ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP (Mike Ciaraldi) (06/05/84)
From: Mike Ciaraldi <ciaraldi> In the TV series, Klingons looked pretty much like earth people (well more or less). In the first movie they had prominent ridges on the tops of their heads, and in ST3 they have somewhat smaller ridges (I don't consider this a spoiler because it doesn't matter to the plot). Why the difference? Well, think back to "The Trouble With Tribbles". the Klingons referred to the Enterprise crew as "Earthers", i.e. people from Earth. This was generally true, even though a few non-earth people (e.g. Spock) are in the crew. In another episode, there was a Federation starship manned almost entirley by Vulcans. Earthmen, Vulcans, Alpha Centaurians, etc. are all citizens of the Federation and thus eligible to join Star Fleet, and could thus be assigned to any ship. Probably for reasons of greater efficiency, Star Fleet tends to haver most ships manned by one particualr race with a scattering of others. Now, let's look at Klingons (if you can stand the sight). The ones we meet are all members of the Fleet of the Klingon Empire. Thus, they are all referred to as Klingons by Federation people, even if they are not from the Planet Klingon. There are probably many planets in the Empire, some with native populations and some with populations that moved there from some other planet some time in the past. Some of these might look very much like a native Klingon from the capaital planet, and ohters might not. Some might have mutated or evolved over centuries, but still be interfertile. Some might be really odd-looking, and some might hve been totally annihilated when their planet was taken over by the Empire. Some might not be eligible to join the military, or to rise over a certain rank. If their planet joined the Empire a long time ago, these old prejudices and limitations might have waned. So, it is possible for several "races" of Klingons to exist, each concentratewd on a certain set of planets. Like the Federation, each ship might be crewed by Klingons from a particualr ethnic group, in the interests of efficiency, understanding of dialect, menu, or whatever. I think this explsanation is superior to the "caste" idea, since it is consistent with what we have seen in the past, and with Federation prac tice. Comments? Mike Ciaraldi ciaraldi@rochester seismo!rochester!ciaraldi
merchant@dartvax.UUCP (06/07/84)
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Makes sense to me. Also, in the television series, did you notice
the inconsistant make-up? Some Klingons were rather dark and swarthy,
and others were light skinned and looked alot more human.
Supposedly, a man named Fred Phillips was the one in charge of make-up
and he goofed. This is rather amusingly hinted at in a story called
"Visit To A Weird Planet Revisited", which puts the actors of "Star Trek"
onto the actual U.S.S. Enterprise.
Which brings up a minor pus-point. U.S.S. stands for "United Space Ship", from
what I understand. United under what? It seems a bit weird...probably should
have been F.S.S. (Federation Star Ship) or U.F.P.S. or something like that.
U.S.S. always bothered me...