Hugs... I'm author and Trekkie Antoinette Beard. As Aperokei of the house of Torin in the Klingon Empire I bid you a most hearty welcome to Klingon Krazie... nuqeH. (A traditional Klingon greeting, literally meaning: What do you want?) Heh-heh-heh.
Yes...
Qapla! (Success!)... In her youth Aperokei was a warrior as many Klingons are, both male and female, but as she grew older she found the noble profession of gardener. Many other peoples think that Klingons don't eat vegetables and fruits, but they do, for lack of such foods in one's diet can lead to bodily impaction which is very detrimental to the health and vigor of a Klingon!!!
Lwaxana's father was something of a traditionalist; he rarely spoke, preferring telepathy, saying speech was for "offworlders and people who didn't know any better." Both of Lwaxana's parents and sister had died by 2372. (TNGepisode: "Eye of the Beholder"; DS9episode: "The Muse")
In 2336, several months after the couple's second child Deanna was born, Kestra drowned in Lake El-Nar. Lwaxana blamed herself for Kestra's death and she blocked all memories involving Kestra for almost 35 years.
After Ian's death, Deanna became the center of Lwaxana's existence as she prepared her daughter for a life as a Betazed noble.
When Deanna became involved with Starfleet officer, Lieutenant William T. Riker in the year 2354, Lwaxana objected strenuously, perhaps believing that Deanna was setting herself up for the same kind of pain she experienced when Ian died. In later years, Lwaxana would claim that she had always adored Riker.
Deanna ignored her mother and went to Riker anyway. In any event, the relationship was short-lived as Riker was not emotionally mature enough for the kind of relationship Deanna wanted. Soon after, Lwaxana gave Deanna her blessing when she decided to follow her father's career path and enter Starfleet Academy. (TNGnovel: Imzadi)
Ambassador Troi
Soon after Deanna left for the Academy, Lwaxana became an Ambassador for the government of Betazed. Her duties took her all over the Federation. Whenever possible, she would visit Deanna, who had become Head Counselor on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D).
The Insolence of Office.
On one such visit in 2366, Lwaxana formed a romantic attachment to the omnipotent being known as Q. At first, Q seemed to return the feelings, even to the point of sharing his power with her. In truth, Q was just using Lwaxana in an experiment designed to prove the worthlessness of the human emotion love. Q was initially prevented from removing Lwaxana's power by another member of the Q Continuum, who allowed Lwaxana to use the power to teach Q a lesson about interfering in people lives. He identified himself as a, "Q, too." When she mistakenly referred to him as "QTwo"-he accepts. (TNGnovel: Q-in-Law)
In 2369 Lwaxana formed a close friendship with the ChangelingOdo while on starbaseDeep Space 9. When Lwaxana became pregnant by the Tavnian, Jeyal, in 2372, she and Odo were married to prevent Jeyal from taking the child away from Lwaxana upon his birth, according to Tavnian tradition. (DS9episode: "The Muse")
After a further unsuccessful attempt by the Tavnian government to seize custody of the child, Lwaxana gave birth to her first son Barin, Tavnian for "Little One", on Betazed in late 2372. (TNGeBook: The Insolence of Office)
Marvel comic, Deep Space Nine#10, Lwaxana Troi and the Wedding of Doom.
In 2373, Lwaxana, with Barin, returned to the station seeking a divorce from Odo so that she could marry a Bolian named Var Ulos. Lwaxana canceled the wedding after discovering that Ulos was using a telepathic suppressor to keep Lwaxana from realizing that he was only marrying her for her money. While on the station, Lwaxana confronted a creature that was stalking the station's women that lived off of female hormones. The creature overloaded on Lwaxana and was killed. (DS9comics: "Lwaxana Troi and the Wedding of Doom", "Four Funerals and a Wedding")
An approximation of warnog, an ale served from the time of Kahless, The Unforgettable, could be made by pouring half hard apple cider & half regular ale in a glass. Serve warm, --- yes, warm. Klingon drink beverages at room temperature.
