Joran Dax, Most Interesting of the Dax Hosts

[Dingo]

Peculiar title, I know, but among the hosts of Dax, I've found Joran to be one of the more interesting. Pity he only had a trio of appearances in DS9, but in the relaunches there are at least a few mentions of him.

I find Joran to be a compelling character on many fronts. He's a sort of Trill Hannibal Lecter in a sense of being a brilliant yet homicidal man (obviously minus the cannibalism bit). He's also like any other being in that he desires to be understood and acknowledged, in fact he explicitly asks that of Ezri at the start of Fields of Fire.

I particularly found Leigh McCloskey's portrayal of him in Fields of Fire to be nothing short of brilliant. Excellent acting and the episode in general was a great delving into an as yet barely touched Dax host. I honestly thought that Joran's memories would have overrun Ezri in the first couple episodes of Season Seven, I mean the poor girl wasn't exactly ready for joining to start out with. It's a testiment that Ezri Tigen was a lot stronger than some gave her credit for if she was able to control Joran's personality the way Jadzia and Curzon couldn't quite.

I wonder what sort of a society Trill has, probably a government controlled press or vaguely socialistic government if they were able to keep the fact that Joran Belar was joined for six months and killed three people during this joining.

 

[Navaros]

Joran is the only Dax I've ever seen who does not put me to sleep. So I would agree, yes he is by far the most interesting of the Dax hosts. Unfortunately, Field of Fire was a throaway episode with no consequences to the overall series (despite that being promised within the episode itself), so really, his appearance in it and the entire episode was rendered pointless because of that.

I wouldn't credit all that so much to him being a very interesting character though, but moreso his interestingness is artificially amplified by how colosally uninteresting all the other Daxes are.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I think Curzon could have been interesting had he been given more screen time. I'd like to have seen some of his confrontations with Kang, Kor, Koloth, et all.

 

[Anthony Sabre]

I always speculated that Joran may have had some influence on Curzon's interest in Klingon society. Violence was not a trait that was prevalent in any of the other hosts. But I think we got just enough of Joran. The brilliant serial killer is a big cliche.

 

[Marie1]

He was interesting... more interesting that Ezri, though I like how she put him to use.

 

[Damask]

He was interesting... more interesting that Ezri, though I like how she put him to use.

I hated the way that was shown. It was like he was a ghost. He looked at people when Ezri wasn't looking at them and commented on them. Very odd. Similar to something on BSG

 

[Marie1]

Well, it didn't always make sense, but I think the idea was that she was using his perceptions maybe? Maybe Ezri Tigan wouldn't notice someone, but her brain was processing things the way it thought Joran would given his memories?

We had to see him do that for something to look at on the screen, but she'd just be hearing or thinking stuff if that had been real (not that it could... it's fiction, I know...)

 

[Photon]

Nope this is:

 

[Too Much Fun]

I don't like the undercurrent of Jadzia-bashing here, but at least it's a little subtle. I haven't reached season 7 yet, so I can't comment on the episode with Ezri and Joran, but I can contribute to the discussion of Joran by saying that in "Facets", when Sisko is inhabited by Joran, that is my favourite bit of acting by Avery Brooks ever. His super creepy facial expressions and voice (with a hint of an African accent?) were tremendously entertaining due to the delightfully sinister and menacing qualities he gave them. I have never appreciated Brooks' unique style of acting more than I did in that scene.

 

[Dingo]

It wasn't my intention to bash any host in particular. I just thought Joran ranked up there with the more interesting hosts. I did watch Facets last night and it was an interesting revealation that Curzon was in love with Jadzia.

 

[Jono]

I always speculated that Joran may have had some influence on Curzon's interest in Klingon society. Violence was not a trait that was prevalent in any of the other hosts. But I think we got just enough of Joran. The brilliant serial killer is a big cliche.

I don't know if it would be the fighting that would get Curzon but instead their heavy drinking, boost filled, all singing lifestyle. I know we didn't see much of him but Curzon struck as the type of guy that loved to get smashed and then spend the whole night telling you have fantastic he was.

Given what he know of Torias he was a pretty carefree guy and liked to live in the moment, add a shuttle crash only within a year of joining, throw in some hasty mental daming by the Trill and Dax now believes it spent six months trapped in a comatose body. I wouldn't be surprised if Dax really took on that mantra of living life to its fullest and that in turn helped shape Curzon into a boozing womanizer. Given that Klingon culture seems to almost celebrate the living large not long lifestyle it isn't hard to see why Dax would get drawn into that. Plus Ezri said Torias had been in many battles, so violence was in Dax line before Joran.

Joran was interesting because he was a bad guy and I'm sure there's a saying about bad guys are generally more interesting then good guys. As for Ezri not getting overwhelm I by Joran or even mentioning him before Field of Fire I wonder if it had more to do with Dax then Ezri. If that little slug was maintaining its own block/control of the part of it that was Joran either out of habit or just to try and spare Ezri.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I'm in the minority these days who generally DON'T find psychopaths and murderers at all fascinating. Probably why I hate Dexter so much, even though the whole world seems to love it.

Curzon gets my top votes, but that's just me.

 

[Marie1]

What I find interesting is the mind of criminals- a lot of people get teased as children, a lot of people have experienced what we now consider abuse... or what we've always considered abuse. And most people grow up, leave it behind, and try not to repeat mistakes. But some people... it changes who they are, it damages them so much, they do horrible things. I take that as a lesson to try to be kind whenever I can.

I like Criminal Minds... Dexter I've watched once because a friend was a guest in it, also the reason I got into the original CSI. Not an enjoyment of watching crime, but of the process, and trying to solve it, even if it's fiction.

Curzon, to me, was just a drunken guy that liked to sleep around, and apparently got on the Klingon's good side. Not on the top of my list at all.

Jadzia... I liked her more than Ezri.
I'm curious about... Audrid I think? The one whose husband died?

 

[Jono]

Jadzia... I liked her more than Ezri.
I'm curious about... Audrid I think? The one whose husband died?

Not sure what they said on the show but her husband definitely died in non-canon. She was on the Symbiosis Commission so she would have known the Trill's big secret about the percentage of humanoid Trill suitable for joining.