SDCC17: See ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Klingon Costumes And Props

The Star Trek: Discovery exhibit opened on Thursday at the Michael J. Wolf Fine Arts Gallery, located a couple of blocks away from Comic-Con at the San Diego Convention Center. Along with genuine props, costumes and sketches from Discovery, a captain’s chair where you can take photos and a Star Trek gift shop, there are Klingon costumes and weapons on display. Here’s a close-up look.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Descriptions of all items comes from the placards in the exhibit.

Klingon costumes

Helmet and Collar 

This is personalized for a high-ranking officer; each warrior’s battle armor is unique. The full body armor suit and helmet can fully retract and extend from the collar, achieved by a combination of physical elements and VFX. (Built by Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page’s Alchemy Studios.)

Klingon helmet and collar from SDCC Star Trek: Discovery exhibit

 

Torchbearer Armor

Serves as both an EV space suit and battle armor, and worn only by a warrior chosen through a sacred ritual to serve as the Torchbearer, who can sound The Call for all the Klingon houses to unite by activating a ceremonial obelisk. (Made using cutting edge 3D techniques. A hundred individual components were made from Neville Page’s digital designs.)

Klingon Torchbearer armor from Star Trek: Discovery exhibit at SDCC

 

House of T’Kuvma Klingon Uniform – Female

A representation of the style worn by female members and followers of the House of T’Kuvma. (These were built piece-by-piece with hand-pressed leathers that were individually stained, painted, and molded for texture. Designed by Gersha Phillips and Suttirat Anne Larlarb, each costume take a team of ten costumers about 110 hours to create.)

House of T'Kuvma female warrior - Star Trek: Discovery at SDCC


House of T’Kuvma Klingon Uniform – Male

This gray uniform is worn by male members and followers of the House. The design pays tribute to Klingon ancestors and the path of honor walked by Kahless the Unforgettable.

House of T'Kuvma male warrior - Star Trek: Discovery at SDCC

 

Klingon Props

 

Bat’leth

A Klingon warrior’s preferred weapon. (The original model was hand sculpted out of high-density foam, then turned into a 3D model and milled out of aluminum. Handle is hand carved and then cast in rubber.)


Torchbearer D’k tahg

Ceremonial blades on the boots of the Torchbearer’s suit. (Built by Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page’s Alchemy Studios, they are reimagined versions of the Klingon weapons from Star Trek: The Next Generation and other films & series. The daggers, helmets, and full suits embraced & augmented the culture notes from the original series Klingons.)

Klingon Disruptor

A weapon used by all Klingon warriors. (Entirely 3D printed, with a hollowed-out aluminum center for electronics and batteries. Inspired by the Klingon disruptors seen on TNG.)

Klingon Disruptor Rifle

When a bat’leth won’t do the job, a warrior turns to his rifle. (Inspired by the TNG disruptors, and made to look as ‘nasty’ as possible.)

 

Klingon Mek’leth

A ceremonial bladed warrior’s weapon used in close quarters combat, individualized to both the warrior and his/her House. (Made from hand sculpted high-density foam and then turned into a 3D model and milled out aluminum.)

 

The Discovery exhibit will run Thursday, July 20 through Sunday, July 23 at the Michael J. Wolf Fine Arts Gallery. Hours are 11am to 7pm each day and you will not need a Comic-Con badge for entry.

More TrekMovie SDCC coverage

SDCC: Klingon Torchbearer Revealed + Gentle Giant Announces Discovery Collectibles

SDCC17: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Concept Art Details Klingon And Federation Ships

Stay tuned to TrekMovie all week and weekend for our full team coverage of San Diego Comic-Con.

Star Trek: Discovery premieres on September 24th on CBS with all subsequent episodes on CBS All Access in the US. See our Discovery info page for more details.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.

77 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

WTF IS THIS? These aren’t Klingon. These look like something else entirely. WHY MUST YOU KEEP SCREWING UP STAR TREK, CBS?!

