New Detail On Voq Plus More ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Character And Behind-The-Scenes Images

As we get closer to the September 24th premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, more and more little bits of information and promotional elements are being released about the show. Yesterday we shared the new web trailer, but there are a few more bits since then, including some info on Voq, new character animations, and some behind-the-scenes photos.

A bit more about Voq – but who is the actor?

Two weeks ago we reported on 11 new Star Trek: Discovery character ‘eye’ posters, one of which was of a new Klingon character named Voq. CBS hasn’t released any details about Voq, but this morning CBS posted a new character video of Voq, with the info that he is a warrior from the House of T’Kuvma (played by Chris Obi).

Voq, Klingon Warrior from House of T'Kuvma. Stream #StarTrekDiscovery starting 9/24 on CBS All Access.

A post shared by Star Trek Discovery (@startrekcbs) on

As we reported from Star Trek Las Vegas, not all the Klingons on the show are in the same house.  Kol, played by Kenneth Mitchell, is from the House of Kor, and Mary Chieffo says her character L’Rell is from two houses, T’Kuvma and Mo’Kai.

There is a bit of a mystery about who plays Voq. He is the only character who has garnered his own promotional poster but never had a casting announcement, unlike the other Klingon characters like Chris Obi (T’Kuvma), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Kenneth Mitchell (Kol), Clare McConnell (Dennas) and Damon Runyan (Ujilli).

There is some online speculation that Kol is played by Sam Witwer (Battlestar Galactica, Being Human USA). Witwer, who played a Xindi-Arboreal on Star Trek: Enterprise in the episode “The Shipment,” happens to be a big Star Trek fan and is friends with both Kenneth Mitchell and Discovery producer Ted Sullivan. At Star Trek Las Vegas, Mitchell revealed that Witwer helped him prepare for his role by showing him various episodes featuring Klingons, and Sullivan has tweeted about how he and Witwer talk Trek via text. Even William Shatner got in on the speculation about whether or not Witwer will be on the show. (He did not get an answer.)

More character animations

In our last two Discovery round-ups we showed six character animations posted on social media by CBS. In the last few days they have released four more, including one of Cadet Tilly with a tricorder.

Starfleet Academy Cadet Sylvia Tilly. Stream #StarTrekDiscovery starting Sept. 24 on #CBSAllAccess!

A post shared by Star Trek Discovery (@startrekcbs) on

Starfleet Officer Lieutenant Ash Tyler. Stream #StarTrekDiscovery starting Sept. 24 on #CBSAllAccess!

A post shared by Star Trek Discovery (@startrekcbs) on

T'Kuvma, Klingon leader. Stream #StarTrekDiscovery starting Sept. 24 on CBS All Access.

A post shared by Star Trek Discovery (@startrekcbs) on

 

Ted’s behind-the-scenes adventure

Discovery co-executive producer Ted Sullivan has taken a lot of photos on the set, but due to secrecy he hasn’t been able to share them. For the last few months, he’s been posting behind-the-scenes images from past Star Trek shows and movies instead. But it seems CBS has now given Ted the green light to start sharing some actual photos from the Discovery set on social media. Here is what he posted this week on Twitter.

According to Trek lore, both Captain Jonathan Archer (ENT) and Commander Data (TNG) were known to have been awarded the Starfleet’s Star Cross medal.

Based on this tweet featuring director Adam Kane, it appears that Ted took this photo during production on the second episode (or part 2 of the pilot episode).

You may recognize the yellow room from the first trailer which showed Michael Burnham on the bed in what we now know to be the sickbay. It could be as a result of the damaged EVA suit, as we saw her floating unconscious in space with a cracked helmet in the second trailer.

Michael Burnham in sickbay bed

Star Trek: Discovery premieres on September 24th on CBS with all subsequent episodes on CBS All Access in the US.  In Canada Star Trek: Discovery will premiere  on Bell Media’s CTV and the Space Channel on the same night. Netflix will launch Star Trek: Discovery on Monday, September 25 to countries outside of the U.S. and Canada.

 

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Still on the fence about the show, and I’ll reserve my judgement till the show airs… but the klingons still have not won me over at all. Their heads look like I just opened the sees candy variety box.

Voq’s head looks like a white chocolate coated candy variety which might have a nougat interior.

Yeah. Why didn’t they just create a new species instead of using “klingons” That look nothing like klingons.

Add hair and they do. If you’re talking about TOS Klingons, then no Klingons from TMP on don’t.

Because fans would moan about that. “Why haven’t we seen them in the TNG?!” etc.

The producers cannot win whatsoever

His bat’leth is an interesting design as well. Assuming that is a bat’leth. It looks different than any of the weapons I have seen previously. Not sure why they aren’t confirming who plays him. What purpose does that even serve?

According to placards where the prop was displayed, that is indeed a bat’leth. I have no idea why it looks that way. Bat’leth translates to “sword of honor”, but that doesn’t look like a sword by any stretch of the imagination.

Thanks for the confirmation. It looks like it would be difficult to maneuver in an actual fight. However maybe the designed was selected more for aesthetic reasons rather than it’s practical uses.

So for three days now, I keep thinking about white chocolate. Thanks!

When do we get details on the USS Discovery itself? I remember months before Enterprise premiered, TV Guide did a detailed layout of the NX-01. What’s the delay?

:(.

We know what she looks like. I can wait a few weeks for the hero shots. The question of the mission intrigues me more – if this is a ship launched after the Constitution Class programme, then why was it launched?

Either building to it. Or preserving some surprises.

the way they are showing too much stuff tells me its going to be a bomb..
even the stills and trailers look bad

You are not a fan. Feel free to go away.

Lol, no.

LOL at first, when they were not showing anything that was a sure sign they had a bomb on their hands and the show was either hopelessly behind or too scared to show anything out of fear of rejection. Now its showing TOO MUCH which means its a sure sign of a bomb on its hands. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a Trek fan.

It’s new hours of Star Trek, Buck, be happy!

Did you ever see the trailers for Wrath of Khan? Seriously, look them up. They’re nothing but two minute synopsis’s of the movie….

So, Voq doesn’t have purple skin…

Barenaked Ladies ‘The Ballad of Gordon’ “So if you’re thinking about being a spaceman,
It don’t matter if you’re black or white. Or purple…..”

That was Kol with the purple skin.

I know it not a great angle for comparison but if you look at Sam Witwer as a Xindi and Voq even though his face is covered in prosthetics look similar. Im putting my money on Sam Witwer as Voq. So far everything is looking fantastic in the trailers and the clips up on Instagram. I especially love the music they are using in the promos, from the weapons to the characters, hoping it resembles the music in the show.

Speaking of the music in the promos….Is it just me or is Lt. Tyler’s music “darker” sounding than Cadet Tilly’s? The music for the Klingon all sound very similar as well. They appear to have a theme going for them. I like it.

There is definitely different music for different characters. With Tyler’s background as a former POW giving him a darker theme makes sense. No idea whether these are actual themes from the score for Discovery or just stock music.

In the space of two comments, we have people complaining they’re sharing too much and complaining they’re sharing too little. I’m just happy to see new Trek.

Amen!

