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If you look at the DS9 episode when the Defiant goes back in time and meets the original Enterprise, the writers have explored several ideas. Personally I go for the genetic mutation arguement. There is just no way any race could get that ugly without a really big genetic blunder!!
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Charles Capps
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*wonders what happened there....*
------------------ Charles Capps Cheif Administrator, the solareclipse network "I do whatever the voices in my head tell me to do."
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When I was watching Trials and Tribble-ations, and they came to the scene where the others realized that there were Klingons in the bar, and they all turned to Worf, my heart rate increased. "An explanation, this I gotta hear". Then we didn't get it. so here is my idea.
Klingons are a longer living race then humans. Orignally, they started out there lives looking much like humans, and grew to look more like the Klingons we see now, as they grew older. After the Praxus incident, the pollution caused Klingon DNA to mutate slightly, and they lost there early human appearence. The Klingons we saw in TOS were the younger, wilder ones, old enough to man and command ships, while the elders ruled. We began to see the older Klingons in The Motion Picture and after ST6, all Klingons began to look alike. Gorcon was older, his daughter, though younger, quickly took on an older appearence after the fall out from Praxus.
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My theory: About a generation ago the Klingon empire was forced to relocate to a new home, one where there was more money for special effects and make up, with new technologies in the art of making masks and such. In this new environment, the Klingon race evolved into a new form with features to better differentiate themselves from other races. That, or they're brains shrunk.
Seriously though, setting aside the makeup differences between the series, if you look at how Klingons behave there may be some clues. Remember that "game" they play where they butt heads? Some social leftover from an evolutionary past where their ancestors used their heads, literally.
One other thing, that TNG episode when everyone de-evolved, and Worf turned into that, er, thing. If I recall correctly his head was even larger, and he used it to try to break through doors and such. Perhaps the Klingon forhead is just an evolutionary leftover. There are many animals with heavily armoured heads that ram things, the rhinocerous comes to mind. Klingons may have behaved in a similar way.
------------------ "But, it was so artistically done." -Grand Admiral Thrawn
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I wrote a topic on this a while back, and I still believe my explantion for it.
The Klinongs pride themselves as being warriors, and to be the best warriors they can be I bet they would undergo genetic engineering to make them stronger and faster. Part of this experiment left the Klingons looking as they do. Also I think this could be been going on since 2250's, and back then a few Klingons appeared like modern ones, but 2271 nearly all of them recieved the genetic treatment. Altering their DNA, it would be passed on the their offspring and they wouldn't require the genetic engineering cause they'd be born with it.
I admit, my theory isn't 100% consistant, but it's an explanation as good as any.
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Generations ago( unknown time ) when the Klingons were a conquered people, by what ever alien race, the entire Klingon population was genetically mutilated into the image of their conquers, and only recently have they been able to reverse this genetic meddling. This is what they are supposed to look like, and this is why Klingon women find human females so repulsive. Worf considers this the most dishonorable thing his race was forced to endure , and also explains why they refuse to ever be captured or conquored again.
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Well, my theory is still the only one I've heard that takes into account all the known evidence. This is originally from an article I wrote for the Secured Channel Newsletter...
No one can deny that there was a slight change in Klingon appearence between the original series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. When the film was made, the budget was large enough to accomodate more elaborate makeup for the Klingons. Many people are content to assume that the Klingons "were always like that" and that we should just pretend that they were ridged in TOS. Well, I'm not one to ignore something canonical unless I can't explain it away. Besides, since DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations", we know that the Klingons did change at some point. Others are of the opinion that there are two races of Klingons: one with ridges and one without. But, if that be the case (and, yes, that is grammatically correct), why did we never see the ridged ones before TMP, and why have we not seen the ridgeless ones since? I have an explanation that also takes care of a few other unexplained parts of Trek. I decided to throw in the reason why Klingons (or, at least, Worf) don't talk about the ridge thing, what the Tomed Incident was, why Klingons hate Romulans and vice versa, why the Romulans went into isolation for so long, and why they looked different when they reemerged. And so, without further ado... It all started in 2258. A Klingon type-D7 battlecruiser was captured while spying in Romulan-controlled space. Its crew was returned (perhaps ransomed), but the Romulans kept the ship (explaining why they later used ships exactly the same as it). Later, the crew of the ship was found to have contracted a gene-altering virus designed to make them look like humans. (In case you're wondering why I didn't assume that Klingons were originally ridgeless: Remember Kahless' clone?) The disease spread uncontrollably to every Klingon in the empire. Although they obviously wouldn't admit it, the Romulans had deliberately infected the Klingons, and the Klingons knew it. The Romulans put their own D7s into service in 2259. However, Starfleet didn't learn about them until ten years later (TOS "The Enterprise Incident"). The Romulans didn't want to admit thievery, so they told the Feds that they had gained the technology through an alliance with the Klingon Empire. The Klingons didn't want to admit that they had allowed the Romulans to steal one of their ships, so they went along with the story. In 2270, the Klingons finally discovered an antivirus that returned them to normal. In May 2311, the Federation was holding peace talks with the Romulan Empire on planet Tomed. Right in the middle of it all, the Klingons came in and pretended to be breaking up the talks. There was a small ground battle, followed by a huge space battle (which would make an awesome VFX episode -- hint, hint, Paramount :-) ). Later, it was discovered that the Romulans had been infected with a new genetic disease which altered their appearance. The Romulans accused the Feds of luring them to Tomed for the Klingons. They backed up their claim with the fact that a Starfleet warship, USS Organia, had been a part of the Klingon attack force. What they didn't know (or, at least, wouldn't admit knowing) was that the Organia's crew had defected to the Klingon Empire 21 years earlier. (That part is all from the backstory I invented for the Starfleet-class starship I designed. I included it because it ties in nicely with the rest of my story.) In both shame and anger, the Romulan Empire severed relations with the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Cardassian Union (at that time, they were an ally of the Klingons), and the Ferengi Alliance (whom they had never liked to begin with, and since they were breaking off from everyone else... :-) ). They only maintained contact with the Breen Coallition (but they later broke relations with them, too), the Tholian Assembly, and the Tzenkethi Alliance. When they came out of seclusion after the First Borg Incursion (2364), they still had not completely eradicated the disease from themselves. They still have noticeable ridges on their foreheads to this day...
Obviously, some of the details in the latter part of the explanation I just threw in and are not necessary to the theory. However, you get the general idea...
------------------ Pierce: "We're back!" Winchester: "Yes, like a burp from a bad onion..." -some episode of M*A*S*H that I happened to see
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Lizzy Borden took an axe And gave a Klingon 40 wacks When she saw what she had done She gave another 41.
------------------ I was right in the middle of a gnikcuf reptile zoo. And somebody was giving booze to these goddam things." Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Worf considers this the most dishonorable thing his race was forced to endure , and also explains why they refuse to ever be captured or conquored again.
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