DS9 Stories/News: Learning to Love Star Trek, Part 47: “Dax”

Source: http://scifiblock.com/features/blog/learning-to-love-star-trek-part-47-dax.htm

By Robert Ring, Tue, 11/30/2010 – 08:08

“Learning to Love Star Trek” is a weekly blog series by Sci-Fi Block Editor in Chief Robert Ring, begun January 1, 2010. In this series of blog posts, Robert is endeavoring to determine whether he can make a Star Trek fan out of himself through an exposure to a combination of episodes from Star Trek the Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation (Update: TNG has now been replaced with Deep Space Nine). Click here to read his introduction to the experiment.

Okay, we’re back to the good with “Dax.” This isn’t a great episode, but it’s pretty interesting, and it’s a lot better than the three that come before it. “Dax” focuses on the two halves of Jadzia Dax — Jadzia the human and Dax the symbiont living inside of her. While it feels more like a disguised explanation of who/what Jadzia, Dax, and Jadzia Dax are than a story-based episode, “Dax” is engaging enough to satisfy.

“Dax” starts off with a group of Klaesrons attempting to abduct Dax. The Deep Space Nine crew pulls them back in via tractor beam just in time, though, and we learn that they are not actually kidnapping her. They are taking her into their custody to be tried and executed for the murder of a war hero. It’s not Jadzia who did it, though; it’s the symbiont’s former host, Curzon. Sisko, who was close friends with Curzon Dax, naturally does not want to let her go. So, they have an informal trial on DS9. At the center of the trial is the attempt to determine who Jadzia Dax is. Is she purely Jadzia, playing host to a passive life form? Obviously not. Is she Dax, exercising complete control over the host, Jadzia? Maybe. Or is she a combination of the two, a new entity comprised of the minds of both individual organisms. Ding ding ding!

All the episode has going for it, really, is this search for the true identity of Jadzia Dax. If she’s Dax, the logic goes, she needs to go with the Klaesrons and be punished for her crimes. If she’s not only Dax, or if she’s a new combination of both minds, either half or all of her is innocent of the crime and thus doesn’t deserve to be punished. There’s a lot of back-and-forth between Sisko, who is essentially defending Jadzia, and Klaesron, who wants to arrest her. It is for the most part fun hearing them argue about who/what Jadzia is/isn’t, based on her current personality and the memories and traits she retains from the symbiont’s former hosts. It is this sort of questioning that ultimately leads us to ask what makes anyone who they are, not just symbiotic amalgams. In the end, we discover that when a symbiont bonds with a new host, even though it retains all its older memories, it becomes a new entity, melding its mind with the host for the duration of their life together.

I’m just sayin’, I’m really glad human heads didn’t evolve this way.

What may be even more interesting than the identity questioning here is Sisko’s overall response to the matter. He basically makes it clear that he wants to keep Jadzia from being arrested no matter what. Even if past legal cases of the same nature offer the precedent that current host/symbiont entities should be held responsible for a symbiont’s past actions, Sisko says that he has to figure out a way for her to be deemed innocent. Does Sisko’s loyalty to his friends outweigh his obligation to uphold justice? I don’t know yet, but the question hadn’t crossed my mind until this episode.

I’m disappointed in the way the episode ends, however. After all the debating, testifying, and expert opinion, we find out that Curzon Dax was never responsible for the crime in the first place. This was Deep Space Nine’s chance to allow its characters to come to a possibly controversial decision regarding the nature of symbiont/host identity, but they squeezed their way out of it. The worst part is that I’m not even sure why. The conclusion that everyone except the Klaestrons was definitely leaning toward would have meant that Jadzia Dax shouldn’t be held responsible for the events, so whatever the consequences, they would have been minor. By allowing Curzon Dax to have been innocent, though, the episode avoids carrying any moral consequence at all. Just to be safe next time, the Federation should probably come up with some laws regarding these things. I wonder why they hadn’t already.

So, an upswing in quality, but not an enormous upswing. “Dax” primarily works as a way to tell everyone just what and who Jadzia Dax is. It has some aesthetic merits, but it’s mainly exposition. I can deal with that. It’s nothing I’d probably care to go back and watch again, though.

DS9 Stories/News: The Top 10 Best Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episodes

Jeremy Conrad

November 12th, 2010 at 9:20 am

Source: http://furiousfanboys.com/2010/11/the-10-best-star-trek-deep-space-nine-episodes/

After The Original Series and The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine remains one of the most popular of the Trek series. Over its seven seasons, it delivered just as many great episodes and in some ways the on-going storyline through the last four seasons outdid The Next Generation and really put Voyager to shame.

Duet

Duet came at the end of the first season of DS9 and many still consider it to be the best hour the series ever made. It’s a Kira episode and dealing with the ramifications of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, and obviously has many parallels to the Nazis in WWII. It’s still one of the best episodes of “Star Trek” ever made, and if DS9 had its “Inner Light” this would be it.

In the Pale Moonlight

If there’s one episode of Star Trek that would make Roddenberry swirl in his urn, it’s this one. When Sisko gets sick of the Federation’s losses in the Dominion War, he decides to do anything necessary to get the Romulans on their side. He lies and cheats, and doesn’t regret a second of it. Garak is awesome here as always, and this is the episode responsible for the “It’s a Faaaaaake!” Internet meme.

