klingon star trek the motion picture

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

• When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.
• A massive alien spacecraft of enormous power destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers as it makes its way towards Federation space. Admiral James T. Kirk is ordered to take command of the USS Enterprise for the first time since her historic five-year mission. The Epsilon IX space station alerts the Federation, but they are also destroyed by the alien spacecraft. The only starship in range is the Enterprise, after undergoing a major overhaul in drydock orbiting Earth. Kirk rounds up the rest of his crew, and acquires some new members, and sets off to intercept the alien spacecraft. However, it has been three years since Kirk last went into deep space--is he up to the task of saving Earth? — Colin Tinto <[email protected]>
• The dazzling, refurbished USS Enterprise soars proudly once again in this ultimate space adventure. When a massive alien spacecraft destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly-transformed USS Enterprise to take command. William Shatner is joined by Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , and the cast from the acclaimed "Star Trek" television series. The alien spacecraft of enormous power enters Federation space and neutralizes everything in its path. The entire crew mobilizes at warp speed to stop the alien intruder from its relentless flight toward Earth. — Robert Lynch <[email protected]>
• In 2273, a Starfleet monitoring station, Epsilon Nine, detects an alien force, hidden in a massive cloud of energy, moving through space towards Earth. The cloud destroys three of the Klingon Empire's new K'I'Inga-class warships and the monitoring station on route. On Earth, the star ship Enterprise is undergoing a major refit; her former commanding officer, James T. Kirk (William Shatner), has been promoted to Admiral and works in San Francisco as Chief of Starfleet Operations. Starfleet dispatches Enterprise to investigate the cloud entity as the ship is the only one in intercept range, requiring her new systems to be tested in transit. Kirk takes command of the ship citing his experience, angering Captain Willard Decker (Stephen Collins), who had been overseeing the refit as its new commanding officer. Testing of Enterprise's new systems goes poorly; two officers, including the science officer, are killed by a malfunctioning transporter, and improperly calibrated engines almost destroy the ship. Kirk's unfamiliarity with the new systems of the Enterprise increases the tension between him and first officer Decker. Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy) arrives as a replacement science officer, explaining that while on his home world undergoing a ritual to purge all emotion, he felt a consciousness that he believes emanates from the cloud. Other officers are Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), the chief medical officer. Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), the Enterprise's chief engineer. Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), the Enterprise's weapons officer. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the communications officer. Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), the Enterprise's helmsman Enterprise intercepts the energy cloud and is attacked by an alien vessel within. But this time, Spock is able to discern that the alien vessel has been trying to communicate with the Enterprise. Spock fixes the Linguacode and transmission frequencies of their reception and the attacks on the Enterprise stop. A probe appears on the bridge, attacks Spock and abducts the navigator, Ilia (Persis Khambatta). She is replaced by a robotic replica, another probe sent by "V'Ger" to study the crew. Decker is distraught over the loss of Ilia, with whom he had a romantic history. He becomes troubled as he attempts to extract information from the doppelganger, which has Ilia's memories and feelings buried within. Spock takes a spacewalk to the alien vessel's interior and attempts a telepathic mind meld with it. In doing so, he learns that the vessel is V'Ger itself, a living machine. Shortly thereafter V'Ger transmit a signal in simple binary code on radio and asks for the creator. When it receives no response, it fires probes into the atmosphere that Enterprise calculates will rid the planet of mankind. Ilia the robot tells Kirk that V'Ger has calculated that the Carbon lifeforms infest the creator's planet as it infests the Enterprise and hence needs to be eliminated to stop interfering with the creator's work. Spock suggests that V'Ger is a child and asks Kirk to treat it as such. Kirk tells Ilia the robot why the creator has not responded but won't reveal that to V'Ger. V'Ger has a huge power surge (in the manner of throwing a tantrum). Kirk holds and says to Ilia robot that he will only reveal the information to V'Ger directly. As such, the Enterprise is pulled towards the V'Ger's central brain complex. At the center of the massive ship, V'Ger is revealed to be Voyager 6, a 20th-century Earth space probe believed lost. The damaged probe was found by an alien race of living machines that interpreted its programming as instructions to learn all that can be learned and return that information to its creator. The machines upgraded the probe to fulfill its mission, and on its journey the probe gathered so much knowledge that it achieved consciousness. Spock realizes that V'Ger lacks the ability to give itself a focus other than its original mission; having learned what it could on its journey home, it finds its existence empty and without purpose. Before transmitting all its information, V'Ger insists that the Creator come in person to finish the sequence. Realizing that the machine wants to merge with its creator, Decker offers himself to V'Ger; he merges with the Ilia probe and V'Ger, creating a new form of life that disappears into another dimension. With Earth saved, Kirk directs Enterprise out to space for future missions.

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K't'inga -class Kronos One

The design of the Klingon K't'inga -class , premiering in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , was based on the Koro -class battle cruiser for the movie's immediate unrealized predecessor Star Trek: Phase II , which in turn was based on the D7-class , created by Matt Jefferies for Star Trek: The Original Series , which was itself based on the manta ray in both shape and color. ( Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook ) The studio model originally started out as belonging to the latter class. While the K't'inga -class, like its D7 -class predecessor, had only made a limited amount of appearances, together they have remained the quintessential Klingon starship design.

• 1.1 Filming the physical model
• 2 Other physical models
• 3 CGI models
• 4.1 Further reading
• 4.2 External links

The physical model [ ]

Orthographic views of the model in its oiginal livery

The studio model started out life as the The Motion Picture D7/ Koro -class model , constructed at Magicam in the spring of 1978 under supervision of Jim Dow . The model itself was subsequently upgraded at Astra Image Corporation (ASTRA), the subsidiary of visual effects (VFX) company Robert Abel & Associates (RA&A), when it was deemed unsuitable to meet big screen requirements after initial test shooting in July 1978. The six foot model was still residing at the ASTRA's Seward St, Los Angeles, studio model effects filming site, when the February 1979 VFX debacle occurred. While considerable surface re-detailing had already been done on the model at ASTRA, Douglas Trumbull set to work a newly appointed Animation and Graphics Artist, Leslie Ekker , to do some additional redesign work on the Klingon battle cruiser, when his company Future General Corporation (FGC) took over the effects photography from RA&A early in the subsequent month,

"My initial duties on the job were to design little details on the Klingon engine pods that they were contemplating changing. Andy Probert wanted some changes done and asked me to do some sketches, because of the way the ship had been designed, I believe, by someone at Astra. There was a kind of an observation deck-appearing detail that looked like a rounded bank of windows in the leading edge of the engine nacelles.They looked like windows and it was ridiculous, because there were no personnel areas in those parts of the ship according to Andy's realistic plan. It just looked wrong. and it looked old-fashioned. We executed those changes, among many other small details on the cruiser that took up a lot of time. Andy got in a lot of hot water because of what I would call his integrity, really. You see, he's a very honest designer and he does know a certain amount about realistic spaceship design. If he sees something contradictory to reality then he will try and change it. And it got to be a power struggle after a while, because Andy would indeed see things that needed changing and there just wasn't time or money. The Klingon cruiser ended up costing 80 or 90 thousand dollars. ( Return to Tomorrow - The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , pp. 200-201)

The model arriving at Apogee's filming facility

Ekker's work notwithstanding, essentially shown in the movie as featured in the "paint-scraping" fly-over detail close-ups of the Klingon cruisers in the opening sequences of the movie, it was not yet elaborate enough as far as Apogee, Inc. , John Dykstra 's VFX company brought in by FGC very shortly after they had acquired the commission, was concerned when the model was delivered to its San Fernando Valley effects stage. Further upgrades on the model were therefore undertaken in late March 1979 by Apogee's model shop, when that company was handed over the studio model. Dykstra recalled, " We had to modify it pretty severely though, because apparently it was not designed to be shot in the same kind of circumstances that we ended up shooting it in. I don't know what Bob Abel planned to do with it, but for us, the practical lighting on the model was so dim that we weren't able to get a good exposure off it even by pushing the film a couple stops and using a twenty-second exposure ", Dykstra elaborated ( Cinefex , issue 2, p. 52), having added further,

"That model, when it came to us, had been set up for some other photographic technique that didn't fit with ours. So we had to go in and completely redo the lighting. That was done by Grant McCune and the people he had working with him, which is basically a very similar staff to the ones we had on Star Wars and other shows. They did an incredible job. They took all the teeny little lights out of the model and put in some lights of significant size – and they did it in a matter of a few days. They really did a nice job of redoing the model, without destroying what was already there. They had to add a lot of detail to it because we got much closer to the model than I think they ever intended to do before. Once the thing with the ship was worked out, Doug Smith , in charge of shooting that sequence, photographed the opening shot." ( American Cinematographer , February 1980, p. 174)

While never referenced as such in neither the movie nor the script, in that process the D7/ Koro -class became the K'tinga -class, coined as such by the movie's Executive Producer Gene Roddenberry in his novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , written at the time. As indicated, the most significant change in the design of the K't'inga model was its more detailed surface, so that it would look more believable on the movie screen. The K't'inga -class cruiser sequence shots for Star Trek: The Motion Picture were shot under the supervision of Dykstra. ( Cinefex , No.1, 1980, pp. 4-34) The footage taken for this movie were the only ones taken of the model in this finish. [1] Later appearances in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: The Next Generation were stock footage taken from this shoot.

