How Michael Dorn Made Worf Stand Out On Star Trek: The Next Generation

When “Star Trek: The Next Generation” debuted in 1987, it offered Trekkies a new character that flew in the face of everything they knew. In the original “Star Trek,” the dastardly Klingons were frequently offered as aggressive antagonists, usually standing as the arch-nemesis of the Federation. On “Next Generation,” a Klingon — Worf, played by Michael Dorn — was part of the senior staff of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. In the show’s second season, Worf even became the ship’s chief of security. All animosity toward the Klingons, Trekkies had to learn, was old-fashioned and even ill-advised. Peace was declared, and the Klingons were now allies. 

Of course, Worf wasn’t the sunniest, most peaceful character. He was often quick to suggest violent courses of action to his captain and often looked on all alien visitors with suspicion. Of course, as chief of security, that was his job. Occasionally, he would get angry. Worf was also, for lack of a better term, a huge nerd. He was raised on Earth, specifically in Russia, by human parents, and had to learn about his Klingon heritage from books and study. As such, he became a nerd for humorless honor, determined to have as little fun as possible. Even compared to other Klingons, Worf was taciturn and unflexible. 

The character was so popular that he was eventually ported over to “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” giving Worf four additional seasons to the seven he already lived out on “Next Generation.” Michael Dorn has appeared in more episodes of “Star Trek” than any other actor. 

Dorn, of course, was happy for the work and followed the role wherever it would lead. Even in the early days of “Next Generation,” he knew he was there merely to play Worf to the best of his abilities. He wasn’t concerned with likability or his character’s personal story arcs in the least. In a 2012 interview with StarTrek.com, Dorn admitted that he was just there to do a job and do it well. That was it.

Dorn was pragmatic when it came to his job playing Worf. When asked if he was concerned that acting in a large ensemble might diminish his character, Dorn said he wasn’t concerned. After all, Dorn acknowledged that he wasn’t a writer on the show, and all of Worf’s life choices would be out of his hands. He didn’t even do stunts. “I basically took it a day at a time,” he said. “My main thing was getting the part right and being as good as I can. I just didn’t think about the future like that.” 

Two things: getting the part right, and doing a good job. A healthy outlook for any job, really. 

Dorn recalls that some of his co-stars didn’t share his outlook. Some of them, he said, wanted to play characters that an audience would perceive as friendly. The idea was that if an actor plays a friendly character, a writer would want to write more scenes for them. This was especially true in the early years of the show when, Dorn recalled, everyone was still finding their footing. Dorn held no such preoccupations with the future of Worf, though. He said:

“Everybody was running around. They were doing their jobs, but you could tell they were trying eke out their future, basically. You want to be friends with Data. You want to be friends with Geordi. You want to be friends with Picard. You want to align yourself with all these people because their feeling is: the writers write relationships and, if you have a relationship, they’ll write more of the relationship for you. Personally, I just went, ‘Who cares? I’m going to be this strange, mean, pissed-off guy.'”

Dorn’s devotion to being mean and pissed off, it seems, was ultimately beneficial. 

Dorn, merely reading his lines and doing a good job, allowed Worf to form as a character. Dorn brought Worf his violent temperament, as well as his nerdy devotion to honor, and the writers of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” latched onto what he was laying down. Dorn was happy to accept the Worf stories handed to him, knowing that the writers probably knew what to do with Worf in the long run. Dorn said: 

“Fortunately, the writers took off with that. All that stuff they wrote about Worf being an orphan and being raised by Russian parents, that’s all the writers’ stuff. I didn’t do anything about that. I just gave them what the character was, and that was it.” 

Of course, that didn’t stop Dorn from running with Worf a little bit. After “Deep Space Nine” came to an end in 1999, Dorn felt that Worf could easily continue on his own series. By the end of his tenure on DS9, Worf became the Federation’s ambassador to the Klingon homeworld, Qo’noS. Dorn wrote an entire pilot for a Worf-centered TV series about how Qo’noS needed to rebuild after a war, and how the Klingons had to begrudgingly accept the Federation as a massive galactic power. 

That series never came to fruition, but Worf did eventually come back. On the third season of “Star Trek: Picard” in 2023, Dorn played a grey-haired Worf, now working as an undercover agent for Starfleet, rooting out non-Federation criminals. “Star Trek,” it seems, can’t do without Worf for long.