Why did the writers change Worf’s backstory after season one? In the episode “Heart of Glory”, Worf tells the other two Klingons that after he was rescued from Khitomer, he was adopted by a human family and taken to the farming colony of Gault. He also told them that after he and his adopted brother came of age, they both joined Starfleet, but the other adopted sibling decided to leave and return to the colony. In later episodes, it was said that Worf was taken to Earth and adopted by the Rozhenkos in what is now the Ukraine. Why did they change it?
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Where does it reveal that? I’ve never seen that before.– user76329Commented Jan 19, 2020 at 19:39
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So this was never in the show? Guess that explains why I didn’t know, and supports my questions as to why it was changed from what the SHOW said.– user76329Commented Jan 19, 2020 at 19:59
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Maybe there is some confusion about my question. I’m referring specifically to what was in the SHOW, not what was in some books or some expanded universe type of thing. The backstory that was given on the SHOW, changed, and they gave no explanation on the SHOW. Does anyone know why, in relation to the SHOW, not any kind of books that were written afterward.– user76329Commented Jan 19, 2020 at 20:02
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That’s NOT what Worf said in the Klingons in the aforementioned episode. According do what he told them, he was in Gault until he was old enough to join Star Fleet academy, which we know is the age of 18. He said nothing about moving to earth at all. So yes, the story IS different.– user76329Commented Jan 19, 2020 at 20:14
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It also didn’t say that they did move to earth either. Wofs explanation says he was raised on Gault only. There was absolutely no mention of ever living on Earth.– user76329Commented Jan 19, 2020 at 20:24
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1 Answer
It's worthy of note that TNG: Family doesn't actually break the canon established in TNG: Heart of glory (e.g. that Worf grew up on Gault), although I do rather suspect that they transplanted his parents to Earth specifically so that he could meet with them in this episode, especially since there's no mention of his having lived on Earth with his parents prior to this episode.
The precise quote from Heart of Glory is
WORF: When my foster brother and I were of age, we entered the Starfleet Academy. He hated it and returned to Gault. I stayed.
Since we know they both lived on Gault and Earth, there's nothing to say that Worf and his brother didn't live on Gault, then move to Earth (where they subsequently joined Starfleet) then his brother left Starfleet and returned to Gault, leaving his parents on Earth.
I know you've said that you're not overkeen on EU novel answers, so I'll just place this here as a point of interest. In the novel Star Trek: IKS Gorkon - Honor Bound it explicitly confirms the version of events mentioned above.
Though born on this world, Worf grew up in the Federation after his family was massacred at the outpost on Khitomer. Chief Sergey Rozhenko—an engineer aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid, the first ship to respond to Khitomer’s distress call after the Romulan attack that claimed four thousand lives—and his wife, Helena Rozhenko, raised him on the farming world of Gault and later on Earth. When he was old enough, Worf applied to Starfleet Academy and became the first of his species to serve in that august body.
