The concept of "same design with more CGI" doesn't even make much sense. The entire G1 aesthetic would look tacky and cartoonish in a live action movie.

Oops. The Klingons were redesigned to look more alien, and the fans love it. Also, it's been hinted at in Star Trek that most of the humanoid lifeforms in the galaxy are somehow related in origin or genetic makeup. Most importantly, nobody thinks of Star Trek as a cheesy badly-animated cartoon or a line of toys for children, even though Star Trek has had both of those things in its history. For most people, that's all TransFormers is. To get self-respecting non-fan adults to watch it, they've got to shake off the "just for kids" stigma that most of the world ascribes to TransFormers, and that means radical change that makes everyone take notice.

 

Well on that point, the filmmaker's are very much staying true to G1  

 

Some people seem to forget that. The franchise likes to forget the original Klingons too. Except for the DS9 episode.

haha.

 

Correct on both counts. The Klingons were originally designed after the old stereotypes of Soviet officials since TOS was filmed during the height of the Cold War. Once the movie rolled around, Paramount let Roddenberry spice things up and make them a little more imposing. Once TNG started, the Cold War was virtually over, and the culture was reformed into more of a Norse-type warrior race. This change, while awesome, created major problems in Enterprise, and finally in season 4 the look of the Klingons was explained by a virus that was mutated with Human augment DNA (Like Khan), that made the Klingons gain some human features.

More importantly, like you said, the major races are related genetically. In the TNG episode "The Chase" (Season 6), an old professor of Picard's was killed because he found out that 19 of the major races were "seeded" by an ancient race to help their evolution. These races included Humans, Klingons, and Romlans (which would then include Vulcans also). This explained why they are all bipeds with similar features.

The Animated Series FTW! 

 

Way off topic here, but I thought Enterprise failed because it wasn't very good. Enterprise can be made to fit into the Star Trek universe. Sure, it's a bad fit and it pinches in some places, but it can be done. The main problem as I saw it was that, being a prequel, the writers were hamstrung because so many things were off limits to them. They couldn't give the audience any major surprises because it would contradict firmly established canon.

Enterprise ends up with the worst of both worlds: it was shoehorned into a continuity that was never meant to accomodate it AND it was seriously limited by the need to stick to that continuity.

Imagine if Beast Wars had been a prequel to G1. Eek.

Back on topic: the thing I find most amusing about fandom is it's hugely inflated sense of self-importance. On a number of fan sites, some people were foaming at the mouth in rage over the initial Optimus pictures. When the producer said those pictures were a very early stage in the design process, they refused to believe it. Damage control, blah blah...

When a design closer to the finished product is leaked, those people either:
a) say it's another exercise in damage control. (Because Michael Bay, Don Murphy and Brian Golder have nothing better to do than make you feel better); or

b) rejoice because fan pressure has resulted in changes to the design, making it more acceptable.
The thought that maybe we were being told the truth the whole time hardly gets a mention.  

 

Yeah, most if it was sucktacular TV, but that last season was gold (except for the last episode which was done by the guys they booted before the last season anyway).

The last season of Enterprise fixed so much, and set up so much, had it continued under Manny Coto, I think Enterprise could have easily been salvaged into a worthwhile Star Trek series

 

While I am not quite old enough to remember the transition, I do remember the DECADES of complaining that some 'fans' still do about the change in klingon look.

Then they actually tried to satisfy those fans.

And it sucked. Royally.

G1 designs...good for cartoons. Bad for live action.

New designs. VERY nice. (Yes, that INCLUDES the preliminary of Megs...)
 

 

Doesn't change the fact that it's a mistake.

 

The complaints are (or were, now that Enterprise explained it) mostly about the discontinuity, not the new look itself. It was an inexplicable glitch in the Star Trek timeline. As far as I can tell, the current look of the Klingon race is by far the preferred look. In the case of the TransFormers movie, there's no continuity to deal with, so that complaint shouldn't apply here.  

We don't know if it's a mistake until we see how well the toys sell. Except for the helicopter's tail sticking out in back, Blackout's toy and movie designs look more than close enough to me. Much closer, at least, than most of Beast Machines and large chunks of G1. Until we see it happen, it's not a "fact".

 

I'd like to point out that with the Klingons, they weren't redesigned so much as simply having new features added. It's not really the same thing. If they took the classical Optimus Prime and added shoulder pads and guns on his ears and so on, he would still fundementally look like the same Optimus Prime. That's what happened to the Klingons.

 

Relative to the Star Trek universe, TOS Kingons and post-film Klingons are not recognizable as the same race. Change those added bone ridges on their heads a different way, and you could have Cardassians or Bajorans. The Klingons were also given a complete overhaul in terms of their dress and their culture. They went from being Russians/Mongols to a cross between a Nordic human and a Predator. The only way in which they really resemble TOS Klingons is that they're rowdy and violent, in which case the Ferengi might as well have been Klingon on their first appearance in TNG. When the difference between two separate species can be as little as blood color and how pointy their ears are, that's a very drastic change. I don't think many people would agree with your "shoulderpads" analogy. As you're describing it, virtually ALL of the ST races are fundamentally identical.

 

You guys totally turned my thread into a star trek nerdfest...as opposed to the Transformers nerdfest it was before that  

 

Cardassians and Bajorans don't all have goatees and beards  And you'll recall, there was heavy use of dark pigment which also carried over into a dark skinned majority, at least as far as we saw on television. Granted, there were plenty of light skinned ones too, but the dark skin seemed to be distinctive feature on key characters.

Yeah, the comparison is a bit distant I admit, but I still posit that a redesign requires taking something away, or a fundamental change somewhere. The Klingons of old were built upon to be the Klingons of modern.

 

I see where you're coming from, but if you change something radically, even by building on it, it's still a redesign. The Klingons aren't just wearing those bone ridges (even if the actors are), it is now a fundamental part of their character, even though it wasn't before. The issue here is radical change, and relative to Star Trek, the Klingons went through it. The Klingons were radically changed in appearance and behavior and the universe didn't implode. That was the point. "If you screwed with a Star Trek race, fans would be pissed". It happened, and for the most part they weren't. Now let's get back on topic.

 

Although, I have read somewhere Gene Roddenberry saying that the 'revised' Klingons were what he had always invisioned but was constrained by budget...another interesting spin on the whole thing...

 

If you wanna go in that direction, then nobody originally had any designs in mind at all for TransFormers, because they were all previously designed for other toy lines. There was no deliberate TransFormers aesthetic or design philosophy. If it transformed and Hasbro liked it and bought a license, then it was a TransFormer.

 

But Takara did have a design philosophy that intended to merge Diaclone and Microchange together into one line. Hasbro carried that philosophy when choosing the 1985 toys from other companies. They didn't put Raideen or other transformable chogokin in it because they didn't match the blocky military design.

 

Counter: Beetras. Comparing the Deluxe Insecticons to the regular Insecticons was a huge stylistic WTF for me as a kid.

Hasbro really didn't care, as long as it transformed and the license was cheap.

 

If all they wanted was cheap toys to sell, they would've gobbled up the hilariously common Gats-Blocker from Diaclone. As far as transforming, Dia-Attacker was available. But he didn't transform into anything anyone would recognize.

 

I don't know. Why didn't they buy up the other Microchange pistols besides Megatron? There was nothing wrong with those. If they didn't pick something, that doesn't mean it didn't fit Takara's aesthetics for Microchange or for Diaclone. If they picked it, that doesn't mean it did fit. They just picked out what they liked and tossed it together. If they liked it a lot, they painted it a few different ways and tossed it in more than once.