Klingons and Romulans nearly share a ship’s name for a silly reason

Klingon and Romulan ships are oddly similar in name, but why?

Klingons have ships called Birds of Prey, and Romulans have a ship called the Warbird. If this were the Vulcans and Romulans, sure, that kinda tracks. They’re cousin species after all, so having similar ideologies makes sense. Yet, Klingons and Romulans? Those two species don’t have much in common in the world of Star Trek.

Klingons are a military society, while Romulans are essentially a society of spies. They’re both adversaries from time to time but in vastly different ways. When dealing with a Klingon, you pretty much expect a bar fight. Blood, brawling, and barbed wire beatings all sound like a typical Klingon Friday night.

Yet, a Romulan would probably rather engage in a game of sorts, with high stakes, all while inflicting psychological warfare on you while you try to defeat him. So why is it that two such different species have ships with far too similar names to be a coincidence?

That’s because it wasn’t a coincidence. It was a mistake.

The War Bird was supposed to be the Bird of Prey

Ever wonder why the Klingon Bird of Prey looks nothing like past versions of the ships? Well, this goes back to something we just talked about, the original idea for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The original film was called Star Trek III: Return to Genesis, and was to feature the Romulans, that was until a leak of the script to fans caused everything to be changed.

The original idea had the Romulans debuting a new ship, the Bird of Prey. Yet, when the script was re-written, the Klingons were now the ones with the ship. Originally it was supposed to be that the Klingons stole the ship from the Romulans, but that was eventually a line of dialogue that was cut, and when Star Trek V and the Next Generation episode “A Matter of Honor” debuted, it was retconned to being a Klingon only ship.

Then, as sort of a make good, the Romulans got their War Bird ship at the end of the first season of The Next Generation.