possible Klingon Warrior Brainbug

Dennis Toy · Post by **Dennis Toy** » 2004-09-28 10:18pm

I was watching "Day of the dove" the TOS episode on Sci-Fi. I saw what apparently was a brainbug that started the whole klingon warrior mess.

In the episode, the alien on the ship had caused the crews of both a klingon ship and the Enterprise to turn against each other. The alien life form had turned phasers into swords, and the crews dueled with each other. Spock mentions that the klingons love the tradition of dueling, this could have been a throw away line...

Unfortunately it wasn't, 17 years later on TNG, the writers skip through all the movies and the established klingon canon and the Klingon tradition of dueling was revived. Only this time, the dueling became a religion with the klingons now sporting fancy exotic bladed weapons. The klingons were then turned into Thor rejects, using their swords to fight enemies instead of phasers.

But that wasnt it...... The klingon dueling tradition became their religion. The klingons now have tradition involving dueling including the infamous incident on DS9 where the leadership was now decided with a swordfight than an election.

Now you see where the bladed weapon religion came from..

any thoughts.

Lord MJ · Post by **Lord MJ** » 2004-09-28 11:12pm

It's always been the case in TNG era and beyond that whoever slays the Klingon leader in honorable combat automatically became the new leader of the empire.

The Arbitter of Succession stuff happens if the leader dies of natural causes, steps down, or is killed not in honorable combat.

Dennis Toy · Post by **Dennis Toy** » 2004-09-28 11:27pm

It's always been the case in TNG era and beyond that whoever slays the Klingon leader in honorable combat automatically became the new leader of the empire.

The Arbitter of Succession stuff happens if the leader dies of natural causes, steps down, or is killed not in honorable combat

i was actually stating that it was a brainbug that started with a throw away line.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2004-09-28 11:33pm

Mike also has another one listed on the main site, as well. It's probable that hundreds/thousands of years before they obtained space travel, the Klingons may have been a Viking-esque warrior society at large, and by TOS times managed to maintain some of their archiac traditions in passing, but surely nothing that dominated their society like it does in TNG era Trek.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-29 12:55am

That's a somewhat tenuous connection, although it is certainly a possible source for the infection.

I tend to look a bit closer, at cases such as Commander Kruge in ST3. He was a bit of a rabid psycho, and in the context of the film and its successor it's also obvious that he was something of a renegade, operating outside of official Klingon governmental authority and sanction. Nevertheless, his bizarre and borderline insane behaviour became the template for future Klingon behaviour.

Take particular note of the exchange between him and his first officer when he orders his men to board the Enterprise (12 men against what he believes at the time to be a fully crewed Federation starship with 400 men onboard).

"They outnumber us, my lord-"
"WE ARE KLINGONS!!!!"

That's the behaviour of someone who's not mentally stable, but I believe it may have been the original inspiration for the Viking-Klingons of TNG: an idea which was crystallized into a one-dimensional stereotype by that damned Klingon death-scream warrior tradition episode in TNG.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2004-09-29 04:20am

That's the behaviour of someone who's not mentally stable, but I believe it may have been the original inspiration for the Viking-Klingons of TNG: an idea which was crystallized into a one-dimensional stereotype by that damned Klingon death-scream warrior tradition episode in TNG.

That always boggled my mind whenever I compare TOS Klingons with TNG Klingons, besides the obvious "head-bump", they just don´t seem like parts of the same society.

TOS Klingons represented a fascist-state and spoke eloquently, TNG (and beyond) Klingons represented "Space-Vikings" that snarl and fight with melee weapons when ranged weapons would be more efficient. It just seems like the writers reverted to a 10-year-old mindset, thinking up "cool warriors who fight with neat-o swords´n´stuff". My suspension of disbelief can only go so far.

Dennis Toy · Post by **Dennis Toy** » 2004-09-29 10:27pm

another brainbug i caught was the painstick brainbug...

