Star Trek legend Michael Dorn reflects on Worf’s final act in Picard

In television — as in sports — some records are simply unbreakable. No one will ever pitch more complete games than Cy Young, no one will ever hold pro wrestling’s highest title longer than Bruno Sammartino, and no one will ever make more appearances on Star Trek than Michael Dorn.

Between 1987 and 2002, Dorn portrayed Starfleet’s mighty and stoic Klingon expatriate Worf in 174 episodes of Star Trek: The Next GenerationYou can watch 98 episodes Star Trek: Deep Space NineHe also directed four feature films. Add in his cameo as Worf’s grandfather in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered CountryThis adds up at 277. This still represents nearly one-third of Star Trek’s entire canon, even after its revival in 2017. Now, Dorn has picked up his mek’leth and bumpy prosthetic forehead once more to reprise Worf in the final season of Star Trek: PicardThis reunites both the Next GenerationOne last adventure. It’s the chance to give one of sci-fi’s most beloved supporting characters something that’s usually reserved only for Captains and Admirals: a glorious third act.

Though he’s now one of the franchise’s most recognizable figures, Lt. Worf was a last-minute addition to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gene Roddenberry, series creator, wanted to steer clear of familiar alien antagonists. Robert Justman, producer, suggested that a Klingon be added to the Enterprise crew to signify their end to the long Cold War against the Federation. After all, it was 1987. So, the security officer Worf was born, added to the final series pilot and cast shortly after initial publicity photos were taken for the series. Dorn was best-known for his role as a support character on the comedy police drama. CHiPs.

“They really didn’t have a bible for Worf at all,” says Dorn of those early episodes. “In fact, one of the first things I did was, I asked the producers, ‘What do you want from this guy? You’ve just handed me a piece of paper that says Worf on it.’” With Roddenberry’s blessing, Dorn set out making the character his own, giving Worf the kind of personal investment and attachment that only an actor can provide. “I decided to make the guy the opposite of everybody else on the show. You know, everyone else, their attitudes were great, and they’re out there in space, relationships are forming. They were the same after each mission. Wasn’t that fantastic? I didn’t say anything to anybody, I just made him this gruff and surly character on the bridge. No smiles, no joking around.”

It didn’t take the show’s producers long to realize that Dorn’s gruff, joyless performance could effectively turn any bit of throwaway dialogue into a laugh line. Dorn recalls an incident while shooting the early episode “Justice,” in which Worf is welcomed to an idyllic alien world by an embrace from a beautiful, scantily clad woman, and retorts, simply, “Nice planet.” He hadn’t thought much of it, until he learned that the producers had been watching the take on repeat during dailies, laughing their asses off. From here on out, writers would attempt to insert deadpan “Worfisms” into scripts, producing some of the character’s most memorable moments, but also forcing Dorn to occasionally lay down the law about his character.

“That’s been one of the big issues about Worf’s character that I’ve tried to keep consistent,” says Dorn regarding writers’ tendency to play him for laughs. “Worf does not think he’s funny. He doesn’t say funny things. It’s the people’s reaction around him that’s funny.”

Alongside his role as the show’s unlikely comic relief, however, Worf developed into one of Star Trek’s most complicated protagonists. Roddenberry mandated that the show’s human characters had evolved beyond the sorts of interpersonal conflicts that typically drive television dramas, but Worf, an alien, was permitted to be contrarian, hot-tempered, and even malicious. Dorn recalls being taken aback after reading the script to the season 3 episode “The Enemy,” in which Worf refuses to offer a lifesaving blood transfusion to a gravely wounded Romulan soldier. The Romulan tells him that he’d rather die than “pollute his blood with Klingon filth,” and Worf obliges him, without remorse. Worf feels that salvaging the life of Romulans would be a disservice to his parents who died in Romulan sneak attacks when Worf was a kid. Although this is against Starfleet’s ideals and makes Worf ill-informed, it does make him a unique character. He adheres strictly to an honor code that is not completely incompatible with the codes of his fellow crew members.

This is if he can even be called to have any peers. Worf is the starklingon only in Starfleet. He was rescued from Starfleet by a human officer following the massacre of his family. Worf was raised on Earth by two adoring and demonstrative Russian Jews. He is encouraged to embrace his Klingon heritage, despite his isolation from the rest of his culture. He draws his Klingon identity largely from their mythology. This includes stories of honourable battles and the wise counsel of Kahless (Klingon Christ). But it’s also a self-portrait, processing that which makes him different from his human family and classmates into a cultural identity. “Klingons do not laugh,” Worf tells Whoopi Goldberg’s worldly bartender Guinan in the episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” a claim that Guinan has the experience to debunk. Worf believes that Klingons don’t laugh because he himself doesn’t. Worf is not invited because he has never been to one of these parties.

