After threatening to do it for two months, I finally rewatched "Errand of Mercy," the Original Series episode that introduced the Klingons and created the Klingon Neutral Zone (though they don't actually say that last part; I think one of the many spin-off novels I read as a kid linked the Klingon Neutral Zone with the Organian Treaty). The explicit goal of this rewatch was to determine whether or not the Original Series' treatment of Klingons is consistent with what we are currently seeing on Discovery. Results are inconclusive.
The Enterprise receives a top secret transmission to the effect that "negotiations with the Klingon Empire are breaking down and a sneak attack is expected." The Enterprise is ordered to the remote planet of Organia to deny it as a base of operation for the Klingons. On the way to Organia, a Klingon ship drops out of warp and fires on the Enterprise. The Enterprise destroys it because Captain Kirk and Mister Sulu are total badasses. The Enterprise receives a new transmission from Starfleet Command: the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war. Arriving at Organia, Kirk and Spock find a civilization resembling medieval Europe in technology and architecture, which Spock's tricorder can somehow tell hasn't changed in over 10,000 years. Captain Kirk spouts some racist nonsense about how the Federation can help the Organians "improve their culture" if only they will let the Federation defend them against the Klingons, but the Organians will have none of it. They want no part in violence. The Klingons, commanded by Commander Kor (okay, fine, you spell his name with only one "r"; "Korr" still looks cooler) show up in sufficient number to force the Enterprise to retreat, stranding Kirk and Spock on the surface, and Kor assumes the military governorship of Organia. Kirk and Spock try to mount a two-man resistance, hoping to inspire the Organians to fight back against the Klingons, but to no avail. The Organians will not resort to violence (though they do seem to be willing to go to great lengths to make sure their visitors -- human, Vulcan, and Klingon alike -- are not harmed). Starfleet returns in force to engage the Klingons (it is worth pointing out that at no point during this episode does any Klingon ship "decloak") and the Organians are finally forced to reveal themselves as beings of pure energy* with the ability to do anything they want, up to and including making all of the weapons of both the Federation and the Klingon Empire literally too hot to handle. Captain Kirk and Commander Kor protest the Organian intervention in internal Federation and Klingon affairs until the Organians embarrass Captain Kirk by pointing out that he is arguing for the right to wage a war in which millions of people will die. The Organians force an uneasy peace between the Federation and the Klingons, and everyone lives on to brood another day.
*I told you there were a lot of Q-like beings back in the day.
If I were inclined to be generous, I suppose I would have to say that this is not totally inconsistent with the Federation and the Klingon Empire coming out of the war we are watching on Discovery. The opening exposition does tell us that "negotiations are breaking down." That being said, when we learn that the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war, no one uses the word "again." When Captain Kirk is exhorting the Organians to accept Federation help, he says that the Klingons have annexed territory and murdered Federation citizens. Obviously, that sort of thing happens in wars, but it also happens in small border skirmishes. Captain Kirk does not reference the culture-changing brutality that Discovery is trying to associate with its Klingon war. Furthermore, and for obvious reasons, the Klingons in "Errand of Mercy" are portrayed as a ham-handed allegory for the Soviet Union, rather than the chaotic, factionalized nation of Discovery. "Our cultures are the same," Kor explains to Captain Kirk. "The struggle between us will decide the fate of the galaxy for 10,000 years." This is not a clash between an expansionist neo-colonizer still unaware of how thoroughly it has bought into the idea of its own Manifest Destiny and an nascent coalition of great houses who "doesn't want them in its front yard." "Errand of Mercy" is a clash between two colonialist super powers. Those are different conflicts and, while it is very possible that the Klingon war in Discovery almost ends, the Klingons centralize their power, and then hostilities break out anew in "Errand of Mercy," I'm not going to grant them that much grace. In the Original Series episode "Balance of Terror" (which, I guess, aired before "Errand of Mercy," so Romulans were the original Klingons) everyone goes out of their way to explain that the Federation and the Romulans just got out of a full-on shooting war. No one in "Errand of Mercy" says anything about "the last Klingon war." I guess I am not feeling generous. I do not believe that Discovery passes the smell test for a Star Trek prequel.
While I've got your attention, I would like to make some side observations.