On "day of the dove", one of the klingons had a device which when put to the skin causes a painful electric shock. This should have been a one-time throwaway device. But the writers of TNG saw this and it became an infestation that grew a small device to a stick that was used from hunting to religion.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2004-09-29 11:10pm

Dennis Toy wrote:another brainbug i caught was the painstick brainbug...

On "day of the dove", one of the klingons had a device which when put to the skin causes a painful electric shock. This should have been a one-time throwaway device. But the writers of TNG saw this and it became an infestation that grew a small device to a stick that was used from hunting to religion.

It was also used in one episode to test if a dead body was really dead (specificly the Klingon Civil War episode).

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2004-09-30 01:19am

Darth Wong wrote:That's a somewhat tenuous connection, although it is certainly a possible source for the infection.

I tend to look a bit closer, at cases such as Commander Kruge in ST3. He was a bit of a rabid psycho, and in the context of the film and its successor it's also obvious that he was something of a renegade, operating outside of official Klingon governmental authority and sanction. Nevertheless, his bizarre and borderline insane behaviour became the template for future Klingon behaviour.

Take particular note of the exchange between him and his first officer when he orders his men to board the Enterprise (12 men against what he believes at the time to be a fully crewed Federation starship with 400 men onboard).

"They outnumber us, my lord-"
"WE ARE KLINGONS!!!!"

That's the behaviour of someone who's not mentally stable, but I believe it may have been the original inspiration for the Viking-Klingons of TNG: an idea which was crystallized into a one-dimensional stereotype by that damned Klingon death-scream warrior tradition episode in TNG.

I feel that the Klingon government or whoever burned the impression into all Klingons that humans will offer little resistance when faced against a Klingon.

Kruge really believed that his heavily armed force could take a Federation starship with 400 men onboard because humans would simply surrender against Klingons.

or he was unstable...

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2004-09-30 02:50am

or both

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-09-30 03:41am

Dennis Toy wrote:I was watching "Day of the dove" the TOS episode on Sci-Fi. I saw what apparently was a brainbug that started the whole klingon warrior mess.

In the episode, the alien on the ship had caused the crews of both a klingon ship and the Enterprise to turn against each other. The alien life form had turned phasers into swords, and the crews dueled with each other. Spock mentions that the klingons love the tradition of dueling, this could have been a throw away line...

Unfortunately it wasn't, 17 years later on TNG, the writers skip through all the movies and the established klingon canon and the Klingon tradition of dueling was revived. Only this time, the dueling became a religion with the klingons now sporting fancy exotic bladed weapons. The klingons were then turned into Thor rejects, using their swords to fight enemies instead of phasers.

But that wasnt it...... The klingon dueling tradition became their religion. The klingons now have tradition involving dueling including the infamous incident on DS9 where the leadership was now decided with a swordfight than an election.

Now you see where the bladed weapon religion came from..

any thoughts.

"The Klingon Empire has maintained a dueling tradition. They think they can beat us with swords."

"Captain, neither the Klingon technology nor ours is capable of this, the instantaneous transmutation of matter. I doubt that they are responsible."

"Any other 'logical' candidates?"

"None. However, if they had this ability, would they not have used it to make better weapons, and only for themselves?"

It's Kirk's statement that the Klingons "maintained a dueling tradition", but for all we know, it could very well have been akin to the Prussian upper classes organising into dueling societies for all the information that's given in the conversation on the bridge. Also, the Klingons are as surprised as the Federationists when common objects and phasers unexpectedly turn into swords, but take immediate advantage of a weird circumstance which suddenly leveled the playing field aboard the Enterprise. But beyond that, the Klingons act with discipline and military precision in aiming their assault to take the vital nerve point of the ship; they don't simply start hacking or charge mindlessly at the enemy.

I would not say that it was the one scene which led to the mutation of the Klingons from galactic fascists to space vikings, but you take that, add it to the boasting of Kruge in STIII, mix in the very out-of-context interpretation of Kor's wistful observation of how "glorious" a Fed/Klingon showdown would have been, set the blender to "puree", and voila —Brainbug Slurpee.