5 Years Later, Star Trek Is About To Reboot Its Most Important Alien Species
Starfleet Academy will feature a “hybrid” Klingon species.
In 2020, the debut of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 boldly went where no Trek series or film had ever gone before, well beyond any point in the established timeline. By moving the future of the Final Frontier to the 32nd century, the Trek franchise established a new status quo for the Federation, Starfleet, and a wide variety of familiar alien worlds, all now slightly different, thanks to the passage of several centuries. However, among all the famous Trek alien species revisited in the brave new future-tense of Discovery, one very famous group was left off: the Klingons.
But now, after Discovery jumped the Trek canon into the 32nd century, its follow-up show, Starfleet Academy, might finally answer the question Trekkies have had for the past five years: What happens to the Klingons in the future?
In a new exclusive feature from Entertainment Weekly, a slew of new photos and details about Starfleet Academy have been revealed. And among those details is the fact that series co-creator, and Trek boss Alex Kurtzman, has confirmed that the Klingons are back, as well as a “Klingon hybrid species who are several of our main characters.”
The EW article speculates that Paul Giamatti's secret alien character (who has not been named yet) could be a member of this hybrid species. But one of the other photos shows Karim Diané as a Starfleet cadet looking very much like a classic Klingon.
Then again, if there are a variety of Klingon hybrids, many of them might look different from each other. Discovery Season 4 introduced the character of President Rillak (Chelah Horsdal), who was a human-Cardassian-Bajorian hybrid. In the 32nd century context of the Trek timeline, Vulcans and Romulans are basically the same species, and plenty of other aliens seem to be from blended backgrounds too, so much so that even calling non-human characters “aliens” feels inaccurate.
Still, the fact that Kurtzman says that several characters will be Klingon hybrids feels huge. While still in the 23rd century, Discovery infamously redesigned the look of the Klingons in Seasons 1 and 2, which has now been somewhat retconned in Strange New Worlds.
Klingons in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Will Starfleet Academy make the question of Klingon physical appearance clearer or more confusing? In fairness, the way Klingons look is one of the oldest Star Trek canon debacles. After being smooth-headed from 1966 to 1974 in The Original Series and The Animated Series, the redesigned Klingons of 1979’s The Motion Picture suddenly had bumpy foreheads. This tradition continued throughout The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager eras.
Then, in the prequel series Enterprise, an explanation for the smooth-headed Klingons was retroactively floated; a genetic virus made a bunch of Klingons look more human. To date, there has yet to be a formal on-screen explanation for the Nosferatu-esque Klingons from DISCO Season 1.
But now, it seems possible that Starfleet Academy will utterly reboot the Klingons all over again. But this time, it won’t be about retcon, but instead, about the legacy of all the other Klingon canon that has come before.
