Should Jadzia have died in Change Of Heart?

[HaventGotALife]

Jadzia's death really reminded me of the death of Tasha Yar. Both women had abrupt pointless deaths caused by powerful alien beings. They were even both caused because of behind the scenes reasons, the actresses were leaving!

I'm surprised they didn't take that route when giving Kes her exit. I suppose "Fury" was an even worst fate for a departing character.

I happened to like the episode "Skin of Evil" better than the death of Tasha Yar. It was so fast and the shaky handheld zoom in on her face was just disturbing. Armus was a much more interesting bad guy than the last 2 years of Dukat, plain and simple.

 

[DalekJim]

Eh, Dukat was excellent in the S6 occupation arc.

 

[Worf'sParmach]

I've thought about this for awhile (like, 14 years or so ) and here's what I think...

Yes, she should have died in Change of Heart. BUT, I would have made some changes to the last half of the season overall to accommodate that.

I would have placed Change of Heart at the end of the sseason, like the second to the last episode. That way Terry Farrell still gets to(basically finish out her contract and we don't lose what were some good Worf and Jadzia moments.

I would still keep The Sound of her Voice as a way to get you emotionally ramped up for what's about to happen. I'd also want to place her death after Times Orphan, I think she and Worf have a great B story there that also adds more drama to her death.

In COH, I'd change the runabout scene where Jadzia and Worf banter about their honeymoon to one where they talk about having baby. Worf's being a pessimist, reminding her of what Julian told them, Jadzia being an optimist saying that everything will work out fine (which always means something bad is about to happen).

The rest of the episode goes as it did. Worf decides to blow the mission and tries to rescue his wife but it's too late. He gets her back to the station but Julian gives him the "I managed to save the symbiont" speech.

Worf still gets reprimanded by Sisko and is told he will never get a command because of his choice but this time the tone is more remorseful. Sisko still tells him that if it had been Jennifer he would have made the same choice.

The finale can still go as it did with Dukat going to the Dark Side (that requires a whole thread by itself). Maybe he can kill a Bajoran priest instead of Jadzia. Prophets vanish, Sisko goes back home to scrub clams.

Season 7 opens not with Worf being upset about Jadzia's entrance into SToVoKor, but instead he carries the guilt of not being able to save her. The tension between he and Ezri is based on that, he is worried that she is holding him responsible for Jadzia's death. It takes some convincing from Ezri (and the destruction of a Dominion shipyard) for him to get over it.

 

[Dream]

After reading the script for this episode, Terry Farrell requested that Dax be killed now if she was going to be killed at all. At the time of production, she had already decided to leave the show following the end of season 6, as contract talks had failed to bring about a new contract for season 7, and she felt that having Worf complete the mission and leave Dax to die would create a very interesting character arc for him in the final season. According to Farrell, "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."

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Change_of_Heart_(episode)

That is an interesting "What if..." had the writers done things a little differently. That would have taken real balls to write, but it might have been too dark even for DS9.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Actually, I would have loved that, because personally, I think that it would have been more in-character for Worf to complete the mission, and set all personal feelings aside. Wouldn't his Klingon honourrrrrrrrrr command that? I might be wrong, but it's what I think he should have done.... if I had written this as a fanfic, that's what he would have done. Difficult decision, something he would have to live with for the rest of his life.

Instead, we got a diabolus ex machina with teh evulz Dukat to blame. Way to throw awesome character development out the airlock.

 

[Worf'sParmach]

I think that it would have been more in-character for Worf to complete the mission, and set all personal feelings aside. Wouldn't his Klingon honourrrrrrrrrr command that?

Actually, he did the "honorable" thing by saving his wife, which he explains to Sisko in the end. Protecting your mate trumps duty.