Since Star Trek beamed onto the small screen back in 1966, the Klingons have been a mainstay race of the series and films ever since.
Sure, they’ve undergone several changes over the years, some more controversial than others…
With the glorious Klingon Empire not getting much screen time from the current shows like Star Trek: Picard and later seasons of Star Trek: Discovery
what better time to give them a bit more than a throwaway mention and explore the tried and trusted weaponry of the Klingon Empire! Qa'Pla
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
Throughout the years of the Star Trek Universe we have seen numerous ground weapons used by the Honour-bound warrior race, be it blades or energy weapons. S
So, in today’s video we’re going to take a look at all the different ones featured,
what they are and traditionally used for.
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Okay, engage!
We’ll kick it off with a quick one, as it was only shown briefly in one episode. The Kilgat.
It was a small 3-sided, I guess you could say, a knuckle-duster style weapon, given how the user would wield it and its size?
One was used by a Female Klingon, conjured by the Q empowered Cmdr. William T. Riker to attack Lt. Tasha Yar, but was promptly stopped and disarmed by Lt Worf.
The Daq Tagh (Dak Tah-guh)
It first appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,
but did not receive it’s canonical name until The Next Generation episode Birthright, Part II.
It held ceremonial value in Klingon culture, but also was commonly used in close quarter hand-to-hand combat
A short, partly hollow bladed dagger with two secondary blades that would either be fixed or spring open,
to act as a crossguard of sorts,
though mainly to add more holes to the unfortunate person on the receiving end.
The hilt would traditionally have a spiked pommel, and usually bear the house emblem of the owner.
One would be used in rituals, such as following the death of Lieutenant Marla Aster, to extinguish a candle.
It is considered an insult to honour to take a Daq tagh from the grave of a fallen Klingon. Worf did this to Drex, to get the attention of his father, Martok.
The Kut’luch (Cut-Luch)!
Traditionally used by Klingon assassins.
The blades were unevenly serrated to inflict very serious, and judging by the means of use, deadly wounds.
Kut’luch would be used by a pair of assassins hired by Duras to kill Kurn, Worf’s brother.
It is also a blade used in a ritual act of violence, to signify when a Klingon is to become a Warrior!
The Mevak (Meh-Vac)
First seen in TNG’s “Sins of our Father”.
The blade, whilst used to kill- Who’d have thought?
- was used in the ritual Mauk-to ‘Vor (Mock-Toh-Vore), in which a Klingon would use it to restore honour in the afterlife, to a wrongfully disgraced sibling.
The twin prongs had different meanings, one to take the life and the other to release the soul to Sto-vo-kor.
The ritual itself is technically assisted suicide and thus banned by the Federation, and Klingon Empire,
unless the inflicted could not be treated by any medical means.
Those who undertake this ritual themselves would be dishonoured and sentenced to Gre’thor, or their equivalent of hell.
An example of this is when Kurn requested that Worf perform the ritual on him, as they both had been dishonoured by their father’s name, Mogh.
Initially going through with the ritual, Kurn was revived by Dr Julian Bashir.
Though at first angry at the intervention, Worf soon agreed with Captain Benjamin Sisko that it was no different to committing murder.
The Hegh’bat (Hey-guh-Bah)
Similar in essence to the Mevak, when a Warrior could not stand and became a burden to his or her house.
Rather than it be used by a sibling, the ritual would fall to a family member, preferably the eldest son.
It would be plunged into the heart, and when removed, the blood is wiped on the wielder’s sleeve.
Another example including our favourite Klingon, Worf, was when he faced paralysis.
He, at first requested that Cmdr Riker perform the ritual, however declined, as he did not wish to see Worf die, and reminded him of whose duty it should be, though surmising he would not be able to ask his son Alexander to kill him.
A Klingon demanding Hegh’bat, formed the basis of Starfleet’s Medical Ethics holographic training program, in use by 2381.
The Mek’leth (Mech-Leff)
Whilst the Daq tagh is commonly always carried,
the larger blades are usually preferred when it comes to larger scale combat.
Mek’leth is one of the two. Can be seen several times as Worf’s preferred weapon, to fight the Jem’Hadar during the Dominion War and make easy work of the Borg attempting to overthrow the Enterprise-E.
A more ceremonial version of the Mek'leth seen in Star Trek Discovery, notably used by T’Kuvma the Unforgettable to kill Captain Phillipa Georgiou.
House Duras seemingly had their own variant of the DaqTagh.
From this it would be logical, shall we say, to surmise that the larger, more respected, or maybe even obnoxious houses, such a Duras,
would have their own take on the traditional dagger.
Though never explicitly stated, it would make sense that each house would carry something immediately identifiable to others, like an ID of sorts.
The [Tajtlq] (Tuch-tick)
The TajTlq was an official bladed weapon used by the Klingon Chancellor, fashioned from the pommel and blade of a Bat’leth.
Just like the batleths of the era, the blade was segregated and slightly curved.
The term TajTIq means "a knife with a particularly long blade that is used almost as though it were a sword".
