Geek-A-Long
2015 Geek-A-Long: Jadzia Dax
Star Trek is more than just an amazing show, it is a ground-breaking cultural phenomenon. It featured the first bi-racial kiss on American Television. It depicted women and minorities in positions of power and equality. In Starfleet, it doesn’t matter if you are a teenager, woman, minority, alien, android, or sentient hologram. If you want to pursue a career in science and/or leadership, no one will stand in your way.
So this week, the Geek-A-Long honors Jadzia Dax as one of the amazing, butt-kicking, name-taking, non-conforming scientists that makes Star Trek such and influential fandom.
There are A LOT of scientists on Star Trek. Off the top of my head I can think of Bones, Spock, Scottie, Data, Geordi, Barclay, Troy (Psychology is science!), Wesley & Beverly Crusher, Tuvok, Jadzia & Ezri Dax, Tuvok, The Doctor, and Tucker. After typing that list, I googled “starfleet science officers” just to see how many would come up. The list is lengthy. I’m embarrassed that I missed Miles O’Brien in my list. ;) The point is, with that many to choose from it was tough to decide which one to feature on the square. Bones and/or Spock would have been the conventional choices, but I chose Jadzia because of her complete lack of interest in convention.
This is the part where I would normally tell you about our scientist’s back-story, but honestly, I couldn’t possibly write a single coherent paragraph on it. Afterall, the Dax half of her* was on it’s 8th life when it joined with Jadzia, and none of those lives were simple ones. More succinct writers than me sum up Jadzia Dax well here and if you haven’t watched DS9, I highly recommend it. It’s my second favorite Trek, only after TNG. Today is Mother’s Day, and I am really proud to celebrate it with a character that inspires people, no matter who they identify as, to take charge, make waves, and do science.
This week’s square features the Starfleet Officer’s communicator pin surrounded by Jadzia’s trademark Trill spots. I tried to capture the look of the hand drawn spots (fun fact: Terry Farrell had to have those spots individually drawn on for filming), and I’m really happy with how it came out.
*That’s an oversimplification. Jadzia identifies as a woman, and Dax has no gender. “I’ve been a mother 3 times and a father twice.”~Jadzia Dax
Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Jadzia Dax pattern here. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to tweet or instagram your squares at me @Doctor_Llama or Jac @jac_attacking with the hashtag #geekalong, so we can all oooh and ah at it together.
https://instagram.com/p/2gOk-QHy_2/?taken-by=jac_attacking
If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here, and if you would like to learn to crochet, Jac has a fabulous tutorial here. You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.
~ Megan-Anne
A very happy Mother’s Day to our mom, and all the other moms out there.