star trek ds9 our man bashir gift

Our Man Bashir (episode)

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Story and script
• 3.2 Production
• 3.3 Reception
• 3.4 James Bond homages
• 3.5 Continuity
• 3.7 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest stars
• 4.4 Special guest star
• 4.5 Co-stars
• 4.6 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.7 Stunt doubles
• 4.8.1 Deleted scenes reference
• 4.9 External links

Summary [ ]

Bashir pops the cork

A glass screen shatters as a man with a patch over one eye is hurled backwards through it. On the other side of the screen, Doctor Bashir stands casually, dressed in a tuxedo , and walks back toward his female companion, Caprice . She smiles as she hands him a bottle of champagne , but she has a troubled look on her face.

Bashir looks at the bottle and sees the reflection of the other man, who has gotten up and is attempting to sneak up on him. With nothing else to use for a weapon, Bashir turns around quickly and uncorks the bottle, using the cork as a projectile to render the other man unconscious. He turns to Caprice and the two embrace, but they are interrupted by clapping from elsewhere in the room.

" Nice tux. " " Thank you. " " Now, get out. "

It is Elim Garak , who has broken into the holosuite because he is curious to know what Bashir is doing. Garak notes that Bashir has been visiting the holosuite repeatedly ever since he received his new holo-program and yet the doctor has not told anyone what the program is. Despite Bashir's protests, Garak uses his usual charm and tactfulness to convince the doctor to allow him to stay and observe. However, he notes that Bashir's companion has just left. The doctor is obviously not amused, but Garak assures him they will have a wonderful time together. Garak then tells Bashir, " After all, what could possibly go wrong? "

Act One [ ]

As Garak and Bashir enter the doctor's fictional apartment in Kowloon , part of Hong Kong , Garak takes in the decor of 1964 Earth before they are joined by Bashir's valet , Mona Luvsitt . She reveals that behind one of Bashir's walls is an assortment of firearms ; between this and the lavish surroundings, Garak surmises that Bashir is playing some kind of rich playboy. On the contrary, Bashir says, he is a spy: a top-class secret agent whose clothing, equipment, lodgings, and adoring female companions are all provided to him by a grateful government . Garak remarks wryly that he (who really has been a spy) must have joined the wrong intelligence service .

Meanwhile, Sisko , Kira , Worf , Dax , and Miles O'Brien return from a conference only to discover their runabout has been sabotaged . The USS Orinoco is about to explode, so Eddington beams them out. Unfortunately, the explosion comes during the transport, and as the crew materialize a bright flash forces station crew to avert their eyes. Only smoke remains, and Eddington is stunned.

Act Two [ ]

Eddington rushes down to the pit in Ops to evaluate the next move, and Odo arrives to understand what's going on. The primary energizing coils were overloaded, but the crew members' patterns are still stuck in the transporter buffer . Given the immense amount of space required to store neural information and the fact that the buffer will soon lose coherence and the signatures with it, Eddington orders the computer to wipe all memory necessary in order to save the patterns; consequently, all power on the station goes out while the crew members are somewhere on the station, but he and Odo have no idea exactly where they are.

At the same time, in the holosuite (which is still active despite the power loss), Mona dresses Garak in appropriate attire for the 1960s. But shortly thereafter, the bar in Bashir's apartment turns itself 180 degrees to reveal a bed with a scantily-clad Major Kira on it. Bashir thinks Kira and Garak have conspired to ridicule him, but Garak is just as surprised as he is. Speaking with a thick Russian accent, Kira identifies herself as Colonel Anastasia Komananov , and soon Bashir and Garak realize the image of Komananov, a character from Bashir's holonovel , has been replaced with one of Kira. However, the computer claims the parameters for the character are normal and refuses to pause the program. Bashir contacts Ops to find out what has happened, but as Eddington explains about the transporter accident, Odo recognizes Kira's voice and realizes the images of the missing crew members must have been stored in the holosuite's memory. Odo and Eddington warn him not to stop the holo-program or call up the exit, as it might result in the loss of the images – and thus the crew.

O'Brien as Falcon

Komananov explains the mission she and Bashir are supposed to be working on; a number of unusual earthquakes have occurred of late, and the government has concluded that the quakes are artificial. When Garak begins to explain that it is not difficult to manufacture such a quake, Bashir silences him, given the period they are supposed to be in. The assignment is to find out who is causing the quakes, and the only clue is the recent kidnapping of someone named Professor Honey Bare , a leading seismologist. When Komananov shows Bashir a picture of the professor, it is in fact Dax. Bashir communicates to Garak that they need to ensure that Honey Bare stays alive as if she dies, the computer will remove her from the program and unintentionally erase Dax's pattern. Komananov is about to explain further when the door opens to reveal Mona, who collapses with a knife in her back. She is followed by O'Brien – who is now Falcon , the man with the patch whom Bashir knocked out previously – and two other armed men.

Act Three [ ]

Komananov asks Falcon for one last kiss with Bashir, and Falcon accepts. As they kiss, she tells Bashir to remove her earring ; it's a bomb . He does so, and the bomb knocks out Falcon. Garak, Bashir and Komananov proceed to knock out Falcon's henchmen. Komananov nearly kills O'Brien, but Bashir stops her from doing so. This makes Komananov question his motives, as Falcon has been trying to kill Bashir for nine years. Bashir notices that Garak's mouth is bleeding after the fight, and they realize that the safety mechanisms on the holosuite have been disabled, and that in addition to keeping the five crewmembers' patterns alive in the story, Garak and Bashir must take care to protect their own lives as well. Komananov then proceeds with the mission. She reveals that Hippocrates Noah has been kidnapping the world's best minds for the past six months, and that he had met each one at a club in Paris. Komananov, Bashir and Garak set out to visit the club.

Meanwhile, Odo and Eddington go to the holosuite with Quark and Rom to determine the nature of the crew's integration. Rom has made significant modifications, but Eddington is able to confirm the crew's physical patterns. However, their neural energy cannot be stored there. Quark supposes multiple other systems on the station have been used to do that, as it requires an immense amount of energy.

In the Club, the trio first find Duchamps , who has a striking similarity to Worf . Bashir claims that he is one of the world's leading geologists, and inquires about Dr. Noah and the scientists. Duchamps says that he can arrange a meeting, but only for 5,000,000 francs . Bashir requests a game of cards to win the money from him. Meanwhile, Odo, in Ops reveals that a Cardassian separatist group is responsible for the destruction of the Orinoco . Eddington announces that the neural patterns of all five officers were stored in the rest of the computer memory. They decide to use the Defiant to reassemble the neural and physical patterns of the five victims, though Rom says he needs to modify the system to interface with the ship. Meanwhile, Bashir has won the money in a game of baccarat , and asks to meet with Dr. Noah. Duchamps knocks the trio out with a puff of toxic cigar smoke. When they awaken, a man is ready for them. He introduces himself as Hippocrates Noah, but looks exactly like Benjamin Sisko .

Act Four [ ]

Bashir then notices that the room they are in is atop Mt. Everest . Dr. Noah decides to test Bashir's geological knowledge by showing him one of his artifacts. When Bashir identifies the various stones , Noah then announces his plan, while also revealing a hidden control panel and Professor Bare, with Dax's appearance. He reveals he has placed massive underground lasers in strategic positions, and that he plans to activate them all at once, shrinking the earth, killing all of its inhabitants, and forcing the oceans to cover the entire globe, except the highest point on earth, his complex on Mt. Everest. He then announces that Bashir won't be joining him, and calls for Falcon, who has just been employed by him.

On the Defiant , Rom has successfully managed to complete the modifications to allow the holosuite to interface with the Defiant transporters, but it will take at least another hour.

Falcon straps Bashir and Garak to one of the giant lasers, but says that Komananov will be used as breeding stock for the second Human race. Dr. Noah activates the countdown sequence and leaves.

Act Five [ ]

Once he is gone, Garak almost ends the program, but Bashir stops him. Finally, Honey Bare shows up, and Bashir charms her into coming close enough to steal the key to their restraints, freeing himself and Garak.

Bashir says they have to get back to the control room: according to the program's storyline, one of the two female leads – Anastasia/Kira or Honey/Jadzia – is supposed to end up with the hero, while the other one dies. They have to prevent that from happening to either of them. Garak objects, saying that the odds are against them and it is time to quit. Bashir is appalled, and a heated argument ensues: Garak says that if Bashir was a real spy, and not an overgrown child play-acting at one, he'd understand that there are times when it's better to save oneself than risk one's life against impossible odds. Garak starts to address the computer, but Bashir aims his backup gun at him, reminding him that if he calls for the exit, he may stop the program and kill Sisko and the others. Garak tells Bashir to face reality: he is not a hero, he only likes to pretend to be one, which is why he doesn't have the guts to pull the trigger. Garak starts to call for the exit again – and Bashir pulls the trigger.

Garak goes down with a flesh wound in his neck. Taken aback, he says that Bashir came awfully close to killing him. Bashir coolly asks him, " what makes you think I wasn't trying? " Impressed, Garak voices no further objections as Bashir leads him back to the control room.

Bashir and Garak hold Noah and his henchmen at gunpoint, until Duchamps arrives and disarms them. However, Julian receives a com signal from Eddington: he is going to try rematerializing the patterns in about two minutes. After hearing the signal, Noah decides to kill Bashir. However, Bashir pretends to surrender, believing that Noah has the right idea after all. Noah does not believe a word of it, but Bashir gives a lengthy speech, imitating the conversation that he and Garak had earlier. Noah is still not convinced, so Bashir then does the unthinkable – he activates Noah's machine, destroying all life on the (holographic) Earth. Noah is stunned and unsure what to do next – the program obviously didn't have a script that allowed his plan to actually succeed . Deciding, just to relieve his uncertainty, that he will kill Bashir anyway, he starts to aim his gun… when Rom activates the transporter and rematerializes Sisko, Kira, O'Brien, Worf and Dax. O'Brien is appalled at Rom's messy modifications to the Defiant , not knowing that they saved his life.

Back in the holosuite, Garak congratulates Bashir on his ingenious "solution" – saving the day by destroying the world. The Cardassian has gained a new respect for his Human friend, and proposes that they meet again inside the program at Bashir's apartment in Hong Kong for their next lunch meeting.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" A lot of kick for a '45 Dom . "

" Thank you, Mr…Mr… " " Bashir. Julian Bashir. "

" If I were in your shoes, I'd grab a bottle of champagne and shoot me! "

" We're going to have a wonderful time, Doctor; after all, what could possibly go wrong ?"

" I work for one of the nation-states of this era, Great Britain, which is battling various other nations in what is called the Cold War . This apartment, my clothes, weapons, even my valet were provided to me by my government. " " I think I joined the wrong intelligence service. "

" Where's the core memory interface? " " Oh. It's right behind the spatula. " " The spatula? " " It's made of a copper-ytterbium composite… the perfect plasma conductor! "

"Another decorators nightmare, this era had a distinct lack of taste"

" We are building a new future here, a new beginning for mankind. A new chapter in Human history will open… right here, on my island. " " Island? " " Forgive me. Sometimes I do get ahead of myself. Allow me to explain. "

" Kiss the girl, get the key. They never taught me that in the Obsidian Order. "

" I am afraid I don't believe you'll pull that trigger. " " I wouldn't be so sure about that. " " It's time to face reality, Doctor. You're a man who dreams of being a hero because you know, deep down, that you're not. I'm no hero either, but I do know how to make a choice, and I'm choosing to save myself. "

" You'll be fine. It's just a flesh wound. " " That was awfully close. What if you'd killed me? " " What makes you think I wasn't trying? " " Doctor, I do believe there's hope for you yet. "

" It's working just as you planned! You've done it, doctor. " " Yes. But somehow, I didn't expect to win. "

" Interesting, you saved the day by destroying the world. " " I bet they didn't teach you that in the Obsidian Order. "

" There comes a time when a house has been so damaged by termites that you must not only kill the termites, but demolish the house and build again! "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• The producers were very wary of doing a " holodeck malfunction" story due to the number of times it had been done on The Next Generation , but writer Bob Gillan 's pitch was so unique (using the transporter to 'store' the patterns of the crew in the holodeck matrix) that the producers decided it could make a good episode. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 294)
• The final draft script was submitted on 12 October 1995 . [1] (X)
• The episode's working title was "Untitled Holosuite". [2] (X)

Production [ ]

Winrich Kolbe directing Colm Meaney in this episode

• Most Deep Space Nine episodes shot in seven days, with the occasional episode taking eight. "Our Man Bashir" took nine (with 23 October 1995 being the seventh day of shooting), and according to producer Steve Oster , it had the longest production of any single episode. The main reasons for this were elaborate stunts that took time to set up and reshoot after a take and a large number of complex sets, many of which presented their own unique problems. For example, when the crew arrived to begin shooting in Dr. Noah 's lair, they immediately saw that the backdrop of the Himalayan Mountains had mountains with no snow on them, and as such, it had to be taken down and sent to the scenic crew to add snow, all of which, Oster points out, costs time and money. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 296)
• Winrich Kolbe commented: " A fifty thousand dollar set cost seventy-five thousand dollars because there was twenty-five thousand dollars worth of overtime and weekend work ". ( Cinefantastique , November 1996)
• Robert Blackman commented " The key costumer, Mary Ellen Bosché , and I had a great time, because of all the background, which unfortunately you don't get to see much of in the casino scene. We did a really amazing sort of Monte Carlo, International jet-setter , high roller deal, with lots of furs and fairly expensive rentals. In the shoot they looked pretty amazing, both men and women. African potentates and all manner of people. You can see some of them in the background if you look closely. They are sort of fuzzed out ". ( Outfitting Her Majesty's Secret Service , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Official Poster Magazine , issue 9)
• Jay Chattaway composed the music for the episode. Chattaway commented: " I had to fight pretty hard to get to do that; normally holodeck -type shows you can't get too crazy on. Even " Fistful of Datas ", the way I did those was I scored them in advance and brought in examples to a meeting and said this is what I'd like to do, this is how it would have to be done. And they said fine, you know, don't go crazy, keep it Star Trek , but put those elements in. The challenge on the James Bond thing was to do Bond and not infringe on the copyright. Once you pull something like that off and get good feedback about it they're a little bit less likely to want to put the clamps on ". ( The Music of Star Trek , p 165)
• Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor had become romantically involved by the time this episode was filming.

Reception [ ]

• Although Ronald D. Moore attempted to avoid directly referencing any of his primary influences, it seems that some names and situations skated a little too close for comfort. After this episode aired, the producers got an angry letter from MGM , the studio which holds the rights to the James Bond property. The DS9 Companion doesn't reveal the content of the letter other than to say, " apparently MGM did not find imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery ." As such, in the fifth season episode " A Simple Investigation ", which returns to Bashir's holonovel, the references to Bond are far more subtle. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 295)
• Alexander Siddig commented, I think 'Our Man Bashir' was probably one of the most important in terms of changing attitudes towards Bashir. I think that was probably one of the most-influential episodes. I don’t know if it’s one of the best, but it is certainly super-influential. I remember opinions began to change after that episode. So that would probably be an important one, historically. " [3] Ron Moore concurred: " It was an important episode for Siddig’s character. At the time, we were still trying to figure out how best to use Bashir and give him agency, because we cast such a talented and versatile actor to play this character. You want to service those talents and the character the best way you can. And I remember there was this sort of change in how Bashir was treated and perceived by the fans, at least in our experience, from that point on. And I think Siddig said as much in interviews at the time or whatever. It was really a key moment for the character, a fun turning point for him, that helped us as writers when it came to find more stories for him to do. " [4]
• This is one of Nana Visitor 's favorite Deep Space Nine episodes: " it was so much fun, that show was a joy to do. How many times, you know, is it a necessity to do a bad Russian accent? I was in heaven. It was ideal for me. And to come out of a wall in a round bed? It just doesn't get better than that ." ( Hidden File 03 , DS9 Season 4 DVD special features)
• Andrew Robinson commented, " the James Bond spoof that we did, that was a lot of fun. It was hellacious to film, because I probably spent more hours in that makeup on that show than any other show. The show was a bear. They really were trying to make a James Bond movie, but it was an enormous amount of fun. And I thought that Winrich Kolbe, the director, did a wonderful job on it. Unfortunately, we ran afoul of the James Bond people, and we were going to do a lot of those, but that was the one and only" . [5] (X)
• Tor.com rated the episode as 9/10 [6] and Jammer rated it 3/4 stars. [7]

James Bond homages [ ]

