Why is Gen. Martok's ship a bird-of-prey?

[Captain Fine]

As the title says. Why does real-Martok drive a bird-of-prey, whereas changeling-Martok had the Negh'Var? General Martok is in charge of the whole Klingon military it seems, and he flies around in a dinky little BOP? Why??? I've been rewatching DS9 and it just strikes me as odd. I understand the Rotarran is his ship, but still. Doesn't he at least merit a Vor'Cha after surviving a Dominion prison camp for 2 years?

 

[nx1701g]

It was pretty much explained in the episode Soldiers of the Empire.

Martok was essentially assigned to the Rotarran by the Klingon High Command to whip the crew into shape. For over two years the ship had had no success in battle and the Klingons aboard the ship started to see it as cursed. Many of the crew, however, saw Martok as having become soft due to his experiences. This was expanded upon when they found the Klingon ship they were sent to rescue and Martok wouldn't approve them to cross into Dominion Space. Worf challenged him to combat citing his cowardice and Martok regained his warrior's spirit. Martok turned the ship around into a warrior's posting and regained soldier's edge. He remained it's commander instead of transferring probably because of this.

I seem to recall though that it was never said which ship Martok commanded in the invasion of Cardassia after being promoted to Chancellor. I do believe that the WYLB novelization suggests he is in command of the Negh'Var though.

 

[Dream]

Maybe Martok was just a huge General Chang fanboy and demanded to command a BOP to blow stuff up?

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Commanding your own BoP seems to be something of a status symbol amongst Klingons. BoP often seem to owned by a Klingon House and manned by trusted family and friends, rather than purely military owned and operated. Larger ships seem to be soley the property of the military.

Birds of Prey also fit the Klingons' hunter/warrior mentality better than larger warships. They're ships designed to require their commander out-manuever and out-think his prey, rather than to simply overwhelm it with a barrage of torpedoes. Even in later episodes when Martok wasn't in command of the Rotarran, he always chose a BoP.

 

[Red Ranger]

Commanding your own BoP seems to be something of a status symbol amongst Klingons. BoP often seem to owned by a Klingon House and manned by trusted family and friends, rather than purely military owned and operated. Larger ships seem to be soley the property of the military.

Birds of Prey also fit the Klingons' hunter/warrior mentality better than larger warships. They're ships designed to require their commander out-manuever and out-think his prey, rather than to simply overwhelm it with a barrage of torpedoes. Even in later episodes when Martok wasn't in command of the Rotarran, he always chose a BoP.

We're on the same wavelength! I thought as much -- the bird of prey is kind of a "classic Klingon warship," like owning a Corvette. So Klingons think of it as an enduring fighting machine, and if you can kick ass in it, you can do anything! And there's also the explanation given in Soldiers of the Empire, too! Also, didn't Worf's brother Kurn command a bird of prey? I would also guess bops form the backbone of the Klingon fleet, and therefore are ubiquitous, as we see them so often. -- RR

 

[Captain Fine]

But they're also the equivalent of a Jem'Hadar fighter. I.e. expendable, easily destroyed. Look at BOPs in battle and how many of them get destroyed. Even at Chin'Toka Martok was in a BOP was he not? But there were Vorchas there too. I just wish he'd had something other than a BOP as leader of a whole fleet! I mean, how can a tiny little BOP be a command ship for much larger ships like a Vorcha?

To answer my own question, the same way the Defiant commands a fleet of at least 4+ Galaxy-class ships and countless other medium-to-large vessels. Which also explains how the Romulan flagship got destroyed in WYLB: their flagship was a D'deridex Warbird and not, say, a Romulan scoutship

Which reminds me, we need some Valdore-class Warbirds inserted into the DS9 remastered battle scenes

 

[nx1701g]

^ If I recall correctly the Valdores were meant to be brand new. It was never said in the episode, but the novelization and (I know not canon) suggests that Admiral Ross commanded the fleet from the Excelsior Class USS Farragut.

As for the BOPs. We have to remember that there are two different types of BOP that have been seen on screen. We have the relatively small B'Rel Class (the small ones), then we have the K'Vort Class ones that are larger and better armed. I recall that the Rotarran was said to be a K'Vort.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

I always took the Rotarran to be a fairly small ship. It's only about the same length and width as the Defiant (see "Call to Arms"), and with far less volume because of the neck and wings. I would estimate a crew of about two dozen on board. Closer in size to the ship from ST3 & ST4 than the behemoths seen in "Yesterday's Enterprise" or "The Defector".

