I like Ezri, but...

[Bad Thoughts]

Leads get paid for the episodes they act in. Farrell could have remained in the credits, only getting paid for the episodes she was actually in. More realistically, she would drop down to the bottom of the call sheet and paid the lowest amount possible, if not reduced to a weekly or daily player.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Let's put this in perspective: Farrell getting put into recurring role would be financially infeasible. The recurring cast has two heavies, Fletcher and Shawn, both of whom would be right to demand higher billing and pay than Farrell. Indeed, one was an Academy Award winner. And there were other veterans who could (or their agents) could cause a fuss: Robinson and Combs. Then there was Rosiland Chao, who starred in a few notable movies in the 90s. How low down on the totem pole was Farrell willing to go?

 

[Oddish]

Don't know. All I do know is that killing Jadzia off and immediately replacing her the way they did was probably DS9's second biggest bungle.

 

[DonIago]

^In your opinion.

 

[Oddish]

Yes, in my opinion. YMMV.

 

[Crewman6]

Unless they're a regular. Generally speaking, if you're in the opening credits you get paid.

If you're a regular, you'll have a contract that stipulates how many episodes a season you will be in. Most of the time, this will be an "all shows produced" clause, meaning you'll be in every episode. Some actors (if they're lesser known or playing supporting characters) get something like "ten out of every thirteen."

But you still get a fee based on each episode you're actually in. So no one is going to get a contract to appear in, say, half the number of episodes they normally would but still get the same pay. That's just an impossibility. You'd still get paid based on what episodes you're actually in.

The exception would be if you have an all-shows contract and they somehow write you out for an episode. You'd still get paid since it's in your contract to get paid per every episode.

So there's zero chance Terry Farrell said, "I want to be in half the episodes at the same pay." That'd mean she'd be getting double her old fee. She might have said, "half the episodes" at the same pay, which would have been series regular pay, but more pay than a guest star would make.

 

[Crewman6]

Then they could have taken Terry Farrell's name out of the opening credits. Sacking and replacing her was unnecessary.

Technically, she wasn't sacked, her contract was up and she wasn't rehired.

 

[at Quark's]

I didn't particularly care for Ezri. That's to say, I didn't have anything against her either, but the 'insecurity-riddled girl that has to grow up fast in a war situation' angle didn't do too much for me. But probably that's also because she only had one season to establish her character, in a series that was wrapping up its affairs anyway. She might have grown on me, had she had multiple seasons.

 

[at Quark's]

Does that mean Ezri is going to be Dax's last host? Because them's the rules, according to "Rejoined". There was more in that episode than Trek's first same-sex kiss.

But Ezri was a special case. After all, she didn't apply for the program, but she was forced by the circumstances. Since she had no preparation and really had no choice in the matter, short of letting the symbiont die (which might well have carried an even heavier stigma in Trill society), perhaps they felt it would be unfair for her to be held to the same 'promises' and she got dispensation of those rules.

 

[Oddish]

Thst actually makes sense. Ezri didn't agree to this. Ergo, neither did Ezri Dax.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

But Ezri was a special case. After all, she didn't apply for the program, but she was forced by the circumstances. Since she had no preparation and really had no choice in the matter, short of letting the symbiont die (which might well have carried an even heavier stigma in Trill society), perhaps they felt it would be unfair for her to be held to the same 'promises' and she got dispensation of those rules.

Perhaps the symbiosis board thought that Ezri was a lost case, and the symbiont would be lucky to survive this host.

 

[Crewman6]

They definitely needed to replace Jadzia somehow. Kira was the only other major female character on the show and giving us another Dax is just smartly using the mythology and lore of the show that had been there from minute one. If you have a character whose entire point is that she is nigh immortal because she can change bodies, you'd be a fool not to use that idea once the opportunity literally fell into your lap.

And, as Ron Moore himself said in an interview, Ezir was still "Dax", so she was still a character with history and relationships that were part of the tapestry of the show which now could be reinterpreted in new and fresh and strange ways.

I don't think they were 100% successful all of the time, but at least they tried. I also think the show gave Ezri too many dedicated episodes in the final season when their priorities should have been elsewhere. (It doesn't help that eps like Prodigal Daughter were just complete junk.). Further, Jadzia got very few dedicated episodes herself over the years that weren't tied to things like Klingons or Trill business that didn't really get to the heart of who she was in the present, as a character (or as a scientist.)

So giving Ezri so many episodes felt, I dunno, weirdly unfair to Jadzia/Farrell retroactively....?

 

[kkt]

They definitely needed to replace Jadzia somehow. Kira was the only other major female character on the show and giving us another Dax is just smartly using the mythology and lore of the show that had been there from minute one. If you have a character whose entire point is that she is nigh immortal because she can change bodies, you'd be a fool not to use that idea once the opportunity literally fell into your lap.

