Terry Farrell and DS9 Season 7

[Bad Thoughts]

I always wondered why on TNG they used Denise Crosby several times, including made her reprise her role for the series finale in spite of killing her character off very soon in the series, while they completely erased Terry Farrell from the show to the point of absurdity. I mean, how believable is it that Worf of all people would flash on his stay on DS9 and not have a single thought for his wife? Not very!

This was another negotiation that broke down. It's not clear what happened, but Terry Farrell claims that she wanted to act in the finale in some manner.

However, there were 7th season flashbacks to Jadzia Dax: Ezri has them when she breaks into Worf's quarters at the beginning of the long arc. We hear Jadzia speaking to Worf, recalling key moments in the previous seasons. Moreover, her image is present in the wedding photograph.

Wasn't there also reports that Farrell wasn't happy that clips from previous episodes had been used without her consent?

So even if she had wanted to act in the finalé she might have not endeared herself to the producers with past actions.

Hard to say. Clearly her relationship with the show was rocky. She only ever talks about having good relations with Brooks and Dorn, and she references the exasperation everyone had with her poor skills in broad terms. I can't remember ISB or RB saying anything about her in recent interviews, particularly with regard to the late seasons. Maybe there's something burried in a Larry Nemicek talk.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Whatever reasons she had for leaving, I as a fan did not miss her.

In fact, I wish they had brought in Nicole deBoer a season or two earlier.

 

[Iamnotspock]

According to Ron Moore in the DS9 COMPANION, the reason Farrell was only in one scene of "The Sound of Her Voice" was that she was "only available for one day during that shoot... because she was getting serious about leaving the show. We were giving her the chance to go to readings, so she was off doing casting sessions!"

The producers, it seems, were good enough to give her that opportunity while presumably still under contract.

 

[doubleohfive]

According to Ron Moore in the DS9 COMPANION, the reason Farrell was only in one scene of "The Sound of Her Voice" was that she was "only available for one day during that shoot... because she was getting serious about leaving the show. We were giving her the chance to go to readings, so she was off doing casting sessions!"

The producers, it seems, were good enough to give her that opportunity while presumably still under contract.

That's not unheard of in Hollywood, particularly if it happens toward the end of a production season. Very likely the actors would go on auditions to secure work during hiatus. As "The Sound of Her Voice" was the penultimate show in season six, it's highly likely the writers knew by that point that Farrell was out and would need to lineup more work for the future. I don't see what's so controversial about it.

 

[borgboy]

Jadzia is my favorite character, but the story with Erzi/Dax was a really good use of the symbiote potential.
Ironically, while I preferred Jadzia with Bashir, I much preferred Ezri with Worf.

 

[Timewalker]

Whatever reasons she had for leaving, I as a fan did not miss her.

In fact, I wish they had brought in Nicole deBoer a season or two earlier.

Agreed. Jadzia was DS9's character that was Too Damn Perfect. She knew everybody, had done everything, was more Klingon than the Klingons, went off into vapid, rambling reveries about when she was somebody else she did something wonderful or knew some famous person... in short, in-universe, she had no flaws. That made her really annoying to me. And then the actress' attitude, whining that the writers gave storylines to second and third-tier characters - how dare they?!

There is exactly one Jadzia scene I ever liked, and it was with another character I otherwise loathe (Worf). When they first meet when Jadzia and Kira are coming out of the holosuite in their princess costumes... "Nice hat." Other than that, good riddance.

 

[toughlittleship]

I didn't like her at the start when she was the Spock/Yoda type-character. When she became "Action Barbie" (a name given to her by LeVar Burton) she became one of Trek's best characters.

 

[Ithekro]

I seem to recall she gave a kind of semi interactive farewell video for the sixth season finale. She seemed quite fine then. Maybe a little emotional. I keep thinking they filmed it right after she got out of makeup.

 

[drmick]

She was killed off in DS9 when the door could have been left open. (=sacked).

She led a revolt on Becker and then disappeared completely from the cast between seasons. (=sacked).

She no longer works as an actress (=career finished).

At least she got a (brief) acting career after Trek though!

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

Whatever reasons she had for leaving, I as a fan did not miss her.

In fact, I wish they had brought in Nicole deBoer a season or two earlier.