 

[PorthosShadow]

I just assumed he stuck with that ship out of pride and honor. It may not nessessarly be the fastest or most powerful ship in the fleet, but its his and his crew's. I suppose for Klingons they like other people can develop a somewhat irrational attachment to a thing which I totally get

 

[Myasishchev]

^ If I recall correctly the Valdores were meant to be brand new. It was never said in the episode, but the novelization and (I know not canon) suggests that Admiral Ross commanded the fleet from the Excelsior Class USS Farragut.

I always preferred to think of the Intrepid-class Bellerophon as Ross' flagship. It makes perfect sense, as the Intrepid is the fastest Federation starship available, so he can run to trouble spots to personally supervise them--or away from them, as the case may be.

 

[Anwar]

The Negh'Var was probably Gowron's own ship, not Martoks'. Martok was on in during "Way of the Warrior" because Gowron was there too.

The Rotarran, well I'd have preferred it to be a K'Vort Heavy Cruiser (it's nearly the size of a Galaxy Class I think) but it does seem to have been the smaller B'rel.

Maybe no one in the Dominion would assume a High-Ranking General would command such a ship and ignore it?

 

[Myasishchev]

Gowron didn't show up till later in WotW though, on a Vor'cha, iirc...

 

[Photon]

Correct if I'm wrong, but wasn't Gowron on there w/Martok in the Negh'Var scenes?

 

[Anwar]

He was, they were both on the Negh'Var. It must have been Gowron's ship and not Martoks'.

 

[Jono]

When the Negh'var first appears at DS9 only Martok in onboard. Martok goes to war and then Gowron appears at DS9 on a Vor'cha to enlist Worf into the war. Martok and Gowron is later on the Negh'Var when they attack DS9.

Interestingly in "When it Rains" Gowron appears on DS9 on a Bird of Prey as well.

Commanding your own BoP seems to be something of a status symbol amongst Klingons. BoP often seem to owned by a Klingon House and manned by trusted family and friends, rather than purely military owned and operated. Larger ships seem to be soley the property of the military.

Sirella appears on DS9 on a Vor'cha, which might be a House vessel.

 

[DS9forever]

^ If I recall correctly the Valdores were meant to be brand new. It was never said in the episode, but the novelization and (I know not canon) suggests that Admiral Ross commanded the fleet from the Excelsior Class USS Farragut.

I always preferred to think of the Intrepid-class Bellerophon as Ross' flagship. It makes perfect sense, as the Intrepid is the fastest Federation starship available, so he can run to trouble spots to personally supervise them--or away from them, as the case may be.

The novelization of WYLB never said what class the ship was. I wouldn't imagine Ross would use the Excelsior class Farragut. Galaxy class maybe?

 

[Captain Fine]

^ If I recall correctly the Valdores were meant to be brand new. It was never said in the episode, but the novelization and (I know not canon) suggests that Admiral Ross commanded the fleet from the Excelsior Class USS Farragut.

As for the BOPs. We have to remember that there are two different types of BOP that have been seen on screen. We have the relatively small B'Rel Class (the small ones), then we have the K'Vort Class ones that are larger and better armed. I recall that the Rotarran was said to be a K'Vort.

I think by DS9 time they had decided that the ridiculous upscaling of the BOP to match the size of the "K'Vort" class just didn't make sense so they didn't do it anymore. From thereon, only the traditional small BOP sizes appeared, and I think we're supposed to assume they're all the same ship (it is the same model after all). Maybe when Yesterday's Enterprise is remastered, they can come up with a new model for the K'Vort class to do away with the size differences.

Admiral Ross being on an Excelsior-class ship would be just as ridiculous as Gen. Martok being on BOP. Actually more ridiculous. It seems like something that Martok would do. But Ross? No. He'd be on a Galaxy at least. I like the idea that the Bellerophon was his flagship though.

 

[Broccoli]

Martok is the Klingon Capt. Robau of the 24th Century. He doesn't need a large ship to kick ass.

 

[Anwar]

Robau was a pansy .

It makes more sense for Ross to have been on something more akin to a Galaxy class vessel since we did see the Galaxy class in battle during several war scenes, I don't know why they'd keep flying around on something as outdated as the Excelsior.

Budgetary concerns, I know. But they made so many new ships for FC that got reused...

 

[Jono]

^ The Lakota was a beast so you can update an Excelsior to be a top notch combatant. We know that Admirals in the past have used Excelsiors as a flagship, such as Admiral Nechayev using the USS Gorkon in 2369.