Cuz Star Trek doesn’t fit in your box?

They are Klingon now.

Naaah, the Klingons we saw on the other shows and movies were not the real Klingons. This is them finally being brought fully to life. (Yes, I’m slightly trolling here)

@Mawazi — trolling or not, I totally agree. I like this approach much better than anything I saw in the 80s or 90s. I welcome the changes.

I’m interested to see their take on this. And I grew up with TOS. I love their attention to detail. And this looks like the original plans for the Klingons that couldn’t be done because of constraints of effects and budget.

Got to give an old-school fan credit for being open to something new. You’re not condemning it outright and you’re not overly effusive in premature praise, but giving it a chance to see where it may go. A lot of people could learn from that.

Not only are they now Klingon, they look VERY Klingon to me. “Klingon evolved”– particularly if these are from the ancient Klingons we see in the sarcophagus, they jibe with what an ancient style batleth would look like.

ancient? these are supposed to be about 90-100 years from the 24th century Klingons. and spock was around to see these… i wouldn’t say ancient at all. they just re-imagined it to look the way they look. the bat’leth of kahless was a thousand years or something…

@Nick – did you miss the part where CBS describes them as “ancient”? The debate is, does that mean these are ancient Klingons in the sense of very old Klingons who were in cryostasis or their specific house was very hold (Im thinking the latter).

We do not talk about it with outsiders.

whine whine whine…..

It all seems in fitting with a deep, conservative, warrior culture to me. The deep sense of Klingon honour and pride seeps through into the intricacy of the designs of the costumes and props. It’s all just in a higher definition, and built in much better quality, than we have seen before.

Everything looks tremendous

I’m a bit nervous about cgi helmets extending from the collar or whatever.

Probably like the Ja’fa armour on stargate

Why the helmet will most likely be the actual costume prop we see here. They’ll probably just use CGI for the transition effect; for extending and collapsing the helmet, I mean.
I’ve got to admit that I find the general idea sorta off-putting though. Like someone played too much ‘Dead Space’… or rather like CBS going: “Young folks love video games. Put some more of that video gamey stuff in there!”

In my opinion It’s just a new and fresh take on the Klingons and their styling. So what, there have been multiple changes in the past. Yes, it’s been a while since we’ve seen any major changes (apart from the Kelvin movies) but hey, it’s a new Trek. Let them have their take on the Klingons. It might take some time getting used to but I think it looks great!
As long as the series stays true to the core Trek values then to me it’s a worthy addition to our beloved Trek universe.

To me, this wave of props is what has me most excited. These weapons look AMAZING. My real fear was they’d do away entirely with the batleths, d’aktahgs, and such.

But again, these seem perfectly in line with what a race of “ancient Klingons” would have used.

They basically DID do away with the Bat’leth entirely. If the broader curve were pointed (literally by having its points reoriented) to face in the direction of the inner curve, then it would be in line with the profile of a Bat’leth.

Hear, hear, Stan and Torchwood. As I am fond of saying, it’s about time that the 23rd century entered the 21st century. 8-)

Exactly. To me, it seems they are trying to distinguish the Klingons even more from the other species in lore. They are driven by their tradition. their culture, their conservatism. Unlike the pragmatic Romulans, the relentless Borg, the xenophobic Dominion. The Klingons are driven by their culture, their deep religious and traditional beliefs, their sense of honour. This draws them into conflict with an Earth (and by extension, a Federation) that believes in peace, exploration, and advancement for all. Of all the Trek species, they are the most like our sovereign nations today – whereas the Federation is where many of us believe mankind should be (and I’m politically conservative, go figure).

Not gonna lie, I love all the weapons. Recognizable but updated. Not sure about the ships. Nicely done.

That Disruptor and Disruptor Rifle are great.

