Characters / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Starfleet Crew

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Commander/Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko

Commander/Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko

"A Starfleet officer. That's what I am, and that's what I'll always be."

Played By: Avery Brooks

"So you're the commander of Deep Space 9. And the Emissary of the Prophets. Decorated combat officer, widower, father, mentor and... oh, yes, the man who started the war with the Dominion. Somehow I thought you'd be taller."

— Senator Vreenak, "In the Pale Moonlight "

The Captain (though actually only ranked Commander until late Season 3), with a touch of the Warrior Poet when considering his reasons for helming the titular station. Prior to the series, Sisko became a widower following the infamous Wolf 359 incident (TNG) and was left adrift with a young son, Jake. He briefly considered resigning from Starfleet, but was instead saddled with the task of admitting Bajor into the Federation. Following a chance encounter with entities living inside the Bajoran Wormhole, Sisko is reluctantly anointed as the Emissary, their corporeal agent and a religious icon to the Bajorans. With that title comes the responsibility of holding Bajor together long enough for the planet to be inducted into the Federation: with the Cardassians gone, the planet is spiraling down the path of sectarian warfare, and any number of opportunistic races are waiting to pick the pieces if Sisko fails. The only Trek Captain with a stable family unit, his relationships with Jake, Joseph, and Kasidy Yates-Sisko play a small but significant role in his handling of the Dominion crisis. Also grows his own peppers, plays jazz piano, and loves baseball by the way.

