Sunday, March 25, 2012

Who is this Man?

jiH 'oH Worf, puq vo' Mogh
If you have perfected your linguistic abilities, a simple reading of the picture caption will tell you—well, not who this man is but at least the role for which he is justly famous. That role, played first in Star Trek: The Next Generation and in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is that of Worf, and my caption, obtained with some painful searching, says “I am Worf, son of Mogh” in transliterated Klingon. The man I am depicting now is the actor who played Worf, Michael Dorn, a highly accomplished actor not only in science fiction but in other more conventional television series as well—not that you’d recognize him unless you carefully read actor’s names and make the right connections.

One of his unusual accomplishments has been starring in a series of video games, largely also SF, most notably as the Duke of the House Atreides in Emperor: Battle for Dune. Other games include Mission Critical, and Mass Effect 2. I for one (I’ve only ever watched others play video games) was unaware that you could even do this.

The Klingons as a whole, and their wonderfully exaggerated culture, are one of the best creations of the Star Trek franchise. And Dorn is the very archetype of what it is to be a Klingon. Great bravery and endurance must have been his to labor under that massive makeup all those years while turning in such an authentic impersonation. Behind the mask a real person. I wish him luck in his career and mean every word when I say: ghlj qet jahmeyjaj (“May your enemies run with fear!”)
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Picture credits: Wikipedia (link).

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