5 reasons fans never fully embraced Star Trek: Discovery
By Chad Porto
It changed the Klingons to purple orcs
When Star Trek creators made the Klingons, they were nothing more than men with hair pieces. This was due to the budget and restrictions of the time. After a decade between properties, Star Trek once again brought back the Klingons but this time with the now iconic forehead ridges. The change was made due to the increased budget that the franchise was given as special effects became easier and more affordable to do.
Fans were of course taken aback when they first debuted the new look but soon the fandom took said new look to be the standard for the aliens and overtime everyone saw the new look Klingons as the iconic design the old design just never could live up to. The Klingons were given an upgrade in their looks, and because the timeline was moving forward, a simple explanation was all fans really needed to fully embrace the new look.
When Discovery debuted, the show went back in time to before The Original Series but after Enterprise, and because of that, fans didn’t like the show retconning the Klingons to look so dramatically different from what fans had come to see as the official and legendary design.
Gone were the more barberic design of Klingons and in were some almost orc-like designs. They were purple, their ridges were smoother and they looked more like something out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel than a 1990s Star Trek episode.
Fans rejected the idea out of hand and because of how badly fans rejected the new look, by the time Strange New Worlds came back around, the Klingons were largely back to their more iconic look. Albeit with some minor differences.