I am super excited for the series. I couldn’t give a rat’s backside that it looks like JJTrek, or the fact it doesn’t look like TOS, or the fact that the main character was Sarek’s foster child… I’m so happy that Trek is coming back to TV (sort of).

That’s because this board, lately, is filled with whiny babies who aren’t actually Trek fans.

No – the whining proves they are Trek fans. We’re the most fickle group on the planet.

Same!

Me too, especially considering the absolute drought of any news on the next film. Considering how Paramount is floundering right now, you’d think they’d want to fast track this to make up for the fact that Transformers is finally showing some franchise fatigue(several movies too late, but what can ya do?).

Nice sets. Am I wrong or is it retired officers who would keep their medals on the wall. On active duty you wear the medal occasion, or the ribbon, but a display seems superfluous, and or super ballsy.

Yep! That makes no sense why she would display it when if she attended a formal dinner she would have to take it down to wear it.

Would she keep it in her sock drawer normally? Or would a case she could open and take the medal be appropriate?

In real life it’s kept in box with a lid, like the one it’s was received in, and placed in a drawer. A sock drawer could work since it would be easily accessibly for the times in which you would need it for ceremonial occasions.

Maybe in the episode, its displayed for a reason. or maybe she displayed it in her quarters because, while on assignment, she knows there wont be cause to wear it for any Star Fleet ceremonies.

I can’t help but feel this show is just missing too many visual touchstones to the prime timeline to be truly a prime timeline series. Some of it feels like it should be post Nemesis(Shenzou design), some of it feels spot on(phaser/communicator/Tricorder) as an updated old school look, the actors are all wonderful…

I wish they would have either stuck it further behind The Cage (by maybe another dozen years or so) or just made it a post Nemesis series. I still maintain they could have made it look both modern as well as “correct” (with regards to set/costume design). Fans have done it numerous times including the following modernized TOS bridge put into TOS footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCPdmOuzYrM

@Will — that looks horrible. I would laugh my head off if a new Star Trek series tried to pass that off as the new art direction, unless of course it was a paradoy like The Orville is of TNG, which looks appropriately 1990s cheesy.

“unless of course it was a paradoy like The Orville is of TNG, which looks appropriately 1990s cheesy.”

The Orville may have started out as a parody but I’ve got an inkling it will turn into something else: true, traditional, nostalgia-driven space opera, a counterpoint to modern-day “mature” and “adult” genre stuff, a counterpoint to DISCO!
If Fox takes it too far, CBS might actually sue them, because I’m absolutely sure, many, many old-school Trekkers will love The Orville but loath this official Star Trek made for a “modern-day audience”…

Those premium cable, mature and adult series are such a mixed bag. There are shows I can enjoy DESPITE all the graphic violence and sexual boundary-pushing: Game of Thrones and The Expanse being the best ones around out there, Gotham is good enough to enjoy.
Other shows I just hate: The Walking Dead and American Gods are unwatchable, and the Marvel Netflix shows feel just wrong.

But NONE of this stuff I want Star Trek to emulate but that’s what they are clearly doing here. A TV-MA Star Trek show, visually embracing darkness, war, terror, graphic violence, exploiting current trends for marketing purposes…

The Orville and (probably) Galaxy Quest are our only hope for decent Star Trek-ish material for those who are unwilling to subscribe to that modern-day template…

Orville offers nothing but bad acting, parody,nostalgia, and if there’s any drama, likely contrived. It has one significant fatal flaw — MacFarlane is the star. No way I can ever accept it as a substitute to Star Trek, no matter how enjoyable it may be, or how different DISC may be as the torchbearer. However DISC turns out, it will be real, whereas Orville will always be breaking the 4th wall, conspicuously calling attention to that which it parodies. MacFarlane is not proven himself capable of anything deeper.

@Curious Cadet,

Wait, I didn’t know that Fox has already released ‘The Orville’. I take it that you’ve seen all 13 episodes then, right?

Otherwise, it’s too idiotic to come to these conclusions without watching a single episode.

@ahmed… You mean like the way you talk about Discovery as if it’s been out already. That’s the pot calling the kettle black. Hypocrite.

@Trek fan 67,

No, grandpa. I comment on what I see in the trailers and the info given by the production team.

To talk about “bad acting” or to suggest “if there’s any drama, likely contrived” or that the “Orville will always be breaking the 4th wall, conspicuously calling attention to that which it parodies.” before even watching a single episode is simply stupid.

And I know that as member of the board of directors as you’ve noted upthread./S

Wow. You really are a piece of work. Rude AND a know it all. All you do is mouth off. Just because YOU don’t like what you see doesn’t mean others have to agree with your opinion. You obviously don’t like what you see and you continuously whine about it like a spoiled little child. It’s like you feel personally insulted.

Considering the people and posts have been singled out for moderation the fact Ahmed gets free reign is curious and disappointing. He’s a disaster.

The only reason Orville is taken remotely seriously is because this site treats it as such and it’s an easy thing for the negative irrational types to hold up in their attacks on discovery.

The fact anyone who be critical of discovery while using Orville as a better example is not only hilariously transparent, it’s demonstrably ridiculous.

I’ll watch. And it might be good. But it won’t be serious Star Trek. It’s not Star Trek at all.

@ Smike

Orville is a parody and a vanity project for Seth. Expect a lot of fart jokes and sexual inuendos. Family Guy in space…

Obviously, that is a fan creation from a few years ago. I am not saying to copy and paste that design. It was an example of modernizing the old. My point is there is a way to modernize the existing look so it can be recognized as fitting with the established things in the universe continuity while allowing it to match a modern (as in era in which the series is produced) design aesthetic.

With regards to the look of the CG set replacement in a general sense, the lighting style required of that fan CG set work was very obviously dictated by how the actors were lit in the source footage as it was intended to show the artists skill at set realistic set replacement (in addition to their design work to modernize TOS’s sets to no longer be what a lot of people complain about as “CARDBOARD ZOMG SO CRAP I CAN’T WATCH THIS WITHOUT THINKING IT LAUGHABLE”).

I would be willing to bet you that if you took exactly the CG set created there and lit it with the modern aesthetic and style they use (where there can be more areas in shadow and much more dramatic lighting schemes creating interesting shadows and highlighted areas) it would look pretty on point. One would probably need to update the computer screens some but I still maintain that what is being presented in Discovery does not have enough, from what has been seen so far, to tie it into the spot it claims to be in in the continuity of the universe.

I firmly believe the art direction of the show has people capable of doing exactly what I propose (that is, to update the existing world of Prime Cage era Trek to a modern aesthetic but still leave it easily recognized at a glance as a specific era of Star Trek without incongruity of design cues). My reason for believing that is how great the phaser, communicator, and tricorder turned out. Instantly recognizable as fitting the design scheme of that era.

Finally, there are rumors that a decent portion of this show was basically “Design by committee.” In my opinion, and if true, I think that could be why some of the design work is spot on while a lot of it feels incredibly generic to at least a portion of the fandom.

I totally agree with Will. I get the feeling the the “ZOMG CARDBOARD CRAP” people are the same that cannot watch old black and while movies because they don’t look like today’s movies and because the acting. lighting, camera direction, etc. styles are different (no, not worse, just different).