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• The Ace: Sisko is an Action Hero, Guile Hero, and Science Hero of the highest caliber rolled into a single Starfleet uniform. He can beat Klingons in a fist fight, navigate through high-stakes interplanetary crises, and build starships designed to kill the Borg. If you want to tangle with him, you'd best bring a couple of armadas.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of the series Sisko is ascended into the celestial temple for an unspecified amount of time. Emphasis on "unspecified": the Prophets are non-linear beings outside time.
  Kasidy: When will you be back?
  Sisko: It's hard to say - maybe a year, maybe... yesterday. But I will be back.
  • This was a change from the planned But Now I Must Go ending, due to Brooks wanting to avert the Stereotype of a black man abandoning his son and pregnant wife. He returns in the Expanded Universe books of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Relaunch.
• Attack Pattern Alpha: For some reason, he's a big fan of "Attack Pattern Omega." It's treated as a hit 'n run attack in Star Trek Online.
• Almighty Janitor: Ends up supervising and occasionally even participating in grand strategy meetings among the heads of state of great powers, despite himself never being promoted higher than Captain. On paper he is a captain. In practice, he is a full admiral.
• Arch-Enemy: To Gul Dukat. While there are those with personal animosity towards Dukat, Sisko is the one figure Dukat takes a personal interest in defeating. This is largely due to the fact Sisko has his old job, works in his old office, and is worshiped by the Bajorans which is something Dukat craved. Dukat takes a great interest in opposing Sisko at every step of the way.
• Authority Sounds Deep: Even when he's being introspective, he speaks with a noticeably deep, authoritative voice.
  • There was one scene, from "Facets," that had to be reshot because Avery Brooks spoke in a whisper so low that it creeped everyone out.
• Badass Boast: In "The Way of the Warrior", Chancellor Gowron threatens to attack the station, causing Sisko to warn him that he's in over his head.
  Sisko: I can assure you, this "old cat" may not be as "toothless" as you think. Right now, I've got five thousand torpedoes armed and ready to launch. If you don't believe me, feel free to scan the station.
• Badass Creed: In "In the Pale Moonlight", he reflected on how his father used to boom, "Worry and doubt are the greatest enemies of a great chef!"
  "The soufflé will either rise or it won't; there's not a damn thing you can do about it, so you might as well just sit back and wait and see what happens."
• Bald of Authority: Sisko looks far more badass once he goes bald. And for good reason too. Sisko was one of the major leaders of the entire Federation fleet in open war against the Dominion.
• Bald Head of Toughness: He is shown to be more willing than Picard had usually been to get down and dirty in the trenches. In "The Way of the Warrior", he begins to transition into a wartime commander as the Klingons turn hostile, starting with him fighting to defend Ops against a Boarding Party along with his crew. He intimidates even Worf.
• Becoming the Mask: At the start of the series, Sisko isn't comfortable with being regarded as the emissary of the Bajoran Prophets, presenting himself as just another Starfleet officer as best as he is able. Over time, however, he grows more comfortable with being the emissary, and in time, even embraces it; from officiating Bajoran weddings to referring to the Prophets as "Prophets" instead of just "wormhole aliens". By the end of the series, he's become the most Bajoran human in all of Starfleet, planning to build a home on the Bajoran homeworld and fully embodying his role as the emissary.
• Berserk Button: Betraying Starfleet and The Federation, as Admiral Leyton and Michael Eddington learned the hard way.
• The Big Easy: He hails from New Orleans, and is the son of a creole chef. Joseph Sisko still operates a restaurant there.
• Blackmail: How he usually keeps Quark in-line or gets him to do something for the good of the station. Usually leads to "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word.
• The Blacksmith: Sisko is a sci-fi version of this archetype. He's not The Engineer (that title very clearly goes to Chief O'Brien), but in a world where replicators can instantly create most small items, he nevertheless has a fondness for making things with his own two hands. Besides being a talented chef and starship designer (having been involved in the creation of the Defiant-class), he has built a mechanical clock and a working light ship on his own and was planning to build his own retirement home on Bajor before events made houses unnecessary for him.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Sisko kept his emotions veiled while on duty. He tends to loosen up and act warmer around family or officers of near-equal rank.
• Byronic Hero: Sisko's personality gradually became a more downplayed example the longer the series went on and the more his burdens grew, compared to how he was at the start of the series, especially after he was hit with juggling the dual massive responsibilities of being The Chosen One and a wartime leader during the Dominion War.
• The Caligula: Possessed by the mental influence of one in "Dramatis Personae".
• Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Sisko is pretty fierce in own right, but he's more likely to treat you to a Death Glare and then storm out because he has more important things to do. That's when his Doberman (Kira) comes into the picture.
• The Chains of Commanding: Sisko felt these more keenly than most Trek Captains. Like Picard, he later warmed to his crew, particularly Kira whom he invited to watch a baseball game with him. On the other hand, he did lead his men in several suicide missions.
• Character Tics: Touching the back of his neck when he's caught out or embarrassed; pinching his earlobe when bemused; patting a fist against his palm (like a baseball glove) when pondering something.
• Chef of Iron: Had he not joined Starfleet, Ben would probably still be tending the kitchen at Sisko's. His father Joseph ran his restaurant in a way similar to Picard's vineyard: He eschews replicated food, believing it lacks the flavor of a quality meal.
  Joesph Sisko: I trained you to be a chef. Lot of good it did me.
• Chekhov's Skill: Ben has memorized long strings of statistics from the greatest 20th century baseball players. This came in handy when trying to make small talk in 2024 A.D. ("Past Tense")
• Child by Rape: He's the child of a relationship that was non-consensual, but the Prophets are to blame, not his parents. His mother was possessed by the Prophets and forced into a relationship with the unknowing Joseph. After Benjamin was born, the Prophets released her and she, understandably, left Joseph and Ben. No one was particularly broken up when they learned this.
• The Chosen One: Being the Emissary. So much so that the Prophets arranged for his birth! As the Emissary to the Prophets, "The Sisko" has a destiny to fulfill, many trials to face, and an important role in Bajoran theology and prophecy. He was anointed as such due to a prophecy that the Emissary of The Prophets would return from the Celestial Temple healed by the Prophets. Sisko qualifies by getting over his emotional trauma over being violently widowed with pressing by the Prophets trying to understand why he "exists here" (in their nonlinear perspective) in the moment of his wife's death, and emerging from the Bajoran Wormhole.
• Cold Ham: Mirror Sisko doesn't yell much, but is extremely hammy nonetheless, enough to rival Mirror Kirk.
• Commanding Coolness: For three seasons.
• Companion Cube: His baseball. He toys with it whenever he's thinking and, when the Dominion retakes the station, leaves it in his office as a message that he is going to come back. When he takes it with him on his leave to Earth between seasons 6 and 7, Kira sees it as a sign that he doesn't know if he'll return.
  • Like all Trek Captains, Sisko was extremely fond of his ship and felt devastated when the Breen destroyed it.
• Competition Freak: He gets a little emotional over coaching baseball. Usually an understated performer, Brooks' capacity for ham is on full display in "Take Me Out to the Holosuite." — both toward his own team and Odo, who is refereeing. (He even delivers the stereotypical 'Are you blind?!' tangent by accusing Odo of regenerating instead of calling the game.)
  Sisko: You are finished! Gone! Off the team!
  Rom: ....I can't play?
  Sisko: That's the smartest thing you've said all week. You. Can't. Play. Now GET YOUR GEAR, Get Out! OF HERE!!
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Where Picard was the quintessential Officer and a Gentleman, being content to look at the big picture in a given situation, while Sisko is much more of a front-line officer, and is more willing to get his hands dirty and deal with problems directly. Notably, Sisko is also the first Star Trek protagonist with a family (he's a widower and a single father), meaning that he's also far less stoic and objective than Picard, and is more likely to get emotionally involved in situations since he knows that he has a son to protect, and because he had to endure losing his wife in a previous battle. Picard is a hardline atheist while Sisko ends up becoming deeply religious. And while Kirk and Picard were idealists who took the high road whenever possible, even when it cost them, Sisko will reluctantly Shoot the Dog if he has to if it's the least costly way to get the job done. Even personality wise, where Picard started out a stern, cold mannered and logical man, he gradually became warmer, kinder and embraced his emotions over the years, where Sisko started out a kinder and more emotional sort and ended up becoming colder, sterner and more logical as the years went on and his responsibilities grew.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Emissary is a messiah figure in the Bajoran religion.
• Cultured Badass: Sisko strikes an even keel between Kirk's passion (not to mention speech patterns) and Picard's sophistication. He loves fine cuisine, early American history, and can belt out a jazz standard improv if you toss him a mic.
• Dark and Troubled Past: For the first episode at least. The Prophets help him get over it (giving him his life back, as was prophesied) when he teaches them the nature of linear existence and they make him explain why he keeps living in his own "past" if the point is to move forward.
• Dating Catwoman: His relationship with Kasidy Yates when she turns out to be running supplies (medicine and food according to her) to the Maquis.
  • He also slept with both Intendant Kira and (an unjoined) Jadzia from the Mirror Universe.
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually as the prelude to a severe reprimand.
• Deal with the Devil: In the episode "In the Pale Moonlight," he basically gives a geneticist a ton of biomemetic material (the Trek equivalent of tactical nukes) that could be used to make biological weapons, all in pursuit of an encrypted data rod which is vital to his plan, but can't be replicated. In the end, the rod was just a lure to kill the Romulan senator and his aides. Garak didn't tell him that, because he knew Sisko might agree to one or two clandestine killings, but no more. In the end, though, Sisko can live with that too.
• Death Glare: The most intimidating glare in Starfleet. If you get this from Sisko, you are royally fucked.
• Desk Jockey: For a short time during season six, Admiral Ross makes him his adjutant on a starbase. Jadzia acts as the captain of the Defiant in his stead.
• Determinator: In the episode "Paradise," Sisko and O'Brien are trapped on a planet by an Evil Luddite. She offers Sisko water if he will only take off his uniform. After a night in the punishment box, she offers it again, and Sisko's response is to put himself in the box.
• Double Meaning: Sisko's title of "Emissary" can be read two ways. The more common Emissary from the Divine aspect. And the other, that he is the material world's Emissary to the Prophets, being the one who made them aware of the world outside the wormwhole, and their role in it.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The only being to knock Q flat on his ass and get away with it.
  Q: You hit me! Picard never hit me!
  Sisko: I'm not Picard.
  Q: "No...*slyly* You're much easier to provoke."
  • Important detail to note: Q never came to DS9 again after that episode. Though that was likely less out of fear, and more out of Sisko being "boring", while Janeway off in the Delta Quadrent was much more interesting. After all, Q had already shown how easily he could get even a powerful flagship like the Enterprise killed when he booted them off into Borg Space back in TNG
• Divine Parentage: In a complicated way. His mother was human... but was possessed by a Prophet at the time. Once the possession wore off, she ran and left his father Joe heartbroken.
• Emissary from the Divine: Sisko's role for the Bajoran religion and wormhole aliens.
• Emotional Bruiser: One of the toughest beings in the Alpha Quadrant, and he's not afraid to let his feelings show, from a hearty belly laugh with his friends to a Death Glare at someone who pisses him off to openly weeping over the death of someone he cares for.
• The Engineer: A minor example. After Wolf 359, Sisko worked at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, building, among other ships, the Defiant.
• Establishing Character Moment: Probably his most iconic moment from early on came a few episodes in, when Q shows up, starts causing trouble as usual, and eventually ends up challenging Sisko to a fistfight. Sisko decks him. When Q protests that Picard never hit him, Sisko simply says "I'm not Picard," firmly establishing that on this show, things worked differently.
• Fan of the Past: He had an interest in history. He collected models of old Starfleet starships and ancient African art, was very knowledgeable about 21st century history and his hero was James T. Kirk.
• A Father to His Men: Throughout the series, Sisko shows great concern for the people under his charge. He stresses to Worf the importance of knowing when to smile and keep morale up, even when it's the last thing he wants to do. This often entailed inviting his senior staff to home-cooked dinner in the Ward Room.
  Adm. Ross: They're a good crew.
  Sisko: (visibly moved) The best.
  • This extends to the well-being of the Promenade Merchant's Association and the Bajoran refugees under his roof. From day one, Sisko did his best to keep the station's shops, school, and restaurants in business, even donating furniture to Quark after he's audited by the Ferengi homeworld. When a prideful (but obviously relieved) Quark demands a "storage fee" for the new barstools, Sisko foots the bill.
• Four-Star Badass: What he basically ends up becoming as time goes on. Officially he is just a captain, but in practice he is not. He is involved in grand strategy, manages thousands of people, is involved in dealings with heads of state and commands multiple fleets. Most real life admirals don't have a fraction of the influence Sisko ends up having.
• Friend to All Children: He actually enjoys the company of children and puts top priority on keeping his workers' families together. He kills two birds with one stone by appointing the recently-unemployed Keiko O'Brien as the head of the station's new school. This lowered the possibility of DS9's children from being sent off-world, and just as importantly, convinced his Chief of Operations' wife not to return to Earth with their daughter. Later in the series, a bemused Sisko acquires his own Tagalong Kid in Nog.
• Game of Nerds: He's such a fan that he uses it as an allegory for linear time and existence — in the first episode!
• Genius Bruiser: Brooks described his character as "a quick thinker, but also a deep thinker," which is mostly on-target. Following the debacle at Wolf 359, Sisko found an outlet for his rage at Utopia Planetia, where he oversaw the design and construction for the USS Defiant.
• A God I Am Not: Well, in his defense, he's only half-god.
• Good is Not Nice: Not if it's pushed, anyway. It's possible that Starfleet sensed this and decided that only Sisko had the stomach for the Bajoran assignment.
• Good Parents: Subverting the usual archetype of Starfleet Captains. Sisko is one of few characters in the franchise (see also O'Brien) with a stable family life.
• Guile Hero: He has a reputation for fighting, but he's also very good at worming his way into the enemy's confidence: manipulating the Jem'hadar when they take over the ship and have guns pointed at his head, or palling around with Verad Dax like it's old times (before phasering his body-snatching ass to kingdom come). Sisko also successfully posed as Gabriel Bell in the 21st century. This meant both convincing a roomful of people that he's an on-the-edge thug and his trigger-happy boss that it was in his interest to spare the hostages.
• Heartbroken Badass: His wife is killed in the beginning of the pilot episode. It takes him a two-year time-skip and an encounter with the Prophets to start getting over it.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Did some shady shit that that would have gotten even Kirk court-martialed and sent to a penal colony for 30 years. As did Admiral Ross and Luther Sloan on Romulus.
• Hero Insurance: In the episode "For the Uniform", Sisko decides to use Eddington's idea of poisoning atmospheres against Cardassians, and orders an anti-human version to be used on a Maquis planet to force Eddington's surrender. Essentially this did no physical harm to either side and just forced them to swap planets, but as Starfleet had already taken him off the case for making it personal you'd think they would have followed up about this. Bringing in the infamous turncoat Eddington may have gotten him significant leeway.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He tackles Dukat off of a cliff into the aptly-named Fire Caves, although the Prophets grab him.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He was this close to his mentor and best friend, Curzon Dax. Then Curzon died and Dax became Jadzia Dax, with whom he was still Heterosexual Life-Partners, to the point of still calling her "Old Man". Then came Ezri Dax, who was a neurotic mess after an unexpected Joining that she had never prepared for, and they were Heterosexual Life-Partners again, only this time he was Dax's mentor.
• Homegrown Hero: The prophesied hero of the Bajoran religion is an American from New Orleans.
• Hypocrite: A mild example in "Trials and Tribble-ations". He admonishes Dax for wanting to meet with Koloth as her interaction with him could have unforeseeable consequences on the future and Sisko wants to limit his crew's interactions with the people of the past to only the absolute minimum required. The last thing he does before they return to the 24th century? Personally meets with Captain Kirk and gets his autograph.
• I Will Fight Some More Forever: Surrender to the Dominion? Not on his watch! Bashir is lucky the Captain didn't feed him his own iPad at that suggestion.
• Immigrant Patriotism: When young Jake groaned over having to move to Bajor, Ben pitched it as a vacation. Privately, though, Sisko wasn't happy about the assignment or the effect it was having on his son, and considered transferring back to civilian service. Through his interactions with the Bajoran people — most notably Major Kira — Sisko slowly grows to love Bajor. By Season 5, wild horses couldn't drag him away from that station. Note also that he begins wearing traditional Bajoran clothes during his off-hours. Ironically, Sisko does help recruit Bajor into the Federation as promised, but actually ensures that they won't - yet. This turns out to be the right decision, as it allows Bajor to remain neutral and more-or-less unscathed through the Dominion War. In the end, Sisko talks of retiring from Starfleet to live on Bajor, suggesting that his time on the station has converted him from a steadfast promoter of the Federation into something else. Bajor is not of the Federation, but "Sisko is of Bajor."
• Important Haircut: Sisko grows a goatee and loses the buzz cut after he's promoted. It's around the same time the series started to get dark.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: From a world-weary Starfleet Commander on the verge of insubordination to the Emissary of the Prophets, an iconic figure of the Bajoran worldwide religion. It may not look like much and Sisko himself didn't realize what it meant at first. But Kira reveals in Accession he had absolutely no idea of the immense power he got into his hands, especially considering how incredibly pious the Bajoran people are. To put this into perspective, it is also implied in this episode Bajor would have known a planetary war if both Emissaries decided to fight for the title; you could see it early on when it was an even split between Bajorans enraptured or off-put by the call to return to the D'jarra. Worse still are the personal sacrifices demanded of him by the Prophets themselves, and being pulled throughout the series between whether he should be a Starfleet officer or the Emissary, trying to juggle both roles, with the latter one eventually winning out in the end.
• It's Personal: Eddington.
  "He played me, alright - and what is my excuse? Is he a changeling? NO! Is he a being with seven lifetimes of experience? NO! Is he a wormhole alien? No! He's just a man, like me, and he BEAT me!"
• The Kirk: He will act on his emotions, sometimes to the degree that It's Personal, but he's also able to see all sides of an issue and weigh the choices between what feels right and what will be best in the long term.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Sisko admitted to some fanboy glee at breathing the same air as James T. Kirk, but nonetheless ordered his squad to stay focused on their mission. The episode ended with Sisko getting Kirk's autograph (Kirk thought he was signing a crew complement list). To be fair, the temporal investigators he was relaying the story to (who absolutely hated Kirk for all his time travel violations) said they would have done the same in Sisko's situation.
• Kung-Fu Jesus: Word of God cites Moses as an inspiration for Sisko's story.
• Like Brother and Sister: He and Dax tease each other like old friends, friends who one has just got the body of a young woman, and he jokes the new body will take some getting used to.
• Limited Advancement Opportunities: While he does get promoted to Captain, the amount of responsibility he's given makes that laughable. By the sixth season he's commanding fleets in battles; by the finale he's the de-facto supreme commander of the allied forces and still doesn't get an admiral title.
• The Lost Lenore: Jennifer Sisko, who gets wasted in every universe, including the series pilot and in the Mirror dimension. She never had much in the way of personality, even when alive.
• Manly Tears: Demonstrated in the very first episode. Reliving the memory of your beloved spouse dying would be enough to make anyone cry. WHILE having to explain to a being that doesn't understand linear time, why you cannot leave this moment. Notably happens again later in the series after a Pah-wraith takes over his son's body.
• Messianic Archetype: Communicates with the gods of Bajor and is their representative in the corporeal realm. Safeguards the Bajorans. Sacrifices himself against the Antichrist—oh, and the gods also engineered his birth.
• Mighty Whitey: A for obvious reasons rather unusual version of this trope. But ultimately, in a way he does play it straight since he turns out to be a religious Messiah-like figure for another race he (as the representative of the Federation) has basically taken under his wing beforehand; i.e. he's basically a sci-fi application of the trope where the human become the most awesome and heroic figure taking a leading role for a native non-human species; and even though this trope is usually applied to white chracters, apart from this particular detail it's pretty much the same.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • In "Heart Of Stone," Sisko has this written all over his face when he forces Nog to admit the reason why the latter is applying to Starfleet: Nog is ashamed of his father and wants to do better than him, although he has to buck every single aspect of his heritage in order to do so.
  • The entire episode "In the Pale Moonlight". He records a log entry attempting to come to grips with his actions, justifying all the evil he committed by telling himself that it's for the greater good.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Sisko may be a gentle man and peaceful diplomat of the highest order, but if you ever get to the point where he considers you a 'nemesis', he will hunt you down to the ends of the universe and raze entire planets to smoke you out. And that is not a bluff.
• Nonindicative Name: Everyone calls him "Emissary", yet when he actually acts like one, it backfires. More information on the trope page.
• Noodle Incident: Pelios Station. Apparently, something happened there involving Curzon, Benjamin, and a table dancer, but Ben's embarrassed enough by the story that whenever it's brought up in public he shushes Dax.
• Not So Above It All: Despite ordering his crew to remain focused on the mission in "Trials and Tribble-ations", he all but squees when telling Dax how much he wants to meet Kirk, and later sneaks onto the bridge to get the man's autograph before they return to the future.
  • Sisko is also more than willing to indulge in ship wide gossip amongst the officers.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Between his stint as First Officer of the Saratoga and being assigned to command Deep Space Nine, he was responsible for designing the Defiant-class starships.
• Parents as People: He has a tough time raising Jake, but does a pretty good job of it anyway. He has a similar relationship with his own father, Joe Sisko.
• Platonic Life-Partners:
  • With Jadzia Dax. He was also very close friends with Dax's previous male host Curzon. Less so with Ezri because she was so much younger than him and had so much trouble adjusting to the joining that they almost swapped roles with Sisko becoming Dax's mentor.
  • Subverted when he traveled to the Mirror Universe. Where apparently he had sex with the alternate (Dax-less) Jadzia in order to maintain his cover as the alternate Sisko...
• Politically Correct History: This irritates him; it's one of the reasons he doesn't initially care to try out the Rat Pack era casino simulation. It was Deconstructed in that same episode when Kasidy offers a different perspective: it's not the way it was, but it is the way it should have been.
• Pragmatic Hero: The threat of the Dominion War makes Sisko more and more this trope as the series progresses. Season 6's "In the Pale Moonlight" is a particularly glaring example.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Has a tendency to do this whenever he gets angry. For example, this dialogue from "Rules of Engagement"
  "Isn't! It! Possible! That the ship! He! Saw! was sending out false! Sensor! Images!
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the highest ranked officer on Deep Space Nine and kicks more ass than any other Captain in the franchise. Takes on several Jem'Hadar on the ground, and also leads several of the fleet battles. He was a star wrestler at the Academy and, in a pinch, knows his way around the bat'leth (presumably he trained with Curzon); imagine the look of surprise on that Klingon boarding party when he swipes a bat'leth from their fallen comrade and goes to town on them in "The Way of the Warrior". Oh, and he's also the only person in the history of the franchise to punch Q to the floor. Among military buffs, Sisko is regarded as the most believable military officer in the franchise.
• Rank Up: Following three years of overseeing DS9, Sisko is finally promoted to captain. Despite this, Sisko oddly remains a captain despite being given responsibilities and commands that would normally be entrusted to a flag officer. By the end of the Dominion War, he speaks to Vice Admiral Ross, a superior who outranks him by three full grades, and the other Allied leaders as an equal.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: For the most part. Just don't cross him or make him angry.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: It's implied that his posting to DS9 was this. Considering that the station and Bajor were considered to be a backwater area for the Federation, combined with his initial wish to be anywhere else, Starfleet probably sent him as a last ditch effort to revive his career in a place where he could do no real damage. Turned into a positive example of a Reassignment Backfire.
• Real Men Can Cook: A highly competent war leader with nerves of steel... who also makes a pretty fierce jambalaya, if his son can be trusted. His aubergine stew ain't half bad either.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Kira's Red. Sisko tends to be level-headed though he often shows more emotion than your average starfleet captain. Kira is... intense, by comparison.
• Religious Bruiser: To the point where his faith in the Prophets even surpasses Kai Winn's.
• Renaissance Man: Sisko does have quite a wide range of talents and interests. But then, being Renaissance Men is more or less the Federation's hat (at least since Star Trek: The Next Generation).
• Resigned to the Call:
  • Sisko drags his heels all the way to his new assignment on DS9. It's a miserable job, and no one wants it. He quickly changes his tune after convening with the Prophets, who restore his hopes for the future. In addition, the discovery of the wormhole in the first episode (and the station's relocation to the Alpha-Quadrant entrance of said wormhole) turns Deep Space Nine into a hot location overnight.
  • Being the Emissary in general also turns into this, what with all the religious ceremonies that he has to take part in and everything else that comes with the job. "Accession," however, changes that viewpoint.
• Retirony: Sisko plans to build a house on Bajor once the war is settled with. He survives, but on another plane with no way of knowing when exactly he'll be back.
• Scary Black Man:
  • Robert Picardo admits that he was nervous to step onto the show and start being rude to actors like Avery Brooks because he was scared that the intimidating Captain might rip his head off and shit down his neck.
  • This guy can intimidate Worf, a claim that few beings in the galaxy can make. He plays this to the hilt in "For the Uniform," when he orders biogenic weapons to be launched at a Maquis settlement to get Eddington to surrender.
    Sisko: Commander, launch torpedoes.
    [Worf stares at him in shock]
    Sisko: Commander, I said launch torpedoes!
  • In the third episode, he has to deal with Kira interrupting an admiral's staff meeting to complain about Sisko's methods. Big mistake.
  Sisko (smiling politely): Go over my head again, and I'll have yours on a platter.
• Second Love: Kasidy is Sisko's, after Jennifer, who was killed in the pilot (at Wolf 359).
• Sharp-Dressed Man: His Earth outfit. Sisko wears a jazzy black blazer, while everyone else wears the usual Trek civvies (silk pajamas, a vest if you're lucky).
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He begins the series still traumatized from the Battle of Wolf 359 and the pilot is about him coming to terms with it. Later on, during the Dominion War, he's shown to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown several times from the stress.
• Smart People Play Chess: Several times throughout the series.
• The Stoic: Sisko might just be the most inscrutable of Star Trek's leads.
• Stop Worshipping Me: Feels this way about being the Emissary initially, but mostly keeps it to himself. He stays rather humble about the position even after he accepts it as part of his identity.
• Suddenly Shouting: Sisko getting pissed about something and switching from his Barry White whisper to his trumpety high voice when yelling. Noted in the series, as he regularly sees Bashir for his sore throat.
  Sisko: YOU BETRAYED YOUR UNIFORM!!!!!
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: This is owning to Brooks' nuances as a performer, switching from serene Shatnerese (picked up during his Shakespeare days) to the bulldog ferocity he was known for on Spenser: For Hire. He also got plenty of tender moments with Kassidy and his son, as well.
• Team Chef: He claims his dad taught him everything he knows, and his dad is the owner and operator of a restaurant, so in a 24th century where cooking is mostly a hobby, he's a hobbyist (and a good one, we are told).
• Timey-Wimey Ball: His entire existence. Since the Prophets exist outside of linear space-time, their first meeting with The Sisko took place relatively speaking before they'd sent their prophecies to the Ancient Bajorans about the Emissary. To ensure that that meeting took place, they sent one of their number to engineer his very birth. Furthermore, it's very likely that the Prophets began influencing Bajoran society due to meeting Sisko, making him somewhat culpable for most of Bajoran history... and thus the reason he first arrived at Bajor to begin with!
• Tranquil Fury: It's scary how quickly that tight-lipped smile can turn into a glower.
• Trauma Button: In the pilot, he’s unable to move from where his wife was killed, constantly replaying that trauma, and sees Picard as a reminder, until he heals a bit and apologises.
• Twerp Sweating: While it was Ben's decision to move his family to Bajor, he does lose sleep over the unsavory company Jake is cavorting with. Instead of uncovering his son's girlfriends' weak points to exploit, though, Sisko winds up learning that Jake writes poetry and is quite a hustler.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Both Sisko and Jadzia have admitted that they're attracted to each other, but agree that acting on it would be really weird given Sisko's relationship with the previous Dax. As he puts it, "She may not be Curzon, but she's still DAX!"
  • He does sleep with her mirror-universe counterpart while posing as their Ben Sisko though; an unjoined Jadzia was that Ben's mistress, and he had to maintain his cover when she threw herself at him after all...
• Verbal Tic: He does the same shifting between slow and pronounced and speaking very fast speech patterns that Kirk/Shatner did. Sisko is the Commander of a particular Dysfunction Junction, as well as a father, so it makes sense that he’s trying to figure out what to say.
• Villain-by-Proxy Fallacy: A rarity in how he views this of himself during "In the Pale Moonlight".
  Sisko: I am an accessory to murder(...) I think I can live with it.
• Vision Quest: Like Picard and Janeway, this Captain was outwardly skeptical but highly curious about the spiritual and arcane. He embarked on a couple such quests in his career: a trip through the Orb of Time helped heal his psychic wounds left behind from the USS Saratoga; and a long desert trek ended with the revelation that he was part-Prophet.
• War Hero: After the battle to retake Deep Space Nine from the Dominion, he is awarded the Christopher Pike Medal of Valor. This is referenced a few episodes later when his old Academy nemesis Captain Solok shows up and needles Sisko by saying he had received that award twice.
• The Watchmaker: The only lasting impact of "Dramatis Personae" is the addition of an abstract-looking clock in Sisko's Ready Room. The clock (built by Sisko while possessed by a mad alien king) symbolizes the non-linearity of the Prophet's existence and the way they perceive time. It's included in the background of several episodes.
• Warrior Poet: Can sometimes ruminate on this. See in "In the Pale Moonlight".
• Warrior Therapist: Becomes this when confronted to Dukat's psychosis in "Waltz". He probably aggravated it in the process as the Cardassian was still in denial at the time but at least, it got him a chance to escape.
• We Will All Be History Buffs in the Future:
  • Another one of Sisko's interests is history. He collected models of old Starfleet starships and ancient African art. He loved exploring Bajor's monasteries, and once rebuilt a solar-powered "lightship" using only materials available to the ancient Bajorans.
  • He was knowledgeable about civil rights reforms, which came in handy when he was accidentally zapped to dystopic San Francisco in 2024.
  • He was uncomfortable with the Vegas holo-program at first, as black people in the sixties could never be customers in a place like Vic's lounge. This is a reality Sisko experienced first-hand, as Benny Russell, in "Far Beyond the Stars," which may have been based on Sisko's prior knowledge of the civil rights movement.
• Wrestler in All of Us: He used to be captain of the Starfleet Academy wrestling team, which comes in handy when you need to beat up a slightly-drunken Klingon. Of course, even that can't help overpower a Vulcan, as he learnt at one point in his youth...
• Working-Class Hero: Unlike Kirk or Picard, Sisko isn't from a big family or a prodigy in the Academy, he's just a son of a chef who worked his way up the ranks. He also has a son to think of, so he can't afford the kinds of emotionally detached, high-minded idealism of the other two Captains. Compounding his problems is that he's unable to just jump to warp to avoid the fallout of his decisions, which means he has to work with his team instead of just ordering them around, while regularly dealing with a deluge of civilians and independent operatives clamoring for his attention.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He half-jokes about this whenever Dax manages to piss him off. He'll comment, "If you were still a man..." while knowing perfectly well that even if she isn't in her nineties, Dax could still easily wallop him.
• You Will Be Beethoven: Takes on the identity of Gabriel Bell, an early 21st century civil rights crusader, after the real Bell is killed confronting an angry mob that was attacking Sisko and Bashir. Sisko subsequently does everything that Gabriel Bell was credited with, with his image taking Bell's place in the historical record.◊
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Sisko struggles to keep a tight lid on his temper, to the point where he comes across as incredibly mellow. To the contrary, he confesses that he often entertains thoughts "unworthy of a Starfleet Officer." For an example, see "A Time to Stand" when Sisko receives news of the decimated Seventh Fleet with a handy glass table nearby.

