How THE KLINGONS Changed - Lore Evolution

welcome to lore evolution the show where we look at our favorite factions technologies and characters from the realm of science fiction and fantasy today we're looking at the long-standing frenemy of the United Federation of Planets the Klingon Empire among Trekkies the Klingons are a consistently popular faction with a proud mythical history badass spaceships and of course a signature language but like many things in the Star Trek universe they were quite different in their first appearance the Klingons were first introduced in a classic original series episode errand of mercy conceived of by producer Jean L Kuhn is the main rival to the United Federation of Planets the name for the Klingons was taken from lieutenant Wilbur Klingon a friend of Gene Roddenberry's while he was part the Los Angeles Police Department kun liked the intonation in the name so he adjusted the spelling slightly to arrive at Klingon flattered by the use of his name Wilbert Klingon allegedly introduced himself as the first Klingon many years later the main inspiration for the Klingons were the Cold War opponents to the USA with specific visual inspiration coming from Communist China and its allies hence the vaguely racist foo man to beards.org at ridges and the generally more human look as opposed to the more alien appearance they would later take on this was simply a result of small budget and lack of time Klingon culture is also strikingly different than it is now thought of the Klingons of the original series were scheming brutal and oppressive they represented the nationalistic barbarity in contrast of the Federation's multicultural utopia but the first appearance of the Klingons was made most memorable by the excellent John calicos as clay on commander Corps who would later go on to play Gaius Baltar in Battlestar Galactica and then reprised the role of Corps in deep space 9 Corps is a fantastic adversary to Kirk and his crew devious sinister and megalomaniacal the episode errand of mercy uses the conflict between the fractions to create a classic Star Trek morality play on the futility of war itself but unlike you'd expect the Klingons did not become recurring villains thanks to positive critical or audience perception but instead because of the low budget while the Romulans also made multiple appearances their makeup was much more involved whereas the Klingons could be done extremely quickly and easily and being the ideological opposite to the Federation it just seemed logical for them to become the main antagonists the Klingons would appear in a further six episodes of the original series sometimes as peripheral bodies and other times as main villains and while they were going to look and sound quite different tos gave us the iconic d7 battle cruiser and many more memorable Klingon adversaries such as Kang played to perfection by Michael ansara however it was on the big screen where the Klingons made their first big evolutionary leap forward [Music] following the opening credits of Star Trek the motion picture the d7 battlecruiser Shores upon screen crewed by some very different looking and sounding Klingons with a larger budget available makeup designer Fred Phillips and costume designer Robert Fletcher got the thumbs up from Roddenberry to go about designing a much more alien looking Klingon during the design process the full Klingon took shape with the sharp teeth being at it as well the new Klingons were finally ready to go for the opening scene of the movie with a d7 commander played by Mark Leonard the same mark Leonard he also played the Romulan commander and balance of terror and famously Spock's father Zarek but the most noteworthy addition were the first words of the Klingon language thought by Scotty actor James Doohan they were simple guttural sounds to further emphasize the brutal nature of the Klingons but it was in the search for Spock where the Klingon language really took shape having extended scenes of the Klingon villain Krug played by Back to the Future as Christopher Lloyd led producer Harv Bennett to bring linguist a Marc Okrand on board to create a working Klingon language with doin's sounds as a bass Okrand had already done some work in the Wrath of Khan creating the Vulcan language but Klingon or Klingon ease that was then called is his most famous accomplishment while not totally explicit in the movie Harv Bennett Leonard Nimoy and Okrand also made the first significant changes to Klingon culture it was a collective idea between all three to imagine Klingon society as a kind of space feudal system where the Klingons as samurai like warriors this dedication to duty is illustrated starkly when crew kills his own lover in order to keep the secret of Genesis for himself it was Lloyd's work in search for Spock which really laid the groundwork for the explosion in popularity the Klingons would undergo although he is most famous for Doc Brown Lloyd has often spoke highly of his time on the search for Spock and his fondness for the crew character as well as