Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 4 - "A Farewell To Farms"
Star Trek: Discovery's season one didn't earn any points with fans when it debuted its reconstructed Klingons that looked nothing like the ones we were used to seeing. And even though Mary Chieffo, who portrayed L'Rell, on Discovery said the Klingons belonged to a different, ancient sect, fans just weren't buying it because the Klingons looked like completely different aliens. Fortunately, they didn't hang around past season two, and we haven't seen them since. And it looks like it might stay that way.
In the Star Trek: Lower Decks' season five episode, "A Farewell to Arms," Chieffo returns as the Klingon K'Elarra, and the animated Klingon is as close to a Star Trek: The Next Generation Klingon as could be. [via Screenrant] Even the Klingons that Starfleet fought in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are the familiar ones we remember. This all spells good news for Star Trek.
The fans were very outspoken when Discovery recreated the Klingons, and their voices were heard. Yes, Discovery finished out the necessary scenes with the new type of warrior race, but after season two, they disappeared completely. And now, Star Trek has returned to the familiar race, thankfully, keeping the other ones out of Lower Decks' final season.
While this might not seem like a big deal, it shows that the team behind Star Trek is listening, even if only sometimes. The powers-that-be knew they couldn't bring a Discovery-Klingon onto any of its other series without considerable blowback. So the squeaky wheel did get the grease. And that means that the louder our voices are, the better chance we have of catching the attention of Alex Kurtzman and others who are calling the shots. This is good news for those of us still hoping for a future for shows like Star Trek: Legacy. And it tells us that we can make changes to Trek with both our voices and our viewing habits.