularity.
A lot of this comes down to the TOS films. Those movies were primarily responsible for the franchise success & multiple Klingons & Vulcans are featured. They are in fact key identifiers to the franchise because of it, becoming synonymous with the Star Trek brand by then.
Hmm, no, other way around -- the movies featured Vulcans and Klingons heavily because TOS had already established their popularity. Thanks to Spock, Vulcans were the only TOS aliens that were a constant, regular presence, so naturally they were the aliens that viewers were most interested in. And Klingons were the second most heavily featured aliens as the recurring bad guys; they were featured in seven TOS episodes and two TAS episodes, while Romulans were only featured in three TOS and two TAS episodes (and in "The Deadly Years" no Romulans appeared onscreen). And Romulans were an offshoot of Vulcans to begin with, both conceptually and in-story.
It's really as simple as that. Vulcan(oid)s and Klingons were the two most dominant aliens in TOS/TAS, almost by default, and later works continued to feature one, the other, or both heavily as a continuation of that. The reason The Search for Spock featured Klingons, when the original plan was to use Romulans, was partly because it was recognized that Klingons were more popular. And the reason Klingons were featured in The Undiscovered Country was, in part, to tie into TNG's portrayal of Klingons as allies in the 24th century, to show how that detente came about and use it as an allegory for the end of the Cold War.
assimilated into headcanon
So essentially, Vulcans were the only alien species that had a crew member on the Enterprise, and Klingons were the most prominent villain race.
It would have been interesting to see Spock interacting at length with another alien crew member on the ship, commiserating about their views of humans.
It would have been interesting to see Spock interacting at length with another alien crew member on the ship, commiserating about their views of humans.
Its as said, good characters, Spock, Worf, Shran, all good actors with good scripts to flesh out there respective species. Just like Doug has fleshed out Saru, Hemmer with the Aeinar, Quark with the Feringi. You have a good actor/actress that is a series regular, or semi regular, you can delve into the species more, make them more interesting, and then popular.
If we had say a Tellerite engineer in SNW, or a Tzenkethi helm officer, or any other alien, you would get more time to write about them, For Tellerites we don't know much about them, never really been fleshed out ( Even with Jacob from Prodigy)
If we had say a Tellerite engineer in SNW, or a Tzenkethi helm officer, or any other alien, you would get more time to write about them, For Tellerites we don't know much about them, never really been fleshed out ( Even with Jacob from Prodigy)
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