Dax (Star Trek)
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Jadzia Dax (left) and the symbiont's successor host, Ezri Dax, from The Lives of Dax book cover |
Dax is a fictional entity on the television show
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.Dax is a
Trill symbiont, a very long-lived slug-shaped entity that is hosted by a succession of humanoid Trills, a process called "joining". Each of the
hosts has access to the memories of the previous hosts including the accumulated skills and work experiences. Dax has been four men and five women. Two of Dax's hosts,
Jadzia and
Ezri, were regular characters on
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The hosts of Dax all have the same
blue eyes.
The Dax symbiont has lived for over three hundred years. In that time it has been joined to a politician, a mathematician, a gymnast, a pilot, a musician, an ambassador, a counselor, a scientist, and even a murderer. Dax has been a part of some of the most important events in Star Trek history, from the signing of the
Khitomer Accords to the discovery of the
Bajoran wormhole.
Lela Dax
Lela Dax was the first host of the
Dax symbiont. Lela (and the Dax symbiont itself) were born during the early 21st century. Lela was the first woman elected to the
Trill legislature. She had the habit of standing with her hands clasped behind her back (future Dax hosts, such as
Jadzia Dax, also exhibited this behavior) in order to curb excessive hand gesturing whilst speaking publicly. Lela and her husband had a son, Ahjess, who was afraid of the dark and used to climb into bed with his parents at night.
Lela was portrayed by
Nana Visitor in the episode
Facets, when Lela's consciousness took over the body of
Kira Nerys during the zhian'tara ceremony of
Jadzia Dax.
Tobin Dax
Tobin Dax was a noted engineer and mathematician in
Trill history. Tobin was the second host of the
Dax symbiont. Tobin had a keen scientific mind, but was timid and shy in social situations. He had several children, but had a hard time disciplining them. Tobin also dabbled in botany and sleight-of-hand magic. He also devised his own proof of
Fermat's last theorem.
When
Curzon Dax underwent the ceremony of zhian'tara, in which his friends and family temporarily embodied past Dax hosts, Curzon gleefully got the Tobin host roaring drunk during the ceremony.
The character of Tobin Dax was originally going to be a crewmember on Enterprise. Michael Shanks was the fan favourite to play him. However, the character was dropped for some reason.Tobin was portrayed by
Colm Meaney in the episode
Facets, when Tobin's consciousness took over the body of
Miles O'Brien during the zhian'tara ceremony of Jadzia Dax.
Emony Dax
Emony Dax was the third host of the Dax symbiont. She was an Olympic gymnast who found that her concentration and physical coordination improved after she was joined with Dax, despite her fears prior to joining that these skills would be impaired.
Emony was once on
Earth to judge a gymnastics competition at the
University of Mississippi, where she met
Leonard McCoy. Years later, Dax would comment that she had a feeling that he would become a doctor — "he had the hands of a surgeon." ("
Trials and Tribble-ations")
Emony was portrayed by
Chase Masterson in the episode
Facets, when Emony's consciousness took over the body of
Leeta during the zhian'tara ceremony of Jadzia Dax.
Audrid Dax
Audrid Dax was the fourth host of the Dax symbiont. She rose to become the head of the Trill
Symbiosis Commission, and she was also a mother of at least two children, Neema and Gran. Audrid noted that her
election and the birth of her first child were the happiest days of her life.
Neema once spent two weeks in the
hospital, ill with Rugalan fever. Audrid spent the entire time by her six-year-old daughter's side, and read all seventeen volumes of
Down the River Light to her, even though she was unconscious. Fifteen years later, the two were not on speaking terms and would not see each other for another eight years.
Audrid was portrayed by
Armin Shimerman in the episode
Facets, when Audrid's consciousness took over the body of
Quark during the zhian'tara ceremony of Jadzia Dax.
