I just solved the Klingon problem! Specifically, the problem of the difference between their appearance from TOS and afterwards. Yes, I know that this was dealt with in Enterprise, and while I found their solution clever, it always felt a bit forced to me, not to mention human-centric (humans are responsible for the change? Like how they were responsible for the creation of Aliens? No thanks, Ridley.)
No, this is a better solution, IMHO, however late it may be. Let's begin with the TOS Klingons. Taking them as the basically Roman-style conquerors they were portrayed as, where were all these conquered races anyway? Thanks to Star Fleet Battles, I had envisioned them working for the Empire in many capacities, much in the way slave races worked for the Terran Empire in the Mirror episode of Enterprise. Yet in no episode did we ever see this. Disappointing.
Now the TNG+ Klingons weren't just visually different, they emphasized their inherent racial superiority with their now "warrior" culture. This makes me think of them as an entirely different species than the TOS Klingons. So suppose that they were. Suppose that the TOS Klingons, being technologically superior in the same way Rome was to various 'barbarians' on Earth, at some point conquered a primitive, all-warrior cultured race that is the TNG+ Klingons. Now suppose that this slave race has been enslaved so long that they became used to being part of the "Klingon" Empire, to the point that they called themselves that as well, since all the slave races were "part" of the Empire.
But also suppose that they had their own covert culture that emphasized their racial superiority, and created solidarity as can happen with some slave races. Then, once the time was right (perhaps in some Praxis-like event), they rose up, overthrew the TOS Klingons, and took over to become the "true" Klingons. This blurring of the facts would be much in the same manner as Hitler screwing up the term "Aryan" to fit his views. Now, instead of just conquerors with a superior culture, they were a true "warrior race", as it was race that was more important to them than the culture. This would account for not only the visual differences, but the cultural ones as well. They could even weave the event into their mythology, as their founders "rose up and slew the gods", something they are fond of claiming.
So hows that? Seems far more plausible to me, and fits in nicely with established lore (aside from that one Enterprise episode that explains it differently).
[#]StarTrek #klingon
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