Character Insight No. 237: Best of Jadzia Dax

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we fire up another Best Of series of segments with the Deep Space Nine TV series.  We begin this week with the best of Jadzia Dax.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp237

Jadzia is a science officer serving for Starfleet aboard DS9, and she's a joined Trill with seven lifetimes of experience in her symbiont.  She provides an interesting mix of youthful exuberance and great wisdom serving on Sisko's crew.  In the episode Playing God, we learn much more about her Trill background when she mentors another potential Trill host.

QUOTE (from Playing God, S2):
Lieutenant Jadzia Dax: Jadzia Dax is not Curzon Dax. But I am Dax. And I'm slowly coming to terms with what that means to me. Sometimes it means gambling or wrestling; sometimes it means waking up an initiate, before he slides into the middle of the pack and gets overlooked.
Arjin: [surprised] You're giving me another chance?
Lieutenant Jadzia Dax: You are the only one who can give yourself another chance. You can't simply do this anymore, to meet other people's expectations - not your father's, not your teachers', and not mine. You need to discover what Arjin wants out of life, out of joining.

With a previous host Curzon, Dax was close friends with Commander Sisko.  That allows Dax to be the voice of wisdom and reason to talk Sisko off ledges, such as in the episode In the Pale Moonlight.

QUOTE (from In The Pale Moonlight, S6):
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: But before I plunge my people into a conflict that will kill millions of loyal Romulan citizens, I need something more concrete than the self-serving argument of a Starfleet officer. I need proof of Dominion duplicity. Not more words. Proof.
Captain Sisko: [chuckles acknowledging] Very good, old man. You would have made a decent Romulan.
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: I prefer the spots to the pointed ears.

Curzon Dax was also close with some Klingons, which makes for a great dichotomy when Jadzia also shares in those same relationships.  In the episode Blood Oath, she honors one of Curzon's promises but shows no hesitation to explain where she differs from her Klingon friends.

QUOTE (from Blood Oath, S2):
Kang: If we cannot reach the Albino, we can at least die an honorable death trying to reach him - a death a Klingon Dahar Master deserves.
Lieutenant Jadzia Dax: You know what, Kang? I think you Klingons embrace death too easily. You treat death like a lover. I think living is a lot more attractive.

Speaking of Klingons, it's relationships from past lives like this that likely lead to her romantic pairing with Commander Worf when he joins the show.  Opposites attract, although both have the wit and strength to survive Klingon lovemaking sessions as alluded to in the episode Let He Who is Without Sin.

QUOTE (from Let He Who is Without Sin, S5):
Odo: Actually, I believe Commander Dax has been treated for seven muscle pulls, two contusions and three cracked ribs. The only person who spent more time in the infirmary over the past few weeks is Commander Worf.
Captain Sisko: [to Dax] Isn't there any way that... the two of you could, um... erm... you know...
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Make love?
Captain Sisko: ...without injuring yourselves?
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Interspecies romance isn't without its danger. That's part of the fun.

Jadzia Dax was played by Terry Farrell, who was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just like yours truly.  She retired from acting in 2003 and lived as a stay-at-home mother in Pennsylvania and New York for over a decade.  However, she has just recently started acting again in 2017, so keep an eye on her for future projects.

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