What You Leave Behind

DS9′s series finale is actually part nine of a nine-part mini-series within the series. That was needed in order to wrap up all of the many story lines in the series, and What You Leave Behind definitely brings DS9 to a satisfying conclusion and doesn’t leave room open for movies or sequels.

Far Beyond the Stars

Where DS9 has one of the least-Roddenberry Trek episodes in the franchise, it also has one that is extremely true to the core of Star Trek. This is the one where Sisko is an African American science fiction writer in 20th Century Earth who has an idea for a story set on a space station that resembles Deep Space Nine. All of the DS9 actors appear in this episode, including those who normally wear extensive alien make up.

Trials and Tribble-ations

Where TNG had Original Series guest stars, this extremely popular series took the DS9 crew back in time to the Original Series itself and did an amazing job melding in with the original footage.

Crossover

While the whole Mirror Universe thing got a bit out of hand by the end of the series, the initial Mirror Universe episode is the best. In it we learn what happened to that universe after Kirk turned goatee-Spock good and it was just so much fun to see the evil universe again. It was a sequel to an Original Series episode done right.

The Visitor

While the end of this episode was a massive Star Trek reset button being used, it was still one of the most memorable episodes of the series’ run. This is the one where Sisko suffers an accident and Jake spends the rest of his life trying to fix it to bring his dad back.

Sacrifice of Angels

Look up the definition of “Epic” in any Star Trek Encyclopedia and you’ll see this episode listed. Massive space battles where the Federation is outnumbered two-to-one results in the retaking of Deep Space Nine and sets up a lot of characters for where their stories will take them in the final season.

The Search

In September of 1994, The Next Generation was off the air and Deep Space Nine was out there all by itself. So they had to start the third season off in a big way to establish DS9 as a series that can survive on its own, and they did that by revealing that Odo’s people were the leaders of the Dominion and would cause massive trouble for the Federation in the remaining seasons of the show.

Little Green Men

This episode is a rather forgettable little one that doesn’t have anything to do with the overall Dominion War, but it’s included here solely due to the great idea behind it. What if the Roswell aliens were Ferenegi, and it just happened to be Quark, Rom, and Nog? Really fun idea.

=====================================================================================

6 Comments

• MGOVan
  November 12, 2010
  Reply

  #1

  I don’t know how you could leave out The Siege of AR-558. The final fight w/ Vic Fontaine playing in the background and the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife (thought i was going to say phaser, didn’t you?). Quark going against every cell in his Ferenegi body to protect Nog. Far too many great moments in this episode to list. Would have much rather seen that one listed than Little Green Men.

• Ana Cristina Merino
  November 12, 2010
  Reply

  #2

  No they shot the hostage they were going to trade for her.

• shutz
  November 12, 2010
  Reply

  #3

  I have a few more episodes to mention that you didn’t, and that always move me deeply:

  - Valiant : the one where Jake and Nog end up on a Defiant-class ship crewed entirely by cadets (from Red Squad, no less) fighting behind enemy lines. One of the most moving episodes of the series.

  - Honor Among Thieves: while it makes no sense to ask someone like O’Brien to suddenly leave his post for some Starfleet Intelligence mission infiltrating the Orion Syndicate, this episode is full of great performances, and one of the shining examples of DS9′s “shades of grey” approach.

  - the first 6 episodes of season 6, with DS9 occupied by the Cardassian/Dominion alliance, and the Federation building up to the retaking of the station — that whole arc was just really well done, with episodes that had varying plotlines, and some self-contained elements, but the whole itself is the second-best multi-episode arc (the best one being the bunch of interconnected episodes building up to the finale.)

  - My last choice might be more controversial, but I feel I have to mention it: “You are cordially invited” (Worf and Jadzia’s wedding) is a fun episode, with some touching moments, lots of new insight into Klingon “stuff”, and a great “punchline”, even if it’s just a visual gag. This episode could only have worked at that point in the series, not sooner, and definitely not later.

• Omar
  November 12, 2010
  Reply

  #4

  DS9 was a great series!!
  @Shutz – Yes I do agree that the “You are cordially invited” episode is amongst my favorites too. I also want to add, “Blood Oath”. How cool was it to see the 3 “Classic” era Klingons: Kor, Koloth & Kang fight along side by side (and with Dax).

• Benjamin Wygant
  November 12, 2010
  Reply

  #5

  How are “Little Green Men”, “Crossover”, and “Trial and Tribble-ations” in this list but “Waltz” isn’t? “Waltz “is arguably the episode that most deeply dives into the characters of Sisko and Dukat. In this episode we learn that a lot of Dukats motivation relies on his desire to have Sisko respect him as a rival. Frustrated that Sisko always beats him, Dukat intentionally keeps the distress beacon offline until Sisko admits to respecting Dukat as an equally powerful and intelligent rival. I’m really glad to see that “In the Pale Moonlight” made it to this list though. Garek is easily the most interesting character in the whole series.

• Simon
  November 18, 2010
  Reply

  #6

  Hard Time
  O’Brien is sent to prison for 2 decades… in his mind! After he gets back to DS9 he has to reenter his life and deal with the memories and atrocities committed while in prison. Heart wrenching episode, top 10 for sure.