Star Trek Desperately Needs To Give DS9 Hero Their Own Series

Perhaps the main reason I want a Star Trek: Worf series is that his time on Deep Space Nine did the character dirty. Thanks to joining this spinoff and still appearing in the TNG movies, Michael Dorn has spent more screen time playing his Trek character than anyone else. Nonetheless, it often felt like Worf remained static or even regressed over time.

On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Worf wasn’t just a stick in the mud–he’s the guy who became such an incel that he committed eco-terrorism on the pleasure planet Risa to annoy his free-spirited girlfriend. He remained an awful dad to Alexander and was mostly the same paranoid freak from TNG but in a different uniform. Star Trek: Picard gave Worf his first real character growth in decades, but the truth is he could grow so much more with a series of his own.

It’s basically impossible to discuss giving Michael Dorn a solo Star Trek show without comparing his potential Worf spinoff to Picard. However, Picard’s biggest early problem is that it replaced the TNG characters we love with unlikeable archetypes (who can forget SmokeySpacePirate, DrManicMurderer, or ElfOnASquelch?). By comparison, there are plenty of great supporting Star Trek characters to fill out a solo Worf show.

His son Alexander would be necessary for such a show, and we’d love to see Klingon leader Martok make his triumphant return. Ezri Dax could be a great shoulder to lean on with connections to earlier Star Trek, and it would be amazing for Worf’s other DS9 colleagues to pop in from time to time. For that matter, more cameos from TNG mainstays like Riker and Troi (a former girlfriend to our gruff warrior) could round out a stellar cast of familiar faces.

It would be great to see a Star Trek: Worf series correct one of the more bizarre Deep Space Nine stories. First playing the recurring character in TNG, frequent Trek flyer Tony Todd makes his final appearances as Worf’s brother Kurn in the DS9 episode “Sons of Mogh.” With their family house in ruins, Kurn wants to end his life, but instead Worf intervenes and has his memories erased so that he can be adopted by a smaller Klingon family and given a false background.

Not only is it somewhat insane that Julian Bashir agrees to perform the surgery, but Worf is later restored to an honorable place in Klingon society when Martok welcomes him into his House. Yet Worf leaves his brother clueless and without his memory. A solo series could correct this injustice.

There are many directions a Star Trek: Worf show could take, and I’ve argued before how cool it would be to follow up on an alternate Deep Space Nine future where Alexander agitates for peace in the Klingon Empire so hard that Klingons assassinate Worf. However, the easiest direction such a show could take has already been outlined in Star Trek: Picard–a show whose third season gave us a very different Worf. 

Gone was the angry and paranoid Worf–in his place was a cool Zen warrior who embraced peace but could still lop heads off with the best of them. Frankly, it’s fascinating that Worf finally experienced real character growth after decades of being completely static. We didn’t get to actually see how this growth happened, however, and that’s an issue a Star Trek: Worf show could finally address.

The final reason I believe a Star Trek: Worf series needs to happen is that back in 2021, Michael Dorn revealed that he wrote a movie for his character because he was inspired by the Star Wars film Rogue One. Now that Rogue One has led to the insanely successful Andor show, I think Dorn could translate his film idea into an episodic Worf series with the same grim and gritty tone. In this way, fans could finally have a more serious Star Trek show that doesn’t make us cringe.

Previously, Star Trek tried to deliver more serious “adult” entertainment by adding awkward swear words and oodles of gore to shows like Discovery and Picard. However, Andor doesn’t work because of vulgarity or violence; rather, it became the best modern Star Wars show simply by treating its characters, universe, and story with dignity instead of as just another chance to sell toys. 

If we could have a Star Trek: Worf show with that level of quality, we’d have more than a great franchise spinoff–we’d finally have a Star Trek show where the writers don’t just add a few F-bombs to a juvenile script and pretend they’ve created something mature.