News Harberts: The Klingons Are Americans

[cultcross]

This is only a decade after a major interstellar conflict with the Klingons in the Forties which was comparable in Federation History to our Second War. The notion that there wouldn't be a Cold War going on between the two powers is silly.

Cold war doesn't usually follow major conflicts, that was unique to the circumstances of the Second World War and the resulting clash of two formally allied but ideologically opposed superpowers suddenly finding themselves armed with frightening new weapons. Even if there was a war prior to Discovery, and there's no canon source suggesting there was at this point, that doesn't mean there isn't peace 'now' at the beginning of 'Encounter at Broken Caretaker' or whatever the pilot's called.

 

[Christopher]

This is only a decade after a major interstellar conflict with the Klingons in the Forties which was comparable in Federation History to our Second War.

No, it isn't. That war was invented for a role-playing game in the 1980s, and it directly contradicts canon. Both Kirk in "The Infinite Vulcan" and Carol Marcus in The Wrath of Khan assert that the Federation has been at peace for a hundred years. (Although that might be problematical if Lorca's "You started a war" line in the Discovery trailer is literally true. Well, maybe it's a civil war between Klingon factions? Or it's a brief enough war that it's not considered a major breach of the peace. We'll see.)

 

[psCargile]

Klingon Tactical operator: "Captain! It's a Federation cruiser, approaching fast. The USS Milo!"

Klingon Captain: "Shields up! Everyone to their safe spaces! And jam their communications! We must not listen!"

 

[Mudd]

There's no canon military conflict with the Klingons in the recent past of this series.

I think you're right.

section9 must be referring to the "Four Years War," a feature of a FASA role-playing game which may have been mentioned as well in a Star Trek novel of the 1980s. Neither are canon and both contradict canon (not that canon can't contradict itself; it often does).

In fact, it's been suggested in a couple of movies/episodes that the Federation has been at peace for many decades, which is likely to be contradicted now by Discovery ("You helped start a war..."). Most of these are matters of inference rather than specifically stated.

 

[cultcross]

No, it isn't. That war was invented for a role-playing game in the 1980s, and it directly contradicts canon. Both Kirk in "The Infinite Vulcan" and Carol Marcus in The Wrath of Khan assert that the Federation has been at peace for a hundred years. (Although that might be problematical if Lorca's "You started a war" line in the Discovery trailer is literally true. Well, maybe it's a civil war between Klingon factions? Or it's a brief enough war that it's not considered a major breach of the peace. We'll see.)

My interpretation was that it was probably a civil war, between Klingon houses, rather than a Federation/Klingon war. "Don't you want to help end it" would be a funny thing to say to a Starfleet officer obliged to fight in a war with the Klingons.

 

[Christopher]

"Don't you want to help end it" would be a funny thing to say to a Starfleet officer obliged to fight in a war with the Klingons.

I'm sure most people who fight in a war wish they could find a way to end it. If they actually had the means to achieve that, it would be incumbent upon them to pursue it. Heck, didn't we just see that in Wonder Woman? Steve Trevor learning that Diana might be able to end the war and doing everything in his power to help her achieve that?

 

[Jedi_Master]

Please, please, PLEASE let there be a Klingon leader in this show named T'rUM'pH.

 

[Christopher]

^Surely a Ferengi would be more suitable than a Klingon...

 

[Nyotarules]

^Surely a Ferengi would be more suitable than a Klingon...

A Ferengi Grand Nagus named Trumpelstilskin married to former dabo girl named Melanomia from a poor, reclusive non Federation planet called Bajor.

 

[BillJ]

I think you're right.

section9 must be referring to the "Four Years War," a feature of a FASA role-playing game which may have been mentioned as well in a Star Trek novel of the 1980s. Neither are canon and both contradict canon (not that canon can't contradict itself; it often does).

In fact, it's been suggested in a couple of movies/episodes that the Federation has been at peace for many decades, which is likely to be contradicted now by Discovery ("You helped start a war..."). Most of these are matters of inference rather than specifically stated.

There is the Battle of Donatu V mentioned as having taken place 25 years prior to "The Trouble with Tribbles". Though we don't know whether that was an isolated skirmish or something more.

 

[Jedi_Master]

^Surely a Ferengi would be more suitable than a Klingon...

True, true. If the Ferengi show up in DSC, they will probably have armored lobes or something.

 

[mattyhugh]

What's the Klingon word for Breitbart? *shudders*

 

[psCargile]

What's the Klingon word for Huffington Post? *shudders*

 

[Jedi_Master]

What's the Klingon word for Breitbart? *sudders*

What's the Klingon word for Huffington Post? *shudders*

*Opponents grunt and pull out their bat'leths

 

[BillJ]

Kinda wished they would've allowed audiences to figure it out for themselves instead of announcing it.

 

[Markonian]

That's not exactly true. They were originally conceived more as "space Mongols," in the vein of the "Oriental" villains that were common in American media of the time. Certainly there was a Cold War allegory behind them, but the creators were probably thinking at least as much of Communist China and the Viet Cong as the USSR.

Nobody ever mentions that the Klingon flag looks German! (The Terran Empire's from ENT, too, btw). Let's have some recognition of cultural influence here, please.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Kinda wished they would've allowed audiences to figure it out for themselves instead of announcing it.

But then the audience might have missed the showrunner's private interpretation of the alien's motivations.
That would have been a tragedy!

 

[mattyhugh]

*Opponents grunt and pull out their bat'leths

Gowron was supported by the establishment and Duras was the Tea Party candidate.

 

[Mudd]

"If Stupid Space Viking Swords* are made illegal, only outlaws will have Stupid Space Viking Swords!"

* Yeah, they're called "batlah-lah-somethings." I do not give a fuck.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Gowron was supported by the establishment and Duras was the Tea Party candidate.

In 2010 or 2011, the local Christmas Parade had a Fair Tax float. The day after, I was walking to work, and I started counting discarded pamphlets.
I stopped at 357.

Anyways, the fact that Americans are willing to come to virtual blows when discussing which negative qualities fictional space aliens will embody thus proving their analogous relationship to the world's dominant culture shows that the DSC showrunner/writer might have had the right idea after all...