Of course, on the other hand the Broken Bow crash landing and Klaang now make Picard's line in the Malcorian episode "First Contact(TNG)" about Klingon-human first contact having happened "centuries ago" sound more logical, since "centuries" implies at least TWO(200 years) passing since the event and 2151 is 216 years before that TNG episode(2367).
Oh, it does fit what we knew about it pretty well, and I'm not saying that they shouldn't have had it happen at all during the series... but seriously, the first damn episode? Lazy overexposure. And I like Klingons. I really do. But even 'Voyager' snuck in a shipfull of Klingons, and they were in the Delta Quadrant (not that it wasn't a decent episode.) But good grief.
I agree that this was the laziest choice possible, and seeing Klaang at the beginning 'Broken Bow' was the first of several such lazy disappointments I felt at the pilot.
I think it would have been much better had it been a very angry Andorian. They're warriors, and by no means overexposed, plus they're still fairly antagonistic in the 2260s. Others have suggested having the Vulcans and Andorians be in some kind of Cold (or Hot) War as the series opens, and having Klaang be an Andorian would have fit nicely with this.
That would've been fun, having both sides attempt to pressure Earth into joining their side. Of course, some people would welcome the chance to fight the Vulcans, who have been the de facto masters of a vassal Earth for nearly a century. On the other hand, people would remember how the Vulcans have defended them from the more aggressive species (specifically the Andorians!) and be loyal to the Vulcans. Most people would be really conflicted between these two motivations--especially Captain Archer.
That was more or less what I was imagining. Imagine if the first episode featured an Andorian/Vulcan battle near Earth, and a Xindi-attack type accidental attack on Earth, making Earth kick itself in the pants and finally giving itself the impetus to push into space. Then Earth in turn later ends up negotiating a peace between them (due to Romulan proxy terrorism and interference on both sides) and that's why they stand by Earth to found the Federation. Also, bringing Terra Prime into the mix sooner would have made a lot of sense too - and would have gone a long way of proving these aren't the 'perfect' humans of TNG a lot quicker.
If they needed it to be Klingons, it should have been a Klingon invasion fleet, and the Vulcans plus Enterprise stopping them at the gates of Earth. That's a pretty disastrous first contact.
I don't know... I prefer a 'Broken Bow' type incident (perhaps instigated by Romulan influence) where human do-goodery clashes with the Klingon honor, and that in turn leads to a political disaster that leads to an invasion fleet that the Vulcans, Andorians, and Earth have to face down, but eventually figure out a way to convince them to leave with little or no bloodshed, thus insulting the Klingons all the more.
having Klaang be an Andorian would have fit nicely with this.
Sure, but Rick Berman had always been convinced, since TNG, that the Andorian makeup was "hokey", and antennaed aliens to "60s sci fi". As if to prove him right, the two appearances of an Andorian in TNG
were hokey.
"The Andorian Incident" was originally proposed as "The Gorn Incident", until Brannon Braga pointed out that Kirk's battle with the Gorn was a first contact situation. From there they started investigating whether the Andorians could be achieved through improvements/miniaturation to radio-controlled puppeteering for the antennae, and to achieve makeup effects not possible even during the time of TNG.
Ah,
Therin, I almost missed you, you were typing while I was. I had also heard that Berman was convinced the Andorians were hokey, and this is surely indeed the reason why any desire to use them was bypassed as long as possible. It really does seem like a case of pandering to the boss that the TNG makeups looked so stupid. Personally, a lack of antenna movement never bothered me.
And as an aside, the mere fact that it started as 'The Gorn Incident,' ignoring the fact that 'Arena' was the first contact situation, appalls me. I just cannot see the Vulcans and Gorn engaged in the same type of conflict as the Vulcans and Andorians. Maybe they could have made me seen different, but it seems like the Vulcans would have somehow outsmarted the Gorn. Plus referencing the Sarek/Thelev conflicts by retroactively putting in place a Vulcan/Andorian conflict was too good.
