Star Trek: Discovery has introduced a new character named Adira, bonded to a Trill symbiont - could it actually be the Dax symbiont from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? The USS Discovery has arrived in the 32nd century, and the crew have been shaken to discover a future where Starfleet is in retreat after a mysterious cosmic event known as the Burn.
But there are still so-called "True Believers" in the principles of the Federation, and in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, episode 3, the Discovery picked up one of them. Played by Blu del Barrio, Adira is the first non-binary character to appear in Star Trek. Although the show depicts several characters referring to Adira as she/her, del Barrio has confirmed that their identity and pronoun use will be consciously addressed in the show in time; consequently, it's appropriate, with this knowledge, to refer to Adira with the pronouns they/them.
Not only is Adira Star Trek's first non-binary character, they are also the first human seen to be safely bonded to a Trill symbiont. The symbiont had originally been bonded to a True Believer admiral named Senna Tal, who died two years ago. Most viewers have assumed this was a high-ranking Trill, with "Tal" serving as the symbiont's name, but it's worth noting that's just an assumption at this stage. Given that's the case, it's possible Adira's Trill symbiont is a very familiar one - Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Trill are a humanoid race who have developed a symbiotic relationship with a race of veriforms common to their homeworld. Only a minority of the Trill are compatible with the symbionts, but once entered into the relationship proves mutually beneficial, with the two joining together in quite a beautiful way. The symbiont hungers for experience, and gets to expand its knowledge and understanding of the universe, while the Trill gains the ability to draw upon the knowledge and experiences of past hosts.
The Trill had joined Starfleet by the 23rd century, although they kept their symbionts a closely guarded secret, and according to the canon novel Dead Man Standing they even refused to use transporters for fear operators would notice the odd bio-signatures. Although a handful of Starfleet officers knew about the symbionts, simply because they had become close friends of a Trill, they only became public knowledge after an incident aboard the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Host". There, Riker offered to join with a Trill symbiont in order to keep it alive, but the experience nearly killed him.
But Star Trek: Discovery season 3, episode 3 introduced the first known non-Trill to have successfully joined with a symbiont. Apparently the previous host, Admiral Senna Tal, died two years ago, and their symbiote was passed on to Adira. While Adira thankfully seems to have experienced a more successful joining than Riker, it's worth noting they do not enjoy the perfect union typically experienced by an actual Trill; Adira struggles to consistently access the memories of previous hosts. It's reasonable to assume the USS Discovery will head to Trill in order to find a way to access Admiral Senna Tal's memories of Starfleet, since the season 3 trailers showed the symbiont pools of Trill.
It's reasonable to assume the symbiont originally became stranded on Earth as a result of the Burn, which essentially cut the planet off from the rest of the galaxy. Sometime between 3068 and 3088, roughly 100-120 years before the USS Discovery's return, almost all dilithium in the galaxy was suddenly rendered inert. Countless vessels were destroyed when the matter/antimatter reactions in their warp engines went out of control, and the remaining starships lacked the fuel to travel any significant distance. Any Trill on Earth at the time would most likely have been unable to get back to Trill, which would have been a serious problem in the long term. A Trill cannot survive without a compatible host or the right nutrient fluids, which are found on Trill. Evidently at least some humans have proved compatible enough to keep the symbionts alive, fortunately, as evidenced by Adira's and it's possible their predecessor Senna Tal was another human host, not a Trill at all.
Star Trek: Discovery hasn't revealed much about Adira's symbiont yet, but one fact does stand out: Adira was able to recognize "antique" Starfleet technology from the 23rd century, and indeed they could manipulate it with remarkable ease, even managing to modify Discovery's systems to block transporters. That suggests Adira's symbiont is a long-lived one even by symbiont standards, and was most likely involved with Starfleet back in the 23rd century. Interestingly, this corresponds with the Dax symbiont that featured prominently in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Dax's third host was Emony Dax, an Olympic gymnast who was drawn into Starfleet affairs in John Jackson Miller's recently-published canon novel Dead Man Standing, and even crossed paths with Philippa Georgiou and Section 31 during that mission. Meanwhile, note the Dax symbiont went on to pick up the kind of technological expertise and knowledge demonstrated by Adira as well.
At first glance, the idea of Dax's return would feel like nothing more than an appeal to nostalgia. But it's important to remember there is a reason such nostalgic approaches work; it is because they add something familiar, something that makes viewers feel relaxed and at home. That could be quite a useful element in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, which is essentially set in a post-Federation galaxy very different to anything envisioned by Gene Roddenberry. What's more, should Adira gain reliable and consistent access to Dax's previous hosts, they would be able to give the Discovery crew - and, by extension, viewers - a quick catch-up on anything that has changed over the last few centuries.
Furthermore, there is actually a potential story purpose to using the Dax symbiote in this way. As noted, Dax is uniquely positioned to understand Discovery and the crew's experiences - not least because Emony Dax encountered Philippa Georgiou in her time working for Section 31. That prior knowledge would lead to her instinctively distrusting Georgiou, adding yet another interesting character dynamic to Star Trek: Discovery season 3. It will be interesting to see whether or not the showrunners take this approach.
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