Afterimage (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

"Afterimage" is the 153rd episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the third episode of the seventh season, written by René Echevarria and directed by Les Landau. It was first broadcast the week of October 12, 1998, receiving Nielsen ratings of 4.3 points corresponding to about 4.3 million viewers.^[1]

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the crew of the Starfleet-managed Bajoran space station Deep Space Nine. The later seasons of the series follow a war between the United Federation of Planets and an expansionist empire known as the Dominion, which has already absorbed the nearby planet of Cardassia. This episode is the first to focus on the new character Ezri Dax (played by Nicole de Boer), who was introduced in the first episode of the seventh season. A member of the Trill species, Ezri is the new host for the symbiotic lifeform previously carried by main character Jadzia Dax; Jadzia was killed at the end of the sixth season to make way for actress Terry Farrell to depart the show, and the Ezri character was written to replace her.

In this episode, Ezri struggles to adapt to being joined to a being with many lifetimes of memories and experience, while Jadzia's friends and her husband Worf are disconcerted by the presence of a new Dax in their lives. Meanwhile, the Cardassian spy-turned-tailor Elim Garak is suffering from panic attacks due to claustrophobia, and Ezri, who is in training to be a therapist, is assigned to treat him.