But how many movies do they make TODAY that imitates those old black and white films of the past? Everyone can watch something that is ALREADY old just fine and accept it for what it is, ie, watching TOS in 2017. Its a totally different thing to emulate that same style in 2017 when so many film making, production design and acting techniques are just different now.

I cam watch old movies and shows just fine. It doesn’t mean I want modern ones to look like those either.

The updated look of tos bridge I’ve seen looks good. I can’t open the link above as I’m in a bad cell area. But if it’s the quick fan made one with the flat screens etc it’s good.

Certainly on a cbs budget they can do even better. Hopefully we get a constitution update on discovery.

I’m optimistic about discovery but this argument is why I was hoping for an Enterprise B series where the tech updates would be less jarring.

Its not bad (and I have liked that actual video before) but the set still feels like its stuck in the 60s, just with a bit more updated technology.

Yeah, this might have fit with the TOS movie era but it’s not an extrapolation of the present into the 23rd century.

As I clarified above, I didn’t mean for Discovery to just lift that design style (which, again, as I clarified above, is limited it how it could be lit by the existing source footage it was updating).

But generally, that video is an example of something that, in my opinion, would work without much backlash for a modern TOS era show (which was meant to take place alongside TOS proper and meant to treat the TOS era the way Jadzia did in DS9 where the “cheesy look” was just the era’s fashion sensibility). It accomplishes an update without overly calling attention to itself. Were we to not know what TOS looked like set wise (and were the set replacement 100% photo realistic), I believe we would accept that just fine.

Discovery is missing the touchstones that the fan set has for me (and seemingly a fair number of fans). I’m not saying I want Discovery to be super bright 1960’s colors… but, to be honest, even just getting the captains chair right (I am not a fan of the pyramid/triangular shapes they seem to be using) would have gone a long way for me. They nailed the phaser, communicator, and tricorder for me and I firmly think that they could have done better with the set designs.

Ok fair enough. Thats a valid point. I just think no matter what they did they would upset someone which is why I always come back to why try? Hopefully when you see the finished product your mind will change but I do have a feeling its going to put off a lot of old school fans. I’m personally not bothered by it but yes admit they probably went a bit too far with all the changes. Its obvious the small stuff like the tricorder and phasers is a way to feel something to this era but outside of those tiny things it is a whole new ball game. We have just a little more than a month to go to see if if the experiment will fail or not. I’m hoping it will be a hit.

For me, the thing that puts me off to the design work is that Star Trek, up until now, has had a logical progression in design. From TOS to TMP and each successive movie to TNG’s established middle era stuff through to the Nemesis look all had a major design flow going forward. Enterprise had some mis-steps with it (I would have preferred either their initial idea of season 1 ending with Enterprise launching or the fan preferred “start with season 4” idea) but it was far enough detached in the past of Star Trek and an era not previously seen so it made sense, to me, that in a post WWIII era they’d have basically tried to go back to what would, as depicted, be a post NASA type look.

The continuity of the universe is what made Star Trek great to me. That all the stories, even though they stand on their own, affected the greater whole of the universe in some way. It felt real because of the connective tissue which was readily seen when looked for. Discovery’s set design, so far as has been revealed, doesn’t fit that tapestry for me. The stories could be amazing, the actors wonderful, but for me, it will take some effort to fit it into the tapestry established thus far.

I guess… my best analogy for the disconnect and how jarring it feels to me would be if someone said they were making a direct prequel to Saving Private Ryan which followed Ted Danson’s guys and the events which landed them in the area to cross paths with Tom Hanks and company… and then they were all in ACUPAT uniforms riding around in Stryker APCs and everything had a USA flag on it somewhere and everyone kept telling me to accept it as a precursor to the events seen in Saving Private Ryan or else I wasn’t a fan of Saving Private Ryan at all.

At the end of it all, my full disclosure is this: Had they put Discovery in the post Nemesis era by 15 or 20 years I would have accepted literally every single design choice they have made without question, from uniforms to ship designs to set designs purely because I can see the design work tracking forward from where we left off and it fits easily there (especially the obvious John Eaves design influences on the Shenzhou).

That it takes place during The Cage era makes that a tough pill for me to swallow because I can’t find how it’s supposed to fit and directly end up feeding into TOS. They may wind up pulling off a master piece on their own terms or they may wind up pulling off an evolution towards TOS in later seasons, but as of right now, I have trouble fitting it into the prime universe and, as a result of that, I have trouble putting my weight of caring for Star Trek behind it. It took until Beyond for me to accept the JJ movies as being worth watching despite my loving everything the actors were doing and, superficially, a large olive branch to help it fit was the change in the uniforms to looking closer to the TOS ones. But, admittedly, I freaking HATE how micro-printed patterns are so popular going back to when Superman Returns plunked the “S” down all over the S on his chest.

“From TOS to TMP and each successive movie to TNG’s established middle era stuff through to the Nemesis look all had a major design flow going forward.”

I don’t think that’s true.

TOS – TMP: two-year refit, completely different feel!

TOS movies – TNG: almost 100 years have passed but they still use Klingon D7 class vessels and Birds of Prey, Excelsior and Oberth class vessels for budgetary purposes. Then they reuse NextGen sets for the last two TOS era movies…

Early TNG – DS9/FC/NEM: Only 10 years go by, but Starfleet changes its set of uniforms THREE TIMES. The ship designs go from ultra-spaced-out utopianism in Season 1 to dark, gritty battleship style for DS9 / FC-NEM… In the NextGen pilot, Picard was able to assure Q humanity had developed beyond militarism, ten years later the entire galaxy fights massive wars against the Borg and the Dominion.

There was NO logical progression, neither design-wise nor content-wise. They made it up along the way.

@Smike – thats true. To an extent we have to ignore the TNG pilot which was Gene Roddenberry nonsense.

Meyer had created a real identity for Star Trek by basing Star Fleet on navel military. It was much needed. TUC even touched on the differences when one Admiral asked if peace meant mothballing the Star Fleet and the reply was no, it doesnt change peace keeping or exploration.

That exchange showed that both sides of that coin exist but depending on your view, one could be far more important than the other.

For story line purposes, its easy to argue that Picard was making an argument to Q that humanity (and that alone was wierd since Star Fleet nor the Enterprise crew was fully human) had evolved beyond seeking out war. Their military was for defense.

You see, the thing about it is, though, that the progression moved forward through time into new periods not previously seen/established. The design can flow any way they decide to go without it contradicting something which came before it because, as I said, new time period not yet seen before. We have seen what The Cage era looked like in both The Cage and The Menagerie. We know, generally, what that time frame would look like because we have literally seen it before.

And again, I’m not saying to just do it exactly as shown in TOS. For example, I think the Beyond uniforms are a really good update to the TOS style without looking out of place or overly modern. They were a well designed take on the TOS simplicity while looking more like a tailored uniform cut.

They could have done that same exact type of thing to tie it together more, or kept ship interior scales looking similar, or a number of other design cues to tie it to the pre-established general vibe while still going to a new/modern look across the board.

“But, admittedly, I freaking HATE how micro-printed patterns are so popular going back to when Superman Returns plunked the “S” down all over the S on his chest.”

