Ezri Dax

If TV shows were people who sat in a bar and complained about their jobs, almost all of them would nod knowingly and sympathetically whenever one of their number mentioned a regular cast member leaving mid-show to pursue other career options. Luckily for Deep Space Nine, said cast member was Terry Farrell, whose character Dax already had a legitimate reason to turn up next season played by a different actor. Diamond Select/Art Asylum doesn't believe in character bios, so let me fill in the blanks: Trill are a joined species, humanoid hosts and slug-like symbionts merging into beings who are a combination of both. Normally hosts are carefully trained and prepared for joining, since suddenly acquiring the memories and experiences of all the symbiont's previous hosts can be a bit overwhelming. When Jadzia Dax got killed and the Dax symbiont took a turn for the worse on the way back to Trill, all that got bypassed – to save the symbiont's life it was given to the only available Trill, counsellor Ezri Tigan, who never even thought about being joined, let alone trained. Now she's suddenly got several centuries' worth of memories and personality traits, and on a good day is a vaguely-functional schizophrenic basket case. Ezri only had one season on DS9, and it was the final one where a lot of time was taken by starships blowing up all over the place, but as the new girl in the shop she merited a few spotlight stories over the course of the year, and I'm sure any number of fans will be glad to see her turn up in action figure form (they'll have to move quick if they want her, though – one per case, I was told by my local comicshop). She stands just a touch under 7" tall, a little under average for these figures, and noticeably under Jadzia's willowy height. The difference between them is further highlighted by a deliberately petite physique, especially apparent in the shoulders and upper torso. It may or may not be of interest to collectors – and it's been a while since DS9 aired so I can't immediately confirm the accuracy of the figure in this respect – but while Ezri may not have Jadzia's supermodel physique, she does have a really cute bottom. The sculpt on her uniform is comparable to other Star Trek figures – in quality it's nearly identical to Jadzia's (design too, since it's the same uniform), simply adapted to Ezri's different physique. The sculpt of the ribbed shoulder section seems a little sharper and deeper than Jadzia's, which isn't a problem on its own – nor is Jadzia's shallower sculpt there – but put them side by side and it's a bit odd. Pleasingly, Ezri's hands are clearly designed to be holding accessories, rather than in a generic loose grip that won't really hold anything; the only problem is that the right hand is clearly intended to be the one to hold phaser grips, and Ezri's left-handed. Her heels are a touch taller than Jadzia's – true to the real costume, I believe, since they didn't want her to look too short on screen opposite Worf or Sisko. In contrast to Jadzia's amused supermodel looks, Ezri is adorably cute, but quite serious in her expression. The facial sculpt isn't a perfect match for Nicole deBoer – all the features are there, and from certain angles everything looks right, but overall the face is a touch too long, the jawline angled towards her chin a bit too much, and the hair too narrow at the sides (though that's partly to accommodate an accessory). Still, the resemblance is strong, further enhanced by clean paint apps for her face, a well-sculpted hairline with her characteristic slightly messy fringe, and a good rendition of the Trill spots down the sides of her face and neck. There's not much to say about the rest of the paint applications – like Jadzia I'd have liked to see slightly lighter colour bands on the cuffs, since they're barely visible under normal light, but that's neither here nor there really. That aside, everything is in good order – the matte black uniform is consistent, the slate grey shoulders are uniform and clean at the edges, and the combadge is likewise painted cleanly, though it could stand a little more coverage on the gold areas just to keep the silver from dominating it. Compared to the sloppy paint on Jadzia, Ezri is almost a perfect 10 – the only irksome error is (like Jadzia) her two solid gold rank pips, when as a Lieutenant Junior Grade she should have one solid, one hollow. She was promoted in the post-DS9 novels though, so let's call her accurate to those. Her articulation is the standard set for Trek figures: balljoint neck, with a good range since there's no long hair to restrict it, balljointed shoulders, swivel biceps, peg elbows, swivel wrists, swivel waist, peg hips, knees, and ankles. Ezri's stance is upright without being tense, so within the bounds of what can be done with her joints, she looks fairly natural whatever you do with her. She holds a rifle well enough at the hip, though since her particular rifle is enormous she can only just hold it to her shoulder, and a proper two-handed hold is out in that case. Like all Star Trek figures Ezri has a gleeful embarrassment of accessories. DS/AA bills these as having episode-specific accessories – the big guns (pardon the pun) in Ezri's range come from "Field of Fire," which I won't go into detail on because it's quite clever and should be seen without spoilers. From that episode come the massive TR-116 rifle, which as noted Ezri can (barely) hold in both hands provided it's fired from the hip (her right index finger is flexible enough to go over the trigger, rather than around the grip with the rest of her fingers – nice touch), and the Exographic Targeting Sensor, which is the headband/eyepiece thingy. The ETS is a faithful reproduction of the prop, but putting it on Ezri has its issues – it's soft plastic, so it's not a matter of not fitting right over her head, it's just that it's not quite big enough: it's clear how the right earpiece is meant to fit over her ear (there's even a slight indent in her ear for it to sit on), but if it's in place there, it won't reach far enough for the eyepiece to cover her eye as it should. Disappointing, but workable: put the eyepiece in the right place and ignore the earpiece; it's not very big anyway. This little set is a good choice for Ezri – not only was "Field of Fire" a great episode, but publicity photos were taken of Ms. deBoer on set wearing the ETS and wielding the TR-116, so kit her out with those and she's instantly recognizable – the sensor even mitigates the slight errors in her head sculpt. Her other accessories are a PADD – not a recycled TNG one, but one of the later DS9 designs – showing what looks like a navigation graphic, a coffee mug of the angled kind used on the show, perfect for raktajino (which Ezri couldn't stand, but so many of her previous selves enjoyed that she often found herself being overruled and drinking it anyway), and a baseball cap, bearing the logo of the Pike City Pioneers. The logo for the Niners – the amateur team assembled by Captain Sisko – would have been nice, but the Pioneers are a valid choice, since Sisko's brother-in-law played on them, and Sisko received one of their caps as a gift – I don't recall Ezri ever wearing it, but it's a neat accessory anyway. It doesn't fit perfectly on her head, but I've seen a lot worse so far as action figure hats go – I don't have the opportunity to try it myself, but it'd be a nice touch if it fit the Sisko figure in this series (since his head is shaven, it might well do so). Overall, this is a very satisfying action figure – she looks like who she's supposed to, she's sculpted and painted well, she moves well, and she's got a bunch of cool accessories, all of which are usable. I may point out some flaws with her, but only to be thorough – DS/AA can be justifiably proud of this one.

Tweet