Torias Dax
Torias Dax was the first Dax host to join
Starfleet, serving as a shuttle test pilot. Torias was piloting a new Starfleet shuttle when it experienced a catastrophic system failure and crashed, costing Torias his life. After Torias' death, official
Trill records indicated that Dax was held in stasis for six months and then transplanted into
Curzon; however, this was actually a coverup by the
Trill government, as Dax's next host was
Joran who was a psychopath and a murderer.
Torias was portrayed by
Alexander Siddig in the episode
Facets, when Torias's consciousness took over the body of
Julian Bashir during the zhian'tara ceremony of Jadzia Dax.
Joran Dax
Joran Dax (born
Joran Belar) was a noted musician on the planet
Trill, and was chosen to host the
Dax symbiont after the death of the previous host, Torias. What was not known at the time was that Joran was insane - a psychopath and a murderer who killed the Trill doctor who'd recommended that Joran be expelled from the symbiosis program. Joran's joining with Dax was considered a failure, and all records of the joining were covered up by the
Trill government, to prevent a panic (the official party line was that no joining could ever fail in this way). Later,
Jadzia Dax experienced hidden memories of Joran, which were so traumatic that they threatened to kill her, requiring Trill doctors to uncover the memories of Dax's joining with Joran (and, consequently, to unseal the government's records of the joining) to save Jadzia's life.
The Trill government had desperately tried to quash all data about Joran's joining, fearing that if word got out that Joran had passed the host screening procedures and was technically a viable host, then the truth - that over half the Trill population was capable of joining, not the small fraction as was generally believed - would cause the public to riot, and would turn the symbionts into commodities to be fought over.
Later,
Ezri Dax was forced to call upon her memories of Joran in order to catch a killer who had claimed several victims on
Deep Space Nine.
Joran was portrayed by
Jeff McBride and
Leigh McCloskey. Also, he was played by
Avery Brooks in the episode
Facets, when Joran's consciousness took over the body of
Benjamin Sisko during the zhian'tara ceremony of Jadzia Dax.
Curzon Dax
Curzon Dax (played by Frank Owen Smith and by
Rene Auberjonois) was joined to Dax from 2285 - 2367.
Jadzia Dax
Jadzia Dax (played by
Terry Farrell) was a main character on
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from
Season 1-
6.
Ezri Dax
Ezri Dax (played by
Nicole DeBoer) was a main character on
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in
Season 7.
*
Verad (played by
John Glover) stole the Dax symbiont for a few hours, in the episode "
Invasive Procedures". Verad was a rejected candidate for joining that surgically removed the Dax symbiont from Jadzia and had it implanted in himself. Dax was later returned to Jadzia before the symbiont and host were integrated. In a sense, Jadzia was both the eighth and tenth hosts, though it is not generally counted this way.
*
Yedrin Dax (played by
Gary Frank) was a host of the Dax symbiont in an
alternate timeline created when the
USS Defiant travelled back through time two hundred years and crash landed on the planet
Gaia, in the episode
Children of Time. He is the great-grandson of
Jadzia Dax and
Worf. His existence was erased when the
Defiant avoided the crash and that timeline was averted.
*
Dax, son of Kang was a
Klingon named after his godfather, Curzon Dax. He died at a very early age from a genetic virus given to him by an alien known as the Albino.
*
Dax (played by Michael Snyder) was also the name of a crewman aboard the
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) in the film
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. A pair of magnetic boots used during the murder of
Klingon Chancellor
Gorkon were found hidden in his locker. Dax was summoned to his quarters. In a continuation of the running gag of Chekov crediting Russia with inventing various things, Chekov asks Dax if he had heard of the Russian epic of
Cinderella (which is actually originally Chinese), and tells him if "...shoe fits, wear it!" Spock at that point interrupts and gestures at Dax's feet. It's then that the senior staff realized that Dax's exceptionally large feet precluded his having worn the boots. Crewman Dax is not a Trill and is not known to bear any relation to the Dax symbiont or any of its hosts.
*