The targ is a herding animal native to Qo'noS, comparable in form to a Terran boar but with spikes on its back. They are usually dark brown, although some are spotted. Targs are generally regarded as "vicious and destructive" animals. Klingons keep domesticated targs as pets and livestock, and hunt wild targs for sport. The meat and heart of the targ is eaten, while their shoulder fat is used to make var'Hama candles. (TNG: "A Matter Of Honor"; DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited"; VOY: "Day of Honor")
The phrase "targ manure" has been used as slang to describe a lie, or a made up story. This term was used by Boothby. (VOY: "In the Flesh")
The Hamar Mountains are abundant with targ. (DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited")
Targ herds can be a collision hazard on Qo'noS; Klingon ground assault vehicles use targ scoops to clear the animals away from their path. (VOY: "Elogium")
Neelix recounted that Sarpek the Fearless was searching for his lost targ when he unearthed the Knife of Kirom. (VOY: "Barge of the Dead")
Both Martok and Worf owned pet targs at some point in their lives. (DS9: "Strange Bedfellows"; TNG: "Where No One Has Gone Before") One targ that Martok had owned since childhood escaped after his wife, Sirella, 'accidentally' left the door of their home open while moving her belongings into the residence following their marriage. Despite being responsible for the loss of the creature, Martok later told Benjamin Sisko that he would "not trade Sirella for all the targs on Qo'nos". (DS9: "Strange Bedfellows")
The bat'leth is the Klingon double-sided scimitar/hook sword/deer horn knives hybrid-edge weapon, designed by martial arts enthusiast and Star Trek: The Next Generation effects producer Dan Curry.[37] The bat'leth is a curved blade with spiked protrusions and handholds along the middle of the blade's back. In battle, the handholds are used to twirl and spin the blade rapidly.
Klingon oral history holds that the first bat'leth was forged around 625 A.D. by Kahless, who dropped a lock of his hair into the lava from the Kri'stak Volcano, then plunged the fiery lock into the lake of Lursor and twisted it to form a blade.[37] After forging the weapon, he used it to defeat the tyrant Molor, and in doing so united the Klingon homeworld.[37] This first bat'leth was known as the Sword of Kahless' and was stolen by the invading Hur'q; an episode of Deep Space Nine revolves around an effort to recover the Sword of Kahless.[37] The name bat'leth itself is a slight corruption of batlh 'etlh, which means "Sword of Honor" in Klingon.
A replica bat'leth was among the blades surrendered to British police as part of the 2006 knife amnesty.[38] A "Valdris" blade was used in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in two 7-Eleven armed-robberies in 2009.[39]
D'k tahg
A d'k tahg
A d'k tahg is a Klingon dagger. The knife has three blades: a main blade with a cutout in the center, and two smaller blades on either side. In some models, these side blades are spring-loaded and can pop out into position and close up for storage. In other models, the blades are fixed. It also features a pommel studded with blunt spikes. The d'k tahg first appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and appeared occasionally throughout the following films and television series. The knife was designed by Gil Hibben.[40] Although the d'k tahg appeared in Star Trek III, it was not referred to by its name until Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Qutluch
Similar to the d'k tahg, the qutluch is "the ceremonial weapon of an assassin". A qutluch is designed to do considerable damage to internal organs, by Klingon standards thus making it an extremely lethal weapon. The qutluch is featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sins of the Father", when Worf's brother, Kurn, is stabbed; and in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Real Life", where the Doctor's simulated "son" prepares for the Qutluch ceremony. It is known in the real world as the "Phoenix" type knife.
Mek'leth
A mek'leth is the Klingon short sword that appears in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and in the film Star Trek: First Contact. Designed by Dan Curry, it consists of a short, thick, curved blade with a metal guard extending back parallel with the grip to protect the hand. Worf is the most commonly seen user of the mek'leth, owning one and using it several times, including in hand-to-hand combat against Borg drones in First Contact.
