Star Trek: Discovery Reveals Why Klingons Have Ridges, Are Bald

Star Trek: Discovery has provided the answer to one lingering question about Klingon physiology, [...]

By Jamie Lovett

Star Trek: Discovery has provided the answer to one lingering question about Klingon physiology, and it concerns the race's distinctive forehead ridges.

The designers of the Klingons for Star Trek: Discovery, Neville Page and Glenn Hetrick said the ridges are a result of the Klingon's evolution as an "apex predators" at a panel at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. The ridges provide Klingons with heightened senses. It was this lean into the apex predator aspect of the race that led to them being bald in Star Trek: Discovery, which was a mandate from original showrunner Bryan Fuller.

In the past, the Klingon's cranial ridges have been a way to tell who belonged to which Klingon house, as family members would have similarly shaped ridges. Page and Hetrick confirmed that this remains true in Star Trek: Discovery.

The Klingons are major players in the story of Star Trek: Discovery with the Federation and the Klingon Empire at war. The Klingon named T'Kuvma and his house are the most prominent. The folks behind Star Trek: Discovery also revealed Kol, a Klingon commander, at Star Trek Las Vegas.

Set 10 years prior to the five-year mission of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Discovery follows the adventures of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new lifeforms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself. The series will feature a new ship, new characters, and new missions while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers.

Star Trek: Discovery's cast also includes Jason Isaacs as the starship Discovery's Captain Lorca, Rainn Wilson as Star Trek: The Original Series character HarryMudd, James Frain as Sarek, Spock's father, and Michelle Yeoh as CaptainGeorgiou, the captain of another Starfleet ship, the Shenzhou, which will be important to the plot of Star Trek: Discovery. Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp both play science officers. Mary Wiseman will play a final year Starfleet Academy cadet.

Star Trek: Discovery was created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman. Fuller was originally intended to be Discovery's showrunner but was forced step down due to commitments to Starz' adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts have taken over as showrunners.

Star Trek: Discovery was announced in 2015 and, though the series intends to abandon at least one key Roddenberry principal and adjust the series for modern expectation, CBS hoped to have the series debut as part of Star Trek's 50th-anniversary celebration. CBS missed that window and instead, the series will come close to a debut on the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: Discovery premieres Sept. 24, 2017.

via Trek Movie

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