The arrival (Finally!) of a higher-Tier, up-arted, up-statted Negh’var…
I get it, I really do.
My problem with it, is simply thus:
It’s not “Iconic”, it’s just another damn Battlecruiser that’s really just another damn Cruiser with a Battlecruiser skin.
What’s an “icon” ship for the Klingon Empire? well…if you’re going to base off the Canon of Star Trek…
You gotz three ships that more effectively communicate the Klingon focus on success in the battlefield, two have overlap across eras in Star Trek.
The D7/K’Tinga cruisers (Appearances in The Old Series, including sailing under Romulan flags) ran from the era of Kirk to the Era of Sisko in various forms that retained the fundamental layout.
“Elaan of Troyius”
“The Enterprise Incident” (as a Romulan crewed vessel explained later in the canon as being an export model during the Klingon/Romulan alliance era)
“More Tribbles/More Troubles” (The Animated Series)
“Trials and Tribble-ations” (Deep Space 9)
“Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (being destroyed by V’ger.)
“Star Trek VI” (Gorkon’s Flagship)
“Prophecy” (Voyager)
“Flashback” (Voyager)
and non-canon films;
“Prelude to Axanar” and “Axanar” being the most visible.
The Vor’Cha is the second Cruiser on our list-fewer appearances, but more of them associated with Klingon Victories than with defeats.
“Reunion” (TNG)
“Return To Grace” (DS9-Gowron’s flag vessel)
Various DS9 episodes including the iconic “Sacrifice of Angels” and the pre-invasion of Cardassian space. (while the number of appearances is pretty close to those of the Negh’var, the difference is HOW it appeared-winning. The Negh’vars lost almost every television engagement they fought in.)
The final, is the most prolific…
The Bird of Prey.
“The Expanse” (Star Trek Enterprise-appears in two episodes)
“Star Trek 2”-destroys NCC-1701, penetrates Federation/Starfleet controlled space.
“Star Trek 3”-Yeah. So the guy driving wasn’t Klingon…saves civilization as we know it, and as a result, enables the Empire to survive the loss of Praxis in Star Trek VI.
“Star Trek V”-A bird of prey engages GOD…and wins.
“Star Trek VI” Chang uses a Bird of Prey in a bid to destabilize galactic politics, it takes TWO Federation heavies to stop him at Khitomer.
TNG appearances:
A surplus Bird of Prey-one that is, basically, sold off as outmoded, was used by Ferengi to capture the NCC-1701-D Enterprise.
A “light Cruiser” version served as Riker’s home temporarily, and came within a breath of destroying the USS Enterprise.
Two Bird of Prey vessels were sufficient to make a Romulan Warbird that outmatched the Galaxy-Class Enterprise back down during a tense situation in the Neutral zone.
Bird of Prey vessels served as the ‘honor guard and escort’ for Chancellor K’mpek’s visit to the Federation to seek arbitration in the Klingon succession.
Bird of Prey vessels were shown extensively during the Klingon Civil War on both sides.
Deep Space Nine Era;
Bird of Prey vessels were present and worked the picket-line during the run-up to the Klingon invasion of the Cardassian Union.
Bird of Prey vessels served as the backbone of the 9th Fleet throughout the Dominion War, there are, put nicely, too many examples of this to list separately.
General (later Chancellor) Martok commanded the entire war from the bridge of a Bird of Prey (IKS Rotarran).
Most notably, the BoP throughout it’s appearances, has been Successful. A design associated by it’s appearances with VICTORY.
Even Boeing has gotten into the act.
which…the Negh’var…isn’t-associated with WINNING battles, anyway.
In it’s first on-screen appearance, we see Negh’vars destroyed utterly by the ‘dreadnought’ version of the Enterprise-D (“all good things” )
The first really good look, was as Gowron/Changeling Martok’s flagship in “The way of the Warrior” (Deep Space 9). Followed by the Mirror universe appearances, in which it repeatedly LOSES BATTLES to a band of scrappy rebels led by a less-than hygienic version of Julian Bashir.
The final screen appearance of the class, is in the Voyager episode “Endgame”…
so why was the Negh’var tapped as “Iconic” by Cryptic?
Staff and business reasons predominate here. Staff reasons, in that Cryptic apparently can only support non-cruisers if they’re Starfleet or Lockbox offerings-either due to lack of manpower, or lack of ‘wanna’.
Business, in that they can do one set of stats-for a Fed Cruiser they KNOW will sell well to Fed Fans, make minor adjustments and shit out a KDF “equivalent” that is essentially a clone, and a clone that will probably have at least a few sales, since there is a percentage of the KDF Population that isn’t sick-to-death of getting Cruisers-even if said cruisers have the ‘Crew bug’ that lowers their survivability, slightly poorer shielding, and one fewer ‘cruiser command’ abilities in exchange for a standard cloak and looking somewhat Klingon.
all of this brings me to the position I’m at now. I can’t muster any enthusiasm for this.
