The Sword of Kahless

The episode was the first to feature Michael Dorn's (right) character centrally, and was directed by LeVar Burton (left).

"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.[1] 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.[1]

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."[2] The writing staff was disappointed in the reaction of many fans, who wanted a technological explanation for the effects of the sword.[2]

Because of limited time to film, several edits were made to the script by Beimler. Some of the scenes set in the cave sets were dropped as they would have taken too long to set up. Kor, Worf and Dax were in almost every scene of the episode and so time could not be saved by filming more than one scene at a time.[2][3] The cave sequences were filmed on the cave standing sets on stage 18 of Paramount Studios. The sets were limited, so Burton said that in order to make it look like the characters were moving through a complex labyrinth of caves, he and director of photography Jonathan West used the sets' depth to make them look like different parts of the caves.[3]

The precipice that Kor nearly falls down was created by filming the actors on the second level of the cave sets and then matting the footage onto a 8 feet (2.4 m) long miniature version of the cave that Gary Hutzel created out of aluminium foil. The production staff also spread sand onto the floor of the cave sets in order to make it look different from other episodes in which the sets had been used.[3] Burton advised Farrell on the aggressiveness Dax should show in her interactions with Kor and Worf in the episode, a type of performance which both Burton and Farrell later nicknamed "Action Barbie".[4]

John Colicos had appeared as Kor once before on DS9, in the second-season episode "Blood Oath". In The Original Series first-season episode "Errand of Mercy", Colicos had portrayed Star Trek's first main character Klingon.[5][6]

Rick Pasqualone appeared as Toral, son of Duras, in "The Sword of Kahless". Originally, the character, played by JD Cullum, was introduced in the TNG two-part episode "Redemption", when he sought the leadership of the Klingon High Council alongside his aunts Lursa and B'Etor.[7][8][9] Worf has history with the House of Duras, dating back to the rivalry between Worf's father, Mogh, and Toral's grandfather, Ja'Rod.[10]

Composer David Bell created music for the episode that had echoes of the operas of 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner. He explained that he used "Wagner opera vocabulary in the orchestrations, and ... actually used Wagner tubas in the score".[3] He used religious tones to accompany appearances of the sword itself, specifically when it is first found by Worf, and said, "If the audience isn't made to understand the spiritual importance of that weapon, then we have no episode".[3]

Several replica bat'leths, with a replica sword of Kahless on the top

Dan Curry created the Klingon weapon, the bat'leth,[11] while working on TNG. Its first appearance was in the episode "Reunion" and has appeared in all live action series of Star Trek with the exception of The Original Series.[12] The sword in "The Sword of Kahless" was intended to be the first bat'leth made by, according to Klingon mythology, Kahless himself, which he used to defeat the tyrant Molor and unite the Klingon people for the first time in their history.[13]

It was decided that the sword needed to be different from other bat'leths seen on the show,[3] and so a new hardened aluminium prop was ordered after numerous designs by John Eaves were considered on paper. As with the original bat'leth, Dan Curry created the prop.[14] Sculptor Dragon Dronet then etched designs into the blade by hand using dental tools. The producers requested designs on the blade similar to the effects seen in Damascus steel, which was combined with Dronet's idea of forming these into a topographic map, with an effect described as being "as if you're staring down at mountains".[3] Klingon names were then added to the side of the weapon. Dronet also created the stand for the sword out of plexiglas which was spray-painted to look metallic. The legs of the stand were carved to look like the feet of the Klingon animal, the targ.[4] "The Sword of Kahless" also featured new prop designs for Starfleet-issued over-the-shoulder bags and the camping equipment used in the cave sequences.[2]