Worf: Absentee father.

[Mr. Scott]

One thing I did not like about Worf was that he basically abandoned his son to the care of his elderly Earthling parents who were near 70 and tried to care for a 1/2 Klingon child.

Worf seemed to always seem to see Alexander as a burden.

I liked the episode on DS9 where the about 20 year old Alexander is the ship's fool on Gen. Martok's ship, with Martok (my favorite Klingon) asking him why he is in the service, as in, you are a good boy and try, but you suck at this. Alexander even righteously complained and cried to Worf that, hey, you stunk as a father.

Wouldn't not taking care of your minor children when one is capable dishonorable? Hey, you are a Commander in Starfleet. The boy is 1/2 Klingon. Getting shot at and weirded out by weird aliens is par for the course here and the father should teach the child these things.

I would think even Picard would crawl up Worf's ass about this. "You have a son on Earth? You haven't seen in several years. Why? if you are not loyal to your child, how can you be loyal on this ship?" Of course Picard did not like kids that much, so one less little one is one less pain to him.

Sisko, Rom, even Dukat were single dads. (and Dukat loved and cared for Ziyal). Seems that Martok could of kicked Worf's ass a bit about parental responsibility. Without a Klingon mother, Alex was rudderless, and since he was 75% Klingon, he needed to learn the ways from the father, and Worf did not provide it. That's dishonorable.

I know its a TV show, but it's fun to debate!

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Ha, to be fair, it could be argued that it was more responsible for Worf to send Alexander to live with his grandparents than to have him on the Enterprise, what with all the dangerous situations the ship got into!

That said, it was a bit annoying that they pretty much forgot about Alexander for Worf's first couple of years on DS9.

And then he showed up as an eight year old adult!

 

[Anwar]

Uh-huh, it's clear that Worf abandoned Alexander. Sending him to live with his grandparents isn't what is bad, whatwith all the dangerous stuff Worf goes through (which is what got Alexander's mom killed in the first place). But not even contacting Alexander all those years? You'd think the Grandparents would've been PO'ed at Worf's negligence and tried to contact him themselves.

His age also confused me as well, it would have worked out better if Alexander was the result of the relationship Worf and K'Ehylar had BEFORE TNG and not the tryst during TNG.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Wow, that IS ironic, that Dukat had Worf beat in the "dad" category!

But you're absolutely right...having his child live on Earth would be a responsible thing IF he would actually call, and visit whenever he had shore leave. AND he should have respected the fact that when it comes down to it, Alexander would have done better in human culture and that does NOT make him lesser or weaker. His DNA mix does NOT mean that he HAD to learn Klingon culture, if he is CULTURALLY human. I mean, come on--don't you think there are aliens living on Earth who have wholly adopted human ways, and humans living on other planets who have wholly adopted alien ways? Surely there isn't something "unnatural" about that (as long as one does not outright poison or harm oneself physically in the process...which in fact one can argue that living the Klingon lifestyle did to Alexander).

Even Dukat allowed Ziyal to acknowledge her Bajoran side more than Worf allowed Alexander to acknowledge anything about being human.

 

[Marie1]

I'm not sure- didn't watch a lot of TNG, but could Worf have limited contact because he thought Alex blamed him for his mother's death on some level?

 

[Starbreaker]

I'm not sure- didn't watch a lot of TNG, but could Worf have limited contact because he thought Alex blamed him for his mother's death on some level?

This is entirely possibly. I don't think Worf ever thought that he would make a good father.

 

[john titor]

Yeah Worf was a crap dad but then he had more interesting things to do, like save humanity etc. What annoyed me about that DS9 ep was that Alexander wanted to be a warrior (yawn). He should have been a gay fashion designer or somthing like that. The klingons became a parody of themselves by the time of ds9/voy, well especially with voy with that utterly lame klingons board voy episode, oh god that was so fucking terrible there are no words to describe it, you know the one where the klingon female gets it on with harry. Ugh terrible terrible episode epitomizing everything I so hate about Voy, the overuse of music, turning the klingons into 1d caricature, no real plot. I hate Voy.