Qach: First seen when Commander Riker chose to honor the time honored ritual of a feast before transferring to another ship. Perhaps the most recognized of Klingon food choices, it comes in 51 different varieties, including torghud qagh, vIlDIng qagh, mIcha' qagh, etlhul qagh, and wIStng qagh. Each variety has a different flavor, and feels different squiggling down your throat as you swallow it. Shortly before her death, Jadzia Dax ordered a complete variety as a gift for General Martok's birthday. The shipment was delivered to Ezri Dax who does not appreciate (yet) the finer points of Klingon Kuisine. ("A Matter of Honor" [TNG], "Prodigal Daughter" [DS9])
Often misspelled as gagh, gargh, the CORRECT spelling of this animal is "qagh" is unless you want to dispute "THE KLINGON DICTIONARY". According to the Interactive CD ROM game, "Star Trek: KLINGON", qagh (pronounced "gackk," very heavy on the guttural) is a "worm-like creature native to the Klingon homeworld, a favorite Klingon delicacy. Rarely, if ever, eaten as a replicator dish, as it is properly and best served live." However, Earthers prefer their food dead. So...
Leftover's can be heated with the sauce to be made into qagh tlhIq (qagh stew)
According to the book "Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion" The ACTUAL recipe for qagh (used in "A Matter Of Honor" [TNG]) was long brown noodles and root vegetables.
In the past I had used linguini noodles that have been boiled with reddish brown food coloring, sprinkled with some spices. Or, you could boil them in soy sauce with some added red food coloring. Or, maybe bean sprouts stir fried in oil and then doused with food coloring. Recently, I found a variety of long green/string beans from China that would do QUITE well too. Use your imagination in getting convincing looking qach.
Klingons are recurring antagonists in the 1960s television series Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series, along with eight of the feature films. Initially intended to be antagonists for the crew of the USS Enterprise, the Klingons became a close ally of humanity and the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the 1990s series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the United Federation of Planets briefly goes to war with the Klingons, due to manipulation by the Dominion. Later in that series, the two join together with the Romulans to fight the Dominion.
As originally developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon, Klingons were swarthy humanoids characterized mainly by prideful ruthlessness and brutality. Totalitarian, and with a martial society relying on slave labor, they reflected analogies with both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Although Cold War tensions are apparent in the characterization, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry did not intend any explicit political parallels.[citation needed] With a greatly expanded budget for makeup and effects, the Klingons were completely redesigned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), acquiring ridged foreheads that created a continuityerror[citation needed] not explained by Star Trek canon until 2005. In later films and in the spin-off series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the militaristic traits of the Klingons were bolstered by an increased sense of honor and strict warrior code similar to those of bushido.
Among the elements created for the revised Klingons was a complete Klingon language, developed by Marc Okrand from gibberishsuggested by actor James Doohan. Spoken Klingon has entered popular culture, even to the extent that the works of William Shakespeare and parts of the Bible have been translated into it. A dictionary, a book of sayings, and a cultural guide to the language have been published. According to Guinness World Records, Klingon is the world's most popular fictional language.
Two Klingon males and a female as they appear in the ST:TOS episode "Day of the Dove". The bronzed skin, facial hair, lack of ridged foreheads, and simple costumes are typical of The Original SThe Klingons were created by screenwriterGene L. Coon, and first appeared in the episode "Errand of Mercy" (1967). They were named after Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, who served withStar TrekcreatorGene Roddenberryin theLos Angeles Police Department.[3]In the original television series (TOS), Klingons were typically portrayed with bronze skin and facial hair suggestive ofAsianpeople, and possessed physical abilities similar to humans (in fact, Coon's only physical description of them in his "Errand of Mercy" script is "oriental" and "hard-faced"). The swarthy look of Klingon males was created with the application of shoe polish and long, thin moustaches; budget constraints limited creativity.[4]The overall look of the aliens, played by white actors, suggestedorientalism, at a time when memories of Japanese actions duringWorld War IIwere still fresh.[5]The production crew never came to an agreement on the name "Klingon"; Coon was adamant about keeping the name, and it persisted because no one else offered up a better name.[6]The Klingons took on the role of the Soviet Union in opposition to theUnited Federation of Planetsplaying the role of the United States.[7]As such, they were generally portrayed as inferior to the crew of theEnterprise.[8]While occasionally capable of honour, this depiction treated the Klingons as close to wild animals.[6]Overall, they were shown without redeeming qualities—brutish, scheming, and murderous.[5]Klingons became the primary antagonists of theEnterprisecrew, in part because the makeup necessary to makeRomulanswas too time-consuming and costly.[9]For the first two seasons, no Klingon ships were seen despite being frequently mentioned. This was because of budget constraints— designer Matt Jefferies did not have the money to create a Klingon ship until the third season. When the episodes were remastered beginning in 2006, Klingon ships were digitally inserted into shots earlier than their original appearances.[10]
Redesign
For Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the Klingons were retconned and their appearance and behavior radically changed. To give the aliens a more sophisticated and threatening demeanor, the Klingons were depicted with ridged foreheads, snaggled and prominent teeth, and a defined language and alphabet. Lee Cole, a production designer, used red gels and primitive shapes in the design of Klingon consoles and ship interiors, which took on a dark and moody atmosphere. The alphabet was designed as angular, with sharp edges harkening to the Klingons' militaristic focus.[6] Costume designer Robert Fletcher created new uniforms for the Klingons, reminiscent of feudal Japanese armor.
