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The Great Chronological Run-Through

Staff meetings are theoretically for department heads. Every department head would have juniors in the same department. So the pilot who's the department head gets included in the briefing, while the junior pilots don't.

Although it surely didn't work out that way all the time. How many briefings was Wesley included in? I doubt he was ever the head of the conn department.
 
One thing, though -- it's QuchHa', with the glottal stop at the end. It's important to remember that the apostrophe is actually a letter in Klingonese, no more optional than the Q or the H. And there's no apostrophe in HemQuch.

Gah! I knew one of them had an apostrophe in it somewhere and one didn't, but I got everything else wrong.

Continuity

Reinforcing the sense that this is the series’ most important Klingon episode, building on everything revealed about them so far, we have multiple Klingon ship designs making a reappearance – Raptor scouts, Birds-of-Prey and a D-5.
Laneth wasn't commanding a Raptor class starship. It was an ship of an unspecified class that only appeared in "Affliction" and "Divergence". Now that you mention it though, I do admit that the two ships have a fairly similar design.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Raptor_class

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Laneth's_starship

Thanks, Enterprise. I wasn't actually aware of that. Interesting that they created a new model for a small, heavily-armed Klingon attack ship when they had an existing design that fit the criteria. Still, the fact that the 22nd Century Klingon fleet is so diverse definitely pleases me. (In this episode, we only really see Laneth's vessel from behind, and the profile looked like my memory of the Raptor's, so I just assumed it was one of them). Although, perhaps this class of the ship and the Somraw's are both designated "raptors", and the term refers to a category of long-distance scouts? Although the Klingons are being rather redundant in having a Raptor category and a Bird-of-Prey category... unless they are using two words that aren't synonyms and the redundancy is only really an issue with the English translations?
 
On the issue of Klingons and homosexuality, I don't recall anything that ever suggests there's any bias in Klingon culture against homosexuality. There are examples in the novels of homosexual Klingons living and loving openly without facing discrimination of any kind. I have seen fans suggest otherwise, but I think that's just modern prejudice that suggests that a warrior culture wouldn't accept homosexuality, presuming that homosexual men are weak, when there's all kinds of examples of homosexuality in Earth's historic warrior cultures.
 
On the issue of Klingons and homosexuality, I don't recall anything that ever suggests there's any bias in Klingon culture against homosexuality. There are examples in the novels of homosexual Klingons living and loving openly without facing discrimination of any kind. I have seen fans suggest otherwise, but I think that's just modern prejudice that suggests that a warrior culture wouldn't accept homosexuality, presuming that homosexual men are weak, when there's all kinds of examples of homosexuality in Earth's historic warrior cultures.
In Vanguard - Harbinger, Lurqal/Anna Sandesjo notes "They will never let me into Sto-Vo-Kor." and that her relationship with T'Prynn goes against Klingon tradition.
 
On the issue of Klingons and homosexuality, I don't recall anything that ever suggests there's any bias in Klingon culture against homosexuality. There are examples in the novels of homosexual Klingons living and loving openly without facing discrimination of any kind. I have seen fans suggest otherwise, but I think that's just modern prejudice that suggests that a warrior culture wouldn't accept homosexuality, presuming that homosexual men are weak, when there's all kinds of examples of homosexuality in Earth's historic warrior cultures.
In Vanguard - Harbinger, Lurqal/Anna Sandesjo notes "They will never let me into Sto-Vo-Kor." and that her relationship with T'Prynn goes against Klingon tradition.
My mistake then. I didn't remember that as well as I thought. I know that one of the Enterprise novels by Mangles and Martin had a strong male Klingon warrior married to a male Klingon doctor. Either there's only a taboo against female homosexuality, or social attitudes had changed from the 22nd to 23rd century. I suppose there could be varying attitudes on the issue regionally as well, such as how on Earth you could have people living fairly safely out in big cities while small conservative towns make that unsafe and difficult.
 
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Laneth wasn't commanding a Raptor class starship. It was an ship of an unspecified class that only appeared in "Affliction" and "Divergence". Now that you mention it though, I do admit that the two ships have a fairly similar design.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Raptor_class

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Laneth's_starship

Interestingly, The Trek Collective just posted some orthos of that ship a couple of days ago, which were originally released by Eaglemoss. Apparently this ship will be included in their starship collection. link

I know that one of the Enterprise novels by Mangles and Martin had a strong male Klingon warrior married to a male Klingon doctor.

