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Yeah, but Ezri in those spaghetti straps is a cherished memory.

Honestly, I feel like Ezri gets a bad rap, but episodes like this don't help. I'm glad that the post-finale books made the effort to flesh her out. I'm crazy behind on the so-called Season 8 books sadly, but one thing I liked was when Ezri decided to move onto the command track with the goal of getting her own command one day, Bashir asks the perfectly reasonable question "Is this you that wants this, or is this Jadzia's personality starting to take over?" and Ezri has to admit that she doesn't know. That's actually closer to how she should've bene handled on the show; have Ezri have to deal with trying to be her own Dax while everyone around her just expects Jadzia 2.0. I think there was a little of that on the show if I remember right, but not enough IMO.

In a weird way, Ezri is like the whole of Voyager as a series; suffers more from untapped potential than just being flat out bad.

Ezri was better at firing off glib lines than Jadzia was. So as the snide comic relief she was a step up.
That being said, having only one season to develop her as a new version of a character with her own crazy backstory and demands for her... She would have been MUCH better in a sequel series serving as the advisor/counselor to a new crew traveling to the Gamma Quadrant. A great link for continuity while at the same time just being both the wise mentor and the rookie. That is a cool dynamic.

I would have liked to see a new series made up of lots of returning characters from TNG and DS-9. Reg Barkley, Ezri, Lt. Ro, Bring back Worf's brother, Nog, and one of the many Vorta to serve as a guide/diplomat. BAsically make an entire show out of Chief O'Briens, promoted background players and favorite actors who guest starred but could play a different part by changing their make up.

I just think that Chuck has it in for Counsellor characters (well, ones that are considered "main cast" anyway) in Star Trek. Troi and now Ezri.

Could be wrong on that though.

Worf in a holding cell? Again?

Rocketboy1313 wrote: I would have liked to see a new series made up of lots of returning characters from TNG and DS-9. Reg Barkley, Ezri, Lt. Ro, Bring back Worf's brother, Nog, and one of the many Vorta to serve as a guide/diplomat. BAsically make an entire show out of Chief O'Briens, promoted background players and favorite actors who guest starred but could play a different part by changing their make up.

Have the Vorta be Weyoun for that extra bit of amusement. Yeah, Sandy said that was her last Weyoun, but she could easily be referring to in the Alpha Quadrant. In their home territory, the genetic profile is still there (he just won't have the experiences from all the Weyouns who were cut off in the Alpha Quadrant).

CMWaters wrote:I just think that Chuck has it in for Counsellor characters (well, ones that are considered "main cast" anyway) in Star Trek. Troi and now Ezri.

I think it's more that the Counsellor characters are just not as well written. And in Ezri's case, she really only had a year. I mean, yeah, she's bad at her job most of the time, but she's also explicitly stated as just starting out. Troi not only started out as bad at her job, but got arguably progressively worse the more experienced she became.

I don't think Chuck has much patience for characters that come across as useless.

I do think the counselors, psychologists, and the like are hard to write for. First, it's an action-adventure franchise where people don't exactly have a record for dealing with psychological damage in a realistic way (i.e. any trauma is either non-existent or dealt with off-screen between episodes), which makes a counselor feel superfluous. It's something you don't have in all of TOS or DS9's first six seasons, and it's not something that anybody really missed.

Secondly, the writers aren't mental health professionals. With a doctor or engineer, you can throw technobabble around and the audience assumes that they're great at their job. With counselors, what they say should make actual sense, and they should be mature, well-adjusted people. Troi and Ezri don't come across that way.

Another problem with Ezri (who I don't dislike on the whole) is the timing of her appearance. It's understandable that fans want to see storylines resolved for characters that they've watched for six seasons. Spending time getting to know a new character as the show wraps up seems pointless.

ChiggyvonRichthofen wrote: Secondly, the writers aren't mental health professionals. With a doctor or engineer, you can throw technobabble around and the audience assumes that they're great at their job. With counselors, what they say should make actual sense, and they should be mature, well-adjusted people. Troi and Ezri don't come across that way.

This applies to all social sciences.

This logic also extends to comics. Remember "Civil War"? The comic that was all about a poorly written law. A law that was never explained, written out, or discussed beyond vague bullshit about freedom vs security. That is because Mark Millar and the Marvel staff are not lawyers. And pointing out that vigilantis are already illegal and many superheroes are licenced in some way would throw the whole thing in the "what exactly are we arguing about" bin.

Ezri seems to be a perfect example for why joined Trills are not supposed too spend time with people from their past lives. The strong memories and emotions of the past lives start to overwhelm the current one. The fact that Ezri had no training to prepare her for what joining with a symbiote just makes it worse. For most of the time I saw her on the show Ezri seems to be dealing with Jadzia's unfinished business rather than dealing with her own issues.

Wilahelm2 wrote:For most of the time I saw her on the show Ezri seems to be dealing with Jadzia's unfinished business rather than dealing with her own issues.

That in itself isn't neccesarily a bad thing; I think there's a lot of potential for good storytelling there. It just kind of got swallowed up along with everything else going on in the final season.