STLV18: Designer Promises New Klingon Look For ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 2, Hints At Hair

(Photo: CBS)

On Sunday at Star Trek Las Vegas, Star Trek: Discovery makeup designer and lifelong Star Trek fan Glenn Hetrick held a short panel mostly about the process he and his team went through in the show’s first season, with much of the conversation about creating the look for the Klingons. His talk was accompanied by a slideshow of images of work from the first season, which are mostly taken from a gallery on his AlchemyFX website.

Hetrick also talked about the Klingons in the second season of Discovery, promisingna new look. He dug into some deep stuff about Klingon lore, rituals, and hair. Hetrick’s comments were somewhat cryptic, so we present them with a bit of interpretation and as much context as we can muster in this deep dive into the once and future look of the Klingons.

Klingons are changing, again

Much has been said about the new design of the Klingons for Discovery. Of course, the iconic race has gone through a number of major changes since the original TV series, through to the movies and into the Next Generation era, and again in the J.J. Abrams films. On Discovery, their look was updated once again, with more detail for the HD era.

And according to Glenn Hetrick, there is more change coming. Here is what he told the crowd at STLV:

As we move into season two, it has been while since we have been with our characters. It has been a while since we have seen our Klingon friends. So, everything keeps evolving. The story has evolved. And I can guarantee you this, you are going to be blown away that they have a completely new look, yet again, going into season two.

A season one Klingon from Hetrick’s slideshow

Inspired by TNG’s story of Kahless

Hetrick never directly described what will be new and different about the Klingons for the second season, who have yet to be seen in any released images or videos. However, a hint of what may come could be gleaned from Hetrick’s new backstory behind the biggest controversy around the new Klingon designs in Discovery, which is that they are all hairless. Hetrick spoke at length about what he used as inspiration for their look in season one:

If you really think about season one, and the Klingon story line, we had this incredibly ritualistic season with them. It was really about unification, and igniting the beacon, the Light of Kahless, and bringing him back… so we integrated that very much and thought a lot about that.

Hetrick then pointed to the Star Trek: The Next Generation sixth season episode “Rightful Heir,” which featured the return of what was later to be revealed as a clone of Kahless. He pointed out that when this clone was being tested, he was asked how he unified the Empire. Here is how Hetrick describes it:

He did it by cutting off his hair, and dipping it into a volcano and forging the first bat’leth and tempering in the ocean of Qo’noS.

The clone of Kahless is questioned by a priest of Borath in TNG’s “Rightful Heir”

To get a little nitpicky, what the clone of Kahless said was that he cut off a “lock” of his hair to make the first bat’leth, but Hetrick was clearly making a connection to Kahless, unifying the empire, and cutting off hair. And of course, Kahless was important in the first season of Discovery, especially in the two-part opener–he’s mentioned in the first minute of the first episode, held up by T’Kuvma as his inspiration to unite the Klingon houses.

T’Kuvma namedrops Kahless in the first scene of Star Trek: Discovery

Look of Klingon Houses tied to rituals

Hetrick then went on to connect the story of Kahless to how they designed the Klingons for the first season of Discovery with this notion of a hair ritual in mind:

There is this whole thing with hair and ritual and unification that was very much in the forefront of our mind when we designing.

At last year’s STLV, Hetrick was on a panel with creature designer Neville Page and they said that Klingons were bald based on a directive from co-creator and former showrunner Bryan Fuller. During that panel, they also talked about how they developed a logic for it based on sensory organs in their heads, due to them being apex predators. All indications at the time seemed to be that the Klingons were bald by nature. However, Hetrick’s comments indicate that instead, it may have been ritualistic, and limited to just the Klingons we saw during the first season.

Hetrick made a point of saying that we have only seen Klingons from a fraction of the Houses in the Empire so far, and pointed out an example of body modification in season one. During his slideshow he noted that some members of House Mo’Kai undergo ritual scarring.

Member of House Mo’Kai with ritual scars

Another example Hetrick used to show how the different houses show their distinctiveness was House D’Ghor, who adorn their head ridges with jewelry. This was seen on the season one character Dennas.