1) I am just writing this down because my wife has pointed out that the internet is starting to propagate the theory that I postulated four days ago and *I got there first* (which is the only thing that matters). After I learned that my best friend was principally consuming Discovery through these blog posts (and, for all I know, he is the only one who is reading this one), I started thinking about how I had not mentioned the personality change that Stamets underwent after injecting himself with space hippopotamus DNA. He went from being a put-upon genius who cannot be bothered to relate to other people to being a space hippie who cannot be bothered to be mad at anyone, even when they collide with him in the corridor because they were too busy flirting with a guy who is definitely not a Klingon spy. Literally, my train of thought was: "it's like... what if Mr. Rogers were the key to interstellar space flight.... is he becoming the Traveler?" The internet seems to agree with me that Stamets is becoming the Traveler. I hope we are wrong. This is the kind of paranoid nonsense one has to deal with when watching prequels that shouldn't be prequels.
2) Apparently, Jonathan Frakes let slip that, at some point in the near future, Discovery is going to do a Mirror Universe episode. I cannot over-emphasize how against this I am. Deep Space Nine got away with it because it was interesting to see the consequences of Captain Kirk's deep conversation with fascist Spock (this was significantly less true the second time Deep Space Nine visited the Mirror Universe; was there a third time?). During his first visit to the Mirror Universe, Doctor Bashir remarked "Kirk's transporter accident... is that where I am?" proving that Starfleet keeps track of these things and *Captain Kirk's visit was the first contact between our Federation and the Mirror Universe.* Discovery barely survived bringing back Harry Mudd. I don't know if I can handle them breaking canon on the Mirror Universe.
3) Before what I hope is the big reveal (where "big" means "seen coming a mile away by literally everyone") this Sunday, it is worth stating the case that Lieutenant looking-for-parmok-in-all-the-wrong-places Tyler is, in fact a Klingon (though many other sources have done it before me, and they actually connected the dots; I am just parroting).
- Voq, T'Kuvma's protege is played by an actor named Javid Iqbal; Lieutenant definitely-not-pink-blooded-human Tyler is played by an actor named Shazad Latif who, according to wikipedia, was born Shazad Iqbal. If you do an IMDB search on Javid Iqbal, Voq is literally the only thing that comes up.
- In "Choose Your Pain," Lieutenant doesn't-do-the-mkbara-every-morning Tyler said that he had been a captive aboard the Klingon prison ship for seven months, but had avoided torture because the commander of the prison ship, L'Rell, with whom Voq had spent the previous episode eye-fornicating, "had taken a liking to him." At this point, the war was only seven months old, and the previous episode had gone out of its way to explain to us that L'Rell and Voq had spent the first six months of it stranded on the derelict hulk of T'Kuvma's vessel (the flagship that Discovery is about to fight).
- In "The Trouble with Tribbles," it was established that Klingons can surgically alter themselves to look just like humans. This was much easier in 1966, since Klingons were just white actors in brownface and "surgically altered to look like humans" just meant that they appeared as white men. This is another one of those things that we are going to ignore for the time being.
That last point presents some problems. Though the Klingon agent in "The Trouble with Tribbles" was able to masquerade as a human under visual inspection, a single swipe of Doctor McCoy's tricorder led to the immediate realization that "Jim, this man is a Klingon." Furthermore, in the Next Generation episode "Ethics," it is revealed that Klingons have two of.... everything: two livers, eight chambers in their heart, two spinal columns... basically, if Lieutenant my-parents-didn't-let-me-have-a-pet-targ-growing-up Tyler does end up being a Klingon, and if he ever got examined by Doctor Boyfriend for anything (say, for instance, being tortured for seven months), it should have been immediately obvious that "Jim, this man is a Klingon." Granted, this show (really, any show that I have ever seen) has never dealt with the realities of torture well. Despite a reasonably respectful portrayal in "Chain of Command," Captain Picard suffered no long-term effects from his treatment at the hands of Gul David Warner (of course, maybe after being assimilated by the Borg and de-assimiliated by Doctor Crusher, anything else that happens to you is just statistical noise on the PTSD spectrum). It is entirely possible that, despite spending seven months on a Klingon prison ship, Lieutenant we-never-camped-at-Khitomer-either Tyler was welcomed aboard Discovery, no questions asked, especially by Captain doesn't-play-by-the-rules-and-also-bangs-admirals Lorca. Still, I am not looking forward to this particular plot twist. It seems like they weren't even trying. Unless we are all wrong, in which case, the "seven months on a penal ship" thing is going to need a better explanation.
