Klingons: Blood Will Tell

[lstyer]

I happened across my trade paperback copy of IDW's Klingons: Blood Will Tell last night and flipped through it. Something caught my attention this time that apparently slipped past me the first time I read it.

Gralmek, the Klingon who would appear as "Arne Darvin" in "The Trouble with Tribbles" is portrayed as a HemQuch who is surgically altered to appear human. This just struck me as kind of silly since there were any number of QuchHa' running around who would be much easier to alter so that they'd pass as human. In the comic much is made of the fact that Gralmek is unusually small of stature for a Klingon, but I don't really recall TOS Klingons being bigger, on average, than humans, so, again, that points to the idea that it might have been simpler just to use a QuchHa'.

Anyway, maybe I'm nitpicking here, but it just struck me kind of funny this time.

 

[Christopher]

This came up in another thread just a couple of weeks ago. I think I suggested at the time that maybe the Klingon establishment didn't trust the QuchHa' enough for the assignment.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Maybe it could be something as simple as he was the best qualified agent for the assignment, regardless of whether he had ridges.

 

[KRAD]

As I said in the other thread, Darvin had to be HemQuch, because he still had a smooth forehead in the late 24th century in "Trials and Tribble-ations." Other QuchHa' from that era -- notably Kor, Kang, and Koloth -- had become HemQuch at some point (chronicled in Forged in Fire, as it happens), so in order for Darvin to have never regained his cranial ridges, he had to have been a HemQuch who was surgically altered.

 

[Thrawn]

^ Ok, so that's why, in-universe, there had to be some reason that a HemQuch was chosen. It still doesn't explain what that reason actually was.

So it's still a plot hole, even if an apparently necessary one.

 

[lstyer]

As I said in the other thread, Darvin had to be HemQuch, because he still had a smooth forehead in the late 24th century in "Trials and Tribble-ations." Other QuchHa' from that era -- notably Kor, Kang, and Koloth -- had become HemQuch at some point (chronicled in Forged in Fire, as it happens), so in order for Darvin to have never regained his cranial ridges, he had to have been a HemQuch who was surgically altered.

That's not a bad theory to justify Darvin having been a HemQuch, but I don't think it gets you all the way to "had to have been"

Kor, Kang and Koloth were part of the Klingon establishment. Darvin was in exile. We don't know how the Big Three regained their ridges, so it could well have been an active process that was not open to an exile like Darvin. Hell, it might have been intentionally denied him because of his exile status.

 

[EmperorKalan]

^ Ok, so that's why, in-universe, there had to be some reason that a HemQuch was chosen. It still doesn't explain what that reason actually was.

So it's still a plot hole, even if an apparently necessary one.

They used him because he was an otherwise worthless runt who didn't even make an adequate punching bag.

And because once altered, he would look like an existing minor Federation official, allowing for a quick infiltration instead of a lengthy period developing a cover persona.

 

[The_Commodore]

In the episodes where Darvin appears, it is specifically said that he was surgically altered to appear human. Now, they don't mean internally, because McCoy clearing picked up the different anatomy with just a medical tricorder. And painting his skin a light colour and shaving his beard don't really qualify as surgical procedures. So he had to be a HemQuch for those words to have any meaning.

Additionally, to Dayton Ward: Your sig made me laugh because I had it as a Facebook status a while back, cept I actually made the attempt to translate it into Klingon -- goes like this:
tlhIngan Hol, bangwI'a' SoS! Dajatlh'a'?

 

[Christopher]

In the episodes where Darvin appears, it is specifically said that he was surgically altered to appear human.

No, it isn't. No such statement is made in "The Trouble With Tribbles" -- this came up just a week or two ago and I checked the transcript. All McCoy says is that his vitals show he's a Klingon. The only reference to surgical alteration is made by the DS9 crew in "Trials and Tribble-ations," and that's just an assumption they make since, as we see later in the episode, they didn't know there were human-appearing Klingons at that time.

 

[The_Commodore]

Huh. Goes to show what happens when you don't check the episodes before making statements. Well, that doesn't rule out that he was surgically altered -- I suppose the main reason for doing so in the comic was to make Gralmek's transformation more dramatic (gotta admit that page of art is harrowing!) and therefore his later rejection from Klingon society more tragic, as he had given up everything that made him Klingon for the mission.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

As I said in the other thread, Darvin had to be HemQuch, because he still had a smooth forehead in the late 24th century in "Trials and Tribble-ations." Other QuchHa' from that era -- notably Kor, Kang, and Koloth -- had become HemQuch at some point (chronicled in Forged in Fire, as it happens), so in order for Darvin to have never regained his cranial ridges, he had to have been a HemQuch who was surgically altered.

Darvin could still be a QuchHa'. I'm guessing that Kang, Kor and Koloth used reconstructive surgery to restore their 'true' appearances. Darvin, of course, would not have access to such things, because of his exile.

 

[KRAD]

Darvin could still be a QuchHa'. I'm guessing that Kang, Kor and Koloth used reconstructive surgery to restore their 'true' appearances. Darvin, of course, would not have access to such things, because of his exile.

Doesn't track. "Trials and Tribble-ations" established that the very notion of smooth-headed Klingons was pretty much unknown by the 2370s. Besides, if it was that simple, why hadn't they done it earlier in life?

The most sensible explanation is that someone cured the Augment virus -- which is, in fact, the explanation given by Forged in Fire.

Of course, you could also postulate that Darvin didn't have access to the cure thanks to his exile -- but, as The Commodore pointed out, this choice makes Darvin's fate that much more tragic, which makes for a better story.

And that's the part that matters.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Darvin could still be a QuchHa'. I'm guessing that Kang, Kor and Koloth used reconstructive surgery to restore their 'true' appearances. Darvin, of course, would not have access to such things, because of his exile.

Doesn't track. "Trials and Tribble-ations" established that the very notion of smooth-headed Klingons was pretty much unknown by the 2370s.

Perhaps, but it didn't say how that came about, specifically. It could have been surgery, could have been a cure for the plague, could have been both. (I've never read Forged in Fire.)

As for why Kang, Kor and Koloth did or did not have the surgery at any specific point: Perhaps as QuchHa', they took awhile before they were even allowed access to either surgery or the cure?