This weapon was only seen used by the Klingon Chancellor of the year 2257, L’Rell, when she was ambushed by the forces of house Kor.
However officially this coup was said to be orchestrated by the Klingon-Human Hybrid Ash Tyler,
formerly known as Voq, with the head of House Kor, Kol’Sha, defending the chancellor in order to solidify L’Rells rule over the Empire.
Let's talk about the [Bat’leth]!
The most commonly seen and used blade of the Klingon’s aside from the Daq tagh and carried by nearly all Klingon in a battle scenario,
aside from those using disruptors was the Bat’Leth.
A warriors’ blade designed with precision and balance.
Bilateral with 4 forward curved blades and could decapitate its victim with one stroke.
The Federation-Klingon War variant, had the larger rear blades curved backwards… a tad dangerous to the user, but these are Klingon after all.
Another highly revered variant of the Bat’leth is the Sword of Kahless.
. A sword with such legacy and symbolism can turn even the closest of friends against each other for the chance to possess such a rare weapon of Klingon history.
This version of the Bat’Leth, considered to be the first batleth, did not feature three individual grips,
instead a large singular one. It also featured a single large prong in the center, essentially making it a 5 bladed weapon.
The blade was said to be forged in Kri’Stak’s volcano from a lock of Kahless’ hair, and he used the blade to slay the tyrant Molor!
The last known canonical wearabouts of the Sword of Kahless is adrift in space in the Gamma Quadrant,
after Worf and Dahar Master Kor were damn near fought to the death, Worf getting the upper hand, Lt Cmdr Jadzia Dax was forced to step in and stun them both to end their fight.
[Gin’tak]
A Gin’tak was a spear of sorts, more akin to a Halberd, but besides the point.
It was not at the foreground of any fight scenes, however it was witnessed to be used as a hoe by Toq in a Romulan prison camp.
There was a Klingon title known as Gin’Tak, for one's trusted advisor. The connection between this title and the spear is unknown.
There are numerous other bladed weapons, such as what we would consider traditional-style swords, which would just be everyday stabby weapons, and eating utensils which have been brandished as weapons rather than the traditional, ceremonial and ritual armaments.
Right, that’s the bladed weapons covered. Let’s move on to energy-based weapons!
Much like any other race, the Klingon carry a standard issue side arm, complementary to their Daq tagh.
A typical single handed directed energy weapon, firing a green pulse, or beam of radiation, or exotic particles.
The Klingon Disruptor Pistols have undergone many variations over the centuries, as you’d expect with newly developed technology,
but still keeping the same basic recognizable shape, with prongs either side over the barrel for unexpected close-range combat and butt which had a pointed edge, which could definitely do some damage, in your everyday Klingon fashion.
Officers would carry a distinct variation with a longer black barrel and an extended silver muzzle.
Chekov threatened to stun his target in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, so we can at least speculate that some, if not all, Klingon energy weapons had a non-lethal setting, compared to their Romulan nemesis’ whose weaponry did not have a non-lethal setting.
Disruptor Rifles were a larger two-handed weapon, which gave off more energy than the pistol. Or as Boimler would say, the difference is that it uses two hands instead of one!
The Klingon version, compared to the Cardassian and Romulan versions, had induction coils, which could burn out.
Again the rifle would undergo several changes throughout the centuries, from a singular weapon to seemingly an attachment to their disruptor pistols but keeping the same basic function: Shoot to kill.
Now Klingons might be pretty diverse in their weaponry on ground, but that isn’t the case for their ships.
Most Klingon ships came equipped with Disruptor weapons, from disruptor banks, arrays and canons, and Photon Torpedoes.
The disruptor weapons were usually capable of firing in either pulse or beam modes.
Jadzia Dax discovered that the disruptor arrays on Klingon ships were capable of being modified to emit tetryon particles,
which can be used to neutralise shields and energy based weapon systems.
Unlike other disruptors, such as Romulan, which left residual antiprotons, Klingon disruptors gave off distinctive hadrons and ions as their signature.
There were however a couple of interesting Klingon ship weapons.
Equipped on Klingon D7 Battlecruisers wasa the capability of firing a Magnetic Pulse, which was only seen in use against the USS Enterprise during the Federation-Klingon War of 2267, seen in The Original Series “Errand of Mercy”.
One of the more experimental and less known weapon systems utilised by the Klingons was the “Projected Stasis Field”
which was a weapon of immense power that was capable of disabling all higher level field and warp systems, including the matter-antimatter generators, aboard enemy systems.
That about wraps up this video on the weaponry of the Klingon Empire, some more familiar than others,
hopefully it has enlightened those of you not already in the know a bit more about their rituals and ceremonial ways of weaponry.
Hopefully we haven't missed any, but please, be sure to let us know if we have, in the comments,
And if you would like to see us take a look at another Trek faction's technology, let us know, because as always, if you’re talking about Star Trek, then we want to hear about it.
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central!
You can also follow us on social media, or join our Community Discord Server!
For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!