Dennas of House D’Ghor likes a little forehead bling

Different Houses vary by genetics too

To throw another angle on this, Hetrick said that some of the houses actually have genetic differences. He pointed out that a Klingon from the first season from House Antaak had a “cranial ridge extension that goes down on to his chin.” Hetrick added, “Only that house has that genetic signature. Their chins have ridges too.”

And if you want to go further down the rabbit hole, Antaak was the doctor from Star Trek: Enterprise who inadvertently created ridgeless Klingons through genetic engineering, and was last seen as a victim of his own science.

Klingon from House Antaak with a chin ridge

Are Discovery Klingons really all that different?

Hetrick indicated that some of the changes coming are because there are still more Houses to reveal:

In season two, you are going to see much different designs. You are going to see different houses you haven’t seen before. One of the most important things to us was that at this point in canon, as we head towards the current version of unification, the houses really each grow up on different planets. It is an Empire, it is not just Qo’noS… We have seen six of the great houses in close up in season one. As we move forward into the next season, I promise that we will continue exploring and unpacking and unfolding that infinitely interesting story of what the Klingon culture looks like on a wider level.

Hetrick continued to push the point that what we saw in the first season is not the end of the story in terms of the look of the Klingons. During the Q&A a fan began a question by stating, “The Klingons are completely different,” and Hetrick cut her off, with: “But are they? We are not in season two yet.”

Putting it all together, Hetrick seems to be saying that in season two, the Klingons we see may not be as different as the ones we are used to. It’s possible that hair removal was a ritual, practiced by some of the Houses, or possibly a genetic trait that varies by House.

Regardless, Hetrick seems to be asking for patience, promising there is more to come.

Fan Photoshop image of Kol with hair added.

More STLV 2018

Stay tuned for more daily coverage here at TrekMovie.com. Also be sure to follow along with our social media reporting from STLV on Twitter and InstagramCLICK HERE to see all of our STLV coverage.

114 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

They are Klingons…. And it is a long story.

I see what you did there and I like it haha!

Indeed, Worf would be happy!!

In the end, that might really have been the single best way to deal with the problem!
But credit where credit’s due: the ENT explanation expanded on that piece of dialogue really nicely and plausibly from an in-universe perspective.

OMG, that was the worst example of fan pandering by Trek writers in history…I dismiss that horrid ep forever out of my personal canon.

Glad to have you step up as Trek Writers historian. Whatever, dude.

Yeah, and it works really well for DSC. The afflicted Klingons could easily have been exiled from the Empire, until L’rell came along and reintegrated them (which isn’t far-fetched, her speech at the end makes it clear she wants ALL Klingons in her new Empire).
The affliction could even have been one of the reasons for the hatred/suspicion towards the Federation, the Klingon leadership would never admit the whole thing was their own fault.

Chang had facial hair and a ponytail. He wasn’t hairless.

Also the reason he had a relatively less elaborate make-up was because Christopher Plummer wanted to act more comfortably.

A condition of taking the role was that he did not want nearly as much prosthetics on his face as normal.

I know it’s a ridiculous thing to gripe about but, man, add some hair and I’m good.

And add more English … lol

And that! lol

I say just make a fairly interesting series and I can better accept the look changes.

Hair, or no hair…that’s the question!

I am a fan of Disco but this sounds like a good idea to me. Add hair and a look that might be closer to the Klingons we saw in TNG and beyond – this will help placate some of the naysayers. Bottom line – if fans like me could care less about the new look, then why not add some aesthetics that satisfies some of those who absolutely hate the new look. Btw can you imagine what the backlash would have been like if social media and the public Internet had been around when TMP introduced the first new look Klingons? Worf would have ended up looking like Michael Dorn with a beard and big bushy eyebrows!!

To read between the lines here: the radical Klingon redesign was a pet project of Fuller’s, possibly to accommodate the Voq mystery. They’ve realized it was a bridge too far, are scaling it back, and finding some in-universe ways to rationalize it. Which works for me.

