Star Trek Just Dropped A Wild Canon Twist For A Forgotten Character

What if, in 200 years, somebody cloned Jesus or Muhammad or Buddha? That’s sort of the premise of a wild, slightly underrated episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “Rightful Heir.” The Season 6 episode dropped in 1993, and in it, religious Klingons clone and resurrect their ultimate unifier and messiah, Kahless the Unforgettable. Dubbed “Jurassic Worf” in early pitch meetings, the story of Clone Kahless was revisited briefly in Deep Space Nine, but lately, has become a wild story point in the various Star Trek comics from IDW.

In a brand-new, just-released issue — Star Trek #30 — Clone Kahless is sent back in time to meet the OG Kahless in ancient Klingon history. And along the way, this Trek comic is borrowing from Discovery canon, TNG Klingon history, with a touch of retcon for The Original Series.

Spoilers ahead.

Keeping up with the various Trek comics is tricky, but in an upcoming crossover event called Lore War, various aspects of the basics of Trek reality are being messed with by Data’s evil brother, Lore. In Star Trek #30, part of the backstory of the new Kahless story is all about how he briefly went nuts with power, only to be spared by Worf’s son, Alexander. So, Star Trek #30 begins with Clone Kahless trying to be redeemed by the Klingon Monks on the moon of Boreth.

Instead, Kahless is thrown back in time via the Time Crystals that are also hidden on Boreth. This references a retcon from Discovery Season 2, in which Captain Pike had to obtain some Time Crystals to make sure the Red Angel suit could work, and the evil AI called Control could be prevented from destroying all living beings, everywhere. Back in 2019, some Trek fans were scratching their heads about whether or not Worf or Clone Kahless knew about the Time Crystals on Boreth. But now, the DISCO canon and the TNG canon have been reconciled as Boreth becomes the catalyst for sending Kahless back in time, and seemingly, completing a predestination paradox.

Written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, this story almost casually twists the foundational canon of what Klingons (and fans) have assumed about the original Kahless. When Clone Kahless finds the original Kahless, he discovers that the legend in which Kahless slew a dishonorable warlord named Morlor isn’t exactly accurate. Instead, in a kind of bootstraps paradox, the more honorable and valiant Kahless is the copy, and the original Kahless is a ruthless coward.

While not exactly 100 percent canon, IDW’s long-running Star Trek series often influences the canon of the shows and the films, with various storylines from Picard, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds either setting up canonical events or giving more context to large moments. With this Kahless time travel story, however, the comics appear to be finally redeeming a character who was before now, pretty much a punchline. At the end of the comic, Kahless is recruited to fight in the upcoming Lore War in the future, but for the classic Trek canon, it appears that this comic is suggesting that the “original” Kahless never existed, and instead, the legend created itself.

Interestingly, the wicked and selfish historical version of Kahless we meet here could help to explain another strange Trek canon mystery, if you squint. In The Original Series episode “The Savage Curtain,” a cruel version of Kahless is conjured up by Yarnek to fight Kirk, Spock, Abraham Lincoln, and Surak, the founder of Vulcan philosophy. Obviously, this version of Kahless seems horrible to Kirk, because, at this point in time, he considers the Klingons pretty much entirely evil.

But, what this new Trek canon suggests is that maybe the original Kahless wasn’t a hero, but rather, a cruel villain. And, in order to set history on the right course, a fictionalized copy of Kahless had to take his place and give the entirety of Klingon culture the one thing that matters more than anything: honor.

Star Trek #30 from IDW is out now.