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Klingons Cut From Final Star Trek XI Movie

Posted by timothy on from the gravest-importance dept.

darthcamaro writes "Classic era trek was all about Kirk kicking the Klingons' tails. But the new Star Trek XI movie, the reboot, will not have any spoken Klingon in it — a travesty that has some fan sites up in arms already. 'We actually had a sequence that ended up getting cut from the movie that took place on Rura Penthe, in a Klingon prison,' Star Trek co-writer Alex Kurtzman said, explaining the deletion. 'And there was definitely Klingon spoken in the movie, and it ended up getting cut.' Frakkin' Federation ..."

61 of 447 comments (clear)

  1. What's the Klingon phrase for... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Get a life"?

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by idontgno · · Score: 5, Insightful

      tlhap yIn!

      (per http://www.mrklingon.org/ ; java applet warning!)

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    2. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Get a life" in Klingon. Brilliant.

      Hello, T-shirt!

    3. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Especially since the deleted scene will probably appear in the "deluxe director's cut" DVD anyways.

    4. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by Criliric · · Score: 4, Insightful

      why hasn't anyone thought of this?

    5. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by cptnapalm · · Score: 3, Funny

      What is most awesome about this post is that it only took TWO minutes between someone asking for a Klingon translation and one being provided.

    6. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by thefringthing · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's totally ungrammatical. It is "yIn tItlhap". Leave the Klingon to people who know what they're talking about.

    7. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by palindrome · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because the level of irony created in anyone wearing it would destroy time.

    8. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by guyminuslife · · Score: 5, Funny

      So it must have already happened, and it undid itself by resolving the paradox in four dimensions.

      Fortunately, my username perfectly qualifies me to wear the shirt.

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
    9. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by halivar · · Score: 5, Funny

      And so, in winning, you've lost.

    10. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by pentalive · · Score: 4, Funny

      Of course wouldn't the Klingon reply be "It is a good day to take yours."

    11. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by gadget+junkie · · Score: 5, Funny

      Because the level of irony created in anyone wearing it would destroy time.

      I heard the rumor that wearing it is forbidden within three miles of the Large Hadron Collider.

      --
      "If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)
    12. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by SpeedBump0619 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Of course wouldn't the Klingon reply be "It is a good day to take yours."

      That's kind of wordy for your average Klingon I prefer:

      chugh SoH neH ("As you wish."). *squick*

      Short sweet and too the point, with bonus points for cross genre snark.

    13. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 4, Funny

      They were already preparing to run because of the odor. Asking you about you t-shirt was just a way to pass time (and not pass out) before the elevator opened.

    14. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by Saint+Gerbil · · Score: 4, Funny

      and middle america would think that you are a terrorist.

    15. Re:What's the Klingon phrase for... by jez9999 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I always loved that the Universal Translator could happily instantly translate even brand new alien languages into perfect English, but the Klingons had a way of talking that made it stop working.

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  2. Travesty? by cheebie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh dear God.

    The original Trek only rarely dealt with the Klingons. It was more about the crew exploring the unknown.

    This is just a fanboi snit.

    1. Re:Travesty? by MBGMorden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I gotta agree. While the MOVIES generated from the original series dealt pretty heavily with Klingons, the actual TV series didn't go much into it. And TBH, the Klingons of the original TV series were pretty uninteresting IMHO. The change that they started going into the movies and more or less finalized moving into TNG made them far more interesting. Also, to a whole ton of fans from the TNG-onward days kinda view the Klingons as buddies of the Federation. Seeing them put back into a negative light just wouldn't be interesting to me.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    2. Re:Travesty? by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Weren't the Klingons in TOS basically just bad-tempered humans? They didn't develop the weird growths on their foreheads until much later. They were basically just a poorly fleshed out analogue for the Soviet Union.

    3. Re:Travesty? by Kelson · · Score: 3, Informative

      The original Trek only rarely dealt with the Klingons. It was more about the crew exploring the unknown.

      That was my first thought as well. Klingons were in, what, 7 or 8 episodes? Out of around 70 episodes total? And the spoken Klingon language wasn't introduced until the movies.

      So there's no Klingons -- or at least no spoken Klingon -- in the story. Big deal.

      And I say that as someone who's in the middle of rewatching TOS.

    4. Re:Travesty? by timepilot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There was a decent amount of sex and violence in the original trek. It just wasn't explicit.

    5. Re:Travesty? by Dolohov · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, most of the aliens got "facelifts" in the animated series, as I recall.

