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- Feb 1, 2023
Look at some of the other Vulcans we do meet in TOS: Spock's dad barely speaks to him because he dared not go to the Vulcan Science Academy and went into Starfleet instead. Spock's girlfriend pits Spock against Kirk in a duel to the death simply so she could keep her side piece and get all of Spock's property. T'Pau, basically Vulcan's Prime Minister let's said duel go on even though she knows the humans don't really know what's going on, are physically weaker than Vulcans on the best of days, and are woefully unprepared for the environment and basically shrugs her shoulders when it's mentioned to her because it's tradition.
Much like how Worf is more Klingon than other Klingons. Worf isn't really a Klingon. We see Klingons all the time who are backbiting, duplicitous, will lie, cheat, steal, and kill innocents to win. But we never see Worf do those things because Worf has this idea of what Klingons should act like and it's a Klingon that has never really existed. He was raised by humans and probably only knew about Klingons by books. He never even really confronted what it meant to be Klingon. He saw the political class being assholes, but that's likely the political class of every race. Did he ever run into a Klingon commander like the one in Errand of Mercy that was willing to kill civilians by the thousands and torture people just to prove a point? How about one that didn't really want to go to war and would much rather stay home with his kids and grandkids and garden but went to war because it was his job? Klingons were basically reduced to Viking Bikers who yammered on about "honor" with their leaders who didn't go along with honorable actions, but Worf never really changed his perceptions about what it meant to be Klingon.
I think that's about how Spock and Vulcans are. Vulcans talk a great deal about logic, but can use logic to justify any action. Bigotry, duplicity, spying, violence, war, all of it is on the table when you can say "hey, it's logical somehow." Spock really does the same thing as Worf. He acts like the perfect Vulcan should act. He wants to be part of that world he's been shunned from his whole life and he wants it so bad he can taste it, but it's always just out of reach. The big difference between Spock and Worf is Spock grows and it's the V'Ger Incident that finally gives his the ability to say "logic has it's place but it isn't all there is" and he can finally move on with his life. He reconciles what being a Vulcan really means and what it means to him and that he can bridge both his Vulcan and Human parts. Worf never achieves that understanding that he too is both Klingon and Human (by upbringing) and that Klingons are like everyone else and not everything about them is good and not everything about Humans are weak or bad and he can pick and choose which parts to keep.
ADDED: I think a missed opportunity for TNG (or even DS9) was a Worf story. There's a planet that is considering joining the Federation, but before they do, they are annexed by the Klingons. Klingons show up, land troops, vaporize a city or two, round up folks, grab everything they can, turn people into slaves or ash, and we get to see A) Klingons in action as they really are and B) life for non-Klingons in the Empire.
Meanwhile, Picard's hands are tied because the planet was neutral and the Federation Council is unwilling to risk the alliance over an unaligned planet getting annexed. Too bad, so sad for them, but interstellar realpolitik is a thing you know.
So here's poor Worf. He has this idealized view of the Klingon Empire and for the first time in his life he sees it in action. He has to deal with that and he has to deal with his Human upbringing and those values because they are all diametrically opposed. What does he actually believe in the long run, the human way of diplomacy and self-determination and the Prime Directive or the Klingon values of Might Makes Right and that it's perfectly okay to murder thousands upon thousands of civilians if they so much as look funny at their Klingon betters.
And you can even throw in the Klingon commander who makes Worf deal with Klingons he can't put in a box. This commander can be the type that is just there because it's his job and he'd much rather be at home with his family and Worf has to deal with not knowing how to put someone who doesn't just say "honor" every third word or who is perfectly comfortable ordering mass executions and torture because he knows the Empire needs resources and those people are living on a world the Klingons were obviously destined to someday own.
The end of the episode could very well be one where there is no neat resolution. The Enterprise leaves the world in Klingon hands, Worf is forced to grow up and deal with what the Klingons really are AND how the Federation just abandoned people begging for help rather than risk their cushy Alliance, and that there is no solution that would go back to the status quo for him.
Obviously there would need to be some action scenes somehow, but it would be far more interesting to have that as a character study than Sheriff Worf on the Holodeck (even though that was an amusing episode).
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