The older I get, the more I grow to really hate the Jadzia Dax character, and really think she spoiled the show.
I like the summary given by Navaros, way back in the
second post of this thread.
But here are my own
7 Reasons why I hate Dax:
1) Weird character concept
The basic concept of a female character who used to "be" seven other people (including men) is weird. It might be OK for a fun one-off story (eg TNG's "The Host"), but for a main character, it's too weird. Men and women are fundamentally different, and one can't just "become" the other. Dramatically, it doesn't make sense, and Sisko's relationship with this "old man" / young chick is totally confusing.
2) Casting
I don't want say "acting", as that would be unfair to Terry Farrell (whom I like a lot). Dax is NOT her fault! Miss Farrel was a beautiful girl, young and clearly inexperienced when she was cast. The fault lies NOT with her but the directors who cast her into such a ridiculous role!
Dax was intended as a mature, wise, knowing, sage-like character, brimming with fascinating stories about the past - almost a Garak-like character. That kind of role requires an unusual strength and caliber of performer, which Miss Farrell simply was not in a position to deliver. Shame on the casting directors!
3) Failure to correct the character
As the show went on, it was surely obvious to everyone that the "wise old sage" character just wasn't working for this pretty young actress. The character either comes across as some strange neutered man with a woman's body - or a cold woman lacking any emotion or warmth, neither of which has any appeal to anyone.
Yet the writers just seemed to ignore this character problem, allowing her to get pushed further aside, drifting into insignificance. What the writers SHOULD have done is make a course correction, and taken the character in a direction that played to the actress's strengths.
Terry wasn't a "wise, serious sage", she was a little sweetheart, with a beautiful smile, and in fact she worked best not when she was stern and scientific, but when she was WARM and VULNERABLE (see how great she was in Tribble-ations, where she got the chance to loosen up and show a more playful, feminine side to her personality).
4) Failure to help the actress
Evidently, the writers concluded that Terry wasn't the most skilled performer so they shrugged their shoulders, minimized her involvement in the scripts, and relegated her dialog mostly to scientific exposition, keeping her away from the drama.
When what they SHOULD have done is paid more attention to the actress, nurtured her, coached her, and put her under the supervision of directors and mentors who could push her and really get some performing out of the girl (even if it "took all night"). How wonderful it would have been to see Jadzia break down and cry once or twice! Viewers might have even been able to relate to her! But the writers never gave her this chance.
5) Styling and hair
For me, this is no small detail. I was never a fan of the DS9 wardrobe. The original costumes were so plain, and not at all flattering or feminine for poor Terry (those uniforms were sadly carried over to Voyager). The First Contact uniforms were very welcome, and looked much nicer on Terry and the other crewmen.
But my biggest gripe is the hairstyling. The hair stylists on 90s Trek generally made all the women look dowdy and unfeminine, often with some kind of quiff (probably in an attempt to make them look more 'commanding'). Miss Farrell was sadly another victim of the bad hairstyling, given horrible hair pieces, unnatural colors and unflattering styles. (Not as hideous as Troi and Crusher, but still bad!)
The sad thing is that from time to time, we'd get to see her hair looking amazing in special episodes like the Mirror ones, Past Tense, Tribble-ations, etc. She actually looked like a woman in those episodes! (Hoshi Sato had the same problem! Feminine in the Mirror universe, dowdy in our own universe!)
6) No chemistry with Worf
I wouldn't necessarily have paired Worf with Jadzia, but the romance COULD have worked. IMHO, it didn't though, and I really didn't like the way they played it.
Instead of Jadzia swooning over Worf, him picking her up, taking charge, and being her big, strong Klingon warrior hero, instead they decided to draw upon Jadzia's past as a man, turning Jazdia into some kind of bat'leth-wielding 'hero' herself and making her and Worf effectively "equals" - two warriors, with neither of them the protector, just two "people" hanging out together. I know many would disagree (especially these days), but "two people hanging out together" is not my definition of a heart-racing romance!
7) Bitchy Dax
And finally, like other Trek females before her, Dax was eventually taken in the 'smarmy, bitchy' direction. Not "wise and noble", just kind of smug, sometimes even childishly so.
No sooner had she and Worf got together, she began treating him with casual disrespect, almost condescending him at times. And it's here in her dealings with Worf that I believe the true ugliness of the character was revealed, and the fundamental incompatibility of the two as a couple. Dax's most insufferable moment was (obviously) "Let He Who Is Without Sin" - but by no means was it just that episode.
And I feel so sorry for Worf. Jadzia's lack of reverence toward him served to emasculate the poor man even further. This was NOT what he needed! He already had a problem with being defeated in almost every hand-to-hand fight (a score that was gloriously settled in "By Inferno's Light" when he kicked the asses of those Jem'Hadar soldiers).
Worf needed to grow in stature as a hero. The last thing he needed was a girlfriend who was tough, 'independent' and could hold her own, even undermine his strength. They may as well have cut his balls off! Worf had already suffered two somewhat smarmy ex-girlfriends (K'Ehleyr and Troi both had a chip on their shoulder).
And yes, I know that Klingons like their women physical and feisty, but ultimately that's about sexual banter and physical conquest (which the male wins) - it's not about the woman having a permanent air of condescension toward her man.
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