FTeik wrote:Well, this one comic was talking about two different races (and Kor looked the way he looked in TOS).
Lots of materials pushed for a multi-race Klingon thing pretty hard, so I'm not condemning it alone when I say it's not canon. In the context of the times, before DS9 I mean, I'm sure it made more sense.
One of the early guides to ST-species suggested, that the smooth-headed Klingons were genetically-engineered human-klingon-hybrids.
Hmm. Yeah *nods*
I suppose that's possible, but personally, I prefer the surgery route, which is canon ("Apocalypse Rising," "Trials and Tribble-ations"). It also simplifies the Kor dilemma; i.e., a return to bumpy-headiness following TOS.
Besides, I have doubts that the racist Klingon regime would ever allow hybrids to occupy positions of great power, especially given their attitudes toward women serving on the High Council.
The other thing is that even a human-Klingon hybrid would still require surgery or extensive modifications to
look human, as Klingon genes tend to be dominant. All of the human-Klingon peeps we've seen
looked Klingon, too much so to pass effectively as a human (Torres, K'ehylar, Torres' daughter).
That's not to suggest your idea is therefore impossible; rather, I'm saying that it necessarily complicates the issue with compounded speculation, speculation for which we increasingly don't have a precedent.
We do have precedent for extensive surgery, though, and we also know that the Klingons frown on medicine (AND cloning) in general, let alone a procedure devised to hide one's "true identity" to hide from persecution. They might go along with a little nip and tucking on the forehead to help win a cold war with the Federation, but that itself is pushing it. They definitely wouldn't be keen on something far more involved. (Also, you'll note that, when Sisko, Odo and O'Brien were Klingonized for "Apocalypse Rising," Worf did NOT approve a change in his appearance. Gowron recognized him as a result. If he didn't approve of surgery, imagine how he'd react if Bashir wanted to tamper with his DNA. He'd probably punch out Bashir on the spot.)
So, I think surgery is the simplest "in continuity" explanation. The best is that TOS didn't have the budget, but budgets and FX are irrelevant for our purposes.
As for the size of the KE, i doubt we can take Sloans claim, that the Klingons would need ten years to recover at face value. The man is a spy, not a military officer.
But that's like saying a CIA agent couldn't know the condition of the Russian military. It wouldn't be very difficult to deduce, and Starfleet is full of officers who would get Section 31 such information, anyway. Without a source to contradict him, I think his statement is probably accurate. One must also keep in mind that the Klingons might've fought much harder than the Federation did and, thus, incurred more losses. We
knowGowron pissed away some no. of ships in his vendetta against Martok, so the Klingons were also more wreckless.
Hell, even Martok HIMSELF is more wreckless than his Starfleet and Romulan counterparts. Remember how, in "Tears of the Prophets," Martok decided that the Klingon contingent would take the Jem'Hadar on alone? As a result, 18 (?) of his ships sustained damage or were destroyed outright. If he'd just kept them in formation with the other two fleets, their combined might could've stomped the Jem'Hadar with fewer or no losses whatsoever.
And given the fact, that the Klingons in "Yesterdays Enterprise" were beating the crap out of the Federation (although the war lasted for twenty years), we can safely assume, that their empire at least equals the Federation in size. Two-thirds of the worlds of the Federation to make up for their higher militaristic attitude.
I tend to agree that the Klingons should
approach the Federation in size, but then, how big is that? How much do we "count"?
We have contradictory accounts. Picard says it's almost 8,000 ly across in "First Contact," but that includes all sorts of territory that the Federation hasn't even
explored, let alone controls. Baku, for instance, was in Federation space, but they certainly had no control over
it.
From all indications, the bulk of the Federation's prime assets are within hundreds of ly of Earth, so it's entirely possible that the Klingons could be competitive with roughly that amount of space, or even less depending on a no. of factors (how well does each organization make use of the resources in a given volume of space, what's actually IN that space, etc.).