Star Trek: Into Darkness

[Devor]

Quick question: The Klingons in this movie looked very different to TNG Klingons... why is that??

There was a makeup change for klingons between the original series and TNG to make them more alien. In one episode of TNG, the klingon Worf goes back in time and one of the characters asks him about it. All he says is, "We do not speak of it." But Into Darkness takes place back with the Original Series, so they needed to show that weird part of the lore, somehow.

 

[ThinkerX]

I have the (dubious???) distinction of having watched all of the series and seen all of the movies. So...

I was surprised to see that Spock was able to take on Khan in a fight (are Vulcans super strong and resistant, too?)

Vulcans are notably stronger than humans, and in certain ways, tougher. However, alcohol is a literal poison to vulcans.

and the fact that the Vengeance could withstand all those torpedoes exploding together inside it was a little strange, as well.

1) The Vengeance was military grade. Or in other words, built d*mn tough.

2) The warheads that went off were much smaller than the ones which would normally be present (because that space was taken up by the hibernation capsules. Possibly, these were just the detonators...the small charges used to trigger the 'real' explosion.

Quick question: The Klingons in this movie looked very different to TNG Klingons... why is that??

Answered in the last TV series, 'Enterprise', commanded by Archer, who was mentioned as an Admiral in the previous movie. Essentially, we have Khan to thank for this. Hmmm...

1) In that timeline (roughly our present or near future), Khan's bunch of supermen fought and lost a devastating war to take over the earth. Some (Khan and company) fled, others were killed, but a large amount of genetic material - everything you need to build a superpowered psychopath - was put into a facility in deep space.

2) Klingons originally looked like the TNG Klingons. They saw themselves as supreme warriors...but were not above improving themselves. Shortly after encountering humans, they learned of the deep space facility where the souped up DNA was stashed and raided it. The original intent was a sort of serum to make them even tougher. Instead, they ended up with an out of control plague which did that AND altered their appearance. This has been largely (and brutally) 'fixed' by TNG times.