    6. Re:Travesty? by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It was there, but it wasn't the centerpiece. The sex and violence is all we've seen of the new movie, however... which is a worrisome indication that maybe that's all there is to this movie.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    7. Re:Travesty? by pallmall1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      They didn't develop the weird growths on their foreheads until much later.

      Those growths are why the Klingons are called clit-heads, or vulva-faces. Without those features, the Klingons wouldn't have any personality or geek popularity at all.

      --
      3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
    8. Re:Travesty? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, closer to the Mongols than the Soviets. One of the ideas floating around in sci-fi of the time was the "space barbarian" or "space mongol", an archetype who could operate space ships, but couldn't build new ones, had to rely on captured peoples, etc. The Klingons definitely look like a stereotype of Mongols, including the warrior culture.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    9. Re:Travesty? by afabbro · · Score: 3, Informative

      I gotta agree. While the MOVIES generated from the original series dealt pretty heavily with Klingons, the actual TV series didn't go much into it.

      If memory serves, the Klingons were featured in these episodes:

      • Errand of Mercy - John Colicos, baby!
      • Friday's Child
      • The Trouble With Tribbles
      • A Private Little War
      • Day of the Dove

      In addition, the appeared periphrially in "Elaan of Troyius" and "The Savage Curtain" (I don't think the Kahless in that episode even spoke).

      So, 5 major appearances in 79 eps, plus a couple small mentions.

      And TBH, the Klingons of the original TV series were pretty uninteresting IMHO.

      They were certainly one-note, though some of the episodes listed above used them to good effect. There certainly was not the kind of cultural exploration we saw in later series, that's for sure.

      --
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    10. Re:Travesty? by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree. This is, after all, a REBOOT. That means a lot of the cruft from about thirty years of post-ToS development is being dispensed with, and that's fine by me. This is meant to rejuvenate a series that had pretty much become one monstrous cliche of itself. If there's one thing ToS had that, over time, the later series lacked, it was solid, straightforward storytelling. Everything was burdened down by the vast edifice of Everything-That-Had-Come-Before. The last two attempts, the dull Voyager and the increasingly-pathetic Enterprise, showed just how uninteresting it had all become.

      The Trouble With Tribbles was just fine with Klingons speaking English, thank you very much. In fact, and so will this.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    11. Re:Travesty? by catmistake · · Score: 4, Informative

      The actual cannon is, I believe, that the growths were always there on the Klingon's foreheads, but during the short time period of TOS (?4 years), there was a fashion trend that was popular among Klingons to flatten their foreheads. Worf says at some point in DS9 (the other tribbles episode) that "we do not speak of it," so it was apparently an embarassing trend that they try to forget (think about all the straight-laced former hippies burning pics of themselves out of embarrassment).

      --
      The Admin and the Engineer
    12. Re:Travesty? by MPolo · · Score: 4, Informative

      I think "Enterprise" expanded on this, and had the smooth-headed Klingons resulting from a genetic disease, caused by trying to implement human Eugenics techniques. The disease was cured, but the physical results remained, and took many generations for the Klingons to get rid of them.

    13. Re:Travesty? by hardburn · · Score: 5, Informative

      It was explained away in the last season of Enterprise. A rouge human researcher in genetic engineering had made some superhumans, and Klingons wanted the tech, too. So they copied/stole the research and ended up implanting themselves with human DNA. The changes went viral, and soon affected the entire Klingon race. They presumably found a fix some time in between TOS and the first movie.

      --
      Not a typewriter
    14. Re:Travesty? by Kamokazi · · Score: 3, Informative

      There was also an episode of DS9 where they go back in time to the 'Tribble' episode and run into Kirk, etc., and either O'Brien or Sisko asks Wharf about why the Klingons look different, and he says something like, "We do not discuss it with outsiders."

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    15. Re:Travesty? by hardburn · · Score: 4, Interesting

      All we've seen is a few trailers. What do you expect them to show?

      --
      Not a typewriter
    16. Re:Travesty? by FauxPasIII · · Score: 5, Funny

      You should just repeat to yourself "It's just a show. I should probably just relax".

      --
      25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
    17. Re:Travesty? by guyminuslife · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's a very plausible, reasonable-sounding explanation. Not nearly as plausible and reasonable-sounding as, "Jesus H. Christ! It's not even important! We changed the way they're supposed to look, we didn't even have the make-up budget to do that shit at the time, deal with it, use your imagination, stop worrying about canon and watch the goddamn show!"

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
    18. Re:Travesty? by LionMage · · Score: 3, Insightful

      First off, it's rogue. Rouge is makeup you apply to your cheeks (or anywhere else you want a "healthy blush").