River,

I AGREE 100% with your view on this.

I agree as well. It was clearly a mandate Fuller wanted but now that he got the boot and fans never really warmed up to them to, itjust makes sense to make them closer to the regular Klingons.

Again I’m really appreciating that they realized they made a lot of canon mistakes and trying to rectify them. DIS could be a lot more popular next season with the changes. I think even more popular if they blew up the ship and the crew all got transferred to the Enterprise. ;D

I’m not sure it will make the show more popular. If the plotting and writing is still sub-par then it will just cause the fans to focus more on the bad plotting and writing instead for diffusing their ire to everything about the show.

Well not that alone, but I think all the changes they are making will give people who gave up on it early (or never gave it a chance at all) a second look. But sure if the stories themselves still isn’t great they won’t keep them, I agree.

I really don’t think no this they made any canon mistakes. Any minor little tweaks are immaterial. And really, since I became an adult I’ve not been one to insist on a slavish devotion to continuity.

Discovery told good entertaining stories, excellently written, wonderfully acted, and the end result was a top notch show.

The reason people harp on Klingons and continuity is because the show is so thematically, aesthetically, and finally different from “The Trek I know” that they look for any excuse to dump all over it because hey couldn’t get their binky.

Case in point? Every critic fan referring to it as STD. Thts the kind of childish trolling you’d expect from 12 year old YouTube commenter.

But that’s what many fans here have turned into. Endless childish criticisms. Regurgitated complaints.

I think it will be cool to see Klingons look more like the TNG era versions, or even the Enterprise post-virus versions, but do I care?

No. Just keep giving me more of that sweet Discovery story.

I thought long and hard about responding and decided to go ahead. Look, I think people who love Discovery like you are few. I’d say most are indifferent or think it was sub par or worse. But it is mostly because the writing and plotting was monumentally weak. It was also because the producers promised things and never delivered. The production was a train wreck before the first episode was edited. Because of all this people start ripping everything apart. Not just the bad writing. If the show were actually executed better, had more interesting characters, had plot twists that didn’t insult the audience… The canon issues and PD issues would be lessened considerably. Sure, some would still complain about the Klingons not having hair, but not nearly as many. That is where the complaints are coming from. It’s not “whaa… They changed MY Star Trek” as you seem to think it is.

I didn’t really enjoy the first season of Discovery. I don’t hate it. I didn’t love it. I struggled to enjoy it. It may be that I simply am not attached to the characters just yet.

15 episodes of a TV show generally not enough time to really identify with the characters and the same is true of the actors who play them.

The storyline was not very interesting to me, and not executed very well in any case. I was not particularly impressed with the CGI a lot of the time. I really don’t like this stupid ‘ADHD’ cut and chop editing (Or whatever it’s called..) of the episodes.

What I want to see in Season Two; Just slow it down a tad, get the characters right, work out some kind of identity or purpose for the show. And Maybe at least try to minimise the use of NEBULEA in every space shot… it really comes across as amateurish to me… not sure why, but it does.

Afterburn its good you feel that way about DIS but not everyone does. Everyone will have a different opinion.

I didn’t think the first season was that bad but I WAS disappointed in a lot of it, namely the Klingons. Not just the way they looked, but the war story line bored me to tears and wasn’t captivating like other war arcs that has been done in Trek, especially DS9.

And then it was topped off by that finale which I HONESTLY thought was one of the worse season finales done for Trek. It felt so nonsensical and fell flat how they resolved it. If it ended stronger then maybe my feelings over the war arc would be a little better but I really had a hard time with the whole thing, especially since that arc took up two-thirds of the season. Ii really loved when they went to the MU because it was different and actually fun.

In fact I realize all the episodes I did really like had little to do with the Klingons. So while I didn’t love the look, that’s not the main reason I didn’t like them. That’s one of the least problems I had frankly.

I don’t mind to see them, I just hope they aren’t the main focus and since they didn’t even show one in the new trailer another reason why I have better hope for next season.

