Top 20 Episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine #17: Soldiers of the Empire

Today’s episode once again brings us to the Klingons, specifically, another one of my favorite characters, General Martok. Remember in Apocalypse rising, how Odo believed that chancellor Gowron was a Changeling spy. Well, that all turned out to be a trap by the Dominion and the real changeling was actually Gowron’s right hand man, Martok. Later that season, the real Martok was discovered in a dominion prison camp, having been forced to fight against the Jem’hadar, the ruthless and fanatical soldiers of the Dominion, for two years, even losing his eye in the process. Upon his rescue, Martok resumed his duty to the empire, but even the strongest and proudest of warriors have their breaking point.

Soldiers of the Empire shows Martok on his first mission since being freed from the prison camp. However, the mission has a few obstacles. The crew of his new ship, the Rotarran, is defeated and demoralized from a long string of defeats, but that doesn’t stop them from looking down on Worf, whom Martok named his first officer. See, when Worf sided with the Federation against the Empire, his people declared it the ultimate dishonor. His house was dismantled and his family’s land was seized. So naturally, Worf is not especially welcome among other Klingons right now. However, Martok is a hardened warrior through and through and he’s determined to whip his crew into shape, but we soon see that Martok has some issues of his own. Martok was broken in that prison camp, and though he’s too proud to admit it, the thought of facing them again is too much for him to handle. It is only through Worf’s intervention that Martok regains his warriors pride and is able to complete the mission and earn the respect of his crew, and in the end, as a show of gratitude, Martok accepts Worf as a brother in his house.

When I put this list together I really wanted to make a point to include an episode that spotlighted Martok, as he really is one of the strongest characters in the show, even as a recurring guest star. Throughout TNG, most of our exposure to the Klingons has been through Worf. The issue there being, Worf was raised by humans and holds an overly romanticized view of Klingon honor and culture. Martok has always represented Klingon culture stripped of all that romanticism. Ideally, a Klingon should be honorable, but that isn’t always the case. Martok is ultimately a good man, and believes in Klingon ideals just as much as Worf does, but he’s been hardened by the reality of, and as such, he and Worf had amazing chemistry with one another.

Next Time, it’s something I bet you didn’t expect.