[PHOTO] ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3 Spoilers: Michael Dorn as Worf

Star Trek: Picard‘s final season looks like it’ll be quite the homecoming — and it never hurts to have a little extra security at these things.

In the latest installment of our 2023 First Look series, TVLine has an exclusive sneak peek at Michael Dorn reprising his Next Generation role as Worf, the Enterprise‘s Klingon chief security officer, in Season 3 of the Paramount+ series. (This Friday also happens to mark Dorn’s 70th birthday — so happy birthday, Michael!) In the photo above, Worf comes face-to-face once again with his former captain Jean-Luc Picard, and we see that the years have turned his hair and goatee a bright white… but he still looks ready to take on one more mission. He’s wearing traditional Klingon garb and carrying a new sword called a Kur’leth, which was designed by Trek visual effects guru Dan Curry, who also created the Klingons’ Bat’leth blade.

Season 3 of Picard finds Jean-Luc assembling his old Enterprise pals as he faces a new threat from Amanda Plummer’s villainous Vadic, who has beef with Jean-Luc and intends to exact vengeance with her warship the Shrike. In addition to Dorn, LeVar Burton and Gates McFadden return as Geordi La Forge and Dr. Beverly Crusher, joining fellow TNG alums Jonathan Frakes (Riker) and Marina Sirtis (Troi). This may not be the Worf we remember, though: In a Picard teaser released last month, he tells Riker, “You should know that I now prefer pacifism to combat.” (Worf, is that really you?!)

Star Trek: Picard‘s third and final season premieres Thursday, Feb. 16 on Paramount+. Check out the first-look photo above, and then hit the comments to share your hopes for Season 3.