Good point about Fuller. Discovery got stuck with a few things he came up with that angered some Trek fans and now Kurtzman is in charge of smoothing out those issues. At the same time getting new shows like Short Treks, Star Trek Picard plus others is a priority. It will be interesting to see how Kurtzman is viewed by the Trek fan universe at STLV in say 2030!!!

But back then there was good reason behind the change. No, it wasn’t in universe canon. But people accepted that it was a big budget upgrade to a race we only saw perhaps 3-4 times 15 years ago. In fact, it was sort of expected.

“The Roddenberry Klingon Design Precedent” allows this.

Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and the ultimate voice on canon, first established this production practice with the development of TMP. This practice is that without regard to canon, any Trek production team has the ability to redesign the Klingons — basically providing a “canon-free pass” to future Trek productions concerning Klingon design.

We may not like it, but that is the nature of this unusual rule, folks. So get ready for revised Klingons and don’t sweat the canon, because Roddenberry himself defined this unusual precedent.

PS: And the DSC Season 1 Klingons were the only weak point for me in the look of Season 1 — so I think this is great!

Don’t forget “The Roddenberry Romulan Enhancement Addendum” in which the Great Bird bestoweth upon us Romulan forehead bumps, thereby providing a canon-free pass to accentuate Romulan anatomy as the whims of fate would so decree. Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

LOL — I like it!

LOL it sounds like they are getting hair now! Yeah, DUH! And I love that he took the Klingon mythology from TNG and kinded of hinted why they may get hair now. You mean the same canon that has been in place for over 20 years and that fans said over and over again explained WHY hair was so important to Klingon culture?

I mean people keep saying over and over that DIS doesn’t ignore canon and this is one of the best examples they have lol. I have no issues they want to change the Klingons up a little, but yeah hair is kind a bit part of that species. Give them hair and it will probably get most fans off their back.

My guess is some of the other houses they may present more TNG style Klingons. They might even show some of the TOS augment Klingons. And if the Klingons look closer to what we seen on the other shows, it could be done so they don’t have to give Worf a super make over if he appears on the new show. He can look like himself mostly.

Yep, they could get a lot of fans off their backs if they just threw in a few TOS and TNG style Klingons. Even in just a background crowd scene. It would go a long way in showing how diverse an EMPIRE the Klingons really can be.

And even though DSC is obviously a visual reboot, it would be a way of tying together the canon in the same way they’re doing with the TOS/DSC uniform mashup we’ve seen on the Enterprise. Those little touches are nice.

YEah I said this before myself, fans can be fickle but they just want SOME acknowledgement that canon is being followed. If they wanted to keep the Discovery uniform for example, fine, but how hard is it to show someone from Starfleet headquarters in a hologram wearing a Cage like uniform? Show it one time, you’re done. The complaints go away.

NOW they seem to be getting the hint lol. They obviously realize they gone too far on some of the changes and trying to reconcile it. I think giving the Klingons hair and a look a bit closer to the TOS films/TNG era will go a long way. I would love it if we did get TOS style Klingons too and tie in Enterprise and TOS canon. EVERYONE is happy lol.

But honestly I’m happy they are listening. The show does seem like it will be different in tone and look next season and closer to TOS. That’s all most people wanted. It can still be its own show, which I hope it is.

I simply love your comment. This is exactly what I expect them to do.
They did that on Phase 2’s Kitumba episode… TOS style Klingons, TUC style Klingons, TNG style Klingons, working side by side. It may only be fanon, but I really loved that aspect. Now they got even more diversity to incorporate. TOS, TNG, TUC, DISCO S1, maybe even STID-style! To have all of them in one room with Colonel Worf in the middle would really make my day!

Thanks!

It may not be happen so don’t get too excited lol. But I do think that’s a good way to make the fans happy and keep their version as well. And it just expands the Klingons in a more interesting way.

You raise a good point. It has always been the Klingon EMPIRE, so where are all the conquered Planetary systems, filled with different humanoid species, some of whom one would expect to see wearing the Empire’s uniform and soldiering for The Empire? Where are the Klingon “Foreign Legions”? This would give the impression that the Klingon Empire is comparable in size to the UFP and IT’S many different humanoid species members.

