Klingon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Klingons |
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| Star Trek race | |
The Klingon insignia, designed by Matt Jefferies
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| Information | |
| Quadrant | Beta |
| Home world | Qo'noS (Kronos) |
The Klingons are a made-up alien species from the famous science fiction series Star Trek. They were first created in 1967 for the original Star Trek TV show. Back then, Klingons were shown as tough human-like beings who were very proud and sometimes brutal.
In their early stories, Klingons had a strict government where a powerful warrior group was in charge. They often used others to do their hard work.
Later, when the Star Trek movies began, the Klingons got a new look with their famous ridged foreheads. In newer TV shows and movies, they were shown to have a strong sense of honor and a strict warrior code, similar to ancient samurai.
Klingons are often seen as enemies in the 1960s Star Trek show. They have also appeared in all the later Star Trek TV series and many of the movies.
Even though they started as enemies of the human crew of the USS Enterprise, Klingons later became close friends with humans in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the 1990s series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, humans and Klingons even teamed up with another alien race, the Romulans, to fight a common enemy called the Dominion.
One cool thing about the Klingons is that they have their own complete language! It was created by Marc Okrand. This language has become very popular. People have even translated famous works like plays by William Shakespeare and parts of the Bible into Klingon.
There are books like a dictionary and a guide to Klingon culture. According to the Guinness World Records, Klingon is the most popular made-up language in the world, based on how many people speak it.
How the Klingons Were Created
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The Klingons were first thought up by a writer named Gene L. Coon. They first appeared in a Star Trek episode called "Errand of Mercy" in 1967. They were named after Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, who worked with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
In the first Star Trek TV series, Klingons usually had bronze skin and thin moustaches. They looked a bit like people from Asia. They had physical abilities similar to humans. Their dark look was made using shoe polish and fake moustaches. The show's budget was small, so they couldn't do much fancy makeup.
The Klingons were meant to be like a rival country to the fictional United Federation of Planets, which was like the United States. So, Klingons were often shown as less advanced than the Enterprise crew. While they sometimes showed honor, they were mostly seen as rough and scheming.
They became the main enemies of the Enterprise crew. This was partly because making up another alien race, the Romulans, took too much time and money.
For the first two seasons, no Klingon spaceships were ever shown, even though they were talked about a lot. This was because of money problems. The designer, Matt Jefferies, didn't have enough money to create a Klingon ship until the third season. When the old episodes were updated starting in 2006, Klingon ships were added digitally into earlier scenes.
Images for kids
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Two Klingon men and a Klingon woman as they appear in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Day of the Dove". Notice their bronzed skin, facial hair, and no ridged foreheads.
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Michael Dorn and Robert O'Reilly as Worf and Gowron in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Worf is holding a special Klingon knife called a d'k tahg.
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Marc Okrand is the person who created the Klingon language. He has written several books about it.
See also
In Spanish: Klingon para niños