According to Ekker, the construction costs of the model amounted in the end to a total of between US$80,000 and $90,000. ( Return to Tomorrow - The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , p. 201)

For Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country the original studio model underwent extensive modification in 1991 for it to become Gorkon 's flagship Kronos One . Originally, a new design for Gorkon's ship was considered, but budget restrictions, due to the dismal box-office performance of the previous movie outing, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , made this impracticable, as Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)'s model maker Bill George recalled, " Paramount had already done some design work on this ship. Mark Moore and I did some additional sketches and I actually built a prototype. But it was ultimately decided that there wasn't money for this, so instead they decided to use the Klingon battlecruiser from Star Trek: The Motion Picture . " That entailed more work than George had anticipated as the model had suffered from years of storage, but he made use of the opportunity to perform modifications. These, done at ILM's model shop by him, Moore, and John Goodson , involved a new paint scheme and gold colored metal etched ornaments applied all over the model. [2] George further elaborated:

Goodson (l) and George refurbishing the model for it to become Kronos One

"Originally, it was dark green in color; but after uncrating the model, we found it had been covered with a white water-based paint. It looked like someone had tried to clean it off, but that hadn't worked. Since we were going to have to repaint it, we thought that even if it wasn't a new model this was still going to be a special ship, so we figured we'd make it look different – distinctive from what we'd seen in previous films. Mark and I sent out to the library for books on military hardware; and out of that research, we came up with the concept that when Klingons return victorious from battle, they add some new piece of equipment or new graphics to their ships. We chose medieval armor as both our color palette and our design springboard and devised this regal and ornate looking paint job, which everyone liked and approved, so we transferred that look onto the model." ( Cinefex , no.49, 1992, p.49)

In addition the warp engines were outfitted with internal lighting visible through newly-applied jagged slotted patterns to the hull. George was exceedingly pleased with the end result, having remarked on another occasion, " It was one of the few models we could alter to look new for this show. After we did some research into military costuming, we came up with the concept that when these ships return victorious from battle, the Klingons build some sort of epaulet onto their wings. we added these golden etched brass epaulets, based on some of the helmet designs we'd seen. It looks very regal, and contrasts nicely with the Enterprise when they are flying together. The Enterprise is smooth, monochromatic and cool, while this Klingon ship is adorned, ostentatious and warm " ( Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #5 1992, p. 49)

Upon completion of The Undiscovered Country , the model was almost immediately loaned out to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for their Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit , where it was shortly re-united with its "mother", the original D7-class model. [3] It went on to be included in the February 1995 opening leg of the Star Trek: The Exhibition tour in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Repaired model serving as example for DS9

Yet, visual effect supervisors of the ongoing Star Trek productions had more uses for it in mind, resulting in that the model in this finish was used twice more. The first time was for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's seasons four double episode, " The Way of the Warrior ". Returning in late May 1995 with the Negh'Var model , also slated to feature heavily in the episode, from the The Exhibition , Effects Supervisor Gary Hutzel was dismayed when he discovered that both models were severely damaged, " Apparently when the Neg'Var model got to customs they thought there might be drugs hidden in it so they broke it open. When it came back it was broken in pieces. That was a nasty surprise. The Klingon heavy cruiser was also damaged. We had to quickly make Styrofoam mock ups of those ships and shoot around them until we could have the repairs done. " Needing a multitude of Klingon ships for that production, Co-Effects Supervisor Glenn Neufeld , exclaimed at the time, " We had a kit of the old-style cruiser and shot the full size cruiser that Industrial Light and Magic [sic.] built for the features. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol 28 #4/5, 1996, p. 72)

The second and, as it turned out, the last time, the model was used by effects supervisor Dan Curry as Kang's battle cruiser for Star Trek: Voyager 's third season anniversary episode, " Flashback ".

Design patent image

The model at auction in its Kronos One livery

A design patent , No. D263856, was issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office for the K't'inga on 4 April 1982 (there called a "toy spaceship") noted Andrew Probert as the sole "inventor" of the design. Filed on 7 May 1979, the patent, after being issued, was valid for fourteen years.

The original physical studio model was eventually listed as Lot 996 in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction, where it was given an estimated sale price of US$3,000 to $5,000; it ultimately sold for US$85,000 ($102,000 with premium) on 7 October 2006. The model was acquired by Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen for his Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, now known as the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop). [4] After its purchase, the museum hired Ed Miarecki 's company, FX Models, to do restoration work and to build a custom made display cabinet for the model. [5] (X) It went on public display in the Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds exhibition at MoPop from 21 May 2016 to 28 May 2018 [6] , which subsequently became a touring exhibition. [7] [8] [9]

Filming the physical model [ ]

Apogee did not only modify the studio model, but was also responsible for shooting and compositing the opening Klingon- V'Ger sequence of The Motion Picture . Upon completion of the modifications, the model was delivered to Apogee's filming stage facility, at the time located in the San Fernando Valley, and John Dykstra started to ponder how to go about the sequence,

"So there were Klingon warships moving around in space with no cloud to go with them [rem: that visual effect had not been produced yet] . We got a model of the Klingon ship and looked at it to see what we could do with the bloody thing. We figured out some moves and storyboarded them and went over them with Bob Wise to see if he would go for them or not. We had to go over them with Doug [Trumbull], as well, because Doug, at the time, had the intention of generating the cloud in a way that was different from how it was finally generated. We provided moves that were very slow and deliberate, because Bob wanted to preserve a mass look in terms of the ships. Because of the way the cloud was to be generated, you couldn't move the ships very radically, the reason being that you couldn't duplicate that kind of move on the background. So it was hot using a conventional system– blue screen with one model." ( American Cinematographer , February 1980, p. 174)

Once Dykstra had figured out the methodology, his crew of effects camera men went to work. Dykstra further recalled,

"We used the one Klingon model for the whole sequence–all bluescreen composite combination, except for the opening shot which was a double-pass matte deal. We used two passes on that to get a high-con matte because we couldn't do the roll-over trick and keep the bluescreen behind the model. "Doug Smith was pretty much responsible for working that out. The whole idea was to come up with something that was nice and yet unusual. People are always coming to us and saying they don't want an opening shot that looks like Star Wars –they just want something that has the same impact. Well, that gets a little tough after awhile. The Star Wars opener was incredibly dramatic. It showed you the scale and the size of those ships, and it gave you a sense of speed that you don't normally get in a space environment. So it's an effective trick, but it's since been overused. The idea with the Klingons was to give us the same kind of visual impact, but without doing a real close flyby. ( Cinefex , issue 2, p. 52) "The cloud was shot with stars, which made it a composite element when it went into the optical printer to be put together with the other elements. All of the ships were separations. Some of them were run with cover mattes, and some without, depending upon how many passes there were. It was kind of tough getting the stars to hold up in some of them." ( American Cinematographer , February 1980, p. 174)

In regard to the opening sequence, Dykstra later elaborated, " This was an interesting shot, because it was sort of the signature piece that I used to convince Mr. Roddenberry that we could do a big opening for the show. Now, the idea was to be able to do this huge camera move, rotating over the top of the ship and ending up behind it. An extremely long opening shot. And it was a very difficult shot to do. I took almost three weeks of original photography to get the single center ship. (...) Of course, there was only one Klingon ship. So, we had to rephotograph and redress the single ship for three different variations, so you felt as though you were looking at three different ships " ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) DVD , " audio commentary ")

Originally, the finale of the Klingon- V'Ger encounter was scripted in the latest script treatments of the direct precursor of The Motion Picture , the movie-upgrade of Star Trek: Phase II 's " In Thy Image ", as ending with the destruction of the Klingon vessels by V'Ger . To this end Magicam had breakaway models of the D7 -class predecessor of the K't'inga -class studio model constructed, and these were already blown up and filmed at Robert Abel & Associates . By the time the project had become The Motion Picture , the sequence had changed to become the digitization of the vessels for storage in V'ger ' databanks, and Dykstra had to come up with new visual effects to visualize the new ending.

