Trek Culture has paid tribute to Christopher Plummer by counting down the 10 things you didn’t know about his Star Trek character, Chang. Chang debuted in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, as a Klingon hellbent on keeping the Empire at war with the Starfleet and the Federation.
Plummer, who was 91 years old, passed away last week, leaving a massive void in the hearts of many Star Trek fans. Plummer became a beloved part of Star Trek lore, as he was arguably one of, if not the best villain of the original series’ run of movies. While Ricardo Montalban’s turn as Khan Noonien Singh is often cited as many fans’ favorite villain, Plummer was arguably on a different level as an actor.
Plummer brought a certain stage performance to his role, with the incorporation of Shakespear into his dialogue and his almost self-destructive idealogy. Wanting the Klingon Empire to remain at war, even if it costs his race everything.
In the video, which we won’t spoil much of, they tackle some interesting tidbits that maybe you know, and maybe you don’t know.
One of the more common pieces of information shared was Plummer’s desire to avoid wearing too much in the way of prosthetics. This is mostly why his Klingon had less pronounced ridges and nearly any hair. This was actually a running gag when the trio of Klingons, known as the Dahar Masters, returned to Star Trek as part of Deep Space Nine. One of the actors wanted to skip the wig this time around but was denied. Leading to the joke that you had to rank as high as Plummer to avoid having to do just that.
The video is a touching tribute to Plummer’s time as a Klingon on Star Trek, a time that really left an indelible mark. He was often one of the more favorite characters in Star Trek who wasn’t a Starfleet Captain and was even interviewed in the 2011 film, The Captains (now streaming for free on Tubi).
Even though Plummer is gone, he won’t soon be forgotten.