director Leonard Nimoy who he got along with extremely well although he's more one-dimensional than Ricardo montalban's Khan Lloyd gives a terrific performance in the role and comfortably sits on the ever-expanding list of great Klingon bad guys also fun fact one of the actors who auditioned for a Klingon in search for Spock was none other than Robert Beltran who would later go on to portray Chakotay in Star Trek Voyager Star Trek 6 the undiscovered country was essentially the conclusion of the first Klingon story or so to speak south all the way back an errand of mercy under Scott what countries he's a wounded Klingon Empire finally making peace with the Federation after decades of hostility previous movies the voyage home and the final frontier maintained the image of the Klingons as devious enemies of the Federation but here that multidimensionality returns David Warner steals every scene he's in as a surprisingly wise and well tempered Klingon Chancellor gorkon who is murdered in a conspiracy by those two narrow-minded and petty to see the bigger picture and the peaceful future with the Klingons the Federation risks losing at the same time we get yet another awesome Klingon bad guy in the form of Christopher polymer's general Chiang who relishes shouting Shakespearean dialogue amidst the space action carnage with the Berlin Wall coming down undiscovered country returned to the cold war allegory in finally showing the Federation and Klingons making peace with one another something which fans had already been given the chance to see having created a dedicated base of Klingon fans among Trekkies the next generation really took time exploring Klingon society and culture Worf became a fan favorite character as a human adopted Klingon and many stories saw the Enterprise crew getting tied up in the complex affairs of the Empire it's here the ideals of space feudalism really took hold where the Klingons taking on the visage of Bushido like Honor mixed in with a Viking sense of glory and chauvinism while I have confessed how tired I find Klingon spouting about honor for an entire hour at times great episodes like Redemption cannot be overlooked departing the peaceful Democratic Federation for a window into the conan asked adventures of the Klingons certainly has its appeal but for me Deep Space nine is the show which really used the Klingons well having Worf torn between two factions amidst the impending threat of the Dominion gave the character the best material he ever had through Worf we got to see the ins and outs of Klingon culture while also being reminded just how vicious they were as enemies and you know I love me some space battles while the hour-long posturing sessions of TNG sometimes bored me ds9 saw the Klingons putting their money where their mouth was and it was great while I am a big fan of enterprises latter two seasons a consistently weak element is its portrayal of the Klingons the potential in seeing early Klingons is pretty much school under two every turn they're virtually identical to the 24th century incarnations just with more foes instead of Armour with not quite birds of prey and not quite d7 battlecruisers it's a little nitpicky I know but in the TNG episode first contact the card says that hostilities between the Federation and Klingon Empire spawned from a disastrous first contact event between human declines and yet we see nothing of a sort in enterprise now it is easy to forget these things because of just how vast a franchise Star Trek is of course I'm sure there were far more interesting things to be done with the Klingons at this time period but what bored me the most was the entire arc explaining why TOS Klingons don't have forehead ridges frankly I do not care and it really isn't important TOS Klingons look different because of a small budget but an entire writers room bending over backwards to reconcile a superficial fan complaint just makes me roll my eyes the Klingons have a mythic history of great deeds and battles and enterprise unfortunately we see none of it [Music] the kelvin timeline movies didn't really do a whole lot with the Klingons which is fine I suppose but into darkness gives us a nice glimpse into this alternate timeline version enter darkness takes the warlike nature and history of the Klingons and runs with it turning Kronos into almost a post-apocalyptic wasteland the Klingons themselves get a redesigned here which I personally really like sure they don't have the Viking aesthetic but the more streamlined Armour really suits them it's almost as if they were designed to match the d7 which the previous 2009 movie wisely kept not much else to say really other than I think it's a cool update of the look but now on to the absolutely not controversial show which I'm sure will spark no toxic debate in the comments [Music] so safe to say a lot of people were pissed off when the new Klingons were revealed for Star Trek discovery well into darkness certainly redesigned them they pretty much look the same underneath all the costumes but discovery went really bold