I have a deep love for all eras of Klingons, but seeing their culture fleshed out like this really excites me. Let’s not pretend the TNG-era of Klingons didn’t border on being a bunch of bumbling space Vikings at times.

Pretend? I thought that’s why everybody loved them so much! ;)

That’s because that IS why everybody loved them so much.

I think here we’re going to see the Klingons in their pomp. By the TNG era, after Praxis, Khitmoer, Narendra III, and so on, they were largely a dying Empire. In TOS, the Klingons were compared to the USSR, but in later iterations I think they had more in common with the British – a diminishing power clinging on (no pun intended) to their past power and glory and cultural pride, and trying to find their place in a galaxy that is moving on (though always at the forefront when action needed to be taken). Though I do accept that if you assume that Trek Earth is an analogy of the USA, then Vulcan is possibly the correct analogy of Britain (if you accept the UK/USA vs Greece/Rome historical analogy of the elder culture guiding and inspiring the younger).

I know people connected with the show have referenced Game of Thrones as an inspiration, but seeing all of this stuff makes me think more of the detail work put into Lord of the Rings.

Exactly what I was thinking earlier when I said that the production design looks absolutely cinematic. It’s no wonder that it is taken this long to get the show on air; quality work like this doesn’t happen overnight.

@ Scott: Agree. When they started releasing all these highly detailed props and costumes I thought: Now I believe them when they say designing and making all of these was at least one of the reasons Discovery was delayed. Also if you read in the article that “each costume take a team of ten costumers about 110 hours to create” this sounds extreme for a TV production.

Having seen the LOTR props and costumes up close, I agree. It’s as if WETA was doing the series. And I like it.

I’m curious if they’ll have some TOS-style Klingons for the “modern” era, if these are indeed ancient ones with ceremonial (but functional) armor and weapons.

If these are ancient Klingons, I will guess they’ll also do an update to the TOS Klingons, but nothing this drastic. Probably updated fabrics, detailing, and maybe a few stylistic changes.

I would be cool with that.

If for no other reason then it would cool the yapping of some of the skeptics around here. ;)

Im curious of the role they seemingly offered to Dorn. Would it have been to play a completely unrelated Klingon with this new styling? Or would it have been “Worf” an ancestor of ‘our’ Worf?

Its almost too bad he didnt take it as it would have been fun to have him in another series. But perhaps a bit too cute…too distracting.

If they wanted him and he’s interested (we know he’s interested in Trek) I’d imagine there will be an opportunity for him to guest appear at some point, perhaps as savvy lawyer Colonel Worf.

I, too, wish Dorn had agreed to do at least a cameo. Given the number of hours in the franchise, Spock and Worf have almost become the connective tissue that holds it all together. We already have Sarek, but imagine the story possibilities if T’Kuvma’s house was Worf’s house – going from enemy of the Federation and the most influential house in the Empire (possibly, this is just speculation), to first Klingon in Starfleet from a house that becomes dishonoured through nefarious power play and intrigues. Only for him to get a shot at the Chancellorship and turn it down.

I likee. If the writing, acting, photgraphy, direction, etc is this good then hot damn!!! We got us a shiny new Trek!

Is it possible half the Klingon storyline is flashback narrative pre-ENT/Discovery? Like it open ups with text that says QRONOS 2017?
You know they’re trying out different storytelling devices more in line with contemporary dramas.

I doubt it but it would be pretty cool to see one of the major alien species in TODAY’s time.

The Klingon armor looks like someone was wayyy too inspired by HR Giger and the look of the Predator.

Agreed. It doesn’t look Klingon. It doesn’t look like it’s even TRYING to look Klingon.

Is there such a thing as being TOO inspired by HR Giger?

Why are some assuming these are 23rd century Klingons? To me, it looks like they’re going for some kind of ancient religious order with these guys. Maybe revived after centuries? Maybe the sarcophagus ship is another type of sleeper ship?

