Trials and Tribble-ations - Why did Dax hide her spots?

[Kor]

It would be easy enough to look up who was on the crew in that Stardate, and just as easy to figure out there were no Trills on the ship. Were there ANY non humans on the ship during TOS besides Spock?

Not that we ever saw on the series.

Kor

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

From Star Wreck VI:Geek Space 9, though I would've preferred a nice game of "count the spots". Clearly making herself less conspicuous is a good thing with Kirk around.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Yes, Torias did serve in Starfleet. He was a shuttle test pilot. In fact that's how he died - a shuttle crash.

No, they never said it was a Starfleet shuttle, nor that he was in Starfleet. Not in the TV show.

Weirdly enough, it seems this has been pointed out to you by others at least twice before in past threads over the years. (Sorry, not cyber-stalking you. I just happened to search here for "Torias + Starfleet" to make sure there wasn't something I'd missed from checking the episode transcripts and Memory Alpha.)

Were there ANY non humans on the ship during TOS besides Spock?

See above.

-MMoM

 

[Worf'sParmach]

No, they never said it was a Starfleet shuttle, nor that he was in Starfleet. Not in the TV show.

Correct. Starfleet isn't the only one with shuttles in the galaxy.

 

[Jetboogieman]

Spock appeared to be the only nonhuman assigned to the Enterprise, so she'd be super conspicuous.

Would have made for a pretty akward explanation... "Oh these... Um yeah these are a birthmark... s.

 

[Maurice]

Maybe not the only one, but with few enough others that they'd probably all be known. It seemed in "Charlie X" (TOS) that there was at most one other besides Spock...

CHARLIE: How many humans like me on this ship?
RAMART: Like a whole city in space, Charlie. Over four hundred in the crew of a starship, aren't there, Captain?
KIRK: Four hundred and twenty-eight, to be exact. Is there anything we can do for you, Captain? Medical supplies, provisions?
CHARLIE: Hundreds. All human, like me. That's exciting. Is that the right word?

But there's no indication that the crew was exactly 430 at all times. Yeah, they say 430 here or there, but given rotations and redshirt deaths, 428 might've been the entire crew including Spock at the moment Kirk gave that figure.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

But there's no indication that the crew was exactly 430 at all times. Yeah, they say 430 here or there, but given rotations and redshirt deaths, 428 might've been the entire crew including Spock at the moment Kirk gave that figure.

Sure, that's a good point, too. (Except I would tend to think the 428 wouldn't include Spock, because he's not human. But even that's fudgeable in context, I suppose.)

Likewise, there were also more than 430 aboard a few episodes later in "Shore Leave" (TOS):

MCCOY: The Captain has to come down.
SULU: He'd like it.
MCCOY: He needs it. You've got your problems, I've got mine. He's got ours, plus his, plus four hundred and thirty other people's.

But of course, there could be passengers figuring into that equation, even though we never heard about any specifically. I think it's all pretty open, and just depends on whether one wants to believe Spock was literally the only non-human in the crew at a given time or not. That's why I used the qualifiers "maybe" and "at most" with respect to that particular example. The various texts leave room for there to be (an)other(s), but don't require it, as you say—until we get to TAS, where we have Arex and M'Ress!

-MMoM

 

[The Wormhole]

Why did Dax hide her spots? Because in the 23rd century Trills didn't have spots, they still had forehead bumps like in The Host.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

in the 23rd century Trills didn't have spots, they still had forehead bumps like in The Host.

Two things about that:

- we never saw any authentic 23rd-century Trill

- Who's to say both host appearances couldn't exist together? Some Trill had the spots, some had the ridges. No biggie.

 

[The Wormhole]

I was making a joke

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I actually do buy the explanation that's been propounded in the Trek novelverse:

Spoiler: Trill

The spots are the 'natural' appearance of Trill hosts. Ridges are the result of the Klingon augment virus managing to infect a Trill colony.

besides, in the early days of DS9, they did try the ridges on Terry Farrell but she was allergic to that kind of makeup. So that's the only reason the Trill have spots.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Correct. Starfleet isn't the only one with shuttles in the galaxy.

