DS9 Flashback: Soldiers of the Empire

The previous episode of Deep Space Nine was all about "how Quark got his groove back." Next up was an episode all about "how Martok got his groove back" -- aka "Soldiers of the Empire."

General Martok is being given command of his first ship since escaping the Dominion prison camp, and he wants Worf at his side as first officer. With Dax joining as science officer, the Rotarran sets out to rescue a missing cruiser. But the crew hasn't won a battle in far too long, and edges toward mutiny when Martok avoids combat in dogged pursuit of the mission. Worf and Martok may soon be at odds with one another.

The inspiration for this episode came when show runner Ira Steven Behr asked resident "Klingon expert" Ron Moore to write an episode as if for a TV series called Star Trek: Klingon. Thrilled to break format, Moore's story pitch involved a missing colony near a foggy lake, where a boatman appears to ferry Worf and Martok to Klingon "hell"... and encounters with Worf's father and a dead friend of Martok's. Between the budgetary demands and the rather heady philosophical content, this was judged to be too much of what Behr had asked for. The "hell" angle was removed (later to become the basis of a Star Trek: Voyager episode), leaving behind a simple adventure aboard a Klingon ship.

I wish we could have seen the original version, because what's left feels a bit "been there, done that" at times. We spent time on a Klingon ship on The Next Generation, when Riker served aboard one in "A Matter of Honor." This isn't exactly the same -- but the thread of mutiny runs through both, and both have the same climatic moment of a main character having to turn on a Klingon captain. But I'd say the Next Gen episode had more tension in it, with the mutiny being about whether to launch an attack on the Enterprise. This story features a more run-of-the-mill "Klingons gotta Klingon" kind of conflict.

On the other hand, the personalities of this story are more well-drawn. Leskit and Tornan and Tavana are all one-off characters, but with far more variety than Klingons usually get. Plus of course, we come into this with reason to care about the friendship between Martok and Worf, background on how they helped lift each other's spirits during their time in Dominion prison, and a sense of what they owe each other as a result. It's also almost a better Dax episode than a Worf episode, with Dax serving as the real pivot point between a demoralized crew and the superior officers who don't see the depth of the problem. (Worf's big moment comes at the end, when he throws his fight with Martok, and is then offered to join his Klingon house.)

If you are into Klingons (more than I am), this episode is steeped with plenty of fun flavor. We get Klingon takes on Starfleet customs, from assuming one's post to recording log entries. We get a Klingon "sea shanty" (which was originally written for a Star Trek video game made prior to this). Amid a fun dinner scene of insults and revelry, Dax and Tavana bond over the former's past host and latter's mother having lecherous good times together -- a conversation we'd never see on a Starfleet ship. There's personality to it all, just not much in the way of stakes.

Other observations:

• It's not just Worf and Martok who bonded during their time in prison. Bashir and Martok are shown to have a good rapport too, riffing over the difficulty of getting blood out of the Infirmary carpets.

• Nog gets some fun comedy as Worf and Martok tower over him during a conversation, and he'd rather be anywhere but stuck between them. 

• It seems like being taken prisoner must be quite a dishonor among Klingons. At least, that's the reason I can think of for why Martok, a high-ranking general who once served as Gowron's right hand, is given such a dump of an old ship crewed by demoralized misfits.

• "Kellicams" were a Klingon unit of distance invented for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. They're referenced here in a quick but deep bit of continuity. (Also from the Star Trek movies, the old Klingon battle cruiser model makes an appearance.)

• It was apparently a hard and fast rule on Star Trek that sound from inside a ship was not to be heard while looking at the outside of the ship. Director LeVar Burton lobbied for an exception here, which plays wonderfully as the Klingons sing their way into battle.

• After all the talk about how these Klingons need to see battle, we don't get to see battle. The episode jump cuts past the ship combat. (Don't worry, though. We'll get our fill in later episodes, once the Dominion War heats up.)

I might be too much of a sourpuss when it comes to Klingon episodes, but in my book, "Soldiers of the Empire" is a B-. The characters are well-used throughout, but in a story line that also feels "well-used" to me.