Throughout “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Worf was always depicted as something of an outsider. He was beloved by his crew, but his stern, humorless demeanor often kept him at arm’s length socially. He was a badass warrior who adhered to Klingon principles yet was often so hellbent on defending his honor that he came across as off-putting and isolated. Worf may have been ready to fight, but he was also a nerd, constantly preoccupied with the subtle mores of Klingon culture. This was coming from a man who was raised on Earth by human parents. He was constantly trying to understand his own diaspora.

Worf’s humorless adherence to Klingon principles was, to Michael Dorn, the key ingredient to writing the character. Worf couldn’t ever joke around or, indeed, understand the jokes of others and he rarely laughed. As Dorn put it:

“[T]hat’s always been his charm. On ‘Next Generation’ they got it, and it was very understandable, and I didn’t have to say too much about that. On ‘Deep Space Nine,’ I really had to corral them a lot, because if he’s in on the joke, he becomes just another one of the characters. He doesn’t stand out at all. And it was easy, because all they had to do was just write a line, and everybody else gets the joke, and [then] they make a joke, and they’re funny. And Worf is just looking around going, ‘Okay, I wasn’t trying to be funny. I don’t know why people are laughing.'”

Worf was previously described as “The big guy who never smiles” on “Next Generation.” That might have been an apt character description for the “Deep Space Nine” writers.