Eh...if the klingons were smart enough to perform successful genetic augmentation on themselves, then they were smart enough to not need it. Social factors are sufficient to account for the transition.
Well, it gives us a way to weave in the "TOS-era Klingon appearance is due to gene tinkering," without making the Klingons look like complete morons for picking up random genes off the curbside and splicing them in without knowing where they'd been. If you're allergic to the idea I don't object.
Plus, this was in the broader context of fan theory that the Vulcans are splicer descendants of the ancestral Vulcans. Who looked more like Romulans, but the Romulans got the hell out rather than surrender to Surak's rather drastic "abolish love and fun so we can keep our crazy splicer emotions under control" program.
All this talk of Klingons makes me think a Klingon Quest running on similar (but maybe slightly inverted) mechanics to this one would be quite cool.
Definitely a lot more fun than the "Terran Empire" mirror version of the quest that we seem to get occasional cross-posts from. The ones about how we need to unleash massive violence or have weapons of mass destruction 'just in case,' with that weird, gleeful tone. Bleh.
I have to admit, the Klingons and Romulans having such large star empires that they can threaten the Federation on their own has always been a bit of a head-scratcher for me. I mean, they're probably highly aggressive in annexing systems and building colonies, sure... but on the other hand, the Federation had a large number of races and all of THEM were most likely building colonies as well. Some admittedly more than others - the Vulcans or Risans don't strike me as particularly expansionist, for example - but still.
The Romulans and Klingons were out in space in, like, the 1500s. The Andorians and Tellarites are 'younger races' by their standards. Humans are the newest of the newbies. So as others have noted, the evidence supports the idea that all four Federation founding races were
really small and puny at the founding of the Federation. By contrast, their two or three biggest rivals were all fairly old and well developed, suh that four minor powers had to pool their resources just to be competitive.
Then, over time, the Federation grew to overshadow them through diplomacy, recruiting new species, and exploration and science that gave them technological advantages...
Matter of time until humans join that.
Less certain about other species, but humans for sure.
Almost certainly not. Humans in this time-period are shifting away from commercial pursuits pretty hard; it's the only way to explain the way Picard talks. SOME humans will no doubt join the Mercantile faction, just as some humans are no doubt Hawks, Pacifists, or Developmentalists. But it won't become the dominant preferred party of United Earth.
Now, the
Orions may wind up enormously grateful for this if and when the Orion Union joins the Federation. And
they may become a powerful influence within the Mercantile faction.
That said, the Rigellians may currently be planning to form their own bloc for (sensible) power-brokering purposes. RIght now there are four parties, one of which is rather marginalized (Hawks), so that an alliance of any two of the other three is likely to dominate. With five parties, one of whom is new and free to throw its weight around, there is a bit less certainty. Which in turn means the Rigellians get disproportionate political leverage, more than they'd enjoy if they just became "still more Development voters."
Though it'll be interesting to see how Development and Mercantile positions differ on key issues.