I always figured that the beings we saw in Ruhe Penthe in TUC were all from planets in the Klingon Empire.

I like that idea. Would have been nice to have had some official confirmation of this idea worked into the story, like having the warden comment on it.

This idea has been around since season 1 started. Nothing new

Isn’t Voq technically a original series style Klingon now?

Yeah, I guess he would be.

So we already have one of them, but even more variety would be very welcome.

Well kind of lol. I mean he was surgically altered to look like that, it wasn’t a genetic mutation. But he would cosmetically fit in now.

Very good point. And with his creator L’Rell now being Chancellor, it isn’t entirely unlikely the likes of him will pop up even more regularily in the next two decades to come until the program is ceased by L’Rell’s successor Gorkon (or whoever). Even Arne Darvin might be related to the program that created Voq Tyler…

That is something I was saying could be an “out” for them. Show is more kinds of Klingons, including the ones seen in TOS and their crystal skull Klingons would be more easily accepted.

Of course, this only fixes the curtains. The view still remains. And based on S1, that view was not pretty.

Whilst there were things I didn’t like about STD, the Klingons were not one of them. In fact, their whole storyline I thought worked magnificently and I was glad to see them speak in their own language for long stretches of time.

The show that STD began as quickly disappeared as we entered the 2nd half of the season and by the last episodes it was a total joke. I hope the shift in show-runners makes a huge difference.

“by the last episodes it was a total joke. I hope the shift in show-runners makes a huge difference.”

You and I both, January. You and I both.

Once they got their hair back, they can finally say “Today is a good day to dye!” 😁🖖

@ZudoBug,

Lol! That’s perfect.

The Klingons of TNG continuity are presumably coming back with Picard, so somehow the Discovery Klingons need to synch with that or otherwise explain why they don’t resemble any previously known Klingons, right?

Yes true, I think that’s the biggest challenge with this Picard series: the need to make Disco look and feel like it fits into the same universe and timeline as a post-TNG series. The 25th century will undoubtedly look as different from the 24th as TNG did from TOS, not least because the old Trek designs now look so dated.

Yes great point. I think now with the Picard show on its way they realize its easier to conform to decades and hundreds of hours of previous canon from TSFS through Voyager instead of trying to fit the DIS Klingons with the new TNG show and have audiences accept it. If it was just Discovery on, that would be something else.

And I think if the DIS Klingons were more popular then they probably would’ve rolled the dice, but this just makes it easier and would actually conform to TNG canon. They can still have the DIS Klingons, they simply acknowledge the others as well.

And when people say Roddenberry changed the Klingons from TOS to the movies, clearly that’s true, but what gets missed is if TOS had the money like the films and later shows then those Klingons would’ve looked different from day one. They only went with what they could at the time and money. But it’s not what he really wanted.

And the other difference is the TOS Klingons were just in seven episodes out of 79. As much as people like to make out they were a big part of TOS, they really weren’t. We’ve already seen more Klingons on Discovery than TOS. We didn’t even see a Klingon ship until third season lol. So he didn’t see it as a big deal because they really weren’t established the way they are today.

But now, the look that started in the films and upgraded in TNG has been around for over 30 years. This design has been part of the franchise for over 100 episodes and six films now. We’ve had two main Klingon characters, Worf and B’Elanna, who has represented this look in various shows for 20 seasons. It has just become very ingrained in the fanbase compared to the TOS Klingons where they were used like villain fodder and little else in a handful of episodes.

It’s certainly fine for DIS to change up the look, but something this ingrained it’s going to take a long time for people to accept, especially they consider it out of canon. So it’s smart the producers is trying to make the show conform more to previous canon, even if just a little. It will go a long way with many.

Even the Klingons in STID were different but STILL looked like Klingons.

should just ignore klingon stories and show us other aliens and stuff, the angry viking alien warrior bs is so lame

I swear if they just gave them the long hair and beards again it would go a long way to placating those of us who dislike the new look. The picture of Kol above shows that if you do so the Discovery Klingons look a lot more like what we are used to.