Doctor (Lieutenant) Julian Bashir

Doctor/Lieutenant Julian Bashir

"I'm a doctor. You're my patient. That's all I need to know."

Played By: Siddig El Fadil a.k.a. Alexander Siddig

"I didn't want some cushy job or a research grant, I wanted this! The farthest reaches of the galaxy; one of the most remote outposts available. This is where the adventure is! This is where heroes are made!"

— "Emissary"

Thrill-seeking newcomer who believes he's God's gift to medicine; life on the station would shatter that notion pretty quickly. Started off alternatively being droolingly infatuated with Dax, painfully green, and generally coming across as Lieutenant George IN SPACE prattling eagerly about frontier medicine and generally getting up the nose of anyone unfortunate to be nearby. Later his behavior gives way to some dark personal secrets.

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• Admiring the Abomination: In "Babel", as much as he also tries to cure the engineered virus, he also gets a little too excited for Sisko's liking, and calls it a work of genius.

• Ambiguously Bi: Is a Casanova Wannabe around women, and his acted-intentionally Homoerotic Subtext with Garak is on the same level as Kirk/Spock and Q/Picard. Word of God eventually confirmed the two were in a relationship.
• Ambiguously Brown: Though the name is clearly Arabic, nobody ever mentions where Bashir hails from - a fact which Siddig was personally proud of. When his parents turn up at the station, his mother Amsha speaks with Fadwa El Guindi's Egyptian accent, while his dad Richard is distinctly Cockney. The same is true of Siddig himself (his mother is English, his father is Sudanese).
• Badass Bookworm: He usually goes out of his way to avoid violence, and clearly has little stomach for it, but on the rare occasions when he is dragged into a fight or otherwise dive into danger he usually performs tremendously better than you'd suspect just by looking at him. Then again, he is an Augment.
• Bash Brothers: With O'Brien in some episodes, Garak in others.
  • In "Indiscretion," it was mentioned that it's frowned upon on Cardassia for outsiders (and especially non-Cardassians) to view a dead relative's body. And yet in "Inferno's Light," Garak allows Bashir into the room where his father is dying, lying to him that there's no one else in the room. It shows how strongly Garak felt about his and Bashir's friendship.
• Beneath the Mask: He comes off as egotistical with little cause, but after it's revealed he's an Augment Bashir reveals a stunning amount of self-loathing and impostor syndrome underneath the surface.
• Bio-Augmentation: Not by choice, and kept secret for most of the series. Bashir is a unique case, however, in that his parents went for a limited, specifically targeted, augmentation to bring a below-average child up to mere genius levels rather than the whole package^note While he does have Augment-level enhanced senses, reflexes, and health, he seems to lack the more aggressive augmentations such as Super-Strength and once, when asked by another Augment if he could do crazy kung-fu backflips, quipped "probably not"., meaning that he doesn't demonstrate the extreme personality quirks or dangerous amounts of ambition seen in other augments.
• Bolivian Army Ending: Some of his favorite holosuite programs are the Battle of Britain, the Alamo, and the Battle of Thermopylae. Ezri teasingly speculates about these "annihilation fantasies."
• Casanova Wannabe: His attempts to be suave always fail, unless he's in a holosuite. He's not nearly as cool as he thinks he is.
• Cerebus Retcon: The revelation about his genetic enhancements casts a much darker light on his earlier behavior.
• Character Development: Siddig has revealed that he deliberately played Bashir as an absolute twit in the early episodes, wanting to leave room to develop the character on what the Star Trek brand would undoubtedly make a long-running series. This paid off quite well.
• Combat Medic: Holy cow, the medic just stabbed his captor in the neck! Justified, given the stakes, but somewhat unexpected.
  • Gives a good showing of himself in "The Siege of AR-558" and "Rocks and Shoals," and manages to come out of a brawl with a dozen TOS-era Klingons unscathed, as well.
• Companion Cube: His teddy bear, Kukalaka.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In the beginning, when he’s an Upper-Class Twit and Casanova Wannabe, except when he’s working, and he shifts from idiot to Determined Doctor.
• Deliberate Under-Performance: In season one, Doctor Bashir admits that he intentionally missed a question on his final exam at the Academy, which dropped him to second in his class. A season five episode reveals that he underperformed to avoid drawing attention to his superior brainpower, which is the result of illegal Bio-Augmentation.
• Determined Doctor: Bashir exemplifies this trope more than any other Star Trek doctor character, by far. Here are just a few examples:
  • The Wire: Refusing to give up on Garak, despite Garak being a jerkass the whole time.
  • Hippocratic Oath: Becoming obsessed with helping the Jem'Hadar break their dependence on ketrecel-white, to the point that O'Brien has to sabotage his research to snap him out of it.
  • The Quckening: Helping a dying pregnant woman stay alive just long enough for her baby to be born, and accidentally inoculating that baby against the disease all in this society are born with and die from.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Towards Dax. It doesn't work with Jadzia. Does with Ezri (who he is not dogged with, but she reveals that Jadzia would have reciprocated if Worf hadn't arrived when he did). Although by the time Worf arrived, he'd matured considerably.
• Endearingly Dorky: His very first line is tripping all over himself to ask Dax for dinner or drinks.
• Establishing Character Moment: While he’s a bit of an Upper-Class Twit early on, when it’s time to do some actual doctoring, he's as forceful, determined, and just plain good as Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Beverly Crusher.
• Fan of the Past: Bashir is a huge geek about 1960s spy fiction and something of a war history buff. He is less interested in the 2000s, however (he's a doctor, not a historian), and is so useless at figuring out 23rd Century technology that he and O'Brien stand in a turbolift for ages until a yeoman does it for them.
• Fantastic Racism: His genetic augmentation nearly got him kicked out of Starfleet when they found out. The Federation has strict, almost draconian, laws against it due to augments suffering from physical and mental side effects so severe that they cannot be left unsupervised. Not to mention the stigma likely attached to it by the Eugenics War and one Khan Noonien Singh. Sisko mentions that Bashir is the first case they've dealt with in decades, making this a very rare occurrence indeed. Sisko also pointed out that the law is somewhat dated simply because it is so rarely enforced.
• Fish out of Water: Bashir exists solely to contrast the cushiness of TNG with the cold realities of frontier life. Ironically, he's the only crew member who requested the assignment.
• For Science!: A dark example would be his attempts to cure the Blight - a designer virus inflicted on dissidents in Dominion space - single-handedly. The debacle finally ended with Bashir gerryrigging a vaccine, promising that the virus would run its course within a generation. However, it came at the cost of several patients experiencing agonizing deaths in place of the euthanasia they had originally opted for.
  • Worse yet, the Romulans later express an interest in researching the Blight for their own purposes. As they're now allies of the Federation. Bashir might have had little choice but to placate them...
• Foreshadowing: A throwaway moment occurs in the Season 4 episode "Homefront," when Odo chats with O'Brien and Bashir right before a trip to Earth. O'Brien cheerfully asks Odo to say hi to O'Brien's parents in Dublin. Odo turns and asks Bashir if he has any family he'd like Odo to visit; Bashir immediately clams up and changes the subject, a hint at his strained relationship with his parents almost a full season before it's explicitly established. Also, at one point he also mentions defeating a Vulcan scientist at squash at his previous post. It seems like a throwaway line, but then you remember Vulcans are 3 times stronger than humans with much faster reflexes (in another episode, Sisko mentions breaking one arm and a few ribs attempting to challenge a Vulcan in a similar sports contest). There's also Bashir's story about losing out on being top of his class because of his confusion of a preganglionic fiber with a postganglionic nerve, something any medical student should easily be able to tell apart. It's hinted a few times that he deliberately failed this exam question to throw off suspicion.
  • Ironically, Bashir’s genetic enhancements weren’t planned at all prior to "Dr Bashir, I Presume?"—it just happened to work well with previous throwaway moments.
• Frontier Doctor: The first since Dr. McCoy. Bashir explicitly came to Bajor because no one else would. He knew that prestige awaited him on the outer rim, and by dumb luck, he spearheaded the research excursions into the Gamma Quadrant. Pretty soon he's the envy of the medical corps. He learns pretty quickly complements of Major Kira that the locals don't exactly appreciate their homeworld being described as "the Wilderness" to their faces though.
• Genre Savvy: At least in regards to James Bond novels.
• Good Counterpart: To Khan Noonien Singh and his genetically engineered followers. Bashir eventually assembles a few Augment groupies of his own, but with a different purpose: to dampen their antisocial tendencies and reassimilate them into society.
• Good Is Not Soft: He believes in the ideals of the Federation, but is willing to use Romulan mind probes to save Odo from the Section 31 virus. He's also a dedicated doctor, but won't hesitate to pick up a phaser to protect his friends and country.
• Good with Numbers: He's able to do very complex calculations in his head. Siddig was wary of becoming the show's "Data", so he doesn't show off this talent much.
• Have You Tried Not Being a Monster??: How some feel about his augmentations. Julian apparently took it to heart, as he's allowed his personal life and career to fall to shambles, too afraid to attract attention.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Julian claims that Miles likes him more than Miles loves Keiko. Although Miles would like to deny this, he does admit to sometimes wishing that Keiko was more like Julian.
• His Own Worst Enemy: His life shows a pattern of self sabotage. In "Armageddon Game," for example, he tells O'Brien that he turned down a good career and a beautiful French ballerina in favor of Starfleet, but he seems baffled by his own decision. This is explained with the revelation of his discomfort and self-loathing over his genetic augmentations.
• Hospital Hottie: While only rarely played for Fanservice, Bashir is an attractive man. He still manages to bungle his relationships with the fairer sex due to overconfidence and inexperience.
• Hypocrite: Bashir criticizes the unseen Captain Boday for being an opinionated and arrogant womanizer. He himself is very much a Casanova Wannabe and is rather arrogant himself, especially in the first season where he's characterized as an Upper-Class Twit.
• Innocently Insensitive: Goes on to Kira, not knowing that this is her home, about the wonders of being a frontier doctor “out in the wilderness”.
• Insufferable Genius: He tends to brag about beating a Vulcan in a racquetball match and his many medical miracles. Ironically, this is toned down after his augmentation is revealed.
  • In "Crossover," Kira finds herself trapped in a Runabout with Bashir, who keeps ruining her attempts to meditate. Bashir offers to let bygones be bygones by playing some music. Kira begs off, claiming she only knows Bajoran music. He makes his selecton, prompting Kira's incredulous reaction: he knows Bajoran classical composers.
  • Siddig has revealed that he deliberately made Bashir jerkish because he knew the show would run for years and he wanted to show Character Development. This turned out to fit well with the later idea that it's because of his genetically enhanced origins.
• The Intern: He relocates to Bajor in order to make a name for himself legitimately, but still complains about missing out on the action aboard Galaxy-class science vessels. Tellingly, he was caught poking around the Enterprise's laboratory without permission.
• Ironic Fear: He was terrified of Doctors growing up. This makes more sense in light of being an Augment.
• The Medic: Even if it doesn't make any sense for a station doctor to be out in the field.
• Multiple-Choice Past: His reasons for going into medicine change from person to person. This is one of the reasons people thought the writers planned the reveal of his augmentations from the beginning, instead of a last-minute change.
• Never Tell Me the Odds!: Garak suggests he isn't genetically engineered but a Vulcan when he calculates the ludicrously pessimistic likelihood about them losing the war (a 32.7% of survival — even Quark would fold at those odds).
• Nice Guy: To Garak's consternation, Bashir is a kind, compassionate soul who takes his duties as a doctor seriously and does everything in his power to save his patients.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Unsatisfied with the audiences' response to "bumbling" Bashir, the writers outed him as a genetically-enhanced über genius who has been operating under the radar.
• Odd Couple: He has an unerring knack for irritating O'Brien. Rather brilliantly, he never did anything that could quite be construed as offensive, but rather gets under the skin in subtle ways: reading off his lists of accomplishments with faux modesty, mincing and preening before their racquetball match ("This exercise for example, I picked up at a tournament from a top player!"), refusing to shut up during a long voyage, and suggesting that the Chief is, well... of a certain age.
• Odd Friendship: With Garak. The creepy tailor seems to have made it his personal mission to corrupt the wide-eyed Doctor, and takes delight whenever Bashir exhibits Cardassian-like behavior (such as his detached willingness to shoot Garak in the back in "Our Man Bashir").
  • With Miles O'Brien. The pair are a decade apart in age. Julian is a doctor, and is career military. Miles is an enlisted officer and stricly an engineer. After a prickly couple of seasons, the pair become practically inseparable.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Particularly prone to this in the early seasons, such as his "frontier medicine" comments to Kira, everything he does while flirting with Jadzia, etc.
• Pretty Boy: One of the youngest on the station barring children, with a soft face, big eyes, long lashes and a cute puppy smile.
• Prophetic Name: The meaning of the name Bashir is "well-educated; wise".
  • Originally, the character was meant to be a Latin Lover named "Dr. Amaros", which is a bit on the nose.
• Rank Up: Went unremarked so it may have been a wardrobe error that stuck, but he started the series wearing one gold pip and one black pip (a lieutenant junior grade) and ended with two gold pips (full lieutenant).
• Romantic Runner-Up: Twice. The first time was to Rom and the second time was to Worf. If Worf hadn't come along, it's apparent that Dax would have succumbed to his advances (and indeed Ezri admits as much in Season 7).
• Satellite Character: Nope, not O'Brien. To Garak. Without his spy intrigue, Bashir wouldn't be included in some of the more interesting arcs (including Section 31).
• Small Name, Big Ego: Bashir comes across as a bit of an ass at first, which fits with the viewers' first impressions to the character. Kira seems to barely tolerate him, O'Brien dislikes the limey on principle (as dyed-in-the-wool Irishmen would), Dax nods at his professions of love in a patronising way, and it's clear that Sisko isn't overly fond of his doctor, either. In "Past Prologue", he doesn't seem alarmed by Bashir's collusion with an ex-Cardassian spy, as if doubting that Bashir could cause any risk to Federation security even if he set his mind to it!
• Super Loser: Genius-level intellect! Superhuman reflexes! ...But he's rubbish at pulling girls.

