10 One-Off Star Trek Characters Who Never Left
4. General Martok
J.G. Hertzler was no stranger to Star Trek when he was cast in the role of the Klingon General Martok. He originally appeared in Emissary, playing the ill-fated Vulcan captain of the USS Saratoga. Though he did get a few lines in the episode's opening scenes, the role was all too short. He would return in the fourth season opener, The Way Of The Warrior.
Described by producers as 'Klingons gone nuts', The Way Of The Warrior was designed to slow the advance of the Dominion War. A Klingon fleet unexpectedly decloaks around the Station, taking everyone by surprise. Its commander, General Martok, is brash, direct, and deeply suspicious of the Starfleet and Bajoran officers. He immediately orders blood screenings all around.
This opening episode was to have been a one-and-done for Hertzler, but he impressed so much that Martok was brought back for the fifth season opening, Apocalypse Rising. Here, he was revealed as a Changeling. Though killed in the episode, the character brought back again, this time for real, in the two-parter In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light. From there, he appeared in many more episodes for the remainder of Deep Space Nine's run.