And going by "The Host" (TNG), the Trills would have particular need for them, given that at least some joined ones had difficulty with transporters due to a risk of damage to the symbiont...although going by later stories, others seem to not have had this issue.

Why did Dax hide her spots? Because in the 23rd century Trills didn't have spots, they still had forehead bumps like in The Host.

Or she'd be too easily confused for a Kriosian, and thus too likely a suspect in the hunt for Klingon spies...Kriosians being subjects of the Klingon Empire at the time!

besides, in the early days of DS9, they did try the ridges on Terry Farrell but she was allergic to that kind of makeup. So that's the only reason the Trill have spots.

Sincere apologies to be nitpicking you once again, but while I do seem to recall a story of her having a bad reaction to the Klingon makeup she was supposed to don in "Apocalypse Rising" (DS9)—and so I don't doubt she could have had a similar one to the initial Trill forehead piece—the reason I've more often heard cited for the change was that it was insisted upon by the executives for cosmetic reasons.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Trill:

It was initially planned for the Trills of DS9 to look basically identical to Odan, who had established the Trill appearance in "The Host". The make-up was consequently to still consist of several distinguishing marks on the forehead. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 23, No. 6, p. 21) Actress Terry Farrell recalled how the Trill makeup was being planned when she was cast as Jadzia Dax; "[Makeup Supervisor Michael] Westmore [...] was about to put this whole thing on me [....] I didn't know that the [makeup] testing would take months to figure out that I didn't need a forehead." ("Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) Indeed, a new prosthetic forehead, much like the original, was designed by Westmore. ("Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) The appliance was filmed in test footage involving Farrell. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 7; "Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) At first, the forehead matching Odan's was used for only two days. "Then they kept reducing it with each test," related Farrell, "until it really looked like someone had just hit me in the forehead. But Paramount didn't want to make me look strange." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 7) The forehead appliance was used over the course of a few weeks. ("Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) "We had only shot one of her scenes, which [the producers] wanted to redo for some other reason, so they took a new look at the makeup," explained Westmore. (The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine issue 1, p. 28)

After Paramount executives watched the dailies of Terry Farrell in DS9 pilot "Emissary", they issued a rare ultimatum about the Trill make-up scheme. The executives insisted the make-up be changed via removal of the forehead markings; having spent a long time seeking a beautiful actress for the role of Dax, Paramount wanted to avoid Farrell being defaced by prosthetics. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 23, No. 6, p. 21) The actress offered, "I just remember that somebody said, 'What did you do to her? She used to be beautiful and you gave her this weird head!'" ("Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) The alarmed reaction to the Trill forehead finally resulted in the more common spots seen on Deep Space Nine. Hence, the reasons for the change were purely cosmetic. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 7; "Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) Like the unused forehead, the Trill spots were designed by Michael Westmore. ("Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) He took inspiration for the spots from Kriosian make-up in TNG: "The Perfect Mate". (TV Zone, Special #34, p. 12) The DS9 makeup team thought the Trill spots would look sexier than the earlier ones, though. ("Crew Dossier: Jadzia Dax", DS9 Season 2 DVD special features) "I didn't want to do the exact same thing," recollected Westmore, "so we experimented around the front of Terry's face and the powers-that-be finally accepted that design." (TV Zone, Special #34, p. 12)

-MMoM

 

[at Quark's]

Even if there would have been some Trill serving in Starfleet (and on the Enterprise) in the 23rd century, it probably still would be safest to simply take cover in the largest group (Humans) for such an undercover mission. A 3rd Trill on board would have a harder time evading notice if anything happened than a 429th human ....

 

[Aaron McGuire]

I actually do buy the explanation that's been propounded in the Trek novelverse:

Spoiler: Trill

The spots are the 'natural' appearance of Trill hosts. Ridges are the result of the Klingon augment virus managing to infect a Trill colony.

besides, in the early days of DS9, they did try the ridges on Terry Farrell but she was allergic to that kind of makeup. So that's the only reason the Trill have spots.

That allergy was also why Dax didn't on the mission in "Apocalypse Rising" despite being more useful on the mission than O'Brian.