Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Worf wasn’t supposed to be a regular cast member, but here’s how he became such a big part of the show. Star Trek: The Next Generation launched in 1987, the first spinoff in the franchise to not feature the iconic characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. TOS creator Gene Roddenberry returned to the franchise for TNG, after being unceremoniously dumped by the TOS film franchise.
Despite a bumpy first couple of seasons, Star Trek: The Next Generation was a huge hit, becoming the most successful show in first run syndication ever. The cast was also stacked with great actors, chief among them Patrick Stewart as the intellectual, empathetic Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data, the android officer who longed to be more human.
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Another standout among the cast was Michael Dorn as Klingon warrior Lieutenant Worf, but it turns out that foundational member of The Next Generation’s crew wasn’t meant to be a significant part of it at all. Worf was originally intended to be a background character who only appeared in three or four episodes before filming on the show’s first episode, “Encounter At Farpoint,” commenced. Dorn, a lifelong Star Trek fan, took his opportunity in stride but producers ended up being so impressed with his performance that they soon decided to bump him up to series regular.
That would prove to be a momentous decision as Worf would become a pivotal player on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was the character through which Klingon culture as a whole was largely defined. The conflicted Klingon’s feelings about humanity and his own people made Worf a child of two worlds who felt uneasy in both, but he had an unassailable personal code of honor that in some ways made him the purest Klingon character in Star Trek history.
Dorn appeared in all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as the four follow-up movies. He would also eventually move over to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where he stayed for that show’s final four seasons. Deep Space Nine would also expand both Worf’s personal world and the mythology of the Klingons considerably. Dorn even appeared as Worf’s grandfather – who was also named Worf – in the final TOS film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Michael Dorn has appeared in more Star Trek than any other performer in the franchise, and it’s amazing to think it almost never happened.
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