Lower Decks Offers an Alternate Explanation for Discovery’s Klingons

Summary

• Lower Decks
  implies
  Discovery’s
  Klingons could come from another quantum reality, explaining their differences.
• A Schrödinger Possibility Field in
  Lower Decks
  transformed life into alternate versions.
• Prime Universe Klingons and
  Discovery
  Klingons likely co-existed based on evidence in
  Strange New Worlds
  .

When Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017, the Trek fandom collectively lost its mind over many aspects of the show. In particular, they had a big problem with the appearance of the Klingons. They looked very different than they had in any other show in the franchise, and Star Trek fans were not pleased.

This wasn’t the first time the overall look of the Klingons was redesigned, but their appearance had remained relatively consistent since Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in 1979. Until Discovery, the only time the Klingons’ appearance had significantly changed since 1979 was when Star Trek: Enterpriseintroduced the Augment Klingons, a storyline that was written to explain why the Klingons from The Original Series looked so different from the Klingons in the Star Trek movies and subsequent shows.

Discovery’s writers never introduced an in-universe reason why their Klingons looked so different, but in an interview with SFX Magazine, excerpted by TrekMovie.com, one of the executive producers explained that these Klingons were an ancient sect, isolated from the rest of Klingon society, that evolved differently from other Klingons. Alex Kurtzman, another executive producer on the show, has repeatedly stated (as he did in an interview with CinemaBlend) that just as there are wide variations in the way humans look, there are wide variations in the way Klingons look.

Given these explanations, most fans grudgingly accepted that Discovery’s Klingons were just a natural variation of Klingons. However, the events in the series finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks offer another potential explanation for why Discovery’s Klingons are so different from their brethren.

Discovery Klingons in Lower Decks

In “The New Next Generation,” the final episode of Lower Decks, the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos is trying to clean up the mess made by Lily Sloane’s quantum reality drive ship. The quantum rift that Lieutenant Harry Kim opened to try and return to his own universe in the previous episode, “Fissure Quest,” is overloaded with soliton resonance, which threatens to destroy the Prime Universe. The crew of the Cerritos has to close the rift ASAP.

Unfortunately, the rift is surrounded by a Schrödinger Possibility Field. As Starfleet Command explains to the Cerritos’ bridge crew, this is a brand-new phenomenon in their quantum reality. The field actually rearranges matter, transforming lifeforms into versions of their species that exist in other quantum realities. For example, if there’s a quantum universe where humans still have tails, the Cerritos crew members could find themselves with tails. Or countless other weird configurations.

The geniuses of the Cerritos’ Engineering department develop a shield that will protect them from the changes. But when a Klingon ship without the shield modifications enters the Schrödinger Possibility Field, the crew morphs into different alternate versions of Klingons, including a Discovery-style Klingon.

Alternate Reality Klingons?

The inclusion of a Discovery Klingon in the Lower Decks finale could be a simple Easter egg. Or it could finally provide a solid in-universe explanation for why Discovery’s Klingons look so different from all the other Klingons in the Prime Universe.

The Schrödinger Possibility Field transforms lifeforms into different versions of the same species that exist in other quantum realities. Since one of the Klingons turned into a Discovery-style Klingon, this confirms that Klingons who look like that exist in other quantum realities. This introduces the possiblity that Discovery’s Klingons were never actually from the Prime Universe.

At some point in the Prime Universe’s past, Klingons from a different quantum reality could have crossed over into the Prime Universe. Star Trek’s canon has repeatedly established that there are multiple realities and timelines, and that lifeforms move between them all the time. Maybe the alternate universe Klingons developed a quantum reality drive, like Lilly Sloane and Zefram Cochrane did in another quantum reality, and they traveled to the Prime Universe. Or maybe they ended up there through some weird rift. It’s Star Trek. Pretty much anything can happen.

How it Fits With Discovery Canon

The appearance of Discovery’s Klingons wasn’t the only thing that was different about them. Their culture, religion, and customs were all different as well. Though Discovery’s EP explained this by saying they were an ancient sect that followed early Klingon religious and cultural practices, it would make a lot of sense for them to be so different if they literally had a different history than the Prime Universe Klingons.

Star Trek canon has also established that some realities are so similar to each other, that they’re almost indistinguishable. So, it’s hardly a stretch to believe that in an alternate reality, Kahless still existed, but his legacy was interpreted differently and formed into a different basis for Klingon religion and culture.

Before the objections start rolling in, yes, some of Discovery’s Klingons did live on the Prime Universe’s version of Qo’noS, and Discovery didn’t show any traditional Prime Universe Klingons on Qo’noS. This kind of made it seem like Discovery’s redesigned Klingons were the only Klingons on the planet. However, Qo’noS is a huge planet. It’s plausible that the small sect of Discovery Klingons lived in one village, while the rest of the Prime Universe Klingons lived on other parts of the planet.

In fact, Strange New Worlds seems to confirm that the Discovery Klingons and the Prime Universe Klingons co-existed. Just a few years after the events depicted in the first two seasons of Discovery, which only involved Discovery-style Klingons, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise encountered Klingons in Strange New Worlds. Those Klingons looked like the Klingons in every post-TOS movie and show.

Strange New Worlds conveniently didn’t mention that at least Captain Christopher Pike, First Officer Una Chin-Riley, and Lieutenant Spock had seen Klingons who looked very different from the ones they encountered in their later travels. However, this actually makes the coexistence of Discovery Klingons and Prime Universe Klingons more believable. The Enterprise crew members were used to seeing different versions of Klingons, so they weren’t confused when they encountered Klingons who looked very different from the ones they’d dealt with before.

Given Lower Decks’ confirmation that Discovery-style Klingons exist in other quantum realities, it’s completely plausible, if not probable, that Discovery’s Klingons are actually Klingons from another quantum reality that settled in the Prime Universe and existed alongside Prime Universe Klingons. Whether or not the Lower Decks writers intended to give an in-universe explanation of why Discovery’s Klingons looked so different, they have created an interesting, and canon-based, reason for one of the Star Trek universe’s biggest plot holes.

Sources: CinemaBlend, TrekMovie.com, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Lower Decks