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Worf’s reverence for other Klingons is challenged nearly every time he encounters another of his kind. He sees Klingon soldiers and politicians like the greedy Chancellor Gowron lying and cheating in their pursuits of power and glory. Although he can win his citizenship back, he has been excommunicated twice from the Klingon Empire. Yet, however many times “real” Klingon conduct clashes with his values, Worf never allows this to pollute his own sense of honor. Worf is unabatedly honest, faithful, and brave. Over the years other Klingons have noticed and come to respect him. Although his identity and self-image is based on fantasy, his presence in this universe makes that fantasy more accessible to all.

Worf’s journey runs parallel to the experience of growing up a Star Trek fan. Voyager, Discovery and Enterprise crews are all very similar. represents a humanity that is more compassionate, curious, honorable, and self-sacrificing than anyone you’re likely to meet. This is a wonderful example for a young viewer to follow, but if you go out into the world expecting to find these idols, especially in positions of power and authority, you’re in for a very rude awakening. Most people don’t behave like this. If they were, we’d be living in the Star Trek future right now. If you are able to hold on to the vision of a wiser, more compassionate humanity, and make that reality for those around you, it will be possible to bring it into being.

Dorn fully endorses this interpretation of the character, and also sees him as an example of someone who learns to grow beyond his initial need to define himself through the lens of “Klingon” or “Starfleet.”

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“He’s always thought that humans were this way and Klingons were that way,” says Dorn, “until he realized that Klingons and humans and everybody were very flawed individuals. And in order to grow, he’s taken the best out of each culture and made it its own. He’s on his own path. He has an ego, so I think he thinks he’s better than a lot of people, but he’s also learning that you can’t judge those things. That once you start judging you’re in trouble. You have to accept them for what they are, not only accept them but admire them, and all the negative stuff you leave behind.”

After Next Generation closed out its seven-season run and made the leap to the big screen, Worf’s path led him to Star Trek: Deep Space NineProducers hoped his presence would increase interest in the spinoff’s beleaguered series. Both the character and the show were benefited by his arrival. DS9’s darker tone and more serialized format afforded Worf more growth and development in four seasons than TNGSeven episodes were offered. Dorn stated that this series also explored more of the culture and history of Klingon Empire. Battlestar Galactica, OutlanderPlease see the following: For all MankindYou have the chance to step out from Starfleet’s prim and proper world and get a little swashbuckling.

Deep Space Nine’s finale offered Worf’s story a worthy ending when he is appointed the new ambassador between the Klingons and the Federation. It’s arguably the perfect place for his character’s journey to end, but the franchise marched on, dragging Worf along with it into the underwhelming feature film Star Trek: NemesisHe was once again reduced to comic relief in 2002. Despite his efforts to get a “Captain Worf” spinoff off the ground in the subsequent decade, it appeared that Michael Dorn’s service to Star Trek had finally concluded.

Twenty years later, Dorn — along with the rest of the Next Generation ensemble — has once again been called upon to revitalize a Star Trek spinoff. Season 3 of Star Trek: PicardWorf is reintroduced as an old wise master who believes he can defeat all his enemies in combat. He rarely has to take out this weapon. Dorn has imagined the past 20 years of his character’s life in detail, taking inspiration from a source not entirely disconnected from Star Trek: the films of Quentin Tarantino. Dorn modelled this Worf-like character after an older Klingon proverb. Kill Bill.

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“One of the characters was Pai Mei, this martial arts killer,” says Dorn. “He’s gone so far in the martial arts, the next step is — he can defend himself and kill with a sword, but he can also do it with his bare hands. And with that comes calm, and the ability to know that sometimes you don’t have to kill. That’s how he’s grown in the past 20 years. Now he can dodge ray guns.”

Though his castmates won’t rule out further adventures for their characters, Dorn says that Picard season 3 absolutely works as a satisfying conclusion to Worf’s 35-year voyage.

“The storytellers know his journey, and everyone can see what his journey is; there’s no ambiguity about that.”

One way or another, the actor looks back at his untouchable tenure as Starfleet’s greatest warrior with warmth and appreciation.

“It’s one of those things that validates the idea that you chose the right profession,” Dorn says. “My mother would be proud of me that I had a profession that I’ve been at for the majority of my life. That’s an accomplishment, I think.”