Will TOS maintain its legendary status as Trek fandom gets younger?

[JesterFace]

What if there are many different kinds of foreheads in the entire Klingon species?
Evolution on Qo'noS took Klingons in different directions over thousands of years?
There might be bigger percentage of Klingons with the foreheads we know from 'The Motion Picture' onwards and smaller group that look more like humans. Still, they're all Klingon.
All humans don't look alike.

 

[Nerys Myk]

What if there are many different kinds of foreheads in the entire Klingon species?
Evolution on Qo'noS took Klingons in different directions over thousands of years?
There might be bigger percentage of Klingons with the foreheads we know from 'The Motion Picture' onwards and smaller group that look more like humans. Still, they're all Klingon.
All humans don't look alike.

No "what if" needed. We see a variety of foreheads in Trek, From the smooth heads in TOS to the subtle ridges of Chang in TUC to the mountain ranges of K'mpec and others in TNG.
And of course the Augment virus is what gave rise to the smooth heads

 

[Sci]

Star Trek is a work of make-believe, not a work of historical fiction. Maintaining visual continuity can be a fun creative choice, but it is not an obligation. If perfect continuity were a requirement to good storytelling, Macbeth wouldn't be one of the greatest plays in the history of the English language.

 

[Lord Garth]

When the first trailer for DSC was released in 2017, these were my thoughts in order:

1. "This doesn't look like Pre-TOS."

2. "I've already been down this road with ENT and the Kelvin Films. That ship has already sailed. I don't care anymore."

3. "I like the way the USS Discovery looks."

4. "I like that it's going to be darker and serialized."

5. "Trump is President and causing chaos on a daily basis. I have more legitimate things to be upset about."

 

[Weyoun 251]

To your second point - does the appearance of the various star ships in DSC not have its "justification" (for me they don't need to justify anything but couldn't think of a better word) to some extent in the Kelvin films anyway?

What we saw of the Kelvin implied a far more advanced look to Starfleet than TOS and it is fair to extrapolate that most ships had that similarly slicker design before Nero turned up and changed the timeline.

Essentially arguing that DSC didn't change the aesthetic as such but instead followed the path set by the opening of ST09

Similarly with the Klingons in STID - we don't see much of them due to the helmets but they seemed like a bit of a halfway house from TNG to DSC from what little we did.

Highly subjective in the necessity of these changes etc etc but it didn't feel out of the blue to me.

 

[Sci]

I think we should all just suspend some disbelief, accept that from 2256 to 2259 the Enterprise looked like it did in DIS/SNW, and from 2265-2270 the Enterprise looked like it did in TOS, and that from 2272 to 2285 it looked like it did in TMP, and stop worrying about strict visual continuity. It's a post-scarcity society, they can make this stuff look like however the Starfleet Scenic Designer feels like.

 

[Lord Garth]

You guys can do that. I'm sticking to the 25th and 32nd Centuries.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Like this ?
When Klingons went from

to this

and then back to this

And a few years later

Yeah, welcome to Star Trek.

Eh, they aren’t that different. In TMP they only changed the make up. Plus some prosthetics. Oh, and the clothes. Also the language and attitude. They just changed all the fundamentals basically. Not much.

But you know, apart from those things then yeah, it’s a minor change and there’s no difference. Fuck DSC because it’s new and new things shouldn’t old change things. Especially the old things that were changed already by other old things.

 

[JesterFace]

No "what if" needed.

It was just one possible headcanon explanation, those are still allowed, right?
Different foreheads developed for thousands of years away from each other on different continents or something like that.

 

[fireproof78]

It was just one possible headcanon explanation, those are still allowed, right?
Different foreheads developed for thousands of years away from each other on different continents or something like that.

Especially from character to character, or even the same character

 

[JesterFace]

Especially from character to character, or even the same character

Klingon foreheads have a life of their own, they may even change from season to season.
But who is to say that's not normal for an alien lifeform. =)

 

[fireproof78]

Klingon foreheads have a life of their own, they may even change from season to season.
But who is to say that's not normal for an alien lifeform. =)

That's my head canon-it's not normal.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Klingon foreheads have a life of their own, they may even change from season to season.
But who is to say that's not normal for an alien lifeform. =)

Westmore created a ton of appliances that could be mixed and matched to create new foreheads. Though I think each family of Klingons had a specific design.

 

[Disposable_Ensign]

Is ENT not canon in this thread, or something? There is a very clear explanation for why some have ridges and some don't. Some may not have gotten the cosmetic surgery required for restoration after the augment virus. Cosmetic surgery also explains why ridges looked different: restorative surgery is never the same as the original.

 

[fireproof78]

Is ENT not canon in this thread, or something? There is a very clear explanation for why some have ridges and some don't. Some may not have gotten the cosmetic surgery required for restoration after the augment virus. Cosmetic surgery also explains why ridges looked different: restorative surgery is never the same as the original.

That's an explanation after the fact. I am wondering how people squared Klingons prior to that explanation.

Post-ENT variety in Klingons should be a non issue. Either attempts at cosmetic surgery to restore the appearance; selective breeding or inbreeding due to avoiding those with the augment virus and fear of it, or genetic engineering to correct appearance and damage from the virus.

 

[Nerys Myk]

That's an explanation after the fact. I am wondering how people squared Klingons prior to that explanation.

Post-ENT variety in Klingons should be a non issue. Either attempts at cosmetic surgery to restore the appearance; selective breeding or inbreeding due to avoiding those with the augment virus and fear of it, or genetic engineering to correct appearance and damage from the virus.

You had the Roddenberry explanation: Klingons always looked that way.
The FASA explanation: Klingon use hybrids to interact with other species, TOS Klingons are Klingon/Human fusions.
Fan explanation I: Klingons from different regions look different
Fan explanation II: its an empire with various species.

 

[1001001]

You had the Roddenberry explanation: Klingons always looked that way.
The FASA explanation: Klingon use hybrids to interact with other species, TOS Klingons are Klingon/Human fusions.
Fan explanation I: Klingons from different regions look different
Fan explanation II: its an empire with various species.

You forgot Fan Explanation III: who cares?

 

[Victoria]

I think Worf's explanation was best. "We do not discuss it with outsiders".

I squared the difference between TOS and TMP as "films always change somethings because they have more money". Unfortunately the explanation for Discovery Klingons seemed to be "we have more money than sense".

 

[fireproof78]

You forgot Fan Explanation III: who cares?

And number IV: It's no longer canon.

I think Worf's explanation was best. "We do not discuss it with outsiders".

I squared the difference between TOS and TMP as "films always change somethings because they have more money". Unfortunately the explanation for Discovery Klingons seemed to be "we have more money than sense".

I mean, genetic engineering is not always going to work perfectly.

 

[F. King Daniel]

There are fans NOW who barely consider TOS canon, and think TNG is the true Trek where everything was properly codified into how it "should" be.

They're silly and TOS will always, always be the first though.