Data instead of Worf on DS9. Thoughts?

[Oso Blanco]

Maybe Data would have turned into some real bad ass Data on DS9 ... I would have loved too see that!

But anyway, I still think that Worf was the better choice.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Worf was a caricature on TNG. He became a person on DS9.

 

[DWF]

Brutal Strudel said:
Worf was a caricature on TNG. He became a person on DS9.

I thought Worf had more depth on TNG than he did on DS9 and marrying Dax was something of a misstep IMO.

 

[Anwar]

This is Brutal Strudel, he hates anything TNG related and always will. He also prays at the Altar of DS9 and TOS daily.

For the record, I like TOS, DS9 and TNG equally. My only problem series are VOY and ENT and that's mainly due to UPN.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Nah. I pray to the altar of Philip Dick and Stanislaw Lem daily while paying the occasional obeisance to William Gibson, Frank Herbert, Walter Tevis and Joe Haldeman, among many others (the pantheon is vast). I used to burn incense to Harlan Ellison but I've pretty much left that church. Kurt Vonnegut would have meritted my worship if he would ever have copped to writing SF. Too late now, he's dead.

Star Trek is just an entry level SF tv show that I'm still emabrassingly fond of. I do think TOS and DS9 are far superior to TNG, though, so you got that much right.

However, I'm flattered that my religious affiliation means so much to you. Just so you know, I'm also circumcised.

 

[Phily B]

DS9 Worf is way better than TNG Worf. Unless it was a Worf based episode, he basically stood there and generally acted the idiot, he didn't seem to fit in with the Enterprise and I remember him being like "Sir, they are not responding. Should I (insert hostile intent here)?"

 

[Brutal Strudel]

^"No, no, you dark skinned noble savage, let's deal with them in a more civilized manner."

 

[Phily B]

He reminded me of Token from South Park. Only there because he is Klingon, well Token isn't Klingon but you get my point. Its so the Federation flagship can be like WE SO DIVERSE WE HAVE A KLINGON ON OUR BRIDGE.

 

[HRHTheKING]

Worf's best moments on TNG revolved around Klingon politics.

Redemption specifically.

With everything else, he was treated like a joke.

On DS9 he became a much more interesting and complex character.

 

[its_a_clock]

I think it would have sucked. Worf was awesome on DS9! His relationships with Sisko, Odo and Dax added a lot to his character, and it actually made sense having him on the station (tensions in later seasons with Gowron and the Martok story arch). I really liked Worf/Martok as well.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

While I have reservations concerning Worf/Dax (I have reservations about most DS9 relationships except for Sisko/Kassidy), most of Worf's other character interactions on DS9 were spot-on. People didn't get him, many didn't like him and the feeling was mutual. Worf and Bashir, for example, never really became friends and as for Quark...

In his book, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, Thomas Disch criticized Trek brutally for being nothing more than a glorification of corporate office culture. While not necessarily agreeing that it's a bad thing, I'd say he was largely correct. TNG gave us the office of corporate training films, where everyone grows to love everybody else because that's the way it is supposed to be. DS9 seemed closer to the way workplaces actually function, where people may not actively like each other but basic respect and devotion to duty allow them to do their jobs.

Again, caricature vs. character.

 

[EEE]

HRHTheKING said:
Worf's best moments on TNG revolved around Klingon politics.

Redemption specifically.

With everything else, he was treated like a joke.

Actually, I think his best line out of both series was a joke on baseball tactics and play. ("Find him and KILL him!")

 

[hellsgate]

I agree with Phily B. But, unfortunately, you'll find a lot of the fan fiction & RPG's out there done approximately the same way. Not a lot of diversity out there (tellarites, andorians, binars, gorn, tzenkethi, etc.)

I haven't had a chance to finish the "A Time To.." mini-series & find out what's been going on with the mimic ship & Picard's fate, so I haven't really seen the professional side of Trek Lit & where they've gone with the founding charter races from TOS. Or, what's been going on with the Voyager & DS9 relaunches.

 

[DumbDumb2007]

Would never have worked. They needed a surly character from TNG that fit the unstable world of DS9.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Worf was the better fit for DS9 than Data ever would have been. Data fit the intellectual humanistic feel of TNG. DS9 was along more spiritual lines because of the Bajorans.

I thought Worf's evolution grew nicely in phases over the years. His time with his human fosters parents would have been his "grade schools years". Picard would have been his teacher in his "junior high years" on the strictly run military ship. Sisko and Dax would have been his major influences during his "high school years" on DS9 where he would been learning to cope with a less strictly run environment. His tutelage under Martok when he accepted being an ambassador would have been akin to his "college years." Finding his place in the real world (or finding out more about the real Klingon Empire). His regression in Nemesis would be something like dropping out of college. Let's hope Worf eventually seeking Martok out again and becomes an ambassador for the Klingon Empire like Spock eventually did for Vulcan. Worf's story is far from over.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

I think I killed another thread!! ARRRGH!!
(OK, I'm over it!!)

 

[darthraidr]

data on ds9 would simply be having another bashir.
the naive, starfleet officer interested in solving mysteries and ends up being best friends with the chief engineer.

Oh and <insert joke about liking cats/women here>!!

 

[Darth_Pazuzu]

I think having Data on DS9 would have been interesting precisely because the things he would see and go through would put his humanistic tendencies to the test, in much the same manner as what he went through in TNG's The Most Toys. If you'll remember that episode, he did (or would have done) something rather startling whilst caught mid-transport...

 

[sonak]

I agree with poster DWF on both points. I thought Worf on DS9 actually regressed as a character, becoming almost a caricature of an "honorable Klingon warrior." He seemed to lose much of his depth and sense of humor.

His marriage to Jadzia seemed to follow a Trek trend of putting seeming character opposites togther. (Worf-Troi, Trip-T'Pol, etc.) He became almost defined as a character by that relationship.

Also, unlike many here, I didn't think making Worf (WORF?!!?) an ambassador was a sign of character development. I thought it was a sign of bad decision making.

 

[CaptainStoner]

I couldn't see him as having been a regular character on DS9 like Worf became. But as a guest character, I agree there might have been a good story or two.