• That Man Is Dead: He refuses to go by his childhood nickname 'Jules', insisting that Jules died on the operating table when he had undergone genetic augmentation.
• Theme Initials: Bashir. Julian Bashir.
• Token Heroic Orc: Julian is one of the few Augmented Humans in the franchise without any psychological or mental problems, a common side-effect amongst individuals who have undergone extensive genetic modification. It's a very sharp bell-curve. The "Jack Pack" augments in DS9 are not evil, but they are seriously maladjusted.
• Took a Level in Cynic: He grows much more aware of the more morally gray realities of Starfleet and life in general over the course of the series, and is somewhat bitter on it.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He's not an intentional jerk, but at first he's very much a condescending Upper-Class Twit and womanizer who's quite and obnoxious, if unintentionally so. He becomes much kinder and more polite in the second season, with "The Wire" having him transition into a much more openly altruistic and noble character.
• Took a Level in Badass: Once the Cold War turns hot, Bashir suddenly acts less like a squeaky-clean recruit and more like a battle hardened-veteran, and the shift is definitely in his favor. Having regular lunches with the Machiavellian Garak tends to have that effect.
• Transhuman: Julian is actually genetically enhanced, similar to Khan Noonien Singh, due to his parents.
• Tuxedo and Martini: Much like Reg Barclay in TNG, Bashir finds refuge in a holosuite playing his ideal self: a womanizer who has all the answers. It appears that Garak is a little jealous that Bashir is spending a lot of time with his new program instead of him and wants to find out what the fuss is all about. Imagine his surprise when it turns out Bashir is living a fantasy version of Garak's old lifestyle – there are just too many opportunities for mockery.
  Garak: I think I joined the wrong intelligence service.
• Upper-Class Twit: In earlier episodes, prior to Character Development. He pisses off Dax with being a Dogged Nice Guy, acts like a schoolboy with a crush that irritates parents over Garak, and puts his foot in mouth immediately with Kira.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Even the actor is amazed at Bashir's amazingly bad luck with women. The two early objects of his affection end up with Rom and Worf respectively. Ouch.
• The Watson: Fittingly for the British doctor. Whenever there's a time-travel episode, Julian's general disinterest in history allows the others to explain stuff for the audience to him.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The exposure of his past nearly got Bashir washed out of Starfleet. As it stands, Julian was guilty only of omitting that fact on his records; his father took the blame since Julian was under the age of consent for the procedure.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: As a small child, Bashir had several severe learning disabilities, so his parents had him undergo an illegal and extremely dangerous genetic treatment. Since then, it is implied that they were Stage Parents, pushing him towards a high-profile, high-status occupation, instead of letting him make up his own mind, as well as constantly monitoring his behavior so as not to end up in prison. This is the cause of Bashir's resentment and estrangement towards them. How severe were his disabilities? According to Julian himself, he couldn't tell a dog from a cat at the age of six. However, Julian's parents only say that he was 'falling behind', and while he was the slowest learner in his class at all...he was in school, and his father describes his projected future of one of 'remedial education and underachievement' rather than institutionalisation or being cared for by the state.
• Willfully Weak: Even before they decided he was genetically enhanced, "Distant Voices" revealed that he deliberately missed a question on the exam to avoid being first in his class. It was even suggested that if he tried harder with Jadzia, he'd have succeeded.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Frequently deconstructed; the fresh-faced, brilliant young officer out of the Academy ends up wrong or in trouble many times due to his naivete. He gets better, but it still bites him sometimes, such as the late-season episode "Inter Arma Silent Legis." Similarly, in "Past Tense," he admits to a willful ignorance when it comes to Federation history; he doesn't want to the know the facts because they're too depressing to take in. When he comes face to face with real poverty, he simply cannot get his head around the notion that the government turns a blind eye to anyone without money.

Lieutenant/Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax

Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax

"If you want to know who you are, it's important to know who you've been."

Played By: Terry Farrell

"Don't mistake a new face for a new soul, Kang."

— "Blood Oath"

The Heart, Really 700 Years Old (and the Action Girl sometimes), with the slight twist of being an attractive young female - albeit one inhabited by a symbiont with several centuries of memories and experience from hosts of both genders. Some fans claim she mutated into a Faux Action Girl after she got together with Worf, although she first showed her proficiency with the bat'leth in Season 2. For Season 7, she is replaced by Ezri Dax who is not at all similar. Luckily, her species had a built-in storyline reason that made this possible; symbionts need new hosts on occasion after all, and the joining adds the new personalities to the mix. For the hosts of the Dax symbiont beyond Jadzia and Ezri, scroll to the bottom of the page.

