Yelchin Sees Klingons

Anton Yelchin (Chekov in the new Star Trek) is out there promoting his new movie Charlie Bartlett and talking up Trek. In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes the actor is quoting saying many of the same things that were covered in our recent roundup of Yelchin interviews. But Rotten Tomatoes had something new. When discussing working with green screens Yelchin dropped the following nugget…[spoilers]

Yelchin: Chekov is just on the Enterprise. A lot of it is green screen. I mean, the Enterprise itself, J.J.’s trying to shoot as much of it as he can with out green screen, but I think a lot of space is obviously green screen — what I’m looking at while seeing the Klingon warships.

MORE

SPOILERS

BELOW

Klingons!?
Much of the talk about the new Star Trek movie has been about Romulans, with the lead villain (Nero played by Eric Bana) being reported to be a Romulan. So is Yelchin just talking in general? No. TrekMovie.com has learned that the new Star Trek movie will indeed include Klingons. Of course, Klingons have appeared in every TOS era Trek film with the exception of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (but they were mentioned and of course Klingon ships were seen in the Kobayashi Maru simulation). The TNG films all had the Klingon Worf, plus Star Trek Generations also featured the Klingon sisters B’Etor and Lursa.

In one of his previous interviews Yelchin mentioned greenscreens standing in for “a battlefield.” TrekMovie.com has received some reports that the movie does involve some kinds of battles and/or a war and that “Klingon soldiers” play a part in the film (although it isn’t clear if the battles are with the Klingons). According to some reports, the Klingons have been redesigned somewhat, but we don’t have enough details to give a full description.


TOS era Klingons “Errand of Mercy”


Movie era Klingons (STIII)

UPDATE: More Movie Rumors
UGO have compiled a list of reported rumors and ‘confirmations’ about Star Trek, many of which have come from this very site. Some variations on previously reported rumors there so it is worth checking out. This weekend TrekMovie.com will put up a new ‘everything you need to know’ article about the new Star Trek movie, mostly for all the new visitors who have come on board since the new teaser trailer. Until then, click the ‘Star Trek 2008’ tab at the top of the page for movie info.

170 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Sounds exciting! Gotta love spoiler confirmation!

First….cool! They were always the better villians in Trek.

Wow…. what an decrease of quality from TOS klingons to movie era Klingons ;)

The photos are switched.

the captions are mixed up on the pictures

I don’t mind if the things on the main viewer are green screen– but I hope the interiors of the Enterprise itself aren’t.

well, ith just about avery other TOS era character showing up, where the heck is Gary Mitchell???

he is probably THE most important pre series character we know little about.

he was Kirks best friend, by the way/,

Yay Klingons!! Any speculations about what they might look like?

Those TOS klingons suck so bad… I wonder how they will redo the klingons?? I thought those held up pretty well. I wonder what there is to redesign?

`I like the sound of this battlefield and of Klingon warships! Wonder which ship design theyre gonna go with. The Klingons and Romulans both used the same design in TOS

Klingons on the Viewscreen? Kobyashi Maru anyone?

You probably shouldn’t put the spoiler in the headline. Just a thought.

Those must be ‘mirror universe’ TOS vs. ST III Klingons. ;-) Anthony, can you expand a little on those ‘reports’ that the Turtleheads have been ‘redesigned’ somewhat?

Again, is this a main plot line, or do the Klingons show up in some flashbackforward thingie for ten seconds? Wait and see. Nice that they’re in there, though. And I think it’s time to give em a wardrobe change.

RE 11:
That was my first thought too.

LOL Didn’t take Fearless Leader long to do a little HTML polish-and-post, did it? :-)

If this is true, I would really like to see Abrams’ Klingons designed like an amalgam of TOS and current Klingons. Any artsy types out there care to take a stab at what that might look like?

…cool…I hope all their “honor” of the 24th century has been jetisoned along with Ben Finney.

