Yelchin sees Klingons

[ralph]

Source: Trek Movie

Yelchin: "...I think a lot of space is obviously green screen — what I’m looking at while seeing the Klingon warships".

Trek Movie reports that the movie does involve some kinds of battles and/or a war and that "Klingon soldiers" play a part in the film.


Is there any reference in canon about a war with Klingons during Kirk youth?
What kind of Klingons will us see?

 

[AdmiralGarak]

I really doubt we'll see smooth-foreheaded Klingons in this movie, even though it will mean contradicting Enterprise's pointless explanation for the make-up change.

The general public knows Klingons as this: . The general public doesn't even know that Star Trek: Enterprise exists.

 

[Mr J]

It will be interesting to see where they go with this, although I always thought that Enterprise did a decent explanation for the forehead issue even though I never really felt an explanation was required.

Then again, Abrams might want to avoid the 'funny forehead' stereotype that a lot of the general audience associate with modern Star Trek so maybe this is the 'nod' to Enterprise that IIRC Trekmovie once mentioned was in the movie. Not that aliens that look like humans but with funny taches is really a better ST stereotype to avoid.

 

[Son_of_Soong]

I was kind of exepecting people to give the opposite side of the argument. Until now all ive seen is "this doesnt match TOS, that doesnt match TOS", this is one of the first time Ive heard someone think that not doing something TOS way would be a good thing :-P

 

[AdmiralGarak]

^Actually, nobody offered a preference. Just idle speculation.

Of course, if Abrams wants to avoid forehead aliens as Mr J suggests, he might make the Klingons look even more alien. Still, I'm still betting they'll have bumpy foreheads. It's the iconic Klingon appearance. Smooth foreheads will confuse casual viewers who think of Worf when somebody mentions a Klingon.

 

[Mr J]

Personally I'd like to see the Klingons a little bigger and beefier looking than they have been in the past. This is a race of warriors bred for fighting and training all their lives. Maybe keep the foreheads but make them just seem more savage looking and imposing with rags and "trophies" of their enemies adorning their costumes. Let's get some big WWE wrestler types and have hordes of them in their armies! Let them carry the traditional weapons but make the seem heavy and metallic and well-worn weapons of death rather than made of plywood. It would be great to see Klingons as epic Lord of the Ring-esque warrior armies who are truly threatening and otherworldly.

Besides, fanon can do the rest of the work if they go with funny foreheads. Maybe the Klingons managed to reverse the gene problem created in Enterprise but only temporarily. Or maybe at this point not everyone is affected yet but by TOS pretty much all Klingons have it. Mixing both types and creating some sort of warrior underclass might look visually interesting as well.

 

[TOSTNGDS9VOYENT]

You know, most of the talk as far as the story go's is that the Romulans are trying to get Kirk out of the way. On the other hand, it has always been the Klingons that hated Kirk most. He was always a thorn in their side. In TOS the tension between Kirk and the Romulans seemed more benign, while he was always at odds with the Klingons. What if the rumor that Nero is a Romulan isn't true at all. Although Nero doesn't sound much like a Klingon name to me.

 

[Garth Rockett]

AdmiralGarak said:
I really doubt we'll see smooth-foreheaded Klingons in this movie, even though it will mean contradicting Enterprise's pointless explanation for the make-up change.

I don't think it would contradict Enterprise. From Memory Alpha:

With the help of a Klingon scientist named Antaak, Dr. Phlox of the Enterprise was able to formulate a cure that halted the genetic effects of the virus in the first stage, retaining the changes in appearance along with some minor neural re-ordering, but with no development of stage two characteristics, such as enhanced strength, speed, or endurance. This left millions of Klingons, mostly in the warrior caste, without their ridges. These alterations were even passed on to their children.

Note, millions of Klingons, but not all of them, which was my impression on watching the episode. I think the Enterprise explanation allows for the simultaneous coexistence of both types of Klingons, so seeing one type in the movie does not invalidate the existence of the other.

 

[darkshadow0001]

AdmiralGarak said:
I really doubt we'll see smooth-foreheaded Klingons in this movie, even though it will mean contradicting Enterprise's pointless explanation for the make-up change.

The general public knows Klingons as this: . The general public doesn't even know that Star Trek: Enterprise exists.

Well, if this movie is a "reboot" then Enterprise's explaination still stands. Isn't the point of this movie to be somewhat "different" then we are used to?

