Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Qapla' petaQ!

I know, I know. That title is not a sentence you’d hear often in Klingon, as it seems a little contradictory. But According to IMDB, some Trek fans claim that the insult is derived from the name of Michael Pataki, the character actor who played a Klingon on the original Star Trek series. Specifically, he’s the guy named Korax who started the bar brawl in The Trouble with Tribbles by goading Scotty into throwing the first punch. In the scene, Scotty, as the ranking officer in the bar, urges other officers to remain calm as Korax roundly ridicules the Captain Kirk and the crew, but when the Klingon insults the Enterprise itself, Scotty stands up and slugs him. That was just going too far.

Pataki was a well-respected character actor who, during a long career, played parts on stage and in over 150 movies and TV shows. He died of cancer on April 15 at the age of 72.

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