Maltz
Here’s what you need to know about Maltz, our go-to source for all things Klingon.
Maltz began as this character from Star Trek III.
He’s the last Klingon left alive on the Klingon Bird of Prey captured by Kirk and his crew around the Genesis Planet.
Maltz demanded that Kirk end his life, but instead Kirk spared him.
Maltz was played by this actor ...
So, not long after the release of this book ...
... fans noticed that the author, Marc Okrand, included an acknowledgement to Maltz in the book.
And thus began the long story of how Maltz ended up as Marc’s Klingon roommate, permanently resident in Okrand’s basement.
At the qepHom 2019, Marc Okrand revealed part of how Maltz came to be in his basement. Apparently Maltz remained imprisoned and forgotten on the captured Bird of Prey throughout its refit on Vulcan, its voyage to Earth and the time travel back to the 20th century, where (and when!) he escaped. How Marc became his custodian will have to wait for another story.
During the Q&A session of
qep'a' 2021
he went more into detail:
For those who were wondering, how Maltz ended up in my basement, since Maltz is from the 23rd century and I'm not, so how can the two of us exist at the same time? If you remember Star Trek III, that movie, at the end of it, the only Klingon who was in the movie, who survived, was Maltz. Also, Maltz is the only Klingon in that movie who – while we were filming – did not speak Klingon. It was John Larroquette. He had zero lines of Klingon dialogue, there was one post production line looped in. Which is why there's two words for "thousand". Anyway, Maltz the character wanted Kirk to kill him, Kirk said I'll do that later, and he put Maltz in the brig I guess, on the Bird of Prey. And then they went their merry way, and then eventually, ended up retrofitting... that's my own word for it, because they improved it, it grew in size somehow or other, and they took it to Earth, went back in time to go Earth to save the wales and all that. While all this was happening, Maltz was still on the Bird of Prey, they forgot all about him. So when they went back to Earth, Maltz went back with them – and he escaped... And somehow he linked up with me, and that's why Maltz is in the basement. So it makes sense that Maltz is around.
