How did Klingons go from being an evil, arrogant, aggressive race to their current portrayal as honorable?
In TOS, they were total smug jerks who, if they wanted to oppress you, they did it, and showed no regard for anyone. They thought they were superior to the Federation and Romulans.
Yet by 1987, they changed to be honorable warriors.
Why the major change in the Klingons?
Best Answer
Why writing changes . . . I could almost write a novel, but the Klingon Warrior race was implied in TOS, at least once. It's true that mostly they were just "the enemy" and there was little examination into their society or beliefs, but in the episode Friday's Child, some of the Klingon views were made clear.
Kras, the Klingon, said to Teer, the leader of the tribes:
What do Earth men offer you? What have you obtained from them in the past? Powders and liquids for the sick? We Klingons believe as you do. The sick should die. Only the strong should live.
In the movies as well, the Klingon Warrior race was explored prior to TNG. Star Trek III, which came out 3 years before TNG featured the new Klingon Look and indicated some warrior aspects to their society.
Not wanting to re-watch the movie, I remember off hand that Christopher Lloyd played the Klingon Captain with a distinctly combative personality, having a ferocious pet that his subordinates were afraid to feed as one example and I'm vaguely remembering him choking a subordinate as well, so in both TOS and in the 3rd film there were indications in that direction.
It's also clear, in TNG that the Klingons aren't always honorable. They say they are, and they're warriors, but they lie, there's a point where one tries (unsuccessfully) to bribe data, they conspire. There's an episode where the Klingon leader is being poisoned and he asks Picard to investigate and find out who's doing it.
The big change is that TNG goes into the Klingon society in far greater detail, but I don't see the inconsistency that you see. There's indications that they're a warrior race prior to TNG and there's evidence that they are not always honorable during TNG.
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While the real reason for the discrepancy between The Original Series Klingons and their feature film and later television series counterparts was a lack of budget, fans took it upon themselves to contrive an acceptable canon reason for the sudden change.Are Klingons aggressive?
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Across each new iteration, the Klingons \u2013 a humanoid warrior species \u2013 have often been the alien of choice. The 1960s Klingons were bad, untrustworthy, duplicitous enemies, but visually they looked pretty close to the sapiens on the Starship Enterprise.Why did Klingons change their appearance?
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More answers regarding how did Klingons go from being an evil, arrogant, aggressive race to their current portrayal as honorable?
Answer 2
I would argue that this didn't happen. Aside from Worf, many of the Klingons we see aren't really that honorable. They're short-sighted, violent, dishonest, and stupid. Worf, on the other hand, learned to be a Klingon from books. He turned himself into the Klingon ideal, not knowing that real Klingons don't often behave that way.
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