Ever since the opening moments of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the canonicity of how Klingons are supposed to look became a whole thing. Prior to 1979, the Klingons of Star Trek: The Original Series were smooth-headed, but after 1979, they all had the big, bumpy lobster foreheads. And by 1984, with The Search for Spock, there were a variety of different Klingon foreheads, which got even more diverse in the era of The Next Generation. From there, Klingon forehead canon settled down, more or less, until 2017 — that’s when Star Trek: Discovery debuted entirely new Klingons, which didn’t look much like any of the Klingons from before.
Now, in the recently-aired finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the Discovery-era Klingons are briefly seen side-by-side with the more familiar TNG-era Klingons. But was Lower Decks trying to suggest those other Klingons are from a different continuity? Here’s what happened, and why it doesn’t mean what some of the haters might think.