I like old school Klingons…guys that would promise to be honorable till the end, then stab you in the back and laugh while doing it. Kor is the prime example, and I’m talking TOS Kor not Ds9 Kor.

Please JJ, make me love to hate them again!

I would have been very disappointed if there were no Klingons in the film!

I really liked the look of the TOS Klingons, but I don’t really know why. They look so bad, but there’s something vaguely fascist and sneaky about the uniforms. They were sleek, neat, and militaristic.

I hope the movie doesn’t address the ‘ridges’ issue. I’m sure they’ll keep with some version of the ridged makeup, but I hope the uniforms are reminiscent somewhat of TOS.

I don’t know about you, but I miss the TOS Klingons. They were the REAL thing in my book. When the species was re-designed for TMP, they lost a bit of the menacing quality of the series. Of course, they were sort of written into a corner from the start with the Organians. hmm, wouldn’t mind one or two of them showing up, what with all these cameos in the new flick. Q vs Organia.
well, maybe not.

I was always partial to the TMP battlecruisers, myself. The model work done go give them a sense of scale and power was awesome. The Bird of Prey class seemed underpowered and wimpy to me, like it was what they towed behind the family D7 battlecruiser when they just wanted to raid an asteroid, and not terrorize an entire star system. Kinda like, if you came to town to rob the bank, you’re not gonna drive the assault Winnebago just to shoplift a case of beer. You take the VW tow car. ;-)

‘Scuze my typos tonight. It’s been a rough week, and I’m already on my second glass of wine. :-)

UGO got some new Star Trek Movie Rumors on their site

11 has it right

Gotta see a Klingon of course!
But I REALLY REALLY like that they are concetrating more on the Romulans. They deserve an outing that shows what they can be (And nemesis was NOT it… uch).

After all, Balance of Terror is one of the best of any Trek, and truly portrays the Romulans… brutal, warlike, and a heart full of honor… the strength of a Vulcan ruled by harsh emotions. The Klingons took the honor angle later.

As far as redesign… that could mean the uniforms, not nessecarily the Klingon itself.

#18 Red Shirt:
I’m an illustrator, check back in an hour or two and I’ll post a link to a sketch!

Again, what 11 said. That was my first thought as well.

I thought it was pretty much confirmed that we get to see Kobayashi Maru. What exatly did you expect? Pakleds?

On a sidenote, Grunbergs cameo-tidbit, that dude on myspace with the “A-Lister not yet revealed” and and Bale’s teasing of Crowe after the Crow-as-Klingon-talk last year – I still think there’s going to be a Crowe-cameo as a Klingon.

Wolid make sense, wouldn’t it? Klingons, I mean. If we see Kirk “pass” Kobayashi Maru, it’s logical to follow up with a scene where he is in the same situation in “real life” and does have to face a no-win-scenario, possibly with Klingons. At least from a writer’s point of view, I’d make sense to me.

Everybody keeps talking about this movie being EPIC. Can you imagine if this is done in the same vein as say a “Ben Hur” or a “Lawrence of Arabia”. Man, this may be unreal.

I hope the classic klingon D7’s appear, and likely they will as the design direction of the Enterprise seems consistent. As for the ridges… who knows…

Just Checked out UGO’s rumor page. Nothing big there – everything listed there, has already appeared here and much earlier.

“Battle with the Klingons”

Isn’t the Kobyashi Maru plotline supposed to be in here?

So maybe he’s merely talking about fighting them in the simulator.

This thread should be a sticky (Kling on – geddit?)

id prefer it if they (klingons) werent in it. i always felt some of the best the best stories were ones which didnt feature them. i wanted a completey fresh storyline. if they are trying to attract a new audience its fairly predictable stuff to have the klingons again as they have featured in every movie except ST2. lets have romulans for a welcome change.

i never liked the new klingon boney headed versions either. too much of thaose weird face bits going on in trek for me. you never had that in TOS -or so much of it anyway.

i know that wont go down well with a few forum members but its a personal choice.
cheers
greg
UK

Well, this is what they looked like on Enterprise after they changed to the TOS era Klingons.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/darthgordon/divergence_493.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/darthgordon/divergence_485.jpg

…at least it looks much less like make-up.