• Siddig commented: " It's 'The Spy Who Loved Me', 'From Russia with Love', 'Octopussy' and 'DS9' all rolled into one " . [8]
• This episode is a homage to spy movies, particularly Ian Fleming 's James Bond series. The title is a homage to the 1966 Daniel Mann film Our Man Flint , which itself is a parody of James Bond . It was Ronald D. Moore who decided to set the episode in a '60s spy thriller style setting. Other influences were the TV shows The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Wild Wild West , and the Matt Helm novels by Donald Hamilton . Moore commented: " It was a very ambitious episode, and the sets were amazing. Especially the evil villain’s lair set. It was great to see the production value put into what was our version of, an homage to the classic volcanic lair-type sets that Ken Adams made back in the day. I mean, it was the closest thing you got to making a Bond movie… It was one of our more challenging shoots, too, if I recall. I had always loved the classic James Bond movies, I grew up with the Sean Connery films, so it was a great opportunity to combine a version of them with another thing I loved, which was Star Trek. " [9]
• The line " Bashir. Julian Bashir. " is a parody of " Bond. James Bond. "
• The characters and situations of Bashir's holonovel are reminiscent of several Bond movies. In the holonovel, Hippocrates Noah plans to use lasers concentrated around Earth to cause a chain reaction that will flood the planet and allow him to start a new Human race on Mount Everest . Similarly, Moonraker features a billionaire who plans to poison Earth and start over in outer space, while The Spy Who Loved Me revolves around a plan to cause nuclear war and begin a new civilization under the sea. Dr. Noah himself evokes the theatrical version of Dr. Julius No , especially in terms of wardrobe (the Nehru jacket ) and name – although the name is also a play on the Biblical Noah .
• Robert Hewitt Wolfe came up with the name of Anastasia Komananov , while Ira Steven Behr came up with Mona Luvsitt and Hippocrates Noah . ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 295) Colonel Anastasia Komananov is a homage to the cliche of agents from opposing countries (most often Britain and the Soviet Union) falling in love with each other, usually found in spy films and parodies. Bond did this at least twice, with Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love and with Major Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me . Honey Bare , Colonel Anastasia Komananov and Mona Luvsitt are obvious references to Bond girls having names indicating sexual innuendo. This tradition dates back to Dr. No , which featured the name "Honey Ryder", played by Ursula Andress .
• Bashir uses a Walther PPK as his weapon, which is the signature weapon of James Bond. The episode features several period-correct (1964) firearms, including Bashir's blue-steel Walther PPK , which he brandishes but never fires, the henchmen's Walther P38s , which was a popular handgun in TV shows and movies of the period, and Falcon's actually quite historically accurate Hi-Standard HDM (X) , a .22 caliber automatic which was frequently equipped with an integral suppressor (though Falcon's is not) and used in assassinations. The least historically accurate is Dr. Noah's PPK, which is made from stainless steel, something not done before the 1980s.
• The character of Duchamps is a homage/parody of "Le Chiffre", the villain of the first Bond novel, Casino Royale . Both sport the same style of clothing, a French name, and a lust for playing cards. Inspiration might also have been drawn from "Emilio Largo", the antagonist of the film Thunderball , who also dressed in a white dinner jacket and was second-in-command to the leader of a large criminal organization as well. Worf, as Duchamps , uses stun gas concealed in a cigar, a direct Bond homage to Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me , who disables Bond in exactly the same fashion, albeit with a cigarette, not a cigar.
• The opening champagne-gun scene (a story idea to use the champagne cork to knock out Falcon was Hans Beimler 's) ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. 295) is a homage to a scene in Goldfinger just before the opening credits. In the movie, Bond enters the quarters of a beautiful woman who has just gotten out of a bath. Spotting an assassin in the iris of the woman, Bond throws the man into the tub and electrocutes him by knocking a heat lamp into it. Much like Bashir's witticism (" A lot of kick for a '45 Dom "), Bond says, " Shocking. Positively shocking ." Besides this, Dom Pérignon is Bond's preferred champagne in many of the films.
• When Bashir describes his fall from the dirigible – " I had a parachute… and there was a submarine waiting for me " – this is more than likely a reference to The Spy Who Loved Me (in which Bond escapes to safety via parachute) and A View to a Kill (in which Bond finds a submarine waiting for him after a ski chase).
• This episode aired ten days after the release of GoldenEye , the first Bond film in six years, the first of the James Bond pictures to feature Pierce Brosnan and generally considered the picture that revived the then-dormant Bond franchise (which had gone quiet for a period thanks to legal issues between MGM and the Bond producers). In addition to being an interesting Bond homage in its own right, it was intended to capitalize on some of the Bond pre-release excitement.
• Bashir's game of baccarat , in which he wins the fee for a visit with Hippocrates Noah by assuming he can win Duchamps ' money, is yet another Bond homage, for Bond frequently took similar risks and was fond of card games such as baccarat.
• At one point, Bashir warns Garak that the program is supposed to end with either Honey Bare or Anastasia Komananov dying and the other ending up with him. Yet another classic element of James Bond is that, although Bond usually has sex with several women over the course of a film, he often ends up with one of them in bed for the final scene (with the others either going back to their respective lives or dying).
• Another obvious homage to Bond is that Noah explains his plan in great detail shortly before he plans to kill Bashir – Bond villains have the tendency to do this. After Bashir floods the Earth intentionally (" You've destroyed ze vorld !" Anastasia exclaims), Noah observes that somehow he didn't expect to win.
• Noah tries to kill Bashir by tying Bashir and Garak to one of his lasers, which is set to flood the room with molten lava. This may have been a reference to Moonraker , for in that movie, the villain confines Bond and Holly Goodhead to an area below his rocket, intending to incinerate them when it launches. In any case, it is typical Bond style for the villain to pass up the chance for an "easy kill" and allow Bond a method of escape.
• Bashir escapes by convincing Honey Bare to switch sides by appealing to her femininity. Bond turning female accomplices to his side through aggressive sexual advances was a fairly common plot point in the films, most notably in Goldfinger. Even the later Bond films themselves would joke about this trope.
• At the end of the episode, Bashir tells Garak, " I think it's safe to say that Julian Bashir, secret agent, will return. ," which is a reference to the end credits of many Bond films which conclude with " James Bond will return… "
• Later episodes establish Bashir's friend Felix as the creator of his holographic programs, which may be a reference to Bond ally Felix Leiter, a CIA agent in the books and films.

Continuity [ ]

• The fifth season episode " A Simple Investigation " indicated that Bashir continued to enjoy the Julian Bashir, Secret Agent series of holonovels . By the time of "Investigation", however, Bashir had involved other members of the senior staff in his fandom. In that episode, various members of the senior staff are shown to be volunteering to play various roles in one of Felix 's follow-ups to the adventure seen in "Our Man Bashir". However, O'Brien is less than enthusiastic at having to play Falcon "again". Also, Bashir may have redesigned Komananov to actually look like Kira, as Vic mentions in "His Way" that he took Kira's image from Bashir's secret agent program.
• Komananov 's confusion over Kira 's name (" Who is this… Nerys Kira ?") is one of the few instances in which the issue of Bajoran name order is addressed. Early on in the series, many fans were just as oblivious as Komananov to the fact that Bajoran surnames come first (it was first clarified in " Progress "), although it had been established in TNG : " Ensign Ro " prior to DS9's premiere. The name order is similar to Chinese and Hungarian names rendered in English, and thus although Kira's name is "Kira Nerys," "Kira" is the major's surname.
• Amid Rom 's modifications to the holosuite systems, he mentions a spatula, and one of the pieces that can be clearly seen is a pot strainer, another kitchen utensil.
• The True Way is mentioned for the first time in this episode.
• 47 appears (reversed) as Dr. Noah mentions he has 74 lasers deployed around the world.
• Cirroc Lofton ( Jake Sisko ) does not appear in this episode.
• This episode aired on the same day as VOY : " Resistance ", which was also directed by Winrich Kolbe .
• This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series (along with VOY : " Persistence of Vision ") and Outstanding Music Composition for a Series ( Jay Chattaway ).

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 4.5, 13 May 1996
• As part of the DS9 Season 4 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Avery Brooks as Captain Sisko / Hippocrates Noah

Also starring [ ]

• Rene Auberjonois as Odo
• Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf / Duchamps
• Terry Farrell as Lt. Commander Dax / Honey Bare
• Colm Meaney as Chief O'Brien / Falcon
• Armin Shimerman as Quark
• Alexander Siddig as Doctor Bashir
• Nana Visitor as Major Kira / Anastasia Komananov

Guest stars [ ]

• Max Grodénchik as Rom
• Kenneth Marshall as Michael Eddington

Special guest star [ ]

• Andrew Robinson as Garak

Co-stars [ ]

• Melissa Young as Caprice
• Marci Brickhouse as Mona Luvsitt

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Steve Carnahan as Club Ingenue maitre'd
• B.J. Davis as Falcon's henchman
• Pam DeMarche as Club Ingenue go-go dancer
• Kathleen Demor
• Steve Diamond as Bajoran command officer
• Judi Durand
• Suzanne Ircha as Club Ingenue go-go dancer
• Stuart Nixon
• Robin Ritter as sciences officer
• Steve Rizzo as Falcon's henchman
• Dan Rose as Bajoran ops officer
• Peter Singh as majordomo
• Mark Yerkes as Falcon
• Steve Yudson as Club Ingenue clientele
• Club Ingenue croupier
• Two Club Ingenue servers
• Starfleet ops crewman

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Dennis Madalone as stunt double for Colm Meaney
• Chester E. Tripp III as stunt double for Andrew Robinson
• Unknown stuntwoman as stunt double for Nana Visitor

References [ ]

20th century ; 1945 ; 1955 ; 1964 ; anarchist ; baccarat ; baccarat player ; balloon ; biology ; bomb ; brandy ; bruise ; Cardassia ; Cardassian ; champagne ; chemistry ; Christmas ; cigar ; clipboard ; club ; Club Ingenue ; colonel ; command control system ; computer ; computer memory ; copper ; copper-ytterbium composite ; core memory interface ; decor ; decorator ; Defiant , USS ; deflector ; dilettante ; dirigible ; Dom Pérignon ; earring ; Earth ; Earth Cold War ; ego ; era ; eyepatch ; Federation ; flesh wound ; franc ; geologist ; geology ; glasses ; Great Britain ; handcuffs ; heart ; helicopter ; High Standard HDM ; holo-imaging array ; holosuite ; holosuite memory core ; Hong Kong ; Iceland ; impulse engine ; intelligence agent ; jet ; jet-setter ; Julian Bashir, Secret Agent ; KGB ; kiss ; Kowloon ; lab coat ; laser ; magnetic interlock ; mantle ; martini ; Mauser C96 ; Merriweather, Patrick ; money ; Mount Everest ; Nambu pistol ; nation-state ; neural energy ; New York City ; nightmare ; Obsidian Order ; Orinoco , USS ; parachute ; Paris ; pattern buffer ; physics ; plasma ; plasma coil ; plasma conductor ; primary energizing coil ; professionalism ; quantum level ; replicator ; retreat (location) ; ruby ; runabout ; Russian ; sapphire ; secret agent ; seismology ; separatist ; shoe gun ; South America ; spatula ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Command ; submarine ; suspenders ; suspect ; termite ; Tibetan plateau ; time period ; topaz ; tourist ; tourmaline ; transporter ; transporter accident ; transporter beam ; transporter pattern ; tricorder ; True Way ; visionary ; Vladivostok ; Walther P38 ; Walther PP ; warp core ; warp core breach ; ytterbium

Deleted scenes reference [ ]

• Tholian ambassador

External links [ ]

• " Our Man Bashir " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Our Man Bashir " at Wikipedia
• " Our Man Bashir " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• " Our Man Bashir " at the Internet Movie Database
• "Our Man Bashir" script  at Star Trek Minutiae
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S04E10 "Our Man Bashir" » Recap

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Meanwhile, the Orinoco has just returned from a conference with Sisko, Kira, Worf, O'Brien, and Dax aboard. An engine malfunction, apparently the result of sabotage, forces Eddington in Ops to beam them out just as the runabout explodes. Feedback from the explosion shorts out the energizer coils, leaving the five crewmembers trapped with no way to rematerialize. To prevent their patterns from being lost in the buffer, Eddington makes an unprecedented move and attempts to save the patterns to the station's computer. The massive amount of storage required by their complex neural pathways causes nearly the entire station to shut down, leaving them in the dark, uncertain if the process even worked.

Oddly, Bashir's holosuite program is unaffected. As Bashir is filling Garak in on the details of the Bond spy life, they are interrupted by a friendly KGB spy, Colonel Komananov, played by none other than Kira Nerys with a bad Russian accent. After a talk with Ops, they come to the conclusion that the physical patterns of the runabout crew were stored as characters in Bashir's program. He and Garak must continue to play out the holosuite adventure. With the computer unstable, trying to leave or shut down the program could erase the crew's patterns.

In the story, Komananov reveals Bashir's mission, which is to investigate a series of artificial earthquakes coinciding with the kidnapping of several leading geologists. One of them is a Dr. Honey Bare, replaced by Dax, who will suffer a plot-mandated death if Bashir and Garak don't play along with the story. And if Bare dies, Dax dies too.

The group is interrupted by Falcon, the henchman from the prologue, only he now wears O'Brien's face. After subduing him and his minions, Bashir and Garak realize that the holosuite safeties are off. When Bashir stops Komananov from finishing off Falcon, Garak points out that the goon now poses a mortal threat to them, but Bashir refuses to sacrifice anyone unless absolutely necessary. Outside the holosuite, Rom is MacGyvering an interface with the Defiant that will let them use its transporter to merge the crew's physical and neural patterns.

Bashir's next stop is a casino in Paris, posing as a geologist in hopes of being picked up by the same people who abducted Bare. They meet Mr. Duchamps (Worf), who kidnaps them to a retreat high on Mt. Everest owned by his employer, Big Bad and Large Ham extraordinaire Hippocrates Noah (Sisko).

There, Noah tells Bashir the details of his Evil Plan , which is to drill into the Earth's crust with giant lasers scattered across the globe, releasing tons of magma and causing the oceans to rise. The only land mass left above sea level would be his own, where he can create a new world in his image.

Being a Bond villain , Noah arranges a suitably contrived execution for Bashir and Garak by handcuffing them to one of his lasers set on a 5-minute countdown. While Honey Bare is doing some final checks for the laser, Bashir manages to seduce her into giving him a goodbye kiss, during which he pickpockets the key to their cuffs.

Bashir assembles a Scaramanga Special and heads back toward the control room to ensure neither Bare nor Komananov will suffer a scripted death, but Garak has had enough. He insists that Bashir is being foolishly idealistic, putting both of them at excessive risk trying to save everyone instead of making the pragmatic choice as a real spy would. Bashir retorts that, danger notwithstanding, the program still follows the rules of his Spy Fiction , which gives them the advantage. Garak is unconvinced and goes for the exit, so Bashir shoots him. The wound is only superficial , but Garak is so impressed by Bashir's display that he falls in line.

Rom and the others are almost ready to save the crew, but Bashir and Garak need to buy them some time. In the control room, though they take Noah by surprise, they are quickly ambushed themselves by Duchamps, leaving them in a precarious situation. Bashir goes on a lengthy speech about how he's accepted the futility of his position - a speech mostly cribbed from Garak's own just a moment ago - and goes so far as to trigger the Big Red Button himself, destroying the world. Noah muses about how he didn't expect to win before turning his gun on Bashir anyway , but Rom comes through at the last second and the five crewmembers are beamed out of the holosuite and onto the Defiant with both mind and body intact.

As they're leaving, Garak admits to feeling educated by the experience, and suggests they enjoy the program together again tomorrow, if Bashir still feels up to it. The doctor responds, "Oh, I think it's safe to say that Julian Bashir, Secret Agent, will return ."

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

“Our Man Bashir”

Air date: 11/27/1995 Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore Story by Robert Gillan Directed by Winrich Kolbe

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"Kiss the girl, get the key. They never taught me that in the Obsidian Order." — Garak

Review Text

Nutshell: A rather absurd premise, but it's put to good use. Very clever and funny.

"Our Man Bashir" is a lot like " Little Green Men " in that it is a comedic episode that has little bearing on the season or the series, and not really much bearing on the characters either. But it is different from "Little Green Men" in that it is a comedy with a little more spice and satire, and not so much a single joke that always seems on the verge of running out of steam.

It's nice to see that the series has the ability not to always take itself seriously—that it can step back and be downright ludicrous and still manage to hold our attention. This time, a freak transporter accident sends nearly the entire senior staff into the holosuite. (You would think we're in for trouble when the story begins with not one, but two Trek clichés, but never mind that now.) The premise is about one step away from total incredulity: When Sisko & Crew's Runabout explodes in the process of an emergency beam-out gone awry, Odo and Eddington frantically free enough computer memory to save their brain patterns (some extremely large clusters of data) in the station's computer. Somehow, the data ends up in the middle of Bashir's James Bond-type fantasy holosuite program, and holosuite characters begin to take on the forms of DS9's senior officers.

This premise is no more than an excuse to plug the characters into Bond movie milieu, with Bashir in the title role. Considering the release of the Goldeneye feature, "Our Man Bashir" couldn't be more timely. This episode takes great joy in poking fun at the larger-than-life nature of the Bond films. Naturally, Garak, who tags along to observe Bashir's fantasy life, gets the always-welcome lines of humorously biting sarcasm.

Bashir—Julian Bashir, that is—is having lots of fun defeating the villains and getting the girls in his holosuite fantasy (the episode opens with a ridiculously amusing scene where Bashir knocks out a bad guy by popping the cork of a champagne bottle into the villain's forehead). But things turn serious when Eddington informs him that if he attempts to leave the holodeck he risks erasing the data of the senior staff's transporter patterns. So Bashir must keep the program running until Odo and Eddington can come up with a solution. Wait...did I mention the holosuite safeties are disabled? Do I have to?

From here we follow Bashir and Garak through their adventure to save the world. "Our Man Bashir" has everything a Bond movie would need. There's the Sexy Woman Agent with an Accent (named Anastasia and replaced with Kira's image); the One-eyed Hitman with a Score to Settle (named Falcon and played by O'Brien); the Female Scientist with a Silly Name (Honey Bare, played by Dax); the Tuxedoed Gambling Mobster (Duchamps, played by Worf); and, of course, the Megalomaniacal Villain Trying to Destroy the World (Dr. Noah, played by Sisko).

Do you care about the plot? In all honesty, one of the weaknesses of this episode is how it tries to give us a plot to digest which turns out to be a fairly meaningless exercise simply because it doesn't matter. Do you really care if Dr. Noah is able to accomplish the absurdly unfathomable goal of destroying the world? I didn't, but then again, it doesn't much matter whether the holo-story means anything, because what this episode is about is the role playing chemistry and the acerbic banter between Bashir and Garak—and these elements work.

