Collectie

Star Trek Klingon Fandom Collection

• 1981 - 2019 (Vervaardig)

1 box and multiple objects

This collection consists of fanworks produced and gathered by fans of the Klingon culture from the Star Trek franchise. Materials include fanzines, art, club newsletters, and other objects of creative expression.

Klingons represent an active subset of the larger Star Trek fan community, and have been so for several decades. Klingon fans are particularly visible because of their frequent involvement in often-elaborate cosplay (that is, the use of costumes and accessories to represent specific characters, often personae created by the participants themselves).

The Klingons are an aggressive race of humanoid warriors, first seen in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Errand of Mercy" (1967). The Klingons started out as major adversaries of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew, Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. However, as the Star Trek franchise began expanding in 1987 with the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Klingons evolved from enemies into uneasy allies, and numerous episodes of TNG and later Star Trek series were devoted to exploring aspects of Klingon culture. They continue to occupy a major position in the overall Star Trek universe.

Klingon fandom is most notable for its adoption of the Klingon language. Klingon is a real (albeit artificially constructed) language with its own system of grammar, structure and rules of pronunciation. It was originally created by linguist Marc Okrund in the mid-1980s for the Star Trek films and was adopted into later iterations of the television franchise. Klingon has been expanded on by interested fans and language hobbyists to the point where a number of literary works have been translated from English to Klingon. Many Klingon-related fan creations are written at least partially in the Klingon language, and it is not uncommon for dedicated fans to speak it amongst themselves.

As an artificial collection, the Klingon Fandom Collection is organized into individual series based around each individual donor and/or creator.

These materials are stored offsite and require additional time for retrieval.

The Shona Jackson series was donated by Susan Frank in May 2018.

Collection processed by Jeremy Brett, October 2021.
Finding aid created by Jeremy Brett, October 2021.

• Fan fiction
• Star trek
• Fans (Persons)
• Klingon (Artificial language)
• Science Fiction & Fantasy