[Atrocities]

Originally posted by PvK:
It appears the movies really confused Romulan and Klingon ship designs when they made the Star Trek III film. I read the original story called for a Romulan ship, but typical Hollywood pandering to the lowest denominator decided it should be Klingon. Meanwhile the design's abilities (cloaking device, powerful central torpedo, green paint job, name "Bird of Prey" - since when (before ST3) did Klingons care about birds?) remained Romulan-like. I suspect this simplification is probably responsible for a low of post-ST3 Klingon ship design.

PvK

True, ST 3 was to have Romulans, but Paramount opted for Klingons instead. ST 3 was a ground breaking movie for many reasons. It was the first movie that we saw:

Klingon Bird of Prey
Grisson Class
Ingram Class (Excelsior)
Space Doc
Humor
Vulcan (in some detail)
Surek (Spokes dad)
etc.

I think it was a very good movie given the limited budget and Nimoy's limited director experience.

But up until that time there was never an offical Bird Of Prey ever listed for either the Romulans or Klingons. (However I have read that the Romulans and Klingons did continue to swap designs up unitl the battle of Khitomer which led to the destruction of the Enterprise C.)