In the movie, the Klingon ships, are hit by V'ger 's energy bolts, they themselves called "Whiplash Bolts" by Dykstra and created by a Tesla coil, and amid energy discharges evaporate, instead of blowing up. For the part were the ships are hit by lightning, also generated by a Tesla coil, additional model sculptures were constructed as Dykstra explained, " The real electrical discharge shows up in the Klingon sequence where the cloud fires it energy weapon and that great ball of blue energy comes out and envelopes the ship with electrical discharge all over its surface. It is real lightning done on a form that exactly matches the contours of the ship. Bruno George and David Sosalla sculptured a lot of those forms in the same shape as the ship. They matched them up in the format and then photographed the electric discharge actually crawling up over the surface of the forms. " ( American Cinematographer , February 1980, p. 195)

The digitization and disappearances of the ships was an even more time consuming and elaborate process. Dykstra further explained,

"Then we went to a laser scan technique to create the disappearance, or digitization, of the Klingon ships. We used a smaller laser for that. It was five watts–which is still a pretty potent laser, but the problem is that when you start scanning it, you're essentially diluting the energy that it's putting out over a larger area and you end up with a limited amount of light. So the exposures had to be quite long. At first we'd scan just a small part of the model; and then we'd increase the scanned area on each subsequent frame so that the digitization effect would appear to be sweeping over the ship. The lines start out far apart and then get closer and closer together as they move across the surface. Then at the end there's something like an arc–a brilliant, flaring light which is supposed to indicate that the ship's molecular structure has been reduced to raw information and consumed by the cloud. It's been destroyed, but in a more elegant way than just blown up. It's violent and destructive, but the kicker–which you don't find out until later–is that the digitization is really a method of information storage. "To get the effect we wanted, we had two, and sometimes more, scanning passes to build up the image. We scanned the model itself; then we cover the model with foil and did another pass. That way we had a hard line for the initial scan and then a sparkling line following it. If the scan line wasn't coming out bight enough on one pass, we'd have to do a second. The we superimposed the scanned footage over the footage of the model itself, which was also in movement at the time. So it was a pretty complex process, and the scanning device that made it all possible was put together on very short notice by Al Miller and his electronics crew. After that was done, Harry Moreau and John Millerburg and the people up in the rotoscope department made frame-by-frame roto mattes so the ship would fade out and disappear." ( Cinefex , issue 2, p. 56)

For all the complexity and time expenditure, Dykstra and his crew had to do it all over again with the Epsilon IX station enlarged panel model for its demise later on in the movie.

In the "Special Features" segment on disc seven of the VOY Season 3 DVD entitled Flashback to "Flashback" , there is a 0:02:45 segment with Dan Curry discussing the filming at Image G (where the footage of this and the other physical filming models was normally shot for the television productions) of the encounter between the USS Excelsior and Kang's battle cruiser in the Azure Nebula for the Voyager episode " Flashback ".

Other physical models [ ]

A K't'inga -class cruiser at the Surplus Depot Z-15

Though the K't'ingas shown in The Next Generation were all stock-footage taken from The Motion Picture , there was one exception with the appearance of a K't'inga -class cruiser at the Surplus Depot Z-15 in " Unification I ", where a shot of the ship was used not covered by the footage. For the shot Gregory Jein , assisted by Bruce MacRae and Scott Schneider , built a separate model, using a set of the 1977 three feet molds of the D7 Jein owned. [10] This model was on tour in 1996 and 1997, appearing amongst others in the 1996 LA Star Trek Convention and in the Boss Film Studios ' model shop expo '97 in Los Angeles and seemed, a bit surprisingly perhaps considering the effort that went into the later "The Way of the Warrior" episode, not to have been used since in subsequent Star Trek productions. ( Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models , issue 23, October 1997, p. 47)

Elkins (l) preparing models for "Way of the Warrior"

In "Way of the Warrior" several other physicals models of the K'tinga were used for the massive battle scene, supervised by Dan Curry , Gary Hutzel, and Glenn Neufeld. These however were modified commercially available Playmates Toys (" We had to take out the sound effects ", according to Judy Elkins ), Hallmark Christmas ornaments and AMT/Ertl Star Trek model kits (" which blew up real good "). ( Cinefantastique , Volume 28, No.4/5, p. 72; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. 263)) Being the first mass battle scene ever shown on Star Trek , it was also the last one entirely done with physical models (save for a few shots with a CGI Defiant , the only one available at the time). After one of these models had made an encore in the later fourth season episode " Rules of Engagement ", Visual Effects supervisor David Stipes had the procedure repeated with model kits for Deep Space Nine 's fifth season episode " Call to Arms ", the next-to-last time physical models of the K't'inga were used, having stated the time, " I'm not sure what K't'inga is. There are a lot of old style Klingon D-7 [sic.] Cruisers and Vor'chas . (D-7's are model kits and Vor'chs's [sic.] are the sound making toys.) ". [11]

Last time use of a physical K't'inga -class model in "A Time to Stand"

Repeating what he had previously done with the IKS Drovana model , the heavily battle-damaged IKS B'Moth as seen in the earlier episode of that season, " Soldiers of the Empire ", was yet another separately-built model by Greg Jein, again having used his set of the 1977 three feet molds of the D7. This model was on tour in 1997 shortly after filming and could be seen at the Star Trek Convention in Pasadena, 1997. [12]

One of the AMT model kits that David Stipes had used, made an additional appearance for the opening retreating Second Fleet scene in the Deep Space Nine season six opening episode, " A Time to Stand ". It joined the multitude of kit-bashed models of Federation ships, that were constructed by several members of the production staff, in order to beef out the scene. One of them, Adam Buckner , has explained that the model was built in haste at the time, and had therefore neither received a paint-job nor an internal lighting rig. Paint and lighting were for its re-use added in post-production. [13] The time restraints also explained why the large original studio model was not used as rigging that model (and therefore its resultant shuttling of VFX supervisor to and fro between studio and Image G), was too time consuming. Its use represented the last time a physical model of the K't'inga -class was used for representation of the vessel in the franchise, having been executed as CGI for its subsequent appearance in " The Changing Face of Evil ".

CGI models [ ]

A CGI model of a K't'inga -class vessel, in fact one of the two very first CGI ships ever for Star Trek , had already been built as early as 1981, but has not been seen by the general public. It was constructed as a probation piece at the Graphics Group to convince mother company ILM and Paramount Pictures to go ahead with what would eventually become the "Genesis Demo" in The Wrath of Khan . Project leader Alvy Ray Smith recalled, " It should be mentioned that we had already done one "mini-production" (in August '81) for ILM to show off our abilities. We had rendered a model of the Starship Enterprise chasing a Klingon ship in 3-dimensions, with appropriate lighting, coloring, etc. This was done using Loren 's first working version of his 3-D rendering program "Reyes" (Renders Everything You Ever Saw). This mini-production had also featured several 2-D effects programmed by Pat Cole and Rob Cook . We believe that this demonstration was what prompted Paramount and ILM to ask us to do a piece of the final film. " ( American Cinematographer , October 1982, p. 1038)

A low resolution CGI model of the K't'inga -class was build years later at Foundation Imaging by Jose Perez for later appearances in Deep Space Nine and the Star Trek: Voyager episode " Prophecy " (although it was supposed to be a D7-class vessel), making its debut in "The Changing Face of Evil". [14] (X) The CGI model was later enhanced by Adam Lebowitz and Robert Bonchune for representation in their book Star Trek: Starship Spotter . The CGI model made subsequent in-print appearances in the licensed Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars , their book derivatives, and, most conspicuously and further refined, in the British Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection partwork publication.

Apart form its "misuse" in the Voyager episode, the model was also "misused" as Vorok's battle cruiser in the later Star Trek: Enterprise episode, " Unexpected ", where it was supposed to represent a more than a century-old design prior to the K't'inga design. In both cases, its use constituted an anachronism in canon .

Appendices [ ]

Further reading [ ].

• Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection , issue 7, 2013

External links [ ]

• Klingon K'tinga -class Cruiser at StarshipModeler.com – includes over eighty close-up images of the actual filming model from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• The Everlasting Battlecruiser  at Ex Astris Scientia – a comprehensive look at the lineage of the legendary Klingon battle cruiser
• 2 Star Trek: The Next Generation
• 3 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)

Star Trek's Different Klingon Designs, Explained

The Klingons have been part of every iteration of Star Trek since 1966, but the iconic aliens have had a variety of character designs over the years.

• Star Trek: The Original Series introduced Klingons and created the franchise's most iconic aliens.
• The Klingons were redesigned for The Motion Picture and The Next Generation -era series.
• The rebooted Star Trek films and Discovery redesigned them further, but Strange New Worlds walked those changes back.

The Star Trek saga spans six decades and over 800 hours of storytelling on television and in film. While the universe created by Gene Roddenberry is vast and dynamic, the Klingons have appeared in every iteration of the franchise. Yet, since their debut in Star Trek: The Original Series in 1966, the Klingons' character design has changed over time. From regular humans with brown makeup and stylized facial hair to the intricate alien prosthetics on the characters in Star Trek: Discovery , there's more than one way to skin a Klingon.

Save for the odd standout like Khan Noonien Singh , heroes and starships are more important in Star Trek than its many villains . Instead, the alien antagonists that menace Starfleet explorers are mostly known by their species, like Romulans or the Borg. This is true of Klingons, which are immediately recognizable, though casual fans may not know General Chang from T'Kuvma. It wasn't until the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Klingon bridge officer Worf that the franchise truly started to examine the culture of this war-like race. Thanks to his appearances in both Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Picard Season 3 , Worf has appeared in more Star Trek episodes than any other character. He also laid the foundation for storytellers to create an in-narrative reason for the disparity in Klingon appearance. In the real world, the simple answer for the many different Klingon character designs comes down to money and technology.

