By Chris Snellgrove
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Worf is without doubt one of the hottest characters in Star Trek, and for good purpose: showing in three exhibits and 4 motion pictures as his iconic character, Michael Dorn has spent extra time onscreen on this franchise than every other actor. Thankfully for him, the writers actually liked Worf, giving him meaty storylines revolving round his tangled household historical past and fractured Klingon society. Additionally they gave him Troi and Jadzia Dax (two smoking sizzling fan favorites) as his romantic companions.
On the time, hooking a warlike Klingon up with an emotional Betazed and an historical physique swapper seemingly felt very transgressive. Nevertheless, Star Trek: The Subsequent Era missed the chance to offer this character a mate that no person would see coming, and followers would seemingly nonetheless be selecting their jaws off the ground, all these many years later. You see, there was as soon as a plan to hook Worf up with Selar, the Enterprise’s resident Vulcan physician!
As we speak Is A Good Day To Swipe Proper
It began with the script for the TNG’s “The Emissary,” which is the Season 2 episode the place Worf falls in love with the long run mom of his youngster, Ok’Ehleyr. The characters labored properly onscreen collectively, which is partially attributable to actors Michael Dorn and Suzie Plakson having such wonderful chemistry. However given the opposite ladies who would fall in love with him on The Subsequent Era and Deep Area 9the choice to pair Worf up with one other Klingon was a bit apparent.
That’s precisely how Tracy Tormé felt about this resolution. If that title doesn’t ring a bell, Tormé was an early TNG author liable for such formidable episodes as “The Schizoid Man.” Whereas the story has some stable qualities, most followers love one factor about this episode above all else: Suzie Plakson, who makes her Star Trek debut as Dr. Selar, a Vulcan medical officer working for Dr. Beverly Crusher.
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Whereas Selar ended up being a really minor character, Tormé initially needed her to be a romantic love curiosity for Worf. Sadly, his plans have been vetoed as soon as the TNG employees started engaged on “The Emissary,” a script that referred to as for Worf to fall in love with a Klingon lady. In a approach, you could possibly say the producers compromised: as a result of she had impressed them a lot as Dr. Selar, they ended up hiring Suzie Plakson to play Ok’Ehleyr.
Nevertheless, Tormé was unimpressed, later calling the choice to pair Worf up with one other Klingon “apparent.” He summed up his objection to this plot level fairly succinctly: “Had it been a Vulcan, it might have been much more attention-grabbing.” He has an actual level right here, particularly contemplating that the cool and logical Vulcans are just about the polar opposites of the hot-blooded and passionate Klingons.
After butting heads with infamous TNG showrunner Maurice Hurley sufficient instances, Tormé left the present after Season 2. Nevertheless, the spirit of his concept to romantically pair up Worf with somebody utterly totally different from himself lived on. That is a part of why the writers finally hooked him up with Deanna Troi: the peace-loving, hyper-emotional Betazed was the final individual followers anticipated to finish up with the ship’s brooding Klingon. Deep Area 9 took this concept to an excellent higher excessive, having uptight management freak Worf fall in love with and finally marry a free-spirited Trill who simply needs to have enjoyable.
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As for Dr. Selar, she by no means appeared onscreen once more, although the Vulcan physician is talked about by title a number of instances all through The Subsequent Era. Nevertheless, the late, nice Star Trek writer Peter David gave Selar a really meaty function, making her the chief medical officer of the Excalibur in his non-canonical New Frontier collection of books. There, she discovered her personal shock romantic companion: Burgoyne 172, a hermaphrodite alien as outgoing as s/he’s frisky.
I’ve all the time been a giant fan of Worf, and his loopy love life is simply one of many issues that made this hulking Klingon so compelling. However I’ve to confess, it might have been hilarious to see him relationship a Vulcan, particularly one performed by the insanely proficient Suzie Plakson. Thankfully, she would proceed to grace Star Trek for a lot of extra years to return, every time as a very totally different character. However these very totally different roles all had one thing vital in widespread: every was extra epic than the one earlier than!