Klingon

:This page is about the race. For the language, see Klingon language.

Klingon biology

Roughly humanoid in appearance, Klingons typically sport long manes of luxuriant hair, and for males, mustaches, and beards. Perhaps their most prominent external feature is their ridged forehead. These intricate, bony patterns vary by family line and are an evolutionary remnant of their prehistoric forms, when Klingons had a more extensive exoskeleton and a decidedly crustacean appearance.

Related Topics:
Hair - Crustacean

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Most body functions incorporate multiple redundancies, such as redundant stomachs, lungs, livers, an eight-chambered heart, and twenty-three ribs. This characteristic, known as "brak'lul," makes Klingons incredibly resilient. According to visual effects producer Dan Curry, Klingon ribs are arranged in a latticework; the structure might be compared to chainmail. The character Spock once said Klingons lack tear ducts, although Klingon myth states that Kahless once filled the ocean with his tears. The Klingon lifespan is at least 150 years.

Related Topics:
Redundancies - Stomach - Lung - Liver - Heart - Rib - Dan Curry - Lattice - Chainmail - Spock - Tear duct - Kahless

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Klingon pregnancies run 30 weeks. Interbreeding is possible with humans (B'Elanna Torres, K'Ehleyr), Romulans (Ba'el), and Trill (Yedrin Dax); Klingon traits remain dominant over several generations.

Related Topics:
Humans - B'Elanna Torres - K'Ehleyr - Romulan - Ba'el - Trill - Dax

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' depicts Klingons having violet blood (based on the metal ion manganese according to some unofficial sources) similar in appearance to Pepto-Bismol, but all other depictions of Klingon blood have been red, like human blood. The difference in color may have resulted from a unique atmospheric gas mix on the Klingon vessel - as suggested by the renegade boarding party's need to wear environmental suits, rather than merely wearing disguises. (The truth behind the issue is, violet blood allowed Star Trek VI to maintain a PG rating rather than something more restrictive. It also facilitates discerning Klingon blood from other species' blood without the aid of a tricorder or similar means; Colonel Worf makes this distinction during the movie's denoument.)

Related Topics:
Violet - Blood - Manganese - Pepto-Bismol - Tricorder

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Human-looking Klingons

From the year 2154 until sometime after the events of ' about a century later, Klingons had external features resembling Humans and wore their hair in a more conservative fashion than that seen later (and previously), which in actuality was because of the limited budget Gene Roddenberry had to work with. The physical changes were canonically explained in the episode Divergence, where it was revealed that Klingons, who had appeared in Star Trek: Enterprise previously with the physical characteristics seen in , and were changed by a virus accidentally created when a Klingon was genetically altered in an attempt to improve the race. The genetic engineering was done using research by Dr. Arik Soong, a human. Because of this, human physical characteristics emerged before the virus eventually killed the infected Klingon. The fatal effects of the virus were halted by Doctor Phlox, however he was unable to prevent the physical changes, which would be passed on from parent to child. Presumably, by the time of , the Klingon genes had proven stronger and eliminated the human characteristics, or the condition was cured in some other way, as human-like Klingons were no longer seen after this point.

Related Topics:
Human - Arik Soong

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There also appear to be two different "races" of the "original" Klingons, some who were pale with neatly groomed hair and others much darker with thick eyebrows. The two never appeared together. The differences in the two phenotypes may explain, in part, Dr. McCoy's immediate lack of knowledge of Klingon anatomy when he tried to save Chancellor Gorkon in 2293.

Related Topics:
Phenotypes - Dr. McCoy - Anatomy - Gorkon

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Fan speculation

Over the decades, several non-canon novels and comic books attempted to suggest reasons for the change, including the suggestion that the human-like Klingons were a different race. The early-1990s DC Comics graphic novel, Debt of Honor suggested that the human-like Klingons were discommoded (a concept introduced in TNG). However, several Klingons who appeared human-like in ' made appearances on ' and ' with full ridges. It has been suggested that the character of General Chang in ', whose features are less severe than other Klingons, might be a remnant of the human-like Klingons.

Related Topics:
Canon - DC Comics - General Chang

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The Star Trek Role playing game published by FASA in the 1980s (also non-canon) suggested the Klingons of the original series were actually human/klingon "fusions" (hybrids) based on the premise that Klingons took 'know thine enemy' to its logical extreme in that incorporating human DNA and presumably human characteristics into Klingons would make them much more effective in combating them. The "movie" Klingons were "Imperial Race" Klingons, i.e. purebred.

Related Topics:
Role playing game - DNA

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In the real world of Gene Roddenberry and other Star Trek story-makers, the change was said to actually be an attempt to make the Klingons more alien, as an ongoing set of characters whose race was nearly identical to humans was considered too unrealistic. This change took place, initially, during the Star Trek movies, when the new Hollywood budget first allowed a much more alien race, but talking about the reasons behind it was treated as a sort of friendly taboo by people associated with the series until it was finally decided to approach the issue during the closing weeks of Enterprise (which is expected to be the final Star Trek TV series for the forseeable future).

Related Topics:
Gene Roddenberry - Hollywood

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The cause revealed

In February 2005 a two-part storyline on ', "Affliction" and "Divergence", explained canonically why the Klingons changed their appearance.

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In an earlier series of episodes, the Augments, humans grown from genetically engineered embryos from the Eugenics Wars of the late 20th century, were defeated by Captain Jonathan Archer and the Enterprise (NX-01) in Klingon space. The Klingons gained access to the genetic material of the human Augments, and wanted to adapt this genetic engineering to augment their own species. The experiment did not work correctly; at first, subjects did gain increased strength and intelligence, but their nervous systems could not handle the strain and they died. One of the test subjects had a virulent flu, which—combined with the genetic changes wrought by the experiment—became a deadly, airborne plague that spread rampantly among the Empire, from world to world, causing the physical changes to change them into the human-looking Klingons of Kirk's day.

Related Topics:
Augments - Eugenics Wars - Jonathan Archer - Enterprise (NX-01)

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Dr. Phlox of the Enterprise NX-01 formulated a cure for the virus, however not before millions of Klingons were physically altered. And due to the genetic nature of the virus, these alterations were passed to succeeding generations of offspring.

Related Topics:
Phlox - Virus

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The Klingons were apparently so embarrassed by the fallout from this disaster, that they absolutely refused under any circumstances to discuss the incident with outsiders in later years. There is also evidence (illustrated by the ignorance of members of the Deep Space Nine crew who encounter human-like Klingons during time travel into the past in Trials and Tribble-ations) that knowledge of the change might become lost over time to humankind. The Enterprise storyline also indicates that an early form of the Starfleet intelligence service Section 31 was somehow involved in the transformation of the Klingons.

Related Topics:
Deep Space Nine - Trials and Tribble-ations - Starfleet - Section 31

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Phlox indicated that "someday" the physical alterations could be reversed.

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The episode "Divergence" revealed that not all Klingons were affected by the virus. No canon explanation has yet been offered to suggest why only the human-like Klingons were seen in The Original Series, save for statements made in "Divergence" that the genetically altered version of the race would be stronger and more intelligent, suggesting they may have been desirable soldiers in later Klingon/Federation conflicts. The Klingons in ' were the first Klingon crew that was shown to be dealing with something other than the Federation, so there is no evidence proving these particular Klingons had ever been afflicted.

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However, the ridge-development cure must have been developed prior to 2293, the year of '. The ' episode "Flashback", which depicts events that took place in 2293, shows the Klingon Kang with ridges, though he had none in the original series episode "Day of the Dove."

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It can be calculated, therefore, that the human-like appearance of the Klingons lasted for at least 125 years, since Enterprise takes place approximately 110 to 115 years prior to The Original Series, and the reversal mentioned by Phlox could have happened prior to ' which takes place in the early 2270s, but definitely happened by 2293.

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The changes to the Klingon appearances can best be explained by an inconsistent treatment of pre-existing material by the series and movies writers.

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