Throughout Star Trek’s 47 year history, all of the television series and movies have revolved around Starfleet characters, espousing (and sometimes subverting) the ideals of the United Federation of Planets. With a brand new game and movie on the way, plus word that Paramount might be looking at making another Trek show, the Starfleet adventure buffet just got a whole lot bigger.
But who said that Trek had to be about Starfleet all the time? There’s a perfect alternative, one that’s been in Trek from the beginning, has a name the public remembers and a strong, loyal fanbase: the Klingons. After 47 years of appearances in every Trek show and being mentioned or seen in every film, these sometimes not-so-honourable warriors deserve their time in the center chair. And what better way to do it than in the medium Trek has only explored once – animation?
Here’s 4 reasons why the next Star Trek should be an animated Klingon adventure.
4. We’ve Only Seen Glimpses Of The Empire
While the Klingons have gotten a whole lot of screen time thanks to TNG and DS9 regular Worf, we really don’t know all that much about the Empire from the shows and movies (Trek tie-in material is an entirely different story). Kirk and Picard cruising around gave us plenty of chances to see the Federation and its worlds, as did DS9 and Enterprise. Why not give the Klingons the same opportunity, especially when all we’ve seen of their empire is the Klingon homeworld, Qo’nos (pronounced Kronos), a military planet, and a colony or two?
What an animated Klingon series brings to the table is the ability to show more stuff with less money, which is a plus for a TV show. Not only that, but creating all sorts of crazy planets and aliens is way easier to do when you work with 2D drawings or non-photorealistic, stylized CGI (like Pixar films, Tron: Uprising, and Transformers Prime). When you don’t have to build elaborate sets, animatronics, or whip up complicated make-up applications on a weekly basis, the sky’s the limit for the alien vistas and creatures a new Trek series could give us.
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6 Comments
It could be good, a la The Clone Wars, which did a great job of fleshing out that pre-New Hope universe. BUT they have to be REAL Klingons. Star Trek: TNG all but neutered the Klingons, especially poor Worf. Roddenberry’s vision of wonderful peace is great and all, but it bogged down some things. The Klingon empire was one of them. Bring the “teeth” back to the warrior-people and there might be something there.
This is the most original and obscure article I have ever read.
Good idea. I’ve often felt that the Klingons would make an excellent series. They are so well fleshed out in the shows that exist and yet there is so much left to explore. (And also the problem with Voyager and Enterprise was that they were too like TNG – Starfleet exploring space. But thats a discussion for another WhatCulture article. This would have a unique feel.)
Hadn’t considered doing it as an animated version, but you’ve won me over to that idea. I agree with the above post that they should “bring the teeth back,” I’d like a dark, complex series.
This guy is an idiot! Enterprise did not happen in the “Abramsverse”, it was a prequal sieries. It took place in the 2150′s. Also, it is the same universe, just a different timeline. And an animated sieries would be a horible idea. The Klingon centered part of it is not a bad idea though.
Time travel in Trek can be confusing (because there are so many variations of it), but everyone who’s involved in Trek is going with the “Nero traveling back in time created a new universe, Parallels style”. And because of when Nero arrived (~2230), that means the events of Enterprise still happened in both universes.
Let’s see “Battlecruiser Vengeance”!
Also, RE: Enterprise not being in the “Abramsverse”, I seem to recall Scotty making a comment about transporting “Admiral Archer’s prize beagle”, and the comic books, which are canon, also making references to events from Enterprise. So, NWalker failed to do his homework before posting.