Michael Dorn’s most complicated storyline in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

For more than 35 years, actor Michael Dorn played the role of Klingon warrior and Starfleet officer Worf, son of Mog, in the Star Trek franchise. He is an actor who has appeared on screen in most episodes of Star Trek,” and that means that both he and his character have been through quite a bit. Worf has survived assassination attempts, the loss of his Par’Machkai Yadiya, and gone from violent brawler to pacifist. But there was one aspect of Worf’s personality and actions, which Dorne had the hardest time dealing with: his strained relationship with his son Alexander.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , we’re introduced to Worf as some stuffy man with a stupid haircut who takes being a Klingon almost as seriously as being a Starfleet officer. Despite ​​developing romantic feelings for advisor Troi (Martina Sirtis), Worf wasn’t exactly the dating type…until he met K’Elair (Susie Plaxon). K’Elair was a half-human, half-Klingon ambassador who pushed Worf to challenge his own notions of what it meant to be a Klingon, and after a brief romance returned several years later with their son, Alexander. Unfortunately, K’Elair was killed shortly after, leaving Worf to not only experience the news that he had become a father, but to leave him as a single parent.

Worf isn’t one to join his teammates in sports or gambling, and he’s even less likely to participate in something as frivolous as a holodeck adventure. However, when he found out that he had a son, he was suddenly led to do all kinds of stupid things in the name of making the child happy. He tried to be a good father to some extent, but mostly he had no patience for poor Alexander who just wanted his father’s approval. Worf eventually sent the boy to Earth to live with his adoptive parents, the Rozhenkovs, and their relationship became even more complicated. In an interview with StarTrek.comDorn revealed that he had a hard time portraying the story of Worf and Alexander:

“The only problem was having a son because Worf wasn’t a great father. He essentially banished his son to another place. It was a big issue and the episodes were pretty good. Worf’s evolution was great, especially on “Deep Space Nine.” It was just fantastic. I thought it was a real challenge (…) People might expect me to do a Worf and Troy romance, but I liked it because it wasn’t as much as Worf.”

Dorn went on to joke that Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes, who played Troy’s future lover William T. Riker, hated Worf and Troy’s romance, but he didn’t really mind. The only thing he really hated “Next Generation” episode “Code of Honor” and we agree. However, Worf really was a bad father.

Worf didn’t expect to be a father, and it was thrust upon him, but he struggled mightily to rise to the challenge. He was not great with the family in general, nor was his relationship with his lost brother Kurn (Tony Todd) was strained at best, and his marriage to Trill scientist Jadzia Dax (Terri Farrell) only worked because she had the wisdom of seven lives in addition to her own. (Fortunately, it was It’s easy for Dorn and Farrell to play husband and wife on Deep Space Nine. because they were good friends.) Heck, when he takes an assignment on Deep Space Nine, he gets so irritated by being around everyone that he ends up using the Defiant as his personal apartment. While that’s kind of relative, it also shows that maybe Worf just doesn’t know how to be nice, which makes his family relationships a bit more problematic than most.

Towards the end of Deep Space Nine, the elder Alexander tries to prove that he is a real Klingon while serving on General Martak’s ship, the Rotarran, and it doesn’t go particularly well. Never mind, Worf does at least he understands that he must let his son make his own choices, and he is officially inducted into the House of Martak. We still have to find out what happened to Alexander after that (he is not even mentioned in the Star Trek: Picard Season 3), but I like to imagine he’s somewhere in charge of his own Klingon ship, showing those who laughed at him that he’s got what it takes — because he’s Alexander, Worf’s son.