Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jonnathanson 4346 days ago
Ugh, don't remind me. That was the worst. Why can't shows just acknowledge that makeup and effects change over time, and leave well enough alone? Augment Virus was Enterprise's attempt to cave into fans' demands that Star Trek offer an explanation for the TOS Klingons. If you ask me, Star Trek should've just hand-woven that subject indefinitely.

DS9 handled the matter much more effectively in "Trials and Tribbleations." Someone asked why the old-school Klingons had smooth foreheads, and Worf replied "We don't like to discuss that with outsiders." Boom. Perfect explanation. Funny, clever, and hand-wavy. Done.
1 comments
djur 4346 days ago
Unfortunately, that joke on DS9 (which I absolutely love) was taken as establishing as canon that TOS-era Klingons actually looked different. A sane person would interpret it as a meta joke in an episode full of them, but these are Star Trek fans we're talking about here.

That still doesn't justify Enterprise trying to explain it. If one must insist that there be an in-universe explanation because of the DS9 precedent, just say Q decided to mutate the entire species for a hundred years as a lark.

link
jonnathanson 4346 days ago
The classic "a wizard did it" defense. :) Come to think of it, that's just about the only potential appearance of Q in Enterprise I would have tolerated. "Oh, they look different? Hmmm. Q did it."
link
Pxtl 4346 days ago
My favored approach would be to just do it off-camera.

One episode right at the end, Klingons show up looking de-Klingon'd. "What the hell happened to the Klingons?" Klingons won't say.

Sometimes, the audience just doesn't get to know.

link