DS9 - Rejoined

[Thebestoftherest]

We need 297 more pages.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Ezri was already in Starfleet Academy. Sisko just expedited her graduation.

I thought Ezri was already a commissioned officer and assigned to a ship?

I would check, but for the life of me I can't really remember what episode that might be. Wait, that's probably the easiest episode to recall, brb. First guess if you're right is that he expedited her to Command protocol.

Darnit it was Lieutenant which was going to be my first guess instead of commander.

[Thebestoftherest]

I do find it funny they made the love interest have the same name as debately the most popular individual villain in the franchise.

[Rocketboy1313]

Something In ever got was why the Trill seemed so hellbent on getting a symbiote. It, to me, sounds kinda horrifying and barely better then a Go'uld from Stargate. If the host is weak or untrained their personality is completely dominated, in the initial appearance of the Trill the host seemed almost an afterthought and Riker was completely overtaken by the parasite. Even if you are strong or trained enough you in some ways die, your personality, your very memories are overtaken by a creature with centuries of experience. Its not you anymore, its similar to you but heavily altered. That doesn't sound like a good trade for all the experience, to lose yourself.

My guess is why there was a rule against previous relations was to help protect the current host. Getting in a relationship, in the life, of a previous host might dredge up alot of that old host and overshadow the current one.

I don't know how much the TNG introduction should matter at this point.
Much like the Ferengi the amount of material in DS-9 that develops the society is so much more that TNG is basically discontinuity.

The way I see the Trill and the symbiotic is like a pair of computers. The first computer has the sensory organs (internet access) and the its own operating software, but the symbiotic has lots more software (memories from previous networking) and gives a boost to the processing power of any hosting computer. The two systems network and their files references each others hard drives to the point where the first computer can't be decoupled till death, when all of the remaining software is uploaded to the symbiote.

It provides a kind of immortality as a gestalt being. Which again, is super interesting.

[Meushell]

Episodes like this make me wonder why there is not a colony of Trills who just do what they want. “Banish me? Go ahead. I’ll go to Colony X and pick out my own next host.”

Given how easy it is to be rejected as a host candidate, I imagine many would risk a second chance. If Verad was able to figure out on his own that he was compatible with Dax, then I think any symbiont could do the same with potential hosts.

[FaxModem1]

This episode is, at best, only okay. The real meat of it is the fact that it had a same-sex kiss in it, and Sisko and Dax having the dedicated friend being there, no matter what, talk. The rest of the episode is, well, dull. Because it's swamped in technical talk, and not the focus of the episode, creating a wormhole was boring. When for the characters, it should be like akin to, well, creating a wormhole, or making a transporter or replicator in real life. An extraordinary feat of science and discovery.

Seriously though, this is the best part of the episode:

DAX: I don't know what to do, Benjamin.
SISKO: What do you want to do?
DAX: Throw myself at her. Profess my undying love and my complete disregard for Trill society. A joke Lenara made at the reception. Doesn't sound so funny anymore, does it?
SISKO: Not really.
DAX: You don't think I should pursue this, do you.
SISKO: No.
DAX: Okay. Why?
SISKO: Because I remember what Curzon used to say about reassociation. That it didn't matter whether he agreed with the taboo or not, because the price for violating it was too high. Exile.
DAX: I know what Curzon used to say, and I'm not Curzon.
SISKO: And you're not Torias either. You're Jadzia Dax and you have a responsibility as a joined Trill to never
DAX: I didn't come here to hear a lecture about my responsibilities.
SISKO: You came here for advice from a friend, and that's exactly what you're getting.
DAX: You're right. I'm sorry.
SISKO: I know this is difficult for you. I know how you feel about Lenara. But I want you to think about what will happen if you pursue this. If you're exiled from Trill, there will be no further hosts for your symbiont. When Jadzia dies, Dax dies. That goes against everything you were taught during your initiate training. You've told me again and again that each host is only a link in a chain and that the life of the symbiont, no matter what happens, must go on.
DAX: I know that and I believe in that. But I also know I love her, Benjamin.
SISKO: I know you do. If I were in your position I'd probably be just as ready to throw everything away for the person I love. But I would also want to be sure that I was ready to pay the price.
DAX: You're right. I need to be sure.
SISKO: But if you're sure, if this is what you really want, I will back you all the way.
DAX: I've lived seven lifetimes and I have never had a friend quite like you.

Something In ever got was why the Trill seemed so hellbent on getting a symbiote. It, to me, sounds kinda horrifying and barely better then a Go'uld from Stargate. If the host is weak or untrained their personality is completely dominated, in the initial appearance of the Trill the host seemed almost an afterthought and Riker was completely overtaken by the parasite. Even if you are strong or trained enough you in some ways die, your personality, your very memories are overtaken by a creature with centuries of experience. Its not you anymore, its similar to you but heavily altered. That doesn't sound like a good trade for all the experience, to lose yourself.

My guess is why there was a rule against previous relations was to help protect the current host. Getting in a relationship, in the life, of a previous host might dredge up alot of that old host and overshadow the current one.

That's part of why so many wash out in the selection process. You need someone who has a distinct personality and is able bring something to the table. From what we see in the series, it's a very hard process to be considered, because their society only wants the best to have it. Humans mostly record our history and have legacy via our children and our great works(literature, music, scientific advancements, great deeds, inventions, etc.). The trill symbiote is another option in addition to those others. A way to keep their culture going for eternity, to make sure things aren't lost.

