Star Trek: Deep Space Nine killed Jadzia Dax in Season 6, the unfortunate result of backstage tensions between Terry Farrell and Paramount.
Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) dead at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 was the series’ biggest mistake. Dax was one of DS9‘s main cast and was introduced in the pilot episode, “Emissary.” The shocking death of Jadzia came in DS9season 6 finale, “Tears of the Prophets,” when she was murdered by the series’ greatest Cardassian villain, Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), and it was a devastating moment that crescendo DS9‘s dark and complex Dominion War storyline. But it was the behind-the-scenes tensions between Farrell and Star Trek’s studio, Paramount, that led to Jadzia being fired from DS9 and replaced Nicole deBoer as Ezri Dax.
Jadzia was Deep Space Nine’s popular science officer and the best friend of Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). Although it took a few seasons for DS9‘s writers to truly define Dax, the initially inexperienced Farrell gradually grew into the character, and Jadzia emerged as a highly intelligent, feisty woman who was loved by both her crew members.
Worf (Michael Dorn) joins in DS9 in season 4, Dax was a blessing, as the Klingon warrior and the Trill scientist soon sparked a romance that brought out fascinating new sides to both characters. Jadzia married Worf . at the beginning of this year DS9 season 6 and they looked forward to a happy life together after the Dominion War was over – until the senseless murder of Jadzia, which saw a massive revamp of the Dax character as DS9 on the way to the end in season 7.
Why DS9 Killed Jadzia Dax
The full details of why Terry Farrell left Star Trek: Deep Space Nine have not been fully disclosed, but Farrell has her side of the story, while the producers and studios have their version of what happened. According to the Star Trek oral history, The fifty-year mission: the next 25 years by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Farrell requested that she appear in fewer episodes in Season 7, which would essentially reduce her role to a recurring character. Instead, the actress claims that the producers and the studio were trying “to bully me into saying yes” [to signing onto a full season 7 schedule].” In What we left behind2019’s DS9 retrospective documentary, an emotional Farrell blamed the studio and executive producer Rick Berman for her firing.
For his part, Berman takes offense at Farrell’s allegations:
To say that this woman was let go is absolutely ridiculous. She hasn’t been fired. She asked not to be in all episodes… to be a recurring character. The studio actually said “no way”… She’s a normal character and she does all twenty-six shows or nothing… She eventually left. It certainly wasn’t my choice. It was the loss of character and it was hard for us.
In the meantime, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s showrunner, Ira Steven Behr, and the writing staff were purposely kept out of the tense negotiations. Behr was furious when he found out that Farrell would be leaving the show, which meant he had to kill the popular Jadzia Dax character. behr said, “Let me put it this way, if I had known what was going on I would have stopped it.”
Killing Jadzia Dax was the DS9’s biggest mistake
With Farrell out DS9, the writers took the opportunity to create a new Trill character, Ezri Dax, who received the Dax symbiote and joined the show as an advisor to the space station. Although de Boer was very excited to participate DS9even for one season, the actress was also aware that some of the fans would not accept her as Jadzia’s replacement. DS9The writing team did their best to quickly integrate Ezri into the series, but the shadows of Terry Farrell and Jadzia Dax were hard to overcome for Ezri van de Boer and the constant comparisons between the two Daxes were inescapable. Worf also continued to struggle without his counterpart, while Dr Julian Bashir’s (Alexander Siddig) love affair with Ezri felt rushed like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7 concluded the series.
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