tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 12 11:41:04 2003

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Origin of "Klingon"?

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Quvar wrote:

> >Is the Kling District where the "Klingon" word comes from?
>
>It was planned by the startrek producers to call the klingon planet 
>"Kling", but they
>didn't like it, so later they said it's a city. Perhaps someone will quote 
>this from
>some encyclopedia.

Here's the relevant quote from the Okudas' "Star Trek Encyclopedia" (1st ed.):

   KLING
   A district or city on the Klingon Homeworld. The renegade Korris
   spoke disparagingly of "the traitors of Kling." ([TNG] Heart of Glory)
   At the time the episode was written, Kling was intended as the name
   of the Klingon homeworld. Once the episode was filmed, it was realized
   that the name sounded pretty silly, so later scripts simply referred
   to "the Homeworld." The Homeworld was finally given a name in ST6,
   when it was called {Qo'noS}, pronounced Kronos.

"Kling" is, of course, a back-formation from "Klingon", coined by Gene 
Roddenberry for TOS.  As to the origin of this name, there are several 
theories.  The one I've heard most often is that Klingon was the surname of 
one of Roddenberry's coworkers back in the 1950s when he was an 
aeronautical engineer.  Now, whether naming the arch-enemies of the 
Federation after him was a comment on the man's personality - or whether 
Roddenberry just liked the sound of the name - is AFAIK still an open question!


>Staying in the StarTrek universe:
>Some people also argue that it could from the people who lived in mines: 
>{tlhIl}

I've never heard this one before.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

Back to archive top level