Personally I think they're very interesting. I mean, a symbiotic creature that goes from host to each, living out many different lifetimes as many different people. That would definitely be very interesting... both for the host and the symbiont.
But I can't help but wonder... when a Trill symbiont joins with its new host, just how much of this newly joined individual is the slug-creature, and how much of it is the host? Are they equal, or does the symbiont perhaps dominate things a bit?
I think the Trill are one of the most interesting species in Star Trek. When playing RPG-X, I enjoy using Trill characters because there is so much more you can do with character development.
In TNG, the symbiont is the person itself, as opposed to the host having anything to do with what does the talking and walking. In DS9 though, the symbiont merely contains the memories of the previous hosts, so is more of a transference of knowlage.
For instance when Jadzia was killed and Dax was transfered to Ezri, we saw that Ezri had trouble keeping the memories in order. She frequently made reference to herself as having been present when which ever event originally occured. Sisko also had her promoted to Lieutenat earily because he felt she wouldn't learn anything that the Dax symbiont hadn't already given her.
I guess I find either case kinda... sad in some ways.
Because, in the TNG version of the Trill, it seems as though the host simply because a mindless shell, having all their thoughts, feelings, and willpower suppressed when the symbiont takes over. In essence, they stop being a person, and the symbiont inside them becomes the new person in their place. Doesn't really seem fair, considering they need a host in order to survive and they're just taking somebody's body away from them. They get a way to survive and they get to throw the person's personality out the window and take over? Like I said, it doesn't seem fair.
Now in the case of DS9 Trills... they are a bit more fascinating, I'll admit, and it seems a bit more balanced and fair. The host retains their will, identity and personality, they just get the data/memories from all previous hosts. In some ways though, well, I think it makes the Trill symbiont seem like nothing more than a computer chip, or a harddrive, that gets put from one person to another. I mean, is the DS9 Trill really a person at all? Or just a biological data storage device? If it's the latter, what makes it so worth it to keep passing it from person to person?
Furthremore, how to Trill symbionts make more symbionts? Or do they just live forever? >.>
I agree with you completely for the TNG Trills, I never really liked them. It seemed a bit too, morbid.
I do think there is more to it than just being data storage. As on two occasions we saw rituals were previous hosts were brought to the forefront for different reasons. The first time, previous Dax hosts were brought forward and transferred into the bodies of Jadzia's friends - at which point the previous hosts were in control of the people they had been transferred to. However the way they spoke made it sound like they were aware of being part of the symbiont but kept dormant or something like that.
The second time was when Ezri was trying to catch that lunatic Vulcan that was killing people on DS9. She brought one of the previous hosts forward into her own mind and subsequently had what I guess could be considered a mild form of multiple personality disorder.
I think the symbiont are capable of breeding, we saw them living in pools within caves on the Trill home world - being cared for by Trills that were not compatible with the joining process.
You know I haven't seen many episodes that involved Erzi. I have seen the one where she first meets Sisko, hoping that he can help her deal with her personality struggles and whatnot. The only other episode I saw of her was when she and Bashir fell in love, I think.
Can you recommend any good Trill episodes? (meaning ones that show Ezri dealing with past personalities or even glimpses of the Trill homeworld)?
Season 3 - Equilibrium - Jadzia has troubles with Dax and is taken back to the Symbiosis Comission on Trill. This episode sets a fair ammount of backstory for the Symbiont process.
Season 3 - Facets - Jadzia performs the transference ritual with her friends, allowing previous hosts to leave Dax and interact with Jadzia like any other person.
Season 7 - Afterimage - This one is pretty good for seeing Ezri develop as a character and how carrying Dax effects her on DS9.
Season 7 - Prodigal Daughter - Ezri vists a pergium mining operation run by her family. Not so much heavily focused on the Trill but good for seeing Ezri develop as an individual character.
Season 7 - Field of Fire - Ezri brings the previous host I mentioned into the forefront of her conciousness.
What is a person but a store of memories housed in a squishy computer chip? I can see how it would be an attractive option for both parties, although perhaps more so in the case of the DS9 variant since the host seems to retain more of its personality. Neither host nor symbiont is what it once was but isn't that what living is all about; the process of change? I'd find it hard to be offered all that experience and turn it down.
The eventual creature formed by the joining I'd imagine is largely like the symbiont in personality simply because of the wealth of information it brings with it to the exchange. The experiences of one life, compared to those of many - even in the case of the TNG variant I'm not sure that the host's personality is simply erased so much as it becomes part of something massively bigger than itself. If the experiences of one of us were to be placed in the brain of a young child I imagine much the same would take place, the overwhelming of the current personality by something much older and more powerful. Then again the Trill in TNG behave so unlike the Trill in DS9 they may not even be the same branch of their species.
__________________
"At the end I will be there. For the final battle. For the Wolftime." - Leman Russ
I think they're pretty cool. I never did get how they're supposed to be symbiotic, tough, because the host is alive for many years before they are joined.
Also... what happens when a trill is not joined with the slug thing?
Very few Trill are joined. Those seeking to be joined with a symbiont have to go through various tests and training at the Symbiosis Commission. Jadzia was originally ejected from the Symbiont program by Curzon Dax, but later was approved to receive the Dax Symbiont.
Nothing untoward happens to regular Trills, they simply go about their lives as normal. Joining is an honour rather than a survival requirement.
__________________
Last edited by AdmiralHocking; 07-28-2009 at 02:37 AM.
No. The Symbiont could be described as dormant personalities within the host. The host is aware of the lives that the previous hosts lived and knows everything they knew - but there is definitive individuality.
An example would be that Jadzia always refers to the previous hosts in the past tense and is able to differentiate her memories from those of the previous hosts. Likewise, Sisko was friends with Curzon before he met Jadzia, so calls Jadzia old man. But when they're talking about that initial friendship, Jadzia always says something like;
'Curzon always liked that about you.' Rather than; 'I always liked that about you.'
Trills
Linear Mode