We’ll see…

There has to be a reason for a Sarcophagus ship. And didnt one description mention Kahless? Perhaps this ancient house was tasked with guarding Khaless’ body and whatever happens in the premiere “kills” him, leading the specific house to declare war.

That’s one explanation that would hold water with me. These look nothing like the Klingons in the Enterprise or TOS eras. The only explanation that would work for me is that they are holdovers from the ancient past, or intruders from the far future… and we had enough of that far future idiocy in Enterprise.

Why can’t they be 23rd Century Klingons? We come from a planet so diverse that we have homo-sapiens sapiens of many different colours and sizes. Yet we are all human. Of all the billions of Klingons that possibly existed in the 22nd Century, surely not all succumbed to the Augment Virus. And, by extension, possibly not all had the same cranial features. Perhaps, to Klingons, cranial construction is as skin colour is to us. Let’s not forget that General Chang and Chancellor Azetbur in STVI had only slight cranial ridges.

WOW. Wow, wow, wow. The production design was clearly done with an eye towards making this look as fantastically detailed and realistic-looking as possible for UHD 4K. And just imagine the cosplay possibilities…! I am, quite frankly, flabbergasted.

Does CBSAA stream in 4K now? Since Im in Canada the best I can hope for is really good 720HD but if its good Ill buy the 4K Blu Rays (or watch in 4K on Netflix if it ever ends up on the Canadian version).

like swords of earth, there are possibly many different styles and designs depending on who made them… like ninja swords to knights swords, broad swords to kitanas…

And those used for ceremonial purposes and given as awards, and those designed for actual combat.

Wow, the props are amazing. I really love this shit. Great work!

Lovin’ it! Very excited or this.

ahem…’for’ this.

The House of T’Kuvma is a fundamentalist house of inbreds, dedicated to ultra-Klingon fanciness. Remember where you read it first!

btw, has anyone else watched the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action movie as a child? You know, the one with the Vanilla Ice cameo? There’s that scene towards the end when the Shredder comes into contact with the Turtles-mutagen and when he emerges, his costume is even more brutal looking, with foot-long spikes and blades sticking out everywhere … that’s what those Klingon costumes look like!

Super Shredder was played by former WWE Superstar Kevin Nash. And while Nash never appeared in Star Trek, The Rock & The Big Show did. Wrestling and Star Trek!

No matter if they are indeed Ancient Klingons revived by some accident or whatever or simply a revamp of the old looks… I friggin love it!

It’s obvious the designers are going out of their way to make Klingons as contrasting to Starfleet as possible. It makes me a bit nervous AND excited at the same time.

The only patently awful thing here is the bat’leth. No hand protection. All you have to do to disarm your opponent is aim your blade at the middle and lob his fingers off, intentionally or otherwise. Bat’leth may be a preferred weapon of a Klingon warrior, but the most oft-used weapon must be a prosthetic arm-hook. ;)

Another key point about it, yeah. Klingons are a warrior people. Their weaponry DOES need those practical touches.

…well, aren’t the Klingons quite the ornamental, creative race these days. Who knew beneath all those lack of morals and fever to conquer the universe there was a race of misunderstood artisans, just waiting for their talents to break out…on their clothing…their armor, their guns, their knives…etc etc. Gives me cold chills! lol

…sadly, the other thing these prop tell me is that the Klingons are probably going to be in every.freaking.episode. ugh.

@jonboc,

Yeah, the showrunners very much conveyed that to Entertainment Weekly.

=============================

The Klingons will cause major intergalactic chaos in the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery.

The ridge-headed warrior race plays a huge role in the CBS All Access drama’s mysterious story, which is set during a Federation-Klingon cold war a decade before events in the original series.

http://ew.com/tv/2017/07/17/star-trek-discovery-klingons-photo/

So spiky. I’d cut myself doing laundry.

Not crazy about it. Louis XIV Klingons. If it is baroque they should fix it. I’d like to see some in-story explanation for the changes. Wish they would’ve went for a different time period myself.

