Bereft by lack of verdict

Matt’s Take on Episode 7: “Dax”

And the Verdict is?

At the top, I want to note that I feel a bit robbed that we never actually reach a conclusive decision regarding Dax’s case. I suppose it leaves it up for the audience to decide for themselves, but I would have liked the show to take a stand on the issue of whether Dax is responsible for her previous host’s crimes. I think that it might have been more interesting if Enina hadn’t shown up at the end to basically render the proceedings moot. We have all of these interesting moral questions, but they are ultimately left hanging. I know that moral questions are never fully resolved in real life, as people can always argue one way or the other, but I would have liked to have seen a more definitive outcome.

That being said, the episode is a good one for raising these sorts of questions and for finally building up Dax’s character a bit more. 

On the other hand …

Dax-less?

Terry Farrell is underutilized in this episode. I understand that, for the sake of the story, her character is staying silent through much of the episode, but that means that we often learn about her character through others discussing her and Curzon’s past. Don’t get me wrong, the scenes that she has are very strong, and she leaves me wanting more of them. I especially enjoy her confrontation with Sisko toward the end of the episode where she reminds him of his temper and shows that Curzon is still in there somewhere. I just can’t help but wonder if they could have given her more to do rather than remaining stoically silent through large stretches of the episode.

An Honorable Man?

Sisko seems to be willing to skew the data and present biased arguments to help out Dax in this episode. I admire his loyalty as a friend, but his directions to Kira and Odo to find the “correct” answers is a little bit uncomfortable.

And my Verdict is?

While I have the above criticisms about this episode, I still deeply enjoyed it. I always enjoy a good Trek trial episode, and the ideas of justice and identity that this one raises are truly fascinating. We also get some excellent character work from Odo as a hard-nosed investigative detective, and that’s something that we could always use more of. His shake-down of Quark with threats to enforce new “building codes” is a moment of comedic gold, especially as he turns the idea of “business is business” directly against Quark in this moment. I also thought that the actress playing Els Renora, Anne Haney, really stole her scenes with gravitas throughout the trial. And, as noted before, Jadzia’s scenes are really moving when she actually gets the chance to take center stage. I am looking forward to a lot more to come from her in future episodes!

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