I agree with you. Just adding hair and a beard makes the new Klingons look merely like an updated make up and not like a totally changed design for the species. I’m quite curious now to see what they will be doing.

Yeah that picture of Kol looks great. He looks like a freakin Klingon! Not something out of rejected Alien movie.

Yep. Amazing what one little change can make. I really hope the STD producers have FINALLY gotten the message.

Hetrick kind of gives off a Pakled-with-worse-haircut vibe in that photo. (and yeah, you can ban me for that, but it is my main takeaway from that pic, honestly.)

We are not smart.

The Klingons had no hair because that was the fashion of the day, as made popular by beloved entertainer Ghung wa’ Qat the Impressive. Things change quickly in the reign of L’Rell, as baldness becomes a signifier of backwardness and boorishness.

Have you read John Ford’s HOW MUCH FOR JUST THE PLANET? You sound almost like you’re channeling him.

Loved that book – man, when was that out, 1987? I remember it had a cover picture that copied the look of Kruge from STIII and I always read the lead character in Christopher Lloyd’s voice. Bit too slapstick in places, but a fun story.

I remember it climaxes with a pie fight, with Kirk thinking “blueberry?’ SPLAT. “Blueberry.” And that it features a scout vessel with a fat Vulcan, and that there’a riff on the old Frankie Laine ‘Wagon Train’ song. Have a feeling if I were up on my Gilbert&Sullivan, it would have worked better for me.

I still think Ford’s THE FINAL REFLECTION is superb (you have to get past a confusing first chapter about Klingon chess, but then it is off to the races) and feel bad I haven’t read his non-trek stuff.

the picture at the end works really well

I dunno to me they’ve always just looked like Klingons. I don’t look at the TMP Klingons and squint and go “those are Klingons?” cuz they honestly look I think like they stand out the most of all the designs. These new Klingons are just…better, I’m sorry but like they are. They don’t look like cheap prosthetic 80s biker gang neanderthals. In other words, they don’t look completely ridiculous. They look like aliens.

This sounds excellent. Showing some Klingons with hair would suffice. The only inacceptable thing about DISCO was the completely hairless look because as the designer pointed out, hair had been thematically present on previous Trek shows. It had been discussed and was a vital part of Worf’s character growth. Depriving Klingons of any hair was a major canon breach. There is not to say some Klingons aren’t bald, but some have to be closer to how we knew them. That’s all… If they fix that, I’m 100% on board with any other decision…

That photoshop image doesn’t look half bad, but I get the feeling from Mr Hetrick’s statements that they are trying to backtrack a bit from Bryan Fuller’s original ideas for the klingons.

Basically!

@alphantrion — funny, as I read this article I was think about how much apparent care and insight for the subject matter went into making this decision, steeped in canon in an effort to honor what came before. Oh well. I’m very happy with what I’ve seen them do with the original material. YMMV.

Sounds like they watched the trek yards videos discussing Klingons and the fans freaking out about it on reddit – maybe we’ll see some ridgeless Klingons too

It’s a backpedal I can accept

See, this is what’s wrong with Star Trek nowadays, we’re talking about Klingon hair? I don’t care if we go back to TOS Klingons and let’s talk science fiction instead of hair.

…thank you. Instead of Klingon hair and stunt casting…how about they start to worry about assembling a team of writers who know how to put together a compelling and interesting story arc, with interesting and compelling characters. That would be a good start.

Yep.

If the show were good to begin with these issues would not be nearly as big. The Klingon hair thing is only a thing because the rest of the show is not very good.

Absolutely right.

That’s total b*llshit. They made a creative decision (or Bryan Fuller did), and now that the fans call them out on it, they think of some far-fetched explanation that somehow tries to tie into canon. Instead it could be so easy. Just make one of the houses look like we’re used to and make it challenge all the other houses and kill/enslave the rest of them. Done, the klingon way ;-)

Does it matter? I’m just happy they are trying to make it right. But watching all the DIS Klingons die probably would give the show its highest ratings.