And, as Ron Moore himself said in an interview, Ezir was still "Dax", so she was still a character with history and relationships that were part of the tapestry of the show which now could be reinterpreted in new and fresh and strange ways.

I don't think they were 100% successful all of the time, but at least they tried. I also think the show gave Ezri too many dedicated episodes in the final season when their priorities should have been elsewhere. (It doesn't help that eps like Prodigal Daughter were just complete junk.). Further, Jadzia got very few dedicated episodes herself over the years that weren't tied to things like Klingons or Trill business that didn't really get to the heart of who she was in the present, as a character (or as a scientist.)

So giving Ezri so many episodes felt, I dunno, weirdly unfair to Jadzia/Farrell retroactively....?

Jadzia didn't get that many dedicated episodes because, frankly, Farrell wasn't so great an actress as to be able to carry an episode by herself. When Worf got to the show, they found out she could flirt or bicker with him pretty well, so that's what she got to do.

 

[Oddish]

That may be while the whole Trill species was rewritten around about "Playing God" to make the host the dominant member... Terry Farrell didn't do 300 years old and wise and inscrutable that well.

 

[DonIago]

I think one of my favorite parts of the Worlds of DS9 novella that focused on Trill was that Ezri took time to visit Jadzia's grave.

 

[Crewman6]

Does that mean Ezri is going to be Dax's last host? Because them's the rules, according to "Rejoined". There was more in that episode than Trek's first same-sex kiss.

And while we're on the subject, how long do those slugs live?

Having a one of smash-session is different than having a full on relationship, which Ezri and Worf didn't have. So I think Ezri's in the clear.

 

[Crewman6]

That may be while the whole Trill species was rewritten around about "Playing God" to make the host the dominant member... Terry Farrell didn't do 300 years old and wise and inscrutable that well.

Jadzia didn't get that many dedicated episodes because, frankly, Farrell wasn't so great an actress as to be able to carry an episode by herself. When Worf got to the show, they found out she could flirt or bicker with him pretty well, so that's what she got to do.

I don't think that's very fair, but I think you're probably right in that was the perception. I agree that, in early seasons, when she was asked to play the aloof, "wise" version of Jadzia it didn't really work and she wasn't great at it. When the pivoted to the more playful Dax (which had little or nothing to do with Worf), it was a much better fit. But she was more than capable on the rare occasions the show gave her more weighty stuff after the first season or two. Instead, on the rare occasions she got an episode, it was either Trill focused, Klingon focused, Worf focused or crapola like Meridian.

 

[Lynx]

The worst thing wasn't how much changed. It's how much didn't. They wrote Jadzia being replaced into the Trill mythos, but despite Ezri being a different person, she was doing a lot of the same stuff. Even manning the Defiant's console and running around with a rifle. And I found the Ezri/Bashir pairing to be painfully dull; when I saw them kissing in the turbolift, my thought was "good, they got it over with". I did not and do not have any feelings for the couple.

The ONLY good thing about Ezri as a character was the fact that she never went through any of the careful evaluation and training that precedes joining. As a result, she was trying to reconcile herself with having eight other personalities in her head, one of them psychotic. But because there's a war on and there's no time, that all conveniently goes away by the end.

They should have given Terry Farrell what she wanted, kept Jadzia, and used the idea for Ezri elsewhere. But no, Rick Berman took a quick break from running Voyager into the ground to come here and force one of DS9's few bad decisions.

So typical that Berman was behind it!

There's an old rock song by the British band The Hollies called "King Midas In Reverse". In Greek mythology, all that the rich and mighty King Midas touched turned to gold. In this song, the story is about someone who turns everything he touches to dust.

If that song had been done in the 90's, I would have supposed that it was about Berman.

As for me, i would have chosed the following options:

1. Pay Farrell what she wanted. I mean, it was only one season left of the series. Then they could have addded Ezri as some relative to Jadzia who could have joined the crew for some reason.

2. If Farrel had said no to the offer, then Jadzia could have left without being killed off, maybe got a posting on the Enterprise or so. Then Ezri could have been a sister or relative to jadzia who got the job instead.

For some strange reaso, I watched Tears Of The Prophets yesterday. It's hard to watch because of Jadzia's death. Not to mention that she was killed in a creepy way as well.

They should have had Worf to kill of Dukat in the end episode instead of poor Gowron.

 

[kkt]

They should have had Worf to kill of Dukat in the end episode instead of poor Gowron.

No way. Kira should have killed Dukat. Kira had abundant reasons to kill Dukat before Worf was even at the station.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Retribution seems antithetical to Star Trek. Certainly, there have been times when the main characters act in a way that reflect the losses they had in the past, like Worf refusing to donate blood for an injured Romulan. However, it would ring untrue to end the series that way. Even Kirk could forgive the Klingons. DS9 ends by Sisko sacrificing himself, stopping Dukat from unleashing an apocalypse. It was an act to defend Bajor, not an act to eliminate a bad guy or to revenge a wrong. That's very Trek.