Movies News Talk
Over the course of the Star Trek universe, the ferocious and honorable warrior race known as the Klingons have changed greatly. Driven by developments in special effects makeup technologies and changing narrative requirements, these changes have produced several iterations of Klingons over almost six decades. From the smooth-headed Klingons of Star Trek: The Original Series to the unique forehead ridges added in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the contemporary Klingon look developed in Star Trek: The Next Generation, each iteration reflects the technological capacity of the era. Star Trek: Into Darkness developed Klingon makeup, so opening the path for the even more distinctly alien Klingons shown in Star Trek: Discovery.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, imagined the Klingons as a species whose look more alien than that which first presented in The Original Series. Star Trek: The Motion Picture's higher budget let Roddenberry's vision come to pass. The franchise looked for an in-universe explanation for the changes in the visual appearance to the Klingons, while they embraced them. The Star Trek: Enterprise season 4 episode "Affliction," where the Enterprise crew found that attempts by Klingons to create their own Augments produced a fatal virus, at last offered this justification. Affected Klingons of the cure for this virus looked more human.
The forthcoming Star Trek series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, offers a chance to at last address the variations in Klingon appearances over the timeline at the esteemed academy. Particularly the more alien and obvious elements, the series can offer an in-universe justification for the several Klingon variants observed in Star Trek: Discovery. Like the temporal mechanics theory offered by Dr. Erin Macdonald in Star Trek: Prodigy, the Academy setting offers a natural stage for examining these contradictions through instructional teachings.
There are several ideas to account for the variations among the several Klingon iterations. One hypothesis holds that an attempt to undo the effects of the augment virus from Star Trek: Enterprise could have unintentionally overcorrected Klingon traits, resulting in the more obvious alien look observed in Star Trek: Discovery. Another theory, put forth by actress Mary Chieffo, who portrayed L'Rell in Star Trek: Discovery, contends that L'Rell leads an ancient sect of Kubrick outcasts, so explaining the physical and cultural differences. According to a theory originating from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, several variants of Klingons coexist concurrently from different colonies or areas inside the Klingon Empire.
Set in the middle of the 23rd century like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds shows the Klingons with the iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation look. This implies that the Star Trek chronology hosts all three variants of Klingons co-existing.
Aiming to avoid the controversies of past seasons, Star Trek: Discovery season 3 acted as a soft reboot with its leap to the 32nd century. This included a deliberate attempt to eschew the divisive Klingon redesign. Star Trek: Discovery utterly excluded Klingons from the 32nd century story, instead of trying to explain the changes in Klingon appearance or demonstrating how the Klingons developed over the centuries. This let the show concentrate on fresh stories in a new era, but it also begged questions about the fate of the Klingons.
Both possible in-universe explanations and production factors can help to explain why Klingons disappeared from the 32nd century. Though other theories point to more dramatic events, it's possible the Klingons were just off-screen. Centuries of giving war top priority might have caused the Klingons to vanish. The Burn, a catastrophic event drastically lowering the star count in the galaxy, might have isolated and heightened the xenophobic nature of the Klingons. Before the thirty-second century, the Klingon Empire may have suffered a hitherto unknown disaster.
Star Trek: Discovery's distinctive Klingon design can be explained and the fate of the Klingons revealed by Starfleet Academy. Investigating Klingon history and culture inside the Academy environment will help the show to answer long-standing questions about these mysterious fighters.