RELATED: How Strange New Worlds Perfected a Star Trek: The Next Generation Premise

The Klingons in Star Trek: The Original Series Were Simple on Purpose

The Klingons were, effectively, created by Gene L. Coon, often called " Star Trek 's other Gene." He conceived of the characters as an allegory for the Soviet Union, according to the special features on the DVDs for Star Trek: TOS . Intended to be just one-off antagonists for the Season 1 episode, "Errand of Mercy," writer David Gerrold brought them back for Season 2's classic "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode. Crafting that story made the producers realize the Klingons could be the ongoing antagonist for Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise crew they'd been looking for.

Despite being an expensive series, Star Trek: TOS was always struggling with budget and time. Makeup supervisor Fred Phillips worked with actor John Colicos to design the characters' look. However, outside of raised eyebrows -- similar to both Vulcans and Romulans -- and stylized facial hair, the Klingons were mostly defined by their glittery uniforms with a gold sash. The makeup process for The Original Series -era Klingons often took less time than even affixing Spock's Vulcan ears each day. The character design for early Klingons was simple and effective for TV, but that soon changed.

RELATED: Deep Space Nine Made Star Trek a 'Real' Franchise

The Klingons Look From Star Trek: The Motion Picture Through The Next Generation Era

Nearly a decade after The Original Series went off-the-air, Star Trek: The Motion Picture debuted and introduced fans to a new kind of Klingons. With significantly more budget and time to work with -- the Klingons appeared in only a single scene -- Fred Phillips wanted to make the aliens truly alien. The production of the first Star Trek film was fraught, so if Gene Roddenberry had any objections to changing the Klingon character design, he had bigger battles to fight. The Klingons appeared in each successive film save for The Wrath of Khan , and while their appearance was altered slightly, they maintained the same look.

However, it wasn't until Worf was added to The Next Generation cast that Roddenberry and the writers really began to think of them as a people rather than allegorical Soviets. Now that a Klingon was a hero character, he felt it was an injustice to the characters to reduce them to just being a warrior race. "I take the fact of their fictional existence very seriously," he said in the Star Trek 25th anniversary issue of Cinefantastique . In an interview in the special features of Star Trek: TNG 's first season, actor Michael Dorn noted that Black actors were routinely cast as Klingons to simply save time in the makeup chair. Over the next 18 years, makeup supervisor Michael Westmore had to create dozens of distinct Klingon characters.

In Enterprise Season 4 , the writers addressed the incongruity of the Klingon appearance in Star Trek: TOS with the second-wave era. A storyline was introduced about a genetic modification experiment that went awry. In order to cure a deadly, multi-species virus, Klingons were given a treatment that "smoothed over" the cranial ridges and teeth added to the design to make them look more alien. Yet, even the Klingons not affected by this mutation still looked more human than not. When former Star Trek: Voyager producer Bryan Fuller wanted to redesign them for Star Trek: Discovery , making them more alien was the goal.

RELATED: Star Trek: Humanity Was a Vulcan Pet Project for Centuries

The Design for Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery Was Very Controversial

During episodes of the now-defunct After Trek webseries during Star Trek: Discovery 's first season , the Klingon redesign was an often-discussed topic. The cranial ridges and teeth Fred Phillips added during the first redesign were extended to seemingly cover their entire body. They were given longer, clawed fingers and evolutionary characteristics that were more avian or reptilian than humanoid. The hope was to make the Klingons even more alien and frightening, but the design change proved to be a bit too drastic. By Season 2, the makeup artists gave them hair again. They also introduced a number of different skin tones beyond just brown.

Yet, by Strange New Worlds Season 2, the Klingons looked more like they did during the second-wave era. Unlike Enterprise , there was no in-narrative reason or the different look. The Klingon Empire is an interstellar society with hundreds of billions of citizens. Fans can easily explain away the difference as Star Trek 's continued commitment to Roddenberry's motto of infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Klingons are also able to reproduce with other Star Trek species, which could equally explain the difference.

In both cases, the redesign of the Klingons was meant to highlight their alien nature and take advantage of state-of-the-art makeup and prosthetics. The Discovery design may have been too successful, and franchise producers seem to have reverted the iconic antagonists to their Star Trek: TNG -era design . Still, no matter what they look like, Klingons are integral to Star Trek . They are enemies who became allies, which is the lesson Roddenberry always wanted his show to teach humanity.

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18 Klingon Phrases That’ll Save Your Life One Day

Long ago, as the crew of the Enterprise explored the final frontier, one man boldly did what few—if any—actors had ever done before: construct a language from scratch. But while James Doohan (Scotty) may have invented a form of Klingon on the set of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , the real credit for its enduring legacy goes to linguist Marc Okrand, who started developing Klingon for Trek films in 1984, bringing constructed languages ("conlangs") to generations of new enthusiasts, from Trekkers to Dune fans to Na'vi admirers.

People constructed languages before Klingon: J.R.R. Tolkien created Quenya in 1915, later used in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings ; Edgar Rice Burroughs invented Barsoomian in 1912 for A Princess of Mars ; St. Hildegard of Bingen fashioned the Lingua Ignota in 1200, crediting some angels for divine inspiration. But as part of a TV show beloved by millions of viewers, Okrand's Klingon brought conlangs to the popular lexicon.

Much of Klingon's appeal comes from its lexical novelty. According to Joey Windsor, a linguistics doctoral student at University of Calgary, Okrand designed Klingon against the conventions of human language: It’s meant to sound alien. The sentence structure in Klingon is object-subject-verb, which is the least common construction among all 7,000 human languages; it includes unusual sounds like the trilled "r" (think Willy from The Simpsons ) and the guttural "h" (say “Bach,” with force). "He broke every one of those tendencies, but stopped just shy of the language becoming unpronounceable and unlearnable," says Windsor. "I would describe Klingon as a barely natural human language."

As the first constructed language widely portrayed on-screen, Klingon faced an additional hurdle: unlike the Elvish dialects in the Lord of the Rings novels, characters had to actually speak it. So Okrand developed a language both grammatically alien and actor-friendly. "It's a really choppy language," says Windsor. That's helpful for any actors who may not yet be fluent in Klingon—it allows them to simply memorize syllables, rather than long phrases.

Of course, Klingon was ultimately designed for the fans. For first-time viewers, fluent speakers, and those in between, the elaborate dialogue brings them into the world of the Trek —something not all fictional languages pull off. When done haphazardly, invented languages can alienate an astute audience. (Remember when Leia negotiated for Chewbacca’s life in Jabba’s court using the same few sounds over and over again?) But when done well, conlangs make the fictional world seem far more real.

In that regard, Klingon is the standard-bearer—and countless others have followed. But its most diehard speakers are still Trek fans, who—like Windsor—have given the language a life beyond the screen. Since he first got hooked while watching the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Windsor has given linguistics lectures on Klingon, created four languages himself (which he uses in Dungeons & Dragons), and built up quite the vocabulary of Klingon phrases. To help celebrate this week's 50th anniversary of Star Trek , WIRED asked Windsor to put together a primer on the language. Whether you're meeting a Klingon for a beer, in need of a grave insult, or begging for your life, this guide has you covered. (And here's an International Phonetic Association pronunciation chart, just in case you need help telling a velar fricative from a glottal plosive.)

__Pronounced: __ˈqhuʂ.ɖɑq ˈbɑʔ luʔ.ˈʔɑʔ Usage: When you’re sitting down to negotiations with a Klingon, it’s probably best to proceed with caution—although your polite question may betray your humanoid tendencies.

__Pronounced: __d͡ʒɪ.ˈd͡ʒɑt͡ɬ Usage: As a greeting. "A Klingon will not waste time on trivial pleasantries," notes Windsor. Why say "hello" when you can issue an order, instead?

__Pronounced: __ˈphɛʔ.vɪl ˈmuʔ.qhɑɖ.mɛj Usage: Instead of “all the best” or “have a nice day,” let your parting words say what you really mean.

__Pronounced: __nuqʰ.ˈɖɑqʰ ʔox pʰut͡ʃ.ˈpʰɑʔ.ˈʔɛʔ Usage: Helpful if you forget which door is which on the battlecruiser.

__Pronounced: __nuqh.ˈɖɑqh ʔox tʰɑt͡ʃ.ˈʔɛʔ Best Use Case Scenario: This one is obvious. But be prepared for an answer that will lead to either Bloodwine or the taste of defeat.

Pronounced: thɛ.ˈrɑʔ.ŋɑn ʂod͡ʒ lu.d͡ʒɑb.ˈʔɑʔ Best Use Case Scenario: If the idea of serpent worms turns your stomach, it's worth asking if your dining companion is taking you to a Klingon joint.

Pronounced: qhutʰ nɑʔ xɪ.ˈnob Best Use Case Scenario: Those salt crystals may be acceptable on human food, but Klingon gastronomes insist on eating gagh raw (and live).

Pronounced: qʰɑɣ ʂopʰ.ˈbɛʔ Usage: A way for one Klingon to call another a coward.

