Forgotten Discovery Klingon Is Tied to Star Trek’s Best Series
One of the things we have been exploring lately is how much Discovery, despite haters’ claims otherwise, is really steeped in the deep lore of the Star Trek franchise. A great example of this is hidden in the episode with the mouthful title “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb’s Cry.” The rather forgettable Klingon Kol appears in this episode, and the way he treats the lowly Klingon Voq is a callback to something we learn about Kol’s Klingon House in an earlier episode of Deep Space Nine.
Kol
To understand this Klingon connection, you need to know a bit more about who Kol is in Star Trek: Discovery. He appears in the show’s second episode “Battle at the Binary Stars” as someone who looks down on the cult leader Klingon T’Kuvma and his ragtag band of outcast followers.
He appears again in the episode “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry,” dunking on Voq (who aims to carry the torch of the now-dead T’Kuvma) for being a nobody compared to himself, a member of the great and noble House of Kor.
The House Of Kor
By itself, this Klingon mentioning which house he is from didn’t have much significance to fans of Star Trek: Discovery. However, the mention of the house, combined with Kol’s attitude, is basically a major Easter egg for fans of Deep Space Nine. In the episode “Once More Unto the Breach,” we learn that future Chancellor Martok had his application to the Klingon Defense Force denied by Kor for a very surprising reason.
Martok’s Rejection
Historically, the Klingons (especially those in Star Trek: Discovery) have loved combat and valued warriors for their ability to battle both on the ground and in space. Deep Space Nine helped establish that Martok was a great warrior despite being both half-blind and a bit older than strong Klingons such as Worf.
However, in “Once More Unto the Breach,” Martok says that Kor personally denied his application to the KDF because Martok came from a poor and obscure family rather than Klingon nobility.
Kor, The First Named Klingon
If you weren’t familiar with the earlier DS9 episode, then it likely seemed strange that such a mighty warrior would care about something as arbitrary as a person’s rank in Klingon society.
However, Kol is a member of the House of Kor, and this Klingon embodies his leader’s snooty philosophy throughout Star Trek: Discovery. In this way, this newer show was able to sneak in a decades-old callback to Trek’s finest show.
Of course, mentioning a Klingon as prominent as Kor also helps Star Trek: Discovery tie back to The Original Series. He is the franchise’s earliest named Klingon, appearing in the season 1 TOS episode “Errand of Mercy” and memorably reprising his role for three episodes of DS9. He’s basically Klingon royalty in-universe and out, so it makes sense that he’d be a bit snobby.
DS9 Callbacks
We can understand why the portrayal of the Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery annoyed some fans, and their completely bald appearance in season 1 is admittedly pretty off-putting. Aesthetics aside, however, these Klingons were mostly in line with what we had seen before, with Kol being a mouthpiece for the most famous warrior of them all.
And while it it pales in comparison to all the Easter eggs and references in the final season, it warms our heart (sorry, Klingons, we only have the one) that Discovery was doing callbacks to Deep Space Nine from the very beginning.
