quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
One of the things about Star Trek fans that aggravated non Trek fans the most is the way we nit pick the details to death, and then reason out discrepancies between episodes and shows. For example: TOS Klingons had no cranial ridges. Then along comes Star Trek TMP in 1979, and "Klingons got ridges!". Of course it's just makeup. And the real reason for the difference is that in the 60's on a shoestring budget the producers couldn't spend a bunch of money on makeup every week. But Trek fans have had lots of fun over the years discussing the differences, and trying to explain them in a way that would fit with the "reality" of the show.( http://www.geocities.com/Area51/6559/klingon.html) Of course now that the "Enterprise" Klingons have ridges, we are going to have to modify our understanding, again. 
Geoschmo
I read an interesting speculation about this recently. Someone suggested that the ruler of the Klingon Empire at the time of TOS was a xenophobe who had all space-faring Klingons surgically altered in order to disguise the true nature of the Klingon species. The small problem of the contacts
already established before this policy was enacted was not dealt with... but then despots don't tend to trouble themselves with logic anyway.
So, this is not an utterly outlandish possibility.