As for the draw, it's the immortality, where no matter what happens to you, some part of your self will always be there, guiding others. And also, getting the experiences of those who have achieved great things, and having their talents, will be helpful. Curzon was the diplomat and warrior, and brought a lot of that to the table. But what Jadzia contributed was her wondrous scientific abilities, which will help hosts further down the line(helped by a previous host's math skills). We see in that episode where Jadzia meets all the hosts in the main cast's bodies, what Jadzia sans all the previous hosts is like, and she is not just a sum of their parts, there is someone there at the core. They're just the spices adding to the flavor of who she is.

And I understand the reasoning for the taboo. Worf and Ezri were a disaster as a couple. Worf expected Ezri to be Jadzia 2.0, and she couldn't be. Ezri was joining him almost as an obligation, and because it felt familiar and safe during a time she didn't really have anchors. Ezri was her own person, and when she realized that, she grew very different from Jadzia. Her healthy skepticism of the Klingon Empire, which was the opposite of what Curzon or Jadzia would have done, showed that she was taking what they knew, and bringing her own experiences and viewpoints to the table.

And as they pointed out in episodes like Blood Oath, the whole reason that they have this taboo is so that the symbiotes can grow. Paying off debts for eternity is not something you want to do, and prevents the possibility of growing.




Sidenote, as a gay man, it's nice to see it confirmed in-universe, that no one gives a crap that two people of the same sex are getting involved romantically. I just wish that Star Trek at the time was more brave with having permanent gay main characters and plotlines.

[Hero_Of_Shadows]

I lol'ed at the Plinkett joke, highlight of the review to me.

As a coincidence I play a mobile game where you collect cards of various ST characters and they just recently had an event where they gave out the Lenara Kahn card, from the artwork I initially thought it was a Kira variant.

[tacomoney]

As horrible as the situation was, the in laws sequence made me sport a huge grin at how close to being screwed you were.

Sometimes the best jokes are the unscripted ones caused by real life.

[Nobody700]

You know this whole episode reminds me of how Bryan Fuller wanted to bring in Jeri Ryan as a main lead who would be Star Trek's first lesbian character. Now wonder what THAT DS9 would have been.

[Salamon2]

Regarding this episode's in-story of the level of Trill society banishment of the symbiotes, I think that comes from how very concerned the Trill society is with making sure that nothing "contaminates" their pool of symbiotes--even another symbiote. The Trill society lies to its people already about the number of potential hosts that could be allowed in order to protect the symbiotes. They further lie by having a stricter joined-program to become a host than likely is necessary in order to further protect the symbiote. But let's not forget that after a symbiote has lived enough lives--it returns to one of those pools without a host to essentially retire from host-life and communicate with the young juvenile symbiotes. In such a situation, isolating the "corrupted symbiote" would protect future symbiotes from becoming likewise corrupted.

Further, entangling yourself in the past would likely create a cascade effect where the symbiote isn't focused on learning and growing, but instead is dominated by its past. In one way it's forcing the symbiotes to have a "progressive" outlook in terms of you must be forward-looking. I'd like to know more about why that's so. Perhaps there was a Trill host-symbiote who turned out to be a dictator king who really held up the progress of Trill society by trying to preserve an old socio-political order (like say Feudalism) for much longer than it should have existed, thus negatively impacting the rest of Trill society? Perhaps at one point there were nostalgia-driven symbiotes who until they were "banished" from Trill society, caused there to be rival factions within the host-symbiote community which eventually the "learn and grow forward-looking" symbiotes won out and instituted reforms to eliminate any dissenting symbiotes to keep there from being unending civil wars generation after generation that never die because when only the host dies and the symbiote can live on--so can old grudges and old hatreds too.

There's a lot there that could potentially explain a lot of why Trill society goes so hard and fast on this rule.

I also agree that this rule seems to protect the host to some degree as it keeps the old feelings from overwriting the host's personality. Perhaps this also was a compromise between host and symbiote developed to keep the symbiote happy and to keep from subsuming the host entirely.

The amount of untapped potential really shows we've only scratched the surface of the Trill, and I look forward to future writers eventually expanding upon the Trill beyond what DS9 did.

As for what this episode means outside of the show, I do think the fact that you have what looks to the audience a same-sex couple portrayed as going through love and feelings like any other person was big for the 1990s. Was it enough? Did it completely challenge the Neoliberal compromises of the time? No, it didn't. But it did chip away at it, which I think deserves some credit. And it did in fact build off of and contradict where TNG left the subject with regards to the Trill. Beverly at the end of her Trill romance story couldn't get past the new body that the symbiote was in, and the episode ended on the finality that same-sex couples were a step too far in its rough allegory. Here, however, we end with the critique that the only thing holding them back is society and the taboos society has caused them to internalize. The story ends that if only there was a change in society, things might have worked out differently--it plants a small seed of hope and redirects any complaint to the system which perpetuates these norms. That is an improvement compared to the finality of TNG's Beverley story IMO, because one cannot change a system, taboo, etc. until one acknowledges the issue is systemic in the first place.

So in terms of getting Star Trek to show a same-sex couple I think this was an important step and use of allegory and a necessary one, but is it perfect? By no means.