That’s not what I meant, but yeah, you’re probably right ;-) And yes, it does matter to me. Because some things in DSC are just so plain wrong, that it hurts. And I’m not a detractor, in fact I enjoyed the show quite a bit. I just wished some things were not so blatantly wrong, and if they only seem that way, then come up with a good explanation in the first place, not retcon it later…

Well, the “damage” is done. I’d rather see it retconned or shoehorned away than having to live with it for the next couple of seasons.
Fuller, Berg and Herberts had their very “unique” vision for the Klingons, but they are all gone now and CBS wants to create a huge “shared universe” spanning centuries and yes, they have read our comments all over the web…so yes, they decided to deal with it somehow! Better now than a decade later. It’s not the first time they had to come up with some solution for the Klingon question.

Yeah, great point. The people who helped design the show are now all gone. Kurtzman helped design it too but it was obvious he let Fuller and the other show runners make most of the decisions. Now they have a chance to correct the record and make it fall more in line with traditional canon. That’s all most fans want, make it feel like its part of the other shows and not a weird outlier of them. It can still be its own thing and tell its own stories.

And they want the TNG show to go smoothly and get the hype train going on that. Its better to get DIS straightened out now to align it better with that show.

Agreed. Make it so!

Sure. Why not. I guess.

Ah the eternel debate. I for one thought the klingons looked better then ever. They looked alien and badass and from a cinematic point of view way better than any other incarnaton. Yes it has changed but its normal. Tos tmp tng all different. Like batman. Adam wests batman is a little different than nowadays.

That said i beleive that they had a hard time finding their footing in season one and you can feel when Fuller left around episode 3-4. They tried tying the loose ends. After seeing the trailer for season 2 I am sure that the second season will be much better and hoping it will be epic.

If you want to make trek different its time to see all the layers of the oignon ans expand the universe. I would love to see mire than one ship and one crew. I want to feel what it is living in the 23-24th century. I want to see civilians, 23rd century earth, more of starfleet, the lower decks, more ships, the fleet, exploration, sci-fi weird stuff, starbases, real science facts. Star trek so much potentiel more so than many other franchise that have already succeeded.

It needs to be different than before. It needs to be more! Without loosing sight of the family /fiendship aspect of it.

Star trek will get back up on its feet and be bigger than ever. It will continu to change lifes. Picard is back! Stewart came on board because they sold him a great idea.

Im optimistic and open to changes and modifications. Accepting the differences isnt what star trek is about ?

Make it so and engage!

“Like batman. Adam wests batman is a little different than nowadays.”

No, it’s not the same at all. The TDK trilogy or the DCEU Batman isn’t set in the same continuity and timeline as Adam West’s Batman. DISCO, despite some major visual differences, is supposed to be Primeverse. The Enterprise design or uniform collars being different is one thing (aka a mere visual issue), but hair has been thematically relevant for the Klingon culture.

Ah the eternel debate. I for one thought the klingons looked better then ever. They looked alien and badass and from a cinematic point of view way better than any other incarnaton.
@Shawn

I agree. For the first time I really saw the Klingons as an alien race, and not some human wearing a forehead appliance, dressed like a metal band for the 1970s.

I don’t care if they add hair or not at this point. Just please do something about those damn ships and at least bring them 3/4s of the way to looking like what we would recognize as being Klingon.

Yes, absolutely agreed.

Yep. Would be great to see a precursor to the D-7 battle cruiser.

Agree 100% . They look awful

So many hints:
Kahless – “kahl” in german means bald. What is “less than bald” ;)
Rightful Hair :D

Yep, and this news comes as Picard returns ;-)

I’ll just say it, if you take that Klingon from his slideshow and add eyebrows, long wild hair and a goatee, it’s my perfect idea of what a true Klingon would look like. They’re less human but still have the distinct Klingon features.

Yeah a Discovery/TNG hybrid would look great!!

