Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 5x21 — Soldiers of the Empire

Aired 1997-04-28

SpaceOpera.com rating:8

Average reader rating:6.71

Synopsis

General Martok regains a ship, but his crew is dispirited.

Filler rating: not filler

This is the first episode to feature the Rotarran and Martok's command of the vessel. It's also the episode in which Worf joins the House of Martok.

Remarkable scenes

Martok ranting about his insight into the Jem'Hadar.
Worf challenging Martok.
The Klingons singing into battle.
Bashir lamenting about the intelligence business.
The revelation that Worf lost the fight on purpose so that Martok would regain his vigor.

Review

A Klingon ship and her crew are the center of attention for the first time in a long while and never has it been done so well. This episode features many nice details, but some remarkable ones are the crew of the Rotarran herself; an eclectic and believable group of demoralized Klingons. Plus the Rotarran itself; we get many beautiful CG renderings of the breathtaking bird of prey. My only complaint is we don't get to see the Rotarran battle the Jem'Hadar, which would have been nice. Besides that, an excellent episode.

4 reader comments

I think their decision not to show the viewer the battle with the Jem'Hadar was a good one. It left that battle to the imagination of the viewer and saved time which could then be spent on things like character development. Yes, it could have been a cool battle, but subtracting a point because they used a perfectly valid storytelling device that happened to omit material you personally wanted to see is a little overboard IMHO.
by John Smith | 03/17/2010 at 3:49 am

I've always felt that it's sort of anticlimactic that they didn't show the battle. It's a legitimate payoff to the buildup to expect, I think. That's not to say this is a bad episode. It's certainly fantastic. I just think a more roaring climax would have served the story better.
by Eric Newport | 03/17/2010 at 4:14 am

One of the very best Klingon episodes, with lots of rich cultural detail.
by Joseph Angeles | 02/23/2013 at 6:34 pm

Beautiful episode. Martok is the gold standard when it comes to Klingon characters. He's three dimensional, and he's well-rounded enough that it makes the Empire seem functional. Without seeing a character like Martok you'd wonder how the Empire ever held together-they have no patience to do things like basic maintenance on their ships, they get bored with administrative tasks, and they prefer to attack head-on rather than provide any consideration of strategy. But DS9 decided to find a way to make Klingons seem more balanced without ruining their previous characterization, and this episode is the highlight of Klingon story-telling.
by Bronn | 07/17/2013 at 7:14 pm