Worf Is A Bad Dad Who Deserves His Own Story
One of the major lessons that modern classic shows like Breaking Bad have taught us is that flawed characters offer good writers almost unlimited storytelling potential. That’s a lesson that Star Trek: The Next Generation Worf actor Michael Dorn has apparently learned and is willing to fully lean into. After Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas mentioned the possibilities of a Star Trek spinoff showcasing Worf’s relationship with his son Alexander, Dorn acknowledged in a later interview that this would be “a good story” explicitly “because Worf has been a terrible father.”
Worf And Alexander: The Series
Why do we agree with Michael Dorn that a new TV series focusing on Worf and Alexander’s relationship would be great? Despite how the late, great Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry felt, the truth is that conflict is at the heart of the greatest stories ever told. Arguably, the third season of Picard provides a great template for such a show, as the tension between Picard and his son gave each of them a rewarding arc of reconciliation and growth.
We Need To See Grown-Up Alexander
Plus, we’re morbidly curious to see what Alexander has been doing all these years. Is he still in the Klingon Empire and, if so, has he become the hardened warrior Worf always wanted him to be?
Should that be the case, we would ironically have room for more tension and creative storytelling because the older Worf we see in Star Trek: Picard has traded all his anger for meditation and good vibes. How funny would it be if a new show inverted their old relationship, with Alexander being the archetypical angry Klingon who keeps wondering how his dad got so soft?
Worf Didn’t Know He Had A Son
If the idea that this honorable Klingon warrior is actually an awful father sounds surprising, all you need to do is watch a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featuring Worf’s interactions with Alexander. Initially, the Klingon had no idea that he even had a son because this was hidden from him by Alexander’s half-Klingon, half-human mother K’Ehleyr.
He’d later confess to Chief O’Brien that he would always regret not seeing his son as a toddler; based on the fact that the kid was hidden from Worf and he had to raise Alexander after K’Ehleyr died, it’s hard not to be sympathetic.
The Klingon Sends His Son Away
That sympathy lasts only until you hit any given Star Trek episode showing their interactions as father and son. For one thing, Worf wastes no time trying to dump his son off on his adoptive human parents, kicking Alexander off the Enterprise so that he could be raised on Earth.
He returns to the ship only a year later, and it’s worth noting that Worf would frequently fret over his son not being Klingon enough…an ironic complaint given that Worf did everything possible to ensure his three-quarters-human son was raised by humans on the human homeworld.
Worf and Alexander bond a bit over the course of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but by the time the Klingon transfers to Deep Space Nine, we discover he has sent Alexander to live with his adoptive parents on Earth yet again. Keep in mind the primary reason those parents sent Alexander back to the Enterprise in the first place is because they thought he needed his father around and believed they were too old to raise a Klingon.
Worf apparently has no problem later disregarding their wishes, abandoning Alexander yet again and leaving it to his elderly parents (now that much older) to raise the kid they were convinced they couldn’t handle.
Alexander’s Attempt To Gain Worf’s Love
Later, obviously desperate to get Worf’s attention, Alexander joins the Klingon Empire in an attempt to become a warrior worthy of his father’s love. Unfortunately, he completely sucked in this new role, only gaining the affection of his Klingon crew because they enjoyed laughing at his constant buffoonery.
While they would later reconcile, Alexander was very open about his resentment at being abandoned, and Worf criticized his son’s performance so hard and so frequently that even he was forced to admit he had a lot to learn about being a father.
Firstborn
It’s very much a longshot, but as Deep Space Nine fans, we’d also love to see a new series pay off the wild Alexander story set up in “Firstborn.” In that episode, an Alexander from 40 years in the future travels to the past determined to ensure that his younger self becomes a proper Klingon warrior. We find out that the older Alexander kept preaching for the Klingon Empire to embrace peace, causing angry Klingons to assassinate Worf in retaliation; the older Alexander hoped that by changing his own destiny in the past, he could prevent his father’s tragic murder in the future.
Interestingly, that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode aired 30 years ago, so if you throw in the time to cast, write, and produce a new Worf series, we’d be right on track for the point in time that the Klingon was originally supposed to be assassinated. Back in “Firstborn,” Worf consoled his time-traveling son that he had already changed the timeline, meaning that Worf was not necessarily destined to die. That means a new show could have its gagh and eat it, too, by showing how that future scenario would play out now that Worf and Alexander are very different people.
A Series Worth Watching
Of course, none of that happens if we don’t get a new Star Trek series in the first place. Unfortunately, we can’t travel back in time to keep Paramount from making bad decisions regarding this franchise (if we could, we’d definitely wipe Nemesis out of existence), so it’s up to all of us in the here and now to let the network know how much we need a TV show focusing on Worf and Alexander. If nothing else, we’re hoping to see Worf debut his amazing new catchphrase for fans: “today is a good day to dad.”