with a new design to make the Klingons look even more alien even with the added facial ridges in the motion picture audiences have gotten used to Klingons in Star Trek thus original showrunner Brian fuller endeavored to make them feel truly alien again on top of the foreheads these new Klingons were given bigger noses with more nostrils chin ridge's folded over ears wider chests pronounced claws an elongated skull not to mention the elaborate and diverse costumes weapons and ships on display how do we reconcile how different these Klingons look I don't care nobody cared when they changed appearance for the movies without explanation Enterprise contriving a reason decades later is completely uninteresting and honestly I just want to see what he's done with the Klingons story-wise now that they look this way whether you like these new designs or not is up to you but saying redesigned Klingons ruined Star Trek as a franchise is absurd personally it's a mixed bag for me some of the ships I quite like others I don't some of the costumes I like others I don't but what I do like about these new designs is just how diverse they are Discovery's first and second seasons have really taken the Klingons on an interest in cultural journey at first the radical to Kufa rallies the Klingons into a war for the sake of preserving their cultural identity which he perceives his under attack but a great visual element with the Klingons in this first season which tackles multiculturalism and nationalism because of course it would it's Star Trek tackling relevant social and political topics aka Star Trek doing what Star Trek has always done is that the Klingons themselves while being one race are incredibly diverse the different noble houses of the Klingon Empire have previously been anonymous they've had the same armor the same weapons and the same ships but Discovery's production team really took the time to make these houses distinctive they have their own banners their own ship classes their own armors and symbols seeing such a diverse group of people complaining about the threat of losing their Klingon identity is the perfect visual lampooning of such nationalistic rhetoric despite what certain people will have you believe this visual reboot of the Klingons actually served an important purpose within the story and was in no way an attempt you dance on the grave of gene roddenberry or anything so ridiculous especially because Roddenberry didn't even create the Klingons season 2 when even further by having a unifying element of the Empire with the construction and implementation of the d7 battle cruiser a fan-favorite design as the flagship in a new united Klingon Navy well I have my issues with the new look for the Klingons in Discovery the characters within the faction and how they've developed within the story is one of the best things discovery has done thus far with a discovery now catapulted to the future and Picard seeming Borg Romulan centric they don't seem to be any significant additions to the Klingons anytime soon but their unwavering popularity and their omnipresence within Star Trek means they are never kept away for very long well began is a simple but enjoyable set of villains for Kirk and Co has flourished into a layered and nuanced fictional race culture and language whether a simple bad guys in one of episodes or the subjects in an entire epic story or expanding an entire season the Klingons will always be an important part of Star Trek regidani I'm probably gonna butcher your name asks is the Ferengi system sustainable no Daniel F Med asks what science fiction or fantasy novel would you like to see adapted into a TV show or movie I've been listening to the Lost fleet series on audible recently not a sponsor and I think that could make for a terrific TV show the way the author took a Lightspeed into account when commanding a fleet could be handled with some extremely clever editing and visuals I also really liked the tightrope of how to be a good leader the main character walks I reckon there's plenty of good material there for a hit show if you like my videos be sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon to stay up to date with all my new uploads over on my patreon you can see videos up to a week early speaking of such I'd like to give special thanks to all of my patrons who are now appearing on screen until next time have a good one and as always live long and prosper

Channel: Rowan J Coleman

Views: 45,172

Keywords: rowan j coleman, lore evolution, klingons, star trek errand of mercy, star trek the original series klingons, star trek the motion picture klingon battle, star trek klingons, klingon language, star trek 3 the search for spock klingon, search for spock battle, star trek the next generation, star trek deep space nine, deep space nine way of the warrior, deep space nine way of the warrior battle, star trek discovery klingons, star trek discovery battle, battle of the binary stars

Id: 059qjQhQx1w

Length: 13min 15sec (795 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019