Michael Dorn Saw A Lot Of Kill Bill In Worf's Return For Star Trek: Picard
Few "Star Trek" characters are as beloved as Worf, the first Klingon to join Starfleet, and there are plenty of reasons why. Not only is he the character with the most onscreen appearances, but he's also had quite the journey across multiple "Star Trek" series, starting with "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Michael Dorn, who plays the opera-loving, prune juice-drinking Klingon, is also fiercely protective of his character. It's understandable then that Terry Matalas, who took over as showrunner for the third season of "Star Trek: Picard," was nervous about his pitch for bringing Worf back decades after we last saw him in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Not only was this approach different from some of the post-"DS9" comics and novels, but it was a big swing. Thankfully, it turns out that his idea reminded Dorn of a fun Quentin Tarantino character, and from there, things just started to click into place.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Matalas revealed some of his plans for season 3, which will serve as a swan song for "The Next Generation," and shared the details behind bringing back each of the beloved crew members once more.
Turning Worf into a sensei
Matalas told EW that he wanted to make the third season of "Picard" work in the same way for "The Next Generation" crew that the 1991 film "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" did for the crew of the original series, giving them a proper send-off. He also didn't feel like the post-"Deep Space Nine" books and comics about Worf really worked, because he couldn't picture Worf as a starship captain. (For the record, I can't either.) Instead, he saw Worf as more of a wandering samurai, a lone ronin with his bat'leth strapped to his back. When he told Dorn about his idea for a very different version of Worf than the one from the comics and books, the actor didn't think of samurai, he thought of one seriously cool kung-fu sensei: Gordon Liu's Pai Mei from "Kill Bill Vol. 2."
The showrunner confirmed that a Pai Mei kind of vibe was definitely in the right direction, and Dorn apparently said, "I love it." How could he not? Worf had a tendency to be a bit solitary and stand-offish, and he's also always followed a rigid set of personal beliefs and rules pretty similar to Pai Mei's own code. In "Kill Bill," Pai Mei teaches people how to be efficient assassins through ancient martial arts, and he's a tough teacher but a total badass.
We still have to wait and see how exactly Worf comes back and what these cryptic comments about samurai and kung-fu sensei vibes are all about, but from what we've seen in the trailers, it's going to be amazing.
"Star Trek: Picard" returns for the final season on Thursday, February 16, 2023, with new episodes every Thursday.