 

[The Doctor]

It would be best if the excreble Enterprise 'explaination' were consigned to the dustbin of history. Never before has so much effort been expended for such a ridiculous reason.

The makeup changed. It's going to change agin.

Deal with it.

 

[ancient]

I doubt we'll see a bunch of guys in couch-material pants, Black turtlenecks, and parallelogram belt buckles as Klingons.

They will be alien looking, not just guys wearing grease-paint and glue-on beards.

That's something the General Audience will find silly in the extreme. Oh look: It's the space Mexicans!

 

[Son_of_Soong]

Why cant we have a Metron or two.

 

[Mr J]

The Stig said:
Never before has so much effort been expended for such a ridiculous reason.

The makeup changed. It's going to change agin.

Deal with it.

I agree with this, but I still think that for what is was ENT did a good job of dealing with this 'issue' even if most sensible people didn't really need an explanation. The episodes were certainly well-received amongst fandom at the time.

I find it so strange though that 99% of the complaints about this movie from the hardcore suspects is in relation to it not being exactly the way TOS was in every single detail, and yet the majority here seem to support the 'iconic' TMP onwards Klingon look to be in the movie instead of the TOS appearance which was officially canonified by Enterprise.

 

[shapeshifter]

I thought non bumpy ENT Klingons looked great, plenty big and mean looking with bad attitudes to match, just no bumps. I thought they were a perfect re-imagining of TOS style Klingons. I wouldn't mind, and hope we see them again in ST XI.

 

[Kinnison]

I'd be happy either way, really. I think that, at this point, there is sufficient ambiguity about what happened that the producers can go either way without violating the "canon." As long as they don't make the Klingons green or something, I'm fine with it. Turtlenecks would be nice either way, though.

 

[Sharr Khan]

Oh look: It's the space Mexicans!

I always thought they looked rather Mongolian myself...

Sharr

 

[thumbtack]

Well, if that Toy Fair report is true, they're changing almost nothing.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

This is interesting. I've seen the "battlefields" comment, and I've seen the Yelchin "Klingon ships" comment. Yet I haven't seen anything stating or implying that there are land-based battlefields swarming with Klingons waving Batleth's... have you?

Here's what I think, based upon what I've seen so far.

(1) Most of the movie is not involving the Enterprise under Kirk's command.

(2) Kirk is seen in the "Center seat" of a Starfleet BRIDGE SIMULATOR, taking what turns out to be the Kobayashi Maru test. He's an officer (a Lieutenant) back for his advanced Command Course studies, just like Lieutenant Saavik was. He will, like her, have a crew of CADETS plus a few senior officers to add "spice" to the scenario, also just like she did.

(3) Kirk's Kobayashi Maru "Cadet Crew" will include new cadets Uhura and Chekov, and likely Senior Midshipman Sulu.

(4) The "Battlefield" Yelchin comments on is likely a SPACE BATTLEFIELD, not a WW-II-type ground battlefield.

This has the advantage of giving us Kirk and his "future crew" on the "Enterprise Bridge" (but not the REAL one, just the Starfleet Academy Bridge Simulator!) fighting Klingons in a clear reference to STII.

A bit "fanboyish" but not implausible. Kirk may have taken a liking to members of his "Cadet Crew" and so when he had the chance to bring some of them onto his command, he may have picked them above others on the "available crewmen" list he had to work from.

I'd be VERY happy if we don't see a Klingon... bumpy OR smooth... at all, and just see a few Klingon WARSHIPS on the simulator viewscreen.

 

[Son_of_Soong]

Nice but I hope they dont spend too much time on the Kobayashi Maru scenario. I would hate for a quarter of the film to be nothing but a simulation with no real danger to anyone.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Son_of_Soong said:
Nice but I hope they dont spend too much time on the Kobayashi Maru scenario. I would hate for a quarter of the film to be nothing but a simulation with no real danger to anyone.

Ah, but there IS danger. Danger to Lieutenant Kirk who "cheats" on the test and could end up kicked out of the service. We've got very good reason to believe that this is a key part of the plot (including having been informed who's playing the senior officer on the Board of Inquiry for Kirk's "misconduct"... Tyler Perry, I think is his name, isn't it?)

We KNOW that this is a significant plot point, though we also know that this is not the CENTRAL focus of the movie (ie, the Kobayashi Maru isn't... not "Kirk's troubles" aren't, I mean!)