It's fun watching Bashir and Garak get into the typical spy movie jams. There's one crazy scene where Noah has them chained up in a cave where a laser is ready to drill into the ground and cause molten lava to fill the cavern. Garak's dry observation: "I only know one thing for sure, Doctor...when the molten lava begins pouring into this cave, you and I are going to be very uncomfortable." There's also his classic line, "I must say, Doctor, this is more than I ever wanted to know about your fantasy life"—one of the most appropriately timed lines in quite a while. These two are as fun to watch here as ever, and the episode's shining scene—where Garak reveals that being a spy means cutting your losses and giving up when things get tough—reveals the fundamental difference between the grim kind of espionage the Obsidian Order had made their business, and the superficial comic book adventures Bashir plays in his fantasies.

Winrich Kolbe's direction reveals a capable comic side (although the closing scenes get almost too hyperkinetic despite a waning supply of fresh dialogue). The performances in "Our Man Bashir" are right where they should be—way over-the-top. Avery Brooks as the very-insane Dr. Noah is a particularly goofy delight. Nana Visitor's accent sounds surprisingly good, and just seeing Worf in a tuxedo while lighting up a cigar is reason enough to watch the episode. Also, Jay Chattaway's appropriate Bond-style score is a pleasant change of pace.

If there's something this episode says through its satirical nature, it's that the Bond movies are just highly unlikely, stylized, comic book stories to be taken at the most basic entertainment level. "Our Man Bashir," similarly, is one zany, preposterous, amusing episode.

Previous episode: The Sword of Kahless Next episode: Homefront

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107 comments on this post, aj koravkrian.

Why would they make the premise so ridiculous though ? You need entire space station's data worth of computer memory to store their brain patterns ? How stupid is that ? Do they mean to say that the space station's transporter can't hold more than a couple of people into the transporter buffer ? What about when Voyager holds all those telepathic aliens into the cargo bay transporter buffer ? Why, oh why would they do this to us ?

Because, like most things on Voyager, the Aliens are dumbed down with limited mental capacity. Thus, more of their minds could be stored in less area.

Do I care about the plot? Of course! It's a bit silly but it's allright. I think many times you are over-analyzing and trying too hard to be a reviewer.

If you really care about a plausible reason as to why the stations computers couldn't hold the patterns, well its a Cardassian station. I suspect if this were a Federation starship or starbase it wouldn't be a problem but is just an old mining station.

Watching a holodeck episode is the 24th century equivalent of watching our favourite characters watch TV. I don't care and it's a waste of time. This was a snoozer that only had laughs because it was laughably bad. Next!

I enjoyed this one, & find it interesting that this episode aired at roughly the same time that the Bond film Goldeneye was in theaters. Likewise, TNG's equally memorable "A Fistful of Datas" aired more or less the same time Unforgiven was in cinemas. An interesting coincidence these 2 holodeck episodes share.

This was just intended to be a good time, and that is how I took it. I got the feeling the actors, director, writers, set designers, et all really let loose and enjoyed themselves. It was just a fun romp to see our characters in new, but also stereotypical roles. :)

Anthony2816

How come when the lasers that Bashir and Garak had been chained to were activated, and the five minute countdown was well underway, Dr. Honey Bare chose that moment to saunter in and begin a casual review of the controls? Just askin'...

Peter Cordes

Normally in a spy movie, the goal is to thwart the villain. Thinking outside the box, realizing that was unnecessary, was creative. The goal here was to keep all the characters alive, and the idea of the super-spy having a goal other than stopping the bad guy made the last few scenes novel.

Jacobian Tee Teetertotter the Third

Its great that Julian can actually be himself in the holodeck, being genetically enhanched and all it is possible that he could do those things which would be a fantasy for most people to be Bond, but not for the genetically enhanched Doctor Bashir. I got this idea from the SFDerbis fellow and thought it so clever I had to post it here, because it truely is the great irony of this episode. And as a Bond Fan its great fun! Here ye here ye Calling all Bond fans, now you can be Deep Space fans to if only for a day!3 popcorns. Also liked the bit about neural energy being able to be stored in a computer. I thought this to be intersting, because i would think when i die, that engery must go somewhere, where does it go? Hope i have a deep space nine nearby to escape death

Latex Zebra

Finally watched this on my box set Sunday night. This had always seem an inconsequential episode. I liked it. Earns a couple of stars for a valet named Mona Lovesit. I also thought the end, which turned spy conventions on its head, as Julian attempted to buy time was excellent, as was the villians response. 3 stars seems very fair for this.

This is not a bad episode, but I would have enjoyed it a little more if it wasn't scheduled so closely to Little Green Men. Both are "silly" episodes taking place in 20th century settings with no impact on any of the major DS9 story arcs. Still, I did enjoy how they remixed the DS9 theme music into a 60s-James-Bond espionage style.

Cail Corishev

A fun episode, but I do wish they could have come up with something more plausible than "the entire station doesn't have as much RAM as one set of transporters." That took a while to get past. There's no way that makes sense, in any era or with any technology. That's nearly as bad as Voyager getting away with running the holodocks 24/7 because they use a "different kind of energy" than the rest of the ship. Nice to see Sisko chewing the scenery on purpose, though. And Julian wants to be a real spy so badly that it's fun to watch him play at it. Garak steals his scenes as usual, especially with his remark that he's been spying for the wrong intelligence service.

Not a fan of most holodeck episodes, but this one was pretty fun. And I like the additional insight into Cardassian vs. Human approach.

Kira's accent is hilarious - the rest is irrelevant... Maybe Dax as a mad scientist too.

I mean... How did they manage to shoot it? They must have rolled on the flour every time Kira had started to speak.

And the very final lick on guitar, taken straight from TNG theme.

ProgHead777

"You've destroyed zee vorld!" ~a shocked and dismayed Anastasia to Julian Bashir, secret agent XD This one was a hoot! Anyone who spent any time analyzing the premise missed the point. This episode was a sugar pill to gird us for what was immediately to follow. That's all. It's okay for a show to have silly fun once in a while. Even Star Trek.

floodgeology

I loved how Garak pointed out the upsurdity of everything (even up to including the 60's distint lack of bad taste in decoration) He's what pulled off the episode. Also, is it coincidental that Julian Bashir and James Bond have the same initials?

The best "just for fun" episode of the series thus far. 8/10

Third filler episode in a row... What did we do do to deserve that?? I really enjoyed Little Green Men but the Indiana Jones and the Bond rip-offs ("omg! we don't know what to do! oh I know, how about we ripoff another genre so we don't have to come up with an actual original story??") The only thing interesting here is Garak, but he speaks for only 5 min in the whole episode, which leaves 40 minutes of murderous boredom...

Not crazy about two comedy episodes back to back. It killed an hour, but I'm not crazy about the James Bond stuff or technobabble and this episode had a lot of both. Plus Bashir's not exactly one of my favorite characters. O'Brien, Worf, and Sisko as the villains were much more entertaining. It was interesting, but I probably won't watch this one again.

I agree over-analyzing this type of episode is completely missing the point. I actually didn't find the premise all that absurd either. It's been stated before in Trek that holding transporter activity within the buffer can cause degradation of the signal. Seeing as its still a Cardassian transporter system and an old mining station to boot, it seems feasible the memory required to keep the signals stable would take up so much resources. As it is, this was a really fun episode and is obvious their was a lot of fun put into it by all involved. I'd say high end of 3 stars.

Not gonna lie, I was laughing from the moment the champagne popped, to every completely absurd Bond-ehr... Bashir girl name cooked up (Mona Luvs... What, exactly?), to Garak being Garak, to Kira giving the most hilarious "DA" I've ever heard (not that I hear much Russian)... But out of all of it, EVIL MASTERMIND OF MOUNT (SOON TO BE ISLE) EVEREST BENJAMIN SISKO was where I just lost it. It's like Brooks crossed Sisko's normal talking with Mirror Sisko's enthusiastic rabblerousing, and I just couldn't stop laughing. Granted, I missed sleep last night, so it could just be the delirium talkin', but this was quite enjoyable. Also, some of the most memorable music in Star Trek since The Inner Light (which REALLLLY feels twisted to say, now that I think of it), they really went all out. Well played DS9. Somehow, this feels like a redemption after having to put up with those dull, plodding Dixon Hill episodes back in TNG. I'm hesitant to give this three and a half stars because of a lack of real plot... How about 3.33 repeating stars?

Looks like this was fun for the actors, especially playing the villains. Kira looks great as a Bond girl too. A shame Sisko didn't put on a stronger hammy accent. I did love how nonchalant everyone was on that shuttle during the set up about their possible death 'in 10 seconds.'

And so the DS9 holodeck episodes begin... "GARAK: I must say, Major Kira's certainly throwing herself into the role, Doctor." "BASHIR: Honey, would you grant me one last request and take off those glasses?" Lots of fun and eye candy in this episode. Garak in a tux... :-) Hammy 5 minute countdown... just long enough for Bashir and Garak to be rescued... 3 stars for me. These are much more enjoyable than the DS9 'Mirror' episodes.

I'm going to be a wet blanket and just say that this episode is... boring. Outside of the initial amusement of seeing the sprinkled introductions of each character as a spy cliche, the episode just kind of trudged along. The Eddington-Rom side of the story was perfunctory and the in-suite plot didn't really stay all that entertaining. 2 stars by Jammer's system, IMO. Watchable and nothing more, but not aggressively bad.

I accidentally fell asleep on this one about 30 minutes in. I don't care enough to see the ending, either.

With all that seismic activity and continental flooding at the end, they should have felt something even on Everest. And even if the top of Everest ultimate sat above the new sea level, it would have been inundated with tsunami waves before things settled down. Here we don;r even hear anything. Pretty lousy holosuite programming.

Why would they make the premise so ridiculous though ? You need entire space station's data worth of computer memory to store their brain patterns ? How stupid is that ? Do they mean to say that the space station's transporter can't hold more than a couple of people into the transporter buffer ? What about when Voyager holds all those telepathic aliens into the cargo bay transporter buffer ? Why, oh why would they do this to us ? --------- You're barking up the wrong tree. The whole premise of the episode is literally scientifically impossible. I dislike episodes like this for the reason that they hurt continuity in the universe the fiction is set in. We can never again feel any tension through "last second" beam outs... since we know even if something goes wrong during it, magic can fix all. Taken as a standalone episode, this episode is very funny and entertaining. Even Sisko's overacting which is no different to his normal acting.

Speaking as a geology graduate, i can confirm sisko's plan wouldnt work!

This is a weirdly fanfic-y episode, and I don't actually mean that in a bad way; "Garak tags along in Bashir's sexy Bond-movie holodeck program, and then the characters are replaced by the main cast!" is so outrageously silly and yet so obviously a ticket for fun that it seems more fannish than most episode premises. I guess that is generally true of holodeck episodes, and the closest analogue in TNG is "A Fistful of Datas," which is basically the same premise except with Data instead of the whole cast; while I like "AFoD" more than it seems most of the commenters on this site do, "Our Man Bashir" definitely picks a more specific target, comes up with a better goal for the characters to have, and sets up a better conflict between the holodeck-goers as they play off the main cast-as-holocharacters, and is just generally funnier and more fun, and so it's basically better in mostly every way. First, the bad: well, okay, there is the whole ludicrousness of the transporter idea, but I'm not really that bothered about it. As with "The Sword of Kahless," though, I cry foul on characterization a little here, but unlike "TSoK" 1) the episode is clearly all in good fun, and 2) it's more of an annoyance than a character-destruction. The episode's main flaw to me is that Garak's bringing up his Obsidian Order past again and again is pretty flatly out of character from what we have seen from him across three seasons, and there is the occasional sense in this story that Bashir is right and that Garak really is more invested in teaching Bashir some kind of lesson about spy professionalism than he is in the life-and-death crisis they are in -- which we see, for example, in the way Garak pretty instantly drops his desire to end the computer program when Bashir shoots him, in a way that seems to be more because Bashir impressed him than that he seems genuinely afraid of what Bashir will do (in the next few scenes, e.g.). Along similar lines, Garak to some degree plays a bit of a wet blanket on the fun, pointing out how un-spy-like the Bond parody is, and eventually mostly offering little while Bashir makes the big creative play at the end of the episode. And I can see it, really I can, but it seems like a waste of Garak's talents to have him basically play the straight man to Bashir; Garak is a pragmatist, yes, but he is not a dullard but is in fact incredibly creative. Having Garak straight-up talk about how he used to be in the Order and be unable to see the value in fantasy at all runs counter to the Garak who would never tell the truth when a lie would do, who thought that the truth was sometimes just an excuse for a lack of imagination, and who prided himself on being a true original at all times. I think there is a way to salvage this characterization though: as my girlfriend pointed out after watching, the Obsidian Order has just been destroyed, and we know from how the series plays out how genuinely unhappy this makes Garak, underneath it all. For Garak to drop pretense about being a spy only after his organization has been destroyed does make some sense, and further for Garak to start getting high-and-mighty about proper spy procedure similarly makes a whole lot more sense when you consider that he is defending his idealized image of the ruthless but effective spy agency when his whole spy agency just got totally wiped out. Bashir's interpretation that Garak is basically pouting because Bashir's fantasy life is stepping on Garak's toes then is true, but with an additional element of cruelty that Bashir fails to consider: Bashir's fantasy makes comic and silly something important to Garak that has also just been totally annihilated. That Garak was not even quite the type of spy he seems to be standing in for here may just be because Garak is still in mourning for a whole organization which is very farcically misrepresented by the Bond-like program. Which is to say that while this episode is clearly a zippy adventure-comedy, and there is not quite enough justification for how Garak behaves here, it does better than other adventures ("TSoK") or comedies ("Little Green Men" -- though that one is closer to this one in quality) at integrating longstanding characterization dynamics. Garak enters Bashir's personal space, is affable and joking about his disapproval, but even from the first scene the conflict is set up clearly, even with foreshadowing (Garak suggests that Bashir "shoot him," albeit with a cork, in the teaser!). And Garak finds himself amused that Bashir has such an interest in the way the adult world works, and plays along with it for a while, but finally it's as if years of bottled annoyance (which only briefly came out in "The Wire") come out at once and he tells Bashir off for his naivete and insistence on his ludicrous belief that he can save everyone; Bashir can play in his fantasy land all he wants, but when it's time to live in the real world, it's Garak who will make the decisions. Bashir's shooting Garak to let him know he means business allows Bashir to reclaim the value of idealism and creativity as opposed to Garak's pragmatism, while also showing that he's willing to use a few Garak tactics of his own. And I do basically like that since this is Bashir's fantasy that they are running around in, Bashir mostly can succeed in the ways he fails at life. The way he seduces bookish, quiet "Dr. Honey Bear" and lets her see her own beauty plays out like Bashir has finally figured out how to hit on s1-era Jadzia (who was serene and quiet at that time). He has Kira's romantic attentions, and the other men in his life, all of whom have some kind of authority either as senior command officers (Sisko, Worf) or as the experienced heavy (O'Brien, who let's not forget trashed Bashir's work in "Hippocratic Oath"), are portrayed as villains out to get him, but with whom Bashir is unflappably cool and not frightened. He did not even intend this assortment (it's more a matter of the fact that the Bond-like program basically has all women as romantic interests and all men as villainous rivals, because this is a very adolescent fantasy), but his ability to navigate it matches up with his growing confidence. Things almost always get real in the holodeck, which is one of the more regular and somewhat frustrating cliches of Trekdom, but I like that here, Bashir and Garak can decide to stop playing at any time, it's just that their duty to others requires they keep going. In the end, while the casting of Garak as something of a square who doesn't get why ridiculous flights of fantasy are good is a bit silly, he sees the value in them, and Bashir play-acts his way a little closer to confidence in everyday life. Along the way, there are a lot of jokes, the always-enjoyable Bashir-Garak team-up, and the reveal that, yes, genre exercises are not always about verisimilitude but about creativity and fun. A very high 3 stars -- if Garak were allowed to be a tiny bit more Garak-y it could be higher.

Oh, right -- Avery Brooks as the mad scientist is so perfect. One of my favourite ludicrous details: did Bashir and Garak actually get knocked unconscious by Worf/Duchamps' exploding knock-out gas cigar? I know I just wrote that last comment a minute ago, but on slightly further reflection I actually do think that Garak being deeply impressed after Bashir shoots him makes sense and is delightful. The issue is not, I think, that Garak really believes that he has no choice but to go along with Bashir now that Bashir is armed-and-dangerous; I think if Garak wanted to he could dive behind someone, end program, and that'd be that. However, I think he genuinely only believed that Bashir had whatever it takes to recognize the severity of their situation once he saw that Bashir was willing to make a choice -- to shoot Garak -- and that mostly restored confidence that Bashir knew what he was doing, in this particular situation, and allowed Garak to change his mind and go for the ride. To some extent, Garak always took a kind of professorial tone with Bashir, indulging Bashir's opinions but usually telling him why Bashir was wrong about the world, but he also has big respect for Bashir from "The Wire" among other places. For Bashir to stand up to him like that does make him back down, at the very least to see what happens next. Garak's pragmatism and recommendation not to try to be a hero are perfectly in character, as is his frustration with Bashir's version of spy-hero. I just feel a little bit like they have Garak too literal-minded and too explicit about his past, and I still think it's a shame that he doesn't quite *do* that much, though he does give Bashir the idea for his end solution -- because he can't be a hero and save everyone, Bashir decides to save everyone by not being a hero, demonstrating that rather than being too caught up in his fantasy to know what is important, he knows exactly what is important and throws the fantasy in a hilarious way, to save the day. It's all very neat; I think it's a well-constructed hour.

Not as bad as "A Fistful of Datas" or "Bride of Chaotica!" but I thought this was much worse than "Little Green Men," the Anastasia and Noah characters, though the former and Falcon were cute, felt too stretched-out one-notes and not enough was done with the others. Also having watched the Flynt movies this felt too much like a parody (or just imitation) of a parody.