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• The Ace: Regularly schools a group of Ferengi at Tongo (a Ferengi game), knows more about Klingon culture than most Klingons, to the point where she can teach Klingon musicians Klingon songs, is an excellent chess player who has set the record for four different scientific fields. Justified by being Really 700 Years Old, and so has had a lot of time to acquire these skills.
• Ace Pilot: Not as pronounced as Sulu or Tom Paris, but she usually serves as the Defiant's helmsman and her piloting helps get the crew out of a couple scrapes. Doubly impressive as she still retains her blue uniform.
• Action Girl: She's handy with bat'leths, phasers, and piloting consoles.
• Affectionate Nickname: Sisko calls her "Old Man", the same nickname he gave to her predecessor Curzon.
• Ascended Fangirl: Terry had been a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, with her grandmother going so far as to make her a toy tribble.
• Battle Couple: With Worf.
• Been There, Shaped History: In-universe version. The Dax symbiont has fought alongside the likes of Kang, Kor, and Koloth; he negotiated the Khitomer Accords to usher in peace between the Federation and Klingons; and Dax even (gulp!)... dated Bones McCoy in college.
• Brainy Brunette: The station's science officer who earned Premier Distinctions in four fields of study at the Academy.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: A running joke is that Jadzia is completely incapable of keeping information to herself. When Sisko asks how a person knows something, the response is "You told Jadzia."
• The Casanova: Explains to Bashir that she would rather just have sex freely instead of having feelings for someone, and is turned off by his panting puppy chasing.
• Characterization Marches On: Jadzia was originally serene and almost aloof due to her (kind of) great age. They retooled the character in Season 2 to make her lively, adventurous, and realistically flawed.
• Character Shilling: An unusual variant since Dax is a joined Trill, but Jadzia is highly prone to talking about what Curzon Dax would do. And to a much greater degree, when Jadzia encounters someone who knew Curzon, they quite often sing praises about what a great man he was.
• The Consigliere: To Sisko. It helps that Dax has been knocking about for a long while, and knows the attitudes of Starfleet's various adversaries.
• Cool Old Guy: Her personality after season 1. She just happens to have the body of a young, beautiful woman.
• Cultured Badass: She can speak Klingon, drink any Klingon under the table, handle a Bat-leth with ease, beat Ferengi at Tongo (their variation of poker), and imitate a Romulan with flawless disdain, just to name a few. Admittedly, she still hasn't solved an Altonian brain teaser after 160 years. Bashir tried it, and caused the game to crash immediately.
• Enemy Within: Joran Dax, the most unstable of her past personalities.
• Fusion Dance: Relationship of Dax and its hosts are like that, in addition to being The Nth Doctor of Dax. Personality is explicitly mix of personality of symbiont, its current host and little bit of previous hosts too.
• The Gadfly: Dax has a sadistic streak and takes great pleasure in causing chaos in Odo's perfectly-organized quarters by moving furniture just a hair out of alignment. In general, she loves pushing the buttons of people she thinks are wound too tight. Especially Worf.
• Gallows Humor: One unfortunate habit of this Dax host (possibly inherited from Curzon) was cracking wise whenever death was on the horizon. And it wasn't Jadzia's usual rapier wit, either. We're talking about leaden, So Unfunny, It's Funny one-liners that would embarrass even Data.
  Sisko: (fuming) Dax, maybe you haven't noticed, but no one's laughing.
• Genius Bruiser: Wisdom and knowledge of eight lifetimes, science officer, and fights like a Klingon.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Well, spotted skin, but still a slightly different and dripping hot Human Alien in true Star Trek tradition.
• Happily Married: To Worf, until her Jadzia host died.
• Honest Advisor: To Ben. She also dumps Quark's friendship after he becomes an arms dealer, although she is genuinely outraged in that instance.
• Icy Blue Eyes
• Immortal Immaturity: The Dax symbiont is particularly rowdy. This is proven by Jadzia's former personality before her joining: a bookish Shrinking Violet.
  Jem'Hadar: Few Jem'Hadar live that long. If we reach twenty, we're considered honored elders. (leans in) How old are you?
  Dax': I stopped counting at 300.
  Jem'Hadar: (dumbfounded) You don't look it.
  • This is generally ignored by her associates, although Sisko dared to remind Jadzia of her age during a heated argument about Worf. Dax did not like it, but she could not refute it either.
• Interspecies Romance: With Worf.
• Intimate Marks: Yes, the spots really do go all the way down.
• Killed Off for Real: While the Dax symbiont passes on to Ezri, Jadzia is still quite dead.
• The Lad-ette: Curzon drank too much, slept too late and was always on the prowl, and it's not too long before Jadzia follows suit. She also enjoys playing Tongo with Quark and his hard-drinking gambler friends. As her mother-in-law discovered the hard way, Dax throws a mean right hook.
  • There were early attempts at making Dax reserved and wise, but it never stuck. After one season, Ira Behr realized the 'old soul' angle wasn't working out; the character was gradually retooled into a sporty, quasi-androgynous commando, switching gender roles depending on the setting. She can be quite butch when the situation calls for it, but she's wickedly girlish in private.
• Lady of War: An elegant and graceful fighter who knows Klingon martial arts and has a Bat'leth.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: She sees it as her duty to give the Dax symbiont an interesting life and often draws on the things she's learned over the centuries, whether it's engineering or parental advice.
• Meaningful Name: An unintentional example (or is it?). Jadzia happens to be a diminutive form of an actual Polish feminine given name Jadwiga — which originated from old German name Hedwig. The latter name, it turn, is compounded from words hadu ("battle") and wig ("fight"). It also belonged to the first female king of Poland. Therefore, Jadzia would be affectionate name for a woman known for her combat prowess and many victories in battle. Which, in another interesting coincidence, suits Dax quite well.
• Morality Chain: Sisko commented that Dax probably saved his career more than once, usually by bailing him out of trouble or stopping him from wringing someone's neck.
  • Dax always walked a fine line between enjoying the time she spends with Quark and finding his business activities a bit tasteless, but he crosses the line in "Business As Usual" by profiteering from war. Dax hits the nail on the head when she asks Quark how he feels about his newfound profession, because he immediately starts spilling excuses.
• Ms. Fanservice: Let's see: tall, leggy, got to wear the legendary Starfleet miniskirt in "Trials and Tribble-ations", got a swimsuit scene in the Beach Episode, got the first lesbian kiss in Star Trek history in "Rejoined"...the trope fits her like a glove.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Part of the problem with courting Dax is that she's been a man herself numerous times. She expresses zero interest in the panting, tail-wagging Bashir, and later admits that he might've had more success with her if he hadn't been so eager.
• The Nth Doctor: The eighth host of Dax.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Martok is more agreeable, but his wife is a harridan. Jadzia has been through so many wedding ceremonies in her lifetimes she is happy to dump all the minutiae on Worf whilst she parties the night away with her friends. She thinks that meeting the monster-in-law is going to be a piece of cake, but Sirella has already made up her mind regarding this overgrown sorority girl.
• Older Than They Look: Sort of. Jadzia is actually exactly as old as she looks, but through Dax, she has the memories and some of the personality of a much older being. A century old Bajoran magistrate said (paraphrasing) "When I started this hearing, I didn't know if you were as young as my great-granddaughter, or three times as old as I am. Now I'm starting to think you're both."
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: In Season 1, she's only 28. It's confirmed that all of her vast amount of scientific knowledge and multiple degrees were gained prior to receiving the Dax symbiont at the age of 26. While Dax has been hosted by an engineer and a pilot, Jadzia is Dax's first scientist.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: The cold war with Sirella comes to a head during the ceremonial reading of The Chronicle, a history of the Martok family's unbroken (until now, ahem) bloodline. Jadzia sprinkles in her own extracurricular research, including: a positive spin on an Oliver Cromwell-type figure in Klingon history, the revelation that Sirella's claim to nobility is false, and that her mother-in-law's ancestor was not the Princess but a concubine who lived out of the royal stables. Pwnd.
  Sirella: You are STRAYING FROM THE SAGA!!
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Is the station's Science Officer, but is rarely seen doing any scientific research and not even lip service is paid to the idea of her administrating the station's (presumed) scientific department. We do, however, see her acting as a Helmsman, Commanding Officer of the Defiant, psuedo-counselor to her friends & advising Sisko as if she were his First Officer. Jadzia is invaluable to the crew, but often not for her work as a scientist.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: A Trill who is more Klingon than most Klingons.
• Promoted Fangirl: in the Star Trek: The Original Series crossover/tribute episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," where she is totally jonesing about being on the original Enterprise. Doubles as an Author Avatar for Ronald D. Moore and Rene Echevarria in this episode per DVD supplementary material.
  "I guess the difference between you and me is I remember this time. I lived in this time, and it's hard to not want to be part of it again."
• Rank Up: from lieutenant to lieutenant commander at the beginning of Season 4.
• Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: She has the gender of her host of the time. She has been both men and women in past lives.
• Renaissance Woman: Jadzia is one of the most learned scientists in Starfleet (having the memories of seven lifetimes certainly doesn't hurt), can play Ferengis under the table at their own game of Tongo, and can outdo Klingons at both fighting and drinking bloodwine.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Initially due to the original Trill character makeup involving a forehead. Changed to spotted forehead aliens specifically for her, actually, even less extensive than the usual Star Trek variation. A member of the crew had to draw them on her body with a magic marker every day before shooting.
• Sex Is Violence: Her liasons with Worf can get pretty destructive. Odo gets a report every time they destroy Worf's quarters, so he enjoys ribbing the couple about it a little.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Very casual about her sex life, and tells Kira in “Babel” that it’s fun to receive male attention, as she forgot what it feels like.
• Shrinking Violet: We actually learn practically nothing about Jadzia's personality before she become the joined gestalt entity "Jadzia Dax". Heck, we don't even know her full name from official canon (the expanded universe has settled on that her pre-joining name was "Jadzia Idaris"). All we know is that she was a Shrinking Violet: a quiet and painfully shy young girl, but dedicated and hard working, gifted in the sciences. Given her introversion, there might not be much to tell. She had a stable home life with her parents and sister. She had a quiet determination to her, becoming the only Trill initiate to be joined after being initially rejected from the program. Curzon later admitted, however, that he signed her rejection in the first place because he was falling in love with her and thus felt it would be inappropriate for her to be joined - years later, he felt bad about having her rejected under false pretenses due to personal reasons, so he used behind-the-scenes pull to have her unprecedented reapplication accepted.
• The Spock: This is her initial characterization, but the writers decided to make her more emotional and fun-loving. Although she still fulfills rational Spock functions, she becomes something of a combination of him and The Kirk.
  • It's not that forced of a shift, when you consider that an aspect of Spock himself is that in the spirit of science and curiosity, he was always non-judgmental and willing to try new things from new cultures. He was just more subdued and clinical about it.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": A bit of a Spock fangirl. One glimpse of him in the flesh, and she's ready to toss the Temporal Prime Directive out the airlock, hint hint. Sisko has to drag her away by the arm.
  • While we're on the subject, she did date Dr. McCoy when she was in college (in her previous host who was a gymnast). While not squeeing about it, she fondly recalled that he had "a surgeon's hands".
• Statuesque Stunner: Played by the 6' tall Terry Farrell.
• Took a Level in Badass: Particularly after Curzon's Klingon-loving personality came to the forefront during her zhian'tara.
• Unkempt Beauty: A hungover Dax is something to behold.
• Uptight Loves Wild: With Worf. Three guesses on who is which.
• Work Hard, Play Hard: When she works she is an ingenious and competent officer. When she plays she likes gambling, flirting, and making love Klingon Fashion.
• You Are in Command Now: During the early days of the Dominion War, with Sisko serving as Admiral Ross' adjutant and Worf serving as Martok's XO, she was given command of the Defiant.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien

Miles O'Brien, Senior Chief Petty Officer on Deep Space Nine

"I HATE temporal mechanics."

Played By: Colm Meaney

"I've been in service to the Federation... Starfleet... all my adult life. No one has ever questioned my loyalty."

Easily the most overworked person on the station, and an Ascended Extra from Star Trek: The Next Generation who enjoys a bigger role this time on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. His family gets more screentime as well, with his wife Keiko opening a primary school on the station (and running afoul of Kai Winn for her secularist slant). Subject of the annual "O'Brien Must Suffer" writers' in-joke. The only non-commissioned officer in the franchise to be a main character, he can easily be mistaken for the only one in the service. (The others were mostly very minor roles, dutifully enumerated on other wikis.) In the novelization of the pilot episode, O'Brien is slightly altered — he accepted a promotion to Ensign and was no longer a noncom when the story began.

A note for trivia buffs: both he and Worf were present in the series premiere (and series finale) of TNG, and hold the records for "Appeared In The Most Episodes Of Star Trek Ever", or "2nd Most" in O'Brien's case. (Majel Barrett Roddenberry, whose voice "appears" as the Federation computer's for something like 250 episodes, holds a different record.)

