Do you love or hate Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax?

[Too Much Fun]

Hey, being stuck in a Turbolift isn't necessarily all bad. Look at Odo and Lwaxanna...they had a lovely time. It should be obvious what I'd vote in this poll. The positive comments about Jadzia in this thread make me warm and fuzzy inside.

I thought a lot about Farrell's decision to leave and have come up with a way to understand how it makes sense. Consider the fact that most Star Trek actors tend to end up in career limbo after Star Trek (I don't know why, could it be typecasting?), except for the really major characters like William Shatner and Patrick Stewart.

There are exceptions even to that. Leonard Nimoy and Avery Brooks didn't have much TV or movie work either after they finished their work in Star Trek (although in Nimoy's case it seemed to be more of a personal choice). By jumping ship to another show, she extended her career by about 4-5 more years. If it had been up to me, I would have preferred if she stayed, even if it meant no acting options for her after 1999, but from a business/career standpoint, I can see why she did what she did.

 

[TEH BABA]

They need terry to do a guest spot on the l word.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Consider the fact that most Star Trek actors tend to end up in career limbo after Star Trek (I don't know why, could it be typecasting?), except for the really major characters like William Shatner and Patrick Stewart.

As someone who used to play the Kevin Bacon game, I can tell you this isn't true. After what happened to the original cast (who did end up typecast and in career limbo for quite a while), it seems like the newer casts have been a little smarter about networking: if you see one Trek actor get anything like a regular gig on a show, keep an eye out for other members of their acting collective to show up as guest stars, or even on occasion in other recurring roles. And the collective seems to have expanded to embrace some of the other series sci-fi (and strangely, CSI and Boston Legal when it was on) as time has gone on and Trek people have overlapped with them.

A few examples:

1. Look up the cast of the cartoon Gargoyles at IMDB. If you're not already familiar with it, you're in for a surprise.

2. Stargate: Oh let me count the ways - Recurring roles or guest spots for Marina Sirtis, Jolene Blalock, Armin Shimerman, Dwight Schultz, Erick Avari, Colm Meaney, Morena Baccarin, Erica Durance, and others that I'm almost certainly forgetting. Semi-regular role for Lexa Doig. Regular roles for Claudia Black, Ben Browder, Jewel Staite, and Robert Picardo.

3. Boston Legal had William Shatner and Rene Auberjonois as regulars, and the following as guest stars: John Larroquette, Armin Shimerman, Ethan Phillips, Michelle Forbes, Scott Bakula, Elizabeth Dennehy, April Grace, Jeri Ryan, and a ton of other more minor Trek actors. Not to mention people behind the camera.

And that's just a very few. If you look for it, you'll definitely see what I'm talking about.

Terry Farrell doesn't seem to have made the club, though. I wonder why....

 

[Bisz]

I went with hate, even though I don't hate her... I dislike her. I dislike the character and I dislike Farrell's acting.

 

[Damask]

Terry Farrell doesn't seem to have made the club, though. I wonder why....

I thought she gave up acting to look after her family?

 

[Zameaze]

She was fine. I don't know that I can say I love her....

Judging from your avatar, you'd better not say that you love her! Oh, wait, that's OK now. Go ahead and say it.

 

[Shatmandu]

I love her like a fat girl home on prom night loves uncooked cookie dough.

Joe, tube

 

[KimMH]

Loved her and thought Farrell did a whiz bang job with the role - I thought she should be a little understated - a 400 yar old person probably isn't too worried about proving themselves. Liked Ezri and DeBoer as well.

 

[Michael]

So, I think it's save to say that with roughly 10 percent Jadiza/Farrell haters do constitute a minority after all, eh? Thanks for starting this thread, Navaros. I will keep a link to this thread so that I can redirect to this poll whenever the topic comes up again.

 

[Anticitizen]

Well, the poll is flawed in two ways - it's a choice between 'love' and 'hate', and it's about the actress specifically, not the character.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Terry Farrell doesn't seem to have made the club, though. I wonder why....

I thought she gave up acting to look after her family?