Continuity aside, I have a weakness for microprints. I just love these tiny little details adding so much depth to an HD product. I loved it on ST09 and this is one of the very few aspects I really like about DISCO already…

I get your point I do and again the reason WHY I just think it was a mistake to make it a prequel.

The perfect example is TNG. If they had made TNG but said it was actually a prequel to TOS where pretty much everything looks different and more advanced people would’ve went nuts at the time. But they were smart to NOT do that and people accepted pretty quickly its own style and make up because lets face it TNG and TOS didn’t have anything much in common in terms of their aesthetics. TNG was a complete redesign from top to bottom and you would only know they both existed in the same universe because we were told that. But yes it looks very very different for a reason: Stuff progressed and got better.

But I think this is the big problem for Discovery is that its basically another TNG at the end of the day. I don’t mean the tone or stories, relax people, but its a total redesign of the universe on basically everything we know, only this time it comes just a decade before TOS. But the uniforms, ships, make up and basic design looks like two completely different productions and its going to really bother people.

I’ll say it again, I’m personally fine with it. Mostly because while people were in this strange denial that the Klingons were going to look the same even after that photo leaked and that they were going to make it very TOS-y when Fuller went on record a year ago and said it was going to be a ‘re-imagining’ of Star Trek I knew what that meant from day one. I knew it would look exactly nothing like TOS just based on comments and the scant info we got. That and seeing what the Kelvin Timeline did with its style. I always knew thats the direction they would go in BECAUSE you now have a new generation of Trek fans who have been exposed to a very modern look and feel. It was no way they were going to go back to some nostalgia piece of the sixties to win over fans who are now OVER 60 to give them an updated TOS clone. That was never happening. Anyone who thought they were going to see a Constitution class type bridge were kidding themselves.

But again, its this weird double speak they do where they keep saying its really all in line with TOS when you really think about it although nothing remotely looks like it….minus the tricorders lol.

So I get what you are saying. But A. I always knew this was the direction they were going in for a long time now and B. I knew this is how some fans would react over it. I don’t understand why they feel the need to go back to this time if they are going to change everything and add in their own canon when they could’ve pulled a TNG, put the show after the others, still gave them a Klingon war that doesn’t conflict with canon and stuff like the uniforms and even Discovery herself conflicts to this period would fit fine farther into the future because so little of that has been written yet. But no one asked me.

All that said, if you are still here talking about it, clearly you plan to watch it. At this point you just have to give it an open mind and trust they know what they are doing. If not, just don’t watch and watch the old stuff from TOS to Enterprise as much as you want. Simple enough.

I just accept its different because it just is. End of the day none of that will ruin my enjoyment if we get a great show out of it.

“I don’t mean the tone or stories, relax people, but its a total redesign of the universe on basically everything we know”

The redesign of technical stuff, starship designs or uniforms doesn’t bother me one bit. It can change within ten years of fictional history or not. But Klingon hair doesn’t grow out of nothing and freaky nostrils don’t go away by being exposed to Stamet’s superfungi. BIOLOGICAL designs are somewhat fixed, technology and fashion is entirely secondary and they nailed phasers, tricorders etc. anyway.

The tone or stories however can not just ruin this particular series for me but all of Star Trek. The TV-MA aspect, if done over-the-top like on GOT or TWD, has definitely a ripple effect on how I perceive the entire legacy and franchise. It is absolutely impossible for me to draw a line between this production and what has come before. If this dragged down into pseudomature exploitation, it ruins everything for me… Happened to my perception of the Xverse and the Whoniverse… No way I can go back to the old stuff and enjoy it the same way as before. And that’s what bothers me the most…Klingon nostrils aside!

Well then Smike, the show just may not be for you then and thats OK. Its not going to be for everyone.

As far as the Klingons, I get your point but as said a hundred times they have been changed before. Yes, that change was explained but that explanation took literally decades to get after the fact. But the reality is the TOS Klingons look nothing like the later Klingons in the films and other shows. They are 180 degree different in nearly every way (and in a good way).

So yes they have been dramatically changed again but they have already hinted those differences are simply because there are many species of Klingons, which btw, how they should’ve been explained from day one between the TOS guys and the others. I’m OK with the Enterprise explanation and I do like how it ties into the Khan/augment stuff but the explanation they look different because they were born different probably works just fine.

My guess is thats just how we have to view these guys until we get more info about them. For the record I don’t like their look that much either and prefer the Klingons we had for decades now. And I hate whatever they are wearing but I also realize we only seen a few images of them and probably all from the pilot. And maybe you will simply adapt. If not, again, the show maybe just isn’t for you.

You base that on having seen it?

dude if you think that looks modern… then thank god you ant making the show

I didn’t say it looked modern. I said it was modernized. And it is when compared against the TOS sets, which was my point. But it’s easy to see what it is based on and how it is more modern but still holding to the general vibe. They could have easily done the same type of thing with the physical set and then lit it to a more modern aesthetic. Unless, of course, you’re telling me the phaser they designed to copy many major elements of the TOS phaser doesn’t fit because it’s not modern because it looks too old.

To be honest, I think a lot of people are conflating the set structure (as in the physical set itself) with the set lighting design (which creates contrast and mood). As I said above, the linked video is made in effort to blend seamlessly with the TOS footage meaning it is limited in how it can be lit and presented on camera (the lighting on the actors cannot change, nor can the camera move itself).

They certainly are dark and menacing in appearance. These are the most unpleasant looking creatures in Trek since the Xindi Reptilians in ENT. I suppose the goal here is to make the Federation’s number one enemy visually disturbing.

comment image

The problem is that the Xindi were an entirely new species whereas the Klingons – Star Trek’s most well-known species next to Vulcans, are turned into something completely different.
I have loved the Klingons for almost three decades, I had my beard and hair grown in Worf’s image and was happy to lose some hair above my forehead at 22 to look more like “a Klingon”… I had a Worf cardboard standee for ten years!
And all of this is turned to dust by these “new” Klingons with their oddly shaped heads, their biological inability to grow hair, their freaky double nostrils, their non-existent ears…
This is not “variety” we’re talking about, it’s something different replacing the old design. And I hate Fuller for that. He and his team have taking one of the core species of Star Trek and reshaped them for no reason but some potential visual appeal.

The Klingon design, along with the TV-MA rating of that show, makes it really hard to look forward to watching this at all, even if their aren’t any naked boobies on display…

Wah wah wah. Don’t watch it them.

“Wah wah wah. Don’t watch it then.”

Easier said than done. It’s not that I am in control of that. I am what I am. I normally watch every genre show.

I hate TWD but kept watching it for years. Same with American Gods. I hated S1 it but I’ll watch Season 2 nonetheless.

