Trials and Tribble-ations - Why did Dax hide her spots?

[JirinPanthosa]

Another of those little questionable things you don't notice as something weird until the umpteenth viewing. When Dax is getting on her 23rd century uniform, she hides her spots to appear human.

But why does she need to do this? It may be a higher percentage of Starfleet officers were human in this time, but if Emeny has met Dr McCoy, Trill are certainly not a surprising sight. Certainly a woman with Trill spots would draw less attention than Odo who looks nothing like any known alien species of the time.

 

[jaime]

Another of those little questionable things you don't notice as something weird until the umpteenth viewing. When Dax is getting on her 23rd century uniform, she hides her spots to appear human.

But why does she need to do this? It may be a higher percentage of Starfleet officers were human in this time, but if Emeny has met Dr McCoy, Trill are certainly not a surprising sight. Certainly a woman with Trill spots would draw less attention than Odo who looks nothing like any known alien species of the time.

I suspect it was rare for them to serve in Starfleet...rare enough that she would stick out on enterprise.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If Jadzia appeared as human, she wouldn't be noticed. A Trill would be.

IIRC, the first Trill to serve in Starfleet - the first Dax host to do so, anyway - was Torias, and he wouldn't come along until some time after TOS. IIRC, Torias was Dax's host was during the 2280's.

 

[ItIsGreen]

Maybe there just weren't any Trill in Starfleet at the time... or at least none on the Enterprise. As others have said, she'd stick out like a sore thumb in that context. All it takes is one observant officer to say, "Hey, there aren't any Trill on this ship!" and the jig's up.

Either that, or Trill in this time had bumpy foreheads, and she just didn't want to talk about it.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

If Jadzia appeared as human, she wouldn't be noticed. A Trill would be.

/thread

 

[Maurice]

Spock appeared to be the only nonhuman assigned to the Enterprise, so she'd be super conspicuous.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The problem with the 'Trills are more conspicuous' argument is that Odo was just walking around the station freely. He wasn't in Starfleet uniform, but then, why did Dax need to be in a Starfleet uniform? Couldn't she have donned a civilian outfit like Odo and Worf, if she was so conspicuous? Hell, Worf walked around with only a headband, and if you are making an argument based on canonical things established later on, 23rd century people should still recognize him as Klingon because not all Klingons are smooth headed.

What argument can you make that a malformed face and Klingon with headband are less conspicuous than a woman with spots?

Maybe Torias was the first Trill in Starfleet (Source?), but there were certainly Trill around.

 

[urbandefault]

Were Worf and Odo on the ship, specifically on the bridge? Dax was.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The problem with the 'Trills are more conspicuous' argument is that Odo was just walking around the station freely. He wasn't in Starfleet uniform, but then, why did Dax need to be in a Starfleet uniform? Couldn't she have donned a civilian outfit like Odo and Worf, if she was so conspicuous? Hell, Worf walked around with only a headband, and if you are making an argument based on canonical things established later on, 23rd century people should still recognize him as Klingon because not all Klingons are smooth headed.

What argument can you make that a malformed face and Klingon with headband are less conspicuous than a woman with spots?

Maybe Torias was the first Trill in Starfleet (Source?), but there were certainly Trill around.

Dax was walking around the Enterprise, not just the station. So, there's no "problem" like you say. What @urbankringle said.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The problem with the 'Trills are more conspicuous' argument is that Odo was just walking around the station freely.

One need not have been assigned to the station to walk around the station. See Cyrano Jones.

 

[kkt]

The station presumably has lots of visitors walking around all the time. A strange-looking Odo wouldn't be that usual. But on a crew of 430, a Trill where there were no Trills before would certainly stand out. You don't have visitors wandering through the ship unescorted.

 

[Tenacity]

If Jadzia appeared as human, she wouldn't be noticed. A Trill would be.

The person who took the bigger risk of being noticed as being out of place was Sisko.

Outside of the Mirror universe can you name one Enterprise office who wore a beard? And Sisko compounded the risk by going to the bridge and speaking to Kirk face to face.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The person who took the bigger risk of being noticed as being out of place was Sisko.

Outside of the Mirror universe can you name one Enterprise office who wore a beard? And Sisko compounded the risk by going to the bridge and speaking to Kirk face to face.

If we took it solely from the perspective of standing out, Dax was still the bigger risk
She was hot!

 

[Nerys Myk]

If we took it solely from the perspective of standing out, Dax was still the bigger risk
She was hot!

On that ship, which crewwomen weren't?

 

[Nerys Myk]

And I still think Worf should have looked like this in Trials and Tribble-ations

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Spock appeared to be the only nonhuman assigned to the Enterprise, so she'd be super conspicuous.

Maybe not the only one, but with few enough others that they'd probably all be known. It seemed in "Charlie X" (TOS) that there was at most one other besides Spock...

CHARLIE: How many humans like me on this ship?
RAMART: Like a whole city in space, Charlie. Over four hundred in the crew of a starship, aren't there, Captain?
KIRK: Four hundred and twenty-eight, to be exact. Is there anything we can do for you, Captain? Medical supplies, provisions?
CHARLIE: Hundreds. All human, like me. That's exciting. Is that the right word?

(Kirk didn't customarily seem to count himself among the usually-quoted figure of 430 crew, IIRC.)

But of course, that was merely at that moment. There could have been others who transferred aboard subsequently, as likewise there could have been others who'd served aboard previously and had transferred off. Maybe no Trills, though. (And maybe there weren't even any in Starfleet at this time; we don't really know. I don't think we even know whether they were UFP members yet...or ever, for that matter!)

Sisko got away with explaining Kirk's not knowing his face by saying he had just transferred over from the Lexington, a situation which cropped up a time or two elsewhere in TOS as well, but it would undoubtedly be best to take as few chances as possible of being noticed as out of place until the mission was accomplished.

IIRC, the first Trill to serve in Starfleet - the first Dax host to do so, anyway - was Torias, and he wouldn't come along until some time after TOS. IIRC, Torias was Dax's host was during the 2280's.

I don't believe that's from any episode. In fact, I don't think Torias was ever said to have served in Starfleet at all, let alone to be the first Trill (or Dax) to do so. Could be from a novel or somesuch.

-MMoM

 

[ItIsGreen]

And I still think Worf should have looked like this in Trials and Tribble-ations

...with no explanation at all. And everyone else carrying on like everything was normal.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I'd assume there were no Trills serving onboard the Enterprise at the time, so one just showing up would be pretty hard to explain.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't believe that's from any episode. In fact, I don't think Torias was ever said to have served in Starfleet at all, let alone to be the first Trill (or Dax) to do so. Could be from a novel or somesuch.

Yes, Torias did serve in Starfleet. He was a shuttle test pilot. In fact that's how he died - a shuttle crash.

 

[Kirk Prime]

It would be easy enough to look up who was on the crew in that Stardate, and just as easy to figure out there were no Trills on the ship. Were there ANY non humans on the ship during TOS besides Spock?