One Of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Best Characters Almost Got A Comedy Spin-Off
One of the amazing things about "Star Trek" is that it can work in so many different ways. "Star Trek: Lower Decks" proved that "Star Trek" is truly malleable and can exist as both a ridiculous animated comedy and a truly excellent sci-fi series at the same time – and apparently we almost got another "Star Trek" comedy that would have tested the boundaries of what "Star Trek" can be. In an interview with The New York Times in 2021, executive producer, screenwriter, and director Alex Kurtzman revealed that when the folks at Paramount first started looking into the future of "Star Trek" and streaming, there was almost a live-action spin-off that would have been a big swing for the franchise.
Though "Lower Decks" went on for five glorious seasons and there's apparently a "Star Trek" live-action comedy series in the works from "Lower Decks" alum Tawny Newsome, who played Beckett Mariner, at one point we almost got a "Star Trek" comedy starring everyone's favorite grumpy Gus, Worf (Michael Dorn). It's not the only Worf spin-off pitch that's ever existed, of course, but it definitely sounds like it would have been pretty unique!
A tragicomic Worf series would have been wild
According to Kurtzman, there was a pitch all about Worf from Graham Wagner, who worked on shows like "The Office" before becoming co-showrunner on the wildly successful and stellar video game adaptation "Fallout." The pitch, he said, was "incredibly funny, poignant and touching," and he felt that it was a great example of "pushing boundaries" within the realm of "Star Trek." In an interview in Gold Derby with Wagner and his co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Robertson-Dworet revealed a bit more about Worf pilot that never was:
"Graham wrote one of my very favorite unproduced pilots ever, which was to the great 'Star Trek' show 'Worf,' which Graham always described as the 'Baskets' of a 'Star Trek' show. But I think what it showed me was that he has a really unique sensibility and he brought to that show — which is a very popular world that has been explored and very serious sci-fi tone for a long time — a lot of just sort of surprising comedy."
"Fallout" has a lot of great dark comedy mixed in with its action and sci-fi horror moments, which makes the "Worf" pilot sound even more interesting. Comparing it to the Zach Galifianakis-starring FX series "Baskets," about a depressed rodeo clown, is also pretty wild, because Worf is basically the John Wick of the "Star Trek" franchise. It's hard to imagine him as the same kind of pitiful tragicomic character as Galifianakis's Chip Baskets, but it would have been amazing to see Dorn step up to the challenge.
Michael Dorn also pitched his own Worf spin-off
While it would have been amazing to see a heartfelt dark comedy with the ever-conflicted son of Mogh, it's not the only Worf-centric spin-off that almost happened. Dorn himself actually pitched a project where the entire thing would be from a Klingon perspective, with Worf as the Federation ambassador to the Klingon homeworld Q'onos. "Star Trek" fans have come to really love the feisty, fighting Klingons and they have more than enough groundwork laid to develop a killer Klingon series, so why not? After all, there's an entire Klingon language that exists, much like Tolkien's Elvish or the Dothraki and Valyrian languages from "Game of Thrones," so they have some of the hardest worldbuilding already done for them.
It's really a shame that Worf never got the chance to have his own series, and while it's possible that Dorn could return as the character again in some new, post-"Star Trek: Picard" series, it's also deeply unlikely. Oh well. At least Worf, of the Houses of Mogh and Martok, got one heck of a character arc over the years. Qapla'!