Kind of a weird random snippet of what they're like for anyone interested, I uploaded this page from Best of Trek #3, which makes excellent reading in light of the Klingons' 2017 makeover for Star Trek: Discovery. By Leslie Thompson:
The Best of Trek - Paperback Non Fiction series
- Thread starter Steve Gennarelli
- Start date
I don't see how that could happen in the few years between TOS and TMP, but it reminds me of what might've been the prototype for the Klingon makeup redesign, the Kreeg from Roddenberry's Planet Earth pilot movie, who were a bald, bumpy-headed race of warlike mutants that had arisen in the post-apocalyptic future, supposedly as a result of radiation.
The explanation I wish they'd used was that "Klingon" was not the name of a species, but the name of a culture/nation with multiple species within it. That's what an empire should be by definition, a multicultural state with one culture ruling over others. And it would've avoided the need for convoluted explanations for the difference in appearance.
One of the most important things I learned from The Best of Trek early on is that there are no new fandom arguments--when it comes to these sorts of issues, all of it has happened before and all of it will happen again.
I keep thinking that schools need to establish Internet classes that include skills like critical thinking and distinguishing guesswork from fact. Come to think of it, we could use those skills in civics classes too.
My friend Valerie Parv kicked off her professional writing career in Australia after selling "Star Trek Jokes", her first sale, to a volume of "The Best of Trek".
