Star Trek: Funny Worf Spinoff Pitched by Silicon Valley Producer

While Michael Dorn has his pitch to bring back his Star Trek character Worf in a new show, Silicon Valley producer Graham Wagner pitched his version of what a Worf spinoff could be, and it's something a bit lighter than Dorn's take. The New York Times recently profiled Alex Kurtzman, the producer in charge of the Star Trek television franchise, who recently extended his tenure through a new contract with ViacomCBS. The article reveals that Wagner pitched Kurtzman on a Worf spinoff that Kurtzman describes as "incredibly funny, poignant and touching." He didn't say whether there was any hope of Wagner's idea moving forward -- there's already five Star Trek shows in production, with a Section 31 spinoff ready to take the place of the first series to end its run -- but Kurtzman is putting few limits on what Star Trek could be during his run captaining the franchise ship.

"Anything goes, as long as it can fit into the Star Trek ethos of inspiration, optimism and the general idea that humankind is good," Kurtzman says. "You name the genre, and there's probably a Star Trek version of it."

Currently, Star Trek: Discovery offers a version of Star Trek that leans into cinematic bombast, and Star Trek: Picard offers a Star Trek version of prestige drama. Both series are heavily serialized, but the upcoming Discovery spinoff Star Trek: Strange New Worlds promises to revive the more episodic storytelling old-school Star Trek fans know and love.

There are also two Star Trek animated series. Star Trek: Lower Decks, the franchise's first adult comedy, kicked off its second season this week. Star Trek: Prodigy, debuting later this year, is the franchise's first kid-focused series.

We don't know exactly what Wagner's pitch looked like, but we know something about the Captain Worf series Michael Dorn wanted to make for years. It would see Worf returning to the Klingon Empire, creating a series that shows the other side of the conflicts that often arose between the Federation and one of Star Trek's oldest antagonists.

"Basically, the script I wrote was: Instead of looking at the Klingon Empire from Starfleet, we look at Starfleet from the Klingon Empire," Dorn told Trek Movie earlier this year. "And it has been going on for decades, the Klingon Empire just can't go on. It's the Russians, basically. And they decide that they have to either die with a sword in their hands and go extinct, or change with the times and become something different. And Worf is the guy that says, 'We have to change with the times, that is the mark of a warrior.'"

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