The Star Trek Character That Actually Deserves A Prequel
While Star Trek is a franchise focused on the future, Paramount just can’t stop focusing on the past. Since 2005, all of the Trek movies and almost all of the shows have been prequels, and there are no less than two prequel films currently in development. Since this franchise seems incapable of looking forward, I have a simple plea for the powers that be: we need a prequel movie or series to focus on Mogh, Worf’s daddy and one of the most important Klingons in Trek history.
Worf, Son Of Mogh
Before I go any further, you’re going to need to disable your cloaking device to receive some background info about Mogh. Beyond being Worf’s deceased father, Mogh was a very big deal in the Klingon Empire, someone who helped out influential Houses in the empire with things like their blood feuds.
He was sadly killed during the Romulan attack on Khitomer, dying before he could expose that Ja’rod, patriarch of the House of Duras, was collaborating with the Romulan Star Empire.
In terms of background info, this is about all we really know about Mogh. However, he cast a long shadow over Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine because he died while Worf was a very young child.
Worf ended up being raised by human parents, and Worf would spend most of his life effectively stuck between two worlds and trying to prove that he was truly Klingon.
We Don’t Need More Of The Same
With all that out of the way, why do I think Mogh should be the focus of a Star Trek prequel? First, on principle, I feel like the franchise should use prequels to flesh out important characters that we don’t know much about rather than characters with a ton of screen time.
Like, all the performances are great, but we’ve now had three different sets of actors portraying Kirk and Spock, characters who have been the most prominent faces of this franchise from the very beginning.
A Time We Haven’t Seen Much
Additionally, Mogh would be the perfect character for the kind of Star Trek series fans have been demanding for decades: one focused on the Klingons. Mogh’s connection to popular TNG characters like Worf would help create buy-in for fans, and it would be great to see stories about the Klingon Empire at the height of its power (pre-Civil War, pre-Dominion War, etc).
As an added bonus, such a show could explore a relatively unknown time period in Star Trek history: the early days of a shaky peace between Federations and Klingons.
The Khitomer Accords
Finally, even the little bit we know of Mogh reveals that he has an interesting story to tell—after all, he died while investigating a high-profile Klingon leader colluding with the Empire’s greatest enemies.
Plus, while the franchise has never wanted to pin down the exact date of the peace treaty between the Klingons and the Federation, we know where Mogh died was crucial to all of this because the agreement is known as the Second Khitomer Accords (as opposed to the first agreement, portrayed in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country).
Done well, a prequel series could be filled with some Game of Thrones-like intrigue while providing more details about the historic peace between these two empires.
We Won’t Hold Our Breath
Without Mr. Spock, I can’t calculate the odds of us ever getting a prequel series centered around Mogh, but I’d wager they are pretty low. That’s unfortunate, though, because he represents the franchise’s best way to tell an original story focusing on this famous race. And if Paramount can’t figure out how to do something truly original, they might discover that any day now is “a good day to die” for Star Trek.