Pronounced: xɪ.ˈd͡ʒɑ/ɣo.ˈbɛʔ Usage: As in, "Yes, I surrender."

Pronounced: ˈɖot͡ʃ.vet͡ɬ vɪ.ˈnɛx Usage: Klingons aren’t known for their diplomacy, or their manners—get straight to the point.

Pronounced: xɑb ʂoʂ.ˈlɪʔ q͡χut͡ʃ Usage: As any Trekkie knows, this is a serious insult.

Pronounced: nuqʰ.ˈd͡ʒɑt͡ɬ Usage: If you need to buy a few minutes to come up with an escape plan, feign hard-of-hearing.

Pronounced: d͡ʒɑɣ yɪ.ˈbuʂ.tʰɑx Usage: Klingon does have words for “sorry” and “surrender,” but according to Windsor, “no Klingon would use them, and you would lose all honor if you did.” Try this distraction tactic instead.

Pronounced: ˈxɛɣ.luʔ.mɛx q͡χɑq͡χ ˈd͡ʒɑd͡ʒ.vɑm Usage: If you hear this, let’s hope the Klingon uttering it is going into battle for you, not against you.

Pronounced: ˈqʰɑʂ.tʰɑx nuqʰ d͡ʒɑjʔ Usage: If you’re averse to cursing (Klingons aren’t), leave off the jay’ at the end.

Pronounced: woʔ ˈbɑt͡ɬ.vɑɖ Usage: Uh, we’re all on the same team, guys.

Pronounced: ˈt͡ɬɪ.ŋɑn mɑx Usage: A common Klingon victory chant.

Pronounced: q͡χɑpʰ.ˈlɑʔ Usage: To be exclaimed victoriously after your first full conversation with a Klingon. And, hopefully, your escape.

Kate O'Flaherty

Kyle Orland, Ars Technica

Angela Watercutter

Reece Rogers

Jennifer M. Wood

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

Creating the Klingons

We now know the Klingons as a people driven by honor and tradition, but they started out as the opposite. The Making of Star Trek , co-authored by Gene Roddenberry while The Original Series was still in production, describes the “number-one adversary of the Federation” as “[m]ore powerful than the Romulans” and “less admirable characters.”

Their only rule of life is that rules are made to be broken by shrewdness, deceit or power. Cruelty is something admirable; honor is a dispicable trait. They will go out of their way to provoke an incident with the Federation.

The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine would reverse the roles, with the Romulans becoming duplicitous and never striking the first blow.

The Original Series

The Making of Star Trek goes on to describe the Klingon Empire as an “absolute dictatorship” where assassination is common:

Their society is totally devoted to personal gain by the cleverest, strongest or most treacherous. As a result, their vessels often operate much like “privateers” and warlike acts are a way of life. Life on all levels is completely supervised and extensive use is made of “snooping devices” to help maintain total control.

Gene Coon, who wrote the episode “Errand of Mercy” in which the Klingons first appeared, deliberately modeled the species on America’s communist rivals in the Cold War: primarily Russia, to a lesser extent China. Much like the proxy wars of the twentiethe century, the Federation and the Klingons supported opposing sides in a civil war in “A Private Little War”.

The Klingons were allowed no redeeming qualities. Producer Robert Justman wrote to fellow producer Fred Freiberger at the time “Day of the Dove” was being made:

[L]et us never set up a situation whereby those adversaries of ours give any indication of ever being anything but highly aggressive and self-seeking opponents.

Gene Roddenberry disagreed. During the 1990 SeaTrek cruise, Majel Barrett recalled that her husband “never did like the Klingons, because they were represented as being ‘all bad.’ Gene said, ‘There is no such thing as a whole race that is all bad.’ He really hated that.”

The script of “Errand of Mercy” described the Klingons as “Oriental”-looking. Beyond that, makeup designer Fred Phillips had little to go on. “I had never heard of a Klingon before,” he is quoted as saying in These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One . “And nothing in the script that I read told me what it was.”

John Colicos, the actor who played the Klingon commander Kor in “Errand of Mercy”, had a significant influence on the makeup design. He proposed to take inspiration from Genghis Khan, another ambitious military commander, and Dr Fu Manchu. Phillips “thought that was a hell of a good idea,” Colicos told Star Trek: Communicator in 1995.

The look took only about 20 minutes to apply, according to Colicos, and it was relatively cheap. As a result, the Klingons replaced the Romulans as Star Trek ’s favorite villains.

For the aborted Star Trek television series Phase II , John Meredyth Lucas wrote a two-part episode “Kitumba” that would have radically changed Klingon culture and society.

Lucas, who had produced half of the second season of The Original Series , borrowed from Japan give the Klingons a god-like ceremonial head of state, called the Kitumba, who resides on a Sacred Planet. Day-to-day authority would rest with a Warlord — analogues to the Japanese shogun — who lives on Ultar, the Klingon home world.

The story would have revealed that only members of the warrior caste are called “Klingons”. They are served by technicians and subjects.

The Next Generation established the existence of a Klingon High Council, chaired by a chancellor. But the emperor returned in “Rightful Heir”, when a Kahless clone is elevated to the long-vacant Klingon throne.

Fred Phillips was given the chance to recreate the Klingons for Star Trek: The Motion Picture , which had a much bigger budget, but it was costume designer Robert Fletcher who invented the now-distinctive Klingon cranial ridges.

“I did sketches for the Klingon, including the knobby forehead and head,” Fletcher said in an interview for the 2002 DVD of Star Trek III .

The Makeup Department, very generously, said, “That’s great, we’d like to use it.” Gene Roddenberry was not too enthusiastic. He thought they should look more like just people. I said, “Yes, but these are real aliens, and they’re evil aliens.” I think the people, the audience, wants to see something that is not just folks, that goes beyond just folks.

Roddenberry came around and suggested that the cranial ridges might be an outgrow of the Klingon spinal cord, proceeding up the back of the neck and over the head.

Fletcher agreed:

In my mind, all the bumps on the forehead and so forth are vestigial remains of a people that evolved like crustaceans, like lobsters, who have their skeleton on the outside of their bodies.

The makeup went through various iterations. The final product was uncomfortable for the actors to wear. Mark Lenard, who played one of the Klingon commanders in the movie, recalled in an interview with Starlog that the nose piece, which extended down from the upper area of the head piece, over the actor’s nose, was “pretty warm” and itched.

Fletcher refined the Klingon look for Star Trek III , telling Cinefantastique in 1987:

There had never been a good marriage between the forehead appliance and the actors’ faces. We tried to keep them in character rather than have these obstructive things on their heads.

Applying the makeup took two hours per actor each day. By the time of Star Trek IV , John Schuck, who played the Klingon ambassador, spent up to four-and-a-half hours in makeup before shooting.

The Klingon costumes were inspired by Japanese culture. Fletcher is quoted in The Making of the Trek Films as saying, “I always liked to think of them as authoritarian, almost feudal, like Japan had been.”

William Campbell, who had played Koloth in “The Trouble with Tribbles”, and who would reprise the role three decades later for the episode “Blood Oath” of Deep Space Nine , said during the 1991 SeaTrek cruise that he had a “difficult time” with the makeup changes:

When they did the first movie, it looked like the Klingons had gone through some metamorphic stage. In the classic series, the Klingons looked like humans. I never understood the reasoning behind the extensive makeup change except for the reason that it is a new show.

Roddenberry and Phillips came up with the explanation that there might be different Klingon races, but this was never mentioned on screen.

The Next Generation

Roddenberry initially wanted no Klingons, nor Romulans, on The Next Generation in order to differentiate it from The Original Series . Writer and Co-Producer Herb Wright claimed credit for softening Roddenberry’s position in an interview with Cinefantastique in 1992, “by squeezing a Klingon on the bridge.”

It was Justman who provided the most persuasive argument: putting a Klingon in Starfleet would be a great way to show that a century had passed since the original show, and that both human and Klingon attitudes had grown.

Dorothy C. Fontana, a veteran writer of the first Star Trek , agreed there would be story opportunities if the second showed the Federation and the Klingons at peace.

Roddenberry relented, which led to the creation of Worf. But he was still adamant that there would be “no stories about warfare with Klingons” on The Next Generation , and that these Klingons should be different.

Michael Dorn, who had watched the original Star Trek growing up, recalled in a 1991 interview with The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine that Roddenberry told him, “Forget everything you’ve ever read or heard about Klingons.” Klingons would have redeeming qualities after all.

Makeup artist Michael Westmore could borrow from the movies to create Worf’s look. He also wanted to add something of his own, writing in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Makeup FX Journal that he got Roddenberry’s and Producer Rick Berman’s permission “to lend a little more ferocity to their overall appearance.”

Westmore made the forehead ridges more pronounced, so they were more visible on the small television screen. “I took it a step further,” he told Cinefantastique in 1991, “and brought it into their nose area, so it doesn’t just look like a forehead that we’ve added on.”

