Absolute worst character in DS9 History: Ezri Dax

All true. But ...

She would've happily continued playing Jadzia in a sort of "Regular Guest Star" capacity, kind of like what they did with Chief O'Brien in TNG. She did move onto another show, that's true, but she didn't want to abandon DS9, altogether. Rick Berman, in particular, seemed to take it personally and did what, I guess, he felt he had to do. Her heart was busted!

 

From what I gather she wanted to have a role similar to that of Keiko. She was stationed somewhere else, still alive, still talked about and would show up from time to time.

 

I think the writers were waiting for a reason to dump her.

The character had been dead weight since season 3.

 

There is way too much weight being put on Farrell's desire to play a recurring role. That is not obviously something that she wanted going into season 6: she was actively negotiating with Berman over a roll in the shows permanent cast. After those negotiations failed, she may have wished to have a recurring role en lieu of her character dying, but she failed to communicate that to Behr for more than a decade. Farrell made her own bed, and it reflected in Dax's fate.

 

Got a source? From my understanding, she was in the main cast since season one and wanted a break by the end of season six.

 

Farrell says herself she was negotiating a new contract. It would not be necessary if she wanted a recurring role. Those are episode by episode, just like Robinson, Alaimo, Biggs, etc.

 

I don't think it would've given any logistic difficulty nor would've impacted it much on-screen if she did get her way. I think it's a pity that she wasn't facilitated because I think they spend too much time, too late in the series to build up that Ezri character. They got her bedded in as a plausible character alright but that season was quite congested and they could've afforded more space to better tie the series up. Berman presumably didn't want a avalanche of other actors making similar demands I suppose.

 

She was on contract for full time, and wanted to go part time. The EP said no, take it or leave it so she left - which is what was posted earlier. I can't see any reason why he couldn't have met her halfway, but i'm not in the industry.

 

I feel the series would have benefitted most from the absence of the following:

Jake. Way too much screen time given to a dull story and only middling actor.
Cassidy. Zero chemistry with Sisko/Brooks. Less than zero, practically brother/sister. Huge screen time waste. Alot of this is Brooks' fault because he just plain stinks at romance as far as I can tell as a consequence of his one-note acting, but since he wasn't going anywhere it's her.
Nog. Also pointless EXCEPT where he interacts with the to-me fascinating character of Vic.

I also don't like Ezri at all and she took up way too much screen time in s7. But she'd come out fourth after the three above. Sisko's personal narrative outside of the Prophets especially felt grafted onto the series for me, mainly because the actors were all so lackluster in it (Brooks is so one-dimensional it can make you cry, but he was competent and the rest of the ensemble made you not care after a while), but also because the writing didn't accommodate it well.

Anything at all having to do with Jake just made me groan and even change channels sometimes, I'd say, oh no, not him AGAIN.

MORE than Wesley because Jake generally took up whole eps or at least B plots. Wesley tended not to dominate even when he was B plot.




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Edited to fix: I meant Nog, not Rom! Rom I like!

 

He could have met her halfway: Meaney and Shimermann would appear in movies and have guest spots on shows; I believe the schedule was adjust so Visitor could participate in summer theater. None of them were looking for leading roles in other series. That was what Farrell was looking for, and she was auditioning for parts as early as the first week of February 1998, before the negotiations broke down.

 

There are a handful of episodes where Dax barely appears. There are certainly episodes where she does appear and is useless. So she wanted to step down from lead to recurring.

 

That's a fine argument for changing her status, but it is not evidence of what went down. If she wanted to have a recurring role, she would not have started negotiations over her permanent weekly contract. And she would have consulted the showrunner earlier than she did--twelve years earlier.

 

I actually like both takes on the Dax character. One of the interesting facets of Ezri was her trying to find her place among old coworkers, which seems to be a bit uncommon in Trill society, if I recall correctly.

Maybe it's because I had always hoped that Dax and Bashier would end up together that I ilke Ezri, but I also find the almost child like way of figuring out her identity after having the strong and confident Jadzia as a change of pace for the character. I think her interaction with Garak and him facing his fears was among the more powerful moments in the season.

Real world casting choices aside, I' would not call Ezri the worst character in the series. Alexander, Iska, Zek, among others, would earn that title.

 

Season 7 was really hampered by all the Ezri storylines. It could have been a great season to wrap up the Dominion war but instead we had so many stories involving Ezri and her boring attempts to fit it and find herself. Would have been better had Dax as a character just been killed off entirely.

 

I'm glad they didn't kill off Dax, but they could have done with a bit less of Ezri. I got rather tired of her sprightly, girlish demeanor, even if I think Worf was unnecessarily cruel to her.

I just wonder how Worf would have reacted if Dax had shown up in a male host!

 

This would have been a better option for sure

 

I liked Ezri, but I thin they should have brought Arjin back. He was the Trill going through the initiation program and Jadzia tested him.

 

Ezri was a problem for me because she didn't seem inspired or intelligent, when her profession demands it, or will in an idealized, better 24th century. Even if she was utterly unremarkable as Ezri, the symbiant should have added ... something. They didn't write her part as if she was an amalgamation of two beings. Instead, they wrote her as if she had inherited the job or status or title of "Dax", and was failing at the job. Ezri had Dax's memories, but Dax never seemed to be speaking.
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Remember the guy who kidnapped Jadzia Dax to take the symbiant? To be more confident? It didn't work at all with Ezri... As weak as Ezri's personality was, it seemed to overwhelm and displace Dax's personality. Actually, if we can believe what she says about her pre-joining personality, the joining made her more insecure. Strange.
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She started to seem worthwhile in that ep on her planet, with her family, mainly because she had ideas, convictions, took stands, and spoke like a psychologist who's actually thinking. I also like how she debunked Klingon principles and honor right in front of Worf, later. Early on, she seemed as if she might be more believable manning a cash register at Wal Mart than someone working in social sciences.

 

How many people in the social sciences have you met? O_o

Ezri, in my opinion, was an interesting facet to the Dax character because we had only known Dax as a confident, smart, person. Her interactions with Garak was probably some of the most insightful to her character because it shows what she is afraid of.

 

That was entirely the point. Jadzia was the accomplished Trill who had worked from childhood to be joined. Sisko made the point in "Dax" that Jadzia was already accomplished academically at the time she was joined. In "Invasive Procedures" and "Playing God", the point is made, including by Dax herself, that the host must come to the joining already prepared and strong willed, and that it is possible that a weak candidate would be overwhelmed by the symbiont.

Ezri, who never intended to be joined, was but a recent SF graduate, lacked Jadzia's accomplishments and preparation. We may think that joining was something of a contrivance that was never fully explored in the show, but Ezri's personality conflicts and insecurities seem perfectly in line with what was established by early Dax episodes.