Yeah, but I don't think she would be getting a lot of offers if she hadn't. Would probably be in the same boat as Avery. I don't consider a bunch of guest spots or voiceover work to be indicative of a career that's prospering. In fact, even Patrick Stewart hasn't done much since Star Trek, other than the X-Men movies. I consider Shatner and Rene exceptions to the rule. I consider a healthy post-trek career one where you get important roles in good movies fairly frequently or get to be a regular on a TV show.

 

[JustKate]

Yeah, but I don't think she would be getting a lot of offers if she hadn't. Would probably be in the same boat as Avery. I don't consider a bunch of guest spots or voiceover work to be indicative of a career that's prospering. In fact, even Patrick Stewart hasn't done much since Star Trek, other than the X-Men movies. I consider Shatner and Rene exceptions to the rule. I consider a healthy post-trek career one where you get important roles in good movies fairly frequently or get to be a regular on a TV show.

There's more than one kind of success, Too Much. Patrick Stewart has been on stage a LOT - Broadway and London. He won the Olivier award last year, I think it was. I personally would have killed or at least maimed somebody to see the recent production of MacBeth that he starred in, but my darn old conscience (not to mention my bank account balance) got in the way. Mulgrew has done a lot of stage work as well - won an Obie, I think. They are doing just fine. Movies and TV aren't everything.

 

[Michael]

Well, the poll is flawed in two ways - it's a choice between 'love' and 'hate', and it's about the actress specifically, not the character.

Yup, I pointed out one of these flaws in my first post in this thread.

 

[exodus]

Urm, it is just a tv show, and it is just a gig.

Alright, you! Clearly, we need to take this outside.



Seriously, though - I'm not delusional and believe it is real, or anything bonkers like that. But when something embodies a large number of people's hopes and beliefs and sense of connection with the rest of humanity, it has transcended being "just a tv show". And it shouldn't matter if you believe in it or not, you should still pay it at least a modicum of respect - especially if it pays your bills.

I'm an athiest, and I do computer work at churches sometimes. I may not believe what they do, but I'll show the appropriate respect for their symbols and beliefs.

That is why what happens with actors behind the scenes shouldn't be public knowledge or else you get "fans" that judge these actors based what their personal dealings are and not what they do on camera.

 

[Thestral]

Loved her, and I agree with whoever it was that because of Jadzia (and Ezri a lot too), the Trill are one of my favorite species.

 

[Damask]

Loved her, and I agree with whoever it was that because of Jadzia (and Ezri a lot too), the Trill are one of my favorite species.

I love the Trill but always felt they were never developed enough in the TV shows at least. I might have preferred it if all/or the majority the Trill were joined and a small minority chose not to join.

So a young Trill would venture into the pools of whatever and find a symbiont.
Or if sometimes the slugs would not pick a person at all and you end up with someone like Verad

 

[exodus]

Who's Verad?

 

[kitsune]

Who's Verad?

Verad was the rejected host candidate who forcefully took Dax from Jadzia in Invasive Procedures, becoming Verad Dax for a short while.

 

[USS Triumphant]

That is why what happens with actors behind the scenes shouldn't be public knowledge or else you get "fans" that judge these actors based what their personal dealings are and not what they do on camera.

It's needlessly harsh to put fans in quotes here. I'm really not unreasonable or hard to please. A lot of the actors do see it as "just a gig", and while I do wish they realized how special what they are a part of is (and ultimately some do - looking at Shatner and Nimoy here), I don't really begrudge them that. But I don't understand actors who don't know about their characters or the world they live in any more than I understand singers who don't know the words to their own hits. And you don't sh*t where you eat, like a select few of the actors have done. I definitely don't regard Farrell as being that bad. I'm just a little irritated that she let a poorly handled pay negotiation cause her to abandon her character that close to the end of the series - and that irritation manifests whenever I see her on tv, now, whether it be on DS9 or Becker.

 

[Praetor]

Was it really the pay negotiation? Or was it that she thought she could further her career by moving on? I'd always thought it was more the latter, and they just couldn't give her enough money to entice her to stay.