Star Trek History: Creating the Klingons

Aside from the Vulcans (the pointy-eared aliens that birthed the ever-logical character of Spock), the best-known alien race envisioned by the science fiction series Star Trek is that of the Klingons. But when they first appeared in the 1967 episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, "Errand of Mercy", they were far different from the ridged, chainmail-clad figures with scraggly teeth and a guttural language (Klingonese!). This is a look at one of the most enduring villains (and allies) of the Star Trek series

In their first and subsequent appearances during the run of the 1960s series, the Klingons were depicted as swarthy pirates, with little sense of honor. Their wispy mustaches and bronze makeup vaguely resembled a caricature of Orientals, but the race themselves were intended to be the allegorical Russians to the United Federation of Planets (the humans, of course, led by Kirk and company.)

The reason for the cheap makeup, of course, was a lack of budget. In fact, the Klingons didn't get their own ships until the third season. Until then, swirls of light suggested the alien menace (how frightening!) In fact, the screenwriter who developed the race, Gene Coon, was the only one enthusiastic about the name; "Klingons" only stuck because no one else could think of anything better.

Of course, the original series was cancelled in 1969, and so Klingons and their cheap makeup took a rest--permanently. When the Klingons resurfaced in the 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture, they were different-looking, to say the least. The smooth foreheads were replaced with ridged designs based on dinosaur vertebrae. Another significant change was that after speaking English, the Klingon got their own language, albeit one consisting of grunts and sounds made by actor James Doohan (i.e., it was gibberish.)

The Klingon's appearance in the film was relatively minor, but the basic new design of their ships, consoles, interface, and symbols was established. By Star Trek III (1984), the Klingons had a new ship (the Bird-of-Prey), uniforms reminiscent of Japanese feudal armor, and an actual language. Linguist Marc Okrand, who developed the Vulcan used in previous films, created a full language based on Doohan's original gibberish. Okrand devised a language made to sound alien, using the rarest form of sentence construction, that of the object-verb-subject; instead of saying "I learned Klingon", the translation of the Klingon phrase would come out "Klingon learned I". Since its creation, Klingon has become the most-spoken invented language in the world--the Klingon Dictionary, written by Okrand, has sold more than a quarter-million copies.

Along the redesign, and with the appearance of a second television series The Next Generation and a major Klingon character (Worf), the Klingon culture changed as well. The Klingons became a highly honorable culture, with a code of honor similar to Bushido; essentially, the Klingon's cultural depiction changed from the savages Americans viewed the natives as to noble warriors, like how American indians are now commonly portrayed.

With The Next Generation and the later spin-off Deep Space 9, Klingons turned from the enemies of the original movies and series to full-fledged allies. In the process, they turned into the most durable and memorable characters in the entire series.

For more information, see the Wikipedia article on Klingon.