The Enterprise receives a top secret transmission to the effect that "negotiations with the Klingon Empire are breaking down and a sneak attack is expected." The Enterprise is ordered to the remote planet of Organia to deny it as a base of operation for the Klingons. On the way to Organia, a Klingon ship drops out of warp and fires on the Enterprise. The Enterprise destroys it because Captain Kirk and Mister Sulu are total badasses. The Enterprise receives a new transmission from Starfleet Command: the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war. Arriving at Organia, Kirk and Spock find a civilization resembling medieval Europe in technology and architecture, which Spock's tricorder can somehow tell hasn't changed in over 10,000 years. Captain Kirk spouts some racist nonsense about how the Federation can help the Organians "improve their culture" if only they will let the Federation defend them against the Klingons, but the Organians will have none of it. They want no part in violence. The Klingons, commanded by Commander Kor (okay, fine, you spell his name with only one "r"; "Korr" still looks cooler) show up in sufficient number to force the Enterprise to retreat, stranding Kirk and Spock on the surface, and Kor assumes the military governorship of Organia. Kirk and Spock try to mount a two-man resistance, hoping to inspire the Organians to fight back against the Klingons, but to no avail. The Organians will not resort to violence (though they do seem to be willing to go to great lengths to make sure their visitors -- human, Vulcan, and Klingon alike -- are not harmed). Starfleet returns in force to engage the Klingons (it is worth pointing out that at no point during this episode does any Klingon ship "decloak") and the Organians are finally forced to reveal themselves as beings of pure energy* with the ability to do anything they want, up to and including making all of the weapons of both the Federation and the Klingon Empire literally too hot to handle. Captain Kirk and Commander Kor protest the Organian intervention in internal Federation and Klingon affairs until the Organians embarrass Captain Kirk by pointing out that he is arguing for the right to wage a war in which millions of people will die. The Organians force an uneasy peace between the Federation and the Klingons, and everyone lives on to brood another day.
*I told you there were a lot of Q-like beings back in the day.
If I were inclined to be generous, I suppose I would have to say that this is not totally inconsistent with the Federation and the Klingon Empire coming out of the war we are watching on Discovery. The opening exposition does tell us that "negotiations are breaking down." That being said, when we learn that the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war, no one uses the word "again." When Captain Kirk is exhorting the Organians to accept Federation help, he says that the Klingons have annexed territory and murdered Federation citizens. Obviously, that sort of thing happens in wars, but it also happens in small border skirmishes. Captain Kirk does not reference the culture-changing brutality that Discovery is trying to associate with its Klingon war. Furthermore, and for obvious reasons, the Klingons in "Errand of Mercy" are portrayed as a ham-handed allegory for the Soviet Union, rather than the chaotic, factionalized nation of Discovery. "Our cultures are the same," Kor explains to Captain Kirk. "The struggle between us will decide the fate of the galaxy for 10,000 years." This is not a clash between an expansionist neo-colonizer still unaware of how thoroughly it has bought into the idea of its own Manifest Destiny and an nascent coalition of great houses who "doesn't want them in its front yard." "Errand of Mercy" is a clash between two colonialist super powers. Those are different conflicts and, while it is very possible that the Klingon war in Discovery almost ends, the Klingons centralize their power, and then hostilities break out anew in "Errand of Mercy," I'm not going to grant them that much grace. In the Original Series episode "Balance of Terror" (which, I guess, aired before "Errand of Mercy," so Romulans were the original Klingons) everyone goes out of their way to explain that the Federation and the Romulans just got out of a full-on shooting war. No one in "Errand of Mercy" says anything about "the last Klingon war." I guess I am not feeling generous. I do not believe that Discovery passes the smell test for a Star Trek prequel.
While I've got your attention, I would like to make some side observations.
