The Klingon Hamlet, or The Tragedy of Khamlet, Son of the Emperor of Qo'noS, is a translation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet into Klingon, a constructed language first appearing in the science fiction franchise Star Trek. The play was translated over several years by Nick Nicholas and Andrew Strader of the "Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project", with feedback and editorial assistance from Mark Shoulson, d'Armond Speers, and Will Martin. The impetus for the project came from a line from the motion picture Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in which Chancellor Gorkon states, "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon." According to a disclaimer, the project is written in a satirical style implied by Gorkon's quote — that Shakespeare was actually a Klingon (named "Wil'yam Sheq'spir") writing about an attempted coup in the Klingon Empire. Impetus In a scene from the film Star Trek VI a dinner is held for the Klingon chancellor, Gorkon. He makes a toast to "the undiscovered country...the future". Spock, recognising the quotation, responds, "Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1", to which Gorkon replies with his statement about the "original" Klingon text of Shakespeare. Though Gorkon does not quote from the "original" Klingon text, another character, Chang, quotes the Klingon words "taH pagh taHbe'" (To be, or not to be). The film is filled with other quotations and references to Shakespeare. The phrase "the undiscovered country" is quoted from Hamlet's soliloquy. The film's director Nicholas Meyer said the idea for having the Klingons claim Shakespeare as their own was based on Nazi Germany's attempt to claim William Shakespeare as German before World War II. A similar scene appears in the wartime British film "Pimpernel" Smith (1941) in which a German general quotes Shakespeare, saying “'To be or not to be', as our great German poet said." The idea had also already been used by Vladimir Nabokov in his novel Pnin, the eponymous hero of which taught his American college class that Shakespeare was much more moving "in the original Russian." Style and format The English version of the play appears alongside its "original Klingon" text. The "original Klingon" version differs from the English version in ways that reflect the play's history as supposedly originating from Klingon culture. Reference sections in the book show how literal translations of the Klingon body text have had to be "adapted" to make it intelligible for human