History PlanetOfHats / StarTrek

* The Cardassians are all [[PoliceState service to the state all the time]], in that Cardassians will ''always'' claim that whatever it is they're doing, it's for the good of Cardassia. By virtue of being the focus of ''Deep Space Nine'' (along with the Bajorans), we get a very rounded view of life within the DecadentCourt of Cardassia. A significant number of Cardassians are all {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry all the time because of this, while others are [[MyCountryRightOrWrong far more straightforward examples]]. Some, like [[EnsembleDarkhorse Garak]], are both. One guy even tried to shame his government into admitting the atrocities the Cardassians had committed against the Bajoran people during their occupation of the Bajoran homeworld...for the good of Cardassia. Although note that it's not clear whether this is an innate quality or something fostered by centuries of indoctrination by the military dictatorship that ruled them until [=DS9=] season 4.

* The Klingons are [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy all war all the time]]. They'd tell you their true hat is honor, but [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch not all Klingon put it into practice]], to protagonist Klingon Worf's disillusionment... The problem is that the word "honor" has multiple and very different meanings (even in our world.) They actually are a perfectly reasonable representation of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honour#Cultures_of_honour_and_cultures_of_law society that runs on honor]]. They care about reputation, face, and glory a great deal, but the modern western concept of honor [[HonorIsFairPlay which is all tied up with ideals of chivalry, sportsmanship, and individual conscience]] means nothing to them. A prime example comes from "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E01E02TheWayOfTheWarrior The Way Of The Warrior]]" where humans consider waiting cloaked near a disabled enemy ship to ambush any would-be rescuers to be cheap and cowardly and thus dishonorable, but to Klingons it's laudable because "in war, nothing is more honorable than victory." Worf tries to use both systems, with limited success; when the two are in conflict he tends to go with what his human adoptive parents taught him. The Orcs from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' are also accused of being this, but with the exception of Worf in the Klingons' case, the Orcs are usually slightly more multidimensional.
** Klingons actually became this as a result of {{Flanderization}}. Originally, they were just Star Trek's analogue for the Soviet Union, and their depiction in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' hinted at a rich culture who even [[KlingonsLoveShakespeare enjoyed Shakespeare]] -- this was the trope namer for InTheOriginalKlingon, obviously. After the fall of the USSR, their ProudWarriorRace qualities were dialed up to 11.
** It falls under PlanetOfCopyhats, too, because the first Klingon episode has Commander Kor as its main villain, and ''he'' is ''very'' much like what Klingons will later become. Although a villain, he's genuinely AffablyEvil, honorable in both senses of the word. He'll even [[NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine sit down and politely have a drink]] with a WorthyOpponent before facing him in combat the next day, would rather be fighting in ''glorious battle!'' than subjugating those who are (apparently) unable to fight back. He hates how spineless the Organians (apparently) are and laments that "it is always the brave who have to die." When the Organians show their true colors and put a stop to their battle, not just here but ''everywhere'' for the sake of the galaxy, Kor says of the looming war that will now be put on hold, "A shame, Captain. It would have been glorious." In other words, he's ''exactly'' what the ''TNG''/''[=DS9=]'' fan expects a Klingon villain to act like... and he'll be pretty unique until much later when suddenly one day the Klingons are a whole species of Commander Kors.

** The [[{{Prequel}} prequel]] series ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' establishes that Klingons ''used'' to be less fixated on violence, but their Warrior Caste came to dominate their entire culture. When Captain Archer is put on trial in a Klingon Court, his elderly lawyer remembers the old days and misses them.
** Individual Klingon houses can have their own hats. Tje Houses of Mo'Kai and Duras, for example, are known for espionage, and Mo'Kai in particular is referred to as "weavers of lies".

** Their original hat, while no longer dominant, hasn't been forgotten, and later productions expand on this. The Romulans must have been a ProudWarriorRace in the distant past (possibly as far back as when they were still living on Vulcan) because some Romulans still continue the tradition of sword fighting (e.g. Nero and his men in ''Film/StarTrek2009'') and duels (e.g. Tenqem Adrev initiated one against Picard in ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', and there are several Romulans carrying swords at North Station on Vashti). The Qowat Milat sisterhood is a relic from that era, being an order of warrior nuns who preach the Way of Absolute Candor and who may choose to bind their sword to a quest that they deem to be worthy (i.e. a lost cause).

