Actor Michael Dorn has confirmed that he is trying to develop a new television show, “Star Trek: Captain Worf.”
He told Star Trek News, “I had come up with the idea because I love the character and I think he’s a character that hasn’t been fully developed and hasn’t been fully realized…”
He said that to his surprise, the idea had “gotten traction.” He shouldn’t be surprised. Worf is popular and Trekkies are in the middle of a drought. (In fact, there is very little good character-driven science fiction [as opposed to fantasy] on television anywhere at the moment.)
A Worf Star Trek vehicle would also replicate in television the political achievement of Barack Obama. It would be the first African-American lead as starship captain in a Star Trek series. Worf was always a supporting character.
Klingons, the alien race to which Worf belongs, have long been subject to Orientalist fantasizing by Star Trek writers, and sometimes were Islamized (having harems, being devoted to a kind of jihad warrior ethic, etc.)
One plotting difficulty I foresee with the series, though, is that Worf is a hawk. He always wants to be on the safe side by attacking first. He is the Neoconservative of the Star Trek universe. Since he wasn’t typically in command, wiser heads could prevail in past plots. If he is the captain of a starship, isn’t there a danger of him starting another big intergalactic war with the Romulans or something? I suppose they could give him a Vulcan first officer
Dorn’s suggestion got me thinking about the appeal of Barack Obama on security issues. Past Democrats had been depicted as weak on national security by Republicans, and Obama is perhaps the first since LBJ who hasn’t been successfully–if most unfairly– painted as a weakling. In his decision to put all his eggs in the basket of getting Bin Laden and destroying al-Qaeda, Obama was acting awfully Klingon. His warrior side is also displayed in his doubling down on the Afghanistan War and his unhealthy fascination with killing people with drones. (By the way, since we are talking popular culture, the best film demonstration of the danger to human rights of covert drones is Bourne Legacy, just as the best popular-culture fable of the US in Afghanistan is the first Iron Man film.) Mind you, I don’t approve of some of Klingon Obama’s policies, though I’m glad he took out Bin Laden.
That is, “No drama Obama” and the Harvard law degree suggest more of a Vulcan cast. But his personal warmth and his hawkishness on some issues are more Klingon. If Dorn does get a Vulcan first officer, the two of them on deck might replicate Obama foreign policy.
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