Westmore and his team created a different ridge pattern for every Klingon — a decision he would quickly regret:

It was the beginning of what I would eventually call “Klingon Hell”: the self-imposed task of sculpting a new and different head for virtually every Klingon actor.

Maurice Hurley, the Season 1-2 producer who co-wrote “Heart of Glory”, believed the Klingons helped bring a sense of balance to the series. “The show gets so intellectually smug and self-serving,” Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman quote Hurley as saying in Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages . “With the Klingons you’re dealing with emotion and passion,” and that’s something The Next Generation needed every now and then: “someone willing to storm the barricades.”

Ron Moore fleshed out these concept. His first script, “The Bonding”, was Moore’s ticket aboard the Star Trek staff.

“I didn’t start out with the intention of focusing on Worf,” he told Cinefantastique in 1990. But when Michael Piller, who had by then taken over from Hurley as producer asked him to combine two stories into a script that would become “Sins of the Father”, Moore had the chance to put his mark on Klingon culture.

“They had these real intricate codes of honor and poetry, like the samurai,” Moore told Star Trek: The Magazine years later.

They were also like the Vikings; they were big, brawling, larger than life, they liked to drink and sing big songs like the Vikings, or at least our conception of the Vikings. That was where I began with the culture.

Contradicting The Original Series , Moore insisted that Klingons weren’t “evil, tyrannical pirates bent only on pillage and plunder.”

They have a strict, almost unyielding code of ethics and honor and take their responsibilities as rulers seriously. … Klingons respect courage, strength and cunning, in that order … Klingons respect the declared war, the killing stroke, the blood feud, death in the field of battle and clear positions of hostility.

Moore also argued it was time to stop thinking about the Klingons as Star Trek ’s version of the Soviet Union:

The place where the Russians were when I was doing the Klingon shows just wasn’t as relevant any more. The [Berlin] Wall had fallen and it was all about the collapse of this empire, and what they were going to do internally, and how do they become a democracy. I didn’t want to take the Klingons down that road, because it would have essentially defanged them, and I liked keeping them more dangerous.

One Russian influence remained: like the Communists who once governed the Soviet Union, the Klingon elite didn’t live up to its stated ideals.

That was one of the great contradictions of the empire; the society is built around a concept of being honorable, but those principles are often sacrificed and compromised by people like Duras.

Conspiracy, intrigue, larger-than-life personalities — the Klingons lend themselves to what Moore described as “Shakespearean” drama. “It made it more interesting if it wasn’t quite so clear whose side was right.”

Klingon women

The writers’ bible of The Original Series claimed the Klingons had “no patience with women, even their own, and treat them as sometime useful animals.”

“Dave of the Dove” had suggested that wasn’t entirely true. There were two women in Kang’s crew.

Moore established in “Redemption” that women were not allowed to serve on the Klingon High Council (although a female Klingon had been present in the Great Hall during “Sins of the Father”). It differentiated them from the Federation and the Romulans, he argued: Klingons were “a traditionally patriarchal society, even if many elements have disappeared with time.”

Indeed, from Kahlest (Thelma Lee), who calls the Klingon chancellor “fat” to his face, to Worf’s love interest K’Ehleyr (Suzie Plakson) to the Duras sisters (Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh), none of the Klingon women of The Next Generation seemed particularly deferential to patriarchy.

Improved makeup

The appearance of ever more Klingons forced Westmore to give up his practice of creating a unique look for each one. “Instead of making a cast of each actor’s head,” he explains in Star Trek: The Next Generation Makeup FX Journal , “I would measure their head when they walked in the door.”

If their head size was close to that of a preexisting mold, we would create our new design on an available head mold. Quite often, if we had two actors with similarly-sized heads, I would sculpt the first forehead design and after taking a mold from it, the clay sculpture would still be intact. This would eliminate the need for “basing it up”; the process of putting the clay on the mold.

Rather than spend a whole day on a new sculpture, Westmore would be able to resculpt the second head design in three or four hours.

William Shatner gave Westmore’s counterpart on the fifth Star Trek motion picture, Richard Snell, leeway to experiment with different forehead designs. “I always felt that their foreheads should be like a thumbprint,” Snell told Cinefantastique , “and on V , Shatner said, ‘Go ahead, make ’em different.’ I thank him for that. That opened the door and now the sky’s the limit.”

Michael J. Mills, one of Snell’s makeup artists, recalled in a 1992 interview with Cinefex that Nicholas Meyer gave slightly stricer instructions on Star Trek VI : “He wanted the audience to watch the actors’ faces and not be distracted by the makeups. So every one had to be a custom job – which translated out to be about three-and-a-half hours.”

Deep Space Nine

When Moore transitioned from The Next Generation to Deep Space Nine , he felt Klingon culture had been established well enough to poke some fun at it. “This is a point where you’re saying they are kind of silly,” he told Star Trek: The Magazine in 2000. “Let’s enjoy that and laugh at them. Not make them look like fools, but let’s not kid ourselves; they do some pretty crazy stuff.” The Klingons of Deep Space Nine were rambunctious, but the Dominion War arc also gave them the chance to prove that they really were brave warriors.

In an attempt to persuade more Next Generation viewers to switch to Deep Space Nine , Michael Dorn joined the third series in its fourth season. “The Way of the Warrior” put Worf and the Klingons front and center.

The writers initially toyed with a Vulcan exit from the Federation, but Ira Steven Behr suggested it should be the Klingons who break off diplomatic relations. “That might have more heat to it.” Rick Berman loved the idea.

So did Dorn, who told Jeanne M. Dillard for the book Star Trek – Where No One Has Gone Before that allowing the Federation and Klingons to be at war again “makes the Klingon characters what they were originally created to be.”

“Trials and Tribble-ations” forced Deep Space Nine to reckon with the still-unresolved issue of the Klingons’ changed appearance from The Original Series . But even Moore, who created so much of Klingon culture, couldn’t think of a simple way to explain the discrepancy.

So we just said, “Just have Worf say it’s a long story and leave it at that, you know? And that’s fine.” And it’s a wink and a nod to the audience, like, “Okay, we know this doesn’t make sense. Just go with us, okay?”

Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens ultimately came up with an explanation for Star Trek: Enterprise : in an attempt to create a biological weapon, Klingon sciencists inadvertently unleashed a virus that smoothened out the Klingon forehead.

Moore did rethink the limited role of Klingon women. While writing “You Are Cordially Invited”, in which Worf would marry Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), he realized he had done Klingon woman a “disservice” by not allowing them to get involved in politics. “The fallout from [that] was that the role of Klingon women got much smaller, and I hadn’t intended to do that,” he told the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion .

So I figured that if men run the Council and rule the houses, maybe women rule the social structure, and within that structure the mistress of a great house wields pretty much unchallenged power.

Moore barely got a chance to write Star Trek ’s most prominent female (half-)Klingon: B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). He transferred to Voyager after Deep Space Nine ended in 1999, but quit within weeks when he fell out with Producer Brannon Braga. He was able to write “Barge of the Dead” before he left, which revealed the Klingon version of Hell.

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All 5 versions of star trek's klingons explained.

The Klingons are Star Trek's most popular and well-known alien race, but they have undergone many changes over the years in nearly every series.

The Star Trek franchise's most popular aliens are arguably the Klingons, but the mythos around them can be confusing because of all the changes they have gone through over the years. Klingons have been a staple Star Trek alien ever since Star Trek: The Original Series , with their history, culture, and politics explored extensively in both the Star Trek television shows and movies. It would be hard to imagine the franchise with Klingons and the storylines they have provided.

Klingons are a warrior race who prize honor and skill in combat above everything else. They are a very tradition-bound species, with a rich history and complex ideology that revolves mostly around the mythology of their greatest historical warrior, Kahless. A Klingon's greatest honor is to die in battle, and the militaristic aspects of their culture are highly valued. Klingon culture is the antithesis of The United Federation of Planets in many ways, which made the Klingon Empire a major antagonist for Starfleet initially. As any fan will know, however, the two did manage to find common ground and become allies eventually.

Related: Star Trek Brings Back The Real Klingons Discovery Ignored

Klingons have become such a well-established species in Star Trek that it is easy to forget how different they were when they were first introduced. The species has been through many different versions and redesigns over the years, starting in TOS and going up through even the more recent Star Trek shows. Including the version first introduced in TOS , there have been five distinct varieties of Klingons over the years, making for a complicated history of Klingon development within the franchise.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Klingons were first introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series , in the season 1 episode "Errand of Mercy." The episode revolves around Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise on a mission to the planet Organia in order to protect its inhabitants from a Klingon attack. However, it is eventually revealed that the Organians are actually quite advanced beings who don't need any protection and are simply trying to put an end to the conflict between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire. They force Kirk and the Klingon commander Kor to reconcile and predict that in the future the Federation and the Klingons will work together.

Executive producer and writer Gene L. Coon was responsible for the creation of the Klingons and based them and their culture off of both Soviet Russia and Communist China. In keeping with TOS's  style of contemporary social commentary, the Klingon conflict with the Federation was supposed to represent the United States and Soviet conflict during the Cold War. This did result in some questionable makeup choices for the Klingons, with their appearance reflecting an orientalist attitude and their makeup verging on what audiences today would likely call "brownface."

Additionally, because of their inspiration, TOS's Klingons were nothing like the Klingons fans would come to know and love in subsequent shows. The biggest difference was their lack of forehead ridges, but they were also duplicitous, ruthless, and much more Fascistic, with no trace of the honor-obsessed warrior culture that would come later. Klingons would go on to appear several other times throughout The Original Series , most notably in the classic episode "The Trouble with Tribbles."

Related: Star Trek: The Klingons' Greatest Enemy Were The Tribbles, Not Starfleet

Klingons featured in 3 out of the 6 Original Series movies. While only Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country had a plot that revolved almost entirely around the Klingons, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock featured them as a major player, and they made a brief cameo appearance at the beginning of  Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The TOS film series further explored the Klingon culture and especially their relationship with Starfleet, culminating in The Undiscovered Country  in which peace was finally brokered between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. This peace would set up the Klingons' return as Federation allies in later series.

Perhaps the most important thing that the TOS films did however was to give the Klingons a complete redesign. A bigger budget and vastly improved makeup techniques allowed for the creative team to make the Klingons look more alien, providing them at last with the iconic ridged foreheads. The facial hair and complexion from The Original Series were kept, but other changes were made as well, mostly to the uniform style and bizarrely the feet, which now sported a spike if the Klingon boots depicted in Star Trek 6  were any indication. The films also saw the creation of the Klingon language and the beginnings of establishing a more traditional Klingon culture. Ultimately, the TOS movies laid the groundwork for the development of the "classic" Klingons later on.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, And Voyager

The next three series in the Star Trek franchise greatly expanded on the Klingons, establishing their history, politics, and culture to a degree not previously seen. This began with the inclusion of a Klingon main character on Star Trek: The Next Generation . The character of Worf, who was the first Klingon to enter Starfleet, provided a lens through which to view Klingons as sympathetic. Worf introduced fans to the intricacies of Klingon culture and politics, becoming the quintessential example of the honor-obsessed Klingon warrior. Worf also went on to become a series regular on  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and along with characters like Chancellor Gowron and General Martok, explored how the Klingon-Federation alliance held up against the threat of the Dominion War.

Star Trek: Voyager also featured a Klingon character, B'Elanna Torres, who provided a new perspective on the species through her Klingon-Human hybrid parentage. B'Elanna's struggles with both her human and Klingon sides were the crux of many of her character arcs, and her struggles to accept the Klingon half of her provided some fascinating character development. Even though Voyager was set in the Delta Quadrant, far away from Klingon space, B'Elanna's presence on the crew also led to a number of good Klingon-related storylines, most notably "Barge of the Dead" which gave fans an in-depth glimpse into the Klingon mythology around heaven and hell.

Related: Star Trek: What Happened To Worf's Son, Alexander Rozhenko

Throughout all of this world-building, Star Trek  never addressed the differences between the now well-established Klingons and what they had originally been on TOS . Despite this, fans became increasingly obsessed with Klingon culture, even creating a Klingon dictionary and learn the language. TNG , DS9 , and Voyager  took a species that had started out as a one-dimensional enemy and shaped them into a fascinating species with limitless possibilities. This not only kept fans interested up ended up making the Star Trek universe a more complex and rich place.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise was the first series to offer an in-universe explanation for the differences of the Klingons from The Original Series . The Klingons in Enterprise  started out looking similar to the now well-established Klingons, with long hair, full beards, and forehead ridges. Their culture and relationship with the Federation were both much different of course because of  Enterprise's prequel status. Producers Rick Berman and Micahel Piller were interested in the opportunity to present a more primitive version of the Klingons and took full advantage of it, even introducing the idea of a caste system in Klingon society.

Additionally, Enterprise also sought to finally answer the question of why the TOS Klingons had no forehead ridges. They did this by introducing a storyline about a virus that almost wiped out the Klingon population. The Augment virus, as it was known, was accidentally developed by Klingon scientists when they tried to use genetically modified human DNA to create a Klingon-Human hybrid with super strength and stamina. DNA incompatibility ultimately led to death for those who were infected, but before that, one symptom of the virus was the loss of the Klingon's characteristic forehead ridges. A cure was developed by Doctor Phlox and the Klingon scientist Antaak that stopped the spread of the virus, but any physical changes that had happened before the cure was administered were permanent. This led to many Klingons who had been infected not possessing ridges.

The concept of the Augment virus as a way to explain the original Klingons was met with mixed reviews. Some fans accepted the explanation, while others found it dubious or were uninterested in any explanation in the first place. Indeed, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry himself stated before his passing that he didn't think there needed to be an in-universe explanation for the lack of forehead ridges in TOS . Still, the story of the Augment virus provided Star Trek: Enterprise with a couple of engaging episodes, and added another interesting layer to Klingon history.

Related: Star Trek: Why Enterprise Was Cancelled

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery kicked off a new era of Star Trek shows in 2017, and Discovery's 1st season heavily featured the Klingons. However, the species underwent another dramatic redesign like they had in the TOS movies. The new design made the Klingons look even more alien, taking away their hair and giving them a larger head and more pronounced forehead ridges that extended up the entirety of their scalp. Discovery's Klingons also wore more elaborate armor and seemed more primitive and much more religiously devout.

Since Discovery  seasons 1 and 2 were set about 10 years before  The Original Series , some differences in the Klingons' behavior would have made sense, but their new appearance was striking and was met with heavy criticism by fans. Discovery's creative team didn't offer many explanations for the changes, although they did attempt to rectify some of them in season 2, giving the Klingons back their hair and toning down their amour a bit. Various theories and vague explanations for the change have been floating around ever since Discovery's 1st season. These include the idea of further genetic manipulation within the species or the theory that Discovery's Klingons were part of an older more traditional sect. Fans have continued to take issues with Star Trek: Discovery's  depiction of the Klingons , although sentiment has mellowed somewhat now that they are no longer a major player in the show.

With Discovery season 3 making a time jump 930 years into the future, however, some fans have been speculating that season 4 might bring back the "classic" Klingons that fans know and love. Season 3 provided opportunities to see the fates of several classic Star Trek species, such as the Vulcans, Romulans, and Trill. It is reasonable to assume that season 4 might continue the idea of revisiting old species in the far future, and because of Discovery's already established Klingon connection, they would certainly be the next logical step. It is also possible that 2nd season of Star Trek: Picard will include the Klingons since Picard is the only Star Trek show to date that has not shown them at all. Whatever is in store for the Klingons in the future of Star Trek , fans will surely continue to enjoy their expanding mythos and inclusion in the canon.

More: Star Trek Can Fix Its Klingon Problem In Discovery Season 4

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If you’re a faithful warrior of the Klingon Empire, the  K’t’inga -class battlecruiser model is available now to add to your honorable fleet: for $74.95 in Hero Collector’s US webshop, and for £49.99 from their UK store.

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A Complete History of Star Trek's Klingons in The Original Series Era

Quick links, the origin of the klingon empire in star trek, the klingon empire acquires warp drive and a new level of war, starfleet and the klingons engaged in hot and cold war, the klingons vs. captain james t. kirk and how he brought peace.

Star Trek has six decades of history behind the scenes, but the aliens and characters in the narrative go back millennia. Despite being created on a whim for Star Trek: The Original Series , the history of Klingons is one of the most fully realized in the universe. Even though much of it was defined after that first show, how the Klingon Empire took shape is important.

The Klingons were created by Gene L. Coon as a surrogate power for the Soviets to the Federation's United States of America. When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the final film with The Original Series ' cast was in production. It told the story of how the Federation made peace with its most iconic enemies. The Khitomer Accords mark a significant point of transition in what it meant to a Klingon. Even though antagonism continued into the 24th Century, the way the Empire (as created by Kahless the Unforgettable) found a way to accept the peace-loving Federation is a remarkable Star Trek story. It's made better with Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds adding new details to this part of the timeline.

The Planned Opening for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Was a Disaster

The Klingons shared genetic markers, found in Vulcans and Romulans that point to a single humanoid ancestor more than four billion years in the past. This progenitor race seeded planets with unknown technology that encouraged the evolution of creatures with a head, two arms and two legs. Klingons, however, could trace their origins back to large reptilian or insectoid predators with exoskeletons and redundant organs .

The Klingon homeworld Qo'noS was ruled by Malor in the 10th Century CE on Earth. A common warrior, Kahless led a revolution that became the founding myth for the Klingon Empire. Legends of his battles were shared among Klingons into the 24th Century. He eventually killed Malor in single combat and founded the Klingon Empire. Kahless became a god-like figure in the culture, inspiring wars and warriors for millennia . There were a number of ruling dynasties and civil wars, continuing once Klingons took to the stars.

Four hundred years after Kahless united Qo'noS, the Hur'q species from the Gamma Quadrant sacked their homeworld. This started a period of uncertainty about war as a way of life. During the Second Dynasty, General K'Trelan killed the Imperial Family, installing more democratically minded Klingons in power. They claimed to be members of the Imperial houses to gain the respect of those bloodlines, but eventually they returned to their warlike ways.

