Absolute worst character in DS9 History: Ezri Dax

[Praetor]

Fascinating thread. I almost completely disagree with the OP.

The thing with Ezri is two-fold. One, when Terry Farrell opted not to return, they had a choice how to handle her departure. Two, they had a choice when it came to replacing the character, ultimately leaving the show sans science officer.

To my thinking, they could either

1. Not Kill Jadzia: Promote her away, difficult since she's married to Worf and you would expect them to maintain regular contact, but might've been interesting for Worf
2. Kill Jadzia, and write Dax out: have Dax's next host show up long enough to have some emotional closure
3. Kill Jadzia, and bring in a new Dax (as we saw)

In scenario 1 or 2, you have the option of not bringing in another full-time character, but with 3 you pretty much had to. I think the creative team simply chose to take the bull by the horns, and we ended up with a pretty good character, who, I'll admit, was a bit of a distraction at first. However, they made her rather integral with Sisko and Worf's recovery, so that was good.

Personally, I think I'd have preferred the first option. It still also kind of bugs me they never seemed to have a science officer again, but then again they never seemed to need one, either.

 

[Psion]

... It still also kind of bugs me they never seemed to have a science officer again, but then again they never seemed to need one, either.

Yes. Technically, they should have had a science officer come in to replace Jadzia. But the focus of the show had shifted from one of discovery and wonder to defense and combat. Along with combat comes stress and psychological trauma, something they got to explore a bit more by having a counselor replace the science officer.

I'm sure they considered replacing Jadzia with a science-officer host, continuing the character in the same role as the previous six seasons. But since their story-telling had changed, they probably considered a number of alternate positions for the new Dax to fill. Counselor was probably the most obvious to tell stories about the invisible scars of war.

So we got Garrick's runaway claustrophobia in "Afterimage", an unsuccessful effort to help Nog in "It's Only a Paper Moon", and her incisive remarks about the Klingon Empire in "Tacking Into the Wind".

Actually, it's disappointing that there weren't more signs of her helping out with post-traumatic stress among the crew. All-out war was rarely explored in Star Trek, and Deep Space Nine remains the only effort to do so in a detailed manner. Lacking writers with any first-hand experience in the subject, it's surprising they did as well as they did, but I never felt completely satisfied with that aspect of the show.

 

[KaraBear]

I thought Ezri was much better than Jadzia. She was cute, spunky and her story was much more interesting. When trills prepare their whole lives to deal with the symbiont, she was suddenly thrust into having one without any time to prepare. I liked how they handled her being mixed up with the memories of her past selves. Think about things from her point of view. She has memories of being Jadzia, of being married to Worf, of having friends on DS9. But as far as everyone is concerned she's a stranger, a reminder that Jadzia is dead.

I thought she was great

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Having Dax become a man would have been cool. He could have hung out with Sisko like he did with Curzon. And the look on Worf's face would have been priceless...

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Much as I adore Ezri the Worf discomfort would have almost made that worth it

 

[dub]

the Worf discomfort

I see what you did there.

 

[Chensams]

I wouldn't say she was the worst character but I think she was unnecessary. They could have had closure with the character with a couple of episode guest appearance versus all season long. DS9 had a lot of things to warp up in the last season and the Ezri plot line sort of got in the way.

 

[IzzyAtWarp9]

I quite like her. I mean, granted, she's not Jadzia. She's nothing compared to Jadzia and it was the saddest thing ever when she died, but Ezri is still pretty cool I reckon.

 

[KaraBear]

Jadzia was soooo overrated

 

[IzzyAtWarp9]

Jadzia was soooo overrated

Ermegherd treason

 

[KaraBear]

Jadzia was soooo overrated

Ermegherd treason

I know everybody loves her but she irritated me. She was so good at everything, they guys all lusted after her, blech

 

[bbailey861]

If we are talking strictly 'lust factor', I still preferred Ezri. Your initial response was correct, Jadzia was overrated.