How would I even be remotely able not to watch a new Star Trek series??? I can speak out against certain elements, I can complain about the Klingon design, the TV-MA rating or the eventually inevitable first pair of actual boobs on Trek, but end of day, I am uncapable of not watching it. Matter of fact. Fact of life. Higher force. I am what I am. Sorry for that.

smike

And all of this is turned to dust by these “new” Klingons…

It’s a valid point. To-date, the DSC producers still have not give any reason for why they saw the need to break continuity with the Klingons of TMP through ENT, a 25-year-long tradition that saw these characters deeply developed dramatically. There’s no logical reason why, if the goal was to modernize the Klingons’ appearance, DSC couldn’t have simply updated the TMP-ENT aesthetic. They could have made the Klingon make-up a full-face prosthetic that retained the core, recognizable Klingon aesthetic, modernized the head ridges, tweeked this and that, etc. for the different varieties. And, they could have introduced the other Klingon varieties as lesser-known off-shoots or genotypes that were rarely seen by outsiders due to them not holding positions of power or high status within the empire. Some of the Klingon varieties could even be sort of reclusive, like the Aenar vis-a-vis the Andorians in ENT, which would explain our never having seen nor heard of them. Instead, the DSC producers have stated that they’re scrapping the 25-year Klingon tradition because “other productions have done it, so why shouldn’t we.”

Klingons have changed their look repeatedly over the years. Even the same character season to season.

Plus not all humans look alike so why should Klingons

But we can revisit the complaint once we see the series.

TUP

Klingons have changed their look repeatedly over the years. Even the same character season to season.

There was really only one major revamp of the Klingons, and that was in TMP. Since TMP, the basic Klingon look has not changed. What has changed have been incremental tweeks and modernizations of the sort that I was advocating for the DSC Klingons: keep the core, recognizable Klingon features, modernize them (as advances in technology allow), and then introduce variations on the main Klingon look (the one we’re all familiar with from 25 years of Trek) as the off-shoot Klingon genotypes that DSC wants to do (for whatever reason). There was no reason why the core Klingon aesthetic and 25-year tradition had to be scrapped. At least, no reason has been given.

P.S. And, that one change in the Klingons’ appearance that occurred for TMP was a self-evident improvement, as it took an alien species that looked like swarthy humans and changed them into a species that looked significantly different from humans. Being that Klingons are an alien species, it’s obvious why they were changed to look like an alien species. There’s no obvious reason why the core TMP-ENT look had to be totally scrapped instead of modernized and tweaked.

The offshoot genotype is a good idea. Everyone gets the Klingon they know and love and the producers get the opportunity to try something new. Hopefully they have taken some of the concerns about changing their appearances and will include the old style in some episodes as a way of making everything canon.

Steph

The offshoot genotype is a good idea. Everyone gets the Klingon they know and love and the producers get the opportunity to try something new.

Exactly. And thank you.

You forget that the Klingons look changed from TMP to TSFS as well.

@Cyg – I agree, the most major change was from TOS to TMP. Every other change was different variations on the same theme, which this is too.

TMP, the TOS Films, TNG season to season, JJ films and Discovery. All variations on a theme.

TUP

Every other change was different variations on the same theme, which this is too.

I don’t see it that way. If these DSC Klingons hadn’t been labeled as such, I wouldn’t necessarily have known that they’re Klingons. If they’d been presented as some other species, my reaction wouldn’t have been, “they look just like Klingons.” To me, the DSC revamp looks like a different species———at best, a species related to Klingons, which is why they could be genetic off-shoots. This is a re-imagining, shall we say, of what Klingons look like, in the same way that the TMP Klingons were a re-imagining of the TOS Klingons. The difference is that there’s no self-evident reason for the DSC re-imagining, and no reason has been given, apart from “other productions changed them, too.”

DSC could have made all of their changes, but kept the Klingons’ hair, which has been a major feature of the species, conveying associations of both samurai and viking warrior cultures as major ingredients of the Klingons’ culture, dramatically developed over the course of 25 years, mostly in TNG and DS9. Or, at the very least, DSC could have acknowledged the TMP-ENT Klingons as the main genotype and the new Klingons as off-shoots that have been kept out of power by the main genotype, which would explain why we hadn’t seen them in previous series, and would have a plethora of dramatic implications, potentially yielding many story ideas. There’s no self-evident reason why the TMP-ENT Klingons had to be completely scrapped.

Come on..they are CLEARLY Klingons. And if this exact design was used for a new species, we’d all be complaining about how much they look like Klingons.

“Plus not all humans look alike so why should Klingons”

You’ve been giving this excuse time and again. But you fail to see the point. If they show an ancenstor of Worf with no hair, double nostrils etc, your theory is out of the airlock.
All Klingons on this show have the same basic features as opposed to TMP-ENT Klingons: no CAPABILITY to grow any hair included. That’s already been clarified by numerous statements. They try to stick to canonical events but the VISUAL appearance of the Klingons is the one exception, the one creative liberty they have claimed for themselves… I don’t need to see a single episode of DISCO to confirm that. Again, IF there are Klingons with hair at some point, I stand corrected, but I highly doubt that…
And that is a life-changing development for someone who had based his personal appearance on a fictional character like Worf for decades! My bad, I know… shouldn’t have done that. Could have had a better life without long hair and beard…

@ smike: If I remember correctly, ENT used genetic modification (by the Augment virus) to “explain” the difference in appearance between TOS and the other shows and movies. If they really wanted to, they could use the same excuse (genetic modification, not necessarily the Augment virus) to explain why Discovery Klingons look different. But at the end of the day, it is creative liberty, just like it was creative liberty when they changed the Klingons before.

@Dignon — re:virus: Worst Fan Pandering ever

@ Curious Cadet: Sure, I agree that it was completely unnecessary. I’m just saying that if some fans need an explanation not to have their whole world collapse they can use that also to explain the new look.

Why cant an ancestor of Worf look different? Do you look the same as all of your ancestors? Plus, they havent shown us a Worf ancestor anyway so if that is the root of your hand wringing, why?

Also, if you made yourself look like Worf..well, 1) its a fictional character 2), Worf still exists. They are not taking every available copy of TNG and the films and CGI’ing in new Klingons.

“Worf still exists. They are not taking every available copy of TNG and the films and CGI’ing in new Klingons.”

No, he doesn’t. The concept is called abrogation. The most recent iteration overwrites the older incarnations. That new Klingon design, if applied to all Klingons in that series, basically turns the previous spin-offs into apocryphs… You are obliged to mentally replace all former Klingons by the new design when watching the older series. That’s how I take it.

Ummm sure he does.

There are a lot more important things in the world to be this worried about. Let it go.

“Why cant an ancestor of Worf look different? Do you look the same as all of your ancestors?”

Gosh, how difficult is it to understand that? My ancestors didn’t have double nostrils and they were indeed biological capable of growing hair and beards, just like myself.
And yes, if Colonel Worf has got double nostrils and no biological hair follicles or facial hair in his DNA, his grandson Worf cannot have either!

Unless you explain it away with Stamets’ supershrooms used as a bio-weapon against these Monster Klingoons…again!

Why the drastic change in Klingons from TOS to TMP? They never gave any reason for the change except that they could.

To be honest, the Klingons in DISCOVERY look more what was intended but could not be acheived in TOS. Plus, the Klingons have changed in every iteration of Trek. Even Worf changed over the years. Michael Dorn had said that through his entire run from TNG to the end of DS9, his prosthetics changed over half a dozen times.

Man I’m stoked for the 25th of September! Whoohoo! 🖖🏼

Also hoping for CBS to put up a new trailer. This time less action oriented (I did like the Comic Con trailer for what it was though) but more character oriented.

By the hand of Kahless, these Klingons are just horrid looking. I can get by the starfleet uniforms… and I do really like the starfleet equipment props. But why have they ruined Klingon biology and culture?