1) I am just writing this down because my wife has pointed out that the internet is starting to propagate the theory that I postulated four days ago and *I got there first* (which is the only thing that matters). After I learned that my best friend was principally consuming Discovery through these blog posts (and, for all I know, he is the only one who is reading this one), I started thinking about how I had not mentioned the personality change that Stamets underwent after injecting himself with space hippopotamus DNA. He went from being a put-upon genius who cannot be bothered to relate to other people to being a space hippie who cannot be bothered to be mad at anyone, even when they collide with him in the corridor because they were too busy flirting with a guy who is definitely not a Klingon spy. Literally, my train of thought was: "it's like... what if Mr. Rogers were the key to interstellar space flight.... is he becoming the Traveler?" The internet seems to agree with me that Stamets is becoming the Traveler. I hope we are wrong. This is the kind of paranoid nonsense one has to deal with when watching prequels that shouldn't be prequels.
2) Apparently, Jonathan Frakes let slip that, at some point in the near future, Discovery is going to do a Mirror Universe episode. I cannot over-emphasize how against this I am. Deep Space Nine got away with it because it was interesting to see the consequences of Captain Kirk's deep conversation with fascist Spock (this was significantly less true the second time Deep Space Nine visited the Mirror Universe; was there a third time?). During his first visit to the Mirror Universe, Doctor Bashir remarked "Kirk's transporter accident... is that where I am?" proving that Starfleet keeps track of these things and *Captain Kirk's visit was the first contact between our Federation and the Mirror Universe.* Discovery barely survived bringing back Harry Mudd. I don't know if I can handle them breaking canon on the Mirror Universe.
3) Before what I hope is the big reveal (where "big" means "seen coming a mile away by literally everyone") this Sunday, it is worth stating the case that Lieutenant looking-for-parmok-in-all-the-wrong-places Tyler is, in fact a Klingon (though many other sources have done it before me, and they actually connected the dots; I am just parroting).
- Voq, T'Kuvma's protege is played by an actor named Javid Iqbal; Lieutenant definitely-not-pink-blooded-human Tyler is played by an actor named Shazad Latif who, according to wikipedia, was born Shazad Iqbal. If you do an IMDB search on Javid Iqbal, Voq is literally the only thing that comes up.
- In "Choose Your Pain," Lieutenant doesn't-do-the-mkbara-every-morning Tyler said that he had been a captive aboard the Klingon prison ship for seven months, but had avoided torture because the commander of the prison ship, L'Rell, with whom Voq had spent the previous episode eye-fornicating, "had taken a liking to him." At this point, the war was only seven months old, and the previous episode had gone out of its way to explain to us that L'Rell and Voq had spent the first six months of it stranded on the derelict hulk of T'Kuvma's vessel (the flagship that Discovery is about to fight).
- In "The Trouble with Tribbles," it was established that Klingons can surgically alter themselves to look just like humans. This was much easier in 1966, since Klingons were just white actors in brownface and "surgically altered to look like humans" just meant that they appeared as white men. This is another one of those things that we are going to ignore for the time being.
That last point presents some problems. Though the Klingon agent in "The Trouble with Tribbles" was able to masquerade as a human under visual inspection, a single swipe of Doctor McCoy's tricorder led to the immediate realization that "Jim, this man is a Klingon." Furthermore, in the Next Generation episode "Ethics," it is revealed that Klingons have two of.... everything: two livers, eight chambers in their heart, two spinal columns... basically, if Lieutenant my-parents-didn't-let-me-have-a-pet-targ-growing-up Tyler does end up being a Klingon, and if he ever got examined by Doctor Boyfriend for anything (say, for instance, being tortured for seven months), it should have been immediately obvious that "Jim, this man is a Klingon." Granted, this show (really, any show that I have ever seen) has never dealt with the realities of torture well. Despite a reasonably respectful portrayal in "Chain of Command," Captain Picard suffered no long-term effects from his treatment at the hands of Gul David Warner (of course, maybe after being assimilated by the Borg and de-assimiliated by Doctor Crusher, anything else that happens to you is just statistical noise on the PTSD spectrum). It is entirely possible that, despite spending seven months on a Klingon prison ship, Lieutenant we-never-camped-at-Khitomer-either Tyler was welcomed aboard Discovery, no questions asked, especially by Captain doesn't-play-by-the-rules-and-also-bangs-admirals Lorca. Still, I am not looking forward to this particular plot twist. It seems like they weren't even trying. Unless we are all wrong, in which case, the "seven months on a penal ship" thing is going to need a better explanation.
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