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• A Day in the Limelight: O'Brien gets a number of episodes dedicated to him — most notably the annual "O'Brien Must Suffer"-episodes where he is put through some hell or other.
• Ascended Extra: BIG TIME. From a nameless conn officer in the TNG premiere to a starring character on another series. He even has the distinction of being the second-most frequently recurring Star Trek character ever, next to Worf.
• Almighty Janitor: The only reason anything on DS9 works is because of him, a fact not lost on O'Brien. In practice, he is Head of Engineering for one of the Federation's most strategically important space stations, a gig that is usually given to a Commander, and orders around commissioned officers like no one's business. Even if he does not have the de jure ranks, he obviously has them de facto.
• Badass Normal: The only Non-Com main character in Trek. Among other things, he's been decorated 15 times by Starfleet, been in 235 separate tactical situations even before the Dominion War, and is recognized as an expert on the subject even by the Klingons.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Devoted family man? Check. Dutiful NCO? Check. Capable of taking on Brainwashed and Crazy former Obsidian Order operative Garak on a booby-trapped station with minimal supplies and almost no backup, and winning? Check.
• The Big Guy: Colm Meaney is not very tall but he's built like a tank. As to the character, see Beware the Nice Ones and Badass entries above.
• Butt-Monkey: There was an "O'Brien must suffer" episode at least once a season, because the writers thought Colm Meaney was good in those plots. He tended to act as the scapegoat for the command staff's frustrations, particularly if the replicators broke down on a coffee break. Miles once attempted the Scotty Time trick on Sisko, but no dice ("Treachery, Faith, and the Great River"). Oh, and he tore his pants. Tellingly, O'Brien's suffering is an interdimensional constant. Even in the Mirror Universe, he's a put-upon engineer who gets no respect!
• Designated Victim: O'Brien has several episodes dedicated to him, and they all involve him getting the crap beaten out of him (either physically or emotionally), to the point where "O'Brien Must Suffer" became an in-joke with the cast, crew, and fandom. Some prime examples include "Whispers", "Tribunal" and "Visionary".
  • The entire series could be considered an "O'Brien Must Suffer" situation. At the start of the series, he moved to an out of the way space station orbiting an unimportant planet to raise his family in a more stable environment, only for the wormhole to be discovered on day one, causing the whole thing to eventually become the focal point for a giant, intergalactic war.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: As he complains in an early episode, he would like five minutes of peace and nobody demanding he fix something.
• The Everyman: Devoted family man, down-to-earth soldier, and enlisted man.
• Famed In-Story: Star Trek: Lower Decks reveals that sometime in the future, he will be regarded as the greatest Starfleet hero of all time. Given his ability to survive pretty much anything while maintaining one of Starfleet's most important outposts with various technologies that shouldn't be compatible with each other, this is not unjustified.
• Fantastic Racism: Occasionally towards Cardassians, and has been known to utter the phrase "Cardy Bastards". O'Brien fought in the Federation-Cardassian War and was present at the Setlik III massacre, an event that affected him deeply. This was also the first time he'd ever killed someone, vaporizing a Cardassian when he fired a phaser not knowing that it'd be set to maximum. As O'Brien summed up in TNG, he doesn't hate Cardassians; he hates what he became because of them.
  • He's not thrilled with Changelings either, Odo aside.
• Fighting Irish: He may be a Nice Guy, but he's also a war hero with a bit of a temper and he's not afraid to throw a punch to protect his friends. He and his BFF Julian Bashir also enjoy holosuite programs of historical battles like the Alamo and the Battle of Britain.
• Gadgeteer Genius: A lot of his job involves getting old, beaten-up, and/or alien technology to work, along with a fair bit of MacGyvering.
• Happily Married: To Keiko, although—
• Henpecked Husband: Sometimes. Keiko even smacked him once, when he missed his cue during a meditation ceremony for the in-delivery Kira...
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Julian Bashir. O'Brien almost remarked that he wished Keiko was more like Bashir.
• Limited Advancement Opportunities: Given his record of genius and heroism, you'd expect him to make Master Chief by the end of the series, but he seems to stay an SCPO for the entire run. (Although it is possible that might be the top of the Starfleet NCO ranks, we haven't seen enough of them on screen to be sure). He does continually gain responsibilities and duties throughout the series, so there is a career progression of sorts going on. Starfleet security taps him for undercover work in "No Honor Among Thieves" to help bring down the Orion Syndicate. A little odd that they chose a low ranking officer for this dangerous assignment, but O'Brien is perfect because he doesn't have to try to look like a schlub who is down on his luck. Of course, there's also the fact that he appears to be the only enlisted man in Starfleet.
• Mr. Fixit: Miles to go before he sleeps... Well into Season 6, he's still running himself ragged trying to keep up with his work orders. The only reason all the hodgepodge of Federation and Cardassian technology on DS9 runs anything close to smoothly is because O'Brien's been working on it non-stop from day one. Unfortunately (for him), only O'Brien really understands how they work.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Downplayed, as he sometimes likes to wear his shirts with the sleeves rolled up — which is justified as he spends all day with his hands in various machines, and long sleeves would get in the way or get caught on something.
• Odd Friendship: With Kira while she was carrying Kirayoshi. With hints of awkward Unresolved Sexual Tension in several later episodes.
  • Primarily with Julian. The two men are about 10 years apart. Julian is a doctor, and is career military. Miles is an enlisted officer and stricly an engineer. After a prickly couple of seasons, the pair become practically inseparable.
• Old Soldier: It's noted that the Dominion War is actually his second war, having previously fought in the Federation-Cardassian border war. Add in his service on the Enterprise-D, including having survived several run-ins with the Borg, and O'Brien is arguably the most combat experienced person on DS9, perhaps barring the overall experience of the combined Dax's.
• Rank Up: inverted. He'd been a lieutenant on the Enterprise-D, but somehow became an enlisted man most likely due to having been a transporter chief and therefore addressed as "chief."
• Real Men Hate Affection: With Julian. Even when they're totally sloshed, the most affectionate expression he can manage is "I really do... not hate you anymore." And when he's telling Dr. Zimmerman all the things he does not hate about Julian, he's very insistent that it will remain confidential. Completely averted with his wife whom O'Brien all but dotes on.
• The Reliable One: Miles may not be as brilliant as Dax or a hardened warrior like Worf, but he's brilliant enough to fix practically anything and respected as an experienced soldier.
• Ridiculously Long-lived Family Name: The episode "Bar Association" reveals that O'Brien (a man in the 24th century) has an ancestor from the 19th century named Sean O'Brien.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: When O'Brien goes undercover in the Orion Syndicate in "Honor Among Thieves," the local boss offers him a prostitute as a gesture of Sacred Hospitality. However the boss is satisfied with this explanation for refusal.
  • In fact, O'Brien has several opportunities to cheat on Keiko throughout the show. He refuses every one.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: As mentioned on TNG, he's still haunted from his service in the Federation-Cardassian border war. During the Dominion War, he cuts himself from his friends as he knows not all of them will live survive and he's preemptively trying to avoid the trauma of losing them.
• Spanner in the Works: As far as Sloan is concerned, O'Brien is an unpredictable factor. He may be able to play and manipulate Bashir, but it's O'Brien who leads to Sloan's undoing.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: In the third-season episode "Visionary", O'Brien is sent to the future several times. Ultimately, "our" O'Brien dies and the one that comes back to the present is an O'Brien from two-and-a-half hours into the future.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Like many of his fellow officers, he likes to start, continue, and sometimes end his day with a raktajino. More surprisingly, he loves Starfleet's combat rations, describing them as "the only thing I miss about the Cardassian front."
• Veteran Instructor: Sort of slips into the old-hand mentor role in the final two seasons, and the Grand Finale sees him return to Earth to become an official instructor at the Academy.
• War Hero: When he was called to testify at Worf's hearing, it was revealed that he had been in over two hundred combat engagements and received fifteen decorations from Starfleet for those actions, qualifying him as a expert in starship combat.
• What You Are in the Dark: "Hard Time" involves this. He kills a good man for a scrap of bread. Even if that man was an illusion, O'Brien is so horrified at himself for that and taking his anger out on Molly that he attempts suicide. Bashir talks him down from the metaphorical ledge by pointing out that the extreme remorse he feels for those actions proves that he is still a good man at heart.

Lieutenant Commander Worf

Lieutenant Commander Worf aboard Deep Space Nine

"Death to the opposition!"

Played By: Michael Dorn

Worf: I have a sense of humor. On the Enterprise, I was considered to be quite amusing.
Dax: That must've been one dull ship.

— "Change of Heart"

Another reassignment from the Enterprise-D, turning up with the show's Retool at the start of Season 4. Notably, Worf suffered less of The Worf Effect on this show than The Next Generation. The conflicts of this series and heavy involvement with the Klingon Empire were more suited to his strengths and instincts. In addition, Michael Dorn was savvy enough to ensure that, should he be invited onto another series, he would be both unique among Klingons and would have a chance to be badass. Hence his fondness of Prune Juice over Blood Wine.

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• Anything but That!: Very few things can make Worf nervous. Among them are tribbles, and the news that Keiko O'Brien is going to have another baby.
  "NOW?!"
• Battle Couple: With Jadzia.
• Battle Cry: Played for Laughs in "Take Me Out To The Holosuite"
  Sisko: Alright, I wanna hear some chatter!
  Ezri: Heeeeyy batter batter batter!
  Kira: Hey batter batter!
  Worf: DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION!
• The Big Guy: Often commands the Defiant on missions Sisko can't take himself, the go-to guy when Klingons are involved, and generally a person you want on your side when the chips are down.
• Break the Badass: As he eventually reveals, his time in the Jem'Hadar camp actually broke his spirit, and he had been on the verge of letting himself die in the ring, had Martok not noticed.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Miles' baby can go to sleep in his arms... and initially, only his arms.
  • And he's always dreamed of a traditional Klingon wedding, with all the trimmings. (Although "soft" might not be the best word given the Klingon, but he's still quite a romantic.)
• Cargo Ship:invoked Dax insinuated that Worf's first love is the Defiant. In a sense, he considers it his ship, not Sisko's. Makes sense really; it's a Federation-designed warship, the perfect fit for Worf. The fact that the Defiant is more spartan than other Federation ships makes her an even better fit for a warrior like Worf.
• The Comically Serious: Even more so than he was in TNG, thanks to being contrasted against the much less strait-laced DS9 cast.
  Garak: Mr. Worf, you're no fun at all.
  Worf: ... Good.
• Commanding Coolness: He's the Strategic Operations Officer of Deep Space Nine, a somewhat malleable job title giving him authority over the Security office (to Odo's despair) and Ops. He also functions as the Number Two onboard the Defiant, a position that put him at odds with Kira, who held that title over the station itself, at least once.
• Deadpan Snarker: A legend in the Star Trek franchise for having one-liners down to an exact science. Often overlaps with The Comically Serious, above.
• Death Glare: According to his alternate-timeline descendants in "Children of Time", he can kill people just by glaring at them. He doesn't exactly deny it.
• Determinator: Famously stood his ground against ten Jem'Hadar warriors in a Forced Prize Fight. When he finally does hit the mat, it's his opponent who calls it quits.
  Ikat'ika: I yield. I cannot defeat this Klingon. I can only kill him, and that no longer holds my interest.
• Deuteragonist: Essentially becomes this when he joins the cast; the entire Klingon War arc was more or less built around bringing his character onto the show.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: In "Apocalypse Rising," a mission to Ty'Gokor gives Worf the chance to have his own marching parade of Klingon officers (a surgically-altered Sisko and company) and to abuse them for acting like nancy-boy Starfleet officers. Odo makes a skinny and rather sorry Klingon and O'Brien can barely stifle his laughter. Sisko at least manages to act believable.
• The Exile: When Worf stands against Gowron in defiance of his decision to invade Cardassia (in so doing, destroying the Empire's relationship with the Federation), the Chancellor exiles him and strips his family of title, land, and honor. He would be allowed to return later, when Martok adopts him into his house as a brother.
• Happily Adopted: As a child he was adopted by human parents. After Gowron disbanded his house, he was invited to join Martok's. As far as Worf and Martok are concerned, they're brothers. Worf found himself on the other side of this trope when he allowed his brother to have his memory erased so he could join a new family.
• Happily Married: To Jadzia.
• Heartbroken Badass: Worf is, quite simply, devastated after Jadzia is killed. He didn't suffer that much even after K'Ehleyr was murdered by Duras and his performance of the Klingon Death Ritual over her body is one of the few times he actually weeps.
• Hopeless Suitor: Crushes hard on Grilka the moment he sees her, and tries courting her the Klingon way; Making a scene in the bar where she can see it. However, her chamberlain has to come and tell him that while she's not offended, thanks to his discommendation Worf's got no chance.
• Humble Hero: By Klingon standards, at least. Martok comments at least once that Worf seems to have learned modesty from The Federation.
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • A non-romantic version. He allowed his brother Kurn to have his memory erased so he could live life as a Klingon in good standing with a new family, even though it meant severing the last remaining tie to his biological family.
  • While he's not thrilled about Ezri's romance with Julian, since Worf sees Bashir as Manchild who's beneath her, he ultimately gives Ezri his blessing and is happy for her.
• Immigrant Patriotism: Played with. He is loyal to the Federation to the point of fighting against the Klingon Empire when they go to war. At the same time, he is obsessed with Klingon tradition more then most Klingons are. (Again, see the TNG character sheet for an accurate analysis of his mentality.)
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Worf's sense of klingon honor is inviolate. It cost him dearly in standing amongst his countrymen.
• Ironic Fear: Poor Worf is stuck in the unenviable position of being the only person who is terrified of Tribbles.
• Master Swordsman: Given that he earned first place in a tournament back in late-season TNG, can beat Jadzia in a friendly duel, Grilka's bodyguard in a real one (while piloting Quarks body instead of his own too), and actually kill Gowron in a Duel to the Death, he must be one of the best fighters to ever handle a bat'leth. Despite his prowess with the weapon, Worf seems to prefer using a mek'leth in combat, a machete-like weapon half the size (and therefore much easier to carry around).
• My Greatest Failure: In "Let He Who is Without Sin...," we learn that Worf's uptight nature is the result of a childhood soccer match, when young Worf accidentally headbutted an opposing player. Klingon foreheads being what they are, the kid died. This tragedy convinced Worf to rein in his Klingon passion.
• Not So Stoic: See Heartbroken Badass.
• Number Two: Is First Officer of the Defiant. In practice, he and Kira share this role, which is lampshaded in "Apocalypse Rising".
• An Odd Place to Sleep: Right from Day One, Worf has trouble adjusting to the morally-grey atmosphere on the station. Following a string of disasters, he decides that the only way to adjust to life aboard the station is to live outside it, and makes the Defiant his crib.
• Offered the Crown: After his killing of Gowron in "Tacking Into the Wind" he basically earned the right to rule the Klingon Empire. He chose wisely instead to hand it to Martok. A bit of running theme with Worf. Whenever he gets involved with Klingon politics, someone ends up owing their new position to him, usually because he's paved the way for them by killing someone. Over the course of TNG and DS9 he is involved in the accessions of Gowron and Martok to the Chancellorship, the crowning of Kahless' clone as the ceremonial Emperor of the Klingon Empire, and his brother Kurn joining the High Council. A cut scene would have had Worf confiding in Ezri that his one regret was that his father wasn't there to see him, if only for a moment, standing at the very pinnacle of the Klingon Empire.
• Parental Neglect: He wasn't the best father towards Alexander, essentially dumping Alexander to be raised by his adoptive grandparents. Even when Alexander eventually joined him on the Enterprise, Worf was at best emotionally distant. As usual, this is largely because of Worf's distorted sense of Klingon culture. He was more obsessed with ensuring Alexander didn't suffer his dishonor rather than being the father his son needed.
• Persona Non Grata: At the start of Season 4, Worf ends up being exiled from the Klingon Empire again due to his refusal to participate in the Klingon invasion of Cardassia. He eventually regains his good standing in the Empire when he is taken into Martok's family as a blood-brother.
• The Stoic: "I do not smirk. But if I did, this would be a good opportunity."
• A Real Man Is a Killer: Worf has completely forgotten how to negotiate in Klingon politics. It's not about giving a stirring speech and bandying together to fight your enemy (that's the Starfleet way). No, it's more like standing on the deck of an old galleon and whoever takes their eye off the ball gets a bat-leth in the eye socket as they each try and succeed each other, everybody jostling for command. In TNG, Worf was told he has no business putting on a Klingon uniform. Here, Kurn shows up Worf by plugging a Klingon who was planning to stab his clueless brother. This guy needs to pick which side of the line he is going to stand on. That's his curse.
• Real Men Wear Pink: When no-one else is around, Worf listens to Klingon opera. Loud Klingon opera. At one point during "In the Cards", Nog has to retune his collection for him to get rid of the audio disruption.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Being The Stoic and The Comically Serious, he's the blue oni whenever he's with anyone more gregarious like Jadzia, Garak, or Martok (or, hell, just about anybody except Odo).
• Short-Lived Leadership: After slaying Gowron, Worf technically becomes Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. His chancellorship lasts for about two minutes and his only official act is to immediately abdicate and hand the position over to Martok.
• This Is My Chair: Worf has a very specific seat in the Defiant's mess hall, and he will not sit anywhere else. People who foolishly do sit in his seat are glared at until they move.
• Took a Level in Badass: Suffers from The Worf Effect much less than he did in The Next Generation, and handily proves to be the crew's best fighter on multiple occasions. Being Older and Wiser likely helps (it's only been a few years, but those few years have been packed with experience).
• Took a Level in Jerkass: His run on DS9 saw Worf in a long period of mourning; first for the Enterprise-D where he spent the best years of his life, and then for his murdered wife Jadzia. He becomes even more withdrawn and short-tempered than usual, refusing to mix with his crewmates at social gatherings and one time even claiming they never truly understood Jadzia when she was alive. Worf did respect the abilities of the DS9 crew, though, and always apologized in the end.
• Warrior Poet: Loves Klingon Opera, Klingon legends, and Klingon traditions.
• Why Did It Have To Be Tribbles?: Worf is shown in "Trials and Tribble-lations" to be very uneasy around tribbles. This extends to the entire Klingon people: tribbles were such an ecological threat that the Klingons singlehandedly drove them to extinction.
• The Worf Effect: Starting to wane by this point, thank goodness. In fact, this was one of the reasons Dorn joined the show.
• Uptight Loves Wild: With Jadzia. Three guesses who is which.
• You Remind Me of X: Worf arrives on the station at first facing the same doubts Sisko had in the beginning, considering resigning, being stuck in the past, etc. This is symbolized by Worf transferring to a red Command uniform.
• You Shall Not Pass!: If there was still any doubt about Worf being a Klingon badass among Klingon badasses, he proves it by going through an endless battle royale with Jem'Hadar to ensure that Garak can contact their Runabout and they can escape. At first he is a fresh faced competitor but it isn't long before he is exhausted and beaten, yet still he heads back into the ring to buy them more time.