Certain elements of Klingon culture, such as a general influence of Japanese culture with honor at the forefront, were actually first explored with the script for the planned two-part "Kitumba" episode for the unproduced 1978 Star Trek: Phase II series. Writer John Meredith Lucas said, "I wanted something that we had never seen before on the series, and that's a penetration deep into enemy space. I started to think of how the Klingons lived. Obviously for the Romulans we had Romans, and we've had different cultures modeled on those of ancient Earth, but I tried to think of what the Klingon society would be like. The Japanese came to mind, so basically that's what it was, with the Sacred Emperor, the Warlord and so on."[11]
While no Klingon characters were seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, their appearance as the central enemy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) led to minor alterations. For the third generation of Klingons, the heavy, cragged head ridges of The Motion Picture were redesigned and made less pronounced. While Fletcher was happy with the original film uniforms, more had to be created as the old costumes had been lost, destroyed, or loaned out and altered irreparably. New costumes were fabricated, retaining the air of feudal Japanese design; Fletcher thought it was an important part of the Klingon authoritarian attitude.[12] New Klingon weaponry was designed, including an energy weapon and a special knife known as a d'k tahg.
Michael Dorn and Robert O'Reilly as Worf and Gowron in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, sporting Fletcher's costumes. Worf holds a knife known as a d'k tahg;[13]behind the actors is the bottom half of the Klingon emblem.
The release of a new television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, prompted a further revision in the depiction of Klingon culture, though Gene Roddenberry had wanted to avoid re-appearances of races from the old series.[14] Set a century later than the original series, the USS Enterprise-D featured a Klingon crewmember, Worf. Makeup artist Michael Westmore needed a consistent reference to base the Klingon look on, as each individual Klingon had distinct head ridges. He found what he was looking for in a book of dinosaurs: observing dinosaur vertebrae laid out flat, Westmore cut the designs in half and modified them to suit each Klingon. Westmore designed his Klingons' beards to be Elizabethan, combining prehistoric and aristocratic elements to give audiences a feeling of depth from the appearance. Over time, Westmore and the other makeup artists designed different sizes of prosthetic headpieces which could be quickly applied and modified to save time; the amount of preparation to turn an actor into a Klingon decreased from around three hours to one. While important characters had custom headpieces, background actors used pre-made masks with minor touchup around the eyes and mouth.[6]The Next Generation effects artist Dan Curry used his martial arts experience to create a flowing fighting style for the race.[15] When the episode "Reunion" called for a special Klingon blade, Curry drew on Far East influences to develop a weapon known as the bat'leth. Curry, a collector of weapons, was annoyed by fictional weaponry that was designed to "look cool" but could not be handled practically. Curry combined elements of the Himalayan kukri, Chinese axes and fighting crescents to create a two-handed, curved weapon that has since been widely used in the franchise.[16]
The culture of the Klingons began to resemble revised western stereotypes of civilizations such as the Zulu, the Vikings, and various Native American nations — as a proud, warlike and principled race.[8] Whereas the TOS Klingons served as an allegory to contemporary totalitarian regimes, The Next GenerationKlingons held principles more in line with Bushidō; actor Michael Dorn stated that without the revision in Klingon culture, his character, Worf, would not have been a Starfleet officer.[6] With the first Klingon-centric story in The Next Generation, the first-season episode "Heart of Glory", the Klingons once again became an important part of the Star Trek universe,[17] and by the advent of the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Klingons had become heroes rather than villains,[5] albeit often at cross purposes to the Federation.