I can handle a different look. And by the way the promotional material is focusing on the Klingons, they may be more ‘human’ in this series than the humans. Here’s hoping, anyway, because there is so much to the Klingons that has not been explored: they were a conquered race who overthrew their oppressors (how?), what happened to the rest of the Hur’q Empire? Were the Klingons the only race who survived in a sector that the Hur’q left barren? How did their conquest and fight for independence guide their culture (c.f. the USA, India, Vietnam and other Earth cultures and their differing paths to independence and beyond – and those nations that went on an imperialist expansion post-independence, for example Indonesia). And something Star Trek has NEVER fully explored: if the Vulcans are a logical extrapolation of human logic and rationality, are the Klingons, therefore, an extrapolation of our emotion and sense of tradition?

“I can handle a different look.”

Good for you. I used to think I could adapt. But unfortunately, the more I see of these Monster Klingoons, the more I hate them. Not just because of the different look for individual Klingons but because this is the ONLY look we will get. They can’t grow any hair due to their physiology. They can’t grow beards. They’ve got hideous double nostrils and no real ears. These are not the Klingons I used to adore.

Honestly, I don’t want to know ANYTHING about THESE Klingons anymore. Yes, the points you mentioned would have been great opportunities. But these are no Klingons.

This is a GIANT, outrageous betrayal to all Trekkers who have supported this franchise for 51 years, especially fans of the old Klingons. Having to look at these creatures makes me so angry I could eat a Targ alive!

I don’t care how many new generation viewers are going to subscribe to CBSAA. I don’t care if this show is cancelled after one season, seven season or goes on until kingdom come. I don’t care if it becomes even more successful than GoT and TWD combined, being watched by 25 million viewers.

This is not my father’s Star Trek. My father died 18 months ago. I’d rather join him in death than giving this atrocity a chance. Take all your fake Monster Klingoons, your guts and gore, your boobs and cussing and enjoy it as much as you want. I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t want to like it anymore.

@ smike – Like Sybok, I feel your pain!

…and when I think of this show as being set in an ‘alternative universe’ to the TOS show, I will regard these new characters as indeed being ‘KLINGOONS’, just given an ‘alternate’ pronunciation. ;)

Heck, I’d long since had my fill of this particular species to begin with, and had hoped this new show would focus on some actual seeking out of strange new worlds and civilisations we hadn’t seen onscreen before. Too bad the makers wanted to cherrypick from the TOS era well once again, but there’s always hope for something different come season two, I guess.

@Cervantes: Thank you so much for your kind sympathy.

I know I was kinda emotionally losing it yesterday when posting this! I had been relatively content about my issues for about two weeks, but the letters “TV-MA” actually fried by circuits over last 72 hours, so I was kinda taken away. It was a bit over the top. But thanks for taking it easy on me.

The main problem is not “cherrypicking” from TOS, but HOW they do it… TV-MA, focusing on war, retconning the Klingons for the sake of it, probably plenty of gore and grit…

Look, TV-MA is just creepy! There are even some TV-14 shows out there I wouldn’t want Trek to emulate for being too violent, gory and grim: Gotham, Stranger Things, The 100… But this is “only” TV-14!

TV-MA… That’s Westworld territory, The Expanse, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, American Gods…you name it! There will be loads of blood and gore, even if we are spared of any full-frontal or topless nudity…which I doubt on the long run.

Heads are gonna chopped of by Batleths, people are going to be eaten alive by Targs, piles of corpses and severed heads displayed as trophies, people gutted by alien vampire zombie strippers… all of this is POSSIBLE now on Star Trek… and that’s just creepy!

BTW: To fully understand my pun, you have to keep the full name of these creatures: “Monster Klingoons”… It’s related to “Monster Maroon”, the dark-red uniforms from Treks II-VI.

smike,

Re: Monster Maroon

That may have been your intent. However, your pejorative application of it bears too close a semblance to the insult, “What a maroon!”, that derives its etymology from the offensive term “moron” and “Maroon” which refers to a descendant of escaped black slaves living in the forests and mountains of the west Indies and Suriname.

A far more reasonable derivation for Klingoons would have been from dragoons or Popeye’s Goons.

I’m sorry. I didn’t want to evoce any rassist connotations towards real-life any peoples. This was not my intent. After all, English is not my mother tongue. My sincerest apologies to anyone who might feel offend by my (ab)use of this self-invented term.

evoke

any real-life peoples / might feel offended… wow I must have been pretty nervous writing above’s post :-)

And yes, it’s “racist” in English…

Okay, my original comment in plain English again :-)

I’m sorry. I didn’t want to evoke any racist connotations towards any real-life peoples. This was not my intent. After all, English is not my mother tongue. My sincerest apologies to anyone who might feel offended by my (ab)use of this self-invented term.

The more I see them the more I like them.

“The more I see them the more I like them.”

It’s not the look itself. It’s what this stands for… the annhiliation of the old Klingon species design, Worf as we knew him being erased from (future) history. How could I ever watch an episode of NextGen or DS9 with THESE pictures on my mind?

Sorry, my willing suspense of disbelief, my imagination is limited to minor quibbles, not complete redefinitions of what one of the most pivotal races in Star Trek is supposed to look like!

And then there is this irksome emotion deep inside of me, telling me to hate that show just enough so I don’t accidentally fall in love with that betrayal after all… I know, it’s stupid to hate in advnace but once I’ve seen the first ten heads chopped of by Voq’s Batleth and the first pair of naked boobs it’s a tad late to unwatch it…

I wonder if some of the feelings stem from the uneven promotion? If maybe we as Star Trek fans understand how the new Klingons fit in story wise to canon maybe we can appreciate them more? As for the TV-MA rating, I too wonder what it means. Some of these concerns though would go away if the producers just come forward and clarified the rating. I know they have said nudity would feel weird for Star Trek but that doesn’t mean they won’t do it. On the other hand maybe it’s just MA because of the violence depicted in the dispute between the Federation and the Klignons? Sometimes I feel like surprises in regards to storylines can be a good thing and other times maybe giving an answer may calm dissent.

“On the other hand maybe it’s just MA because of the violence depicted in the dispute between the Federation and the Klingons?”

Maybe, but not likely in our day and age. Just yesterday it came out that The Hoff had approached Robert Rodriguez to do an R-Rated Logan-like take on Knight Rider…

It seems everybody is losing it after the success of GoT, TWD, Westworld, Deadpool and Logan. And CBS certainly wants to bring Star Trek into the mix. I can feel it. It’s not just battlefield violence (which is okay to be depicted, because war IS a bloody business)…

Its sort of a weird reaction. The Klingons have changed numerous times. From TOS to TMP to the rest of the films to TNG where they changed season to season for awhile, to TOS Klingons showing up looking different in DS9 to the JJ films where the Klingons obviously existed prior to Nero’s arrival making that look Prime Canon…

You have a committment to the same general rules here. Dark skin. Rigged heads. Fearsome looking. Add hair to these Klingons and they look pretty similar.

We dont know if this is ALL Klingons either. And as much as humans look different, so might Klingons.

Now, if the Vulcans suddenly had horns or three eyes or something, okay, I get it. But reletively minor changes to a design that has consistently been changed over the years is no big deal.

