A cure was found, but tons of Klingons were left with smooth foreheads, a trait which would remain for several generations.Īs detailed by Memory Alpha, a traditional Klingon wedding involves just as much ritual as any other sacred rite. One of the subjects was infected with a normally harmless flu which then mutated and became a deadly plague. In Enterprise, the Klingons of the 22nd century looked just as they did in the 24th century, until a Klingon scientist experimented with genetic material obtained from augmented humans (think Khan) in order to create better warriors. They're surprised by the appearance of the 23rd-century Klingons and ask Worf about it, to which he simply replies, 'We do not discuss it with outsiders.'Ī full explanation finally came in Star Trek: Enterprise.
In other words, viewers of The Original Series just needed to use their imaginations, but who feels like doing that? So the Klingons' smooth-headed appearance was canonized in the Deep Space Nine episode 'Trials and Tribble-ations,” in which several members of the DS9 cast find themselves hurled back in time to the TOS era.
