17 Years Ago: Ezri Dax Made Her First DS9 Appearance

Nicole de Boer made her debut as Ezri Dax on this day -- September 30 -- in 1998, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine seventh-season opener "Image in the Sand." The emergence of Ezri Dax resulted from the death of Jadzia Dax, which itself occured as a result of Terry Farrell's decision to exit DS9 in season six. Ezri, of course, represented the ninth host of the Dax symbiont, though the young Trill character was totally unprepared for it.

Some interesting tidbits about the hour:

Ezri's first scene finds her interacting with three generations of Siskos: Joseph, Benjamin and Jake, and it features this important exchange:

"Hello, Benjamin," she said.
"Do I know you?" he replied.
"It's me... Dax," she said.

Later, in that same emotional and also funny exchange with Ben, Jake and Joseph at the Siskos' restaurant, Ezri recounts that she "lay down on that operating table one person and I woke up a completely different person. Well, I should say 8 different people."

The episode, by choice an unusually quiet 60 season-opener, is set three months after the possessed Gul Dukat killed Jadzia Dax and sealed the wormhole.

Guest stars included several members of DS9's talented recurring cast: Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun, Casey Biggs as Damar, Barry Jenner as Admiral Ross, J.G. Hertzler as Martok, Aron Eisenberg as Nog, James Darren as Vic Fontaine and Brock Peters as Joseph Sisko.

This was the offical synposis of the episode: "Image in the Sand -- With the wormwhole closed, Sisko struggles to find a way to re-establish contact with the Bajoran Prophets."

De Boer was original billed in the credits as Nicole de Boer as Ensign Ezri Dax.