Trill (Star Trek)

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Image:Jadzia Dax.jpg In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Trill are a race of symbiotic lifeforms native to the Alpha Quadrant.

The hosts, as they are called, are a humanoid race with either characteristic black or brown spots visible down the sides of their neck or an odd forehead. These spots continue down the host's chest and all of the way down their body. The forehead type was only seen in one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The spotted Trills appeared throughout Deep Space Nine. It is worth noting that the difference derives from a lack of planning surrounding the conventions of the species - whilst pre-filming for Deep Space Nine, several configurations of spot pattern were considered for Jadzia Dax, including makeup which involved a fake forehead.

The symbionts are helpless, worm-shaped lifeforms who contain the memories of their previous hosts, and who inhabit the abdomens of the humanoid hosts. When a host and a symbiont are joined, the resulting individual is considered a new being.The Trill society is a complex and elitist one. Only joined Trills can be politicians, and they make all the planet's decisions. When a host dies, the symbiont is transplanted into a new host. A symbiont who is neither implanted into a new host nor returned to their habitat (pools of nutrient-rich liquid on the Trill homeworld) will quickly die, as will a joined Trill host from whom the symbiont is removed after the first or second day.

It was originally assumed that only a small fraction of the Trill population was capable of being joined, a myth which the Trill government continues to perpetuate. This is because the joining of the Dax symbiont with the host Joran (Curzon's predecessor), was a disaster - Joran was insane and a murderer. Joran's joining with Dax was covered up and all records of it were erased. The Trill government attempted to blame the failure on Joran's unsuitability as a host, but the truth was that Joran had passed the host screening tests and was technically a stable host - as was nearly half of the Trill population. The government dares not let this information become public, lest the symbionts become a commodity to be bought, sold and fought over by the public - as long as it is widely believed that only a small fraction can become hosts, the government reasons, then such widespread hysteria can be avoided.

In rare cases, Trill symbionts can be joined with non-Trill humanoids, but the differences in biology means the results are often unstable. ("The Host", TNG). Commander William Riker was briefly joined to the Odan symbiont so that Odan could complete peace negotiations, and to keep Odan alive until a new Trill host could arrive. While this effort saved Odan's life, it nearly caused Riker's death.

A joined Trill is known by the given name of the host followed by the name of the symbiont; for example, when Ezri Tigan was joined with the symbiont Dax, her name became Ezri Dax.

Trill society has a taboo against resuming relationships with loved ones from one's past joining, on the principle that each life must be unique. ("Rejoined", DS9)

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

In the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels, the Trill are revealed to have a connection with the "parasites" introduced in the "Conspiracy" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Long ago, scientists on a remote Trill colony had conducted genetic experiments on symbionts to make them better adapted to life on other worlds. The experiments were a failure, and the symbionts so affected became violent and xenophobic - the 'parasites' that future generations would come to fear. A Trill military fleet arrived at the colony and obliterated it, but the parasites had already escaped and swore revenge on Trill society for this disaster. Eventually, when the truth became known, Trill authorities declared that no more joinings would be allowed to occur. Existing hosts would be allowed to live out their lives with their symbionts, but upon the current hosts' deaths, all symbionts were to be returned to their caves on Trill. (source: "Worlds of DS9: Trill" by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin)