WHY DO THE KLINGONS IN THE ORIGINAL SERIES LOOK LIKE GREASY MONGOLIANS, WHILE THE KLINGONS SINCE STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE HAVE HAD BUMPY FOREHEADS?
The Canon Answer:
"We do not
discuss these things with outsiders" (or something like
that)--Worf, DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations"
UPDATE: Well, the Enterprise two-parter "Affliction" and "Divergence" settles things once and for all: a virus was threatening the Klingon Empire, and the cure--made from the DNA of the genetically-enhanced humans called the Augments--had the side effect of smoothing things out with the Klingons, so to speak.
The Company Line:
The bumpy forehead-thing was always something they wanted to give the Klingons to make them look alien, but it wasn't until STTMP that they had the budget to do so. As for why TOS Klingons are smooth and Post-TOS Klingons are bumpy, they left that up to us fans to fight over (at least until "Affliction/Divergence").
The Fan Answers/ The Lowdown:
Several theories had been proposed, which we'll detail below, but right now let's point out that a Bump Origins Theory only works if it can account for a few important cases:
1) Kahless, the legendary archetype of the Klingons, lived long before the smooth TOS times, but his clone in TNG's "Rightful Heir" is bumpy-headed. (Yes, I know that in the TNG novel "Kahless" it's revealed that the clone isn't who he seems to be, but let's file that under "non-canon").
2) Kang, Koloth and Kor, a trio of Klingon captains seen in TOS with smooth foreheads, reappeared on Deep Space Nine ("Blood Oath," "The Sword of Kahless") and Voyager ("Flashback") with lots of bumps.
3) and last but not least, all the Klingons we've seen in Enterprise have been bumpy.
Note that the fact that we saw a smooth Kahless in "The Savage Curtain" doesn't matter, because that Kahless (and the other historical figures in that episode) were apparently created using the memories and knowledge of Kirk and/or the Enterprise crew. If the real Kahless had been bumpy, they wouldn't have known because Klingons were still largely alien to the Federation (and Starfleet officers might not yet have glimpsed bumpy Klingon pictures/art). So, working from the Enterprise crew's presumptions, the Excalbian created a smooth illusionary Kahless.
So, let's address the theories put forth by the fans:
1) The Northern Klingon/Southern Klingon theory. Before "Blood Oath," this actually had some merit, however dubious. The smooth Klingons Kirk kept running into were a different subrace from the bumpies we started meeting in TMP. "The Savage Curtain" can be explained away by assuming that the Excalbian based his recreations from images taken from the crew's (or maybe just Kirk's) minds...since the crew's only seen the smoothies, and very little Klingon culture (art, etc) was known by the Federation, the Excalbian generated a smooth Kahless. Unfortunately, this theory fails on account of Kang and Company, unless you add a corollary:
2) The "It's Cool to Look Northern" Corollary. The two Klingon subraces--the bumpies and smoothies--were at odds. In TOS, the smoothies were dominant; sometime before TMP, the bumpies revolted and virtually exterminated the smoothies. Those who weren't killed, for one reason or another (for example, great smoothie warriors like Kang, Koloth and Kor), were allowed (or forced) to undergo DNA resequencing and stuff to make them bumpy. Kahless was presumably bumpy. Since this probably involved lots of atrocities commited by Klingons upon Klingons, Worf and the modern Klingons don't feel comfortable talking about it.
3) The "Someone Dropped a Bump Bomb On Us" Theory. Some cataclysm, virus, whatever, affected all the Klingons sometime between TOS and TMP, and gave everyone bumps. This kinda falls short in the Kahless clone case, unless you say that in the cloning process, the Kahless clone was "infected" as well.
4) The "Look Ma, I've Got Bumps" Theory. Bumpiness is a normal part of Klingon growth, but unlike the changes that come with human puberty, bumps can hit Klingons at any time in their life (in fact, if you look at Worf in the twelve years he's spent before our eyes, even his bumps have changed over the years). Kirk just happened to keep running into shiploads of late bloomers; Alexander Rozhenko is an early bloomer. This has very strong ties to their sexuality, which is why Worf is uncomfortable talking about it.
4) The "Let's Look Pretty For The Earthlings" Theory. Until my friends at Trekweb pointed it out, I neglected to include this theory in my original version of this page, even though it's probably the oldest and best known (among the Pre-TNG Trek fans). The story goes that in order to give the Federation a false sense of security, the Klingons sent on missions where they were likely to intercept humans were surgically altered/genetically altered/specially bred to look more human, sans bumps. I don't think this theory floats too well, because, well, it's really not a "Klingon thing to do," not to mention that the Klingons would have had to anticipate when and where they'd meet up with the Federation so they can send the smoothies over. But we do know, in the case of Arne Darvin of "The Trouble with Tribbles," that Klingons were capable of some sort of manipulation that would make them look less Klingon, whatever a Klingon looked like.
The Klingons as we know them now aren't really the dissembling type, which brings up my impression that sometime between TOS and TNG (and I grant that I'm not as well-versed in TOS as I am with the other shows), the cultural characteristics of the Klingon race and the Romulans were switched: In TOS, Klingons seemed to be portrayed more as the cunning, scheming, backstabbing type (I seem to recall someone in TOS saying "they have no honor"), while the Romulans were the honorable warrior race, with an air of what could even be considered respect for a formidable enemy ("Balance of Terror" is a good illustration of this). I think things got flipped upside down when TNG popped up--now Klingons are the ones with honor, and Romulans without. (Then again, maybe it was just the smoothie Klingons who were dishonorable :D). But I digress...
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