Agreed. Jadzia was DS9's character that was Too Damn Perfect. She knew everybody, had done everything, was more Klingon than the Klingons, went off into vapid, rambling reveries about when she was somebody else she did something wonderful or knew some famous person... in short, in-universe, she had no flaws. That made her really annoying to me. And then the actress' attitude, whining that the writers gave storylines to second and third-tier characters - how dare they?!

There is exactly one Jadzia scene I ever liked, and it was with another character I otherwise loathe (Worf). When they first meet when Jadzia and Kira are coming out of the holosuite in their princess costumes... "Nice hat." Other than that, good riddance.

+1 here

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Whatever reasons she had for leaving, I as a fan did not miss her.

In fact, I wish they had brought in Nicole deBoer a season or two earlier.

Agreed. Jadzia was DS9's character that was Too Damn Perfect. She knew everybody, had done everything, was more Klingon than the Klingons, went off into vapid, rambling reveries about when she was somebody else she did something wonderful or knew some famous person... in short, in-universe, she had no flaws. That made her really annoying to me. And then the actress' attitude, whining that the writers gave storylines to second and third-tier characters - how dare they?!

There is exactly one Jadzia scene I ever liked, and it was with another character I otherwise loathe (Worf). When they first meet when Jadzia and Kira are coming out of the holosuite in their princess costumes... "Nice hat." Other than that, good riddance.

+1 here

Can we credit Farrell's bad acting for DS9's wonderful extended cast?

 

[CorporalClegg]

In fact, I wish they had brought in Nicole deBoer a season or two earlier.

You and me both.

 

[dub]

Wow. Page 3 of this thread is breaking my heart. Ezri grew on me, but...

Jadzia > Ezri

No contest.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Wow. Page 3 of this thread is breaking my heart. Ezri grew on me, but...

Jadzia > Ezri

No contest.

Maybe, but Farrell < 0 < de Boer.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Nope. Jadzia was a total waste of screen time, even before you account for Farrell's (lack of) acting ability.

It was obvious the writers never knew what to do with her, they were constantly changing an reimaging her character well beyond the usual tweaking that generally goes on.

 

[mswood]

Jadzia was one of my favorite characters (at least after the end of the first season), once they started to losen the character up I really loved her, and Ezri I was completely neutral to.

When I noticed a change with Dax was the scene with Kira and her trying to restart the Bajoran fighter and seeing Poluko (Or however you spell it) in the Circle storyline.

The one serious thing about the actress is that she couldn't film outdoors, luckily with very few exceptions DS9 filmed inside on sound stages.

But once it was decided that she wouldn't be back it was the proper dramatic choice to kill the character. Keeping a character as a guess star when one is attached to other characters really hampers those other characters from various story lines.

Though Ideally the one downside of that is that a lot of character bits for season 7 were devoted to the development of Ezri and resolving characters feelings and history with Jadzia. For just that reason I almost want to say that I wish she would have left the year earlier (but I really don't).

In fact to this date Kira and Jadzia are my favorite female regulars on all of Trek. Kira is easily my favorite of the two, just an awesome character.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

The one serious thing about the actress is that she couldn't film outdoors, luckily with very few exceptions DS9 filmed inside on sound stages.

I wasn't a regular viewer, so I might have missed something, but I'm confused. What do you mean by 'she couldn't film outdoors'?

 

[MacLeod]

I believe it was some sort of skin condition, this was most apparent in the Sxith season episode "Rocks and Shoals" were they injured her character so that most of her scenes could be filmed on a sound stage rather than on location.

 

[doubleohfive]

I think it was just that Farrell tends to sunburn much more easily, to the point that it was a health risk for her. Per Ron Moore's answer to a query about this in an AOL chat in 1997:

Ron Moore said:
Terry has a skin condition that prevents her exposure to direct sunlight.
We've worked around it in the past, but the large number of exterior scenes
in "Rocks and Shoals" made it impossible this time. (The days we went on
location this year were also some of the very hottest and most miserable days
of the year, BTW, and the entire crew was suffering in that airless, baking
rock quarry, not to mention the actors forced to work in already stifling
makeup and appliances.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I can't believe this: I finally watched a few episodes of Becker, and Farrell's acting was worse! I assumed that romantic comedy would be natural for her, but she's just so wooden. I think part of the problem was that Reggie Kostas is far less interesting than Jadzia Dax, and consequentially, far less demanding.