“Dark skin. Rigged heads. Fearsome looking. Add hair to these Klingons and they look pretty similar.”

I cannot ADD hair when the updated Klingons don’t have the biological capability of growing hair and beards. Bald Klingons are not a big issue if this hairlessness isn’t biologically determined which clearly is the case here.

Chang was bald, but he either decided to go bald or lost his hair with old age. He has some hair at the back of his head.

“We dont know if this is ALL Klingons either.”

But we DO! The production designers have explained the biological reason for it numerous times! Keep denying it as long as you want, but these are the new official Klingons, eliminating the old design from canon. The new iteration does away with the old ones. Abrogation. Worf is now a visual apocryph…

Its possible I missed this, explain to me where the producers explained the new look is 1) all Klingons 2) they cannot biologically grow hair 3) this is cemented in stone

https://trekmovie.com/2017/08/03/stlv17-designers-explain-why-star-trek-discovery-klingons-are-bald-and-more/

It’s been on this very site…

“Being that the Klingons are an apex predator the design for their anatomy assumes they have highlighted senses, specifically extra sensory receptors running from the top of their heads to their backs. This was the “impetus” with Page and Fuller for the shape of the heads.”

“Page explained that DSC’s Klingons are bald because of these heightened senses on the top of their heads. The bald look was also a mandate from Fuller.”

It says THE KLingons. The shape of the head has been changed, the bald nature imposed as a mandate by the very creator of this show! It’s a biologiacl determinant, not something that can be explianed away by Augment superblood or Stamets’ supershrooms.

They have put an awful lot of thoughts into how to piss of fans for good, how to cement the biggest betrayal in Star Trek history… in TV history… in media history…in human history!

biological – explained – piss off (just the typos, no offense intended!)

Hmmm…I dont see where it says they cannot grow hair or that all Klingons share that trait. I DO see reasoning for being bald. But you’re also over-reacting. A lot.

Let it go. Watch the show. if you still hate it, so be it.

I guess CBS doesn’t want the rest of the loyal Star Treck fans to be able to watch the program… with them only Airing the first show on “Regular” TV… then switching it to CBS All Access…. sorry I won’t be one who will be watching…. I pay enough in Cable Bill to want to pay more to watch a TV show, no matter how much of a fan I am… Sorry CBS… you lose…

They aren’t going to be hurting from the loss of some audiences who are unwilling to pay. The show is already fully paid for by the international licensing fees to Netflix.

@MattR,

“The show is already fully paid for by the international licensing fees to Netflix.”

Les Moonves made those comments in mid-2016 before Discovery going into production. Considering the troubled production from multiple delays to firing the showrunner & running over-budget it’s reasonable to say that his statement is not as accurate as it was last year.

@ahmed….you say this because you’re on the board of directors?

@Trek fan 67,

YES! Because only as a member of CBS board of directors that I was able to find out that Discovery’s production was delayed multiple times. And only my membership on the board that allowed me to know that the showrunner was fired & that the show is running over-budget!

I know that revealing those “secret” events in an open forum is a violation of my NDA but THE TRUTH MUST BE REVEALED!!

I’m rolling my eyes at you ahmed. Now I can see why you’ll be watching Orville instead of Trek.

@Trek fan 67,

As usual you have no response to the original content of the comment.

Honestly, you do sounds like an idiot when you ask an incredibly dumb question about publicly available information.

And who said anything about watching only ‘The Orville’? You really need to work on that failing memory of yours.

We’re done here.

I felt it more important to deal with your total lack of respect for people on this board. You are the one coming across sounding like an idiot with you negativity and constantly people down.

Addressing your original comment and the reason for mine…
“Les Moonves made those comments in mid-2016 before Discovery going into production. Considering the troubled production from multiple delays to firing the showrunner & running over-budget it’s reasonable to say that his statement is not as accurate as it was last year.”

Pure unfounded speculation on your part. The deal was already inked before, no need to think that it is now inaccurate when you are not on the board of directors and are not privy to that information.

@Trek fan 67,

What an impressive example of projection!

“Your vhs tapes of TOS are still in you mom’s basement.” “Wah wah wah. Don’t watch it them.”

I guess you didn’t notice that I give you what dish out. And that comment still applies to you. Keep whining in every post that comes out.

Ahmed, you’re insulting other commenters. You need to stop making the comments here your personal pulpit. Consider this a warning.

@Matt Wright,

Well, I trust that you will be vigilant as well toward commenters like ‘Trek fan 67’ & others who are posting comments like this:

“Your vhs tapes of TOS are still in you mom’s basement.”

The rules should be enforced on everyone & not just on selected individuals.

But thanks for the warning.

Invasion of the wild yeahbuts. “yeah but…”

No he says it because he’s on the Board of Detractors. Where every bit of news is run through his own tired of brand of negative rhetoric. It’s boring. But occasionally amusing.

Yeah, some of the self-important fans act like CBS is going to be begging them to watch. The financials are different. The viewership needed and expected will be different for Discovery than it was for Enterprise, Voyager, DS9, TNG etc.

Fans really have to get over this. I understand that its an annoyance for those that have to click a couple of buttons or spend a few dollars. But for a fan base of a futuristic TV show, its odd there is so much push back to a technology that is becoming more and more ubiquitous

Trace are you suggesting CBS should make sure every fan has access based on whichever medium and delivery method is most convenient for them regardless of cost to cbs?

It’s a shame it’s not something you can afford. Some people can’t afford tv at all so it wouldn’t matter. Star Trek will go on with out you. Maybe you can save up the $7 and get it for a month to binge.

I’m more interested in the House of Kor. I’m also worried that because of Michael Dorn’s decision not to participate we will not see the House of Mogh. There must also, surely, be a House of Martok, or an ancestor thereof. I also wonder, if all Houses are going to be explored, where Gorkon, Chang, Koloth, and Kang fit in. I would, somehow, prefer to see Chang as a man from a smaller family made good, and that it’s his struggle that blinds him in some way.

It would suck if we don’t see a House of Mogh. This would be a great time to build on Worf’s ancestry background. My guess is it will come up somewhere.

Maybe Dorn will change his mind. Perhaps they offered him less than he wanted for a roll that could be played by a lesser known actor

They don’t need Michael Dorn to feature a member of the House of Mogh on Discovery. This is not meant disrespectful to Dorn. If he wasn’t satisfied with what they offered him that’s fine. But just like my ancestors don’t all look like me why should all previous members of the House of Mogh look like Worf? They could also try to get the actor who played Worf’s brother if they want to suggest some family line.

Considering Worf’s own look changed from season to season, I dont see how him playing a completely different character in slightly altered Klingon make up would be a life-altering scenario.

“I dont see how him playing a completely different character in slightly altered Klingon make up would be a life-altering scenario.”

They only changed minor details like the shape of his forehead ridges or the skin tone which both can change over seven years. But he always had hair and a beard. That’s what I had been able to emulate.

I had long hair in his image. I grew a beard in his image. In the mid-90s up to the mid aughties, during an era in which this wasn’t fashionable.

