125
votes
They ARE Klingons, and it's a long story... What's the story?
IN-Universe - As Worf said, it's something not discussed with non-Klingons.
OUT of Universe - To summarize, it's a very meta in-joke.
In the original series, they had a limited budget, and makeup ...
- 13k
122
votes
Accepted
They ARE Klingons, and it's a long story... What's the story?
Viral Mutation
This apparent discrepancy was explained in Star Trek Enterprise. Long story short, Klingons experimented with genetic mutation to make themselves stronger, much like what was ...
- 5,405
115
votes
Accepted
Has the autodestruct sequence ever not been aborted on a Starfleet vessel?
Yes
In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701 - from TOS) is famously destroyed by the autodestruct sequence following the boarding of the Klingons:
- 69.1k
115
votes
Accepted
Starship Enterprise: Always flying left-to-right?
The large model of the Enterprise used to film those shots was rather unfinished on the port (left) side and had plugs for the power cables for the lights on the port side. So the big 11 foot model ...
- 39.4k
82
votes
Accepted
Were McCoy's medical instruments Swedish salt shakers?
Yes, they were.
The following excerpt from an article quotes Gene Roddenberry himself (via the authoritative book The Making of Star Trek) as saying:
[Feinberg] went out and bought a selection of ...
- 111k
75
votes
Accepted
Was J.R.R. Tolkien a fan of the original Star Trek series?
Probably not. Tolkien didn't own a television and wasn't really interested in modern culture, preferring to attend the opera, lectures on poetry, and listen to occasional programs on the wireless. He ...
- 676k
72
votes
Has the autodestruct sequence ever not been aborted on a Starfleet vessel?
Yes. In Voyager: Deadlock, Janeway blows up the Voyager.
- 676k
68
votes
Accepted
Why does this review of Star Trek IV include an image of Link from Legend of Zelda?
It's a simple visual pun, drawing attention to the fact that the design on the front of Spock's robe:
bears a resemblance to the Triforce:
an iconic symbol of the Legend of Zelda franchise.
There's ...
66
votes
Accepted
Kirk and Spock friendship in Original Series
There are direct references to their friendship in all of the forms you have described: statements by Kirk, statements by Spock, and statements by other crew members (McCoy in particular).
TOS "...
- 111k
63
votes
Why does Captain Kirk wear green in the DS9 episode Trials and Tribble-ations?
The Command Tunics in TOS Were Actually Green
The costume designer for TOS was Bill Theiss:
William Ware Theiss - the designer of all the Starfleet uniforms and alien costumes seen in the 79 ...
- 661
63
votes
Does same-species racism exist in Star Trek?
There was "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” a remarkably unsubtle clunker of an episode, in spite of its worthy message.
SPOILER-NOT-SPOILER: The pair above is the mirror image of the other, i.e., ...
- 25k
62
votes
Accepted
What was the first 3D CGI used in Star Trek?
According to the CGI article on Memory Alpha:
The very first CGI used was in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where Lucasfilm Graphics Group, then a subsidiary of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM),...
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61
votes
Accepted
Do we ever see a 23rd Century Starfleet Officer with facial hair?
TV Canon
We have Captain Chandra from TOS: Court Martial
And in the same vein as @N_Soong's answer, we do see two Starfleet Officers in the 23rd Century (courtesy of the episode DS9: Trials and ...
- 676k
59
votes
Has the autodestruct sequence ever not been aborted on a Starfleet vessel?
In "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the Enterprise picks up a ship recorder from the SS Valiant, a ship that had crossed the edge of galaxy 200 years earlier. The recorder indicated that the Valiant's ...
- 8,517
59
votes
Was Roddenberry really so far ahead of his time on race?
Let me give a bit of qualification for my source, which is me. I was born in late 1962, so I'm working with the memories of someone who was 7 when Star Trek ended its run. But I remember the news ...
- 107k
59
votes
Accepted
Why does Kif appear at the end of "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"?