 

[BolianAuthor]

TNG and DS9 did a horrible job with Worf's parenting... the guy had TWO people they never followed up on... Jeremy Aster, whom he took into his family, and Alexander. If you are going to have a family on a TV show, you cannot just treat it as a "sometimes" thing... you have to not be a lazy writer, and actually deal with it episode after episode.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Wow, that IS ironic, that Dukat had Worf beat in the "dad" category!

But you're absolutely right...having his child live on Earth would be a responsible thing IF he would actually call, and visit whenever he had shore leave. AND he should have respected the fact that when it comes down to it, Alexander would have done better in human culture and that does NOT make him lesser or weaker. His DNA mix does NOT mean that he HAD to learn Klingon culture, if he is CULTURALLY human. I mean, come on--don't you think there are aliens living on Earth who have wholly adopted human ways, and humans living on other planets who have wholly adopted alien ways? Surely there isn't something "unnatural" about that (as long as one does not outright poison or harm oneself physically in the process...which in fact one can argue that living the Klingon lifestyle did to Alexander).

Even Dukat allowed Ziyal to acknowledge her Bajoran side more than Worf allowed Alexander to acknowledge anything about being human.

Oh, hands down... because unlike Worf, Dukat is a man who has power... think of Dukat as a Sheik... Sheiks have many sons and daughters, and have power and money abound... regardless of how distant they may be as fathers at times, they ALWAYS provide for their kids, and attend to their needs. I envision Dukat being the same way... for Cardassians, I would imagine a large family is a source of great personal pride.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

especially with voy with that utterly lame klingons board voy episode, oh god that was so fucking terrible there are no words to describe it, you know the one where the klingon female gets it on with harry.

It's worse than you remember - she got it on with Neelix, not Harry!

I actually didn't mind that episode, but yeah, the Klingons did become a bit one-note over the years. DS9 did OK though by having Martok, who at least was intelligent and three dimensional.

 

[Mary Ann]

This is the one thing that always really annoyed me about Worf. Sending Alexander to live with his parents is one thing, but cutting contact with his son (and, presumably, his parents) is unforgivable in my opinion. The writers could have easily skirted around this situation by giving Worf some throwaway lines about how he had a message from Alexander the other day and what his son was up to. I agree that Worf's treatment of his son is dishonourable, and goes against the rest of his character.

 

[indolover]

Maybe Klingon parental values/ethics are different to humans'. Worf mostly likely didn't like the fact that Alexander disliked Klingon culture, and didn't connect with him.

It could also be a case of Klingons having a different nature than humans. We value independence and autonomy, and would be willing to forgo our closest relationships if it meant our own happiness and wellbeing would be met. In Klingons, maybe they are less individualistic by nature, and are culturally expected to toe the line, so to speak. It may be uncommon for Klingons not to want to become warriors, and for this reason Alexander was an embarrassment to Worf. I think in the end, Worf truly only cared about the opinions of other Klingons, even if he respected and felt loyalty to the Federation for rescuing him at Khitomer.

It's just that it's not so black of white of Worf being bad or hypocritical. Worf if anything was the uber-Klingon and was more honourable than most other Klingons shown (certainly Duras or Gowron), so it could be Worf's "Klingonness" that made him cut off contact.

 

[indolover]

Wow, that IS ironic, that Dukat had Worf beat in the "dad" category!

But you're absolutely right...having his child live on Earth would be a responsible thing IF he would actually call, and visit whenever he had shore leave. AND he should have respected the fact that when it comes down to it, Alexander would have done better in human culture and that does NOT make him lesser or weaker. His DNA mix does NOT mean that he HAD to learn Klingon culture, if he is CULTURALLY human. I mean, come on--don't you think there are aliens living on Earth who have wholly adopted human ways, and humans living on other planets who have wholly adopted alien ways? Surely there isn't something "unnatural" about that (as long as one does not outright poison or harm oneself physically in the process...which in fact one can argue that living the Klingon lifestyle did to Alexander).

Even Dukat allowed Ziyal to acknowledge her Bajoran side more than Worf allowed Alexander to acknowledge anything about being human.

I often find that aliens in Trek have a kind of "one drop of blood" principle. B'Elanna was half-human, yet she seemed to veer towards her Klingon side, and even other Klingons expected her to value Klingon culture more so than human culture.

