Reunion & Alexander

[Methuselah Flint]

How old is Alexander supposed to be in Reunion? If he was conceived a little over a year prior, in The Emissary, he sure is a remarkably grown toddler, even accounting for the fact that child actors are often older than their character's age is.

He is obviously 1/4 Klingon - do Klingon kids grow up faster, or should I just be suspending disbelief?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

He's 3/4 Klingon.

Alexander grows much faster than a human child was. We know Klingons live a lot longer than humans if they don't get disemboweled first, maybe they reach adulthood faster too.

In Sons & Daughters he should be nine, but is clearly a teenager.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Ah yes, 3/4 not 1/4 lol.
And yes - I forgot about Sons and Daughters.
Thanks!

 

[Mysterion]

It makes sense to me that Klingons (even a Klingon of mixed heritage) would mature a bit more quickly than say homo sapiens. Klingons come from a pretty harsh environment (judging by what little we've seen and been told on-screen) so they would have to become more self-sufficient earlier in life to ensure survival. Klingons apparently evolved this trait rather well. Ditto for the reinforced cranial ridges and other physiological advantages we've been told Klingon have.

 

[Timo]

Then again, it wasn't explicit that "The Emissary" was the moment of conception. Or that the existence of the child would be news on "Reunion", or anything. Worf and K'Ehleyr had been together previously, and Worf's attempts to marry her after an intimate moment might have been a recurring theme rather than something specific to "The Emissary".

Granted, Alexander himself in "New Ground" quoted his birth stardate as 43205, 300 stardates after "The Emissary", so his age by that count doesn't differ much from the "zero hypothesis". But 300 stardates in Okuda counting is less than four months, perhaps casting doubt on that hypothesis after all. Another 3/4 hybrid, Miral, took longer to gestate - but she was 1/4 Klingon rather than 1/4 human.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JirinPanthosa]

K’elyhr doesn’t strike me as a woman who would meet the father of her child and conceal him.

 

[Timo]

The thing is, there's no mention of any concealing. When Alexander comes aboard, Worf just does the Worf thing, which is to do or say nothing. The subsequent dialogue doesn't hint at him not having known about the boy: she just took him by surprise by bringing the boy with her.

The birth of Alexander is not a subject of discussion or a matter of interest in either "Reunion" or "The Emissary", so the existential status of the kid in both episodes could be the same. Worf is in any case fed up with K'Ehleyr's radicalism, and might have long since stopped complaining about her failure to do all the obligatory father-son rituals or whatever. And K'Ehleyr's attitude is simply one of not really caring.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nakita Akita]

It makes sense to me that Klingons (even a Klingon of mixed heritage) would mature a bit more quickly than say homo sapiens. Klingons come from a pretty harsh environment (judging by what little we've seen and been told on-screen) so they would have to become more self-sufficient earlier in life to ensure survival. Klingons apparently evolved this trait rather well. Ditto for the reinforced cranial ridges and other physiological advantages we've been told Klingon have.

But about 100 years earlier they looked like humans, so much so that they were humans, with facial hair and attitudes.
So in one generation they " evolved " to mature quicker?

Possibly it was more of some sort of of shoot from the medical experiment that went
Horribly wrong.

 

[Mysterion]

But about 100 years earlier they looked like humans, so much so that they were humans, with facial hair and attitudes.
So in one generation they " evolved " to mature quicker?

Possibly it was more of some sort of of shoot from the medical experiment that went
Horribly wrong.

See the episode Affliction in Enterprise - it explains why the "human" Klingons were around and why they've got nothing to do with my point.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Soap Opera Rapid Ageing Syndrome justified by his being an alien. At least we can handwave it that easily with Alexander, unlike Molly O'Brien, who was four years old two years after her birth.

 

[Prax]

I think Alexander is 8 years old when he tries to become a klingon soldier. They should have asked for an ID card.

If klingons live twice as long as humans, then they shouldn't hit puberty until their mid to late twenties.

How old is Worf supposed to be?

 

[Timo]

Worf's year of birth is established fairly early on, in "Sins of the Father", which says Worf was orphaned 20 years prior as a child of at most six years of age. He's 24-25 when TNG starts, then. Plenty of time for him to have gone through the Academy "the human way", waiting till 18 to enter. And no doubt seething at having to waste a decade.

But Klingons are supposed to mature fast, doing all sorts of warriory things at six already. So what if they live long? Humans have longer childhoods than, say, foxes because we give birth to half-formed children to accommodate our bulging skulls, not because we live longer than foxes. (Klingon skulls are a formidable challenge to the mother, too, I guess - but then again, they might be particularly flexible, given certain recent evidence!)

It would be consistent for an eight-year-old to be a fairly mature warrior, given everything we're told.

Timo Saloniemi