One Star Trek Character Inspired A Long-Running Inside Joke For The Next Generation Cast
When "Star Trek: The Next Generation" premiered on September 28, 1987, it was saddled with crushing expectations. Gene Roddenberry's original series, which aired for three seasons in the late 1960s, was a syndication mainstay; though the show was a ratings loser during its initial run, it found its audience of sci-fi nerds as an afterschool homework distraction. The show became so popular, Paramount greenlit a big-budget film adaptation in 1979, which spawned a hugely profitable franchise that was still ongoing when the studio, hoping to fatten its cash cow, charged Roddenberry with concocting a spin-off series.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" was set far enough ahead of the original series that, until later in its run, there wasn't a logical reason to work in the original cast (save for a clunky cameo from DeForest Kelley in the series pilot). If "TNG" was going to work, it had to sell audiences on the new characters. And so Roddenberry and the new writers wisely assembled a colorful dramatis personae that reflected the racial and interplanetary diversity that compelled people to fall in love with the show in the first place.
Patrick Stewart was an immediate hit as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The Shakespearian-trained actor ran counter to William Shatner's horned-up Captain James T. Kirk. Picard was more of a team player than Kirk. As the series wore on, the writers found his weaknesses, but he was a steady hand early on. The ensemble gradually fell into place around him. They didn't just feel like crewmates. They were family.
Family members, as you well know, mess with one another. And Stewart, for all his classical training, was not above playing pranks on his fellow actors. Evidently, Michael Dorn, who brought the Klingon Worf to the deck of the newfangled U.S.S. Enterprise, was his preferred target.
Messin' with Worf
According to Patrick Stewart's "Making It So: A Memoir," the cast, which had to knock out 26 episodes per season, worked regular weekday hours. When Friday rolled around, they were typically relegated to the Enterprise's bridge. "Our custom was to shoot the whole set first, the wide shots," writes Stewart. "Gradually the shots got closer and tighter as the camera moved from the big viewscreen in front of the helmsmen's stations to the control panels at the rear."
This approach allowed the actors in the foreground of the bridge to film their coverage and head back to their trailers, where they could feed their lines off-camera to the performers on the fringe of the set. Per Stewart, one actor was always the last one wrapped:
"Poor Michael Dorn, as Worf, was always the last character with dialogue to stay in uniform, because he had to stand in front of his security panel at the very back. What's more, he had to stay in his ridged, heavy Klingon makeup, which took hours to apply and had inspired Frakes's nickname for him: Turtlehead."
Welcome to Worfland
Because actors are basically children, they would hang out in their trailers and do everything in their considerable powers to make Michael Dorn break character. Patrick Stewart claims they were eager to go home for the week, but they couldn't help but make Dorn's life miserable. Their antics would occasionally cause Dorn's makeup to get dislodged, which ultimately prompted the director to rein the naughty, so-called adults in.
When they weren't making Dorn pull unnecessarily late Friday night shifts, the cast found humor in his character's emotional volatility. As Stewart writes in his memoir:
"Michael's character, Worf, was also the basis for one of our cherished inside jokes. Worf is a Klingon who prides himself on his self-discipline – but precisely because he is of the warrior Klingon race, he can't help but occasionally lose his temper and fly into violent rages. Thanks to this disparity, we began using the term 'Worfland' to describe any situation where things were spiraling out of control or one person was in a bad mood and therefore emotionally unpredictable. 'Look out, it's Worfland!' became our shorthand for Proceed with caution."
Sounds like fun for everyone but Michael Dorn! I cannot wait to read his (hopefully) forthcoming memoir "Welcome to Worfland."