The symbiont would be, and the Trill’s spots would only present when the two joined. As the symbiont grew older, their spots would increase in number, so later hosts like Jadzia would have more spots than earlier hosts. Like rings in a tree.
I definitely like the idea, but I also like the Trill having some kind of distinguishing feature of their own.
Maybe all Trill have their spots but joined Trill could inherit some other feature from the symbiont or perhaps different stripe/spot patterns? Those “extra” spots could still develop more and more over time like you described; that’s a cool idea (even though it would make lying about your age difficult 😆)
If that were the case, then it would be cool to see Adira develop just that set of stripes after they joined with Tal.
Return their original forehead prosthetics!
For the baseline Trill or the joined ones? If the latter, I’d really hate to put Adira through that. They’re finally healing and part of a family unit; would break my heart to have them go through a “what’s wrong with my forehead?!” arc in the final season. lol
Edit: Thanks for the picture. I completely forgot Jadzia had that in the early episodes.
She never did - they canned it in favour of the shots after screen/make-up testing.
Edit: Bonus, kind-of-gross context!
Initially, the DS9 writing staff simply didn’t like Michael Westmore’s alterations to make the Odan headpiece look more feminine. Apparently, after Terry Farrell had put on the Odan forehead appliance, someone looked at her and said to Westmore, “What did you do to her head, she used to be beautiful?” Instead of changing species, as they’d already come to like the idea of an “old man”, a person with centuries of experience to guide Sisko, Westmore suggested to “just give her spots like we gave Famke,” who played a Kriosian in TNG: “The Perfect Mate”. This make-up was used on all Trill afterwards.
Ah, gotcha. I knew I’d seen it before (probably on Memory Alpha), but I guess I was mis-remembering it as some additional Early Installment Weirdness like Major Kira’s hair from the first episode.
What did you do to her head, she used to be beautiful?"
Damn.
It’s basically the same idea. Terry Farrell is now part of the Delta Flyers podcast and (without going back to find the specific episode to directly quote) essentially said she tested with the prosthetic, and someone else said We hired a model, why are you covering her up?
