Martok

Martok was a Klingon warrior who rose to the rank of general in the Klingon Defense Forces, and later became Chancellor of the Klingon High Council. His brilliant leadership during the Dominion War made him very popular both among other warriors and among the civilian population. As the leader of the House of Martok, he became a good friend of Worf while the two were stationed together on Deep Space 9.

Early career
Martok was born in the lowlands of Ketha Province on Qo'noS to a common family. Fifteen generations of Martok's family had served the Empire as warriors, but Martok's father had hopes that Martok could become an officer. It took some doing, but Martok was able to take the entrance exam, and passed.

However, when he went before the Oversight Council, something considered to be a simple formality, his application was rejected. Kor, Dahar master, felt that it was inappropriate for a man without noble blood to become an officer in the Klingon forces. With the "mark of Kor" on his record, Martok was reduced to a civilian laborer and served on board General ShiVang's flagship from around 2345 to 2350.

Fortune smiled on Martok, however. During a battle with the Romulans, Martok's ship was boarded. Martok acquitted himself so well in the fighting that he earned a battlefield commission. Sadly, his father did not live to see that glorious day. 

From there, Martok worked his way up the ranks until he became a general. He played an important role in commanding the forces loyal to Gowron at the Battle of Mempa during the Klingon Civil War in 2368, and began his steady rise to hero status in the Empire. 

By 2372, Martok had become an important military adviser to Gowron, and was instrumental in convincing Gowron to attack the Cardassian Union, starting the Klingon-Cardassian War. 

However, it was not realized until early in 2373 that Martok had actually been replaced by a Changeling some time in 2371, and the Changeling was attempting to foment war between the powers of the Alpha Quadrant as a prelude to Dominion invasion. This Changeling was discovered by a Federation covert ops team on Ty'Gokor in 2373. 

The real Martok had not been killed, however. After he was abducted from Qo'noS while hunting Saber bear on Kang's Summit, Martok was taken by the Dominion into the Gamma Quadrant and imprisoned in Internment Camp 371, where it was expected he would spend the remainder of his life.

There, he was forced to fight the Jem'Hadar in single hand-to-hand combat, as the Jem'Hadar were training for an invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. During one of the fights, First Ikat'ika maimed Martok by destroying his left eye, leaving him half-blind.

In mid-2373, Martok was joined in the camp by Worf and Elim Garak. Worf was also made to fight against the Jem'Hadar in daily combat, and Martok served as his "coach" and supporter. He even saved Worf's life in a moment of tova'dok (understanding between two warriors). 

Together, Martok's and Worf's actions in fighting the Jem'Hadar kept the Dominion soldiers occupied long enough for Garak to complete modifications to a secret transmitter that commanded a nearby runabout to beam the prisoners out of the camp. 

Fighting the Dominion
Following his escape from the prison camp, Martok returned with Worf, Garak, and Julian Bashir to Deep Space 9. There, with the approval of Gowron, Martok was made the commander of the detachment of Klingon soldiers assigned to the station. 

Late that year, Martok was given his first field assignment following his imprisonment – command of the, with orders to locate the missing cruiser. Recognizing his uneasiness with command following his confinement, he invited Worf to join the mission as his first officer.

Martok was initially too cautious in his command of the Klingon warship. This, combined with the crew's already-low morale (thanks to a long string of defeats against the Dominion), made for a dangerous situation aboard the Bird-of-Prey. Martok exacerbated the situation by deliberately avoiding several opportunities to engage the Jem'Hadar in combat.

The situation came to a head when the crew nearly mutinied against Martok, but Worf changed the situation by challenging Martok himself, accusing his friend and commanding officer of being a coward.

The ensuing fight was very much one-sided in Worf's favor; at one point, the bridge crew began chanting Worf's name, expecting him to be victorious. Worf pinned Martok against a console and pointed his d'k tahg centimeters from Martok's chest. At that moment, the two men exchanged glances, and Worf sensed that the warrior spirit within his commanding officer was returning. Seeing this, Worf subtlely let his guard down, allowing Martok to defeat his first officer with a stab to the abdomen. The general immediately gained the crew's loyalty, and he remembered his duty as a soldier of the Empire. Upon the Rotarran's successful completion of their mission and return to DS9, in appreciation for what Worf had done, Martok accepted him into the House of Martok.

After the Dominion War broke out, Martok, along with Worf, was instrumental in convincing Gowron to lend support to Starfleet's offensive to recapture Deep Space 9 from the Dominion in Operation Return. Although Klingon forces were late arriving at the battle, they played an important role in defeating the Dominion fleet in that engagement. 

Martok continued to serve as commander of the Rotarran. He was promoted to Supreme Commander of the combined Starfleet-Klingon Ninth Fleet in early 2374. Martok resented the position because of all the paperwork and bureaucracy involved in commanding an entire fleet, and also resented his elderly "assistant", Darok. 

A few days after Operation Return, Martok sent several scout ships to the Cardassian border to check for signs of Dominion activity. 

Martok dispatched three squadrons of Klingon attack cruisers to the Dorala system's defense perimeter. Kira Nerys was confident that Martok would ensure the Klingons held the line until Starfleet reinforcements arrived. 

In mid-2375, Martok was furious when Laas killed one of his soldiers. He asked for Laas to be detained while a magistrate determined whose jurisdiction the situation fell under. 

As commander of the Ninth Fleet, Martok led several of the most important engagements in the war, including the First Battle of Chin'toka, the Second Battle of Chin'toka, and the Battle of Cardassia. 