Having started going through the episodes again this really stands out in the way it took advantage of Goldeneye having been released. I know its one of the comedy episodes and has no baring on the series or even the next episode but its one great laugh. Bit of a worry that Quark was the one who worked some of it out. great viewing

Diamond Dave

If you're going to do a comedy romp based on the James Bond films you may as well throw yourself into it, and boy does this throw itself into it. As others have noted, there's nothing really to analyze here - just an excuse for the regulars to madly chew the scenery. It's fun for what it is and the design looks great. Probably the best thing about this is the score - pitch perfect throughout. Or the names Mona Luvsitt and Honey Bare. Or "behind the spatula". That said it is a holodeck gone awry episode and it does drag a bit. 2.5 stars.

I think the writers were playing with ideas they had for the later series when they wrote this episode, kira was a colonel in this episode and she later went on to become a colonel, they talked about jadzia dying and she did, the way they talked about the cardassians was almost predicting them joining the dominion, it was a fun episode and ds9 always did holodeck stories much better than tng or vgr

Startrekwatcher

2 stars DS9 did way too many silly episodes. I'm sure people love this episode to pieces but it did nothing for me. There's a time and place for camp--the 1960s--not here. Designate me a fuddy-duddy. Meh

@Peccath Oops, sorry i did it without thinking. If i knew how to edit my earlier post i would.

@Peccath Actually i see no reason why anyone who hasn't seen a tv episode that's 20 years old would come to a comment section and complain about spoilers. There comes a point when people should be able to freely discuss old tv shows they've seen.

"Our Man Bashir" is a terrifically fun and enjoyable episode. As a James Bond parody, it works, mainly because Avery Brooks would be truly perfect as a Roger Moore/Pierce Brosnan Bond villain. But the episode also has more depth than it would seem. "Our Man Bashir" shows how optimistic DS9 is as its core. Early on, Bashir and Garak have a rather heated argument about whether or not it's possible to save everyone. Bashir turns out to be correct. Bashir, the idealist, is who DS9 ultimately sides with. 3.5 stars.

Teaser : **.5, 5% We begin with some stolen footage of a Bond knockoff. Full confession: I am not a big fan of of the Bond films. I have seen most of them once, but I don't have any great love for the spy-thriller genre or the Bond formula in particular. I don't dislike it either, but right out the gate, this episode is going to have to do more than adequately replicate those elements to work for me. “The Nagus” wasn't just “The Godfather” with Ferengi and it was superb. “Profit and Loss” wasn't just “Casablanca” with Cardassians either, but it was pretty horrid. “Starship Mine” and “Northstar” are pretty tedious to me, while “Bride of Chaotica” and “Elementary, Dear Data” are splendid entertainment. When Trek does this sort of thing, it's very difficult to be objective. Anyway, we find Bashir in the titular role performing the typical antics and “conversing” with the typical airheaded blonde in the holosuite. His brief performance is interrupted by “an uninvited guest,” Garak providing enthusiastic applause. He likes to watch. And he wants to play, having donned appropriate garb. It turns out Julian has been spending a lot of time in here, but hasn't shared his experience with his friends. GARAK: It's just that you're such a...a talkative man, and it's so unusual for you to have secrets. BASHIR: Well, I picked up that habit from you. File that one away. So, provided Garak doesn't put on the red dress (damn you 90s liberal media!), Garak will be allowed to stay and play with his, erm, “friend” for the next couple of hours. The scene concludes with Garak proclaiming “What could *possibly* go wrong?” Robinson's performance here is typically strong, but I'm rather put off by this characterisation. Garak isn't a troll. He may very well be interested in Bashir's fantasy life for a variety of reasons, but intentionally cock-blocking the doctor like this, then mocking him...it's just not the kind of nuanced enigmatic character we've come to know. Now Jadzia, she'd be all about that. Act 1 : **.5, 13% (very short act) We are introduced to the next walking pair of tits, his valet Mona Lovesit, at Bashir's holo-appartment. The girl has brains to match her beauty which is why she has made a stunning career hauling Julian's luggage around and shaking martinis. Ah, the 60s... Bashir passes on the customary pre-dinner blowjob for the moment, inviting Garak to speculate on just what exactly it is his character does in this world. He's...ambivalent, for the moment, that Bashir has chosen to play-act at his profession under these particular, rather indulgent conditions. Meanwhile, the plot is on its way back to the station. For no particular reason, half the cast has crammed itself into a runabout, because we aren't ready to blow up the Defiant yet. There's technocraziness threatening to destroy the warp core somehow—there are actually missing parts aboard the runabout. From Ops, Eddington, attempts an emergency beam out. The cast briefly materialises before there's a flash and they're gone. Act 2 : **.5, 18% Odo and Eddington try to figure out what went wrong. The quintet's patterns are still in the buffer, but unable to be materialised. The data within the buffer—all those brainwave patterns—can only be stored if they dump the patterns into the main computer. This causes the lights to go out because...um, quantum. Of course, this can only mean...that back in the holosuite, Kira has appeared in a pink silk negligé and speaking like an MSNBC nightmare accent. Bashir thinks that this is all a trick for the moment, but Kira insists that she's actually a KGB agent, which explains why she's been taking a nap in Bashir's combination sex-bed/bar. A few inquiries reveal that the holosuite is frozen because of the tech emergency. Of course. They can't turn the god-damned lights on or PAUSE the programme, but it functions normally all the same. Eddington figures out that, quite naturally, the programme has stored the crew's patterns within the holosuite. And it must be kept running. And the safeties are off (duh). Okay, all of that bullshit out of the way, we can finally get down to the point of all this. Natashira Nerysnekov here says the Soviets have determined a series of earthquakes have been artificially generated. Garak doesn't quite seem to get the rules, yet. He finds the whole premise kind of ridiculous, because it is. Dr Honey Bear (Dax) has been kidnapped! And she wears glasses! Bashir says that he and Garak have to play along because the programme will delete Dax' pattern if Honey Bear is killed. Uhuh. That sounds exactly like how a programme would work. A character has died? Delete all associated code so the programme can never be run again! Yeah. Let's see what else?...O'Brien shows up as The Falcon, kills Mona and aims his now deadly holo-gun at Bashir. Act 3 : ***, 18% O'Bird gives Bashir and Nerysnekov time enough to pull an unlikely escape, eliciting more incredulity in Garak. GARAK: I want you to stop treating this like a game where everything's going to turn out all right in the end. Real spies have to make hard choices. This is a fair point in a vacuum but...is Garak just super dense this week or what? The point of this isn't for Bashir to learn how to be a “real spy,” it's to keep the crew alive. This whole idea that Garak is getting butt-hurt, as the kids say, over Bashir's fantasy strikes me as way out of character. Anyway, the Bond plot thickens as Nerysnekov exposits the pressing need to get to Paris and find out Dr Noah. In the Paris nightclub, our trio are escorted to Duchamps (Worf) who asks for Bashir's invitation in between puffs on a cigar. This leads to Bashir figuring he'll bribe his way into Dr Noah's circle through gambling. We cut to the holosuite interface where Rom reveals his jerry-rigged circuit board to Eddington and Odo. Eventually, Odo explains that The True Way—a Cardassian separatist group we've never heard of—was responsible for sabotaging the runabout. You know. Because. Anyway, Rom is going to save the day with his implausible genius. Back in the holosuite, Julian has won himself several million Francs, and thereby purchased an invitation to see Dr Noah, specifically a face full of crazy knockout gas from D'uqcCHOMP's cigar. My guess is that Michael Dorn really enjoyed spitting in Gates McFadden's face in “Genesis” and asked to do more spit takes. The trio awakens on Mount Everest, of course, and Hippocratus Noah (Sisko) greets them manically. Act 4 : ***.5, 16% (short act) Dr NoAAAAAHH explains his explain plan to Inconvenient Truth the world into a massive flood and leave his island of brilliant minds and nubile breeding stock to flourish. Honey Bareback is revealed by yet another revolving platform, not so much kidnapped as collaborating. Avery Brooks' manic energy is a great fit for this wacky character (“demolish the HOUSE!”), and marinating in the Bond plot for so long is a welcome change of pace. What undermines things somewhat is the score which is as typically Berman trekky as any serious Dominion plot would find itself. Bring back the saxophones, please. So, Siskoah ties Garak and Bashir to the base of one of his giant lasers (Kira is going to be making babies). Act 5 : ***.5, 19% (loooong act) Garak seems to have been proven right here, as letting O'Bird remain alive proved to be a mistake. Falcon was working for Noah all along. His irritation with Bashir's refusal to be pragmatic, spurred on by likely imminent death, has him especially angry with his good buddy. But no, Bashir is going to keep playing the game, because that's the only way to save his colleagues. So, he seduces Dr Bear to the accompaniment of eyerolling from Garak. She passes Bashir the key to their...ahem...bonds in just enough time to free the pair from their doom. The score finally picks up and gets into the spirit of things, with the big brass and electric guitars blaring. The problem is that, this is moment for less diegetic music. Now is when Garak is screaming for them to cut their losses, accept that indulging in infantile fantasies is going to get them all killed and make a practical decision. The dialogue between these two is scintillating and deadly serious, yet the score is asking us to pop the corn and be amused. WHY?? Well, in the end, Bashir actually shoots Garak, apparently nearly killing him. The pair storm Siskoah's office just in time for Eddington to call and inform them that they're minutes away from saving the crew. So, Bashir stalls and gives Brooks the opportunity to monologue. He adopts Garak's attitude (verbatim) and opts to quit the role of intelligence agent altogether. Now that we're immersed in the fiction, the music has reverted to its typically quality (WHY?), Anyway, Bashir throws the programme for a loop by destroying the world, buying just enough time to save the crew. Garak seems quite surprised by this because...because he's been written rather poorly this episode. Episode as Functionary : **.5, 10% I'm more or less in agreement with Jammer on this one. The episode takes far too much time away from the highly-entertaining holo-adventure to try and techno-explain the actual plot. Ironically, the most important aspect to the plot, the motivation for the unseen culprits, is kind of glossed over and forgotten about. Does anyone care about The True Way? I also echo William B's sentiments about Garak. He's way too thinly-written this episode. You'd think that witnessing the fall of Tain would have made Garak a bit less romantic about his views on espionage. Bashir is the romantic, you say? Well, of course he is, per his own idiom. But Garak is no less nostalgic about a life he once lived than the fantasy Bashir wishes he could. Both men are brilliant, creative, cunning and mischievous in their own way (Bashir far more than he is usually allowed to let on). So, why is Garak so dense about finding a way to save the crew at the expense of spy-logic? Garak would gladly kill them all for Cardassia, sure, but would he really be willing to sacrifice Sisko and co. to preserve his own image of the master spy? This seems incredibly petty. It's just so disappointing to see him lose sight of the big picture like this, when Bashir is able to keep all these plates spinning in his mind with ease. While the performances are on point, I do not understand the musical choices at all. It seems rather intentional that the immersive bits are scored like a typical episode, while the genuine dialogue is cued in the anachronistic Bond style, but I cannot summon a plausible explanation for this. The Bond stuff is made to feel more tepid on the one hand, and one is distracted away from giving serious credence to the important dialogue by the plunger mutes and high hats on the other. I say this as someone who isn't a particular fan of James Bond; I wish this episode was more Bond than it ended up being. A bit of a missed opportunity. Final Score : ***

“This is a fair point in a vacuum but...is Garak just super dense this week or what? The point of this isn't for Bashir to learn how to be a “real spy,” it's to keep the crew alive. This whole idea that Garak is getting butt-hurt, as the kids say, over Bashir's fantasy strikes me as way out of character.“ It always makes me laugh at how soon in the episode Garak starts talking like this. If he understands it’s just a game and it *is* written with a solution where everything turns out well in the end, he should at least try to look for the solution a bit first before giving up on the DS9 crew. As an aside, did anyone else see this episode as a mulligan on the “Move Along Home” concept?

Although I generally agree with Elliott's rating, I'm not sure I agree with the reasons. Primarily I give this episode a lot of credit for two reasons: 1) It gives the chance for the actors to have some fun. I give the same credit to episodes in the MU, and although literally speaking it can appear to break credibility I give a lot of leeway for episodes trying to let the actors out of the box. 2) The conversations between Garak and Bashir don't *quite* make sense in context, as Elliott points out. However I've always interpreted them as being a bit non-literal, and not so much that Garak is trying to claim 'spy supremacy.' I think the issue is much bigger than that, and actually boils down to a Cardassia versus Federation argument. I'll try to expand on this point a bit. Garak's essential point here is that you can't have what might be called victory, and also be nice. His primary objective is a combination of self-preservation and refusing to entertain idealistic goals, and likewise his prime objection seems to me that Bashir thinks you can have your cake and eat it too in life. I very much doubt Garak actually cares whether Bashir is a competent spy or not, but does seem to care over the course of the series whether Bashir truly understands how naive he seems at times. Here we see Bashir claiming to be a "spy", that is, a cutthroat operative, and yet won't settle for any less than "saving the day" and refusing to accept any losses. Here the losses would be his friends, but I think it goes deeper than that: really what's at stake is Bashir's refusal to sacrifice principles, and Garak being disturbed by that because he knows full well that all principles do is remove options for action, and thereby reduce chances for success. A "real operative" would know that and would seek victory over morals. And in this case I think "real operative" really means someone trying to gain security for his own way of life. Their conversations here are really a microcosm of the larger debate about whether a people can protect themselves with airy-fairy principles like the Federation does, while the Cardassians have a much more authoritarian view on what's necessary for self-preservation (of a species). This debate would continue on throughout the series, and when seen in this light Garak's position isn't at all thinly written, but is directly on point with the debate these two characters always have. SPOILER It even goes deeper than this, because even though at a certain point Garak and Julian do develop more of an understanding, the debate is picked up again much later by Sloan, which essentially takes the same position as Garak does here with regards to what is really needed to protect the Federation. And the debate rages *to this day* about whether Sloan was right and whether Section 31 did actually save the Federation by infecting the Founders. That is essentially Garak's case here: you can't 'be nice' and call yourself an agent whose goal is it to protect your people. In this episode, which is written in a light and fun way, "Bashir's people" is the main cast, but in the grander picture it's the Federation at large. Could the Federation really survive with people like Bashir in charge of security? This episode really does surprise us by answering, "maybe!" The reason why I'd dock the episode some points is that I actually don't think they went nearly far enough creating a 'Bond-persona' for Julian. His just seemed like himself, whereas I feel like the idea here was that he was playacting as a Garak-type, but when push came to shove he would reject that fake persona and be the humanitarian that he is. Lacking that dichotomy, it ends up just feeling like Julian playing holodeck, which we got enough of in TNG. Another weak point is as others mention, which is the tech explanations, although I'll be honest I did like Rom's involvement in that part of it. Now that I reflect, I'd be tempted to give it ***.5 stars anyhow.

@Elliott Quick question - how do you compute your final rating for a given episode? I ask because I have no idea how your scoring system works in regard to the scores assigned to each individual act and how they all relate to the final score. Where would this episode (which you gave three stars) fall on a 0-10 scale? 7.5 out of ten, perhaps? I'm curious because I, as an admittedly HUGE James Bond fan (I even said in my review that Bond is probably my second favorite franchise after Trek) gave "Our Man Bashir" an 8/10 and you, as an admitted non-fan, seem to have given it something close to the same score. That may actually be the first time I've seen that happen - for a fan and a non-fan of Bond to come to the same overall opinion of the episode. In my experience this episode seems to be liked by Bond fans but disliked by non-fans.

I wouldn't think you'd need to be a Bond fan to like this one because as Peter G points out, Bashir never really goes deep into the Bond character. It's the same thing for like Austin Powers, which obviously references tons of Bond material, yet the characters and premise themselves can sell the film on their own. Catching the Bond references is more like bonus trivia to a story easily accessible to all. The same's true for Data and his "Elementary, My Dear Data" material. (Admittedly, I've never read a Holmes novel) but his stories permeate pop culture to the extent that one's likely familiar with Holmes and parts of his stories without ever actually reading them. If I ever did read a Holmes novel, I'm sure I'd be thrilled to catch some of the source material TNG referenced.

Just to prove your point, Chrome, I really like the TNG Holmes stories when I was a kid and a teenager, and I finally decided to read Conan Doyle's books as an adult, and was disappointed to find them not all that interesting. I prefer the TNG version, hah! But this does show that the material can sell itself even if you don't care for the original (or even know it).

