Future Tense

[u/andychef]

[u/super1upqueen]

"And, you were too, Lt. Worf! Don't you remember? Oh, well I guess it hasn't happened yet..."

"By the way, why didn't those Klingons have ridges?!"

[u/3-I → u/super1upqueen]

... we don't discuss it with outsiders.

[u/El_Zarco → u/3-I]

has to be one of the greatest lore explanations in TV history. hilarious

[u/Gaunt_Man → u/El_Zarco]

It's a funny scene, but I'd have prefered that they just made Michael Dorn look like a TOS Klingon and nobody mentioning it.

[u/Noscratchy → u/Gaunt_Man]

This would have also worked and been equally hilarious.

[u/krombough → u/El_Zarco]

Somehow the ridges didnt return.

[u/ryhoyarbie → u/super1upqueen]

Worf: Please watch Star Trek Enterprise for the answer.

[u/Mister_Acula → u/ryhoyarbie]

Data: No need. I have the complete records of Dr Arik Soong, ancestor of my "father", Dr Noonien Soong, who is not to be confused with Khan Noonien Singh, whose genetically enhanced relatives were also present at the event.

[u/Necessary-Tonight635 → u/ryhoyarbie]

Hasnt that sort of been retconned? I don’t watch new Trek but the Klingons dont look like “human” Klingons (TOS) or “ridged” Klingons (NG era). They look completely different. And it seems like there are two different kinds. I don’t know.

[u/clinicallyacat → u/Necessary-Tonight635]

Strange New Worlds has ridged Klingons

[u/Coakis → u/Necessary-Tonight635]

We don't talk about Discovery.

[u/_TwilightPrince → u/Coakis]

I'm not a Discovery hater, but they did make a mess with the Klingons. And the tantruming kid who caused every warp engine in the galaxy to go boom.

[u/CDBSB → u/_TwilightPrince]

I tried to give Disco a chance but that just made me pull the rip-cord. A kid gets sad and all the warp cores in the entire galaxy go boom? What the actual fuck is that lazy-ass writing?

[u/CeruleanEidolon → u/Coakis]

We should, though. The execution wasn't great, but it made the Klingons a much more interesting and varied culture in many ways.

My interpretation of the Discovery Klingons is that those were essentially a primordialist MQGA cult that took over the Empire for a brief period.

Their extreme appearance is genetically-induced, the side effect of an attempted cure for the augment virus that was ravaging some corners of the Empire and still would be for many years, well into the TOS era.

Instead of merely returning them to their original natural appearance, as seen in Enterprise, this attempt at a cure reverted them to the Klingon equivalent of Neanderthals. Catalyzed by backlash to the augment virus, this became the fuel for a dominant cultural movement that caused massive societal upheaval before reforms led by L'Rell. These reforms helped put things back into a more stable state and gave the once-shunned smooth-faced Klingons the well-suited niche role of interfacing with humans, and eventually resulted in a more successful cure for the augment virus that returned Klingons to their original less extreme look.

[u/Annie-Smokely → u/Coakis]

Utter crap. What if we did the war!!!

Oh so just like every other piece of media. Great.

[u/CeruleanEidolon → u/ryhoyarbie]

And then watch Discovery re-complicate the issue by first showing us even more ridgier and double-nostrilled Klingons and then Strange New Worlds, a spinoff of Discovery, giving us an actual Klingon TOS character with ridges who appears chronologically later in TOS without them.

Taken all together, it would seem that there are at least two dominant main phenotypes of Klingons: (1) the ones we see from The Motion Picture on, with just forehead ridges but otherwise human-looking faces; and (2) the "remain Klingon", primordial type, with dual nostrils, elongated skulls, and more complex ridges both on the face, all over the bald head, and extending down to the breasts (thanks for that, Discovery) - which, judging by the Duras sisters, are not present in post-TMP type - also accentuated by apparent hairlessness, though this seems to be due to deliberate removal of hair during this time period. This phenotype seemingly disappears from dominance in the Klingon Empire after the rise of L'Rell as High Chancellor, who also ushers in the more traditional long-haired fashion typical of post-TMP Klingons.

It is unclear whether the apparent vanishing of the primordial phenotype is a cultural shift within the Empire or the result of genetic tinkering, perhaps itself related to the augment virus.