The final Star Trek film to feature the entire cast from the original television series, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) served to bridge the original series Klingons at war with the Federation to the time of The Next Generation, and presents a subtly different treatment of the race. At the time of the film's development, the Soviet Union was collapsing, and with the advent of glasnost, the old allegory of Klingons as Russians was becoming obsolete.[18] The Klingons were redesigned to evoke the Nazis, with the red, white and black Klingon flag deliberately similar to that of the Nazi Party. The Klingons in the film liberally quote Shakespeare, a trait stemming from director Nicholas Meyer's comparison of the Empire's appropriation of Shakespeare to the Nazis' similar attempt in the 1930s. Meyer also felt it was apropos for Shakespearean actors such as Christopher Plummer and David Warner to speak the lines.[19] The breakdown of the Klingons' empire because of a Chernobyl-like incident results in a new age for the Federation and Klingons, leading to the time of The Next Generation and later series where the two governments are trade partners and occasional allies.[20] Starfleet members are shown to be highly bigoted against Klingons, who in turn feel that their way of life will be obliterated by peace.[19] The Klingons were given new uniforms designed by Dodie Shepard, in part because there were not enough of Fletcher's The Motion Picture costumes to meet the demands of the film.[21]
Dorn described playing a Klingon as simple, joking that after hours sitting in a makeup chair, actors were highly motivated to get the dialogue right the first time.[6] Repeat Klingon Robert O'Reilly told all neophyte Klingons that the most important part of speaking was to say the lines with belief and "go all the way". When O'Reilly and Dorn's character had a confrontation, makeup artists wiped spittle off each between takes, a consequence of the harsh-sounding language.[22]Todd Bryant (Captain Klaa in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) similarly noted that if an actor was projectile-spitting on others as he spoke Klingon, he was doing a great job.[23]
When filming The Undiscovered Country, Christopher Plummer asked director Nicholas Meyer to adapt his character's look, feeling the heavy forehead appliances looked rather fake. Instead, Plummer's character, General Chang, was made bald with subdued ridges and an eyepatch bolted to his skull. Plummer felt that the unique appearance helped "humanize" the character.[24] In contrast to white actors portraying the warriors, more recent Klingon roles have been predominantly played by black actors.[5]
For Star Trek: Discovery, the Klingon appearance was once again modified with more extensive facial and teeth prosthetics and elongated craniums. The new Klingons are all bald, in contrast with the previous depictions, and have black and purple skin color variations.
Continuity issues
According to the official Star Trek web site, the Klingons' varying appearance was "probably the single most popular topic of conversation among Star Trek fans".[25] While the real reason for the discrepancy between The Original Series Klingons and their feature film and later television series counterparts was a lack of budget, fans took it upon themselves to contrive an acceptable canon reason for the sudden change.[26] These theories postulated that TOS Klingons were humans raised as Klingons, similar to Janissaries (Christian kidnapped by the Ottoman Empire from ca. 1300s to 1800s); that for cosmetic or diplomatic reasons, Klingons removed the ridges via surgery; that TOS Klingons were hybrids with a more human species,[27] or that TOS Klingons were some border race conscripted or deployed near the Federation border. Simple theories that the different Klingons were different racial breeds were complicated by the fact that the characters of Kang, Koloth, and Kor appeared with smooth features in the original series, yet had a ridged appearance in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and that Worf acknowledged the difference in appearances when the crew of Deep Space 9 returned to the 23rd century in the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", but offered no explanation, saying merely, "We do not discuss it with outsiders."[26]
A canonical explanation for the change was given in a two-part storyline on Star Trek: Enterprise, in the episodes "Affliction" and "Divergence" that aired in February 2005. Attempting to replicate experiments by humans to create augmented soldiers, Klingon scientists used genetic material from human test subjects on their own people, which resulted in a viral pandemic which caused Klingons to develop human-like physical characteristics. Dr. Phlox of the Enterprise formulated a cure for the virus, but the physical alterations remained in the populace and were inherited by offspring. Phlox indicated that "some day" the physical alterations could be reversed.[28][29] The head scientist finally mentioned he would go into cranial reconstructive surgery another nod to 'restoration' of the ridges for some klingons.
