The TNG Writers Had a Plan to ‘Get Rid’ of Worf’s Son

Alexander and Worf in "Star Trek: The Next Generation"

YouTube Alexander and Worf in "Star Trek: The Next Generation"

Alexander Rozhenko was introduced in the fourth season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” When K’Ehleyr, an old lover of Worf’s, came back to the Enterprise on a diplomatic mission, she revealed that she had given birth to Worf’s son. She introduced Worf to Alexander and said that she wanted them to be a family.

Unfortunately, she was killed soon after, and Worf was left to raise his son alone. This kicked off a recurring storyline about their father-son relationship that persisted through TNG and into “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

Many fans disliked Alexander and the storylines that involved him. They thought the character was annoying and the storylines were a poorly executed attempt to flesh out Worf’s character.

In reality, some of the TNG writers agreed. In fact, a few of them came up with an entire episode dedicated to eliminating Alexander, though the episode never made it to the screen.


‘Out of Time’

TNG writer René Echevarria told the authors of the “Deep Space Nine Companion” that fellow writer Joe Menosky “really disliked” Alexander. Echevarria said that Menosky’s distaste for the character was so intense, that he wrote an entire episode, entitled “Out of Time,” just to “get rid of Alexander.”

In the proposed episode, which Echevarria recounted for the “Deep Space Nine Companion,” Worf and Alexander went on a trip together. While they were on an alien planet, Alexander fell into a time portal. Worf searched for him, but couldn’t find him. Soon after, Alexander reappeared, but he was unrecognizable to Worf because he had aged fifteen years. Alexander explained to his father that he’d been trapped in a brutal, warring world for the last fifteen years and was forced to fight for his life the whole time. Alexander also revealed that he’d spent the last fifteen years hating his father for allowing this to happen to him.

Though the proposed story wouldn’t have killed off Alexander entirely, it could have transformed him into a more interesting — and less whiny — character.


Showrunner Michael Piller Vetoed The Story

Echevarria joked that the episode never got made “because Alexander was Michael Piller’s mother’s favorite character.” Whether this was true or not, Piller did reject the story several times.

Another TNG writer, Ronald D. Moore, told the authors of the “Deep Space Nine Companion” that Piller, “shot it down again and again.”

Piller gave his own explanation for why he refused the script in the book “Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages.”

“There was a big fight all year long about an episode that they desperately wanted to do, that I would not let them do, about Alexander getting kidnapped and coming back as a 25-year-old. He’s totally lost his youth and he’s dealing with the consequences of this and I just thought that it was a nasty thing that we were basically taking the kid’s entire childhood away. I just wouldn’t go for it.”

So, the episode never got made. However, if the storyline sounds kind of familiar, that’s because it did get adapted into a “Deep Space Nine” episode — “Time’s Orphan.” Alexander was swapped for Molly O’Brien and the story became more about Miles and Keiko’s reaction than Molly’s experiences in the alternate world.


Alexander’s Story Arc

Alexander stuck around for the remainder of TNG and even made his way into “Deep Space Nine.” Worf found himself unable to be a father to Alexander. So, he sent Alexander back to Earth to be fostered by the same humans who had fostered him.

Every once in a while, Alexander popped up in an episode of TNG. The sole purpose of these appearances seemed to be to illustrate that his relationship with his father was still pretty bad. Worf and Alexander finally mended their relationship when Alexander joined the Klingon Defense Force to fight the Dominion.

Many fans think that “Star Trek’s” writers dropped the ball with Alexander. They think that he could have been a much more interesting character and that his relationship with Worf could have been much more compelling.

However, if the writers hated Alexander as much as Menosky did, then it makes sense that they wouldn’t want to write stories for the character. Perhaps if “Out of Time” had been made, the writers would have been able to come up with more compelling stories for an adult Alexander. But fans will never know.

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