This may have contributed to me never getting laid up until this very day. And this may be the reason why I’m overreacting here and now as I learn that all of this I had done based on a lie! The Klingons don’t have hair at all!
I’ve thrown away my private life, my future, my unborn decendents based on a now outdated design flaw. I know how weird that sounds, even by my nerdy, geeky standards. But it’s how I feel… I’m torn, devastated, totally broken…

@ smike: Well, then this is your chance to change your own style. If you think your old look contributed to not getting laid maybe you should be thankful that Discovery is showing you a way out.

“Well, then this is your chance to change your own style. If you think your old look contributed to not getting laid maybe you should be thankful that Discovery is showing you a way out.”

I’ve changed my style 12 years ago when ENT was cancelled. I’m just having resentments about my past that had been determined by a fictional character that is not relevant anymore now. Of course, I’m scapegoating here to cover my own shortcomings. But it still drives me angry this part of my life is rendered oblivious by this show!

I know plenty of humans who have had hair and a beard and then not. And I certainly know some bald, clean shaven people with grand children with hair and beards.

“I know plenty of humans who have had hair and a beard and then not. And I certainly know some bald, clean shaven people with grand children with hair and beards.”

I’m not the most tolerant man alive but you are really upping the ante when it comes to stubborness. My complaint is NOT about hairstyle fashion, not about shaving, not about personal choices made by individual Klingons. Do you even read my posts?

Sorry, I’m a bit pissed*, so don’t take it personal but what about BIOLOGICALLY UNABLE or GENETICALLY INCAPABLE of growing any hair is it you don’t understand? It’s been clearly, multiply stated that KLINGONS (in general) cannot grow any hair as of now! The designers have explained that design change numerous times by biological determination, not fashion or cultural reasons. According to NuCanon, Klingons just don’t grow ANY hair. Not young ones, not old ones, not warriors, not civilians… Not in the 22nd century, not in the 23rd, not in the 24th!!! Klingons just don’t have any hair or facial hair by this new definition. It’s not a matter of age, fashion or military status. It’s a newly imposed feature! It’s on record, it’s been a mandatory obligation by Fuller. I am NOT making this up!

*beer, not anger

Again, I must have missed that. Please link me to where it has been said Klingons cannot grow hair.

Also, it still doesnt change that Worf exists. I mean, as much as a fictional character exists. So, chill out.

Right, it doesn’t have to be Dorn himself, I just mean ancestors of that house.

And I don’t spite Dorn for not wanting to do it if he feel they aren’t paying him enough. He doesn’t owe anything to Star Trek besides the years he’s already given. That said though I would still love to see him on it. Or anyone they can get from any of the shows minus TOS. Only because most of them are retired now.

“Maybe Dorn will change his mind.”

Hopefully not. Seeing him in this new make-up would definitely send me over the edge (if that is even possible at this point, as I’m already completely devastated to the extend of self-destructive behavior).

@ smike: This is not meant as a snarky remark or an attack, but if you are seriously considering harming yourself (doesn’t matter whether it’s over a TV show or any other reason) you should seek out help. Unless it’s all just hyperbole.

I agree with this, yes Dorn was probably playing an ancestor anyway but if he look too different from established canon it would anger more people than happy to see him back. And while its only speculation that mightve been another reason he didn’t do it, knowing it would just look too out of place.

“It would suck if we don’t see a House of Mogh. This would be a great time to build on Worf’s ancestry background.”

I’m very much afraid of that possibility. If they show members of the House of Mogh in this new make-up, the visual continuity is officially out of the airlock for good. Same for Kang, Kor, Koloth, Duras Senior, Martok, you name it…

“Same for Kang, Kor, Koloth, Duras Senior, Martok, you name it…”

Kang, Kor and Koloth:

comment image

I mean we were already there literally 20 years ago and no one at the time blinked. Again I don’t like the look of the new Klingons but I this always seem to happen with Trek fans and complaining about things they have already done in the past. As said, they ALREADY changed the Klingons before, and as shown previous characters make up.

It probably wouldn’t happen, but if they can’t get Michael Dorn for the House of Mogh, maybe they could getTony Todd?

A couple of nitpicks about the the medal:

1. As pointed out below, you may get the medal in a box, but you never display it like that unless you’re retired. You wear it when called for.

2. A medal called “cross” should look like, ahem, a cross.

3. There’s no reason to have *three* identical ribbons in the same case. On the uniform you *may* wear multiple ribbons (in some militaries; in others you just add a device to one), but in the box, you get one at a time.

4. There’s certainly no reason to have a *completely different* ribbon in the same box.

Well, customs may change in a couple of centuries.

@FLB,

But it didn’t change in Star Trek universe.

I’m also guessing it won’t be overly detailed visually on the show? Regardless who knows what the customs will be in star fleet. It’s not the US Army.

Wow.

Maybe things are done differently in Starfleet.
Remember , they don’t think of themselves as a strictly military organization.

Okay, this pic got me to put the finger on what these Klingons look like – Skeletor.
comment image

Interesting enough, the Skeletor mask was used on NextGen, in a Klingon holodeck training program used by Worf. If only those Monster Klingoons were a sideline of the real Klingon people. They could be related to those mythical creatures Worf was fighting. But no, they had to change all of the Klingons…

i remember that episode
Where Silence Has Lease.

And a couple of other episodes.

The Emmissary I believe.

Three of the same ribbon in a rack? Somebody didn’t google how any western military does duplicate awards. You get a star for subsequent awards of the same medal/ribbon.

Most likely, the creators don’t know and, to be honest, aside from those of us who know how military awards work, I would bet most of the audience wouldn’t know either. As such, have several of the same ribbon looks more impressive, visually, to a general audience.

I really don’t understand this sort of fascist attitude that wants to crush all dissenting opinion about issues relating to DSC. It’s the same thing that happened when people expressed dissatisfaction with the Bad Robot movies. There are valid points being raised about choices being made by the DSC production that some Trek fans don’t care for, and/or that they believe could be done better. Telling people who express such opinions essentially to shut up, “stop whining,” and so forth, isn’t productive———and I would expect Trek fans to realize that it’s rather antithetical to the spirit of Trek. Where’s all of that talk of “diversity” and IDIC now? Does the love of diversity not extend to opinions as well? Arguing the merits of someone’s reasoning can be productive. Shutting down all dissenting views typically isn’t.

Its not the same at all. With the films, my recollection is a lot of optimism before the release. Sure, that optimism waned after STID (ie. not as much for Beyond). But mostly, the criticism came after people saw it.

The debates were between people who had issues that hurt their enjoyment of the film and those that said the very real issues did not hurt their enjoyment.

When it comes to Discovery, the vast majority of criticism is about things lacking context since no one has seen it yet. or its an annoying re-tread of the same old same old (like Klingons or All Access).

TUP

Here’s what I don’t understand:

How come it’s acceptable to feel excited about certain press releases and news relating to DSC, but it’s unacceptable to feel ambivalent or turned off by those same press releases and news stories? Being that both reactions are being felt prior to the release of the show, I don’t understand why one is valid while the other one isn’t. Can you explain the difference?

Sam Witwer is an amazing character actor, and DSC would be lucky to nab him. Loved him in BSG and “Being Human,” but his voice work for Star Wars still trumps everything. His Emperor Palpatine is SO DARN GOOD it’s chilling.

Glad to see the Star Cross!