Star Trek: Lower Decks' actress/co-writer of Starfleet Academy's fifth episode explains how bringing back a key Deep Space Nine character was critical to the story. Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Starfleet Academy episode 5 "Series Acclimation Mil."
SAM (Kerrice Brooks) was pushed along by her Cardassian teacher, Illa Dax, who is played by Tawny Newsome in the episode. Newsome is best known for voicing Mariner in Lower Decks, but she also co-wrote episode 5 with Kirsten Beyer. And while speaking with TrekMovie.com, Newsome discussed how having herself play the role of DS9's beloved Dax was never planned but worked out wonderfully.
"No, I was the last piece of this puzzle," Newsome said. "I did not intend to write myself in at all. Because it didn’t occur to me that I would be anyone other than Mariner. And I thought it would be a little too cheeky to have some future version of Mariner or some descendant. It just seemed too irreverent for the magnitude of this episode. So no, I love Professor Illa, who was constructed by me and Kirsten [Beyer] and she was meant to be the perfect shepherd for this story. It was so important that we had someone who it made sense that she would have the only copy of Jake’s book."
Newsome continued:
"A lot of intentionality went into who could this be? And then when we all kind of went, “Oh, you know, the Trill lifespan could be this long. This could be Dax,” it really excited Noga Landau, our showrunner. It excited all of us. And we went, “Okay, yeah, let’s make this Dax.” And then, as I said, I was the last piece of the puzzle [laughs] when they said, “Okay, and Tawny is going to do it” it was quite a surprise, I think, for all of us. But I had really great support from showrunners and from Kirsten."
“Series Acclimation Mil” focused on SAM (Kerrice Brooks), the sentient hologram pushed by her “Makers” to prove her worth at the Academy. That had SAM exploring what happened to Ben Sisko. The story showcased how by the 32nd century, Sisko's fate entering the wormhole to join the prophets had become legend, yet few knew of the true man's fate.
That’s explained by the ending, where Illa reveals Trill markings on her neck and then shares her full name of Illa Dax. Yep, our favorite Trill symbiote is still alive in the 32nd century.
It’s fun to realize this wasn’t supposed to be Dax, just a random teacher at the academy and the decision to bring her back evolved. It makes sense that the Trill are still around and that Dax would have gone through countless hosts over the last thousand years. It’s also perfect that Dax would be teaching at the reborn Academy and encouraging students while also honoring her old friend Sisko.
It’s also interesting how Newsome didn’t want to join the list of Trek actors who have played multiple roles in the franchise. Thanks to the great makeup job, many viewers may not have even realized it was Newsome in the role, and she played the part very differently than Mariner, making this new Dax her own character.
It also fits the story. And while it was great seeing a holographic Jake (Cirroc Lofton) talking to SAM, using an original DS9 character as a stronger link made the conversation about Sisko shine more. Dax also served as a counterbalance to the Starfleet cadets, who knew Sisko only by reputation and held differing opinions about the Emissary of the Prophets.
Dax brought more personal insight to the man rather than the legend. For more Star Trek content, visit the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. And Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is now streaming on Paramont+.