Ascension to chancellorship
As one of the most prominent military leaders in the war, Martok gained immense popularity in the Empire for his near-heroic exploits against the Dominion. Gowron, ever the politician, feared Martok's popularity and devised a plan to discredit Martok and end any potential threat to his authority.

In late 2375, Gowron presented Martok with the medal of the Order of Kahless, and immediately assumed personal command of Klingon forces on the front lines, relegating Martok to a secondary command role. Gowron then began ordering Martok on near-suicidal missions against Dominion forces, hoping that a string of defeats would weaken Martok's popularity and discredit him as a military leader, or that Martok would die in battle and thus cease to be a threat to Gowron's authority.

However, Worf and Benjamin Sisko recognized that Gowron was jeopardizing the entire war effort to satisfy his political ego. Worf tried to convince Martok to challenge Gowron for the leadership on the grounds of dishonorable conduct in orchestrating the discrediting of Martok.

Martok refused to betray his loyalty to Gowron, despite the latter's treachery. Worf then challenged Gowron himself, accusing Gowron of being a coward for squandering the Empire's resources on a petty act of vengeance.

Worf killed Gowron in the ensuing combat, becoming the new chancellor. However, he immediately abdicated in favor of Martok. Martok tried to refuse, claiming he did not seek the leadership, but Worf responded by quoting Kahless: "Great men do not seek power, they have power thrust upon them." 


 * "Hail Martok, leader of the Empire! Leader of destiny." – Worf

Following the successful conclusion of the war, Martok returned to Qo'noS to assume the role of leading the Empire and finally purging it of the corruption that had so weakened it in the past. 

Personal details
Martok was married to Lady Sirella, a noble woman, and they had at least one son, named Drex. Martok was by all rights a traditional Klingon; he viewed marriage as another form of combat, when he asked Capt. Sisko about "the war at home", albeit one disguised and more subtle than most. Although Sirella was completely different from the woman he thought he married – he thought of her as a mercurial, arrogant, prideful woman – he loved her deeply. 

When he was young, Martok had a pet targ; "a filthy, mangy beast" as he once said. As Sirella was moving into Martok's house following their marriage, she "accidentally" left the door open and the targ escaped, and Martok never saw him again. 

Martok preferred to keep his injured eye as-is. Doctor Julian Bashir once suggested an ocular implant to Martok; he was adamant that he did "not want an artificial eye!" 

Martok once disciplined K'retok, a member of DS9's Klingon contingent, by throwing him off a crossway on the Promenade. Odo had Martok arrested for doing so, but Benjamin Sisko ordered him to be released. 

During the time they spent serving together on Deep Space 9 and on the Rotarran, Martok became close friends with Worf. He invited Worf to join the House of Martok as a friend and brother in late 2373. He also later invited Worf's son Alexander Rozhenko as well. Jadzia Dax joined the house as well when she married Worf. Martok would come to consider Jadzia's successor, Ezri Dax, a worthy one and considered her a part of the House as well. 

In late 2375, after becoming chancellor, Martok requested that Worf be appointed as the Federation's ambassador to Qo'noS (as payback for Worf making him chancellor). Worf accepted, something that pleased Martok to no end – he observed that he had someone to go targ hunting with. 

Appearances

 * (Changeling) (Season Four)
 * (Changeling) (Season Five)
 * (the real Martok)
 * (Season Six)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Six)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Six)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Seven)
 * (Season Seven)

Background information
Martok was played by recurring actor J.G. Hertzler. In an audition, he threw a chair against a wall, losing a fingernail, but gaining the role. Ron Canada also auditioned for the role, but lost to Hertzler, who is a friend of his. The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine production staff remembered Canada and he appeared as Ch'Pok in the later fourth season episode.

Martok was originally written to be a one-show character, but the producers were so impressed with Hertzler's performance, that they decided to bring him back the following year, for the fifth season opener. At the end of that episode, Martok is supposedly killed, but again, the producers were so impressed with Hertzler that they decided they had to figure out a way of getting Martok back onto the show as a recurring character. The fact that the Martok killed in was actually a Founder played into this, as it allowed them to simply introduce the real Martok in the episode. From that show onwards, Martok became a regularly recurring character, not to mention a firm fan favorite.

Apocrypha
Martok has appeared in several novels, including The Left Hand of Destiny, Book One and Book Two and A Time for War, A Time for Peace. Hertzler also voiced him in Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II.

In the alternate future of the DS9 book trilogy Millennium, Martok devised a plan to destroy the Bajoran Ascendancy with Project Looking Glass. Project Looking Glass involved moving the entire Klingon fleet into the mirror universe, having the fleet go to the Mirror Universe Bajor, reappearing in the "our" universe, and bombarding Bajor, destroying it and the Ascendancy. However, the Ascendancy allied Grigari intercepted the Klingon fleet, destroying it, killing Martok.

In the storyline for Star Trek Online, Martok was killed in ritual combat in 2393. His successor, J'mpok, leads the Empire against the Gorn and withdraws from the Khitomer Accords in 2399 when the Federation Council condemns the invasion of Gorn space. Despite his death, Martok's House is still influential; Worf serves as gin'tak to Drex, Martok's son and heir. In addition, Klingon players will be called to aid the Lady Sirella at the family estate in the Ketha Lowlands, and later fight for the House of Martok in the bat'leth competition on Forcas III, the same tournament where Worf won Champion Standing in nearly four decades earlier.

His mirror universe counterpart is depicted as succeeding $𝜇$ as Regent of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance following his capture by the Terran Rebellion in 2375 in the novels Warpath and Saturn's Children. In the subsequent novel Rise Like Lions, he was killed in honorable combat and succeeded by in 2377, who was killed and succeeded by Duras in 2378.