Ezri on the Bridge - Huh?

[Rush Limborg]

Well, FWIW, we don't really see Ezri in Ops that much. She's briefly there in "Treachery, Faith...", and she's there in "Dogs of War". Maybe "Badda Bang", but I don't remember.

Still, that's all I can think of....

 

[Tina Lawton]

I liked Ezri.

 

[Navaros]

No good reason exists for Ezri to be on the bridge of the station, or of the Defiant, or in the staff board meetings, or on the show itself.

All of that is equally true of Jadzia.

Jadzia and Ezri were put on the show for no reason other than because they are women. They have no relevance to the show's story and hence serve no useful purpose.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Because Ezri was still Dax, and Sisko was in charge of the ship and clearly would have wanted her there because he knew she was familar with the ship and an excellent pilot and basically great at everything.

 

[Kirby]

oh, here's here dates and ranks / positions just to show how quickly she flew up the ranks...

USS Destiny - ensign / assistant counselor - until 2375
Deep Space 9 - lieutenant junior grade / counselor - 2375-2376
USS Defiant - lieutenant / first officer - from 2376
USS Aventine - lieutenant commander / second officer - until 2381
USS Aventine - captain - from 2381

Anyone that can go from Ensign / Assistant Councillor in under 6 years definitely deserves the kudos she gets... noteworthy she made it from Ensign to First Officer in about a year... so she's obviously got enough experience and knowledge to back up the claim to be on any bridge...

Meh, that's nothing... Kirk made it from Cadet to Captain in a week in ST09.
Ezri is a slacker.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Well, it's because Kirk saved the Federation from total annihilation. Were Ezri so lucky as to encounter a scenario like that--she'd be Fleet Admiral by now....

 

[Cyke101]

I would question why Deanna Troi should be on the bridge during battle, but not Ezri, as unlike Troi, we see Ezri manning controls during battle. But, perhaps more pertinently, it's also wartime and in wartime:

-good help is often hard to come by
-likewise, promotions naturally increase and accelerate because of casualties

And then, above all else, it's simply captain's perogative. If Troi was a seasoned combat veteran before becoming a counselor, I bet she'd be doing more duties on the bridge, too.

 

[BennyRussel]

No good reason exists for Ezri to be on the bridge of the station, or of the Defiant, or in the staff board meetings, or on the show itself.

All of that is equally true of Jadzia.

Jadzia and Ezri were put on the show for no reason other than because they are women. They have no relevance to the show's story and hence serve no useful purpose.

I can't believe you really mean that, my friend. Jadzia, Ezri and Kira were all great characters. I just wish they had made the switch from Jadzia to Ezri a little sooner as Ezri was a very interesting lady. They just didn't have time to build the character with only one season to do it.

 

[Saito S]

Well, FWIW, we don't really see Ezri in Ops that much. She's briefly there in "Treachery, Faith...", and she's there in "Dogs of War". Maybe "Badda Bang", but I don't remember.

Still, that's all I can think of....

That's an interesting point too. Eh. I'm no longer sure if Ezri being on the bridge makes sense or not... I think that now, more than anything, I'm more sure than I was going into this discussion that, again, DS9 was just all over the place with this kind of thing.

No good reason exists for Ezri to be on the bridge of the station, or of the Defiant, or in the staff board meetings, or on the show itself.

All of that is equally true of Jadzia.

Jadzia and Ezri were put on the show for no reason other than because they are women. They have no relevance to the show's story and hence serve no useful purpose.

What?

Wait, no...

What?

That doesn't make any sense. Aside from Sisko, and maybe Kira and Odo, who DOES have relevance to "the" story?

Characters are made relevant/important by any number of things: prior connections to the focus of the main storyline, prior relationships with other important characters, or they come in "blind" and establish themselves entirely through what they do during the show.

Well, it's because Kirk saved the Federation from total annihilation. Were Ezri so lucky as to encounter a scenario like that--she'd be Fleet Admiral by now....

Oh geez. Let's just hope that the promotion from 3rd-year cadet all the way to captain was an isolated incident...

 

[Elias Vaughn]

Two words: battle fatigue.

The Defiant may be forced to stay away from the station for a long time--and those experiencing trauma from injuries, etc., would desperately need counseling. SEE: Nog.

Which, given, is a nice way of explaining why she's on the ship at all.

But on the bridge during active combat? I very much doubt Sisko would authorize the helmsman to leave his station for a quick counseling session while Dominion warships are firing at the Defiant. Even if the counselor was sitting three feet away.

The best place for her during combat would have been the medical ward, counseling those with injuries and maybe doing some non-M.D. work to help out Bashir. But that's just me.

 

[Rush Limborg]

^That would be in the aftermath of battle, I'd say--when the ship isn't shaking around from getting hit. In the meantime, she's the communications officer.

Of course no one's going to be counseled when the ship's being thrown all over the place.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I'm no longer sure if Ezri being on the bridge makes sense or not... I think that now, more than anything, I'm more sure than I was going into this discussion that, again, DS9 was just all over the place with this kind of thing.

That's one of the things I love about DS9 - the characters weren't defined by their positions, but by their individual characteristics. On TNG and VOY, it was more common to have the main characters defined by what they did on the ship. For instance, LaForge is ultimately defined as being the Chief Engineer and Tuvok is more often than not limited to what he can do as Security Chief. That's not to say that that's all they were defined by, but a large chunk of the characteristics were like that.

On DS9, however, the main characters more often than not were defined by their personalities and personal characteristics. So, for example, the counselor could be the communications officer, the Chief of Operations could man the Tactical post or the Science Officer could fly the ship if the episode needed it - it simply wasn't that important. What they *did* wasn't as important as who they were.