 

[R. Star]

Jadzia was soooo overrated

Ermegherd treason

I know everybody loves her but she irritated me. She was so good at everything, they guys all lusted after her, blech

I always thought Jadzia was overrated too. Terry Farrel is definitely cute, but the character's personality was just so... random. There were like three different versions of her and none of them merged together well. The aloof smart person who can figure out anything, the party girl who gets drunk and plays tongo with Quark, and the avenging valkyrie who fights with and hangs out with Klingons.

And chalking that off to the symbiont is just a cop out. Jadzia herself said in Playing God when she was training that Trill Initiate that while the symbiont influences them, the host is supposed to be disciplined enough to define themselves over it.

 

[dub]

Well okay, I'll defend Jadzia, who is apparently not overrated at this point in the thread! Ouch! I did like Jadzia (though Kira is hotter)! :P To me, Worf was the key to bringing out the fun/spontaneous side of her personality/personalities. She was perhaps just a pretty face with brains in the beginning, but Worf really showed us how fun she could be. Plus she warmed up to the crew by then. The writing improved for her and I her acting improved and loosened up as well. She was fun when she wanted to be, feisty when she needed to be, impulsive when she was passionate about something (sometimes to a fault), but a good ear and counsel when friends needed her, and smart when it comes to solutions to big problems (but this "good at everything/know-it-all" trait is common with most Trek crew characters, so it's not unique). She did at times seem to have multiple personalities (though not as much as Ezri, and understandably so), and while Trill are "supposed to" be disciplined enough to define themselves over it, Jadzia was not always able to practice the discipline, and then sometimes she just chose not to. Yes, I liked Jadzia a lot, especially in the second half of her time on DS9. I was disappointed when she left the show and was replaced, so I really hated Ezri during the first watch. But on the re-watch she grew on me. And I'm glad they at least introduced a new female character in her place, even though it did slow down the progression of the story a bit.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I always thought Jadzia was overrated too. Terry Farrel is definitely cute, but the character's personality was just so... random. There were like three different versions of her and none of them merged together well. The aloof smart person who can figure out anything, the party girl who gets drunk and plays tongo with Quark, and the avenging valkyrie who fights with and hangs out with Klingons.

And chalking that off to the symbiont is just a cop out. Jadzia herself said in Playing God when she was training that Trill Initiate that while the symbiont influences them, the host is supposed to be disciplined enough to define themselves over it.

I blame Farrell for the most part. She is gorgeous, no doubt, but her acting chops are thin. She's pretty much admitted that she needed the help of the other actors (Brooks, Shimmerman, and Dorn in particular) to pull it off as well as she did.

 

[Praetor]

I think when they decided to spice Jadzia up, they were said to have decided to "make her Errol Flynn."

It makes sense that there would be a certain degree of... inconsistency in a person who had lived previous lives as other people, but as others have indicated a greater degree of overall structure to the character would have been great. The whole "she's an old man in a young girl's body" gimmick played out pretty quick, IMO, and they didn't quite know what to do with her.

I don't think Farrell is a bad actress, actually. The best ever? Nah. But not bad.

 

[Tosk]

the character's personality was just so... random. There were like three different versions of her and none of them merged together well. The aloof smart person who can figure out anything, the party girl who gets drunk and plays tongo with Quark, and the avenging valkyrie who fights with and hangs out with Klingons.

People in real life have multiple ways of acting in different situations, why can't a fictional person do the same? Jadzia Dax was a smarty-pants party girl who enjoyed hanging out with Klingons. Seems about right.

 

[R. Star]

Sure.. there's a word for that too.. bipolar. Which Bashir quoted in Future Tense as being curable.

 

[Dream]

Sure.. there's a word for that too.. bipolar. Which Bashir quoted in Future Tense as being curable.

That obviously isn't true for Janeway.

 

[R. Star]

Good point.