Jean-Luc Picard’s return to Star Trek was a hit. Sure, Picard had a couple of duff midseason episodes and turning the titular character into a synth was a strange choice, but it was nice to see Stewart at the helm of a starship, the show caused a spike in subscribers to CBS All Access and season 2 is filming soon. One of the best aspects, though, was the nostalgia trip of reuniting with The Next Generation‘s most beloved characters, with Riker, Troi and Data all making appearances. But as the season wrapped, there was one big absence that bugged me. Where the hell was Michael Dorn‘s Worf?
The Klingon security officer was one of the best things about The Next Generation and went on to make a similar impact in Deep Space Nine. Rumors are building that he’s set to play a key role in the show’s second season, but judging by a new interview with Horror Geek Life, CBS hasn’t approached Dorn yet and he has no idea why.
To begin with, though, he was asked about his proposed Worf spinoff show, Star Trek: Captain Worf, and gave his perspective on how he envisages it, saying:
“I’ve been trying to get somebody in the Star Trek world to do a Worf TV series, and if not a series then a movie like Rogue One, a kind of one-off, because I love Rogue One, I thought it was brilliant. It’s funny, people were going yeah, but everybody died, and I said yeah, I know, I loved that. I wrote a script for it many, many years ago, sometimes there is interest, then it goes away and I thought the Star Trek world is missing out on a character that can definitely make them money.”
He went on to say that his Worf series is practically ready to film and he’d be good to go whenever, but can’t work out why they don’t bite.
“I thought this would be an easy sell, a really easy thing to do because the script is written, I’m here, I’m in great shape, not broken down and crotchety or anything. I’d love to direct and I’m kind of a Santa Claus when it comes to acting. I’m not interested in having Worf the focus of every scene, I just love the character and want to go to work. I mean in the end, it’s their call, I’m sure they have a reason, I just don’t know what it is.”
It’s a head-scratcher for me, too, with the only plausible reason I can think of is that someone in charge of Star Trek isn’t a fan of The Next Generation‘s style of Klingon and prefers the Discovery look (though we did get a TNG-style Klingon in animated show Lower Decks). Meanwhile, Dorn is left wondering if he’s accidentally offended anyone at CBS, explaining:
“The other strange thing is we have all of these Star Trek shows and Worf isn’t in any of them. It’s strange, it’s not like I’ve done anything to anyone, at least I hope I haven’t, but who knows?”
If he’s not a part of Picard‘s second season, then at least bring Michael Dorn back in some capacity over the many, many upcoming Star Trek projects. After all, there are several of them in development that he can easily slot into. In any case, let’s hope we hear confirmation on this soon, as I will not rest until Worf returns.