page_title: The Sword of Kahless
section_title: Writing
hierarchical_section_title: The Sword of Kahless / Production / Writing
caption_attribution_description: LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn speaking at the 2012 Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
context_page_description: "The Sword of Kahless" is the 81st episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the ninth of the fourth season. It originally aired on November 20, 1995, in broadcast syndication. The story was created by Richard Danus and was turned into a teleplay by Hans Beimler. The episode was directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation alumnus LeVar Burton, and featured the return of John Colicos as Kor. Colicos had first appeared as Kor in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Errand of Mercy", and had previously appeared in this series in the episode "Blood Oath".
  Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures on Deep Space Nine, a space station located near a stable wormhole between the Alpha and Gamma quadrants of the Milky Way Galaxy. In this episode, Kor returns to the station to recruit Lt. Cmdr. Worf and Lt. Cmdr. Jadzia Dax to help to find the ancient Sword of Kahless. After they find the sword, they are forced to evade the forces of Toral, Son of Duras, and Worf and Kor come to blows over the future use of the weapon.
context_section_description: "The Sword of Kahless" was the first Deep Space Nine (DS9) episode to predominantly focus on Worf. Michael Dorn had joined the cast at the beginning of season four, but his character was not featured prominently in the first eight episodes of the season because they had been scripted prior to confirmation that Dorn would be joining the show. "The Sword of Kahless" was the first episode to be written after his arrival, so it was the first time his character was featured centrally. This meant that in each of those episodes, Worf was inserted into the episode, whereas "The Sword of Kahless" was the first episode to be written after his arrival and the production team wanted him to feature centrally for the first time. The story was created by Richard Danus, who had been the executive story editor during the third season of TNG, when Ira Steven Behr joined the production team. Danus had written TNG episodes such as "Déjà Q" and co-wrote the teleplay for "Booby Trap". It was Behr who gave Danus the opportunity to write for DS9, after they became friends following Behr's arrival on TNG.
  The episode was directed by another former TNG actor, LeVar Burton, who described the story as something akin to the search for the Holy Grail in Klingon mythology. Hans Beimler, who converted Danus' story into a teleplay, was aware of the mythology of the Grail as he wrote the script and wanted to avoid giving the sword any mystical or magical powers. He said that "It's the concept of the sword that has the power. We could have said that some technology or magic gave the Klingons the feeling of power, but that would have been a cheap way to go." The writing staff was disappointed in the reaction of many fans, who wanted a technological explanation for the effects of the sword.
caption: The episode was the first to feature Michael Dorn's (right) character centrally, and was directed by LeVar Burton (left).
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