Lt. Cdr. Jadzia Dax

One thing that Deep Space Nine did better than the other Star Trek series was to expand the alien races of the Trek Universe. While The Next Generation set its focus tightly on the Borg, DS9 introduced new aliens of its own and also picked up and expanded some of the ones that TNG had forgotten, including the symbiotic Trill. The eighth eventual Trill host of the symbiont Dax is the discoverer of the Bajoran wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, which catapulted the area into the galactic hotseat. The perspective of seven previous lifetimes has left Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax with an extremely broad view of life, a view that surprisingly skews to the unpredictable and even mischievous rather than the staid and conservative, while symbiosis itself at times has proved to be problematic in her off-world career. To get their DS9 figures made, Art Asylum chose to create an episode-specific set before releasing generic figures - the episode was the time-travelling "Trials and Tribble-ations," which allowed them to put new heads on existing molds without inciting a fanboy riot. The four-figure series is split among four retailers, and Dax is available at Action Figure Xpress. The figure's likeness is quite good, really capturing the way Terry Farrell looked in the episode. Her hair is curled up into a ridiculous beehive, perfectly suiting the original series' '60s origins. She doesn't have the speckles on her temples, since she was trying to pass as human, but the slight grin on her face is perfect - since Dax was around during the time of the original show, she spent most of the episode trying to contain her glee at seeing old acquaintances. While that's all nice, there is a problem. A big problem. Literally. Her head is too big for her body. The human body is a marvel of related proportions, like that of your forearm and your foot, and one of those standard relations is this: your shoulders are approximately three heads wide. Dax's head would only go about 2 1/2 times across, and since the body is standard, that means the head is too big. Dax is obviously based on Uhura's body, since the dancing green slave girl just would have been too awkward. She's looking good in her red dress uniform - other than the giant melon, of course. The skirt of the uniform is semi-rigid plastic, rather than the soft rubbery stuff the men's shirts are made of, so it limits the range of movement in the hips and waist. The reuse of an existing mold is particularly noticeable in one area: while the figure has Terry Farrell's face, it's still rocking Nichelle Nichols' butt. Dax has a trio of authentic accessories: a communicator, a datapad and one of those goofy old tricorders that was the size of an electric typewriter and was worn slung over the shoulder. The shoulder strap is exactly the kind of flexible material that the skirt isn't, which means it slips easily over the character's head and hangs just as it should. In a bag taped to the back of the figure's tray you'll find two tribbles. They're just the little pom-poms that you can buy bulk at any craft store, so if you want to bury your Kirk in a pile of the things, it's off to Ben Franklin or Michael's with you! They're not even a different color than the pair that come with Sisko! Tribbles aren't all brown, so it's a shame these versions are. Articulation is standard for the Trek line: ankles, boots, knees, lower thighs, hips, waist, wrists, elbows, biceps, shoulders and neck. The paint isn't terribly complex, but it has been applied well. Since the Starfleet insignia was just an element on the old costumes, it's not sculpted; just some gold paint here, folks. Still, it looks pretty decent. In short, Dax is a good figure with one major flaw. But is the oversized head enough of a reason to not buy it? No, not really. Find a nice pose for her and Dax will blend into the rest of your collection well. But let's hope that by the time the regular figures come around, Art Asylum has that giant melon under control. What would you do if you had a head that big? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

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