Summary
Mary Chieffo, who played Chancellor L’Rell, explains whyStar Trek: Discovery’s controversial Klingons were different from the prior iterations of the warrior race.Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons were widely disliked during seasons 1 and 2, as the prequelreinvented the Klingons' design to be bald, more alien, and animalistic, setting the stage for the Klingon War with the United Federation of Planets. ByStar Trek: Discoveryseason 2, L’Rell had risen to become the Klingon Chancellor, andDiscoverybegan slowly shifting the Klingons' look toward the more popular 24th-century design.
Mary Chieffo joinedStar Trek: Enterprise’s Dominic Keatingand Connor Trinner on their new podcast,The D-Con Chamber, for a far-ranging conversation about her career and role as L’Rell onStar Trek: Discovery.Discussing the methodology she used to create the dialect specific toStar Trek: Discovery’s version of the Klingons, Chieffo delved into the Klingons' and L’Rell’s backstory, which helps to explain whyDiscovery’s Klingons were different. Read her quote and watchThe D-Con Chambervideo below:
In the way we were speaking the [Klingon] language, because we were speaking it more than any Klingon had in the past, we were really diving into, also, an untouched version of the language. Because at that point, timeline-wise, there was a moment in Enterprise, obviously - the pilot, right? [Where Enterprise met Klingons.]But since then, the idea was that there had been no contact.Or, throughout whatever y’all exprienced on Enterprise, once you had your experience, then nothing until this point.
I loved the idea, particularly with T’Kuvma, thatthey were kind of this ancient sect of Klingon houses, and that we were also kind of the outcasts.For L’Rell, as is disclosed, I love a good expositional line, when I do start speaking English, I’ve captured Lorca, and I say, ‘I’m descended from spies’. That’s why I know English really well. (laughs) But I did love that House Mo’Kai, which is my mother’s side of the family, is a house of spies, is one of the few female-led Klingon houses, and I love that they were spies because, in a lot of ways, that was the way these women were able to function in this patriarchal Klingon society. Because the Klingon world is still much more partriarchal than the utopian Federation.
Why It Took Star Trek Almost 24 Years To Visit The Klingon Home World
The Klingons have been an integral part of Star Trek for almost 60 years, so why did it take nearly 24 years to visit their home world, Qo’noS?
What Happened To Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons?
Klingons returned in Strange New Worlds
Klingons were never seen again inStar Trek: Discoveryafter season 2. Klingons like L’Rell, Voq/Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif), and T’Kuvma (Chris Obi) were major characters in the early years ofStar Trek: Discovery, with historic firsts depicted like L’Rell’s rise as the first female Klingon High Chancellor and Voq becoming the first Klingon surgically altered into a human. However, audience reaction toStar Trek: Discovery’s Klingons was so overwhelmingly negative,the series' time jump to the 32nd century literally distanced itself from the controversial Klingons ofStar Trek: Discovery’s first two seasons.
Tenavik (Kenneth Mitchell), the son of L’Rell and Ash Tyler, showed Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) his unavoidable tragic future inStar Trek: Discoveryseason 2.
23rd century Klingons finally returned inStar Trek: Strange New Worlds,set in the immediate years afterStar Trek: Discoveryseason 2. But gone wereDiscovery’s Klingons, andStrange New Worldsdepicted the warrior race to resemble how they look inStar Trek: The Next Generation’s 24th century.Star Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 2, episode 8, “Under the Cloak of War” retconned the Klingon War so that Klingons did not look as they did onStar Trek: Discovery. Meanwhile,Star Trek: Strange New Worldsintroduced singing Klingons, which didn’t receive the vitriol that the Klingons did onStar Trek: Discovery.