** According to Quark's religion, upon death, the Blessed Exchequer weighs the profitability of your life to determine if you enter the Divine Treasury or are damned to the Vault of Eternal Destitution. Prayer involves inserting slips of gold-pressed latinum (their currency) into a hollow statue in his likeness and begins with the words, "Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, allow this bribe to open your ears, and hear this plea from your most devout debtor."

** Nog, meanwhile, believes in the Great Material Continuum, that will bring what you need to you, as long as you bring what your customers need to them for the right reward. He also manages to escape the "all profit all the time" part by joining Starfleet. His rationale is this: some people just don't have "the lobes" for for making their profit from a business. His father Rom, for example, has a lot of technical knowledge, able to fix Quark's replicators and holosuites, often from scavenged parts. But his lack of business acumen keeps him from rising above the level of being a waiter/gofer for Quark. Nog thinks he doesn't have the lobes for business either, but knows he can still make a profitable life for himself if he avoids having to become a businessman to do so. Even then, he still has belief in the Great Material Continuum and uses his great business sense in Starfleet, as he quickly becomes TheScrounger for Chief O'Brien in "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River".

* The Klingons are [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy all war all the time]]. They'd tell you their true hat is honor, but [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch not all Klingon put it in practice]], to protagonist Klingon Worf's disillusionment... The problem is that the word "honor" has multiple and very different meanings (even in our world.) They actually are a perfectly reasonable representation of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honour#Cultures_of_honour_and_cultures_of_law society that runs on honor]]. They care about reputation, face, and glory a great deal, but the modern western concept of honor [[HonorIsFairPlay which is all tied up with ideals of chivalry, sportsmanship, and individual conscience]] means nothing to them. A prime example comes from "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E01E02TheWayOfTheWarrior The Way Of The Warrior]]" where humans consider waiting cloaked near a disabled enemy ship to ambush any would-be rescuers to be cheap and cowardly and thus dishonorable, but to Klingons it's laudable because "in war, nothing is more honorable than victory." Worf tries to use both systems, with limited success; when the two are in conflict he tends to go with what his human adoptive parents taught him. The Orcs from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' are also accused of being this, but with the exception of Worf in the Klingons' case, the Orcs are usually slightly more multidimensional.

* The Klingons are [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy all war all the time]]. They'd tell you their true hat is honor, but [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch not all Klingon puts it in practice]], to protagonist Klingon Worf's disillusionment... The problem is that the word "honor" has multiple and very different meanings (even in our world.) They actually are a perfectly reasonable representation of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honour#Cultures_of_honour_and_cultures_of_law society that runs on honor]]. They care about reputation, face, and glory a great deal, but the modern western concept of honor [[HonorIsFairPlay which is all tied up with ideals of chivalry, sportsmanship, and individual conscience]] means nothing to them. A prime example comes from "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E01E02TheWayOfTheWarrior The Way Of The Warrior]]" where humans consider waiting cloaked near a disabled enemy ship to ambush any would-be rescuers to be cheap and cowardly and thus dishonorable, but to Klingons it's laudable because "in war, nothing is more honorable than victory." Worf tries to use both systems, with limited success; when the two are in conflict he tends to go with what his human adoptive parents taught him. The Orcs from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' are also accused of being this, but with the exception of Worf in the Klingons' case, the Orcs are usually slightly more multidimensional.

** This is actually a major plot point in the ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E07ThoseOldScientists Those Old Scientists]]" as Tendi believes a strange portal device was discovered by Orion scientists first despite Boimler claiming Starfleet found it first and that there's no way Orion scientists were around at the time ("Someone had to build the ships!", she countered). The truth is a little more complicated: [[spoiler:The ''Enterprise'' did find it first, but Orion ''pirates'' stole it. Needing it to send the time-stranded Boimler and Mariner back to their time, Pike convinces them to let them take the glory of the discovery as Orion ''scientists''. It probably helped that one of those pirates was Tendi's great-grandma]].

* The Wadi from the Gamma Quadrant are all about playing games. Making first contact with them proved to be exceptionally boring for Commander Sisko, because Quark proved to be a better host just because he had all the games.

