TMP Klingon Footage Disconnect

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I always thought that too, but isn't the Klingon on the transmission the same one as on the command ship, played by Mark Lenard no less?

Yes, it's Lenard.

An interesting thing I noticed from comparing the theatrical and director's cut is that, in the theatrical cut, where we hear this booming voice on Epsilon IX saying "Intruder unidentified. Believed luminescent cloud to be enormous power field surrounding alien vessel. Our sensor scans unable to penetrate. Imperial Klingon Cruiser Amar continuing to attack" - that is actually an English translation of what the Klingon captain is saying.

Since Kruge and company all have different ridges, I have ever since SFS believed that the Amar and its companion vessels were clanships, all manned by members of the same house.

IIRC, that is how the Klingon military works. Ships tend to be manned by members of a single House.

When Kurn showed up on DS9, he said that since the House of Mogh refused to back Gowron's invasion of Cardassia, Kurn was ejected from the Council, and their House's lands and ships were seized.

 

[FormerLurker]

It was plain from other episodes that the Imperial KDF ships were straight military, and not on loan to the High Command from such-and-so's house fleet. Too many different ridge patterns to be otherwise.

 

[Maurice]

Yes, it's Lenard.

An interesting thing I noticed from comparing the theatrical and director's cut is that, in the theatrical cut, where we hear this booming voice on Epsilon IX saying "Intruder unidentified. Believed luminescent cloud to be enormous power field surrounding alien vessel. Our sensor scans unable to penetrate. Imperial Klingon Cruiser Amar continuing to attack" - that is actually an English translation of what the Klingon captain is saying.

I dunno about booming, it's just a female sounding robotic voice translating, with the text of the translation on the screen to the left, and including a line which presumably was translated just before we joined the scene already in progress: "Unfamiliar weaponry." (LINK)

 

[pfontaine2]

Yes, it's Lenard.

I still don't think that the Epsilon 9 crew are looking at the Klingon Commander (Mark Lenard). This Klingon is either behind a console or a chair. Lenard's chair has nothing in front of him to obstruct his view of the main view-screen. I believe that the Klingon that the E9 crew are looking at is from the 1st ship to be destroyed. We then get an "exterior visual" where we see the 2nd ship attacked and destroyed and finally the sequence ends with the ship that the Klingon commander (Lenard) is on being scanned and destroyed.

It is interesting to note that the Klingon commander is no longer in his chair when we see his bridge scanned and destroyed. Perhaps the footage that the E9 crew are looking at was originally intended to show Lenard's commander at the moment his ship is destroyed and that yes, that footage is of Lenard's Klingon commander character. However, that's not how the footage is edited and how the narrative plays out in the final film.

Again, I'll admit that this entire sequence is confusing at best. It's really not clear what happened to the first ship to fire because it's no longer there when the E9 crew go to "exterior visual", only the 2nd ship and the command ship remain

 

[Kor]

Looking back, it's interesting that, for a few years in between TMP and TSFS, all Klingons in the Trek comics had that exact same single spine-looking ridge. It was kind of hard to tell them apart.

Kor

 

[johnnybear]

The spineheaded Klingons were the new look of the Star Trek baddies but by Search For Spock new ideas brought out the turtleheads and blancmange tops as well! Strange but we haven't seen any spineheads since TMP have we?
JB

 

[FormerLurker]

The Klingon Ambassador, Korrd and Klaa (my headcanon says they're brothers) all have a variation on the same forehead, with callbacks to the spinehead look.

And what is blancmange?

 

[Maurice]

The scripted sequence had the Amar crippled by a glancing blow. The Captain transmitted his message standing. You can see Mark Lenard is bracing himself against the headrest of his seat while delivering that report.

And what is blancmange?

What is blancmange? They come from the planet Skyron in the galaxy Andromeda to win Wimbledon, of course!

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Therin of Andor]

And what is blancmange?

Like Jello, but opaque. "A sweet dessert commonly made with milk or cream and sugar thickened with gelatin, corn starch or Irish moss, and often flavoured with almonds. It is usually set in a mould and served cold."

So an unmoulded blancmange resembles some Klingon foreheads.

 

[FormerLurker]

Like Jello, but opaque. "A sweet dessert commonly made with milk or cream and sugar thickened with gelatin, corn starch or Irish moss, and often flavoured with almonds. It is usually set in a mould and served cold."

So an unmoulded blancmange resembles some Klingon foreheads.

Thank you, Therin.

Haven't seen you in a while. Welcome back, if you've actually been away.

 

[Hey Missy]

We have the answer: the editing in TMP was a mess, with all the constant last-minute rewrites and reshoots.
I still love it, though.

 

[Vger23]

Lots of good perspective here. Thanks everyone!