Terry Farrell and DS9 Season 7

[SicOne]

OK, I'm of the understanding that she wanted out of her contract to go do the "Becket" sitcom but was willing to return for guest appearances and begged the powers-that-be NOT to kill off Jadzia...but do we know why they killed her off anyway, rather than, say, promote her to a starship command during the Dominion War and bring her onto the show every once in a while?

I'm looking for a reason other than "Because they're a-holes"...

 

[MacLeod]

I might be mistaken but I think I remember reading somewhere that the principals were contracted for six years with an option for a seventh.

As we don't know the details of the contract negotiations we can't say which side if any or both were being unreasonable.

 

[Iamnotspock]

ISTR reading that the producers felt simply that it would be an ideal opportunity to kill off a beloved character to illustrate the horrors of war, although if that were the case it would perhaps have made more sense for her to go out in battle rather than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[urbandefault]

I remember reading at the time that Farrell chose to not re-up for just one more year.

If there's evidence that something else was involved, I haven't heard about it. Doesn't mean it didn't happen. :/

 

[Admiral Bear]

Many years ago, I spent an afternoon in the company of Siddig at his fan club meet, and the subject of Terry Farrell and "what exactly happened" cropped up.

In the words of Siddig, "she negotiated herself out of a job". I think those were his exact words. He made it clear that Farrell wanted to do season 7, but that she wanted far more money than the rest of the main cast, money the studio wasn't prepared to pay her. So even though she was technically out of contract and free to leave for other work, she was effectively sacked.

 

[Melakon]

The version of Farrell's departure I always heard at the time was she initially signed for 6 seasons. When the 7th Season was offered, she decided to stick with her original agreement despite others in the cast encouraging her to sign up again.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Farrell was interviewed on the Delta Quadrant podcast last year. She made a few claims that stand out. First, she made some provisional arrangements to stay on the show with one producer, but that arrangement was turned down by another, because they were already set with the story to kill of Dax. Second, that she got the Becker offer after leaving DS9. She even says that the same producers were surprised to find her on the Paramount lot a few weeks after leaving DS9: they could not believe she could get another job so quickly.

Other sources report the problem was money: they weren't willing to up her contract as they had with the other actors.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I, too, recall reading that it was basically about the money.

Pretty much how she got fired from Becker, as well. She wanted everyone to get a raise (along with her), organized a cast strike, held up production with the supporting cast and even filed a lawsuit against Paramount (that's rarely a good idea, even if you're in the right...), and the producers made the example out of her by the end of the season when filming was done.

 

[MacLeod]

generally speaking we all want a higher pay when it comes to work. Though there is a right way to go about seeking a pay rise and a wrong way. Alterantively you can always leave and find a higher paying job(not always depending on the wording of the your contract).

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I also remember reading somewhere that for the finale that either: she hadn't given permission for her likeness to be used in flashbacks, or they hadn't asked her if they could.

In some ways it would've been to see Dax's highlights throughout the years, but on the other hand by "What You Leave Behind" Ezri had grown more sure of herself and what she could do, so it was as much about her accomplishments and not the Symbionts.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

generally speaking we all want a higher pay when it comes to work. Though there is a right way to go about seeking a pay rise and a wrong way. Alterantively you can always leave and find a higher paying job(not always depending on the wording of the your contract).

What Farrell says is that the producers offered her much less of a raise than the other actors received beacuse her acting skills were not on the same level. To some extent, she perceives that the problem was a matter of respect.

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

generally speaking we all want a higher pay when it comes to work. Though there is a right way to go about seeking a pay rise and a wrong way. Alterantively you can always leave and find a higher paying job(not always depending on the wording of the your contract).

What Farrell says is that the producers offered her much less of a raise than the other actors received beacuse her acting skills were not on the same level. To some extent, she perceives that the problem was a matter of respect.

Well... I guess the producers didn't had much more to do with the character itself. For me, at least, Jadzia was always that one that "is around" but don't really matter. She never really had a bigger hole and the episodes were she had importance ware few...

