Looping character videos released on Star Trek: Discovery social media feeds have mostly revealed characters that close followers of Discovery news have heard about for months — Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Lieutenant Saru (Doug Jones), Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi) — but the latest reveal is entirely new, a Klingon warrior of the House T’Kuvma named Voq, a character so mysterious we’re not yet certain who plays him (though Sam Witwer of Battlestar Galactica is the best guess). While Voq’s character may be a mystery, the little we know points toward the Klingons’ mysterious war plans and the nature of their confrontation with the United Federation of Planets.
Star Trek: Discovery exhibits at San Diego Comic-Con gave us two important hints as to the Klingons’ plan in Star Trek: Discovery. “T’Kuvma seeks to unite the 24 great Klingon houses to halt the encroachment of others,” one display read.
The other came in a display revealing the elaborate, 3D-printed “Torchbearer Armor” (seen briefly at the end of the Star Trek: Discovery trailer). “Although similar to Klingon armor,” the display reads, “this version is worn only by a warrior chosen through a sacred ritual to serve as the Torchbearer, enabling him to sound The Call for all the houses to unite by activating a ceremonial obelisk.”
This obelisk and other elements of the ritual appear in the Star Trek: Discovery trailer, but we still know little about the United Federation of Planets’ role in all this. One possibility is that the U.S.S. Shenzhou, commanded by Captain Georgiou, accidentally stumbles upon a ceremony shared by several Klingon houses. But T’Kuvma’s line in the trailer, “We have been waiting for someone worthy of our attention,” suggests their conflict is something more than a chance meeting.
We know T’Kuvma’s Klingons are something like religious fanatics. Their ship looks like a cathedral, complete with ritual sanctuaries. Jones, who plays a Kelpien officer with a sixth sense for death, described the Klingons as “the ones who can’t be reasoned with” in an interview with IGN, a thematic concern echoed by Star Trek: Discovery writer and consulting producer Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan).
“Whether we’re talking about ISIS or whether we’re talking about Donald Trump, these are things in the air. New demagogues arise. And what do you do with an enemy who is implacable, who is not interested in negotiations?” Meyer told audiences at Star Trek: Mission New York. “These are tough questions. And our series will do a disservice if it doesn’t honestly address these things.”
What better way to unite the 24 warring houses of the Klingon Empire than by starting a war, offering the faction-riven Klingons a common enemy to rally against?
Though the House of T’Kuvma isn’t the only Klingon faction cast — Discovery will also feature Kol of the House of Kor — the tight focus on T’Kuvma and his followers suggests that they have specific plans to pick a fight. And Voq, clutching a bat’leth in his intro video suspiciously similar to the bat’leth borne by the Torchbearer in the Discovery trailer, might be just the Klingon to light that spark.
- Richly redesigned Klingons
- Complex and explicable motives
- Great new Starfleet characters
- Incredible production design
- Generic space combat and action
- Too many flashbacks
- Eschews subtext, doesn't put enough faith in the audience
