If Klingons hadn't been seen in 100 years, how could they have murdered Michael's family?

Question

Can someone please explain how in Star Trek: Discovery they say they haven't seen a Klingon in 100 years but the main character's family was killed by Klingon and she couldn't be much older then 30 years old.

This seems like a clear contradiction.

Answer 1

Is there evidence that Burnham "saw" a Klingon in person, or that the attack on her home was simply an orbital bombardment? We don't know exactly what happened at Doctari Alpha.

The admiral says that they have been in a 'cold war' with the Klingons and that they have had 'fleeting run-ins' with them over the century. Not zero interactions.

Also - remember that Burnham is not just any human.

She was raised on Vulcan

which apparently has had more interaction and possibly more diplomatic ties w/ the Klingons than the Federation

Answer 2

I may point out that in TOS "Balance of Terror" nobody has seen a Romulan in 100 years and yet a Romulan war ship destroys outposts along the Neutral Zone, killing the crews of those outposts.

Actually by the time of "Balance of Terror" nobody on the Earth and Federation side has ever seen a Romulan, realized that the Romulan was a Romulan, and lived to report to other people that was what Romulans look like. Ever. Even during the bloody Romulan war a century earlier when many Earth and Romulan ships were destroyed and their crews killed, there was no report about what Romulans looked like.

So if someone said literally that nobody has seen a Klingon for 100 years, that is still consistent with Klingons sometimes killing Federation citizens like Michael's family and vice versa.

And if someone actually said there has been little contact with the Klingons for 100 years that means there has been a few contacts and/or conflicts with the Klingons in that period. And thus it would be Michael's bad luck that her family were killed in one of those very rare and unusual contacts.

Answer 3

This claim seems really sketchy, based on the rest of what we're seeing.

• Lots of Klingons obviously feel like the Federation are a huge threat, which doesn't jive well with the idea that the Klingons have been hiding away so thoroughly.
• Burnham feels like she understands Klingon culture and psychology, which doesn't make sense (or is just the height of hubris) if nobody gets to see Klingons ever, or interact with them.
• The Vulcans have an out-and-out treaty with them -- that must have been, you know, negotiated, and once it exists, they should have at least some form of formal relations.

Note how broad the claim is, in context of the scene:

BURNHAM: There are Klingons out there. We need to go to red alert.

GEORGIOU: Michael. Almost no one has seen a Klingon in a hundred years.

Georgiou isn't merely saying "Klingons are awfully private and/or stealthy, so we never see them face-to-face." She's saying "There can't be Klingons here, we don't expect to find them anywhere, because nobody encounters them ever." She's skeptical at the idea that encountering Klingons -- hidden, stealthy, secret Klingons! -- is even possible. That doesn't seem to match up to points like the ones I've mentioned.

It's possible the series will go back and resolve this, but so far, I'm inclined to write it off as hand-wave-y worldbuilding, and dismiss it as a one-off error.

Answer 4

They specifically reference at least one indecisive battle that was also mentioned by Spock in TOS, and given the timing would have occurred about 10 years before "Discovery".

Human example of today: there's essentially no contact between the outside world and the people of Sentinel Island, and hasn't been since the modern world became aware of them in the 1800s. Yet there's still been brief episodes of conflict between the Sentinelese and people who, intentionally or not, land on the island or get close to it. So they've been in isolation, but that doesn't mean there's no contact.

Answer 5

I think it may have been poor research from the show’s writers because captain georgious statement that “almost no one has seen a Klingon in a 100 years” is in direct contradiction with t’kuvmas mention of donatu v. The contradiction could have been entirely avoided if captain georgiou just didn’t say that to Michael when she mentions the Klingons are out there. Donatu V was clearly substantial enough to be remembered by both sides (t’kuvma in discovery and by Spock in TOS), and is placed a mere 10 years before the battle at the binary stars taking place in discovery at 2256. The only other explanation is that only a very small portion of the federation fought at Donatu V ergo “almost no one”. Still it’s sloppy along with Discovery’s physical portrayal of the Klingons.