Dax (Star Trek)

Dax is a fictional entity on the television show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In 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 in the series 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.

Official hosts

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.

In the non-canon short story "Dead Man's Hand" (written by Jeffrey Lang and collected in The Lives of Dax), Tobin Dax was involved in the creation of an early transporter and encountered the Vulcan scientist Skon (Spock's grandfather) during an altercation with enemy Romulans.

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. Tobin was extremely nervous, biting O'Brien's fingernails and continuously making apologies for no real reason.

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 a young Leonard McCoy. Years later, Jadzia Dax would comment that Emony had a feeling that he would become a doctor — "he had the hands of a surgeon" (implying she was his lover). ("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.

In the non-canon short story "Sins of the Mother" (written by SD Perry and collected in The Lives of Dax), Audrid Dax was part of a joint Trill-Starfleet scientific task force led by Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, which investigated a rogue comet which seemed to contain Trill lifesigns. Instead it contained a member of an evil parasitic species (TNG: "Conspiracy") that seized control of Dax's husband Jayvin Vod. In order to ensure that the parasite died, Dax was forced to let her husband (and his symbiont) die as well, which is what led to her estrangement from her daughter Neema. The two later encountered each other again in the non-canon novel Unity, when Dax was in Ezri and Neema's symbiont Cyl was joined to Trill enforcement office Taulin.

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. Quark only agreed to the ceremony with extreme reluctance, and Dax 'forgot to mention' that Quark would be embodying one of Dax's female hosts.

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.

In the non-canon short story "Infinity" (written by Susan Wright and collected in The Lives of Dax), the shuttle in which Torias Dax was killed was testing an early version of the transwarp drive (as seen in The Search for Spock) with the assistance of Lieutenant Saavik and under the command of Captain Stiles (both also from The Search for Spock).

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.

Torias left behind a Trill widow when he died, Nilani Kahn, who later returned in the fourth-season episode 'Rejoined' as the same symbiont in a new host: Lenara Kahn. Since Torias was now with a female host, the two maintained a strained working relationship (Trill societal rules prohibit the re-association of past hosts, with the penalty being permanent exile from the Trill homeworld). Eventually, the two worked out their troubles and parted on amicable terms.

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. Sisko threatened to reveal the truth himself, if the Commission didn't help Jadzia -- who had previously wished to save only the Dax symbiont and let herself die.

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

Main article: Curzon Dax

Curzon Dax (played by Frank Owen Smith) was a host to the Dax symbiont from 2285 - 2367. Curzon also briefly joined with Odo during Jadzia's zhian'tara ceremony. Perhaps due to Odo's shapeshifting abilities, Odo doesn't simply embody Curzon -- an unexpected side-effect is that Curzon and Odo become (technically) 'joined', and both exist in the same body.

Jadzia Dax

Main article: Jadzia Dax

Jadzia Dax (played by Terry Farrell) was a main character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from Season 1-6.

Ezri Dax

Main article: Ezri Dax

Ezri Dax (played by Nicole de Boer) was a main character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in Season 7.

Alternate hosts

Verad Dax

Verad Dax (played by John Glover) stole the Dax symbiont for a few hours, in the episode "Invasive Procedures". Verad was a rejected candidate for joining who 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. Notably, once joined, Dax was highly motivated to continue Verad's unethical/immoral plan despite a continued feeling of friendship with Captain Sisko and others on DS-9. A telling indication of just how different each joined personality can be from each other and the from Trill's own personality.

Yedrin Dax

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.

Others named Dax

• 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, 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 [1] [2].

Pop Culture References

• The World of Warcraft expansion set Burning Crusade contains a reference to some of the hosts of the Dax symbiont: Draenei named Tobin, Emony, Audrid, Torias, and Curzon tour the museum area of The Exodar.
• Bill Bailey, comedian, named his child after Dax. "I may just have given him too much baggage," Bailey has joked. "I'll tell him he’s named after the German stock exchange."

External links

• Dax at Memory Alpha