Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review Sito Jaxa, a recurring character from a couple of the best episodes of TNG.
We first see Sito Jaxa as a Bajoran cadet at Starfleet Academy in the episode The First Duty, as she is one of the elite Nova Squadron pilots alongside Wesley Crusher. When the squadron leader Nicholas Locarno has the squadron perform a dangerous Kolvoord Starburst maneuver, leading to the accidental death of one of the cadets, Jaxa stands with her crew mates in trying to cover this up. Wesley eventually caves, and she loses a year of academic credit as punishment for her part in this endeavor.
That led to a tough remaining stretch at the Academy, as the stigma of being involved with this stunt was hard to overcome. However, as Captain Picard mentored Wesley to the right solution, he also decides to give Ms. Jaxa a second chance by requesting her posting on the Enterprise-D a couple years later.
We see her pop back up a few months into this assignment, in the episode Lower Decks. She is serving as an ensign security officer at this time, and Worf mentors her to stand up to Picard when the Captain tests her resolve to see if she has what it takes to be involved in a dangerous plot to get a Cardassian defector back to Cardassia Prime.
QUOTE
The plot of the mission was to have her pose as a captured Bajoran prisoner being returned to Cardassia by the defector Jorel Dal. She would then be returned across the boundary to Federation space in an escape pod. However, the Cardassians find the escape pod and destroy it, ending the promising young career of this ensign. Or so we thought.
Actress Shannon Fill did such a nice job with this role that the writers room tried on multiple occasions in TNG and DS9 to bring the character back. However, it was decided that bringing her back would cheapen the emotional impact of the story in Lower Decks, and so she stayed dead as far as the show was concerned. The inspiration for the DS9 episode Hard Time featuring Miles O'Brien was one of the discarded scripts that was to originally feature Sito Jaxa.
As mentioned previously, Shannon Fill was the actress who played Sito Jaxa in these two appearances. Her appearance in The First Duty was her first acting role of note, but she also showed up in small roles on shows like Murder, She Wrote and Walker Texas Ranger in her 5 year acting career. She has settled in Sunland, California and is a clinical social worker now.
That led to a tough remaining stretch at the Academy, as the stigma of being involved with this stunt was hard to overcome. However, as Captain Picard mentored Wesley to the right solution, he also decides to give Ms. Jaxa a second chance by requesting her posting on the Enterprise-D a couple years later.
We see her pop back up a few months into this assignment, in the episode Lower Decks. She is serving as an ensign security officer at this time, and Worf mentors her to stand up to Picard when the Captain tests her resolve to see if she has what it takes to be involved in a dangerous plot to get a Cardassian defector back to Cardassia Prime.
QUOTE
The plot of the mission was to have her pose as a captured Bajoran prisoner being returned to Cardassia by the defector Jorel Dal. She would then be returned across the boundary to Federation space in an escape pod. However, the Cardassians find the escape pod and destroy it, ending the promising young career of this ensign. Or so we thought.
Actress Shannon Fill did such a nice job with this role that the writers room tried on multiple occasions in TNG and DS9 to bring the character back. However, it was decided that bringing her back would cheapen the emotional impact of the story in Lower Decks, and so she stayed dead as far as the show was concerned. The inspiration for the DS9 episode Hard Time featuring Miles O'Brien was one of the discarded scripts that was to originally feature Sito Jaxa.
As mentioned previously, Shannon Fill was the actress who played Sito Jaxa in these two appearances. Her appearance in The First Duty was her first acting role of note, but she also showed up in small roles on shows like Murder, She Wrote and Walker Texas Ranger in her 5 year acting career. She has settled in Sunland, California and is a clinical social worker now.
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