In Star Trek: The Role Playing Game (FASA, 1982) the smooth-headed Klingons seen in the original series were called "fusions", in particular "human fusions", with "Romulan fusions" also existing. They were a deliberate blending of Klingon genes with those of other races in an effort to gain an understanding of, and thus advantage over, the other races. Human fusions were chosen for service on the Federation border due to the high number of humans present in the Federation. Fusions of both types were considered inferior to pure strain "Imperial Klingons" and were segregated.[30]
In the video game Star Trek Online, Klingons under the command of Ambassador B'vat once again attempt to fuse the DNA of other races with their own. In an episode called "The Ultimate Klingon", the player character travels to the planet H'atoria in the Korvat System to infiltrate a secret Klingon research facility and discovers Amar Singh, a descendant of Khan Noonien Singh, has merged Klingon, Augment, and Gorn DNA to create a ferocious, mindless monstrosity the player must destroy. Singh is arrested and imprisoned at Facility 4028.
Attributes
Klingons possess a robust and enduring biology as well as large and muscular statures. They appear to be among the strongest fully organic humanoid species seen, being vastly stronger than humans. Klingons have been seen on multiple occasions proving the physical equal or superior ofJem'HadarandHirogen, two other races possessing immense strength, and the half-humanB'Elanna Torresproves more than a match for aVulcan. Only the semi-artificialBorgand artificial lifeforms such asDataare clearly stronger. Their anatomy is redundant and supernumerary; every organ has a backup, including an extra set of kidneys, an eight-chambered heart, a third lung, and even a secondary brain stem, as well as an extensive and hardy skeletal structure. In fact, it has been said by medical practitioners of other races that Klingons have "too many organs", as their physiology emphasizes redundancy at the cost of efficiency. This redundancy is evident even at the cellular level; for example, the Klingons have back-up synaptic networks in their nervous systems, allowing them to literally "grow a spine" as was demonstrated with Worf when his spine was surgically removed and replaced with a transplanted, genetically cloned new one. Their rapid metabolism allows injured Klingons to heal quickly. All of this makes Klingons extremely hardy and difficult to kill, as necessitated by their aggressive nature, and resistant to physical trauma, environmental exposure, and illness. Klingons alone have a natural resistance to "the Phage" which plagues the Vidiians of the Delta Quadrant. LikeCardassians, they prefer to avoid cold. Klingons also have a heightened sense of smell as suggested in "Birthright, Part II" inThe Next Generationwhen Worf and a Klingon boy go hunting and can track an animal by scent.
Biology
Klingon children are fierce and aggressive by nature; from as soon as they can walk, they are instructed into honing their hunting and combat skills, strengthening their physical prowess and agility. Like humans, they go through a form of puberty, which, as Picard puts it in Star Trek: Insurrection "hardly does it justice" and includes sudden bursts of hair growth, extreme mood swings and violent tendencies (more than normally is the case), and the Klingon equivalent of acne (called 'Gorch' in Klingon). Language
Marc Okrand is the author of several books about the Klingon language, which he developed.
