Eddington is a remarkable character. For me, he steals the show every episode he is. Enigmatic, smart, and what a rival for Sisko! Was his character wasted? Could/Should the writers have done more with him (and by a larger extent overall, the maquis), or he is so memorable because of the few times he appears? It appears the actor Kenneth Marshall (now 72 years old - man where does the time go!) didn't really continue acting much after this, apart from a few roles on television. That's a shame, because I think he shows great range. I guess he decided to pursue his life in other ways.
Hmm. Eddington wasted. That might explain much about him, depending on exactly what he was wasted on.
I liked how he seemed like an ordinary, capable, VOY-style Starfleet officer at first. Perhaps there could've been one more episode between the Jean Val Jean hunt game and his heroic death.
There is context to consider. The whole reason the Maquis were introduced in the second season was to lay groundwork for Voyager, and indeed after Voyager premiered, the Maquis were essentially shoved aside on DS9. Their first post-Voyager premiere presence of any significance on DS9 was For the Cause, and then primarily as a reaction to the fact Voyager wasn't really doing anything with the fact part of its crew were Maquis so they made Eddington a traitor to lay groundwork for a future Maquis storyline. But then during the fifth season, they began getting the ball rolling on war with the Dominion and decided that before that storyline really gets underway, they should resolved the Maquis storyline and by extension, Eddington's storyline.
I don't think he was wasted. He was an interesting character (even though many found him annoying too), who I think received just about the right amount of screen time. More probably would only have made him more annoying (and less interesting). For example I don't think he would have worked, for example, as Sisko's Great Antagonist over those 7 years of DS9.
DS9 as a Saturday morning cartoon with Sisko yelling at the end of every episode. "I'll get yoooooooooou Eddington!"
Sisko overreacted to such a degree to Eddington's Extralegal Exploits / Escapes that it wouldn't even have been too far out of tune with what we actually got.
Saturday Morning Deep Space 9: Dukat and Sisko, alternate antagonists every other week. vs Eddington and the Freedom Five, with Quark The Talking Bat, Odo who can become any shape but for some reason only becomes a bucket of water or a car the gang rides around in, Dax aka Spots replaced with a different Spots in the final season for reasons never explained, O'Brien the mechanic and Frosted Lucky Charms spokesman, Kira the wacky Terrorist, who Odo has a crush on. -inspiration
I actually like Eddington. I find it sad that they killed him off, I would have liked to see him join Sisko and the others in the war against The Dominion.
I'm in the middle of season 6. I know they have a lot of balls in the air and even I as a viewer am having trouble sometimes keeping track of who is allied with who. But the Maquis are an interesting idea and it would have been interesting to see what was happening with them as the war went on. Eddington would have been the most obvious viewpoint character. What becomes of the Maquis when the Cardasians are in full on war with the Federation? Do they ever become an asset to the Feds? Killing him off seemed like they were just wrapping up a narrative loose end., Of course by that point you had narrative and actor overhead of Nog, Garak, Ducot, Weyoun, Martog, etc. It would have been interesting (and maybe it will be, I'm not done) to have seen a group who was a liability for the Federation become a grudgingly needed asset.
Call me contrarian, but I didn't especially like Eddington, or his storyline, and I liked the Dominion War even less. What ever happened to the whole "crossroads in space, with new life and new civilizations seeking us out" concept?
I'm thinking more along the line of stories like "Captive Pursuit," "Move Along Home," "The Storyteller," "Progress," "If Wishes Were Horses," "Sanctuary" (yes, I know it involved the Dominion), &c. It was always obvious to me that every time the DS9 producers tried to differentiate DS9 from B5, they unwittingly accomplished exactly the opposite, and the Dominion War arc was one of the results of that.
Perhaps that's part of the Dominion charter. To seek out new life, new civilizations ..... aggressively. That's exactly what made him so bearable in season 6.
I think they killed him off too soon. The Maquis might have been an interesting addition to the Dominion war, especially if they could also have guest appearances by Michelle Forbes and Jonathan Frakes as well.
I think he was still high off all that quality non-replicator food, especially those tomatoes he keeps boasting on about. Indeed, he should do some commercials - he's sufficiently cheesy with that hammy dialogue, as dry as rye as well, and even says the same adjectives like "fresh" enough times too and there's definitely a lot of corn in that speech. At least it's as fresh as a baby's smile and not the other end, especially after said baby ate the corn...