IIRC, that was actually Admiral Krell, who originally appeared in the episodes currently under discussion.
 
Another possibility: Perhaps Klingon culture sees nothing wrong with male homosexuality, but regards female homosexuality as unspeakably taboo.
 
Another possibility: Perhaps Klingon culture sees nothing wrong with male homosexuality, but regards female homosexuality as unspeakably taboo.

But could it have been Lurqal's relationship with a Vulcan, an enemy regarded by her people as spineless or honourless, whom she loved that resulted in Lurqal's Sto-vo-kor thoughts?
 
Another possibility: Perhaps Klingon culture sees nothing wrong with male homosexuality, but regards female homosexuality as unspeakably taboo.

But could it have been Lurqal's relationship with a Vulcan, an enemy regarded by her people as spineless or honourless, whom she loved that resulted in Lurqal's Sto-vo-kor thoughts?

Yeah - I thought this was the problem, not the fact that she was a woman.
 
Interestingly, The Trek Collective just posted some orthos of that ship a couple of days ago, which were originally released by Eaglemoss. Apparently this ship will be included in their starship collection. link

Interesting! That has to be one of the most obscure designs so far. The 22nd Century Bird-of-Prey and the Raptor were already announced; it seems the 22nd Century Klingon fleet is getting just as much attention as the 23rd and 24th Centuries.

(I have three Klingon ships already; this announcement brings the total of upcoming Klingon designs to four, five if I'm including the Abramsverse special).
 
Another possibility: Perhaps Klingon culture sees nothing wrong with male homosexuality, but regards female homosexuality as unspeakably taboo.

But could it have been Lurqal's relationship with a Vulcan, an enemy regarded by her people as spineless or honourless, whom she loved that resulted in Lurqal's Sto-vo-kor thoughts?

That makes sense to me. My recollection if the book wasn't that there was any homophobia implied. Interspecies love with a Vulcan seems more likely as a problem.
 
Another possibility: Perhaps Klingon culture sees nothing wrong with male homosexuality, but regards female homosexuality as unspeakably taboo.

But could it have been Lurqal's relationship with a Vulcan, an enemy regarded by her people as spineless or honourless, whom she loved that resulted in Lurqal's Sto-vo-kor thoughts?

That is absolutely a possibility as well.
 
I rechecked the passage. It also says, "Blissfully surrendered into her lover's embrace, Sandesjo savored the irony that not only had she forsaken Klingon tradition for the touch of other women, but that of all the women she might have loved she lost her heart to a Vulcan."

Does anyone have further doubts?

Say, where's David Mack? He wrote Harbinger; maybe he can give us some insight into this matter.
 
Huh. That does sound like it's intended to show the Klingons as homophobic - or at least biased against homosexual women. The Klingons are very patriarchal, so I could believe their culture gave men more freedom than women with choosing their partners.
 
There's also the fact that the Klingon Empire is a large place, and certainly more diverse than it might appear. The Klingons make an effort to centralize and homogenise their society (ruled from the First City, shared uniform, etc.), but it's clearly a reactionary move given the divisions and conflicts that are endemic there, unless the Chancellor directs aggression outward toward alien targets. Different noble houses, different colonial fiefdoms and different fleets have competing and contrasting aims; it's entirely possible that there are many different ideas of "Klingon tradition". Indeed, perhaps something like the acceptability of homosexuality depends on which parts of the empire are in ascendance at a given time. I don't recall if we ever learned where either Krell or Lurqal are from, but we might speculate that, say, Beta Thoridor has a very homosexuality-tolerant climate, and native son Krell's ascension to the position of Fleet Admiral, along with other prominent and visible natives, has made it acceptable to openly engage in homosexual partnerships or matings? With the honour and political influence gained by these people, their cultural and social norms are in vogue, and so any old Qo'noSian laws condemning such things as open homosexuality are ignored. Perhaps with the loss of esteem that these people face in the years after "Affliction"/"Divergence", e.g. Krell's new status as QuchHa', the culture shifts again and another "Klingon tradition" becomes the more powerful, and among other things re-stigmatizes homosexuality (or indeed, at least certain forms of it)? This is perhaps akin to what we know happens with language, wherein the Imperial dialect becomes the "proper" way to speak and Klingons can gain and lose favour based on how well they speak the Emperor's Klingon.

