It’s not in the article, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an “official” answer, but…I do think “because we can” is a valid answer. It was valid when they did it with TMP, and it was valid the subsequent times they tweaked the makeup.
In terms of how it served the story being told…I can see the appeal of having more alien-looking, “scarier” Klingons in a season that was ultimately about the dangers of xenophobia.
Except blue isn’t scary anymore after the Andorians. I can only fathom that they thought brown Klingons look like black Klingons and people will think that’s racist.
Oh how I wish people stopped separating humans in races and just stopped thinking in races and colors at all.
“There is only one race: the human race” - Robert Sobukwe, South African anti-apartheid activist
It’s not in the article, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an “official” answer, but…I do think “because we can” is a valid answer. It was valid when they did it with TMP, and it was valid the subsequent times they tweaked the makeup.
In terms of how it served the story being told…I can see the appeal of having more alien-looking, “scarier” Klingons in a season that was ultimately about the dangers of xenophobia.
Makes perfect sense. But why now invent a whole new alien? Why modify an existing piece of canon (again)?
That would be a question for Bryan Fuller. He’s recently started to talk about this stuff, so maybe we’ll get an answer some day.
One thing I do think someone said along the line is that they wanted to establish why the Klingons and Starfleet hate each other so much in TOS.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if they ever do an oral history of the development of that series, it will be a juicy read.
Except blue isn’t scary anymore after the Andorians. I can only fathom that they thought brown Klingons look like black Klingons and people will think that’s racist.
Oh how I wish people stopped separating humans in races and just stopped thinking in races and colors at all.
“There is only one race: the human race” - Robert Sobukwe, South African anti-apartheid activist