To expand a little on some of the points Elliott, Chrome and Peter were making (and what I said back in the day, lol) I think it's worth considering this episode at least partly as Bashir's fantasy about himself. In "real life" Bashir is still not all that suave or charming. He is utterly brilliant, but he's not really able to manage the complex social world without fumbling. Not only that, but there's no particular reason to expect him to have all that much physical bravery or -- you know -- ability to shoot with much precision. I mean, he can't even beat O'Brien at darts, right? SPOILER Of course, we know that Bashir could beat O'Brien at darts, once we take into account later revelations. And that is maybe part of the fun of the Bond persona -- is that Bashir can hit people with a cork or shoot Garak in the face without killing him, and it can sort of work as if it's part of the fantasy while subtly revealing that Bashir actually *is* that skilled, but on some level has to hide it all the time. Really, everyone Bashir knows besides Dax is not really scientifically learned enough to be able to realize just *how* brilliant he is medically, and everyone Bashir knows besides Garak is not really cunning in a particular way enough to spot the wheels within wheels turning in his brain and how difficult that actually is to manage. However, even Dax and Garak tend to underestimate him, because Bashir is sort of living a constant lie, a double agent if you will, regarding his Big Secret of Doctor Bashir, I Presume. END SPOILER But anyway, what we do have then is that Bashir basically *does* live out his fantasy through the holodeck, and that is, in part, to woo the exotic foreign woman (Kira) and kiss the nerdy scientist girl (Jadzia) while maintaining the emotional upper hand, to best the men in his life whom he finds somewhat imposing, even his friends like Miles. And he also gets to play Garak's life *like a game* and play it as a game that Bashir can win. This ties in a bit with what Elliott underlined when talking about The Wire -- Bashir is actually a little smug when Garak's scheming bites him in the ass, because as much fun as he has in those conversations with Garak, it gets kind of exhausting to always be the naive pupil to Garak's wise master. I mean, look: where exactly have Federation philosophy and Cardassian philosophy *gotten* their respective societies, and why is it that Bashir should always be deferential to Garak, as a result? I think this is also part of why Bashir needs to keep his program a secret. OK, so he didn't actually put in Dax for Honey Bear etc. until the transporter accident. But is it also possible that on some level that *is* how he sees his friends and coworkers? That on some level he would have been imagining the exotic foreign beauty as his beautiful and terrifying alien CO, his hulking nemesis as his best friend and frequent sports adversary who seems to often have the upper hand, the quiet demure but beautiful scientist as his...well, party-girl full-of-life beautiful scientist friend, but one who used to present as quiet back in season 1. Navigating this world filled with colourful characters is difficult and Bashir, not unlike Barclay in Hollow Pursuits, is sort of entering the holodeck to practice. And he's also playing a game where he gets to do something as dangerous and challenging as what Garak did. On that level, Garak's antagonism makes sense. And I think Garak's *annoyance* that Bashir is playing a game version of Garak's tragic life story is fully justified and understandable. But I think it doesn't really make literal sense for Garak to let his personal annoyance continue once it becomes clear that Sisko et al. are in danger. *However*, I think that it's more a writing...misapplication, I guess, than mistake. Garak's point that they can't save *all* the main cast and that they will have to pick and choose is not unreasonable. In that sense, I think Garak's insistence that they should cut their losses should maybe have either happened at a moment when the danger to their lives was more actively greater, or should have taken the form of Garak insisting they needed to kill (or at least fail to save) one of the crew members to save the others. I think the situation seemed bad, but it didn't quite play to me like it was dire enough that it was time for them to cut their losses for their own survival, yet. But there is another possibility lurking into it, that I've just considered: Garak is not a coward, and while I don't imagine he would definitely give his life up for the DS9 crew, I think he'd be willing to take a few chances with it to save them. But what if Garak is unwilling to let *Julian* die? What if Garak -- who has just lost Tain, who has seen his own life destroyed -- is not only trying to convince Bashir that Bashir is wrong about what it means to be a spy, but that he's actively trying to scare Bashir *away* from the spy life, because he's sure that that world would eat Bashir up and *kill* him, and Garak cares about Julian too much to bear seeing that? I think Garak would sacrifice Bashir to save Cardassia, if it came to that, but I also think that Garak probably would be willing to sacrifice Sisko, Dax, Kira, O'Brien and Worf to save Bashir, especially if doing so taught Bashir a lifelong, permanent lesson that this life Bashir apparently idealizes -- and the life that Garak himself stoked interest in, in Bashir! -- is not for him, and he should stay safe rather than let it kill him, the way it killed the entire Obsidian Order. I'm not going to go to bat for the episode far enough to say that this is what was intended. This is just some speculation. Garak clearly wants to impart a lesson onto Bashir, but it's possible that the lesson is less "You should be more heartless" as "You should let me be heartless for you, and realize that you have a heart, and so should stay away from this business, because this business *will kill you*."

This actually takes me to the next point about Bashir: Bashir *does* manage it, through his resourcefulness, intellect, humour and wit. It's partly that Bashir is operating in a fantasy, with different rules than reality, but those things are something that Garak himself possesses, and something that can help someone deal with real life challenges. SPOILER But we also know, as I've alluded, in retrospect, that Bashir's skill at keeping all the plates spinning is partly because he's genetically engineered. And this raises an interesting question about Bashir and what he says about Federation idealism. What if it's possible to do the impossible and save the day with minimal pragmatic sacrifice -- but it requires being superhuman? I think this is the reason he is so frequently paired with O'Brien, and why O'Brien is so central to Bashir's arc in the series, and survival -- Miles is very clever and brave and resourceful, but is also very clearly *human* and not super-.

Last point (for now): Garak insisting on ending the program and saving himself and Bashir -- for Bashir's own good -- is a lot like Odo punching Garak out to drag him away from the exploding fleet in The Die is Cast. Garak is in a sense repeating not just a generic lesson from his OO days but a specific one tied to a massive tragedy we've witnessed. So maybe for Garak to believe that he's doing Bashir a real favour by saving him from going down with his five crew members makes some sense considering that Garak himself had to be knocked out to be dragged away from thousands of his people not long ago. Garak's bad experiences have warped his view of every scenario for him to be more pessimistic than is warranted.

@Peter G "The reason why I'd dock the episode some points is that I actually don't think they went nearly far enough creating a 'Bond-persona' for Julian. His just seemed like himself, whereas I feel like the idea here was that he was playacting as a Garak-type, but when push came to shove he would reject that fake persona and be the humanitarian that he is." I'll actually disagree on this quite firmly. The fact that the Bond persona *is* Julian Bashir (he does, after all, keep his real name in the fantasy) is precisely the point. The Bond scenario allows Julian to be himself without being problematised because the genre is full of problematic tropes; machismo, objectification, etc. Julian doesn't have to censor or sublimate the negative shades of his personality in the holosuite, just like he doesn't have to censor or sublimate his genetically-engineered abilities. In the "real world," only a super-man could actually be a Bond-type protagonist. As for the rest of it...the Sloan stuff and what-not, I think it best to hold off on that debate for now. @Luke: "Quick question - how do you compute your final rating for a given episode?" I list the percentages each act contributes to the final score in the review itself. x/10 scores are also calculated. Star ratings are rounded. This episode got 2.915 stars, which rounds to 3 and gets 7/10. It got the exact same score as "Defiant" from me, which holds up in my mind. So far, I have found that the way these act by act reviews end up producing scores and creating a ranked list seems to match really well with my overall feeling about individual episodes. It does present something of a problem with season averages. I enjoyed S3 a bit more than S2, but S2 ranked much higher because there were fewer really bad episodes and more mediocre ones. @William B "I mean, look: where exactly have Federation philosophy and Cardassian philosophy *gotten* their respective societies, and why is it that Bashir should always be deferential to Garak, as a result?" This is an excellent point, and one I will remember when eventually getting to that debate, Peter. Cardassian pragmatism doesn't exactly have a record of success, does it? "So maybe for Garak to believe that he's doing Bashir a real favour by saving him from going down with his five crew members makes some sense considering that Garak himself had to be knocked out to be dragged away from thousands of his people not long ago. Garak's bad experiences have warped his view of every scenario for him to be more pessimistic than is warranted." Maybe, but I still find this methodology way out of character. In "The Wire," Garak could have sent Bashir to Tain directly, being his ultimate goal. But instead, he manipulated Bashir into getting him what he wanted through careful obfuscation and misdirection. I can see Garak trying something similar here, trying to lead Bashir to a pessimistic conclusion by the nose, but instead he just kind of blurts out his objection to the whole premise. I really do think the characterisation for Garak stopped at "he's a spy."

"Maybe, but I still find this methodology way out of character. In "The Wire," Garak could have sent Bashir to Tain directly, being his ultimate goal. But instead, he manipulated Bashir into getting him what he wanted through careful obfuscation and misdirection. I can see Garak trying something similar here, trying to lead Bashir to a pessimistic conclusion by the nose, but instead he just kind of blurts out his objection to the whole premise. I really do think the characterisation for Garak stopped at "he's a spy."" Good point. As I indicated, I'm not exactly sold on the interpretation I put forward, I'm just thinking aloud (well, in writing) of ways it could maybe sort of work. We *could*, for example, maybe argue that Garak's experience in IC/TDIC has made Garak more open and has made him realize the error of being too closed up................but I don't really buy it, because the tone still feels off for Garak to be so blatant the whole story through, from when it was just a fun lark of Bashir's to when it was deadly serious. Robinson is great of course and tries to make it make emotional sense and the Robinson-Siddig chemistry is still there.

@Elliott- " I enjoyed S3 a bit more than S2, but S2 ranked much higher because there were fewer really bad episodes and more mediocre ones. " I always felt that Season 3 was comfortably ahead of Season 2. Uneven, yes, but the character interactions are so much more enjoyable to watch. I'm still overall bored by the first two seasons despite some really good episodes. Season 3 is when I started to really like the show on a week-by-week basis, not just every once in awhile. Solid review of "Our Man Bashir". I like it a bit more than you. I guess you could say I'm a casual fan of James Bond, so just recreating it wouldn't really do it for me. I love this episode because of how it interrogates typical spy tropes through a Star Trek lens. The Garak stuff really added to it for me. Also, Avery Brooks is *perfect* as Dr. Noah. Now I'm really sad he never actually played a Bond villain. As a 45-minute slice of light, comedic Star Trek, I also felt that the pacing was dead on. Not quite as good as "The House of Quark", but superior to most Trek comedies imo. It didn't fizzle like "Little Green Men". Also, "Bride of Chaotica!" is splendid entertainment? That's going a bit far in my opinion. It's an enjoyable mess.

@ Elliott, "I'll actually disagree on this quite firmly. The fact that the Bond persona *is* Julian Bashir (he does, after all, keep his real name in the fantasy) is precisely the point. The Bond scenario allows Julian to be himself without being problematised because the genre is full of problematic tropes; machismo, objectification, etc. Julian doesn't have to censor or sublimate the negative shades of his personality in the holosuite, just like he doesn't have to censor or sublimate his genetically-engineered abilities. In the "real world," only a super-man could actually be a Bond-type protagonist." I'm not saying that the episode failed in some way, but I dock it points because it's just less interesting for me for Julian to play himself in a role where the character in question is really not much like him IRL. And yes, the spy trope as shown in film does have many problematic elements - in fact even the idea of violence and deception being cool is problematic from a Federation standpoint. And that's why I would have liked to see that Julian adopted a persona to enjoy those things, because I don't think he actually does like those things as himself. My point here plays partially into Garak's suggestion that this is really not Bashir's cup of tea; that he's deluding himself in thinking that he has something in common with a real spy. By only playing himself it almost makes it seem like Julian believes that he, himself, could be a spy as-is, even though I think by now he's pretty confident that he's not that kind of person. That's why you'd playact on the holodeck and take on a character (like Barclay does). And actually DS9 does show Julian in early seasons 'trying to be' various things, only to settle down and be more himself later on in the series when he's matured. So it would have been relatively consistent for him to by 'trying to be' a spy here. That would have made the ending more poignant, had he dropped the spy persona and actually saved the day as Julian Bashir, doctor and humanitarian. But that's just my fantasy of the episode, right, and not exactly a critique of what they did show. I like the episode a lot, but I feel like parts of it are a bit flat with Julian just sort of walking through the episode as himself. Garak especially might have gotten a kick out of Julian 'playing' more early on when there were no apparent stakes.

Cute and fun. Brooks at last is in the sort of role that suits him -- over-the-top Bondesque villain! His broad gestures, over-enunciation, overdone facial expressions . . . it all works just right. Garak: Interesting character development. Julian: I think we're meant to understand more about Julian here, too. I just haven't taken the time to figure out just what. Insecure guy who wants to be a hero and isn't sure of himself around women? Not a huge surprise. There may be more they're, probably is. Not an earth-shattering ep - well, wrong choices of words :) -- but enjoyable.

@Springy, The main "more there" of Bashir I think are two things: 1. Bashir is, we've been told often, brilliant. Second in his class, already nominated for a lifetime award in his field. There is also some arrogance and ruthlessness there, and the Bond archetype gives him an outlet to let loose on this more generally. This is part of his attraction to Garak as a friend -- Bashir on some level wants to be able to test himself, in terms of cunning, deception, etc., using just his wits and creativity. In a way, the issue is sort of...the opposite of insecurity. Bashir doesn't exactly know how to navigate the social world around him and is insecure around women, etc. But there's also a part of Bashir that wants to be in a world where he can suspend the usual Federation moral restraints and stretch out to the full extent his intellect allows him, to be as suave and as ruthless as he could be. Part of Bashir actually is a caddish shark. 2. Bashir is also an idealist. He likes to play the pragmatic spy, the Garak role, for fun, and he thinks he might be good at it. However, basically he is "a doctor" and he wants to turn his talents to keeping as many people alive as possible. In Hippocratic Oath he ran up against a wall with O'Brien, where his plan to "save" the Jem'Hadar was scrapped by O'Brien as foolish and suicidal. Here we get a sort of replay, with Garak pointing out that even Bashir's plan to save *his friends* is doomed. But Bashir makes it work, using the tools of the pragmatist to achieve an ideal result. Can Bashir actually manage this -- to save huge numbers of lives using risky, morally questionable plays? Garak doesn't think so -- he thinks that Bashir has to pick and choose, to save a limited number. But this time, Bashir proves him wrong, and saves the day. Bashir's refusal to give up on the best case scenario is possibly foolish and possibly heroic, and maybe a bit of both, and this time it works out. I think the combination is what's interesting -- Bashir has a ruthless, arrogant calculating quality which mostly flies under the radar of those who know him (even Garak to an extent, who underestimates him), and he also has a shining devotion to saving as many people as possible, to achieving the best possible outcome for his friends (and, in other eps, strangers as well). Some of the former is a defense against insecurity, but some is real ruthlessness. Some of the latter is a desire to be a hero for the sake of "being a hero," some is a real humanism. And that he can be more fully himself while playing a dissembling spy hints that this is a compartmentalized guy. I think it's one of the better Bashir character episodes.

It's fascinating to see how over-rated and over-hyped the typical DS9 episode is compared to Voyager, for example. This episode features an absurdly elaborate plot device, which makes no sense on any level, to explain yet another holodeck malfunction. Are Trek audiences so starved of holodeck action after countless TNG and VOY episodes? Is it such a popular plot device that it needs to be brought back again and again? While this might well be fun and refreshing for the actors, this is just another wasted hour of DS9 which drags out the looming Dominion war by not even referencing it at all. Which segment of the audience would rather have a holodeck episode instead? Riddle me that. We have here the only Trek show with real character growth, with stronger and deeper storylines and atmosphere, with the most badass Starfleet ship yet seen and an entire galaxy of stories to tell. Instead of furthering this tapestry, we get an absurd parody of James Bond, itself an absurd parody of MI6. It's utter bollocks. It's a waste of time and money. There were far better stories to tell. This episode isn't the worst of all Trek because it's just so boring and stupid that it leaves the brain as soon as it enters. It's uninspired crap which borrows from the worst of TOS by borrowing from Earth's past instead of exploring its future. But it's not Voyager so instant 4 stars I guess.

NoPoet let me explain to you why this is better than a typical Voyager episode - Garak. Good actors (playing interesting characters) elevate even mediocre episodes.

Bobbington Mc Bob

Going by the chuckles that involuntarily came out of me during this one, I think I enjoyed it. Love Garak!

Ye gods. I'm all for comedy episodes, but this one strains things a bit too much and arguably came too close on the heels of Little Green Men. It's also odd that the runabout accident isn't touched on after it sets things on, especially given that it's explicitly flagged up as an act of sabotage. And the whole "we don't have enough memory" excuse is probably the flimsiest bit of technobabble in the season. Still, it is fun to see the various DS9 actors hamming it up...

