Synopsis: Lt. Commander Worf and Lt. Commander Dax join General Martok on a mission to find a missing Klingon battle cruiser.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how damaging it can be to the psyche when an individual is too one-sided, favoring the Logos-driven rational conscious ego and suppressing the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Soldiers of the Empire” General Martok is assigned his first mission after being imprisoned by the Dominion for two years. He is to command the Rottaran and locate the B’Moth, a Klingon battle cruiser that has gone missing. He asks Lt. Commander Worf to join him as his first officer. Worf accepts, and Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax also joins the crew. However, the rest of the crew aboard the Rottaran have been demoralized by several defeats to Jem’Hadar forces. Worf and Dax sense that they need a victory, yet when Martok has the opportunity to attack an enemy vessel, he sticks to the mission instead. When they locate the B’Moth it is in Cardassian space and Martok again wants to adhere strictly to orders instead of taking the risk to cross into enemy territory. Worf challenges Martok for command of the vessel and Martok wins. Martok then regains his warrior heart, completes the mission and returns victorious to Deep Space Nine.
Through much of this episode the character of Martok behaves much like Captain James T. Kirk, or rather “Good Kirk” did in the episode “The Enemy Within” from Star Trek: The Original Series. He was guided solely by regulations instead of listening to his instincts. He had become one-sided. Psychically, this is the most dangerous way to be. But just as Kirk discovered he needed his darker instincts in order to captain a starship, Martok had his instincts awakened when Worf fought him for command of the Rottaran. Once Martok re-embraced his warrior instincts, the crew respected him, and they were able to complete their mission and save the lives of their fellow Klingon warriors in the process. This is much like how when the conscious ego integrates bits of material from the unconscious, it becomes stronger, and the psyche becomes more whole.
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