Vulcan anthropologist who had been studying a proto-Vulcan society on the planet Marlow V in the Gamma Quadrant for fifteen years.

During the events of "The Horror," the Potemkin was dispatched from Deep Space Nine to check up on Surtok. He had not checked in some time and his superiors were concerned.

His logs reported that he had been observing a specific group of the natives, dubbed Clan 8723, who were on the verge of a major evolutionary breakthrough. However, because of their nomadic nature, they would have been out of his observational range before he could catalouge the event.

He decided to join Clan 8723 and to do so he gave up his Vulcan training and submitted to his emotions. Although he tried to retrain some level of control, his different passions got the better of him and he regressed rapidly into a pre-logical state.

An away team from the Potemkin found him leading Clan 8723 and ruling with an iron fist - he beheaded one clansman for "failing the great Surtok." The crew also found out that his ego had fractured into a primal brutish side and a weaker half that was scared of all tha the was experiencing.

Eventually Surtok was challenged by another clansman, Nirin, for perverting the ways of the tribe. Although the crew finally was able to connect with the "real" Surtok, he submitted to the contest as a way to pay for his misdeed. However, once he has won, Nirin refuses to kill Surtok - demonstrating the evolutionary breakthrough he had hoped to find: nobility and compassion.

Nirin allowed the away team to take Surtok away and he was left at DS9 for further rehabilitation.

It is known that he has a wife named Sulan.