I'll preface this by saying I'm not really one for Bond movies; I'll admit I've not seen many, and only really the modern ones, but they've just never done anything for me. That said, I can usually appreciate a good Bond parody/pastiche/tribute/homage/etc. A sense of fun is essential, and that's not in any way lacking here. I like holodeck episodes. I like seeing the characters we've grown to love having fun in whatever sandbox they want to play in today. I found Elementary, Dear Data an absolute delight, for instance; even with no threat from Moriarty, souped up on supercomputer or otherwise, I could watch Data and Geordi as Holmes and Watson messing around for hours on end. Unlike Bashir, DS9 has clearly been holding back on its holosuite usage. Perhaps it's to distinguish itself from TNG; perhaps they just have other concerns; perhaps it's something to do with the X-rating on most of the popular programs. (What was that one they bought from Nog in 'Little Green Men'...?) Regardless, I was excited to see a holosuite in use here, and it didn't disappoint. The opening -- before Garak decides he'll take centre stage instead -- is absolutely dripping with cheese, and I love it. Again, I'll happily watch these characters simply do fuck-all in silly parodies with no stakes, because the show's earned my affection for these characters, and deserves the time to breathe as they have some low-stakes fun. The stakes do get raised, but to be honest, I don't think those stakes ever get higher than the "fun" level does here. This is clearly a romp, and I'll treat it as one. Garak steals the stage from Bashir, Julian Bashir. He's the real star of the show here, in my opinion; Lord knows he takes every chance he can get to butt in on things. He's a lonely guy, I bet he loves the attention. Also: this may or may not be a plot hole, but he's already got his tux on by the time he comes in. Has he seen the dear Doctor enter his holosuite in similar attire, and meticulously crafted his own suit-able apparel just to be fully prepared for muscling in on the fun? Because honestly that's kind of hilarious. He really must be attention-starved if he's gone to all the effort to make a whole new outfit just to see what's capturing Julian's attention so completely -- scoping out what's competing with him in the good Doctor's favours...! But yes, he is *definitely* having fun here; while Bashir's the one who wants to play the fantasy straight (at least until there start to be lives at stake), Garak's too busy making quips on what a farce this is compared to *real* spying... and also *enjoying* what a farce this is compared to real spying. I, for one, wouldn't object to seeing them take one of their lunches in Hong Kong for a change. It's the push-and-pull between Garak and Bashir that makes this episode, right from the sarcastic applause at the start. I'm amused by how much Garak seems to relish his ruthless cockblocking of Bashir at the start (... and how he seems to have little regard for personal space when he takes her place at Bashir's side). Couple that with the *gloriously* dramatic eyeroll at Bashir's chauvinistic moves on Honey Dax; it's safe to say he rules over this episode as its majestic drama queen. All hail. As for what this ep has in the way of a dramatic core, the push-and-pull is in play there too. Enjoying it as he may be, Garak's still consistently trying to come off as if he's "above" this childish game, making Bashir "beneath" by consequence. But then there's that glorious scene where the tables turn, when Garak's been insisting all along that Bashir has to make some sort of sacrifice... and then, by shooting him, Bashir proves himself capable of exactly that. I can't say I've seen many relationships where the dynamic suddenly *improves* when one shoots the other (though Odo's friendship with Garak got jumpstarted by the latter torturing the former, so maybe there's just some kind of sadistic/masochistic bent to every relationship involving one Elim Garak), but there's an instant *spark* in Garak's response to the shooting that really cannot be denied. His estimation of the man has very suddenly reached a new level. *Especially* when Bashir doesn't deny having just tried to kill him. There's a lot to Garak's reaction: there's fascination (he's always been one for taking unsolicited dives into the man's psyche), there's excitement (finally, someone on this station is starting to operate on the same level that I do!), there's even a sense of pride that this young doctor he's been mentoring on the Cardassian way is finally starting to embrace it. Don't get me wrong: right from the beginning, Garak's found a certain stimulation from Bashir that he hasn't found from anyone else (though Odo, at the very least, has introduced a different dynamic for him lately). Here, though, it ascends to something new -- something to get the blood pumping all over again. I can't wait to see what this leads to. But enough about these two -- for now, anyway. The rest of the main cast is a joy to watch, and in a way different from what the holodeck "dress up and muck about" episodes usually provide: they fully *believe* the parts they're playing (in a way that Major Kira never would in a regular holosuite!), and they're glorious for it. Speaking of Major Kira, her turn as Anastasia Whateverrussian is the highlight of the transporter patterns for me: she gets to vamp it up, and in a different way to how she does in the Mirror Universe. You can tell Visitor's really relishing the excuse to do an overdramatised fake Russian accent, and I love her poor confused shouts of "WHO IS DAX". And Brooks *loves* the taste of that scenery; again, we've seen him do a villain turn before (cf. Joran Dax), but never quite so deliciously hammily. Really, just about everyone is loving the excuse to ratchet it up a good few metres over the top, and I for one am absolutely *living* here. And as for the people on the outside: it was gonna have to take a damn good joke to rival the rest of all this, but Rom's spatula clinches it. I appreciate Quark's cleverness on show here, for the little screentime he has; he's managed to navigate the requisite technobabble that gave us this treat of an episode. Also, poor O'Brien at the end. "What have you done to my ship??" So possessive of the Defiant. It really is his baby (his other one, anyway). (Completely irrelevant aside: I tried to write "Picard" as part of my email twice while filling in the comment form. I must be tired.)

I thought this episode's central idea - saving people's lives by holding them in a holosuite - was a great one. That the saved folk intrude upon the private fantasies of the rather reserved Julian Bashir, is even better. But I don't think the episode's holo-adventure is clever enough or funny enough to exploit these cool ideas. We've had decades of Bond parodies, and this episode never elevates itself above them. A big problem, I think, is because Garak is relegated to a background role. More interesting to have him actively trying to solve the holo-adventure, and contrast his "realistic" approach to solving the game, and spying and espionage in general, to that of Julian's fantastical Jame's Bond character. Have Garak be the hero. Have Julian learn from a real master. If you have a climax in which a bad guy gives a long winded Evil Villain speech, it's got to be a famously long-winded Cardassian giving the monologue! Not Sisko! Everyone complains about the ridiculous first act of this episode, in which Sisko's brain is essentially too big to store inside DS9's computers. I'm surprised Ronald Moore didn't fix this problem with some technobabble and tweaking. Instead of an exploding runabout, for example, you can just have the episode's terrorists be hackers who've introduced a virus into DS9's Starfleet computers which identify the transporter logs of high ranking Federation officers, and immediately deletes them. The quick-thinking Miles then dumps Sisko and the gang into Quark's holodeck, which exists safely off the grid. No need for DS9 to blackout, no need for a transporter log of a human to be incredulously big.

@Trent cool idea re having Garak, not Bashir, as the protagonist.

Tannhaeuser

"Do you care about the plot? In all honesty, one of the weaknesses of this episode is how it tries to give us a plot to digest which turns out to be a fairly meaningless exercise simply because it doesn't matter. " No, but neither do we care about the plots of the James Bond movies.

Icarus32soar

Off the scale brilliant. A rare holosuite episode that works. A myriad narrative and dramatic elements seamlessly interwoven: the fantasy and the real life gadget (transporter) malfunction work brilliantly in tandem to create the dramatic tension, and all the while the Bond parody keeping things thoroughly entertaining. Nana Visitor and Alexander Siddig are just brilliant in their roles. Ditto Andrew Robinson in his Garak role exchanging endless repartee with Julian. Siddig's Brit accent and understated acting, particularly his voice inflections, are a joy to watch. The other actors are good too, but for Avery Brooks who as Dr Noah just has the wrong vocal delivery for parody. Understated straight acting is his modus operandi, spoofing seems to be out of his range. Still, a sizzling episode in terms of pacing, editing and dialogue. Just super fun not only as ST but as television full stop.

Holodeck episodes in ST are hit or miss, and most of the time it's a miss......especially in VOY, that being , said maybe I'm a James Bond fan so there's some bias but I would say this is probably the best holodeck episode in all of trek given the ridiculous yet improbable context . Garak is key in this episode reminding the viewers that real life spying isn't a 007 a la Sean Connery type smooth sailing. In fact I pretty much gutted my insides of laughter when he said '' clearly I joined the wrong spy agency'' and '' they never thought me this in the Obsidian Order''. He was also instrumental in reminding the viewers that yes this whole situation is pretty ridiculous (not sure if this was a stab at how TNG approached these sort episodes) and we should just do the logical thing and let all 5 die ....and it's made clear the writers were probably chuckling as they wrote this episode down knowing how weak the premise was. ''Our Man Bashir'' is probably the worst yet strongest pure ''holodeck shenanigans'' episodes trek has to offert up .

Just as well Garak didn't just say "Computer, end program" isn't it?

MidshipmanNorris

You know, when I first saw this episode, my initial gut reaction was "A holodeck episode, oh great." But on rewatching it soon after (my Dad taped all the Star Trek shows as they aired), I realized what the real stylistic throughline was. It's true that Goldeneye was released very recently when this was made. But, think about how Goldeneye had to work as a sort of "60's throwback" style movie. There was a lot of this in the 90s, to be honest. This was way before the Matrix when people were all like "Yeah Woodstock 93 baby wooo" and the Beatles Anthology was out. People were getting into 60's stuff, and I was no exception, digging into Jimi Hendrix records and such. "Our Man Bashir," then, not only chooses to riff on 007's newly minted repopularization, but it's also, like GoldenEye, a bit of a 60s period piece. The decor (which Garak makes it a point to complain about late in the episode...not an art deco fan I see lol), the clothing (Garak complains about the turtleneck), the music (Jay Chattoway really outdid himself), right down to Alexander Siddig's accent being ... well, perfect for the idea, it all just screams late 60s spy flick. They really went right to the hilt with it. The difference is that, since a holodeck malfunction episode doesn't have to have real bearing on reality, they had the ability to play it in a sort of dark comedic way, but I don't find that the episode is all that funny, in most cases ("Mona Lovesitt" aside... although it is a huge groaner of a pun). It does create a bit too much push-pull between drama and comedy, though of course you realize if you've been watching Trek for long that they aren't gonna off 2/3 of the main cast, hehehe. The organization of this episode is one of its highlights. Shimerman, Grodenchik, Marshall and Auberjonois all do an excellent job of making the exposition all very clear; they are just four actors flexing and they really make it work, despite it all being very boilerplate Treknobabble. I think the biggest flaw in the episode is that it's trying to pack two 45 minute TV Drama episodes into one 45 minute time slot. :) This has the side effect of ruining the pacing of both stories. I think this would have made a better two-parter, but at the same time, stretching a holodeck period piece to a two-parter feels like a bit of a cheat... I'm looking at you, "The Killing Game." Yeah, we know you're not gonna Holo-Kill Off the main cast, guys, come on. It's really transparent (sorry...) drama, but at the same time, it provides for enough tension to move the plot forward. I think 3 stars is fair, but only for this reason: The Magic of Garak. Andrew Robinson makes this episode really *work.* The contrast between his experiences in the Obsidian Order and this flashy, Andy Warhol-esque fever dream version of it dreamed up by humans 300 years before, is the majorly delicious and perfectly cooked and seasoned meat of the plot. This is where the thinky-stuffs are at. Star Trek is always at its best when it goes for the thinky-stuffs. And Andrew Robinson delivers. He provides the "outsider perspective" for one thing, that you need in order to draw someone into an idea like this; the fact that it is Andrew Robinson doing it gives it a bit of a cute touch; for the first time in a while, Garak finds himself in a completely unfamiliar setting, but doing what he does best, ironically enough. That's some good thinky-stuffs. I like the contrasting point of view that Garak brings to the tale, and his line "I think I joined the wrong intelligence service" is 100% gold. It can be kind of paltry and pat at times, but between the great score and Andrew Robinson's lugubriousness, it's a winner.

This episode was so cheesy and boring I kept wishing Netflix had the option like YouTube where you can watch it in 1.5x speed just to get it over with. Kira’s accent was so cringe it made it hard to watch. Hopefully this series gets better after this as the last few episodes have been deathly boring.

I actually thought the notion of erasing the whole station's computer memory had potential considering Eddington's abrupt order to do so. Basically he (justifiably)) went admin mode and it's easy to imagine real Jeopardy to people on the station of doing so. Imagine someone suddenly doing that to a hospital's computer systems even today. The soundtrack does crack me up a few times. So abruptly over the top here and there. This looks like it would be a lot more fun than it is. I agree that's largely due to Bond parodies being decades trite even in 1995. The officers being stuck in holodeck Jeopardy was also done to death by this episode. The episode spends a surprising amount of time on the Eddington-driven "fix the holodeck" plot. That's weird considering it's just a set up for a holodeck romp and they REALLY shouldn't make you think too much about the technobabble going on here. Because as usual, the worst science in Star Trek is computer science. I doubt there's enough RAM in the universe to store the quantum mental "signature" of an ant.

I think they missed some opportunities here too. The whole concept is they are forced to play out the Holodeck program as is. Garak and Julian are in Hong Kong and it's at least a 12 hour jet ride between the cities. Imagine Julian and Garak sitting on a plane for 12 hours eating bad airline food.

So a common plot element for holodeck episodes is that somehow the safety protocols end up being turned off. As cliche as it is, it's kind of essential for there to be any sort stakes. But why are the safeties off in this episode? The holosuite isn't technically malfunctioning. It's just been forced to store the transporter patterns of Sisko and the rest and overwritten several holo-characters in the process. (contrived, I know. But whatever, it's just a platform for a fun episode) It's not like the writers needed to put Bashir and Garak in physical danger. The episode already had stakes. The safety of the crew stored in the holosuite are the stakes. Why delve into that tired old holo-cliche of the safeties being off. On top of that, why are the safeties even something that can be turned off? And I'm not just talking about malfunctions. I can't think of an example right now, but I'm almost certain that there have been instances where people using a holodeck have chose to disable safeties. It just seems so weird that it would even be designed to give you that option.

@JonR it is more or less a cliche at this point that the instant anything whatsoever goes wrong with the holodeck, the very first thing to fail are the safeties. Outside of Moriarte episodes this is hilariously improbable that this could happen.

I would like to suggest that maybe Garak and Bashir are never in any real danger. I think the safeties may be working properly? The problem is that the holodeck program is designed for the characters to frequently kill each other, and even if Garak and Julien sit on their hands the various criminals will kill each other eventually, which will erase the real minds of the crew. So they have to play out the fantasy in order to save each and ever character containing a real person.

Adding to my previous post: Also, even with the holosuite safeties off, I can't imagine Bashir and Garak would actually be in any real danger when they were strapped to the laser drill. The holodeck safeties make sense for preventing against injury. When you are playing out a combat scene, the holoprogram has to generate swords and guns and stuff like that, but all of them have to be harmless. And when a holocharacter swings a fist at you, it has to be harmless. And when you fall, it has to cushion the landing. That makes sense. But am I supposed to believe that if the safeties are off, the holosuite will actually fill itself up with molten lava? There is a difference between generating a realistic weapon and making sure it doesn't hurt you, compared to generating something that has absolutely no reason to be made real or tangible because if it was it would kill everyone in the room.

Peter G. The episode actually states that the safeties are off when Garak gets hit and his lip bleeds.

At that point the holodeck becomes some kind of weird suicide machine. Laughable that anyone would design such a thing.

I do think that Bashir and Garak were nominally in danger as long as the program was running, or else Bashir shooting Garak in the face wouldn't have worked. More to the point, Garak's point is that they shouldn't be risking themselves on a doomed mission to save the others, and it doesn't really work if there is no risk to them. I think the episode doesn't entirely pull off Garak's argument, but it largely works because Garak is saying that they shouldn't die for an unlikely positive outcome, not that they shouldn't spend a couple hours of their life trying for an unlikely positive outcome, which is a much more extreme position. I like this episode's constraint that Bashir and Garak can end the program at any time and take themselves out of danger, just at the cost of the others' lives. This is probably the cleverest holodeck danger episode outside the Moriartys. (The Barclay holodiction episodes are I suppose also a kind of danger ep but I mean less psychological addiction danger and more action adventure danger.)

Another thing is these are holosuites, not holodecks, so it wouldn't surprise me if these have features more liberal than what you'd see on the Enterprise. For instance if Klingons want to rent a holosuite, you can bet some actual beatings are going on in there, and of course the programming would have to allow it. Julian may well have also opted for "full danger" mode and had to sign a consent form or something for that, to make it more thrilling for himself. It wouldn't surprise me that Quark would allow such things, for a modest fee, which includes keeping that fact away from the attention of security. That's sort of head canon territory, but I guess it's maybe not quite fair to hold the DS9 holodeck to the same constraints of safety we would legitimately expect on the Enterprise.

"That's sort of head canon territory, but I guess it's maybe not quite fair to hold the DS9 holodeck to the same constraints of safety we would legitimately expect on the Enterprise." So it is basically the suicide booth from Futurama. "I'll take the slow and painful death by molten lava computer"

So if the holosuite is capable of generating real molten lava when the safeties are off (which was how Garak and Bashir were going to die) then would the holosuite basically destroy itself in the process? Even if it's just holographic lava, presumably it's generating the extreme heat or else it wouldn't really be a threat. That extreme heat would still be a threat to the controls and stuff in the holosuite. I'm thinking way too hard about this XD

@JonR It's something that only makes sense within the fantasy realm of the episode. If you start trying to apply science to the episode (like where is the energy to make molten lava coming from and can't that be shut off regardless of safeties?) then the concept falls apart. Having recently seen "No Time To Die", I'm more astonished that Bashir could get out of his Bond story without killing more of his friends. There's always like two or three double agents in Bond movies, and leaving any them alive ends up biting Bond in the ass. What could've been interesting is if Bashir was given a Sophie's Choice in the episode. You know, like he could only save Sisko and Dax by killing Kira. Okay, I mean killing a main character was never on the table, but it seems like a couple red shirts should've croaked.

To be honest I'm really happy with the solution Julian did come up with. Bond would have to kill people (aside from the fact that he's an assassin) in order to claim victory. But as long as Julian was willing to just let the bad guy win then no one really needed to get caught in the crossfire, since there was no crossfire. On behalf of Britain Julian surrendered :)

Just a quick comment about the technobabble aspects brought up in the top comment. The buffer isn't designed for long-term storage, but instead for bandwidth. It takes a ton of data in and then releases quickly somewhere else. Computer memory is designed for long-term storage, but can't handle the same kind of volume. So extreme measures are required to store the mental part of the person.

Such a fun episode. How they got the cast into the holodeck to do their Bond spoof is less important than the strong performances, especially Nana Visitor as "Colonel Anastasia Komananov," and (with his usual brilliance) Andrew Robinson as Garak. Ronald Moore's script is just a hoot.

Dr Noah would fit right in with the World Economic Forum.

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Our Man Bashir (Review)

This February and March, we’re taking a look at the 1995 to 1996 season of Star Trek , including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and  Star Trek: Voyager . Check back daily Tuesday through Friday for the latest review.

Our Man Bashir is an underrated masterpiece.

It is possibly the best holodeck (or holosuite) episode in the history of the franchise; only Ship in a Bottle can really compete. A lot of this is down to the production value of the episode; Our Man Bashir looks and sounds beautiful, a delightfully detailed throwback to its source material. The production team on the Star Trek franchise seldom get enough credit for their skill at realising alien worlds and cultures from scratch, but their beautiful evocation of sixties design is breathtaking. Our Man Bashir is a clear forerunner to Trials and Tribble-ations , less than a year away.

“The name’s Bashir, Julian Bashir…”

However, there is more to it than that. Like Little Green Men , Our Man Bashir succeeds as a (relatively) light-hearted run-around that never loses track of its characters. The first three seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine struggled with the character of Julian Bashir; audience members could wait entire seasons for a good Bashir episode. With the fourth season, three come along at once. Our Man Bashir might look light and fluffy – and it largely is – but it never loses sight of its core character dynamics in the midst of all the fun unfolding around them.

