The Shadow Of The Klingon War Looms Over Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2
This post contains spoilers for the "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 2 premiere.
Roll out the barrel — of blood wine — because the season 2 premiere of "Strange New Worlds" is a barrel of Klingon fun. With the exception of Worf (Michael Dorn) in "Picard" season 3, who rescued the worst subplot even as they saddled him with po-mo lines about chamomile tea, it's been a while since we saw any live-action Klingons in "Star Trek." Their last movie appearance was 10 years ago in "Star Trek Into Darkness," and this is their first "Strange New Worlds" appearance. However, they did show up a few times in the second season of "Star Trek: Discovery," and the Klingon War played a big part in that show's first season, though the Klingons themselves were redesigned and looked quite different.
"Strange New Worlds" season 2 kicks off with a plot device similar to "Picard" season 3, as our heroes — in this case, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) crew — respond to a distress call. It takes them to a "dilithium mining planet on the edge of Klingon space," where there's something of a timeshare situation going on, with the Federation and Klingons trading off planetary access. When "Trek" gets through channeling "Raiders of the Lost Ark" again — specifically, Marion Ravenwood's drinking contest — La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) explains that an interspecies mining syndicate, as profit-driven as the Ferengi, wants to restart the Klingon War because "peace isn't good for business."
The episode is self-contained enough that you could've watched it without the war or Klingon history fresh in mind. At the same time, it wouldn't hurt to do a quick refresher course on those aspects of "Star Trek," since they help raise the stakes of the drama that unfolds in the "Strange New Worlds" season 2 premiere.
The Klingon War in Star Trek: Discovery season 1
It's been six years since "Discovery" made its series premiere, and since then, a small fleet of other "Star Trek" shows has flown in, while CBS All Access has become Paramount+. Suffice it to say, you could be forgiven for forgetting the finer points of "Discovery" season 1, where Spock's long-lost sister, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), almost single-handedly sets off the Klingon War.
When the Klingons attack, and Burnham kills the Torchbearer and T'Kuvma (the first accidentally and the second deliberately), it's like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand before World War I. The incident ignites hostilities between the Federation and Klingons, and though it veers off on a Mirror Universe jaunt at one point, the rest of "Discovery" season 1 is set against the backdrop of the war, which claims tens of thousands of lives.
The unorthodox captain of the Discovery, Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs), enlists Burnham and a new spore drive technology to help turn the tide of the war in the Federation's favor. Yet when the Discovery returns from the Mirror Universe in the penultimate episode, "The War Without, the War Within," we learn through dialogue that the war "has waged on for nine brutal months without it."
One whole-third of the Federation fleet has been lost. The Klingons even manage to seize Starbase 1, killing all 80,000 souls on board and putting themselves "practically in Earth's backyard." Using a Mirror Universe maneuver, however, Burnham and company are able to threaten the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS with destruction and end the war. In a juicy twist, Lorca is revealed to be an evil Mirror Universe refugee, and the season ends with the Enterprise's arrival and another distress call from an offscreen Captain Pike, of "Strange New Worlds."
The war's aftermath in Errand of Mercy
Though it obviously came first in television history (and remains a favorite for some), "Star Trek: The Original Series" is, on the "Trek" timeline, set after "Discovery" season 1 and the events of the Klingon War. The Klingons debut in the episode, "Errand of Mercy." It opens with the news that "negotiations with the Klingon empire are on the verge of breaking down," and "Starfleet Command anticipates a surprise attack," not unlike the one the Discovery led on Qo'noS.
Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) beam down to the strategically positioned world of Organia to warn its nonviolent residents before a Klingon occupying force arrives. Kirk describes the Klingons as "a military dictatorship," saying, "War is their way of life," and he alludes to them turning other planets into slave labor camps.
