From: jeq@i88.isc.com (Jonathan E. Quist)
Subject: Re: TOS & TNG/Movie Klingons
Organization: INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation, Naperville, IL
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 22:37:08 GMT

In article <rawdon.722284287@cs.wisc.edu> rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu writes:
>In <1992Nov20.045759.15280@netcom.com> jwells@netcom.com (Jason Paul Wells) writes:
>>"Robert Oliver, tallman%ailanth.uucp@wang.com" mentioned something
>>about a great difference between the Klingons seen in the Original
>>series versus those seen in the Movies or Next Generation.
>
>>The reason for this is that the Klingon seen in the old series
>>were not true Klingons; rather, they were 'fusions'--a cross breed
>>between a true Imperial Klingon and another race, usually human,
>>romulan, or orion. The Empire did this for many reasons, but one
>>major factor was that they did not want outsiders to know what a
>>true Klingon looked like.
>
>Can you cite the episode from which this data was gleaned?  Or is this
>entirely non-canon?  If so, I'd point out that at least one non-canon source
>(the recent DC graphic novel Star Trek: Debt Of Honor) disagrees with you,
>claiming that the Classic Trek Klingons were simply a different branch of the
>same species, who were dominant at the time of Classic Trek, but were
>superceded by the time of the movies by the "new" Klingons.


More likely, the old series Klingons were more likely the very same Klingons,
with Dr. Who budget makeup, instead of major motion picture budget
prosthetics.

>A more interesting question is in the dichotomy of *culture* between the two
>series.  In Classic Trek, the Klingons were a cutthroat, untrustworthy race,
>without a speck of real "honor" visible in them.  Not so in TNG.

Yeah.  Gee, sort of like, maybe, the way the average flag-waving U.S.
citizen viewed the "red menace" of the CCCP during the 1960's, vs. the
way we now view the remains of the empire.  Before, the Klingons/Soviets
were an evil, amorphous mass.  Now, we see them as individual beings within
a larger structure, capable of all the good, bad, or indifferent
emotions, actions, and attitudes that we are.  Keep in mind, the Klingons
of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which appear to be the same race that's
in STTNG, could _must_ have been the same race as in the old series;
given the strength of the Empire, it is inconceivable that one could topple
the other in a matter of a few years, with a stable empire both before
and after.  And remember, always, the series is presented through logs
of various officers - in the old series, James Trafalgar Kirk, for
the most part.  So our view of the Klingon Empire at that time was through
the eyes of a swaggering, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood.

>(A similar switch occurred in the Romulans between the two series; the Classic
>Romulans were fairly honor-bound, while the TNG Romulans resemble a
>calculating version of the Classic Klingons.)

Duty-bound, perhaps.  Honor-bound?  I'm not convinced.

>-- 
>Michael Rawdon				 rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
>University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI
>
>The Trekkie who doesn't own a VCR.
		^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You know, I beleive it was Spock, in one of the time-travel episodes,
who postulated your very existence.  I thought you were just a theory.
-- 
Jonathan E. Quist                              INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation
jeq@i88.isc.com  '71 CL450-K4 "Gleep", DoD #094        Naperville, IL
        There are many things a person should experience in a lifetime.
       Among them are an infant's first cry, and an infant's first laugh.
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