I’m thinking very subtle ridges… almost barely there, goatees and eyebrows would work for me… but that’s just me.

The uniforms have got to change. They can retain the same look but go with way better materials. Black turtle necks and shiny fabric would look terrible and cheap. They do have over 100 million to spend.

#19-

I’m not sure where you get that “stab you in the back” idea about Kor. Kras is the only Klingon I can think of that acted that way. The primary difference I saw between TOS Klingons and latter Klingons was that they seemed weaker and somewhat cowardly at times. However, Kor was nothing like that. He loved the thought of glorious battle. He showed respect for Kirk and outright told him what he would do.

Besides, I wouldn’t call latter incarnations of the Klingons very trustworthy either. Cmdr. Kruge, General Chang, Duras, the Duras sisters, Gowron… just to name a few.

Pretty astute thought there! One way to shoehorn them into the flic. Let’s focus on the Rommies this movie, then the Klingons, then a revisionist Khan for the third movie…

I wasn’t impressed with the explanation about how the Klingon shell/head kept changing or was explained through the different series. If we do see Klingons, the first thing I’m look at are their heads.

I had a thought about Star Trek and all the villians. For me the Borg were the ‘scariest’ unless of course you count Species 8472. The only ones capable of really defeating the Borg.

Anyway, it would be neat to see Star Trek have some kind of tie in with Voyager / V-ger to the Delta quadrant and perhaps the Borg in the next movie.

I want the next movie to have the crew going back in time to bring whales to fight the Cloverfield monster. Now, THAT would be an “E-ticket” attraction!

I agree with #18: a cross between TOS and movie Klingons would be good. I wouldn’t mind ridges on Trek XI because the useless explanation given in Enterprise sounded very lame to me. Roddenberry himself once told that even TOS Klingons were supposed to have ridges.

the polls are good :)

It is great to see the Klingons in the movie and I hope they are TOS-era.

#19 through 21 – I’ve gotta agree with you there. TOS Klingons were menacing and pretty scary, in a facist/Nazi/Soviet kind of way. They were pretty much reduced to a primitive Viking-esque culture, that not only was never scary and actually pretty lame, but I have no idea how a culture so primitive and obsessed with “war” and “honor” and junk like that could have possibly made it into space. TOS Klingons were just more believable, I think.

Orions and Klingons and Romulans, oh my!

I say keep the Klingons the way they look from the movies on, but give them back their deceitful ways of the original series. I never bought into the way they were handled from TNG onward.

Although the Klingons have always been one of my favorite species throughout Trek, I would like to not have them TOO incorporated into this movie. Romulans are good for now and as others have mentioned, save then for the second or third movie (if they plan to make them). My reasoning being, I just don’t want them to bundle TOO much into this movie. Sometimes when trying to fit in too many characters and story lines something gets lost. Hey, but who knows… They might have worked them into the script perfectly. Time will tell.

As far as the appearance goes, I’m a huge supporter of them looking like the TNG, DS7 and Voyager Klingons. I always felt that they didn’t have proper make-up in TOS due to budget issues.

Keep in mind that the Empire was quite a bit weakened in the TNG-era as compared to TOS. Their appearance may have been more menacing (post TMP), but in TOS they were much more of a threat to the quadrant in TOS than they ever were in the post-Praxus years.

KAPLAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

word to your q’AmBrku

yeah I just made that word up…does it look Klingon?

Aside from Kang or Kor, I could do without most of the TOS Klingons. Those were the only two that seemed like ‘real’ Klingons to me. Most of the others were just dudes in makeup. Ansara – for me – is the definitive Klingon. His voice commands your attention all by itself.