Jadzia Dax YES OR NO ?

[flemm]

O'Brien also has a history with the Cardassians, too.

True, and he is also the one who has to wrestle with this alien space station that keeps malfunctioning, so there are a few things that seem to anchor him in the ongoing story moreso than Dax and Bashir.

The DS9 cast of characters involves a lot of aliens and exiles, and I guess you could say that O'Brien is an exile in a sense, on this "Cardassian monstrosity" of a space station that he constantly is at odds with, a bit like Garak, for whom the temperature is too low and the lights too bright. Except for O'Brien it's that nothing ever works the way it should. This fits with the "torture O'Brien" theme.

Bashir and Dax seem a lot more detached and detachable from the main storylines, though to the DS9 writers' credit, they never give up on any of the characters and keep throwing story ideas at them until something sticks. Eventually with Bashir what works is his fascination with covert operations, first Garak's appeal to him, then the Bond holosuite game, and finally of course Section 31.

 

[Captain Jerk]

The way I see the whole Trill thing is that relationships change from one host to another--and sometimes very dramatically. Yes, Curzon Dax was like a father to Sisko, but Jadzia herself said "I'm not Curzon." But being that she had Curzon's memories, however, Jadzia knew Sisko better than anyone and knew what made him tick--what he liked and didn't like, his strengths and weaknesses.

Sure, it would have been very awkward and uncomfortable for Sisko, but I would have loved to see him squirm if Jadzia had decided to actively pursue him and prove that she wasn't an old man.

It's more than just memories, one half of Curzon Dax survives and lives on in Jadzia Dax -- the Dax slug part. So in a very real sense, if Sisko ever got together with her, it would be like sleeping with his former father figure/best friend. The notion that it is a "whole new person" through the new combination of slug/host is only a half-truth to me. As afterall, it's not like a hypothetical situation where let's say someone's memories are copied and downloaded into someone else's brain, the Dax slug carries the actual memories with it since it lives on and on forever like a vampire.

But as far as being sure of herself, one can be sure of themselves without having to remind you why they are. If she's sure of herself, then that's fine. But she's like sure of herself because....she's Dax. And she's eager to remind you of that fact as well.

Part of this is the writers trying to find ways to remind the audience of her special nature as well no doubt.

Ooh, remember in the DS9 episode The Ship? When the Jem'Hadar are shelling the surrounding area trying to draw out the crew of the crashed ship? And Worf, O'Brien and Sisko were arguing and Dax was like, "That's men for you. They buckle under just a little pressure." And Sisko was like, "Dax, maybe you haven't noticed...but no one's laughing."

Jokes like this showed an immaturity and insensitivity from her that was not in keeping with a being that old. The show liked to weasel its way out of criticisms like this with things like "well Jadzia herself is very young and Jadzia Dax is a whole new person", but this was contradicted many times whenever the story called for it. The show wants to have it both ways, like when she was insistent on honouring a blood oath from a previous life, or whenever she tells people she's like 300 years old -- which flies in the face of the notion of her being a truly new person who just started her life.

Your quote reminds me of when she made fun of poor Miles when he was complaining during Keiko's pregnancy, instead of empathizing with him or offering him advice she instead totally belittled him and made feministic comments, and Miles was pissed off but didn't let her have it like Sisko did -- I think that was the last time Miles tried to use her as a shoulder to cry on. Dax being the show's resident feminist was sort of silly given she used to be a man herself so should be more sensitive to men's feelings and point of view and not be so ridiculing of them.

Bashir likes it when people compliment him for curing a horrible plague that kills people. Jadzia likes it when people compliment her for having a parasite inside her.

 

[maneth]

Yes, I like her. She's not my favorite character by any means, but I don't dislike her, either. That said, there was a bit too much Curzon, especially whenever she was in a scene with Sisko. I would've loved a flashback episode with Jadzia on the Trill homeworld, before she joined with Dax.

That said, I could never get to terms with Ezri, and Nicole deBoer didn't have enough time to make the character her own, and I don't think Ezri Dax contributed anything new, except more heartbreak for Worf. So I think she should've been sent back to the Trill homeworld so the character could've been written out of the show as soon as it became clear that Dax was going to survive.

 

[Relayer1]

She's one of the weaker characters on DS9, but I still like her. We never learned that much about Jadzia the host and she only really got three good character episodes (Equilibrium, Facets and Rejoined) and all of those were in Seasons 3 and 4, but still, she has a certain charm and likeability in my opinion.

Yeah, that's about it.

 

[Tosk]

Twelve years. Daaaamn.

 

[Orphalesion]

Nope. Never liked her.
Ezri was much better.

 

[Oddish]

Ezri was too good a character to limit to one season. The showrunners should have let Terry Farrell play the occasional character, like she wanted, for the final season. Ezri could have turned up elsewhere.

 

[kkt]

I don't hate Jadzia. Hate is a strong word. But there's lots of characters I like better, including Ezri. I think we got to know Ezri better in one season than we got to know Jadzia in six.