* The Orions, the go-to example of the GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe, are all about Seduction. Their society is Matriarchal because females give off natural pheromones that allow them to easily [[DistractedByTheSexy "persuade"]] the weak willed - specifically, the male gender of just about every alien species that exists.
** They became more fleshed out into Mafia aliens and then even further into "Every man has his price" merchants. Or if you want a more positive twist, their hat maybe that there is they never let onto their real motives.
** Basically, they are the Mafia InSpace. The famed "Orion slave girls" are simply a different tactic - the males go in for strong-arm tactics while the females use HoneyTrap tactics aided by their pheromones. Since the one in "The Cage"/"The Menagerie" was an illusion, ''literally the only Orion we've seen who wasn't a villain is Uhura's roommate from one scene in the '09 movie.''

*** It's ultimately revealed in season 3 that she is in fact an ex-pirate, and was deeply offended by a fellow Orion Starfleeter [[StopBeingStereotypical living down to all the stereotypes]], only for him to reveal he was in fact faking it all (he's more like a lame version of Worf -- this guy is from ''Cincinnati, UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}'') and was really just getting all his info from bad holonovels and the like, much to Tendi's fury.
* Tellarites "do not argue for reasons, they simply argue." Spoken by a member of a species that apparently doesn't have such great relations with the Tellarites, but eventually proven true once we get to meet more. Negotiations are often opened by trading insults.
* Conformity as a Hat has been done a few times, most notably with the Borg. With the introduction of Seven of Nine, "efficiency" and "perfection" were added.
** For the rest of the galaxy, the Borg's hat is their [[IAmLegion complete lack of identity.]] They are comprised of members from tens of thousands of species across the galaxy, yet they are all altered into mindless [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot zombie-like cyborgs,]] with only the Borg Queen having any sense of personality. [[MultipleChoicePast They even lack a soild backstory from which one could draw defining characteristics.]] This is best summed up in the opening line of their standard "greeting:"

* Supposedly the El-Aurian hat is "listening," but we've only met three members of the species... one (Guinan) specializes in listening, but one was a con man (in a ''Deep Space Nine'' episode which lampshaded the "listening hat" thing by having a fellow prisoner try to come up to the con man and tell him his life story in jail, whereupon he responded by begging the guards to take the guy away from him) and one was a mad scientist. In that sense the El-Aurians have managed to subvert the usual Trekkian "one hat per species" rule. Although Guinan literally does wear some awesome hats.
** That said, the mad scientist was still quite effective at listening. He would listen to Picard trying to talk him out of his mad scheme to blow up a star, and then repeatedly NoSell a PatrickStewartSpeech because of it.

* The Ferengi are [[HonestJohnsDealership all profit all the time]], plus misogyny. Culturally, money is sort of their state religion. Ferengi tourist sites on their homeworld include the Great Marketplace and their stock exchange, and they consider any remotely non-capitalist actions (including things like giving workers holidays and allowing them to form unions) either incredibly distasteful or crimes worthy of being shunned from being allowed to do business with any Ferengi for. As for the misogyny: It's as though nobody has ever made the argument that allowing half of their population to earn money and buy things will be an economic boost.
** It's in fact at the center of their actual religion. Upon death, the Blessed Exchequer weighs the profitability of your life to determine if you enter the Divine Treasury or are damned to the Vault of Eternal Destitution. Prayer involves inserting slips of gold-pressed latinum (their currency) into a bank in his likeness and begins with the words, "Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, allow this bribe to open your ears, and hear this plea from your most devout debtor."
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' fixed the misogyny part. Quark's mother Ishka instigates a cultural revolution that begins to give women an equal place in Ferengi society using that very argument.
** Nog, meanwhile, attempts to escape the "all profit all the time" part by joining Starfleet. His rationale is this: some people just don't have "the lobes" for business. His father Rom, for example, has a lot of technical knowledge, able to fix Quark's replicators and holosuites, often from scavenged parts. But his lack of business acumen keeps him from rising above the level of being a waiter/gofer for Quark. Nog knows he doesn't have the lobes for business either, but knows he can still make a good life for himself without having to become a businessman. Even then, he still has ''some'' business sense, as he quickly becomes TheScrounger for Chief O'Brien in "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River".