Absolute worst character in DS9 History: Ezri Dax

Not much of a scroller, so sorry if someone else already mentioned this. I find it odd that a space station in one of the most remote Federation areas dealing with the aftermath of a decades-long brutal occupation didn't have a counselor before Ezri came along. Seems like Starfleet puts psychiatrists in the same places they put physicians, in anything I can think of.

EDIT: ^ OK, that's inaccurate. Voyager doesn't have a dedicated shrink, so that blows my theory out of the water. Still seems like DS9 would be a pretty darn logical place for a Starfleet psychologist to get deployed, some Vulcan should have thought of that.

 

To be fair, DS9 was not a standard Federation outpost. We don't know what the details of the Federation's agreement with Bajor actually were. It's entirely possible the Fed. Council offered an entire suite of psychological help along with medical aid, but the Bajorans declined. Or it's entirely possible that any psychological aid would have been sent to the surface of Bajor, and not to Deep Space Nine.

 

I think I have made the effort to state my case in particular detail, so no, I don't think it's a "lazy short-hand" or "meaningless". I don't say that about other female heroines. Just her.

 

I wasn't considering psychological assistance for the Bajoran people, just the Starfleet officers on the 'frontier' dealing with occupation clean-up duty. Although it doesn't look too bad to me, life on DS9 is portrayed as a lot less cushy than the average Starfleet officer would be used to. TNG establishes the 'counselor' position as really coddly with Troi, the day to day pressure on the Enterprise was at least as potentially troubling as life on DS9.

I think a Dr. Phil cameo would have been great if the timelines had collided a little differently!

Phil Dax....that makes me laugh.

 

Quit this. Posts like this are garbage posts that do nothing more than reduce women to prizes to be won, and objects to exploit. If you were unaware before, that your posts are creepy and sexist, then you know now. So let this be a relevation: Women do not need you. At all. They certainly don't need your willingness to bed them under cover of night. I'm quite certain they could be disappointed by your ministrations in the light of day as well.

Have a nice day.

 

Since DS9 didn't have a counselor at the beginning, and since Voyager didn't have one, it's not a stretch to assume the position isn't standard and is per request of the commanding officer. Perhaps Sisko was waiting to see what the situation was like at DS9 before creating a position like that, then the war came and hiring a counselor was probably the last thing on his mind. Then Vic Fontaine in a way pretty much became the counselor anyway. And then when Sisko's old friend Dax now had the qualifications, it made sense to create that position to keep his friend, the old man, around.

 

How old ARE you?

 

I think the counselor position was on the "D" because families were onboard.

 

DS9 could hold almost 7x as many people as the Enterprise-D, and there was a reasonably proportionate portrayal of the percentage of those residents that were families with children.

I think that's plausible, the 'counselor' role and it's need is pretty open to conjecture, I think it's one of the less-defined positions.

 

The Bajorans and other races might have had their own counselors...

 

DS9 did have a counselor. Julian mentions one in "Hard Time" when asking Miles about whether he was going to his sessions. So the question really is, whatever happened to Telnorri?

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Telnorri

(And I agree with the sentiment that Jadzia was way more of a "Mary Sue" than Ezri was.)

 

Too true. Hot girl who everyone is madly in love with; brilliant; wise; badass warrior who can easily dispatch Klingons; always throwing out [supposedly] brilliant quips; no-nonsense I'll-kick-your-ass-and-drink-you-under-the-table-but-damn-it-I'm-still-the-picture-of-femininity-and-sexuality...

And, of course, her demeanor, personality, and background change to suit whatever situation the writers have cooked up in a given week.

I used to really like Jadzia, but I much prefer Ezri now. She's a human being (figure of speech, in this case) with strengths and weaknesses, and honestly I think she treats people better too.

 

I liked Ezri from the off, it doesn't mean I don't think she was superfluous to the show.

 

I tend to agree with you--let Dax go. It's war, and people die. Bring one of the recurring characters in full-time (Nog) and let the station feel a hole where Dax once was. I'd still take Ezri over the entire Voyager cast. Getting Ezri and Worf together felt contrived and like they didn't know what to do with them. The humor after they have sex just drives me up the wall. I liked the actress, but the space sickness and nerves just didn't appeal to me.

I think my nails-on-the-chalkboard character is Dr. Beverly Crusher. Every scene with her makes me cringe. That is my Ezri Dax.

 

Good catch, I had totally forgotten about that character. Instantly rang the bell after reading your post!

 

We just did our Ezri podcast, might be a good counterpoint.

 

I liked Ezri but I hated most of the writing they did for her.

In the first few episodes, they were basically forced to write her as unstable and neurotic just because of the backstory they gave her. And they did it all in this very sitcom way that made embarrassing use of the "Oh, sorry, I can't take back your resignation letter. Because I never sent it!" trope. Once we got past that we had weird standalone episodes that didn't advance her relationship with the other characters like the one with her family and the one with Joran. It did make sense that she would have a lot of sexual tension with Worf just because, well, she has a lot of memories of sex with him.

Getting together with Bashir made sense but not with how rushed they did it. If they had made Bashir pursue her near the start of the season maybe it could have worked but instead he just moped around about Jadzia for the year then suddenly asked her out it what seemed like it was more vicariously dating Jadzia than dating Ezri. They never really established a relationship between Ezri and Bashir that wasn't all about Bashir having pursued Jadzia.

Instead of forcing a new character into the cast that the knew they wouldn't have time to develop they should have just given their best secondaries more prominent roles.

 

I really don't get this argument. What can possibly make any of these characters 'superfluous'?

There isn't any standard blueprint for a Trek show that says we need this, this, this and this, and if we've got those characters, then everyone is immaterial and shouldn't ever be focused on. Ezri has a place in the stories, a place on the station and a place within the relationships among the main crew/cast. That is pretty much the exact opposite of superfluous...

Her relationship with Worf actually gave us one of my favorite moments from the series (when Worf finally faces up to the sad state of the Empire).

 

I loved this scene, by Ezri being there and not being Jadzia, they were able to do something that could not have done with Jadzia. They utilize the uniqueness of Ezri to the fullest extent here and set up one of the most memorable scenes in all of Star Trek, Worf killing Gowron! She is, in my opinion a very good character that is well used and well written, especially considering it is the 7th and final season of a very serialized show.