Lieutenant Ezri Dax

Lieutenant Ezri Dax

"I laid down on that operating table one person and I woke up a completely different person."

Played By: Nicole De Boer

"She's a Dax. Sometimes they don't think, they just do."

The new Trill host for the Dax symbiont, owing that only to chance. Ezri Tigan was serving on the ship taking Dax back to Trill when the symbiont became extremely ill and the only way to save its life was immediate implantation in a new host. As the only Trill onboard, Ezri reluctantly volunteered, and her unease at being a "joined" Trill, which was something prospective hosts are supposed to train for years to deal with, became a centerpiece of her character. She also had to deal with Dax influencing her feelings about Worf and Bashir, her own attraction to Bashir, and the fact that an officer of her general inexperience — specifically, a Lieutenant Junior Grade Assistant Counselor — was suddenly part of the Federation's front-line wartime command crew. At least she's cute. For the hosts of the Dax symbiont beyond Jadzia and Ezri, see the below folder.

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• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Worf, since he obviously hasn't gotten over Jadzia's death, and Jadzia's memories are confusing her emotions.
• Brutal Honesty: She lacks Curzon and Jadzia's fondness for the Klingon Empire, so when Worf asks her opinion, she doesn't hold back.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's very good at her job, "Afterimage" on, just... quirky.
• Characterisation Marches On: One of Dax's previous hosts committed a violent murder. In a later episode Ezri has to track down a Serial Killer on the station, and her previous host has suddenly turned into a cold-blooded killer who's offed three people just so Ezri can do a Hannibal-style Consulting a Convicted Killer episode. However this Flanderization began as early as Facets.
• Closest Thing We Got: When the Dax symbiont started ailing, Ezri became its host due to being the only Trill within lightyears, even though she had never even considered being a host and had to replace several years worth of symbiosis training with a 15 minute lecture before she went under the knife.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: As a result of having eight full lifetimes shoehorned into her head (as well as merging with the consciousness that holds them). She adjusts eventually, ending up more a Bunny-Ears Lawyer instead.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: She's a major contrast from Jadzia. Jadzia actively campaigned for selection and was prepared to become a host, Ezri was unprepared. Jadzia was a Statuesque Stunner, Ezri is shorter than every other main character except Nog^note (Michael Dorn is 6'3", Avery Brooks is 6'1", Terry Farrell, Alexander Siddig, and Rene Auberjonois are 6'0", Colm Meaney is 5'11", Nana Visitor is 5'8", Armin Shimerman and Max Grodenchik are 5'6", De Boer is 5'2", Aron Eisenberg was 5'0"). Jadzia romanticized the Klingon Empire, Ezri is more critical. Also, while the Dax symbiote apparently immediately turned previous hosts Jadzia and Verad from Shrinking Violets to much more confident and assertive people, Ezri seems to remain largely dorky and awkward for quite a while after being joined with Dax. This could be attributed to the placebo effect, since both Jadzia and Verad expected to be made more confident by being joined.
• The Cutie: Ally McBeal....in space! In practice, Ezri is a near-clone of Ensign Sonya Gomez, a short-lived TNG character who was substituted with the even ditzier Reg Barclay.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The knowledge of her past hosts can be useful (such as with Tobin's engineering know-how on AR-558) but sometimes it gets her in trouble. In the baseball episode, she complains that having been a gymnast in a previous life makes her try to move like one when the body she's in now doesn't have the conditioning—which makes her very sore. (It does allow her to pull off a hell of a catch in the final game, though.)
• A Day in the Limelight: Considering that she showed up in the final season, most of it was devoted to developing her character as much as they could (while still focusing on the rest of the storyline), but the episodes "Afterimage", "Prodigal Daughter", and "Field Of Fire" are very specifically about only her.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Ezri was not planning to be a symbiont host and had no training. Her entire prep time was a 15-minute lecture from the Destiny's non-Trill Chief Medical Officer.
• Got Volunteered: Technically, her captain said she could refuse the joining, but he noted himself that it wasn't much of a choice.
• Innocent Blue Eyes
• Naïve Newcomer: Even without suddenly becoming Dax, she's a very young Starfleet officer.
• The Nth Doctor: The ninth host of Dax.
• Older Than They Look: She's got the same deal as Jadzia going on, plus she's a few years younger than Jadzia was at the beginning of the series. Played with since, as a joined Trill, she is simultaneously as young as she looks and over 300 years old.
• Past-Life Memories: Part of coming to terms with the symbiont. Ezri instinctively orders raktajino (Curzon and Jadzia's favorite drink) from the replicator, only to realize upon drinking it that she hates it now. She also has issues with space sickness due to memories of Torias's death in a shuttle crash.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Is on the receiving one of Garak's. Later, she delivers one to Worf about the Klingon Empire being plagued with corruption.
• Replacement Goldfish: Slides right into Jadzia's corner of the Dax/Bashir/Worf Love Triangle, but ultimately winds up going the other way.
• Sex with the Ex: A variant, since of course Ezri is a different person than Jadzia. Luckily for their sanity, this clears up for both of them just what their relationship is (Worf realizes that it's time to stop thinking of Ezri as Jadzia, and Ezri realizes she's in love with Julian).
• The Shrink: Although unsure of herself at furst, it turns out that she's really good at being a counselor as Garak would attest when his claustrophobia really flared up. A running joke from early in Season Seven is people being surprised as she tells them she was trained as a Counsellor.
• Situational Hand Switch: An odd example: the pre-joining "Ezri Tigan" was right handed, but after her unexpected joining, the resulting "Ezri Dax" switches to being left-handed. Several of her past hosts were left-handed, and their influence won out on this during the blending process.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Again with Worf. When he's missing and she goes on a one-woman rescue mission, they get into a huge argument after she saved him and they end up sleeping together.
  "Do you really think that I would disobey orders and risk my life so that I could seduce you? I hate to burst your bubble, Worf, but it wasn't that good."
• Stepford Snarker: She frequently makes sarcastic comments and uses Self-Deprecating Humor to cover her real anxiety. The episode focusing on her family implies Ezri did this even before she was joined.
• Stereotype Flip: Every Trill previously shown was either joined, aspiring to be joined, or upset about being rejected from joining. Ezri, and later her family, established that many Trill have no interest in being joined.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: She's tasked with Garak's very difficult case when she is in desperate need of therapy herself.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • A half-level at first after a particularly scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Garak. They squeeze in a little character development for her in the single season she's on the show, and she ends up hunting down a Vulcan serial killer.
  • She goes a BIG step further in "Penumbra", when she singlehandedly braves the storms of The Badlands to save Worf. Oh, and she gives a few nice mini-"Reason You Suck Speeches" when Worf seems to forget his gratitude for it, in that episode and one two episodes later.
• Walking Spoiler: It's basically impossible to say anything about Ezri without explaining that Jadzia dies. If you're talking to someone who knows how Trill work, they're going to figure out the implications of her last name very fast.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Somewhat. When she realized she would never get this, she joined Starfleet and didn't look back. (Until O'Brien goes missing on her home planet and she has to.)
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She gets space-sick sometimes. She spends much of her search for Worf muttering to herself not to be sick all over the console again.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: To an extent, though she's realistic enough to verbally deconstruct the Klingon Empire to Worf.

The Dax Symbiont

A famous (and infamous to some) Trill symbiont. Its hosts before Jadzia are detailed below.

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Lela Dax

Played By: Nana Visitor ("Facets")

The Dax symbiont's first host. A famous politician.

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• Character Tics: Jazdia's habit of walking with her hands behind her back? That came from Lela.
• Cool Old Lady: Nice and grandma like.
• Iron Lady: The first woman appointed to the Trill Council.
• Large Ham: She was so hammy in her speeches to the Council that the others started doing impressions of it, after which she started putting her hands behind her back instead.

Tobin Dax

Played By: Colm Meaney ("Facets")

The Dax symbiont's second host. A nervous engineer.

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• Adult Child: Case in point? He tried learning magic.
• Apologizes a Lot: He even apologizes for apologizing.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Meek and spacy, but a good engineer. Especially when phase coil inverters were involved.
• Extreme Doormat: Jadzia mentions he was never able to punish his children for anything.
• The Teetotaler: Curzon apparently got him wasted for the first time during his zhian'tara.

Emony Dax

Played By: Chase Masterson ("Facets")

The Dax symbiont's third host. A skilled gymnast.

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• Been There, Shaped History: Met one Leonard McCoy when judging a gymnastics competition on Earth.
  Emony: He had the hands of a surgeon.
• Character Tics: She liked standing on her head to relax. This causes Ezri to start doing the same during her teething problems.
• The McCoy: Ezri notes that Emony's emotional influence is quite strong after being joined.

Audrid Dax

Played By: Armin Shimerman ("Facets")

The Dax symbiont's fourth host. A politician and a loving mother.

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• Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: She's put into Quark's body during Jadzia's zhian'tara, a result of the writers being put in an awkward position of only having one other major female character available after establishing that Dax had three previous female hosts (the other was put into minor character Leeta). She doesn't mind, but Quark very much does.
• Team Mom: Although Dax's hosts have a total of nine children (as a mother three times and a father once), Jadzia usually attributes her maternal instincts to Audrid.

Torias Dax

Played By: Alexander Siddig ("Facets")

The Dax symbiont's fifth host. A carefree pilot who died in a shuttle accident shortly after being joined.

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• Ace Pilot: Which eventually led to his end.

• In Harm's Way: He was always looking for a good thrill. He went looking just one too many times.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Torias died less than a year after being joined.

Joran Dax

Played By: Jeff Magnus Mc Bride, Avery Brooks ("Facets,") Leigh J Mc Closkey

The Dax symbiont's sixth host. A foul-tempered musician who accidentally wound up with the Dax symbiont after Torias' death. After Joran killed a few people, the Dax symbiont was removed from him, resulting in his death. The Dax symbiont's memories of Joran were subsequently suppressed.

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• Creepy Monotone: Very fond of speaking in one.
• Flanderization: When his existence was first revealed in "Equilibrium," while certainly unstable, Joran was not the cold psychopath he was later portrayed as being.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: The black sheep of the Dax family, so to speak. Unfortunately, he's still floating around inside Dax's genetic makeup, somewhere.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: His brother Yolad mentions that he had a violent temper.
• Hannibal Lecture: Delivers one to Jadzia while possessing Sisko in "Facets". Appropriate Foreshadowing, considering how he plays Hannibal Lecter to Ezri's Clarice Starling in "Field of Fire".
• Impromptu Tracheotomy: What he did to the doctor that suggested he be dropped from the program.
• Mad Artist: He could have been a great concert pianist, but had latent psychopathic tendencies.
• Unperson: The Symbiosis Commission did their best to purge his memory. It didn't stick.
• White Mask of Doom: Seen wearing one in "Equilibrium."

Curzon Dax

Played By: Frank Owen Smith, René Auberjonois ("Facets")

The Dax symbiont's seventh host. An ambassador and ladies' man, as well as an old friend of Sisko's.

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• Ambadassador: Presumably; the Klingons never would've respected him otherwise.
• "Ass" in Ambassador: He stormed out of some talks when he got bored. Kang admitted he nearly killed Curzon for that, but also admitted he was impressed by the guy's stones.
• Cool Old Guy: A young Ben Sisko certainly thought so. Most of the time, anyway.
• Dirty Old Man: Curzon was a bit of a hedonist in his old age.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Dax is infamous in the Trill Initiate Program for having broken more initiates than any other Joined Trill. Initiates regard being assigned to Dax as a virtual death sentence that will kiss their chances of Joining goodbye forever. This caused Jadzia no end of problems when it came her turn to mentor, as she herself was bullied (and washed out of the Initiate Programme) by a Dax (Curzon). It's ironically subverted in the case of Jadzia, as the only reason Curzon initially failed her from the program was because he was in love with her.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Ben Sisko were thick as thieves, with Sisko affectionately calling him "Old Man".
• Jerkass: Sisko says that most of the time, he could be an ass, so much that Sisko would call him on it.
• The Mentor: To Sisko, whom he's been mentoring since Starfleet Academy if not earlier.
• Out with a Bang: Curzon Dax apparently dies of old age in the pilot. Years later, we learn that he was Jamaharoned to death by Vanessa Williams.

Verad Dax

Played By: John Glover

A Trill who was passed over for receiving the Dax symbiont, an event that ruined his life. He takes over Deep Space Nine during "Invasive Procedures" so he can take Dax from Jadzia.