      Secondly, if you actually paid attention to the episodes in question (a story arc that lasted 2 or 3 episodes), you would know that the Klingons were going to destroy the research facility to stop the spread of this viral trait. A cure was discovered, and the Klingon powers that be relented. Klingons on a single colony were affected by this trait, and it was implied that the Klingon scientists were going to have their hands full reversing this genetic mangling. It did not spread to the entire Klingon empire.

      Yeah, I know, way too much nit picking about a damn TV show. But I thought the story arc was cool, especially the idea that Noonian Soong's ancestor was actually originally interested in genetic engineering to enhance humans, not robotics or cybernetics.

    19. Re:Travesty? by hardburn · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The genetic alterations in question happened to adult Klingons, not newborns. Presumably, the cure later did the same.

      Incidentally, viral vectors can be used in real genetic engineering.

      I would have been satisfied leaving the whole thing as a retcon and pretending flat-foreheaded Klingons never existed, but the DS9 Tribbles episode was begging for it all to be answered. Tieing it into Kahn-like superhuman research and Data's family history was a surprisingly good idea for a frachise that didn't have Ron Moore to lean on anymore.

      --
      Not a typewriter
    20. Re:Travesty? by Knara · · Score: 4, Funny

      "...I should really just relax"

      I miss that show.

    21. Re:Travesty? by Patch86 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Sir, we've detected a pre-warp civilization on the planet's surface!"

      "Nazi or cowboy?"

    22. Re:Travesty? by idontgno · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's a mild irony here. The one profession great concern for canon misspelled it (unless he meant to speak of large-bore projectile weapons), and the one professing unconcern for canon spelled, and used, it perfectly.

      My inner pedant is smiling a smug satisfied smile.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    23. Re:Travesty? by hofmny · · Score: 4, Informative

      Since I just got done watching all 5 seasons of Enterprise (hey, I slept with a real girl two weeks ago.. really.. OK!), I think I can clarify this the best.
      Dr. Soong, the one we know from TNG who created Data has great grandfather, also named Dr. Soong (and played by Brent Spiner). During the time of Enterprise he was a criminal for conducting genetic engineering experiments after they were outlawed following Earth's 3rd World War. He continued the work of creating genetic super humans, raising them on a far planet until he was finally captured and imprisoned back on earth.

      One day the super humans, fatherless, decided to leave their planet and hijacked a Klingon Warship, beating the Klingon's in hand to hand combat and sending them out the airlocks. This infuriated the Klingon Empire and almost cost war between them and Earth (no Federation yet) but was defused by Captain Archer of the current Enterprise. However, the Klingon's were extremely dishonored to have human's beat them -- and feared the federation would have Super Humans on all Star Ships, which would spell the end of the Klingon Empire.

      The Klingon's stole some of the genetic material from the original hijacked ship (after it was destroyed by Enterprise some containers escaped unscathed that had embryo's the Super Human's were carrying) and started to create Super Klingon's. However, they couldn't separate the Human DNA. Any Klingon made "Super" lost their ridges and other distinctive "Klingon Features".

      To make matters worse, a virus infected the Supers and spread to normal Klingon's infecting a good amount of the empire. The virus carried genetic material, which supplanted this human DNA into regular Klingon's. The Klingon's were going to destroy every planet with the disease until the captured Enterprise Doctor, Flox, came up with a cure to the virus -- at gunpoint of one of the factions of Klingons.
      In the end, the Klingon's stopped destroying infected worlds because the infection had been neutralized, but a large number of Klingon's were now Human/Klingon hybrids.

      That was done in Enterprise to explain the Human looking Klingons in the TOS.

      ..really, I am not a geek. I prefer "nerd"

    24. Re:Travesty? by idontgno · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now my inner pedant is scowling bitterly at my epic fail at word usage: s/profession/professing/

      Damn. Now I have to find a way to make my inner pedant smile again.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  3. Let me be the first to say... by Idiomatick · · Score: 3, Funny

    qaStaH nuq jay!!!!

    1. Re:Let me be the first to say... by FlyingBishop · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sadly, Klingon is not an option on Google translate.

  4. Re:who cares? by cashman73 · · Score: 5, Funny

    As long as they don't replace the Klingons Gungans with Jamaican accents, we're cool! ;-)

  5. This is tribbling by get+quad · · Score: 4, Funny

    Smooth heads or bumpy?

