The next Star Trek series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, can finally explain the variant Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery. There have been multiple versions of Klingons over Star Trek’s nearly 60-year run because of advances in special effects makeup technology since the 1960s. After Star Trek: The Original Series’ smooth-headed Klingons, characteristic forehead ridges appeared on Klingons in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and even then, the most popular modern Klingon look wasn’t finalized until Star Trek: The Next Generation. After Star Trek Into Darkness evolved Klingon makeup beyond the TNG look, Star Trek: Discovery pushed Klingons even further, making Klingons even more distinctively alien.
According to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, the Klingons were always supposed to have a more alien appearance than what was seen in Star Trek: The Original Series, and the higher budget of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is what allowed that intended vision to finally be realized. Still, Star Trek wanted to explain the changes to the Klingons’ appearance with an in-universe reason, which was finally provided in Star Trek: Enterprise season 4, episode 15, “Affliction”, when the NX-01 Enterprise crew discovered that Klingons’ attempts to create their own Augments resulted in a deadly virus, and the cure left affected Klingons with a markedly human appearance.
Starfleet Academy Can Finally Explain Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons
Starfleet Academy’s Educational Setting Can Canonize One Of Many Klingon Theories
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy can do for Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons what Star Trek: Enterprise did for the Klingons of the TNG era, and offer an in-universe explanation for the changes to Klingons. Star Trek: Discovery was never concerned with explaining the changes to Klingons, since its focus was on moving plot and character forward instead of stopping for lessons in history or xenobiology. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy takes place at a school, so there will be natural opportunities for lessons that can educate viewers and Academy cadets at the same time, just like Doctor Erin’s (Dr. Erin Macdonald) Star Trek: Prodigy temporal mechanics explanation.
There are several theories that can explain the differences in Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons. An attempt to reverse the effects of the augment virus from Star Trek: Enterprise could have overcorrected the Klingon features, resulting in the more pronounced alien visages seen in Star Trek: Discovery. Mary Chieffo’s Discovery Klingon theory suggests L’Rell leads “an ancient sect of outcasts” far removed from the Klingons of Q’onoS, which also explains the differences in culture. A theory dating all the way to Star Trek: The Motion Picture suggests multiple variations of Klingons all co-exist in the timeline, but hail from different regions or colonies in the Klingon Empire.
Why Star Trek: Discovery Avoided Klingons After Season 3
Can Starfleet Academy Also Explain What Happened To Klingons In The 32nd Century?
With a jump into the 32nd century, Star Trek: Discovery season 3 was a soft reboot that attempted to avoid the pitfalls of Discovery’s first 2 seasons, and that included not even touching the controversial Klingon redesign. Rather than attempt to explain why Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons were different, or show how the Klingons might have evolved in the 900 years since the USS Discovery’s point of origin, Star Trek: Discovery avoided showing any Klingons at all in the 32nd century. This allowed Star Trek: Discovery to focus on telling new stories in a new era, but also raised questions about what might have happened to the Klingons in the intervening centuries.
The lack of Klingons in the 32nd century makes sense from a production standpoint, but Star Trek might also be able to explain why there aren’t any Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery from season 3 onward. It might not be as simple as Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons being just offscreen. Klingons might have become extinct thanks to centuries of prioritizing war. The Burn may have made Klingons isolationist and xenophobic. A completely new catastrophe may have befallen the Klingon Empire before the 32nd century. A crash course on Klingons in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy could reveal the Klingons’ fate, and also explain why Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons were so different.