Star Trek

[Buster's Uncle]

Dunno, then - mercy doesn't apply to a hero -he died well- it applies to a loser, as close as I can imagine Klingon coming.

"He lost and was not worthy of being finished, instead left to live with his shame", maybe.



-We're talking about post-Star Trek stuff actually, and you know I count nothing after Wrath.  Klingon was created -for the later movies?  TNG?- -the later movies, IIRC- but that's the general drift, as I take it...

[bvanevery]

I thought we had 3 bone head Klingons for Star Trek: The Motion Picture at the very beginning.  Weren't they speaking Klingon?

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, no.  I been a fanboy for way most all of my life and read The Making of Star Trek maybe before you were born.  -If you're less than mid-50s in age.  That wasn't the end of my fanatic study, and I daresay I know my stuff.

No, that was gibberish, though it definitely influenced the sound of what was developed by a real linguist years later - I think it was for The Undiscovered Country?  Possibly as early as Search for Spock.

Also?  I hear Spock's brief conversation w/ Savick in Wrath was not in/consistent with what little has been created of Vulcan/used elsewhere - it must have been Romulan.

[bvanevery]

Dude, my 1st video game console was PONG.  As a kid, I've played that arcade game where the Doomsday Machine eats your ship when you lose.  Only once I think, and I don't know the exact name of the game.  Or where I'd find that arcade cabinet again.  It never appeared in the wild again.  Anyways, you're not older than me.

Cinematically, as a matter of canon, they were speaking Klingon.  And these are the first 3 bone head Klingons we see, instead of the Fu Manchu Klingons of TOS.

Now yes, I totally grant that they spoke Klingon badly, much as someone might speak Cantonese badly in a chop sockey martial arts flick.  Cue many r/WarriorTV discussions about not getting things right.  And what could they get right, when the details of the language aren't even worked out yet?  But I guarantee you, the script said something like "they speak Klingon" or whatever, and then there were to be subtitles.  Someone's nascent imaginary version of Klingon, faked according to evolving world building standards.

Comparison: the Swedish Chef speaks "Swedish".

[Buster's Uncle]

I stand behind my remarks, but not the embedded arrogance.  I'm 60, god help me.

[bvanevery]

Perhaps we can officially agree that they spoke "Klingon".

If we meet in person, perhaps I can regale you with my offensive versions of "Arabic", "German", and "Chinese".

Or you could just watch Monty Python for some class - Finnish, was it?

[Buster's Uncle]

I couldn't honestly give any less poops about the 'real' Klingon language.  That there's a nerd thing I respect almost as little as furry stuff.

-Also goes for pretty much anything to do with turtle-head Klingons and the associated cosplay, though I have to accept that the knobbies are still canon in my personal headcanon, TMP preceding Wrath...

[bvanevery]

The "fish people" they did for Discovery is a dire travesty.  We didn't need someone to completely redo Klingons.  I think they got the message because after S1 they wrapped up all the dangling Klingon plotlines in a hurry.  "Fish people" Klingons were quietly tucked away.

Star Trek is so broad that there are a number of things "kinda retired" like that.  Like the TNG episode that clowns the Fu Manchu Klingons, using footage from TOS "The Trouble With Tribbles".  Whorf states in anger, "We do not speak of it!!"

When Star Trek: The Experience still existed, that one time I went to Vegas, I spent 5 hours reading the timeline.  It was this long walkaround console thing.