The thing is if you look at that photoshop of Kol he doesn’t really look that different from the TNG version. His forehead is more prominent but he could pass for any other Klingon we seen before. So its not like they have to anything major, adding hair will already go a long way IMO.

I think I prefer Kol bald.

Personally, the look of the DSC Klingons wasn’t that jarring to me in that visually, the change to them mirrored the changes to everything Trek in the show thus far. The subtitles did prove to be pretty cumbersome, imo.

My more pressing question is, why do we need a recurring separate Klingon storyline at all? Wouldn’t that time be better spent making the tales told about Disco and her crew (and now the Enterprise) richer and deeper? I think the Klingons would be a lot more interesting if a little mystery was left to them and we see them once or twice a season on Discovery.

This ‘multiple houses’ with different genetics and lineage, conflicts and histories idea, why not just make one of the new CBSAA Trek shows a Klingon show, if they want to explore the species so much? Not that I’d be terribly interested in it, but maybe some people would.

I’d definitely be interested in that. It sounds like a Klingon take on GoT. As a limited event series, this could really work.

But I think they’re justing trying to mend the Klingon issue to prepare for the Picard show. It would have been odd to have Picard bump into a hairless Worf at some point but it would also be odd to have two completely different Klingon designs on CBS-AA at the same time if they keep Worf the way he was but do not change the DISCO Klingons at all. Only by acknowlediging that there are Klingons with hair on DISCO, this problem can be solved.

They teased us with the unification of the houses and showing Klingon society like never before. Yet we got next to none of that. To the point of we never really needed to see any Klingons at all based on the story line we ended up with. So far,I don’t see any reason to have Klingons show up in the next season, too. Just don’t want to see, “Meanwhile on Qo’nos….”

Yeah, see this is the part where less episodes come in. If we had 20-26 episodes like the previous Trek, then yeah, you could have as much separate klingon storyline as you like and it would have been much more developed. But since we are stuck with 13 episodes I agree with you, they barely have time for their main plot to develop. I think we saw this problem a little bit in season 1, when the supposedly main plot of the klingon war all of a sudden dropped to the background.

Sounds very much like they realized what a mistake they made and are trying to backtrack it without admitting they did indeed make a huge blunder. At least they are attempting to rectify it.

O’Brian: “Worf what happened?”
Worf: “I’d rather not talk about it.”

@Neo — and that’s exactly how they should have left it, rather than the 3 episode arc trying to retcon what was essentially an art direction decision made as the result of the available production budget.

I’m forced to agree. I never felt it necessary to have an in universe explanation for the change from TOS to TMP. We all know why that change happened.

For the record, it was a two episode arc. Not three.

I laugh at that line… and sleep through Ent’s three-part explanation.

After this they should stick with one design rather than changing it every season.

Translation: So we thought you guys would think this look is pretty cool and, a lot of you didn’t. We’re just gonna backpeddle on that.

Good call.

Heh, I’m pleased to see some are excited about this prospect, but it’ll take more than a few strands of hair to convince me that this Trek show is set in the early TOS universe …and Glenn may as well give them a similar haircut to his, for all the difference it will make to me now. ;)

But while I’ll continue to imagine Disco is merely an ‘alternative universe’ Trek show, I’m certainly curious as to how it’s particular re-cast ‘Spock’ pans out.

You and I are on the same page about the alternate universe thing, Cervantes. Going that route gave me mental license to take whatever they’re going to offer going forward with a grain of salt. If it’s good, great. If it’s bad, oh well.

Doesn’t she look a lot like Jakar from Babylon 5 ?!!!

There’s going to be an episode where the Klingons reclaim their stolen hairiness gene, called “Rightful Hair”.

If it’s not genetic, I’d love to see the razor Klingons use on those bumpy noggins to get such a smooth shave!

If they are20 years before Kirk, in the Prime universe…as they claim to be, why didn’t the make-up artist reference the first mention, and appearance of Kahless, from The Savage Curtain? If they just stick crimped poodle hair on the muck they have deleloped for Discovery it’ll be like lipstick on a targ.

…better make that 10 years…not that it makes any difference.