Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard is essentially Season 8 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as the crew of the Enterprise-D will return to give Jean-Luc a hand. Among them is Worf, the stalwart Klingon security officer who has intriguingly embraced pacifism for the new season. Picard is the third Star Trek series Worf has been a part of -- joining the likes of Spock and Seven of Nine as characters who've appeared in more than one show.
His thematic connections to Spock ran deeper than that, however. While The Next Generation's Data was the obvious heir apparent to the Vulcan's detached logic and outsider observations, Worf maintained Spock's legacy. He represented a completely different species and culture, attempting to integrate in an environment with no others like him. Family issues aside, Data was a singular being. Worf, like Spock, bore the weight of an entire civilization on his shoulders.
Worf Was Star Trek's Representative for His Klingon Species
Worf has the distinction of appearing in more episodes of Star Trek than any other character thus far, with his seven-year run on The Next Generation complemented by the last four seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The franchise has taken full advantage of that tenure to utilize him to explore Klingon culture. There was his departure from the Enterprise to fight in the Klingon Civil War in The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 26, "Redemption, Part 1" and his slaying of High Chancellor Gowron in Deep Space Nine Season 7, Episode 22, "Tacking into the Wind."
The Klingons had previously been Starfleet's most ferocious foes. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the underrated film released less than a year before the premiere of The Next Generation, featured a Klingon ambassador promising "There shall be no peace as long as Kirk lives." Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which brought the first real truce with the Klingons, arrived in 1991 -- after The Next Generation had been on the air for three-plus seasons. (Naturally, actor Michael Dorn appeared in the film as one of Worf's ancestors.) To put a Klingon on the deck of a Starfleet vessel was a bold step in 1987, when the idea had only previously appeared in Star Trek comics.
The character of Worf was a huge step up from Spock because of that history -- positing not only that the Federation would make peace with its longtime enemy, but that one of them would eventually join Starfleet. Not only does Worf provide a window into who and what the Klingons are, but how the two sides could conceivably interact, and the challenges faced by those who end up leading the way. Spock at least came from humanity's longtime allies. Worf had to enter a much more charged environment.
Worf Followed the Trend That Spock Started in Star Trek: The Original Series
Worf's purpose in The Next Generation was very much the same as Spock in The Original Series. He was the only non-human depicted aboard the ship initially, and as such represented his culture just as Spock did. Audiences learned about the Klingons through him the same way Spock had taught them about Vulcans. Most importantly, Worf was a perennial outsider, who often struggled with integration and issues of mistrust similar to the challenges that Spock faced.
The tradition of new figures acting as representatives of a given species has continued in subsequent Star Trek series. It's resulted in such memorable characters as Quark on Deep Space Nine and Saru on Star Trek: Discovery, and the idea has since been seen elsewhere like The Mandalorian. It's also allowed the franchise to more fully flesh out one of its bedrock themes: diversity and the way individuals respond to something new or different. But none of the later newcomers defied preconceived notions the way Worf did on The Next Generation and none of them so purely exemplified Star Trek's unwavering belief that peace and understanding truly are possible.
Data will always have a special connection to Spock individually, and fans have rightfully linked the two in spirit. But in terms of the franchise's larger questions, Worf carried Spock's banner in ways his android crewmate never could. In fact, it's because of what Worf accomplished that a Klingon-focused Star Trek series now seems plausible.