Why The Klingon Home Planet Didn't Have A Name Until Star Trek VI

Why The Klingon Home Planet Didn't Have A Name Until Star Trek VI

The Klingon home planet wasn’t formally named until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but the planet name wouldn’t stick until Deep Space Nine. The Klingon home planet wasn't formally named until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , and it would still be years before the name stuck. The Klingons debuted all the way back in the Star Trek: The Original Series season 1 episode "Errand Of Mercy." They would go on to be Captain Kirk's most frequent adversary, maintaining a constant presence on TOS and in the proceeding TOS movies. The Star Trek: The Original Series era Klingons...

The Klingon home planet wasn’t formally named until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but the planet name wouldn’t stick until Deep Space Nine. The Klingon home planet wasn't formally named until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , and it would still be years before the name stuck. The Klingons debuted all the way back in the Star Trek: The Original Series season 1 episode "Errand Of Mercy." They would go on to be Captain Kirk's most frequent adversary, maintaining a constant presence on TOS and in the proceeding TOS movies. The Star Trek: The Original Series era Klingons were always portrayed as militaristic conquerors who were ideologically opposed to the idyllic, peaceful Federation. Even though the Klingons and Federation would go on to form an alliance by the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation , the fierce warrior race was still considered one of the major powers in the Alpha Quadrant. TNG would finally show the Klingon's home planet onscreen in the season 3 episode "Sins Of The Father." One problem remained, however - the planet still didn't have a name. Why The Klingon Home Planet Didn't Get A Name Until Star Trek VI Star Trek: The Original Series simply never got around to formally naming the Klingon home planet. There were passing mentions of a location called Kling that could be interpreted as the name of the planet, but that was never made official. By the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Sins Of The Father," an active debate among the show's writers regarding the planet's name was underway, though they admittedly could never come up with anything satisfactory. Most TNG episodes referred to the planet simply as "the Klingon homeworld." The Klingons and their planet played a major role in the final TOS film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . That film definitively referred to the planet as Kronos, and the Klingon flagship was even called Kronos One. Despite the overt naming of the planet, it would still be years before Kronos became used regularly in Star Trek fiction. How DS9 Changed The Klingon Home Planet While Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country named the Klingon home planet Kronos when it debuted in 1991, Star Trek: The Next Generation would continue to be vague about the planet's name until it ended its run in 1994. The planet's name wouldn't be regularly used until Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . The Klingons became major players during DS9 season 4, as Lieutenant Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) joined the show's cast and the dawn of the Dominion War caused tension between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine redefined Kronos as being the anglicized version of the word Qo'noS in the Klingon language. The onscreen spelling would change to the latter, but the human pronunciation remained the same. That version of the planet's name finally stuck, appearing in more recent Star Trek output like Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek: Discovery. It may have taken awhile to stick, but Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country fixed a long-running problem with the franchise by properly naming the Klingon home planet. More: Every Star Trek Chief Engineer Ranked