    --
    "To err is human, to mod Funny divine."
  6. And..... why should we care? by SDF-7 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems like a non-story to me. Wrath of Khan didn't have any spoken Klingon either (closest was Khan claiming the Klingon proverb: Revenge is a dish best served cold.... It is very cold, in spaaaaaaaaaaace.) I don't seriously think anyone missed it there, and while I know little of the plot of this film (intentionally, so no -- I don't want a summary) if the story doesn't really involve Klingons, no need to toss them in just to have them.

    1. Re:And..... why should we care? by DragonWriter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Seems like a non-story to me. Wrath of Khan didn't have any spoken Klingon either (closest was Khan claiming the Klingon proverb: Revenge is a dish best served cold.... It is very cold, in spaaaaaaaaaaace.)

      Since the Klingon language (tlhIngan Hol), as such (that is, having an actual grammar rather than just a handful of words) was created for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, this is not all that surprising. OTOH, its been used pretty heavily in the movies (and, to a lesser extent, series) since that, though I can't see why anyone would complain about it not being used in a new film (I can see, perhaps, complaining if Klingon's were talking in what was supposed to be "Klingon" but it wasn't tlhIngan Hol, particularly if there was no in-setting justification, but that's a different issue.)

  7. Time goes on by dk90406 · · Score: 5, Funny
    No need to kling on to old plot devices.

    Argh - can't believe I just wrote that.

    1. Re:Time goes on by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

      Heh, and here I was reading the headline and thinking "Shouldn't that say 'Klingons Wiped From Final Star Trek movie'?"

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  8. Bah... by Etrias · · Score: 4, Funny

    Funny how all of the swearing is following the BSG meme then. Frakking? Really? I would expect no less than a double dumbass on you!

  9. It keeps getting worse! by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard Tom Bombadil isn't even in this one!

    --
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    Sell the spice to CHOAM
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    1. Re:It keeps getting worse! by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, but Nimoy will have a cameo to sing about Bilbo Baggins.

      --
      That is all.
  10. Spider-Man 3 by XanC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everybody complained that Spider-Man 3 tried to cram too many different characters and plots together. Chill out! This is but the first in a new series of films. There will be plenty of time for Klingons.

  11. For the NEXT Star Trek Movie by tjstork · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you really, really, wanted to piss somebody off, they should remake the Edith Keeler episode as a feature film, but change it in some way as to really just make Harlan Ellison flip out. Have his "great work" get butchered by TWO generations of film-makers, now that would be priceless.

    --
    This is my sig.
  12. Re:Armageddon by spun · · Score: 3, Funny

    And a kick in the nuts isn't brain cancer, either. Doesn't mean we need to be grateful for a kick in the nuts. Yes, I'm aware that I just compared Uwe Boll to brain cancer, but it's not like cancer can take offense.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  13. Re:who cares? by xerxesVII · · Score: 5, Funny

    No kidding. Chewbacca always struck me as very dog-like with his speech. He was practically incapable of whispering, and it looked like it caused him great physical discomfort to hold his tongue. I'm sure he was a good friend to have in a pinch, but sometimes you don't need your friends gargling every half-formed thought that flashes through their brains.

    --
    "We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
  14. Why do the characters even get to hear Klingon? by Gauthic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know I'll be modded down for mentioning this: Why are the Klingons the only species in the whole movie series that the "Universal Translator" didn't automatically translate to both the audience and the characters while not in private conversation at home planet (i.e. TMP's Spock's failture scene)?

    It should be all or nothing. Romulans should speak Romulan, Vulcans speak Vulcan (unless speaking Starfleet English) due to the technomagical universal translator.

  15. Re:They have done far worse by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's nothing quite as amusing as a pedant trying to sound reasonable and non-pedantic, and yet being so incapable of looking from the narrow rut that they occupy on the subject, that it still oozes from every sentence.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  16. Re:who cares? by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, but Gungans don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  17. Re:who cares? by Em+Ellel · · Score: 4, Informative

    No kidding. Chewbacca always struck me as very dog-like with his speech.

    Gee, very strange for a being who's very name is a mixture of words for man (chelovek) and dog(sobaka). Its not a coincidence that in Spaceballs the character was "Mog". (half-man, half dog)

    -Em

    --
    RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
  18. Re:who cares? by Lord+Dreamshaper · · Score: 3, Interesting

    seriously? man-dog? I always thought it was an oddly weak name that was a riff on "Chew" & "Tobacco" At least the original french translators thought so since his name is "Chictabac," literally "ChewTobacco"

    He looks more like the missing link or Bigfoot than he does a dog...

    --
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