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• Affably Evil: Both before and after he joins with the symbiont.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Hijacks Deep Space Nine to take Dax.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Never once mentioned after his only appearance. Perhaps he wasn't joined long enough to 'count', since the Dax symbiont was only implanted in him for a few hours at most and removing it didn't kill him as it nearly did Jadzia; or alternatively because he essentially stole the symbiont at phaser point rather than being officially assigned it. Or perhaps Jadzia, despite her sympathy for him, preferred not to remember the man who almost caused her death.
• Friendly Enemy: Takes to addressing Sisko as "Benjamin" just like Jadzia and Curzon.
• Grand Theft Me: Jacks the symbiont so he can be joined.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Once he is joined with the symbiont.

Yedrin Dax

Played By: Gary Frank

A host of the Dax symbiont from the alternate timeline seen in "Children of Time".

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• Doomed by Canon: With Jadzia killed going into season 7, he is erased from all timelines.
• Future Me Scares Me: Jadzia hates him because he lied. Yedrin hates Jadzia because the crash was her fault.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He had years to reflect on how his curiosity got the Defiant stranded.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He regretted the decision that got them stranded, but he still wanted to save his community... and yet, after almost two centuries for Dax to consider alternatives, he apparently never thought about doing anything but ensuring that events play out as he remembers, rather than trying for a Tricked Out Time scenario where the Defiant still gets back to the station.

U.S.S. Defiant

U.S.S. Defiant (NX-74205)

See the bright orange glowing dots? This is a split second before a hail of phaser pulses issue forth.

Played By: Majel Barrett (computer voice)

Riker: "Tough little ship."

Worf: "Little?"

— Star Trek: First Contact

A prototype "escort" ship developed by Starfleet (i.e.: Ben Sisko) after the disastrous Battle of Wolf 359, she was pulled out of storage and posted at Deep Space Nine after first contact with the Dominion. She was called an "escort" because that was the most polite term Starfleet could find for their very first dedicated warship. Although she had a rough start, the Defiant managed to show just how fierce the peace-loving Federation could be.

Her service came to an end when the Breen entered the Dominion War and one-shot her with their energy weapon. Starfleet Command posted her sister ship Sao Paulo to the station and gave special permission to rename her to Defiant. After the Dominion War and a near-fatal battle with the Living Construct Virus, the second Defiant is retired to the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime.

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• Bigger Stick: She is that stick, and for DS9, the only stick. On her own she can handily defeat a small fleet of lesser ship, and give bigger ones a run for their money.
• Beam Spam: The Defiant's main weapon array are a quad of rapid-fire pulse phaser cannons that can issue forth a torrent of angry balls of phaser energy, making quick work of similarly-sized Jem'Hadar attack ships and can rake the hulls of larger ships pretty hard.
• Companion Cube: For all of the DS9 crew, but particularly for Worf. While he's officially the Defiant's XO, it's noted he acts like she is really his ship, not Sisko's. In First Contact, he gets immediately agitated when he thinks Commander Riker is disparaging her for being "little", as seen in the character quote.
• Crippling Overspecialization: In contrast to the versatile exploration vessels that comprise much of Starfleet, the Defiant was created as a purely military vessel with exceptional firepower and defensive measures in the smallest package possible, lacking space for other facilities. Throughout the series, it was only once shown on a purely scientific mission; other times, it has been used for rescues or Gunboat Diplomacy.
• Due to the Dead: Sisko takes the time to say "She was a fine ship." before evacuating her for the last time.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In her debut episode, the Defiant gets curb stomped by a couple of Jem'hadar fighters — and after they spent the first half of the episode talking her up like she was the baddest thing flying in the Alpha Quadrant, no less. Later seasons will show her swatting squadrons of them like flies. Presumably this was after they ironed out the list of flaws that O'Brien compiled, and figured out how to prevent Dominion weapons from bypassing their shields.
• Flawed Prototype: According to Sisko, she nearly shook herself apart during shakedown trials because of her oversized and overpowered reactor. With the Borg threat receding, and the Federation once again slipping into complacency, Starfleet decided to instead mothball the Defiant rather than sort the problems out, and she came to DS9 still saddled with the same problem of waaaay too much engine for such a small vessel. It took awhile for the crew to sort it out.
• Godzilla Threshold: The Defiant was a demonstration of just how far the Borg had pushed the Federation, as she was the first Federation starship that had no other purpose than combat.
• Insistent Terminology: As Starfleet does not use warships (at least, they say they don't), she's officially classified as an "escort". Everyone sees through the pretense, however, including the guy who designed her.
• Invisibility Cloak: She's equipped with a cloaking device, provided to Starfleet by the Romulan government as part of an intelligence sharing operation. It was originally stipulated the cloak could only be used in the Gamma Quadrant, but the DS9 crew have disregarded this on a number of occasions without repercussion.^note On her first outing, the Defiant had to be accompanied by a Romulan officer who supervised the use of the cloaking device. Afterwards, the officer was never seen again.
• Legacy Vessel Naming: She's named for a Constitution-class ship that went missing back on the The Original Series and ended up in the Mirror Universe on Enterprise, though the ship only gets her name and not her registry. After she's destroyed, Starfleet Command gives special dispensation to have the replacement Sao Paulo renamed to Defiant, registry included (though budgetary constraints meant she wasn't given an ''A').
• Lightning Bruiser: Small, nimble, armor-plated, and packs enough firepower to rival much larger warships, say, a Galaxy-class.
• Meaningful Name: Not only does she defy the Federation's ideal of not using pure warships, she's also meant to defy anyone who would try to conquer or destroy the Federation.
• More Dakka: One of the few Federation starships armed with pulse phaser cannons instead of the more sedate beam emitters; instead of a scalpel-like beam, her main phaser quad array are like an unrelenting torrent of hammers.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Most Starfleet ships are based around a saucer-shaped hull with elongated nacelles on extended pylons and other necessary structural elements (often including a secondary hull for the main engine room). Defiant, on the other hand, is a compact brick of a ship, with only a vague vestigial shape of a saucer on the fore, no proper engine hull with the nav deflector moved to the bow, and short cowled nacelles that are directly integrated into the hull to for better protection, with the blue vent grills only on the very aft of the nacelles.
• One Riot, One Ranger: For a long time she was the only Federation ship posted at the station, so whenever a problem arose near Bajor or in the Gamma Quadrant she was Starfleet's first call.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's on the small side for starships in Starfleet service — excluding runabouts, shuttlecraft, and the like — but her firepower and armor rivals that of a Galaxy-class. Under Worf's command in "Paradise Lost", she all but trounces the Excelsior-class USS Lakota, despite the latter being around twenty times larger than the Defiant, getting the first shots off, and having been upgraded with improved weaponry. Only the reluctance of either ship to destroy the other kept the confrontation from ending in a more decisive conclusion.
  • Gul Dukat even called her "one of the most powerful warships in the Alpha Quandrant."
• The Quiet One: In comparison to the Enterprise-D or Voyager, the Defiant computer didn't speak very much. Captain Sisko usually relied on his crew to relay information, rather than the ship itself.
• Starship Luxurious: Averted. The Defiant is much more utilitarian than the Enterprise-D, to emphasize that's she a warship. She has no holodecks, the crew quarters are cramped and imply hotbunks, and she doesn't even have a shuttlebay (Except for that one time she did).
• Super Prototype: The first of her class and bearing an NX registry number. Apart from her hitherto unprecedented combat specialization and exceedingly powerful reactor, which are qualities shared by all members of the class, she is the only Starfleet vessel officially equipped with a Romulan cloaking device, as well as the first (and possibly the only one of her class) to be equipped with ablative armour. It's never been made clear if her replacement or other ships of her class came with any of the special features that she had.^note While it is likely that other ships of the class did not come with a cloaking device, seeing as the one on the Defiant was provided by the Romulans under a special agreement, it was never made clear if ablative armour was a standard feature of the class
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Played with. On one hand, the Sao Paulo is a sister ship that would go on to effectively play the same role as the original Defiant, taking on the name of her predecessor not long after her assignment to Deep Space Nine. On the other hand, she lacks some of the special features that the original possessed, had additional modifications to protect against the Breen energy-dampening weapon, and was noted to be somewhat more sluggish. Moreover, the original didn't survive, but her successor lived long enough to make it to the Fleet Museum.
• The Worf Effect:
  • When she first premiered, she was talked up by Sisko as being a Hail Mary for the fleet, only for her to get stomped by the Jem'Hadar and captured. Justified because, at the time, she was an unfinished prototype that had been mothballed for several years and had an inexperienced crew, and was in dire need of a shakedown cruise.
  • Despite being specifically built to fight the Borg, her appearance in First Contact saw her getting pummeled by the Borg until she had to be abandoned. However, this was actually a subversion. According to background material, it took three days for the Enterprise to arrive at the battle, so the Defiant had been fighting the Borg for days and was still ticking - and even then, it was still repairable. Tough little ship, indeed.
  • She likely holds a franchise record for the number of times she has been hijacked, commandeered, beat up and completely disabled.
  • And then there was her destruction, getting one-shot by the Breen to show how dangerous they were.

Deep Space Nine

Deep Space Nine

Played By: Judi Durand (computer voice)

Formerly Terok Nor, the Cardassians' deep space station over Bajor, she was taken by the bajorans once the Bajor occupation was ended. In turn the Bajoran made a deal with the Federation that saw the Bajoran station be administered by Starfleet as part of an alliance between both powers.

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• Bleak Border Base: The station starts as this. When Starfleet arrives, the Cardassians had wrecked all its vital systems and the Federation engineers are faced with a monumental task of rebuilding. The civilian population is getting ready to leave. Sisko is considering leaving the service and the rest of the crew considers this another assignment. Bashir is the only one to choose this posting and is excited to be there. Then the wormhole is discovered, and the station suddenly becomes one of Starfleet's most vital posts.
• Born into Slavery: Perhaps not itself, but it was built and run by slaves.
• Criminal Amnesiac: Gets some of its memory back when a counterinsurgency program written by Dukat is accidentally triggered and nearly kills everyone aboard.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Unlike the generally bright Deep Space 9, Terok Nor was kept at Cardassian standard lighting, much darker for their sensitive eyes (at least on the Promenade. The offices and crew quarters get to look the same). It helps add to the cramped, oppressive feel of the place.
• Face–Heel Turn: The station was briefly returned to being Terok Nor after the Federation withdrew at the end of the fifth season. It only lasted half a dozen episodes until Starfleet and the Klingons managed to retake the station.
• Heel–Face Turn: Converted from a Cardassian gulag, to a free Federation-Bajoran station.
• Hidden Weapons: Starfleet did a comprehensive tactical system overhaul on the station after the Dominion threat materialized. Ironically, it first had to be turned upon the Federation's former allies, the Klingon Empire, when they were being misled by a high-placed Changeling Infiltrator. The weapons are all hidden under a number of deployable hull panels, and can produce a withering barrage of photon torpedoes in every direction as well as phaser beams. To O'Brien's relief and credit, the whole rig did not make the station destroy itself from the power surge from using it.
• Jurisdiction Friction: The station is jointly run by a Starfleet-Bajoran contingent, so sometimes this happened, particularly between the Bajoran deputies under Odo and the Starfleet Security detachment under Commander Eddington. It was something of a minor plot point that, after Bajor signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion, Starfleet refused to turn the station over to the Bajoran government until the wormhole minefield was completed. It was only officially, however; after Kira lodged the official protest to Sisko (as her duty as the bajoran liason officer), she immediately resumed her station in Ops for the final operations before Starfleet bailed (including activating a scorched-earth sabotage program in all the Ops stations).
• Mid-Season Upgrade: In the first episode of the fourth season, upgrades to the station's weapon systems are completed. It sports a drastically higher number of phaser banks and torpedo launchers, many of them installed in hidden popup platforms.
• Mighty Glacier: Has enough firepower to single-handedly hold off entire fleets by itself, but only has basic maneuvering thrusters. Not that it's going anywhere. Inverted in the pilot, where O'Brien manages to get the station moving at near-warp speeds by using subspace Techno Babble but they have only basic phaser banks for defense.
• No OSHA Compliance: Many of the station’s flaws show just how little the Cardassians care for engineering safety. Not that they would care in areas where Bajoran slaves would handle the ore processing.
• One-Man Army: While it may be an inanimate object, this 'toothless old Grishnar cat' can singlehandedly fight off Klingon and Dominion fleets.
• Plug 'n' Play Technology: Subverted. Over time, the station begins to use a mix of Cardassian, Bajoran, and Federation technology, none of which are necessarily compatible and frequently needing maintenance. O'Brien became well-known for being the one engineer who can keep all of this tech running as smoothly as it does.
• Rags to Riches: When Sisko first comes to Deep Space 9, it's a derelict Cardassian space station in the backwaters Bajoran system. After the wormhole is discovered, however, it becomes a major interstellar hub overnight, and in time, becomes one of the most important stations in the entire Federation.
• Rule of Symbolism: As Sisko notes in the pilot, the central ops station is designed so all the underlings have to look up whenever they're looking towards Dukat's office. Appropriate for the narcissistic jerk.
• Salt the Earth: Happened twice. First, the Cardassians wrecked as much of the station as possible when they withdrew from Bajor, then, when the Federation pulled out, Kira activated a program left behind by Sisko that fried the station's computers.
• Supervillain Lair: Dukat was the prefect of the entire planet of Bajor, yet at no point when he is in power do we ever see him outside the station. He appears to view it as his own private castle. And harem.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the pilot, the station was barely functional, with all of its defenses stripped out by the Cardassians when they withdrew from Bajor. By the time of the fourth season premiere, DS9 had become one of the most heavily fortified stations in the Alpha Quadrant. Gowron and Martok can barely believe their eyes when the station starts wiping the floor with their fleet.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After taking on a program from an alien probe, the jerkass computer starts being nicer to O'Brien.
• What a Piece of Junk: The station was very finicky, with its melange of Cardassian, Federation, and Bajoran tech proving a chore to keep functioning properly. However, after the Dominion threat manifested, stronger weapons systems and enormous munitions stores were installed, and the station then fended off a Klingon onslaught.

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