Star Trek: 10 Times Worf Was Ignored (But Was Absolutely Right)
7. Rightful Heir
The only people more likely to ignore Worf than Picard are Klingons.
Rightful Heir opens with Worf facing a crisis of faith. His desperate need to conjure a vision of Kahless, the legendary Klingon leader of old, is met with deafening silence. So he decides to visit the monastery at Boreth in his search for answers.
It's safe to say that Worf got more than he bargained for.
Despite growing impatient after days of meditation, an overjoyed Worf finally sees the mythical Kahless...the problem is, so does everyone else. It seems that Kahless has finally returned to his people, as promised, but Worf immediately smells a rat. While the other Klingons welcome him with unquestioning devotion, Worf greets him with a tricorder scan and a list of increasingly awkward questions.
It turns out to be entirely warranted. The clues this 'Kahless' may not be the mightiest warrior in Klingon history are all there. His memory is hazy...he uses a distraction tactic when he's in danger of losing a fight...and he fails the ultimate Klingon Warnog taste test.
The trials and tribulations that follow sees Worf pushed and pulled between doubt and belief. Until, finally, Kahless is proven to be nothing but a clone created by the priests, and Worf falls into a pit of disillusionment.
Enter Data, the unlikely philosopher, who relates the experience of his awakening; he was told he was nothing more than a machine, yet chose to believe he was a person. It helps Worf realise that it doesn't always matter whether something is real or not...the choice to believe holds power. And that's what makes Rightful Heir one of those fascinating moments in Star Trek. What starts as simply another Klingon episode ends with the idea that faith shouldn't be a substitute for critical thinking, but it can have meaning and power in and of itself.