Star Trek: Picard has brought back various former stars from The Next Generation alongside Patrick Stewart’s titular Jean-Luc, but the beloved Enterprise itself has not featured on the series to date. Tie-in novel The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack has now hit shelves, though, and it reveals one big thing that fans have been itching to know: the identity of the current captain of the iconic starship. And it’s a familiar character.
In the Star Trek: Picard – Countdown comics, Picard spoke with Geordi La Forge, who helped construct the Romulan rescue fleet, about the new Enterprise captain and it was clear that it was someone they both trusted and could rely on. In this new novel, it’s finally stated that it’s none other than Worf. This will mean a lot to fans of the character, too, as it once looked like he would never get the chance to command any Starfleet vessel, let alone one of the jewels of their fleet.
In Deep Space Nine episode “Change of Heart,” Starfleet sends the newly-married Worf and Jadzia Dax on a mission to rescue a Federation spy. However, Jadzia receives a serious wound that requires proper treatment, otherwise it will prove fatal. Worf abandons the mission to save his wife, meaning the spy dies. Later, he’s told this will leave a permanent stain on his record that’ll leave him highly unlikely to ever assume command of a ship.
It seems, though, that Picard’s sway was enough to get Starfleet to overlook this incident from Worf’s past when he recommended his old friend for the position of Enterprise captain. It probably also helped that promoting Starfleet’s first ever Klingon officer to command would be a clear message of unity to the Klingon Empire at a time when the galaxy is becoming increasingly divided, thanks to the destruction of Romulus.
Michael Dorn has been pushing for a Worf spinoff for a while now, so it’s interesting that this novel gives him a premise to work with. I mean, what fan wouldn’t want to see Worf’s adventures as Enterprise captain? That said, we’ve been told not to expect Dorn on Star Trek: Picard, at least not for its first couple of seasons, so we’ll just have to wait and see where this plot thread goes.