 

[dupersuper]

I like her fine. She's cool. Not as interesting as many of the other characters, but that speaks as much to DS9's deep stable of cool characters as it does to Jadzia.

 

[plynch]

Never had a problem with her; she seems pretty cheery, which is a nice complement to other characters on DS9. It's funny -- I find Robert Beltran's line reading to be so bad, it's like he's not even an actor. Like a kid in acting class who just doesn't have the ability to deliver lines with the extra inflection that is actor-speak, y'know. Wood. Den. But Terry Farrell, I do not hear that -- I know her acting bothers many people, but too me, it seems fine. No real range, ok, but she doesn't sound bad. YMMV

 

[Qonundrum]

Never had a problem with her; she seems pretty cheery, which is a nice complement to other characters on DS9. It's funny -- I find Robert Beltran's line reading to be so bad, it's like he's not even an actor. Like a kid in acting class who just doesn't have the ability to deliver lines with the extra inflection that is actor-speak, y'know. Wood. Den. But Terry Farrell, I do not hear that -- I know her acting bothers many people, but too me, it seems fine. No real range, ok, but she doesn't sound bad. YMMV

He has his moments, but are you familiar with the British television sci-fi show "Doctor Who"? In particular season 19 that aired in 1982? If so, comparing Chakotay and Adric, which one's less compelling for you?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Most of the time she was a pretty good character.

 

[Empok Nor Station Manager]

They played way too much into the "Kurzon Dax" tie in with Sisko in the early seasons. The term "old man" grew on me eventually... but I felt like Jadzia really didn't come into her own for a few seasons. By that time I was already put-off by all the living-in-the-past talk. I'll have to find out when the first time she played Tongo, but that's about the time where I felt she started to come into her own.

Didn't have an issue with Ezri per-se, but felt like the writers shoe-horned her into Season 7. It felt like "quick we have to bring the audience up on everything she's ever done in a couple episodes to help her character develop so she doesn't just turn into set dressing." That's why you see so much development in a short time in Season 7... it was drastically extended with Jadzia because they knew they had time (oh and they had to develop everyone else's character too).

Bottom line, I was REALLY disappointed when Jadzia was written out. If it had been done in Season 2 or 3 I think I would've been less affected. Ezri I liked, but felt like the writers were rushing to get her developed to a point to bring their vision of her in the finale to fruition.

 

[Oddish]

They played way too much into the "Kurzon Dax" tie in with Sisko in the early seasons. The term "old man" grew on me eventually... but I felt like Jadzia really didn't come into her own for a few seasons.

The episode "Playing God", as mediocre as it was, represented a fundamental change in host/symbiont dynamics. Until then, as I understand, the basic premise was that the symbiont personality was the dominant one. After that, it was decided that the host would be more influential. That may be why Dax became a more energetic character then, more like a young woman than a 300-year-old of indeterminate sex.

 

[Quinton]

Time is wild. The topic creator asked this question 11 years after the series went off the air. It has now been 23.

I suppose the question itself is a reasonably timeless one, but still. This was quite the necro-bump.

 

[Oddish]

It does happen. I almost bumped one that I found courtesy of a search engine. But then I checked the date on it.

It's too bad, it was an interesting subject... but I did not feel that my insights on it justified starting a whole new topic.

 

[Lynx]

Yes, I like Jadzia. Great character!

They shouldn't have killed her off. She could have got a post on the Enterprise and maybe returned in the last episode for a short visit.

Ezri could have been Jadzia's sister who joined the crew in season 7.
I like Ezri too. Also a great character!

 

[kkt]

Yes, I like Jadzia. Great character!

They shouldn't have killed her off. She could have got a post on the Enterprise and maybe returned in the last episode for a short visit.

Ezri could have been Jadzia's sister who joined the crew in season 7.
I like Ezri too. Also a great character!

If Jadzia was going to join the Enterprise, the audience should have seen her on the Enterprise and meeting the Enterprise crew. They were making Star Trek Insurrection then. Think Berman would have loaned DS9 some Enterprise sets and actors for a few scenes?

And how could you explain Jadzia accepting a posting separate from Worf - are they getting divorced?

 

[Captrek]

The episode "Playing God", as mediocre as it was, represented a fundamental change in host/symbiont dynamics. Until then, as I understand, the basic premise was that the symbiont personality was the dominant one. After that, it was decided that the host would be more influential. That may be why Dax became a more energetic character then, more like a young woman than a 300-year-old of indeterminate sex.

My biggest problem with that episode was that Jadzia Dax didn’t know why Curzon Dax had done what he did, and didn’t find out until she talked to Curzon in Facets. That makes no sense.

 

[Empok Nor Station Manager]

It does happen. I almost bumped one that I found courtesy of a search engine. But then I checked the date on it.

It's too bad, it was an interesting subject... but I did not feel that my insights on it justified starting a whole new topic.

I wish you had... my struggle with that mentality is that it doesn't give folks who are new to these boards (like me) a chance to revisit those worthy topics of discussion. I hope I don't get any "demerits" if I decide to comment on a older topic... after all Star Trek has been around almost 60 years...