The Klingon Empire In This Show

[The Overlord]

Didn't we see the Kriosians, a subjugated people, revolt against their Klingon masters in TNG's "The Mind's Eye"? The suppliers of the insurrection were the Romulans, who were attempting to drive a wedge between the Klingon Empire and the Federation.

(Of course, in reality, after the Treaty of Alliance, the Federation must have turned a blind eye to such uncomfortable cries for freedom and the subsequent Klingon crashes of rebellion).

I saw that episode and I don't think we saw any actual Kriosians or had any idea about how brutal the Klingons polices were on that world.

I actually want to see the Klingons' imperialism on screen, in action, rather then it being referred to, I think we can afford to that now.

 

[Emperor Norton]

I'd like to see it draw on everything, but I'd like it to avoid the "All Klingons are TNG Klingons" of ENT. TOS is a distinct era, and they should not be mustache twirling villains, but something like what "25th Anniversary" and "Judgement Rites" did with a post modern reinterpretation of the TOS Klingons, or what various novels have done to make TOS Klingons three dimensional. I do fear canon screw ups, though.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

The Klingons are a necessary evil, no pun intended. BUT they need to be done in a way they never have been before. The best way to represent them in a long-form story where there's time to develop them is to have them mirror 21st century humanity. Not just the Russians or Red China as they were originally fashioned, but all of humanity, good and bad in all its variations of culture, politics, art and music. And they should vary in appearance as much as humans do as well. They are an entire species, not a race or 2.

I originally wanted the smooth and bumpy so they could show prejudice and subjugation of one over the other, but I now feel that's too simplified and it's too much of an outdated device to simplify other (alien) cultures so much. Viewers are more sophisticated these days (despite what Hollywood thinks) and the world-building of other species needs to be more believable. And again, this is more of a novel for TV, not a procedural where simplification is necessary.
Obviously they can't hit us with all of their complexities at once, but I'm hoping they'll make a real attempt to un-simplify the Klingons and lay the groundwork for a more complex species. Ditto for the rest of the aliens, and especially any new species they introduce.

So for those who say enough of the Klingons, I agree that we've seen enough of the Klingons as they have been portrayed to date. But given the difficulty of world-building and developing an alien species and its various cultures, etc, we need established aliens so that they can be updated more quickly and hit the ground running, while they introduce new alien species that might take longer to catch on.