When it comes to the original Star Trek universe, the crew came upon many different types of humanoids and aliens. Some of them enjoyed a brief spotlight as an adversary while others remained in the background or only had a few lines. The Klingons, in particular, had plenty of run-ins with Enterprise and her crew, and several of them remain memorable even today, so let’s look back at three one-off Klingon characters we’d love to see again!
1. Captain Koloth, the aggressively polite
In “The Trouble With Tribbles,” (season 2, episode 15,) the crew meets Captain Koloth, who clearly went to some kind of Klingon finishing school that included a class in human etiquette. His speech suggests that he’s the kindest Klingon they’ll ever meet and they have nothing to fear from him or his ship. While his words are pleasant, his tone suggests he’d like nothing more than to see Kirk devoured by hungry tribbles. It would be interesting to see whatever happened to him and how he explained his ship’s tribble invasion to the Klingon High Council.
2. Commander Kang: the Chuck Norris of Klingons
In “Day of the Dove,” (season 3, episode 7,) a malevolent force draws the crew of Enterprise and a Klingon ship’s crew into a deadly, ongoing battle. The Klingon commander, Kang, and his crew take over several parts of the ship and, until Kirk convinces him the alien entity is the catalyst of their hostility, is a cunning warrior who might have had a successful coup under other circumstances (such as anyone on board being unable to die.) One has to wonder what his career was like after the episode’s incident!
3. Maltz (or, the cheese stands alone)
In Star Trek III, The Search for Spock, greedy Commander Kruge discovers information about the Genesis device and wants the power for himself. His rather small crew includes a Klingon named Maltz, who seems almost disinterested in the device and remarks, “Interesting. They can make planets.” Later, when Kirk fools Maltz into beaming him onto the Klingon ship, Kirk points a phaser at him and declares, “Help us or die.” Maltz responds, “I do not deserve to live.” Kirk shrugs and says that he’ll kill Maltz later. While we don’t see Maltz again, there’s a good chance that his surrender landed him a job following around some higher-up’s beloved pet Targ with a broom and a bucket! (Dishonor, dishonor, dishonor!)
By the era of Enterprise-D, Klingons and the Federation have come to a truce (mostly likely after the events in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.) While it mostly marks the end of an era of fearing the Klingons as the enemy, Koloth, Kang, and Maltz are 3 examples of how the species as a whole views honor and what it means to be a warrior, and it would be interesting to know how they navigated their futures after meeting up with Kirk and his crew.