More than that, Our Man Bashir plays into the broader themes and strengths of the fourth season. The climax of the episode feels like Deep Space Nine is ruminating on its new-found place dictating the direction of the Star Trek canon. Bashir’s decision to “save the day by destroying the world” feels oddly prophetic. The fifth season of the show would find the writers destroying some of the most fundamental rules of the franchise in an effort to keep things vital.

Got some bottle…

According to The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine companion, the production on Our Man Bashir ran significantly over. Most episodes of Deep Space Nine were produced within seven days; occasionally a particularly demanding episode might extend into an eighth day of production. In contrast, Our Man Bashir took nine days to produce. Given the demands and deadlines of television production, that is quite a considerable amount of time. The fact that Our Man Bashir got the budget and the time to extend by two whole days is a testament to the production team.

The production value on the episode is fantastic. The costumes are wonderful – Our Man Bashir would be a memorable episode even if its only innovation was to put Garak in a turtleneck sweater. The sets are also impressive; they don’t look particularly convincing, but that is the point. They are a stylised affectation of sixties production design, harking back to the sort of theatrical design and exaggeration that was common in the media of the time. The sets look like sets where William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy might have filmed.

A giant freakin’ laser…

This is a very important detail. Modern Star Trek often seemed to aspire towards “realism” and “groundedness.” The sets designed for the various spin-off shows (and feature films) look much more sturdy and convincing than those featured on the original Star Trek show. This attitude arguably played a part in the admitted seriousness of Star Trek: The Next Generation , right down to Rick Berman’s instruction that the background music in the show should function as “wallpaper.”

In contrast, Deep Space Nine was a lot more comfortable with the franchise’s pulpy roots. When Star Trek: Voyager opted to celebrate the franchise’s thirtieth anniversary in Flashback , it did so by taking a trip back in time to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . Although it featured the original cast, the film had been released less than five years earlier, as part of the celebrations around the franchise’s twenty-fifth anniversary. In contrast, Deep Space Nine took its cast all the way back to 1967 to visit The Trouble With Tribbles .

Put a cork in it…

Even the soundtrack to Our Man Bashir feels brash and vibrant. It is an example of Deep Space Nine growing more and more adventurous now that it is the oldest Star Trek show on the air. In fact, according to Ford A. Thaxton, the soundtrack to Our Man Bashir was so popular that there were actually plans to release it as an album :

When GNP Crescendo Records had the Star Trek franchise, we always wanted to do some more DS9 because while [GNP] Crescendo had done the pilot (Emissary), they hadn’t done any more than that because musician’s union regulations during that period were very cost prohibitive. So, they eventually did The Best of Star Trek – those two releases – which had something from each of the series. They had done well, and there was talk about doing a third one, which is when I prepared Our Man Bashir with Mark, and James edited it together and signed off on it. The problem there was, they didn’t do a third one, and there was apparently some other issue at some point… that’s why they never showed up.

It is easy to see why the soundtrack to Our Man Bashir was so popular. It is one of the most distinctive Star Trek soundtracks in the history of the franchise, and perfectly blends together the big-band feel of John Barry with the aesthetic of Deep Space Nine . It sounds like Jay Chattaway is having the time of his life.

Un-Bare-able…

While Deep Space Nine would never go that far out again – although Badda-Bing Badda-Bang comes close – it is an example of the show’s willingness to push just a little bit further than the other Star Trek spin-offs. The third and fourth seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise were ultimately willing to embrace the style and tone of the original Star Trek , but that was still a clear sense of trepidation and anxiety. In its final years, Enterprise was beginning to embrace the enthusiasm and dynamism that made Deep Space Nine such a thrilling part of the franchise.

It would easy to let the review of Our Man Bashir turn into a list of the superb production elements and design choices. Bashir’s Hong Kong apartment is quite brilliant, complete with rotating bed. Doctor Noah’s secret mountaintop lair feels like something from The Avengers or Doctor Who brought to life, complete with a giant map of the world he plans to conquer. The costuming is exquisite and – as with Little Green Men before it – there is something delightful bizarre about seeing this much smoking on a Star Trek show.

A view to a kill…

Much like Little Green Men , there is a sense that the production team is going back to the pop culture of the era that spawned the original Star Trek . Ira Steven Behr and his staff have always been fans of classic pop culture, to the point where several episodes of Deep Space Nine are really just riffs on classic movies transposed into a Star Trek setting. It makes sense to have the production team riff on James Bond in the same way that it made sense to have them dig into forties and fifties sci-fi films or (perhaps more tenuously) visit sixties Vegas.

After all, the broadcast of Our Man Bashir might have coincided with the release of GoldenEye , but the script is not about modernising or updating the iconic sixties secret agent. The setting is explicitly a throwback, populated with the sorts of retro production design that GoldenEye was consciously avoiding. In fact, when Honey Bare is checking the giant laser controls, the sound effects feel like they might have been taken from the ambient sounds on the bridge from the original Star Trek .

Shaken, not stirred…

It is easy to forget just what a cultural force James Bond was during the mid-sixties, coinciding and overlapping with the British Invasion. It was a worldwide phenomenon, as Time reported in 1965:

There seems to be no geographical limit to the appeal of sex, violence and snobbery with which Fleming endowed his British secret agent. In Tokyo, the queue for Goldfinger stretches half a mile. In Brazil, where From Russia broke all Rio and Sao Paulo records, one unemployed TV actor had only to change his name to Jaime Bonde to be swamped with offers. In Beirut, where Goldfinger outdrew My Fair Lady, even Goldfinger’s hat-hurling bodyguard, Oddjob, has become a minor hero.

Given the impact that Star Trek would have on popular consciousness, it makes sense for the two to overlap with one another. Both Star Trek and James Bond are iconic signifiers of the sixties. That makes them perfect fodder for a mash-up.

Falcon’s Crest…

The episode features some great performances. Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson play perfectly off one another, making it all the more tragic that this would be their last two-hander. The primary cast seem glad to take a break from their usual personas. Colm Meaney slips comfortably into the sort of jerkish thug he tended to play in American films during the eighties and nineties. Terry Farrell is delightful as Bond girl. Michael Dorn is delightfully deadpan as a henchman.

However, the two best supporting performances come from Avery Brooks and Nana Visitor, who have proven their aptitude for this sort of storytelling as early as Dramatis Personae and Crossover . Brooks was born to play a Bond villain, his larger-than-life performance style lending itself to crazy motive rants and insane plots. ( “Like letting the air… out of a baLLoon.” ) Having shaved his head between the third and fourth seasons, Brooks had well and truly made Sisko his own. Our Man Bashir is just Brooks letting loose.

Jaysus… even when they play mortal enemies, Bashir and O’Brien are bro-mantic…

In many ways, Our Man Bashir seems to cleverly foreshadow a lot of the developments coming down the line. Brooks’ performance here is not the first time that the actor has gone after scenery with the reckless abandon of a rabid William Shatner. Our Man Bashir belongs beside classic Brooks performances like Dramatis Personae , Crossover or Facets as a demonstration of his increasingly theatrical approach to the material. This is Avery Brooks turning it up to eleven. And it is glorious.

While Brooks initially limited his application of this style to characters other than Sisko, it would not be long before this stylised performance would bleed into his portrayal of the show’s primary character. Brooks’ heightened delivery is arguably another example of how Deep Space Nine was more willing to embrace the theatrical stylings of the original Star Trek than any of the spin-offs. His work here prefigures later performances in scripts like Rapture , For the Uniform , Waltz , In the Pale Moonlight and Far Beyond the Stars .

Of course Bashir’s fantasy involves rescuing Dax…

Nana Visitor is just as good cast as the sexy Russian spy Colonel Anastasia Komananov. (The only way the character could seem more stereotypically Russian would be to call her Ilyana Rasputin, and that was trademarked to Marvel.) Visitor is cast in the role of seductress, much like in Dramatis Personae and Crossover . She is very good at it. Visitor also puts on a truly delightfully brilliantly terrible Russian accent. She throws herself into the role with the same enthusiasm as Brooks.

Of course, Visitor is also somewhat more understated in sections. Most notably, Komananov is the holographic character who spends the most time with Bashir and Garak. In a sense, Komananov is the audience’s gateway into this make-believe world, something that Visitor sells very well during Noah’s big rant about his evil plan. Bashir and Garak are unfazed, because they know that this is a paper mache world with no real consequences. However, Komananov does not have that larger awareness. As such, Visitor plays the scene with a palpable horror.

Keeping Odo in the dark…

Our Man Bashir is a holodeck (or holosuite) episode, so it comes with a fairly sizable suspension of disbelief in order to generate real stakes and involve the primary cast in the plot. A terrorist attack by a Cardassian separatist movement blows up a runabout transporting half of the regular cast. The station tries to transport them off as the bomb explodes, leaving their patterns trapped in the computer. The computer uses those patterns to populate Bashir’s holosuite program.

It’s all fairly logical so far, if a little transparent. It even makes a certain amount of sense that Bashir and Garak cannot do anything that might affect the rendering of the adventure – no calling for the arch, no requesting assistance. It is analogous to working on a document you can’t save. And the safety feature is turned off, because of course the safety feature is turned off . At the same time, there are some fairly arbitrary rules imposed. Apparently once characters are killed, their patterns are deleted. This sounds questionable. What if you want to run the program again?

Beaming with excitement…

Of course, this is all just a convenient set of contrivances that exist to ensure that Bashir and Garak cannot simply leave the program and that the episode has some dramatic stakes. There is, of course, something rather sly about a James Bond adventure where the eponymous hero cannot kill anybody. It does feel like the sort of challenge that people might set for themselves if something like the holodeck existed. Can you do a complete playthrough of “Julian Bashir in Noah’s Ark” without killing anybody ?

In a way, this serves as a (very) gentle critique of the source material and its somewhat cavalier attitude mortality. In fact, approaching the climax of the story, Bashir makes a nod towards that most familiar of Bond clichés. “If this programme ends like the others, either Komananov or Honey Bare will be killed by Doctor Noah,” Bashir warns Garak. “The other’s supposed to end up with me. In either case, we have to make sure that both of them survive.” It is a tried and tested Bond formula, applied most egregiously in The World is Not Enough .

Mona Luvsitt is actually a pretty great late Connery/early Moore era Bond girl name.

It’s easy enough to excuse the death of a character when that death comes as part of a formula, when you are convinced that the character is little more than a plot object in a make-believe world. Bond is typically the only character in which the audience and the film are actually invested, and the supporting cast exist as an extension of the fantasy that Bond represents. While the death of one of the Bond girls ramps up the tension, there is always another ready to fall into Bond’s arms for the requisite double entrendre.

One of the joys of the holodeck, at least in theory, is the way that it provides a chance for characters to step into another story. This has arguably been a contributing factor to the use and abuse of the holodeck as a storytelling device – it allows the production team to get away from the Star Trek universe for a week and to indulge in making a different kind of story. It can often feel like a cynical exercise, an attempt by the production team to put together an episode of Star Trek that is not really Star Trek .

Suits up…

What elevates Our Man Bashir above so many of the franchise’s holodeck episodes is the fact that it uses this storytelling mechanism for a little bit of contrast and comparison. Our Man Bashir was broadcast just a week after the release of GoldenEye , a film absolutely preoccupied with the validity of James Bond in the modern world. Using the characters of Bashir and Garak, Our Man Bashir offers an interesting exploration of the type of fantasy embodied by these sorts of spy narratives, populated with romance and mystery and disposable women.

Our Man Bashir is essentially the story of how Garak is far too cynical for a conventional James Bond narrative and how Bashir is far too idealistic. By playing with the expectations and rules of the narrative, Bashir is able to manipulate the story so that nobody dies. He offers an ending to the narrative that manages to keep both of the women (and both of the henchmen) alive. There is no unnecessary death, no needless violence. Bashir essentially gets to be a bigger hero than Bond, engineering a solution to an impossible situation that keeps everybody alive.

Kiss of death…

After three years struggling with how to write Bashir, it seems like Deep Space Nine finally has an understanding about how best to use the enthusiastic young doctor. The three Bashir stories in the fourth season are all superb, and all work because they operate from a firm understanding of who Bashir is and what he wants. Since his introduction to Kira in Emissary , the show has reinforced the idea that Bashir is more romantic than pragmatic; a character with an idealistic and arguably simplistic understanding of a complicated universe.

The three Bashir stories from the fourth season through Bashir into conflict with that vastly more complicated universe, presenting him with horrible situations that do not always have straightforward answers. In Hippocratic Oath , Bashir finds himself asked to break the Jem’Hadar addiction to ketrecel white. In The Quickening , Bashir finds himself unable to engineer a cure to a deadly virus unleashed by the Dominion. In Our Man Bashir , Bashir is confronted by a narrative that is written to end with a significant number of deaths.

Garak puts his neck on the line…

Deep Space Nine is considered to be the most cynical of the Star Trek series, and understandably so. It tended to deal with pretty heavy subject matter in a very direct way. While never as nihilistic as Battlestar Galactica , it often seemed quite grim in comparison to The Next Generation or Voyager . However, Deep Space Nine retained more than a sliver of optimism and idealism. Most notably, all three of the Bashir episodes in the fourth season hinge upon the idea that Bashir is actually correct and that his idealism is a virtue.

In Hippocratic Oath , Goran’Agar sacrifices his life to protect Bashir and O’Brien, demonstrating that the Jem’Hadar are not the remorseless killing machines that O’Brien fears them to be. In The Quickening , Bashir is eventually able to synthesise a vaccine against the deadly plague, even if he cannot cure those currently infected. In Our Man Bashir , Bashir manages to save the lives of everybody trapped on the holodeck despite the cynicism expressed by Garak about the need to know when to quit.

Doctor Noah…

As with Hippocratic Oath , the bulk of Our Man Bashir is driven by the conflict between Bashir and another more cynical member of the primary cast. Garak was a member of the Obsidian Order, and so he knows what it is like to be a real spy. It certainly doesn’t include penthouses in Hong Kong. “I take it your character is some kind of rich dilettante with a fascination for women and weapons,” Garak reflects on first visiting the penthouse. He seems to understand this whole James Bond thing intrinsically.

“Actually, my character is far more disreputable,” Bashir confesses. “I’m a spy.” Garak is understandably confused. “A spy?” he ponders. “And you live here?” Bashir explains, “This apartment, my clothes, weapons, even my valet were provided to me by my government.” Garak deadpans, “I think I joined the wrong intelligence service.” It’s a stock critique of the power fantasy behind the James Bond mythos – the reminder that it is just a fantasy – but it does provide a nice set-up for the episode’s central conflict, as Garak viciously tears into Bashir’s heroic escapism.

Smoke ’em if you got ’em…

It helps that Siddig and Robinson play beautifully off one another, with the episode capitalising on their banter to keep things running over. Garak is a consummate deadpan snarker, who manages to provide levity in even the grimmest of situations by offering a rather matter-of-fact assessment or opinion. Chained to the drill that will burn to the planet’s molten core, Garak is quick to let Bashir know how unsatisfied he is. “I don’t know if I’ve made this explicit to you or not, Doctor, but I really don’t want to die chained to a twentieth century laser.”

It is, of course, perfectly in character for Bashir to fantasise about being James Bond. Bond embodies many of the stock masculine traits that Bashir seems to aspire towards, with his aggressive pursuit of women and the none-to-subtle imperialist subtext to the stories. This is a character who arrived on Bajor thrilled at the opportunity to practice “frontier medicine” and decided that being told it was “not necessary” to walk a woman home was an invitation to follow her back to her quarters.

Some men just want to watch the world drown…

And so there is a sense that Garak’s initial observations about the fantasy are entirely accurate in their assessment of Bashir. “Is this fantasy of yours really truly revealing of your inner psyche?” Garak muses. “Is that why you’re so protective? Are you afraid that I’ll find out some humiliating secrets about the real Julian Bashir?” Garak might be exaggerating slightly, but the fantasy is entirely in keeping with what we know about Bashir, right down to the foolhardy romantic heroism that led to him trapping himself in a turbolift with Dax in Starship Down .

Still, Bashir is not the only character illuminated by the experience. The episode builds to a climactic confrontation between Bashir and Garak beneath Noah’s mountain lair as the two argue about whether the time has come to cut and run. “Yes,” Garak concedes, “they might be killed, and that is unfortunate. But there comes a point when the odds are against you and the only reasonable course of action is to quit!” It is a delightful deflation of the heroic fantasy at the heart of Bond, an acknowledgement that the real world doesn’t necessarily reward good people.

“Well, this is unprofessional…”

When Bashir asks if the Obsidian Order taught him that, Garak replies, “As a matter of fact, they did. That’s why I’ve managed to stay alive while most of my colleagues are dead. Because I know when to walk away. And that time is now. And you’d know that, Doctor, if you were a real intelligence agent.” It is, in many respects, a stock criticism of escapist entertainment – a reminder that these sorts of fantasies draw on misapprehensions and misunderstandings of real-life situations that are much less romantic and exciting. That they trivialise real horrors.

The contrast between Bashir and Garak provides a relatively substantial context to what might otherwise be a light (and fun) run around adventure. After incapacitating O’Brien-as-Falcon, Bashir confronts Garak. “What do you want me to do? Kill him?” Garak is blunt. “I want you to stop treating this like a game where everything’s going to turn out all right in the end,” he insists. “Real spies have to make hard choices. You want to save Dax? Fine. But you may not have the luxury of saving everyone.” It’s the old “optimism is foolhardy” argument.

Moving mountains…

Interestingly, Our Man Bashir doesn’t let Garak score that particular point. The show is not that unrelentingly cynical. As with O’Brien’s anxiety about the Jem’Hadar in Hippocratic Oath , the script suggests that Garak’s cynicism is not a valid (and certainly not a fatal) criticism of Bashir’s heroic idealism. Instead, the argument is used to make a point about Garak. Much as it seemed like O’Brien was projecting his own guilt and anxieties about his time as a soldier on to the Jem’Hadar, it seems like Garak is projecting his own self-hatred on to Bashir.

