I like Ezri, but...

[RedshirtP4C-970]

I like the character, and I like the actor, I thought she was pretty good. But! I can't help but think how much Season 7 changed because they had to introduce an almost brand new main character. Imagine if Terry Farrell had stayed for the last season. How many episodes change, pretty dramatically? There'd no doubt be a couple of Dax focused episodes, but not to the level that S7 focused on Ezri. Also, how does Worf's story change, or Dr. Bashir? Or even Quark?

I suppose the writers could have focused less on Ezri, but they didn't. And it turned out pretty well. But still, I wonder how much they had to re-tool Season 7 because of Farrell's departure.

 

[Oddish]

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.

 

[NCC-73515]

Ezri was more interesting than Jadzia at that point. Ezri and Garak figuring out each other's and their own problems at the same time... just awesome

 

[Herbert]

I'm surprised they even wanted to replace Jadzia. Seems odd to bring a new character in for only one season. I think they could have just carried on with the existing crew and done just fine.

 

[Oddish]

A deliberate insult to Terry Farrell, maybe. Right up Berman's alley.

 

[Richard S. TaaAGH! *thud*]

Terry Farrell would have stayed. She just wanted a reduced episode count so Berman told her to walk.

I like Ezri. I like Jadzia.

Not so much Berman.

 

[kkt]

Terry Farrell would have stayed. She just wanted a reduced episode count so Berman told her to walk.

I like Ezri. I like Jadzia.

Not so much Berman.

A reduced episode count for the same pay, wasn't it?

 

[Richard S. TaaAGH! *thud*]

A reduced episode count for the same pay, wasn't it?

I’m not sure.

It’s all explained in the ‘What We Left Behind’ documentary but it’s been a while. Apparently ISB had no idea at the time.

 

[valkyrie013]

I like Ezri,
Liked her in the book series as the ccaptain of the Aventine. Hope she shows up some day as a captain.

 

[kkt]

I liked her, but I have a little trouble with her shift to the command path.
The original series writers' guide encouraged would-be Star Trek writers to think about whether their story would work in present-day terms. Would the captain of a US Navy ship flirt with a woman he met in a port of call while on his own ship?, that sort of question. Well, how often does the psychologist, doctor, or chaplain of a US Navy ship end up in command of a ship? I guess, maybe, if it's a hospital ship but otherwise probably not.

 

[Tosk]

I like Ezri, but too.

Season 7 didn't change, because most of it didn't exist in any way yet when Nicole was cast. Ezri certainly influenced much of the direction the story took, but it's not as though they had it all mapped out and then altered it to feature her.

Even manning the Defiant's console and running around with a rifle.

I like how you've changed it to "console" now (as opposed to conn, which I pointed out in another thread was not true) so that you can still pretend that the show tried to make Ezri into Jadzia. Because operating a console on the Defiant and using a rifle are the two main character traits of Jadzia, after all

 

[Oddish]

Because operating a console on the Defiant and using a rifle are the two main character traits of Jadzia, after all

But they are not typical behaviors of a station counselor, which was ostensibly Ezri's function. I dinged them for putting Bashir at the controls of one of the runabouts in "The Maquis", too.

 

[kkt]

Having a counselor working on the bridge during combat is just one aspect of the strange choice that the Defiant wouldn't have her own crew, that when they needed the Defiant they'd just strip all the senior officers off the station and send them away. Very unrealistic even for a short endurance ship like the Defiant. The ship's crew will perform better if they can train in the ship they'll be fighting in, and the station would be dangerously short of senior officers when they send them all off. It's actually worse than TOS sending Kirk, Spock, and Scotty off to an unknown planet.

 

[RedshirtP4C-970]

Having a counselor working on the bridge during combat is just one aspect of the strange choice that the Defiant wouldn't have her own crew, that when they needed the Defiant they'd just strip all the senior officers off the station and send them away. Very unrealistic even for a short endurance ship like the Defiant. The ship's crew will perform better if they can train in the ship they'll be fighting in, and the station would be dangerously short of senior officers when they send them all off. It's actually worse than TOS sending Kirk, Spock, and Scotty off to an unknown planet.

Like why would Kira ever be on board? She's not Starfleet, but she is second in command of DS9. Shouldn't she always be on the station if Sisko is away?

I know, the real answer is: TV Production and Expectations. But in-world?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

But they are not typical behaviors of a station counselor, which was ostensibly Ezri's function. I dinged them for putting Bashir at the controls of one of the runabouts in "The Maquis", too.

Do you ding episodes whenever the ChEng or CMO are stationed on the bridge?

 

[Oddish]

Do you ding episodes whenever the ChEng or CMO are stationed on the bridge?

The chief engineer might be needed to monitor status in engineering and inform the captain in real time. The Doc might need to be handy to treat casualties. What's a counselor going to do as the bridge is exploding around you? Ask you about your mother?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The chief engineer might be needed to monitor status in engineering and inform the captain in real time. The Doc might need to be handy to treat casualties. What's a counselor going to do as the bridge is exploding around you? Ask you about your mother?

Each of those people would need to be in other places during combat. The ChEng looks after power and checks damage. The CMO treats people in sickbay. IRL, they would need special permission to enter the bridge.

 

[Oddish]

Each of those people would need to be in other places during combat. The ChEng looks after power and checks damage. The CMO treats people in sickbay. IRL, they would need special permission to enter the bridge.

Undoubtedly true. But Star Trek has always been flexible that way. However, having Ezri essentially doing the same stuff Jadzia did before makes it pretty obvious that whatever pretext Sisko presented for having her aboard DS9... she was just Dax 2.0

 

[Dukhat]

I like the character, and I like the actor, I thought she was pretty good. But! I can't help but think how much Season 7 changed because they had to introduce an almost brand new main character. Imagine if Terry Farrell had stayed for the last season. How many episodes change, pretty dramatically? There'd no doubt be a couple of Dax focused episodes, but not to the level that S7 focused on Ezri. Also, how does Worf's story change, or Dr. Bashir? Or even Quark?

I suppose the writers could have focused less on Ezri, but they didn't. And it turned out pretty well. But still, I wonder how much they had to re-tool Season 7 because of Farrell's departure.

Yes, Farrell's leaving and DeBoer coming aboard definitely changed things for the worse, in my opinion. Nothing against either one of them, but bringing a whole new main character onto a show that only had one more season to wrap up an entire war arc, and then devoting several episodes to that person for pointless character development when those episodes could have focused more on the overall story didn't make much sense to me. Not to mention the jarring Worf/Bashir/Ezri love triangle right in the middle of a combat situation. Most of it was silly and contrived and ending up hurting the final season more than helping it.

Now if they were planning on making a sequel series with Ezri as part of the cast, that would have been understandable. But that wasn't going to happen.

 

[somebuddyX]

I honestly can't say on the overall execution of the Ezri character but I think the idea of replacing her was worth doing and in my mind it would have been a good story idea even if Terry hadn't left on her own accord. I think if the show was being made today they would absolutely have killed her, one to show the cost of the war, but also the experience of interacting with an old and new Trill host is something Sisko has been party to only in reference but now the audience gets to experience that too. Nowadays I think "Change of Heart" would have been the better way to go out. Seeing how BSG or Space: Above and Beyond ended, they could've killed maybe half a dozen more main and supporting people for good and I'd probably have been okay with it.
What I would have liked is Jadzia coming back in the Mirror-Universe episode or as a memory/hallucination/daydream of Worf's or in Ezri's zhiantara or all of the above.