This being 1967, it's tough to watch the Klingons when they finally waltz in, since their initial look straddled the line between brownface and Fu Manchu stereotypes. There's a two-shot with Kirk and Kor (John Colicos), where Kirk almost breaks the fourth wall, looking at the camera, as if to say, "You seeing this?"
Kor threatens to dissect Spock and use a mind-ripper on Kirk, and the multiple lines Kirk spouts to justify killing are equally questionable. Like Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) in the "Strange New Worlds" season 2 premiere, he chokes a Klingon for information. Only through divine Organian intervention are the Federation and Klingons able to avert another all-out war. It turns out the Organians are all-powerful beings who were never in any danger. They prophesy that Kirk and Kor's opposite sides in the ongoing Cold War ("In space, all warriors are cold ones") are destined to "become fast friends" and work together in the future.
The Undiscovered Country of peace
The Klingons continued to play an antagonistic role in "Star Trek: The Original Series" and subsequent movies. Even the furry Tribbles had an aversion to them, which seems racist, but that's "The Trouble with Tribbles." After the Klingons killed Kirk's son in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," creator Gene Roddenberry became concerned they were turning into "bad guys" who lacked dimension (per StarTrek.com).
Though Roddenberry's TV revival of "Trek" with "The Next Generation" almost never happened, he eventually got it off the ground and put Worf, Starfleet's first Klingon officer, on the Enterprise-D's flagship bridge. The series was still going when, in 1991, Roddenberry died, the real-life Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the "Original Series" cast flew its last feature-film mission (before literally signing off) in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country."
In "The Undiscovered Country," Kirk still bears prejudice against the Klingons for the death of his son. Michael Dorn cameos as Worf's lawyerly grandfather, and the movie is littered with references to Shakespeare and war history, such as when Christopher Plummer's one-eyed Klingon general, Chang, inverts Neville Chamberlain, saying there will be "no peace in our time." The very title comes from "Hamlet," where death is "the undiscovered discovery."
Here, that phrase refers to the uncharted territory of peace between the Federation and Klingons. In a move uncharacteristic of their warlike ways, the Klingons seek peace in "The Undiscovered Country" after their mining moon of Praxis is destroyed. Chang and Kim Cattrall's rogue Vulcan, Valeris, conspire to keep it from happening — echoing the Klingon and ex-Federation syndicate's machinations in "Strange New Worlds" this week — but ultimately, the peace conference at Camp Khitmor is a success, leading to a new ceasefire era under the Khitmor Accords.
Foes turned friends
Prominently integrating Worf, a card-carrying Klingon, into the Federation's "Homo sapiens only club" as a Starfleet security chief established a pattern in "Star Trek" of foe species turned friends. "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" upheld this tradition with characters like Quark (Armin Shimmerman) and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).
In Quark's bar on "Deep Space Nine," the original Klingon, Kor, returns to cross paths with Worf, who joined the show in season 4 after "The Next Generation" ended. By now, Kor is older and has proper cranial ridges. As a representative Klingon, he and Starfleet officers like Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) are free to play drinking buddies. (In the "Strange New Worlds" season 2 premiere, having Ethan Peck's Spock share blood wine likewise comes into play at the end.)
"The Sword of Kahless," directed by LeVar Burton, opens with Kor regaling the bar with details of how he feasted on the heart of a slain enemy. Worf mentions his "confrontation with Kirk on Organia," as we see three generations of "Trek" converge on one space station. At one point, there's a passing of the bat'leth (no baton-twirling on Qo'noS) from Kor to Worf, though Kor takes it right back as the titular sword corrupts them with greed for personal glory in this "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"-like episode.
Dax plays peacemaker — between the warring Klingons — and we've come a long way from Kirk and his litany of grievances against Kor's kind. ("They've invaded our territory, killed our citizens," etc.) Peace is always fragile, however, particularly when you still have Klingon War survivors like Dr. M'Benga traumatized by a battle where "there was so much blood in the air, the rain turned red."
The season 2 premiere of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is now streaming on Paramount+.