Klingon appearences in TOS

[Astrostars2025]

I darw to say by this point that the Klingons in TOS such as Kor, Koloth, and Kang all had ridges during the time of the TV show, Roddenberry and the others just didn't have the money to show it. I say this because Dis and SNW have made it quite clear that all Klingons have ridges at this point, retconing ENT's Klongon Augment virus content that said all Kingons up until TMP didn't have ridges. Yes, I know DS9 says Klingons didn't have ridges in that episode, perhaps those particular Klingons at that table didn't "have" ridges (yes all of them didn't, but again the crew didn't even have the ability to visualially give them ridges at the time). This whole thing is rather annoying, and I hate the fact that SNW didn't make the Klingons like their TOS counterpart, despite it being mu favorite show after TOS.

[🦊 Hermit]

I thought DIS and SNW were in an alternate timeline to TOS, DS9 and ENT? Maybe the augment virus didn't happen in that universe, but did in the prime one.

[Astrostars2025]

No, none of the TV shows are an alternate timeline. A lot of old school fans don't like how different the newer shows are and "consider" them to be a different timeline even though they are not. The only thing to be in a different time line are the Kelvin universe movies. Except for Spock who somehow changed universises/timelines from the prime to Kelvin.

[Mothvibe]

Originally posted by Starman20290:

I darw to say by this point that the Klingons in TOS such as Kor, Koloth, and Kang all had ridges during the time of the TV show, Roddenberry and the others just didn't have the money to show it. I say this because Dis and SNW have made it quite clear that all Klingons have ridges at this point, retconing ENT's Klongon Augment virus content that said all Kingons up until TMP didn't have ridges. Yes, I know DS9 says Klingons didn't have ridges in that episode, perhaps those particular Klingons at that table didn't "have" ridges (yes all of them didn't, but again the crew didn't even have the ability to visualially give them ridges at the time). This whole thing is rather annoying, and I hate the fact that SNW didn't make the Klingons like their TOS counterpart, despite it being mu favorite show after TOS.

Don't know if this helps, but my head canon is that there was a secret cold war between the Kilngons and Romulans, so a lot of Klingons went DEEP undercover, so they needed their ridges removed.

This event never stopped and continues to this day, but we just don't see the Klingon spies anymore because they're either so deep undercover or just use (in-universe) prosthetics to show their house/family ridges. They're master spies so they can pull it off.

The ones we saw were failed spies who weren't allowed to wear their house/family ridges, doing various tasks to reclaim their family's honour.

Reminder: This is all head-canon.

[Astrostars2025]

The problem is that Romulans have ridges as well from TNG onward...

[Daishikaze]

I've always felt that Gene would have liked the show too look like The Motion Picture made everything look, but the budgets of the 60s didn't allow for it so we get TOS as it was. But to me Everything should be looking as it did in TMP (maybe slightly less advanced, but more or less the same). I know that's not a popular view, But it works for me

[Astrostars2025]

I wouldn't mind the uniforms of they removed the stupid looking life support belt and made the division colors actualy consistent.

[Rattler]

Originally posted by 🦊 Hermit:

I thought DIS and SNW were in an alternate timeline to TOS, DS9 and ENT? Maybe the augment virus didn't happen in that universe, but did in the prime one.

That also assumes that EVERY Klingon was infected, which doesn't seem to be the case.

Originally posted by Starman20290:

The problem is that Romulans have ridges as well from TNG onward...

Picard gave an explanation for that, regional differences. Ridged Romulans were apparently Northerners. So its basically the difference between say European and Asian ethnic groups.

[Daishikaze]

Originally posted by Starman20290:

I wouldn't mind the uniforms of they removed the stupid looking life support belt and made the division colors actualy consistent.

yeah I agree. But they were going to change it to the WOK uniforms anyways, which I prefer myself

[andreasaspenberg575]

they explained in the enterprise episode i believe that it affected some klingongs but not all. think they also explained that klingons started a business to restore their original ridged appearance.

[Astrostars2025]

Originally posted by andreasaspenberg575:

they explained in the enterprise episode i believe that it affected some klingongs but not all. think they also explained that klingons started a business to restore their original ridged appearance.

That would explain why Kor, Kang, and Koloth all had ridges by the time of TNG, DS9, and VOY. However what is annoying is that we don't see any TOS Klingons in DIS and SNW while in TOS we only see them as they seems to make up the majority of the Klingon population by them. I know it doesn't mattet at the end of the day, but I'm at a loss to explain why Kurtzman and the others didn't pay attention to this for the sake of the fans, despite doing so good at SNW season 1.

[El Rushbo]

It is not something they discuss with outsiders.

[Astrostars2025]

Very well Mr. Worf