Ok here is my in-universe theory: DISCOVERY is set ten years before Kirk. We know these Klingons are suppose be on mission to reunite the houses of the Empire. I think they’ve been in isolation, on sarcophagus ships and were out of contact with the disease that made the others more human. Maybe they left specifically because of the threat to their way of life that the augment disease presented. Their DNA will over time make the Klingons look like themselves again. This could also explain the difference in culture that we see in TOS. They are still maniacal and unconcerned with honor. Ten years is not enough time for reform. The introduction of these klingons will reintroduce traditional Klingon feudal culture also, making way Worf and his kind.

What do you all think?

It’s actually not ten years before Kirk in the strictest sense. It’s ten years before TOS. Kirk took command of his Enterprise after 14 years in service. That would mean that somewhere in Starfleet during Discovery there is a Lieutenant Kirk off on some ship, 4 years out of the academy.

Or in the JJVerse Kirk took command 15 minutes after graduating from the academy. I’m agnostic on the JJVerse–not a complete hater but not in love either. But that plot point just seemed ludicrous. Would rather that the Trek ’09 did a flash forward or flash back to show both the academy meet ups and the taking of the center seat.

Given there is a young Lt. Kirk running around and a Spock with Capt Pike on the Enterprise, I hope Discovery tries to stand on its own, and does not try to wank some fan service cameos or more of said characters. Plus I may be in a minority, but I don’t want to see 1000 different actors playing Kirk and Spock. I’d much rather Trek go in the direction of TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise and explore other character stories rather than retreading, rebooting, and recasting what has gone before.

Ok, how about engaging my actual theory?

Most of the Klingon stuff looks quite impressive, but I wonder how they are supposed to fight with this ultra-thin new bat’leth…

Perhaps it is ceremonial, but if you compare it to a baton then it looks much more flexible than the TNG era model. Something akin to Darth Maul’s double-edged light sabre, but with more blades.

I’m not sure that I like the new Bat’leth, though I’m sure I’ll warm to it. Otherwise, I love everything,

Yuck!

In all honesty, I’d be afraid of these Klingons if I was a Starfleet officer. These would be the aliens who would put fear in me and my fellow officers. For what they were always supposed to be, I like what I’m seeing.

Yes, I would be frightened too, if they come in the middle of a battle and want to do your make up and high heels.

We never saw any of the bladed weapons from the movies or TNG or the cartoons or the comics. Besides, these are new factions which were probably ostracized and isolated from “normal society”, so they might be “forced by circumstances” to kludge together their own stuff from whatever scraps they find lying around. We just don’t know yet.

I’m not sure why it’s so important to people that every single design decision needs to slavishly adhere to everything the production teams for The Motion Picture and The Search for Spock did. Those movies are over 30 years old and frankly Klingon aesthetics were getting rather tired by the time DS9 trotted out all the bad wigs it could find for “Apocalypse Rising.” These designs are sumptuous, just let it go!

I love the level of detail in the Klingon designs. It shows that whilst they are a warrior people, they also have artisans and a deep, rich culture. It shows their culture and their pride – in a very similar way to ceremonial weapons in our own Earth cultures. There may be a big difference between the bladed weapons Klingons use for ceremonial purposes (similar to those awarded to military officers for achievements and service, or as part of dress uniform) and those used in actual combat. It seems they are adding yet more depth to what is arguably the most vividly described species in Trek lore. The Klingons, of all Trek species, have always been to me the most ‘human’ – and it is easy to see how such a race of proud warrior artisans and culturally deep people could be our allies by the 24th Century (it’s also easy to see why humans and Klingons were in conflict for so long – they are very similar, though neither would admit it). The Klingons are us from another planet, much more so than the Vulcans for example (though they are more of an ideal: where many of us would like to be).

…very, very, very interesting =P
very ornate and detailed (too much so?)
not sure about the overall effect though…