Star Trek: Discovery's Klingons Were More Accurate Than the TNG-Era

The Klingons acquired warp drive sometime in the Earth's 20th Century, and they turned their attention on the galaxy at large. While they still warred with each other, there were new planets to conquer and people to fight. Vulcans, who also were new to warp drive, encountered Klingons who opened fire on them. Until diplomatic relations were officially opened, Vulcans would fire first on any Klingon ship, eventually called "the Vulcan Hello." Klingons traveled the stars, warring and exploring, including sending a vessel into the Delta Quadrant.

In the 2150s, a Klingon crash-landed on Earth and was shot by a farmer. Dr. Phlox, a visiting alien, saved his life, and the NX-01 Enterprise was launched taking the Klingon back to Qo'noS. Captain Archer helped this Klingon maintain his honor and relations between humans and Klingons were off to an amiable start, but this didn't last. The NX-01 Enterprise helped refugees flee the Klingons by engaging them in battle. This led to Captain Archer being wanted as an enemy of the state. He was put on trial on Qo'noS and sentenced to the Rura Penthe colony. He escaped, leading to multiple hostile encounters with them throughout the Star Trek: Enterprise series.

In 2154, tyrannical, genetically augmented humans attacked the Klingon Empire, but the Enterprise was able to avert war. However, a Klingon scientist tried to use the augment DNA to create superior Klingon warriors . Instead, a deadly virus broke out, and Dr. Phlox was kidnapped to help cure it. He was successful, but the treatment led to the Klingons losing their distinctive cranial ridges. The Klingons then withdrew from Federation territory, until the Klingon-Federation war.

Why Uhura Speaks Klingon in Strange New Worlds, but Not Star Trek VI

The Klingons weren't seen in what would become Federation space for much of the late 22nd and early 23rd Centuries. They had again entered into a period of infighting and civil war, as any house sought to rule. When Starfleet did encounter the Klingons, there were open hostilities. There was a raid on a planet called Doctari Alpha and a battle at a planet called Donatu V. The Klingons resorted to spiritual studies, usually based on the Kahless myth, though a sect studied time travel at the Borleth Monastery .

In 2256, T'Kuvma, a unique-looking Klingon spiritual leader , united the great houses on the ancient Sarcophagus Ship. He provoked a war with the Federation at the Battle of the Binary Stars, dying at the hands of Michael Burnham. General Kol, who originated Klingons' use of cloaking technology, took control. The war raged for a year, with the Klingons nearly defeating the Federation . When General Kol was killed and the Sarcophagus Ship destroyed, things only got worse. Eventually, Section 31 developed a plan to destroy the Klingon Homeworld, but Michael Burnham prevented it from reaching fruition. Instead, she gave control of the hydrobombs to L'Rell.

A less war-hungry acolyte of T'Kuvma she was able to continue his mission of uniting the warring factions on Qo'noS. She even allied her fleet with the Federation to stop a rogue AI that threatened all life in the Alpha Quadrant. The Timekeepers at the Borleth Monastery also helped Starfleet solve the mystery of the "Red Angel," and helped Captain Christopher Pike fix the timeline after he tried to prevent his future debilitating accident. Time itself needed James Kirk and Spock to take the helm of the Enterprise. However, the tenuous peace wouldn't last for long.

What Made Worf a Better Klingon Warrior on Star Trek: The Next Generation?

A new war broke out between the Federation and the Klingons in 2257, but it was short-lived. When the USS Enterprise and General Kor's fleet arrived at Organia, the powerful beings that lived there forced them to negotiate an end to hostilities. The Treaty of Organia ended the war, but there were still clashes and battles throughout the sector. Klingons armed pre-warp species, as did Kirk and the Enterprise crew, albeit reluctantly. A Klingon who went by the name Arne Darvin was surgically altered to look human, and almost carried out a terrorist bombing on a starbase.

After a little more than a decade of relative peace, a rogue Klingon commander named Kruge took a Bird of Prey to the newly-created Genesis planet. There he destroyed the Starfleet science vessel studying it and killed David Marcus, the son of James Kirk. He defeated the Klingons, killing all but one of them, and stole the Bird of Prey. Another rogue Klingon Captain named Klaa tried to battle Kirk and the Enterprise, but Klingon Ambassador Korrd ordered Klaa to save him from the God of Sha Ka'Ree. With the destruction of the moon Praxis in 2293, the Klingon homeworld was threatened and peace finally had a real chance.

Chancellor Gorkon knew the Klingon Empire wouldn't survive unless it made peace and accepted help from the Federation. A conspiracy of Starfleet officers, Romulans and Klingons (including General Chang) assassinated Gorkon and framed Captain Kirk for it. He was sent to Rura Penthe, escaping with the help of Spock and the Enterprise. They arrived at the peace summit just in time to save the Federation president. Captain Kirk's heroics led to the signing of the Khitomer Accords and all-but the end to open hostility between the Klingons and the Federation . While not completely allies with the Federation, the Klingons and Starfleet were no longer at war.

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

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Star Trek IV Was Originally About Saving Something Much Smaller Than Whales

After the release of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" in 1991, a consensus began to form among Trekkies as to which Trek movie was the best. Most fans agreed that the even-numbered films — "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," and "Country" — were the good ones, while the odd-numbered film — "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," and "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" — were the bad ones. This is arguably an unfair assessment, although "Final Frontier" is still often considered the worst in the series, and "Voyage Home" remains one of the most popular. 

Indeed, "Voyage Home," even when not adjusted for inflation, remains the most financially successful "Star Trek" movie released before 2009 . This might seem unusual to a 21st-century eye, as "Voyage Home" was a fish-out-of-water time travel comedy and not a revenge-motivated action flick. 

In the film, Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), the recently resurrected Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed), and the rest of the crew of the now-destroyed U.S.S. Enterprise return to Earth to face the consequences of their actions committed in "Star Trek III." They find the Earth's oceans are being drained by an unknown alien probe looking for humpback whales, a species hunted to extinction a century ago. Using a broken-down Klingon ship, Kirk and co. travel back in time to retrieve whales from the year 1986. 

In the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, the makers of "Star Trek IV" revealed that they initially thought of a different endangered species to rescue, namely: the snail darter, a recently discovered fish that was about three inches long.

There be whales here

Nimoy noted that he and producer Harve Bennett initially thought up a time-travel story for "Star Trek IV" and that "we should lighten up. The picture should be fun in comparison to the previous three." Nimoy also wanted the film to be centered on ecology and visited several universities to talk to environmental scientists and futurists to get their immediate concerns about the future. Ultimately, Nimoy said, those conversations spun off into philosophy and theory , leading to some deep consideration about how human contact with extraterrestrials might potentially change notions of religion and sociology. Fun conversations, to be sure, but not quite what Nimoy needed to form a story for a "Star Trek" script. 

It wasn't until he met with a particular author that notions of biodiversity — as a direct story element — began to enter Nimoy's mind in earnest. The director said: 

"In [Edward O. Wilson's] book Biophilia, he tells us we could be losing as many as ten thousand species off this planet per year—many of them having gone unrecorded. We won't even have known what they were and they will be gone. He touches on the concept of a keystone species. If you set up a house of cards you may be able to pull away one card successfully and another card successfully. But at some point you are going to get a card that is a keystone card. When that one is pulled away, the whole thing will collapse." 

Wilson's book is easy enough to find online . 

The "keystone," Nimoy pointed out, could be any species on Earth, and that it was wise to protect them. Throughout the 1980s, the slogan "Save the Whales" was largely touted on bumper stickers and by environmental activists. 

Lo, there was Nimoy's "hook."

The snail darter

Nimoy liked the idea of saving the whales, but there was a bit of a creative difference. Harve Bennett had the idea, according to StarTrek.com , to make the small snail darter the object of the time traveler's hunt. Bennett felt that it would be more poetic if the fate of the Earth rested in the hands (fins?) of an overlooked, seemingly insignificant species. In "The Fifty-Year Mission," executive producer Ralph Winter recalls hearing Nimoy talking about the snail darter, and how it was kind of a terrible idea. Winter said: 

"It was Leonard's idea about saving the whales as opposed to, as he famously said, 'trying to save the snail darter.' Saving whales made it a bigger movie." 

Indeed, saving whales made for a more dramatic story, as gathering them up and transporting them onto a starship required far more elaborate logistics. A small fry could merely be carried in a glass bowl. 

Importantly, though, Leonard Nimoy wanted a lighter tone than the previous movies. He found an efficient ecology story, but he wanted to eschew the headiness of the first film, the action of the second, and the tragedy of the third. Nimoy said: 

"I just felt it was time to lighten up and have some fun. That meant that if we were going to do time travel, the best thing we could do was come back to contemporary Earth, where we could have some fun with our people. They would more or less be a fish out of water on the streets." 

Nimoy's instincts were correct. Audiences loved "The Voyage Home."