Klingon Augments

posted on March 6th, 2011, 8:32 pm

The Empire used Human augment DNA to upgrade their kind, the mistake causing them to get a more Human-like personality and an appearence nore in-line with a Klingon/Human hybrid.

Considering how Hollywood Genetics work, does that mean there may be a little 'Human' in a fair number of current Klingons?

posted on March 6th, 2011, 9:03 pm

hm, the empire is vast, spread across many worlds. and the klingon society is devided in houses - much more then for example the Federation, where all memberplanets participate in trading and stuff.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out someday if most of these hybrids were "disposed" or the whole house who did that was wiped out. wouldnt sound unklingon.

But if something like that didnt happen - and considering holynetics - yea, looks like there is some human in them! But I'm sure the vast majority of Klingons is still "100% homegrown Klingon"

posted on March 6th, 2011, 9:28 pm

Eventually the human dna would breed out and they would be no more human than a dinosaur.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 9:33 pm

Which explains why you share 60% of your genes with a fruit fly 

Seriously, without any knowledge about Klingon genetics (which apparently work similarly to ours, given we can interbreed...  ), it's impossible to say if the transferred genes would go to extinction or become fixed.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 9:37 pm

The alterations were still quite noticable by TOS-era, so the Human part of the DNA seems to be as stubborn as the pests it came from. If it were to disappear, it would take a while to do so.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 9:52 pm

I don't think it disapeared.
According to Memory alpha the augment DNA changed to an plaque which infectet others by air.
Augment - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
Klingon augment virus - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
But they "healed" the illness by using in vitro DNA-editing after a long time.

So yes, it is posible, that some minor parts are still there. But because nearly all human like races are from the same genepool (see TNG, how else there could be mixed babys) there was a similarity before.
But it ist Star Trek, we are from the same genepool as a cat, but try to get a cat pregnant by yourself.
(Ok, please don't try it ).

posted on March 6th, 2011, 10:06 pm

I, personally, think that the whole TOS/TMP Klingons thing should have been kept as GR intended it - they always looked like they do now, but during TOS they just didn't have the moneys to show them as such. But since it's canon (even ignoring ENT), I have no choice.

Judging from the canon information we have, I would assume that the Klingon forehead is a polygenic trait, i.e. it is controlled by a number of genes, just like the human skin pigmentation. For some reason, the human DNA contained these genes, and they overrode the Klingon genes. If we suppose that the Klingon Augments were given the opportunity to have children with normal Klingons, the resulting variations would approximate a Gaussian distribution, meaning that the original gene combination would quickly fade away, but lots of mini-Klinkers would be born with a less-pronounced forehead. As the trait would propagate through the Klingon race, it would diminish, but stay in the genepool for quite a few generations to come. So, yes, some of the modern-day Klingons still carry some of these particular genes. The same would apply to other polygenic traits. I'd expect the DNA in question to have several of these, so yes.

At least, that is my interpretation. Feel free to correct me, I haven't refreshed my genetics for a while.  

posted on March 6th, 2011, 10:16 pm

ds9 unfortunately handled it too, they had nobody recognise the klingons when they went back in time.

i would have accepted the "no money" excuse.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 10:50 pm

ds9 unfortunately handled it too, they had nobody recognise the klingons when they went back in time.

Oh yeah, wasn't Worf's 'explanation' something along the lines of "We don't talk about it"?

posted on March 6th, 2011, 10:57 pm

Oh yeah, wasn't Worf's 'explanation' something along the lines of "We don't talk about it"?

yup, he glossed over it like a coward.

posted on March 6th, 2011, 11:00 pm

Though you could tell it was a touchy subject, despite how little he said.

posted on March 8th, 2011, 1:49 am

Though you could tell it was a touchy subject, despite how little he said.

That or they decided to be nice and not lock and future trek into any one decision as to what the reason was.

As for the no money excuse, general chang anyone ?

his crest was VERY close to TOS like.....

Of course I'll still ignore Enterprise on the subject, they did it half assed at best, if even that.

posted on March 9th, 2011, 2:01 pm

I think it was great that they gave an explanation for it . At least the canon explanation from Enterprise was much better than the stupid fan explanation: "Klingons changed their appearance to hide as humans or to trade with them"(don`t know where i heard it, but i heard it before ent season 4 came out).
And since all species are linked together due to the same ancestors it is not important if they got sth Human inside them.

posted on March 9th, 2011, 4:51 pm

And since all species are linked together due to the same ancestors it is not important if they got sth Human inside them.

Don't let a Klingon hear you say that; they'll skin you alive!

posted on March 12th, 2011, 10:03 am

I think it was great that they gave an explanation for it . At least the canon explanation from Enterprise was much better than the stupid fan explanation: "Klingons changed their appearance to hide as humans or to trade with them"(don`t know where i heard it, but i heard it before ent season 4 came out).
And since all species are linked together due to the same ancestors it is not important if they got sth Human inside them.

Personaly I like the old explination (which the old FASA RPG system used as well) that Klinks would put 'fusions' as they called them (mixed breed Klingon/Alien) on the border from which the fusions non-klink genes came from.

It also fit the much more brutal and dishonorable way some klinks were portrayed in TOS era, as all of those human and romulan fusions mostly would have came from mating with prisoners.