The Klingons have their own language that was developed for the feature films, often described as "guttural". For The Motion Picture, James Doohan, the actor who portrayed Montgomery Scott, devised the initial Klingon-language dialogue heard in the film.[36] For The Search for Spock, Marc Okrand, who created the Vulcan dialogue used in the previous film, developed an actual working Klingon language based on Doohan's original made-up words.[37]
Okrand was presented with a difficult task of contriving a language that sounded alien, while still simple enough for the actors to pronounce.[6] While most constructed languages follow basic tenets of natural languages — for example, all languages have an "ah" sound — Okrand deliberately broke them. He chose the rarest form of sentence construction, the object-verb-subject form: the translation of the phrase "I boarded the Enterprise", would be constructed as "The Enterprise boarded I."[38] Okrand reasoned the language would be indicative of the culture - the Klingons' language focuses on actions and verbs, like Mongolian. Adjectives do not strictly exist; there is no word for "greedy", but there is a verb, qur, which means "to be greedy".[39] The language does not contain the verb "to be", which meant Okrand had to create a workaround when director Nicholas Meyer wanted his Klingons to quote Shakespeare and the famous line "to be, or not to be" in The Undiscovered Country.[6] Initially, Okrand came up with "to live or not live", but Plummer did not like the sound of the line. Okrand went back and revised the phrase to "taH pagh, taHbe' ", roughly meaning "whether to continue, or not to continue [existence]".[6] The Klingon language has a small vocabulary compared to natural languages, containing around 2,000 words after it had been created in the nineties.[22] After its initial creation, Okrand has frequently created new words, so that the total number of words has grown up to approximately 3,000.[40][41]
Okrand persuaded Pocket Books to publish The Klingon Dictionary in 1985; in it, Okrand elaborated on the Klingon language's grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. While Okrand expected the book to only sell as a novelty item, eleven years after publication it had sold 250,000 copies.[39] Dedicated Klingon enthusiasts, some but not all of whom were Star Trek fans, created the Klingon Language Institute, which published multiple magazines in the language. While Paramount initially tried to stop the Institute from using its copyrighted language, the company eventually relented. The Institute has since published Klingon translations of Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Tao Te Ching, Gilgamesh, and has translations of some books from the Bible on its website.[22] The Bible proved to be difficult to translate, as Christian concepts like atonement—and words like God (until the recent addition of Qun meaning "god")—are not found in the Klingon vernacular. From time to time, Okrand has amended the "official" list of Klingon vocabulary due in part to requests from the Institute and other groups.[42] Other Klingon groups run blood drives, bowling teams, and a golf championship.[43]
The Klingon language's prevalence is not limited to books; a three-disc video game, Star Trek: Klingon, requires players to learn the language to advance.[44] In May 2009, a joint collaboration between the KLI, Simon & Schuster, and Ultralingua launched the Klingon Language Suite for the iPhone concurrent with the release of the new movie. The popularity of the language meant that in 1996 it was considered the fastest-growing constructed language, ahead of other languages such as Tolkien'sElvish or Esperanto. While the language is widespread, mastery of the language is extremely uncommon; there are only around a dozen fluent speakers of the language. Okrand himself is not fluent, and the actors who speak the language in the Star Trek series are more concerned with its expression than the actual grammar.[39] According to the 2006 edition of Guinness World Records, Klingon is the most spoken fictional language by number of speakers,[45] Klingon is one of many language interfaces in the Google search engine,[46] and a Klingon character was included in the Wikipedia logo[47] before its May 2010 update, when it was replaced by a Geʿez character.
Starships
As the Klingons are portrayed as a warrior culture, Klingon starships are usually depicted as warships, heavily armed with a variety of particle beam weaponry and antimatter warheads. Many Klingon ships also make use of cloaking technology to hide the vessel from view. The first Klingon ship design used in The Original Series, the D7-class battlecruiser, was designed by Matt Jefferies to evoke a predator's shape akin to that of a manta ray, providing a threatening and instantly recognizable form for viewers. The configuration of Jefferies' design featured a bulbous forward hull connected by a long boom to a wing-like main hull with the engine nacelles mounted on each wingtip. Later Klingon starships by other designers kept to this same overall configuration, although updated to reflect their respective time periods: Rick Sternbach's designs for The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine drew on elements of Starfleet ships features to reflect the alliance between the Federation and the Klingons,[48] while John Eaves' designs for Enterpriseincorporated more rugged and primitive construction to make the vessels appear consistent with the earlier time period.
