TUC - not aged well

[STEPhon IT]

General Chang was an interesting villain who was a soldier, a master at law, and a tactician. Does anyone think Chang had a deeper plan by keeping the Federation and Klingons enemies? It seemed the Romulans had some investment in that scourge and I'm wondering what the benefits could've been if Chang succeeded?

 

[Kemaiku]

He didn't act like a Klingon. I still think he was an agent of another far smarter and able species surgically altered to look like one to instigate this conflict on behalf of another group.

Or simply a TCW operative.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Chang was very Klingon in TOS sense, smart, vindictive, calculating and his hate for the Federation. Every bit of his body and soul spells Klingon, it's one of Meyer's greatest creations.

 

[Kemaiku]

The TOS sense, was someone blacked up playing something extemely different to the Klingons we had for 40 years after that.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Another thing about Chang was his appearance. He had an eye patch bolted on his face, this look tells me this guy has violent history. The cold warrior references represented who he was.

 

[eyeresist]

I agree Chang was more of a TOS Klingon.

 

[Kor]

Chronologically, TUC was still before the era of the moronic caveman biker Klingons of the 24th-century. So it makes sense that Chang is more like the shrewd Klingons of TOS.

Kor

 

[Kemaiku]

A hiccup in their history that occured because of the injection of Augment DNA after Enterprise and self correcting largely accross their society by TMP.

 

[Captain Atkin]

The peptobismal Klingon blood looks ridiculous, and I'm not sure if the process of the scenes work. Chekov gets a sample of the blood, which is pink, and Spock analyses it and says,"Klingon blood", as if to say their are other species have pink blood??? It would've worked better if the blood was red, so it supports Spock findings. No need to look through the microscope if we know the Klingons have pink blood, but maybe Spock didn't know--which is a stretch since he had a long history dealing with Klingons.

The reason the blood was pink was because if the blood had been red, the film would have been given an R rating.

 

[Kemaiku]

Nevermind we saw them bleed red in TOs, TSFS and Enterprise, all set before TUC.

The only reference Trek past that tolerated was having the Enterprise pilot blood sample show pink blood cells and tint when magnified an incredible amount, not visible to the naked eye.

 

[eyeresist]

The reason the blood was pink was because if the blood had been red, the film would have been given an R rating.

When I saw TUC in the cinema, I could have sworn the blood was purple, not pink. Purple would be better.

 

[Kor]

It's more of a lavender.

Also, for the life of me, I can't remember when Klingons bled in TOS or TSFS, as referenced in a post above.

Kor

 

[STEPhon IT]

The reason the blood was pink was because if the blood had been red, the film would have been given an R rating.

I've read this before in other trek books, but In Meyer's book "The View from the Bridge" he never mentioned this. Even in the audio commentary of the film its not mentioned. Personally the scenes were not graphic enough to constitute an R rating. Whatever the reasons, I still don't think the Spock microscope scene was strong.

 

[Captain Atkin]

It's more of a lavender.

Also, for the life of me, I can't remember when Klingons bled in TOS or TSFS, as referenced in a post above.

Kor

There were a few times when we saw Worf bleed on TNG, and it was red. I don't ever recall seeing a Klingon bleed in the movies, with the exception of ST6.

 

[fireproof78]

I was trying to rewatch SFS and see if Kruge bled at all in his fight with Kirk. Kirk certainly has some blood on his face in that fight.
In a quick google search, I saw another idea postulated by a Trekbbs poster-the idea that the pink blood not only avoided the MPAA but also allowed the reveal of Colonel West, since his blood was not the same as the Klingon blood.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I was trying to rewatch SFS and see if Kruge bled at all in his fight with Kirk. Kirk certainly has some blood on his face in that fight.
In a quick google search, I saw another idea postulated by a Trekbbs poster-the idea that the pink blood not only avoided the MPAA but also allowed the reveal of Colonel West, since his blood was not the same as the Klingon blood.

Was Colonel West even canon? I thought he exists in an alternate version, I could be wrong about that.

 

[Elder Knight]

Dr. Soran smacked one of those Klingon Babes in Generations in the mouth and she bled red.

 

[fireproof78]

Was Colonel West even canon? I thought he exists in an alternate version, I could be wrong about that.

Ok, I can't remember since I have only seen the extended version, so it all blends together. The larger point being that the blood of the assassin is different from the Klingon blood earlier, so it is used as part of the reveal.

 

[drt]

I recall reading that the special effects folks for Into Darkness specifically used the TUC blood color for some of the markings on the Klingon ship, with the idea that was something Klingons would consider fearsome.

 

[Timo]

Well, Romulan ships in TNG are green...

The Colonel West version of TUC is a rather visible part of the Trek canon in having seen wide distribution in movie theaters - it's not as if it could be classified as a "cut scene" in the traditional sense. The only other bit of Trek where anything even remotely similar happens is The Motion Picture, with its various versions, but those explicitly contradict each other (the V'Ger cloud can't be 2 AU and 82 AU wide simultaneously, you have to pick one size over the other). Nothing in the long theatrical version of TUC contradicts the bits later left out, any more than the extended "European" intro of ST3:TSfS would be in conflict with the basic version of the movie.

Timo Saloniemi