XPost: alt.startrek, alt.tv.star-trek, alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise   
   From: sky.diver@moonbase.alpha   
      
   In article <210120051018192047%no@spam.invalid>, Keeper of the Purple   
   Twilight  wrote:   
      
   > Kirk only knew the smooth-forehead variety of Klingons.  He didn't have   
   > occasion to run into them a lot, so he couldn't be expected to know   
   > what they *really* looked like.   
   >   
   > As for Bashir et al - it's the same thing.  The only Klingons any DS9   
   > crewmember ever met, were the real, ridged variety.  Klingons don't   
   > discuss the 'change' with outsiders, so how are DS9's people supposed   
   > to know about it?  Apparently by DS9's time, there are no 'smoothies'   
   > left, so nobody will ever meet them again...   
      
   There are things called "historical records." Especially in something   
   like Starfleet, where you're supposed to be familiar with past, present   
   and potential threats. If Kirk never once in his academy training saw a   
   picture of an Archer-era Klingon, then the Federation education system   
   is even more screwed up than ours. It's totally irrelevant if the   
   Klingons want to discuss the change or not. A large number of   
   Federation and Starfleet personnel have seen Klingons and *will*   
   discuss them. If our military sent soldiers out into the field with   
   something like, "What do Russians look like? Well, we can't describe   
   them and we can't show them to you, but you'll know them when you see   
   them," there'd be a military coup in no time. Unless "military   
   intelligence" is an even bigger contradiction in the 22nd through 24th   
   centuries.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)