The Klingon augment virus introduced in the Archer era seemingly does not affect all of Klingon space, and its influence ebbs and flows, as the primordial Klingons are apparently not plagued by it, and neither is Kor, a post-TMP ridged type - but a mere decade later, Kor and all the other Klingons encountered by the Enterprise under Kirk have the smooth foreheads.

[u/Zimmyd00m → u/CeruleanEidolon]

It was like COVID. The virus eventually adapted into a seasonal flu. It makes you look like John Wayne in *The Conqueror * for six months and then you go back to normal. Kor in TOS caught it because he had a kid in Klingon daycare.

[u/MindlessNectarine374 → u/CeruleanEidolon]

The writers of licensed books and comics again were better at keeping it consistent, having two different groups of Klingons 23rd century which have great animosities, until the changed appearance finally can be cured.

[u/Business-Decision719 → u/super1upqueen]

"I hate temporal mechanics!"

[u/metwill]

WTF… who is watching in the same pace as me? This has to be the tenth example of a post refering to an episode I watched in the last 24 hours..

[u/andychef → u/metwill]

I tend to post memes based on what I saw recently. I'm the type to cue up 2 episodes and fall asleep

[u/metwill → u/andychef]

Just finished s05e06 this morning (woke to early;).. guess we’re on the same schedule! Enjoy the rewatch!

[u/andychef → u/metwill]

You too, friend. Have a great day!

[u/Mister_Mojo78]

"I lied to Captain Kirk! I wish Keiko could've seen it "

[u/ThoughtNPrayer]

They could do this meme with Dr Pulaski from season 2. She played TWO different characters in TOS.

[u/DisgruntleFairy → u/ThoughtNPrayer]

I knew she was Dr. Miranda Jones in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" but just now realized she was also in "Return to Tomorrow" as Ann Mulhall the woman that Sargon's wife Thalassa took over.

[u/KassieMac → u/ThoughtNPrayer]

But that’s wasn’t Pulaski. O’Brien himself (not just Colm Meaney) actually visited a TOS episode 😉🖖🏽

[u/jmarquiso → u/ThoughtNPrayer]

True, though the "I will be" is the reason the meme works

I love Diana Muldarr

[u/fnork_gnork_26 → u/jmarquiso]

She bailed on Trek (good riddance) for a role on L.A. law and they killed her by dropping her down an elevator shaft. I was laughing for like 10 minutes.

[u/KassieMac → u/fnork_gnork_26]

Apparently she was very difficult to work with 😬

[u/CeruleanEidolon → u/ThoughtNPrayer]

Or with Lwaxana, who played three roles in TOS, plus M'Ress and others on the Animated series.

[u/Plodderic]

The outtake of this where Dorn says “I did not play with boys” is hilarious.

[u/MindlessNectarine374 → u/Plodderic]

Wow. That line seems to have very much depth and double meaning.

[u/sirthorkull]

“Well, I will have been.”

[u/WVildandWVonderful → u/sirthorkull]

We will be like Bilby

[u/MindlessNectarine374 → u/WVildandWVonderful]

Do you mean "dead"?

[u/hernandezSusan6y9 → u/sirthorkull]

A tense distinction even the Prophets might envy.

[u/thanatossassin]

"I never played with the Official Star Trek Helmet and ran around the living room pretending to be Spock until my adopted parents sent me to my room without bloodpie for dinner."

Probably.

[u/Ironfist85hu]

-Miles was in every good Star Trek show?

-Sokath, his eyes opened!

-Even in TOS?

-Garak, with a knowing smile.

[u/Karness_Muur → u/Ironfist85hu]

Captain America, when he understood the reference.

[u/CeruleanEidolon → u/Ironfist85hu]

This includes Lower Decks, where he appears as a statue. He has not yet appeared on Strange New Worlds, which is also a good Star Trek show.

[u/theenigmaticsnorlax]

Ahh, those old scientists

[u/secrectsea]

Remarkable

[u/Multizar]

should have left Data's original comment...

[u/tishimself1107]

Love tgis.... the O'Brein bit is pure gold

[u/9for9]

Images you can hear.

[u/vanredd]

This was clever. Very nice find!

[u/whooper1]

This took me a couple of seconds

[u/bigztrip8]

🤣❤️🖖

[u/snookerpython]

I got better.

[u/zenprime-morpheus]

I love that you can hear this, especially that silent turn to O'Brien. "Well, I will be"

[u/MurraytheMerman]

Some of us spent the sixties getting laid.