Alien species would naturally hold wholly different beliefs in all areas of life than humans would. Are the Ferengi bad since we never saw Nog's mom in DS9, or even seldom heard of her in script? Are the Founders bad for sending an infant thousands of light-years away from their homeworld (,i.e. Odo)? B'Elanna had an absentee father, who by the by was human, and Riker had a dad who presumably wasn't a good father.

If Worf is indeed a bad parent (when we don't know the in and outs of Klingon parental values) then he surely is not alone.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I agree with the idiocy of the one-drop rule in Trek. Each child should choose individually who they are going to be. The closest we ever got to that was--again--ironically, Tora Ziyal. Which is the height of irony considering her father was the worst kind of bigot.

And don't think for a moment that I let off people like Riker's or B'Elanna's dads just because they're human. As for Kirk and David Marcus, in that case I would fault both of them for depriving their son of a family life (or, if they were that incompatible, for having a child in knowledge of that fact).

As far as Prinadora goes, she was essentially a slave in her society and a pawn in the marriage contract signed between Rom and her father. There's no requirement that Prinadora be a bad person, given that she had no rights, but the slavery she was in was certainly evil.

The Founders' case is more ambiguous. I would have to know more about Changeling development because one of two things is going on in their case: either they coldly cast their infants out knowing full well they were likely to be abused and lonely (which is not out of keeping with their character), OR in order for Changelings to reproduce and develop their individual identities and retain them in the link, the expulsion and later rejoining is necessary. I would think that a better way could be found to accomplish that, but it may be they need real distance where the Great Link is nowhere within reach. (Which would be a hell of an irony, if Changelings required socialization around those damned "solids"!!!)

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Worf was a deadbeat dad, and a horrible father. Alexander didn't end up being the type of son Worf wanted, so Worf dumped him. Sure in the end he tried to make up for it a bit. But that doesn't excuse what he did. Alexander was obviously hurt very badly by his actions.

I've argued this before, but I really think that Sarek was a horrible father as well.

Riker's dad was definitely a huge jerk.

 

[Anwar]

The nutty thing is, at the end of TNG Worf was OKAY with Alexander not wanting to be a Klingon warrior! "Firstborn" and all that. He decided it DIDN'T MATTER to him that Alexander would choose his own path. Then in DS9 they pretty much forgot that episode despite how important it was to their relationship, had him basically abandon Alexander and then have Alexander just decide he wanted to be a warrior after all when nothing beforehand indicated that's what he wanted.

 

[BolianAuthor]

The nutty thing is, at the end of TNG Worf was OKAY with Alexander not wanting to be a Klingon warrior! "Firstborn" and all that. He decided it DIDN'T MATTER to him that Alexander would choose his own path. Then in DS9 they pretty much forgot that episode despite how important it was to their relationship, had him basically abandon Alexander and then have Alexander just decide he wanted to be a warrior after all when nothing beforehand indicated that's what he wanted.

^

Because DS9 made pretty much the WORST Klingon episodes ever, of any Trek series, consistently. DS9 showed a remarkable lack of regard for what Klingon culture both is and holds dear. One excellent example of this, is the episode where Kurn's memory is erased, and he is given memories and a life with a "new" family... WTF...

Number one, Klingons do NOT run away from shame... if it gets so bad that it's at that point, they do what Worf did in TNG, and man up, and face it head-on, and take it like a man. But they do NOT hide from it, nor do they erase everything that made them the man or woman they were up to that point.

I love DS9 as a whole, but as far as anything they did with Klingon culture... IMO, it was absolute garbage and crap.

 

[DS9 Gal AZ]

What I really want to know is, how did Alexander grow up so damn fast? They aged him like a kid on a soap opera! I mean, they could have at least given us a throwaway line about Klingon kids growing up faster than human ones so it would make sense. Alexander was only a quarter human (his mother having been half-human), so it would make sense if they just said something like, Klingon children mature faster than human ones, and left it at that. As it was, it was just weird.

 

[Gul Re'jal]

They probably hoped everyone would forget Alexander's age and accept it as at was

 

[Anwar]

It was because Klingon kids mature faster, I think. Or his mixed hybrid biology.

Another reason having Alexander be the result of 18 year old Worf's relationship with K'Ehylar would've made more sense.