My interpretation of the Klingons is that laws are either ignored or ruthlessly enforced depending on these cultural and political shifts, and are basically guidelines in the long-term. Which laws, standards and traditions are being enforced today depends on which factions hold sway. And any powerful political figure can dredge up an old law and make it apply where previously it was all but ignored. The Klingon society always exists in tension between the Klingon tendency to fly apart or decentralise, and the desire to keep the Empire unified; cultural standards and prejudices are probably ironically fluid, because the Empire needs to adapt to the constant shifts in power and prestige.

Short version: Lurqal's "Klingon tradition" might be distinct from Krell's.
 
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Before I move on to "Bound", one other thing to note about the fallout of these two episodes is that the Klingons are not the only race affected. According to Forged in Fire, the ridged forehead Trill of "The Host" are the descendants of a Trill colony that was infected during the process of curing/arresting the modified Levodian Flu. This probably sets a precedent for explaining ridged VS non-ridged variants (I'm amazed the Romulans haven't been brought into this yet ;)).
 
Short version: Lurqal's "Klingon tradition" might be distinct from Krell's.

Maybe... but given the established privileges of nobles over commoners and males over females in Klingon society, it seems highly likely that a male warrior-class flag officer would be granted more indulgences than a lower-ranking female. So I'm not sure it's necessary to invoke any other explanations.

After all, that's the way it works in many patrilineal societies. The important thing in such a system is ensuring that a male's heirs are really his own, so men have to make sure their mates remain faithful to them, yet the men themselves are under no such restrictions. So there have been patrilineal societies where men were overtly free to be unfaithful, take concubines, sleep with prostitutes or other men, etc., yet women's sexuality was more restricted.

Although that model doesn't quite fit the assertion (IIRC) that Admiral Krell was married to his male partner. In traditional Norse ("Viking") society, for instance, male homosexuality was implicitly accepted as an extramarital practice, but men and women both had an obligation to produce heirs. So a man could sleep with men as much as he wanted, but he'd still have to marry a woman and have children with her. Marriage, in most historical societies, has been seen as fulfilling a primarily procreative function and often an economic/political function, and having little or nothing to do with love or emotional commitment.
 
After all, that's the way it works in many patrilineal societies. The important thing in such a system is ensuring that a male's heirs are really his own, so men have to make sure their mates remain faithful to them, yet the men themselves are under no such restrictions. So there have been patrilineal societies where men were overtly free to be unfaithful, take concubines, sleep with prostitutes or other men, etc., yet women's sexuality was more restricted.

Very true. I agree: it's also entirely probable that female homosexuality is taboo as part of a blanket hypersensitivity to female sexual activity, and that male sexuality is under considerably less restriction. Klingons are indeed strongly patrilineal and patriarchal; repression of female sexuality in comparison to male is entirely believable and even likely considering what we know of them.

It seems highly likely that a male warrior-class flag officer would be granted more indulgences than a lower-ranking female.
Indeed. Can't argue with that.

I suppose the overall conclusion is that there isn't actually any contradiction between the examples of Krell and Lurqal - we have too many variables that could easily explain why Krell is openly mated with another male while Lurqal believes she will be condemned for her relationship with another female. Time period, gender, class, place of origin within the Empire, etc.
 
It could be that Klingons favor the reproductive purposes of marriage, but men have sufficient rights/discretion to flout that, while women do not-- men should be making babies, but women should really be making babies.
 
^ Well, as Christopher notes, one of the natural tensions in a strongly patrilineal system is the importance of a given male having identifiable heirs resting alongside the inability to be certain of paternity. Until DNA testing becomes available to a society, one can never truly tell, which is particularly problematic when holdings, wealth, status or influence are dependent upon a verified connection to a family patriarch. The Klingons, like many such societies, probably double-downed on restricting female sexual activity while being far more permissive of male sexual exploration, since both the suspicion and reality of unregulated female sexual activity would be judged more disastrous to social cohesion.

So I'd say it's a case of "males should be adhering to certain rules, but females really, absolutely, must adhere to certain rules". In many cases Klingons would be willing to turn a blind eye to sexual activities in males (particularly those of certain castes and classes) while responding with great intolerance to similar activity by females.
 
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