Shout-out to Balok
This most certainly harks back to the Balok puppet based on the fact that, for at least one whole season of The Original Series, a still of the Balok puppet appeared in the closing ...
- 111k
57
votes
Accepted
Female uniforms and colored panties in Star Trek TOS
Yes
The Franz Joseph uniform patterns from the Star Trek Technical Manual show that matching panties are a part of the normal female duty uniform. full tech manual
EDIT Some of the confusion ...
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55
votes
Does James Kirk have any named superiors in Star Trek: The Original Series?
During TOS, James Kirk holds the rank of Captain and therefore anyone who holds a higher rank is his superior. In later installments the rank of Admiral (and its various sub-ranks, such as Vice ...
54
votes
Accepted
What episode of Star Trek is this creature from?
This is from "The Enemy Within", episode 5 of season 1 of Star Trek: The Original Series. The creature is never named in the episode, although the planet they found it on is stated to be Alpha 177, so ...
- 9,110
53
votes
Accepted
Did Lucille Ball have a creative influence on Star Trek?
Yes... ish
By all accounts, no other studio / network was willing to take on Roddenberry's new project called "Star Trek" - so her approval for producing the series at Desilu is probably the most ...
- 39.9k
50
votes
Accepted
Why were Klingons and Humans enemies in TOS given that Klingons were honourable people?
The reason Humans (technically the whole United Federation of Planets) and Klingons were at odds in the TOS era is not fully explained. According to Memory Alpha, the issues between the two stemmed ...
- 6,578
50
votes
Accepted
Do they still use days of the week or months in the era of Stardates?
Yes, they use days of the week as well as months.
It's a running gag in Star Trek: Generations that the necessary equipment will be installed on Tuesday.
HARRIMAN: We don't have a tractor beam.
...
- 8,025
49
votes
Accepted
Is the tartan worn by Scotty in "Savage Curtain" an actual clan tartan?
This Wired article says that the tartan is one of the many Clan Scott designs.
It looks like pieces of the actual tartan were sold and autographed as memorabilia, with a piece recently being ...
- 2,690
47
votes
Accepted
Are Star Trek and Devil in the Dark related?
There is an episode called "The Devil in the Dark". From the Star Trek Wikia:
The Enterprise arrives at Janus VI, where an unknown monster is destroying machinery and killing the miners, ...
- 983
44
votes
Accepted
Why (out-of-universe) was this central Star Trek character killed?
The decision was made between The Undiscovered Country and Generations, for the purpose of having a "clean" break between the original and new casts on the big screen.
William Shatner ...
- 111k
44
votes
Accepted
Which Clark Gable movie did Edith Keeler want to see with Captain Kirk?
It's an anachronism, there is no such film
The City on the Edge of Forever is set in the year 1930 (emphasis mine):
Kirk: [reading from a makeshift tricorder] February 23rd, 1936. Six years from now. ...
- 163k
44
votes
Accepted
What was the gaudily coloured equipment on the Enterprise's corridor walls in ST:TOS?
They seem to be called "wall plant-ons". Christies had at least one for sale a few years back, which you can look at here.
According to the auction blurb, they're bits of wood that have been ...
- 7,375
43
votes
Accepted
Are any regular bridge crew on TNG actually members of the next generation?
No: they're actually the Next Next Next Generation
Here is my in-universe reasoning. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the oldest regular bridge officer on the Enteprise-D, was born in 2305, as per his ...
- 111k
43
votes
Accepted
Spock's wardrobe malfunction
A piece of trivia states that because of the episode being the second pilot, the 'colors had not been finalized'.
The familiar colors and positions of the crew had not yet been finalized when this ...
- 1,063
42
votes
Accepted
Where is it established that Hikaru Sulu was born in San Francisco?
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
KIRK: Where would we find these reactors, ...theoretically?
SPOCK: Nuclear power was widely used in naval vessels.
[now in "Bird-of-Prey bridge"]
...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible