Entertainment
The Man Who Secretly Made Star Trek’s Most Popular Aliens Violently Kinky
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Even the most casual fans of Star Trek know that Klingons are all about honor, fighting, and dying in the most glorious way possible. Of course, once you watch enough episodes, you learn that these aliens don’t reserve their violence for the battlefield. They are also into violently kinky sex, the kind that regularly sent Dax and Worf to the infirmary on Deep Space Nine.
As you might imagine, the Klingons weren’t always envisioned as being total freaks in bed; that concept wasn’t introduced until Star Trek: The Next Generation. Interestingly, we owe this weird bit of alien trivia to one man: Cliff Bole, the prolific director whom the Bolians were named after. He helmed the episode “The Emissary,” and when Worf hooked up with his future baby mama, K’Ehleyr, the director improvised by having the two draw blood because he thought that Klingons would be just as violent in bed as they are in battle.
Ridges, For Her Pleasure
For context, “The Emissary” (not to be confused with the DS9 episode of the same name) is an episode where the Enterprise encounters a group of Klingons who have been in suspended animation for the past 75 years. In an effort to make a diplomatic solution work, Captain Picard works with K’Ehler, a Federation ambassador. She is also a Klingon who has a history with Worf, and these two end up hooking up; she will later give birth to Alexander, a son Worf will have to raise on his own (until he doesn’t) after K’Ehleyr is brutally murdered.
When Star Trek: The Next Generation first started, the writers were a little iffy on Klingon society, including whether or not the Empire had become part of the Federation. Later, the show would benefit from Ronald Moore, The Original Series superfan who helped create some of the best Klingon episodes in the franchise. But Moore wouldn’t be hired until Season 3, so it was up to Season 2 director Cliff Bole to create several Klingon customs on the fly.
Blood, Bodies, And Bat’leths
According to Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, this included Klingon mating rituals. “I came up with that thing where [K’Ehleyr] digs into [Worf’s] hand and there’s all that blood,” Bole said. “I did that on the set. I was wondering what these people do, and I had the image of bones breaking and felt that’s what they do when they get it on.”
This quick improvisation became one of the key elements of Klingon lore, one that would be referenced in several other episodes. Previously, all Worf had really said about sex was that he wouldn’t be trying it on the ship because he thought Earth women were too fragile. This implied that he was worried about humans simply thinking he was too rough in bed. Thanks to “The Emissary,” we know that Worf is worried about fragile partners because Klingon mating is rougher than rough, regularly involving breaking bones and making your partner bleed.
50 Blades Of Grey
Just how rough Worf likes it is evidenced in Deep Space Nine once he begins a romantic relationship with Dax, and they hook up for the first time in “Looking For par’Mach in All the Wrong Places.” After getting injured during a bat’leth fight, they then haul their banged-up bodies to the infirmary, where a blushing Bashir quickly ascertains exactly how these two got their injuries. DS9 would frequently make allusions to their rough bedroom life, and Discovery eventually showed us just how violent Klingon coupling could be with a flashback scene where Ash Tyler/Voq may or may not have been assaulted by a very unclothed L’Rell.
Discovery was also the show that all but confirmed male Klingons have two genitals, which raised more than a few questions about Worf’s relationship with Troi and Dax. Obviously, the NuTrek show’s emphasis on Klingon hyper-aggressive mating builds on decades of lore for these angry aliens. But their well-earned reputation as the biggest freaks in the Quadrant all started with Cliff Bole, whose improvisation on the set of “The Emissary” left an unmistakable mark (kind of like what Worf does to women on the holodeck!) on Klingon society.
Entertainment
Buy a $300 Delta gift card and get a free $20 Starbucks gift card
BUY A DELTA GIFT CARD FOR $300+ AND GET A FREE STARBUCKS GIFT CARD: Through May 11, buy a Delta gift card for $300 or more and get a free $20 Starbucks eGift card.
Credit: Delta / Starbucks
The price of flying these days is shocking. If you plan on traveling soon on a route served by Delta, it’s well worth checking out this deal to get something for free. It’ll help ease the pain of the ticket price.
Through May 11, purchase a Delta gift card worth $300 or more and get a free $20 Starbucks eGift card. It’s as simple as that. You can also qualify for the deal by buying multiple gift cards that total at least $300. The deal with apply automatically and you’ll receive a separate email containing the free Starbucks card.
Booking flights these days is not much fun. Prices are ahh…. abnormal, but Delta has eased the pain a bit thanks to this deal. The carrier is positioning this free Starbucks gift card deal as a good option for Mother’s Day, but realistically, it’s useful for anyone who plans to book with Delta soon.
Keep in mind the Delta gift card and Starbucks card will never expire. Delta mentions this offer is valid until May 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET or for the first 11,000 purchasers, whichever comes first. That means it might be smart to hop on this deal soon since there’s no way to know if it’ll last until May 11.
Mashable Deals
If you plan on flying soon or want to gift a special someone a Delta gift card worth $300 or more, snag this deal to get a free $20 Starbucks eGift card. It’s a win-win situation for those who plan to fly with Delta.
Entertainment
Snag a pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones for $50 off
SAVE $50: As of May 6, get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) for $399 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $449. That’s a discount of 11%.
$399
at Amazon
$449
Save $50
If you want to experience your favorite music to the fullest, you need headphones that are up to the task. Bose can typically be counted on to provide that kind of quality, especially with its QuietComfort lineup. You can try its newest model for less right now for less thanks to this Amazon deal, which heavily discounts the cans so you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on them.
As of May 6, get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) for $399 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $449. That’s $50 off and a discount of 11%.
Though an incremental upgrade from the previous QuietComfort model, these have some new features you’ll want to try out. But mostly, these comfortable headphones are all about feeling great on your ears and sounding fantastic. They offer noise cancellation and spatialized audio so it sounds as though you’re right where the music is. The new Cinema Mode can help to spatialize and balance background and sound and sound effects when watching movies to help put you right into the film as well.
Beyond that they can be used to take calls with their built-in microphones. They’ll last a long time while you’re on the phone too, with 30 hours of play time when listening to songs, podcasts, or taking meetings.
Mashable Deals
Mashable Lead Shopping Reporter Bethany Allard took the headphones for a spin in her review and and called them a “well-rounded pair of headphones”, praising their blend of “comfort, noise cancellation, and sound”.
If you’re ready to pick up a new pair of headphones at a discount that’ll tick all the boxes for you, grab these before the discount disappears.
Entertainment
Score up to 64% off at EcoFlow and snag free solar panels with your purchase.
SAVE 64%: Between May 6 and May 17, you can score up to 64% off at EcoFlow and snag free solar panels with your purchase.
Get up to 64% off plus a free solar panel with purchase
I live in an apartment, so I don’t exactly have a “whole home” to back up. But if there’s one thing I hate, it’s losing power. There goes the AC, the internet, the food in the fridge — it’s a total nightmare. If you actually own a house and have been putting off buying a backup power system because it’s pricey, I have some good news.
The DJI Power 1000 Mini portable power station just launched — U.S. availability is pending
Right now, EcoFlow is running a Mother’s Day Sale through May 17 with discounts as high as 64%. They’re also throwing in free hardware to sweeten the deal: All single orders between $600 and $3,000 come with a free 45W solar panel, and orders over $3,000 come with two free 160W solar panels. If you’re looking for something more portable, their RAPID Power Banks are also up to 53% off right now.
Just keep an eye on the countdown clock — it’s for the Flash Sale items that have even better, limited-time price cuts. If you miss the flash window, the standard Mother’s Day and Home Improvement deals (including a $700 installation discount for larger systems) are still valid through mid-May.
Mashable Deals
Here are a few of the best deals I’ve spotted so far:
Buy a $300 Delta gift card and get a free $20 Starbucks gift card
Snag a pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones for $50 off