 

[CorporalClegg]

but do we know why they killed her off anyway, rather than, say, promote her to a starship command during the Dominion War and bring her onto the show every once in a while?

I'm looking for a reason other than "Because they're a-holes"...

Probably because, conceptually, the character provided its own trap door.

It was a lot loss trouble than trying to bring in a completely new character for one season.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I always wondered why on TNG they used Denise Crosby several times, including made her reprise her role for the series finale in spite of killing her character off very soon in the series, while they completely erased Terry Farrell from the show to the point of absurdity. I mean, how believable is it that Worf of all people would flash on his stay on DS9 and not have a single thought for his wife? Not very!

 

[JD5000]

I assume the writers wanted to keep Dax if they weren't going to have Jadzia. In a sense, the symbiont is as much of the main cast as anyone, although I think we only see it on-screen once. It's also possible that some of the Season 7 episode concepts were already in the works at the time of the break-up, and since quite a few of them are Dax-centric, maybe the writers thought it would be easier to tweak one character than entire episode ideas.

Personal preference would have been that Jadzia was reassigned, I would have rather had even more Dominion War-oriented episodes with flashy space battles, political intrigue and stuff, and fewer episodes centered on the characters and their feelings.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I always wondered why on TNG they used Denise Crosby several times, including made her reprise her role for the series finale in spite of killing her character off very soon in the series, while they completely erased Terry Farrell from the show to the point of absurdity. I mean, how believable is it that Worf of all people would flash on his stay on DS9 and not have a single thought for his wife? Not very!

This was another negotiation that broke down. It's not clear what happened, but Terry Farrell claims that she wanted to act in the finale in some manner.

However, there were 7th season flashbacks to Jadzia Dax: Ezri has them when she breaks into Worf's quarters at the beginning of the long arc. We hear Jadzia speaking to Worf, recalling key moments in the previous seasons. Moreover, her image is present in the wedding photograph.

 

[SicOne]

Clarifies the mystery quite a bit, folks. Thanks much!

 

[Lance]

It's a fairly common practice for show-runners on TV shows to kill off characters when the actor makes too many demands outside their realm of influence, or just messes them around. Obviously I don't know enough about the ins and outs of Farrell's specific contract renegotiations at the time, but the producers certainly weren't compelled to keep Jadzia alive, and if Farrell (or her agent) was getting a little too hard to deal with for whatever reason, then it wouldn't surprise me in the least that they killed her off for the same reason so many other TV shows kill of their characters: it's a way of saying to the actor/actress in question, "You want to leave? Fine, but the door will get locked behind you, so if you do choose to go now, there's no coming back to us later."

Alternatively, they could simply have seen Farrell's request to leave as an excellent opportunity to explore the idea, enshrined in the series concept at the very beginning, of being able to place 'Dax' into a new host and shaking up the cast dynamic, giving everybody something new to play with after six seasons on the air. Which is effectively exactly what happened.

 

[MacLeod]

I always wondered why on TNG they used Denise Crosby several times, including made her reprise her role for the series finale in spite of killing her character off very soon in the series, while they completely erased Terry Farrell from the show to the point of absurdity. I mean, how believable is it that Worf of all people would flash on his stay on DS9 and not have a single thought for his wife? Not very!

This was another negotiation that broke down. It's not clear what happened, but Terry Farrell claims that she wanted to act in the finale in some manner.

However, there were 7th season flashbacks to Jadzia Dax: Ezri has them when she breaks into Worf's quarters at the beginning of the long arc. We hear Jadzia speaking to Worf, recalling key moments in the previous seasons. Moreover, her image is present in the wedding photograph.

Wasn't there also reports that Farrell wasn't happy that clips from previous episodes had been used without her consent?

So even if she had wanted to act in the finalé she might have not endeared herself to the producers with past actions.

 

[doubleohfive]

My understanding is that Farrell wanted more money when it came time to re-negotiate her contract, but that she was also quite fine with not returning for the final season.

Depending on the timing of DS9's production schedule in season six, and when this all went down, it's entirely plausible that she would have been able to line up another job (Becker) in the interim before season seven.