23 March: Klingons

On this date in 1967  the first Star Trek episode with Klingons in, Errand of Mercy, first aired. 10 facts about Klingons.

1. Gene L. Coon is the screenwriter who created the Klingons. The name "Klingons" comes from a man who served in the Los Angeles Police Department at the same time as Gene Roddenberry - Wilbur Clingan.
2. Their homeworld is Qo'noS, referred to as Kronos by Star Fleet personnel. 
3. Their world appears Green from space. There is one large land mass surrounded by ocean. It has one moon, called Praxis.
4. In the original series, Klingons were essentially white actors with mustaches and skin darkened with shoe polish - it was a lower budget show back then. Only later did the ridged foreheads appear. The fans, however, wanted some plausible explanation as to why some Klingons looked different. That Klingons had different races was one theory. Another was that smooth foreheaded Klingons had been experimented on with human DNA while trying to produce augmented soldiers which caused a pandemic resulting in more human like features. When asked for an explanation, Lt. Worf merely says, "We do not discuss it with outsiders."
5. Their society and culture are based on violence and war, even down to their courtship rituals. They commonly use a weapon called a bat'leth, a curved blade.
6. Divorce Klingon style means slapping your spouse, reciting the words “N’Gos tlhogh cha!” (our marriage is done) and spitting in your spouse’s face.
7. In the Klingon creation myth, Adam and Eve destroyed their gods and “turned the heaven into ashes.”
8. Klingons like to eat food that’s still alive. A popular Klingon meal is gagh, a slimy serpent-worm dish, followed by warm blood wine.
9. Klingons have two pairs of kidneys, eight-chambered Hearts, a third lung and the ability to grow a new spine.
10. During the 1991 filming of the Star Trek: Next Generation episode of “Redemption,” Ronald Reagan visited the set and said, “I like the Klingons. They remind me of Congress.”

My Books 

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The Ultraheroes series

Several new groups of superheroes, mostly British, living and working (mostly) in British cities like London and Birmingham. People discovering they have, and learning to live with, superpowers. Each book is complete in itself although there is some overlap of characters.

The Raiders series

A tale of two dimensions, and worm hole travel between the two. People displaced in both time and space, learning to get along and work together to find a way home while getting used to the superpowers wormhole travel gave them. A trilogy.

Golden Thread

A superhero tale with a difference. Five heroes from another dimension keep returning - whenever they return, they have a job to do and are a well-meshed team in order to do it. Until one time, something goes wrong...

Tabitha Drake series

A different kind of power - the ability to talk to dead people. Tabitha has it, and murder victims seek her out to make sure justice is done. Tabitha has this and a disastrous love life to cope with.

Short story collections

Some feature characters from the above novels, others don't. They're not all about superheroes. Some are creepy, romantic, funny.