Presumably it was during one of these fights that his left eye was gouged out. Martok spent two years in a Dominion internment camp, forced to fight Jem'Hadar soldiers daily in hand-to-hand combat for training purposes. The shapeshifter was successful at beginning the war with the Cardassians but inadvertently revealed himself to Odo (who had been misled into believing that Chancellor Gowron was the shapeshifter) at a Klingon award ceremony, and was quickly killed by the Klingons attending the ceremony. At Martok's introduction to the series, he had attained the rank of General.Īround 2371, Martok was abducted by agents of the Dominion and replaced with a shapeshifter. Martok earned the rank of Lieutenant after the Battle of Tcha'voth, which earned him a spot as tactical officer aboard the Klingon Cruiser Gothspar, captained by Kultan (ST:DS9 Books: The Left Hand of Destiny). His performance and bravery in battle caught the eye of General ShiVang, who granted him a battlefield commission as an officer. They attempted to board the ship at which time Martok took up arms and defended his General, successfully repelling the invasion. During his service the General's ship came under surprise attack by the Romulans. He opted to serve, regardless, and spent five years as a civilian laborer on General ShiVang's flagship. With a rejection on his record from such a legendary officer, Martok could no longer even serve as a common soldier. Believing its approval was a mere formality, the application was submitted to the Oversight Committee but was rejected by one member, Kor, due to the elitist views of the legendary Klingon warrior regarding the honor and prestige of the "great houses". It had long been the wish of his father Urthog to have young Martok become an officer and so he enlisted the aid of officers he had earned the respect of and eventually was able to get one to sponsor his son to the Klingon academy. His family had been reputable soldiers and had loyally served the empire for 15 generations, although not as officers. This area is considered a wasteland by the Klingons. It is known that he was born into a Klingon house (The House of Martok) that was not part of the aristocracy and was raised in the Ket'ha lowlands on the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS.
Little backstory is given regarding the early life of Martok, except for a brief history sketched by himself in the Deep Space Nine episode " Once More Unto the Breach". He found it was intimidating at first, because the regular cast had worked with each other for years, and the Martok character had to "boss people around." However, he found the other actors welcomed him and helped him feel like he belonged. In an interview in 2021, with Heavy Hertzler, noted for playing Martok, discussed how it was working with the cast of Deep Space Nine. Now I am still doing it 25 years later!" And with Martok, I was able to work on him for four years. In 2020, Hertzler talked about developing the character: "As a stage actor you usually get some weeks to rehearse, if you get lucky, and then you go on. In particular, Hertzler felt it gave the same air to Martok as Christopher Plummer's character in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He felt it was important to the character to remind him of the time spent on the Dominion prison world, and turned down the opportunity to have Martok's sight restored when it was suggested by executive producer Ira Steven Behr. Hertzler did not mind the process, but stated that having the prostheses block the sight in his left side could sometimes make filming difficult as he could not see when turning that way. It took around three hours each day for the make-up to be applied to Hertzler by David Quashnick, who was the "specialist" who did both Hertzler and O'Reilly's Klingon make-up. However, this response led to him gaining the role, and it was included as a character trait for Martok. When the producers of Deep Space Nine were casting Martok, Hertzler auditioned after initially not considering the role but found himself getting angry during the interview due to a comment from the director which he felt was insulting. Following this, he made his first appearance as a Klingon in the video game Star Trek: Klingon, directed by Jonathan Frakes and also starring Robert O'Reilly as Chancellor Gowron. Hertzler made his first appearance in the franchise in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine pilot episode, " Emissary", as a Vulcan Captain who is killed when his vessel is destroyed.
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