Poll of the Week: Klingons and Visual Continuity

[Laria Herren]

The looks of many visual elements in Star Trek have changed over the years. One of the most prominent and famous changes is the design of the Klingon species. At first, Klingons were barely distinguishable from humans. This stayed the same throughout the first series but first changed in the original Star Trek movie. This was when the original change was made and Klingons got their trademark forehead ridges. The look of the Klingons remained mostly the same from that point until the movie Into Darkness. This movie changed the look of Klingons but retained the basic design scheme. The next change came with Discovery, where the Klingon species went through a major redesign. That brings the current count of Klingon makeup designs to four.

These sudden changes in the appearance of a major species did not go unnoticed. A few episodes even tried to explain where these sudden forehead ridges came from. The question of visual continuity is a complex one. Each series of Star Trek has made changes and introduced its own visual style, but for the most part major elements of Star Trek remain relatively visually similar. Special effects and prosthetic makeup have improved since Star Trek first aired. Some people might argue that these innovation should be used, while others would prefer that the vision of Star Trek’s original creators be preserved. This poll of the week asks you what you think. Do you care about the visual continuity of the Klingons? Let us know what your take on the issue is!

[Saden Lor]

I have yet to watch Discovery but considering even their culture seems different from clips I've watched, it feels almost like a reboot of sorts to me. If they can explain this "separation" well enough I guess their drastic visual change(s) could be passable... but I have my doubts on that.

Regarding TOS Klingons, my "head canon" has always been they are poser Klingons; humans that want to be badasses but can't really live up to it. I mean, look at how they fight. lol

Edited August 26, 2018 by Saden Lor

[Piravao sh'Qynallahr]

While I don't mind the changes overly much, what really bugs me (with any show, not just trek) is when radical changes aren't explained in canon. I could subject you all to a rant here, but I will restrain myself.  

[Valoru]

For some reason, I don't mind the Klingon changes all that much. It's a bit strange to me why they would do it, but it is not as jarring to me.

I am a bit more concerned about "technology" changes (ENT's ship looking better than TOS, "space snowglobe station" in the Kelvin timeline, etc). Yeah our movie-making tech gets better, but sometimes it goes a bit far. Some can argue plot reasons (snowglobe is because of Nero!) but in general it's gotten a bit silly and takes away from the movie a bit for me.

Ok, so bit of a tangent. I could use the same argument above for Klingons, but other than the big shift from TOS -> TNG the changes have not been enough for me to be bothered.