Jadzia Dax death

[Timofnine]

So I am currently examining through a rewatch the death of the much beloved Jadzia Dax. There is literally no plot point to her death… she was randomly and coincidentally in the Bajoran temple at the same time that ‘Wraith’ Gul Dukat decided to appear in order to take the orb, it could have been anyone in that temple. A perfect example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is like ‘Skin of Evil’ to some extent, or is that the point?

 

[Farscape One]

The behind the scenes reasons was the issue of appearances in the final season between Berman and Farrell.

In story, I can see your point about showing the random danger of being in Starfleet. I preferred Jadzia not to be killed off, but I guess this scenario illustrates the point.

(Frankly, it's amazing Tasha survived as long as she did. Not because she wasn't good at her job, which she was for the most part, but space and away missions can be extremely hazardous. If anyone was going to die on an away team, it would be a security officer.)

 

[Tosk]

The writers expected the Farrell contract to be renewed, so it's possible that it had to be inserted reasonably late. You need a death that doesn't disrupt the flow of the other scenes (if she were on the Defiant with the others and died there, that's a big alteration to what's going on) but still feeds into the general point of the finale. Sisko disheartened and leaving. Not every hero needs a hero's death, and I personally don't mind it at all.

 

[Paul755]

I think the writers knew she wasn’t coming back. I recall reading that she had requested Dax die at the end of “Change of Heart” if they were going to kill off the character.

 

[Farscape One]

I heard Berman didn't really communicate to the writers that it was an issue until very late in the game.

 

[Tosk]

I think the writers knew she wasn’t coming back. I recall reading that she had requested Dax die at the end of “Change of Heart” if they were going to kill off the character.

I'm not sure everything lines up quite right. I absolutely believe that Terry knew she wouldn't be back, but whether or not the writers knew seems murky. Ira says that

"Then, at the end of the year, we had to suddenly kill Jadzia, which had been kind of a thing all season where we were hearing she was coming back for season seven and then she wasn’t. We always assumed it would get resolved."

Ira and Terry both state that Ira didn't know exactly what went on until years later.

Memory Alpha makes a leap in their description when they say that Terry requested it. Her actual quote is

"I knew I wasn't coming back for the seventh season, so it was really written well, and it was the controversy of whether Worf should come back and save my life and not complete the mission, or complete the mission. But he decides to save his wife's life, and I remember thinking, 'Ah, this would be the perfect one to just end it'. I had asked not to be killed, but if you need to kill me because that's what you need to do, that would have been the perfect episode to do it because it would have been so much more for Worf's character to play in the long run, because he would have let his wife die, but completed the mission. Oh my God, what an awful thing to live with."

She never states that she actually directly asked to die in Change of Heart. Or at least, not in this quote.

 

[Paul755]

Hmmm… I can’t remember where I read that quote that she requested it. Could have been wherever MA got the quote from.

in any case, her death was a total wrong place/wrong time deal. I mean, if Sisko decides not to go on the mission she’s likely on the Defiant in his place. Or if Kira doesn’t mention she said a prayer with the prophets and if Bashir hadn’t given her the news that conceiving was possible, she wouldn’t have been motivated to go to the temple to say thanks.

 

[Tosk]

Sometimes life sucks. Especially when it ends.

 

[Timofnine]

Well at least she got to live on in Dax and Ezri. Perhaps there is an echo of her in the wormhole along with Ben Sisko? After all, she was near one of the prophet’s orbs.

She could be an ethereal orb guardian now - Jadzia though, not Dax.

 

[Tosk]

If she's anywhere but Sto-vo-kor then Worf is gonna be displeased.

 

[somebuddyX]

I don't have a problem with her just being killed off nonchalantly, but just how they went about it I never liked. I think it would have been better if Dukat just stabbed her with a big knife, she bled out and just died. I don't like the special effect of the pah wraith zapping her. I don't recall but I don't think there was any payoff between Worf and Dukat. You'd think he'd have dedicated his life to hunting Dukat down. Maybe he was doing that offscreen though.

 

[The Wormhole]

Memory Alpha makes a leap

Par for the course with Memory Alpha.

 

[Timofnine]

If she's anywhere but Sto-vo-kor then Worf is gonna be displeased.

Maybe he still needs to help her get there?

I don't have a problem with her just being killed off nonchalantly, but just how they went about it I never liked. I think it would have been better if Dukat just stabbed her with a big knife, she bled out and just died. I don't like the special effect of the pah wraith zapping her. I don't recall but I don't think there was any payoff between Worf and Dukat. You'd think he'd have dedicated his life to hunting Dukat down. Maybe he was doing that offscreen though.

Perhaps Dukat can return like a ‘Pah Wraith’ and Worf needs to hunt him down so he doesn’t do something *really* bad. Sisko and the echo of Jadzia can help him, then they can all go to Sto’Vo’Kor . It would be a bit like a Nexus echo but in the wormhole.

 

[Dukhat]

I think the writers knew she wasn’t coming back. I recall reading that she had requested Dax die at the end of “Change of Heart” if they were going to kill off the character.

I heard Berman didn't really communicate to the writers that it was an issue until very late in the game.

Well, they definitely knew Dax was getting killed off in the next-to-last episode of season 6, “The Sound of Her Voice,” because that episode was pretty much 100% foreshadowing this.

 

[shapeshifter]

Like Tasha's retirement, the whole thing stank.

 

[at Quark's]

I don't have a problem with her just being killed off nonchalantly, but just how they went about it I never liked. I think it would have been better if Dukat just stabbed her with a big knife, she bled out and just died. I don't like the special effect of the pah wraith zapping her. I don't recall but I don't think there was any payoff between Worf and Dukat. You'd think he'd have dedicated his life to hunting Dukat down. Maybe he was doing that offscreen though.

Probably he asked Sisko for a leave to do just that, only for Sisko to go totally ballistic, like with Eddington : 'Dukat is mine!' MIIIIIIINNNNEEEE!!!!! I'm the one to hunt that pathetic little egomaniac 'false emissary' down! It's my job as the Emissary! It's my job as her commanding officer! For the Prophets! For Curzon! For the Federation! I'll TAKE HIM DOWN AND NO ONE ELSE!

Now, did you have something else, Lieutenant Commander?'

Worf then was wise enough never address the matter again. Call it female intuition.

 

[Saul]

The behind the scenes reasons was the issue of appearances in the final season between Berman and Farrell.

Right, she was going to do 'Becker' with Ted Danson and hoped to do guest appearances. Berman dealt with it the way he usually dealt with female actresses on Star Trek.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The one thing that bothers me about Jadzia's death is that given the badass she was she doesn't manage to put up a fight, never even draws her phaser let alone get a shot off.

 

[Farscape One]

She was about to draw her phaser when Wraithkat killed her. Was pretty much out of the holster... she didn't have time to aim, though.

 

[Tosk]

Right, she was going to do 'Becker' with Ted Danson and hoped to do guest appearances.

Not quite true. She had asked to be a recurring character instead of a regular, but she didn't get the Becker gig until after her leaving DS9 was already a fait accompli. Quotes from Farrell herself:

I didn’t know that I would get the sitcom Becker right away. Nobody knew about that. That was just freaking lucky that it was the same lot. I mean, it was easy for me but it could have been on the CBS lot and it wouldn’t have seemed so fortunate. It really gave people this false idea that Paramount was saving me or Paramount moved me to Becker on purpose. None of that happened.

I died one day (on DS9) and the very next day I tested (for Becker) for the same executives at Paramount.