“It’s time to face reality, Doctor,” Garak advises. “You’re a man who dreams of being a hero because you know, deep down, that you’re not.” There is a sense that Garak is talking more about himself than Bashir in this case. Deep Space Nine has never questioned Bashir’s heroism of itself. It might have suggested that he was naive and foolhardy, but the show has never suggested that Bashir’s enthusiasm and idealism mask a more cynical or cowardly streak. The show’s criticisms of Bashir tend towards a lack of self-awareness rather than active self-denial.

A slippery slope…

In contrast, Garak is much more conflicted. As much as Garak might claim to be cynical and detached, the show has repeatedly suggested that he is more idealistic than he would like people to believe. Although the specifics of his exile are never revealed, The Wire suggested that Garak resents his own softness and his own weakness, which occasionally manifests itself in idealism. Profit and Loss suggested that the character might be a romantic on some small level. Over the course of the series, he finds himself embracing the role of hero more and more.

As such, it would seem that the holosuite is not the only thing that is projecting. Garak’s critique of Bashir seems to be a projection of his own insecurities. Even in the context of Our Man Bashir , Bashir is never less than heroic. Even within the confines of the holosuite, playing along after the safeties have been disengaged represents a very real risk. There is no irony or deconstruction here. In fact, the episode steadfastly refuses to teach Bashir a lesson in any form. He gets to save everyone, and the episode even ends with him vowing to return to the fantasy in future.

That sinking feeling…

In many respects, Deep Space Nine tends to treat Bashir as the archetypal “Roddenberry” character in the cast, the romantic idealist who believes that the universe is fundamentally wondrous and that people are inherently decent. This does make him an easy target for the occasional cheap shot, but it also demonstrates that Deep Space Nine is still (broadly speaking) optimistic in its meditation on the human condition. Bashir is frequently thrown into conflict with his more cynical and experienced crewmates, but he is quite frequently vindicated.

In the early seasons of Deep Space Nine , Bashir could often feel like a cast member from The Next Generation who had simply shown up on the wrong set. His enthusiasm and idealism (and occasionally his arrogance and self-centredness) would have been much more comfortable on the Enterprise than on Deep Space Nine. More than O’Brien or Worf, Bashir felt like he belonged at Picard’s staff meetings. It felt appropriate that Bashir should be the character to cross over from Deep Space Nine to the Enterprise in Birthright, Part I .

Things can get quite heated…

As such, there is considerable symbolic import to the climax of the episode. The twist that sees Bashir “saving the day by destroying the world” is a delightful bit of narrative sleight of hand that cleverly plays up the fictionality of the holosuite program, but it also plays out as something of a metaphor for the emerging direction of Deep Space Nine as a television show. Although The Next Generation had been off the air for a year at this point, the production team were only getting used to being the senior Star Trek show.

With Voyager unfolding in the Delta Quadrant, Deep Space Nine had complete freedom to set the course and direction of the larger Star Trek universe. It would have been impossible for Deep Space Nine to attempt a narrative as ambitious as the Dominion War (or even the crisis with the Klingons) while The Next Generation was on the air, the shared universe serving as something of a narrative straitjacket. However, without an elder sibling to stop it, Deep Space Nine was free to truly shake things up.

I love that Garak took the time to put on a tux before crashing the program…

Starting with the fourth season, Deep Space Nine would become a rather fundamental examination and exploration of the underlying principles of the Star Trek universe, pushing the franchise further than it had ever gone before. This applied structurally, with Deep Space Nine adopting a semi-serialised style in contrast to Voyager’s generally episodic approach; it also applied philosophically, with Deep Space Nine taking the Star Trek franchise to war. These sorts of decisions represented a clear break from what came before, and would provoke considerable backlash.

However, Star Trek had been airing continuously for almost nine years. Almost a decade had passed since Encounter at Farpoint had brought Star Trek back to television. There had been two Star Trek shows running concurrently for three and a half years by the time that Our Man Bashir was broadcast. Quite simply, television had changed and Star Trek needed to change along with it. As the fourth season progressed, it seemed like the writing staff were becoming more and more aware of the fact that the show would have to reinvent Star Trek for a new generation.

Elim “third wheel” Garak…

It seems highly unlikely that Ronald D. Moore drafted the climax of Our Man Bashir as a statement of purpose, but the final confrontation between Bashir and Noah seems to play out an internal philosophical discussion about the future of Deep Space Nine . Having Bashir at the centre of this conversation is quite a nice touch, given the character’s roots in Roddenberry’s idealistic humanism. If Bashir can accept that sometimes the underlying rules of the franchise need to be changed, then anybody can.

Stalling for time, Bashir suggests that maybe it is time to stop taking the old order of things for granted, that maybe there is room to shake up the narrative a bit. When Noah describes Bashir as “a man who has spent his entire life dedicated to fighting against…” , Bashir cuts him off, “Yes, but all that’s about to end now, isn’t it? You’re going to destroy this world and start a new one. What’s the use of me continuing to defend a doomed planet? Can you see the sense in that?” It’s all gloriously tongue-in-cheek, but it does touch on some of what is to come.

“I only gamble with my life. And money. Mostly money…”

(Indeed, even Noah gets to do his own little bit of foreshadowing, as he admonishes what he considers to be Bashir’s misguided heroism. “What is it you understand, Mister Bashir?” he asks rhetorically. “That you should’ve killed me when you had the chance? I agree. But then again, I suppose it wouldn’t be very heroic. I, on the other hand, have no pretensions about the idea of being a hero.” This attitude would arguably come to define Sisko in contrast to Kirk or Picard, particularly in episodes like For the Uniform or In the Pale Moonlight .)

Deep Space Nine was always a show that had been sceptical of the franchise’s utopia, but that tendency become more pronounced from the fourth season onwards. Indeed, Our Man Bashir comes right before the two-part Homefront and Paradise Lost , a story that takes a long and hard look at just how fragile Star Trek ‘s utopia could be. Deep Space Nine was never particularly malicious in its criticisms of the Star Trek utopia, instead examining the franchise’s core ideas from a different angle.

Enchanté…

What if the only way to save the day was to destroy the world? In Paradise Lost , Sisko finds himself confronted by the same question, whether he is “willing to destroy paradise in order to save it.” It is a tough question that Star Trek had – broadly speaking – avoided to this point. There are no easy answers to those sorts of questions, despite how comfortable an absolutist rhetorical position might seem. This is not to dismiss or belittle the more absolutist tendencies of other Star Trek shows, merely to demonstrate that Deep Space Nine was staking new ground.

Was Deep Space Nine willing to risk destroying some of the underlying principles of the franchise in order to save it? Was it worth presenting these sorts of questions and dilemmas, even if they risked upsetting certain sections of Star Trek fandom? These were the sorts of questions being broached in the writers’ room and around the production office at this point in the show’s run. Our Man Bashir might not be the most obvious example of the show playing with this idea, but it is definitely there.

Fools Russia in…

In fact, the show’s underlying philosophy tends to shine through in its portrayal of Noah himself. The genocidal madman shares more than a few traits with the Founders, the shape-shifting bad guys who are Deep Space Nine ‘s ultimate adversaries. When Komananov accuses him of being an anarchist, Noah rejects the labour. “Quite the opposite,” he insists. “I believe in an orderly world. A far cry from the chaos we find ourselves in today.” The line might easily have come from the Cardassians or the Female Changeling, the show’s primary antagonists.

Given that Sisko would identify the Dominion’s desire to build a “perfect order” in In the Pale Moonlight , it seems to suggest a recurring theme in the writing of Deep Space Nine . The show is sceptical of authority structures throughout its run. Perhaps reflecting its position as the scrappy younger sibling of The Next Generation , there is a rather reckless and loose anti-authoritarian streak running through Deep Space Nine , a streak that informs a lot of its attitudes towards the larger Star Trek franchise.

“You have no idea how long it took the wardrobe people to figure this out…”

Bashir’s holonovel would pop up once more in the show’s run, making a quick (and altogether more generic) appearance in A Simple Investigation . There would be a verbal reference to it in Change of Heart . According to Andrew Robinson, it was phased out for reasons similar to the reasons that the Sherlock Holmes program was phased out on The Next Generation :

[T]he James Bond spoof that we did, that was a lot of fun. It was hellacious to film, because I probably spent more hours in that makeup on that show than any other show. The show was a bear. They really were trying to make a James Bond movie, but it was an enormous amount of fun. And I thought that Winrich Kolbe, the director, did a wonderful job on it. Unfortunately, we ran afoul of the James Bond people, and we were going to do a lot of those, but that was the one and only.

It would be replaced by another collection of sixties pop cultural iconography in His Way , reflecting the production team’s affection for sixties popular culture. It is probably for the best. Our Man Bashir is a great episode, one that might have been diluted by the decision to return to the well once too often. It stands out as an oddity, but a lovable oddity.

I’ll drink to that…

Our Man Bashir is a delight. It is a highlight of one of the strongest seasons that the franchise ever produced, and a tremendous amount of fun for all involved.

You might be interested in our reviews of the fourth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine :

• The Way of the Warrior
• The Visitor
• Hippocratic Oath
• Indiscretion
• Starship Down
• Little Green Men
• The Sword of Kahless
• Supplemental: The Pensky Podcast – Season 4, Episode 10
• Paradise Lost
• Return to Grace
• Sons of Mogh
• Bar Association
• Rules of Engagement
• Shattered Mirror
• For the Cause
• To the Death
• The Quickening
• Broken Link

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Filed under: Deep Space Nine | Tagged: Bashir , deep space nine , ds9 , fantasy , GoldenEye , Jame Bond , james bond , Julian Bashir , Our Man Bashir , star trek , star trek: deep space nine |

11 Responses

Such a great episode. The music and the ending are most memorable to me. Bashir and Garak made a great team, and it’s a shame this storyline was never replicated (though, if it ran over to 9 days, I can see why they didn’t). Great stuff.

It is probably my favourite Holodeck episode, with Ship in a Bottle the only one that comes close. As you point out the music is fantastic, but so are the costumes and the set design. It’s a shame that this is really the show’s last great Bashir/Garak episode, as the rest of the run shares the Garak love across the larger ensemble.

When I first saw this episode I enjoyed it dice I love bond James Bond and Star Trek, but I thought it was just a filler episode. Later, however, after seeing the episode that reveals Bashie to be genetically engineered, this episode is much more important. It shows that the holodeck is the only place where Bashir can be the superman he could be, but is not allowed to be in real life. I realize that this may have been unintentional, but it works well.

That’s actually a very nice touch, I’d never pegged it like that. (And it does cast his “shooting Garak in the neck” bit as rather less reckless than it initially appeared.)

A wonderful episode, and I agree a surprisingly insightful one.

On a, perhaps less insightful level, Nana Visitor really makes a sexy Soviet!

Nana Visitor makes a very sexy everything.

I may have had a Nana Visitor crush when I was younger. I may still have a Nana Visitor crush.

That Garak slips so seamlessly into this sort of adventure (is he supposed to be Felix?) proves that Ronbinson is an actor of no small talent. “I joined the wrong intelligence service.” Ha!

I wouldn’t say the episode is flawless. But then again, most of his faults can be leveled at the source material. (As a rule, Bond movies sag in the first and third acts. Info dumps, static camera, people sitting and talking.)

Robinson really is fantastic. I remember hearing a rumour that he was invited to join the primary cast towards the end of the show, but politely turned them down. Which was probably for the best, but Garak would easily have become one of my favourite Star Trek regulars ever.

I hadn’t realised that this was Bashir and Garak’s last adventure together. Oh well, it was a good one to go out on. And with Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor a couple in real life when this episode aired, it makes their romantic scenes that much more fun to watch.

It was a great on to go out on. It think it’s massively underrated.

I remember recording Our Man Bashir and wearing the tape out (this was pre-DVD) because the episode was so much fun to watch.

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Our Man Bashir

In a undisguised nod towards the James Bond franchise, this episode revolves around the British member of the crew (Doctor Julian Bashir ) taking on the role as a debonair secret agent in a holosuite adventure set in the 1960s. The 1960s was when the first James Bond film, Doctor No was released. When the U.S.S. Orinoco is sabotaged, the attempt by Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington to beam them to safety works but their transport patterns are inserted into the holosuite adventure for safe keeping. Doctor Bashir is told over the intercoms that he must carry on with the mission but ensure that none of the characters are killed otherwise their transfer patterns could be lost. Instead of Doctor No, Bashir must face off against Hippocrates Noah (Captain Benjamin Sisko ) along with his henchmen Falcon (Chief Miles O'Brien ) and Duschamps (Ambassador Worf). Also helping Odo and Eddington to resolve the issue are Quark and Rom as they own the holodesk. In addition to owning, Quark and Rom have technical expertise when it comes to the Holodesk. Helping Bashir to save the world or more appropriately his friends is Elim Garak who had easlier invited himself into the holodeck adventure and Colonel Anastasia Komananov (Col. Kira Nerys ) and Doctor Honey Bare ( Jadzia Dax ). The mission takes Bashir to Noahs hideout. When Noah decides to eliminate Bashir, Eddington works out what to do to resolve the situation and transplant the patterns back and bring the crew back.

Episode Details

Copyright : Paramount

Last Modified : 19th March 2023

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Star Trek History: Our Man Bashir

On this day in 1995, the Deep Space Nine episode premiered.

On this day in Star Trek history, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — "Our Man Bashir" premiered.

Late to the Game Blog

Retro TV Review: Star Trek DS9 SSN Four Episode Nine: Our Man Bashir

The Holodeck. One of the most fascinating and troublesome inventions that has ever graced the scifi screen.  From creating sentient enemies to even being responsible for horrible additions, this is one device that I am shock has not been banned from Federation ships with how much trouble they cause.

As the tradition started with TNG, DS9 could not be without it’s share of holodeck incidents.  originally airing on November 27, 1995, this is Our Man Bashir.

The Episode:

Station Log Stardate Undetermined: Our Man Bashir

After a transporter malfunction replaces characters in Julian’s holosuite program with the physical forms of the station’s senior staff, Bashir must find a way to keep everyone alive and not end the program before they can be saved.

The Breakdown:

We open with Julian in the middle of a James Bond style adventure, just as he is about to close the deal with his conquest, he is interrupted by his old friend, plain simple Garak. Upset at the interruption, Julian makes it clear that he does not want the Cardassian Tailor in the holosuite with him and is even more upset when his friend makes it clear he has no intention on leaving.

Returning to Bashir’s hologram suite, the two are greeted by Mona Luvsitt, his personal valet.  Garak is shocked to learn that Bashir is portraying a British spy, not quite understanding how he could do the job while also living so lavishly.

As Julian and Garak play spy, a runabout with the senior staff arrives at the station and begins having difficulties.  Just as they are beamed to the station by Eddington, the shuttle explodes causing their transporter patterns to be trapped in the system.  In order to save the crew, Eddington saves the transporter patterns in the stations memory with Odo’s help.  Seconds later, a certain Major Kira appears in the holosuite program seemingly unaware of her real identity.

Identifying herself at Colonel Anastasia Komananov, Bashir is convinced that this is a rouse. After contacting Ops, Bashir soon discovers that, due to the issues with the transport, the patterns of his fellow crew-members are now part of his spy program. Odo and Eddington inform him that he can not leave the holosuite or they may lose their friends forever.

Things become even more complicated when O’Brien shows up in the form of Bashir’s enemy, one Falcon.  Using a kiss as a distraction, Komananov and Bashir manage to disable Falcon and his men. Garak soon points out that the holodeck safeties are off and that there is every chance that they may not be able to save everyone. They soon learn that they must save a woman named Honey Bare who happens to look just like Jadzia Dax.

While Julian, Garak and Kira-manov continue their adventure, Eddington works with Quark and Rom to locate the crew-members in the holosuite programs.  Finding them, Eddington discovers that while their physical forms are in the holosuite, their mental data is being stored throughout the ship.  They must find a way to reunite the two or risk losing them all forever. Before long, Julian and Garak encounter the remainder of the crew with Worf portraying a man named Duchamps and Sisko in the form of the villain of the story Doctor Noah.

After revealing his plan for world domination, Doctor Noah (Sisko) traps both Julian and Garak with the laser that is set to start an earthquake of biblical proportions. They are soon saved by Jadzia Honey Bare who falls for Julian’s Bond like charms.   After making their escape they, of course, confront Noah only to be saved when Eddington and team manage to finally rescue the crew.

Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:

I was actually dreading this one as I remembered it being one of the worst in the season.  While it certainly isn’t the worst in the series, it is definitely a filler episode that only serves for a moment of repast as the series nears it’s more serious episodes. Additionally, I do appreciate how episodes like this allows the actors to stretch a little beyond their regular roles on the series.

While fun, one aspect of this episode that pays off is the deeper exploration of Elam Garak’s background and Julian’s desire to be a hero.  Garak finds Julian’s fantasy spy world to be a ridiculous parody of the real thing, constantly challenging Julian to act like a real spy and allow one or more of his crew-members to die.  It is only when Garak threatens the lives of his friends by ending the holodeck program that Julian shows Garak his true resolve by shooting the Cardassian tailor.  This single event allows both Garak and Julian to realize that the Doctor is more of a hero than either ever believed.

The big standout in this one is  Avery Brooks. Brooks makes for an amazing villain channeling his dark insanity in the form of Doctor Noah.   It is rare to see him get a chance to explore his true range and this one really lets him pull it off.

Gleanings and Cool Bits:

• We get more of the tenuous friendship between Julian and Garak, a friendship that is constantly tested.
• This episode was an homage to the classic spy thrillers of the 60’s, specifically James Bond. If you want to dive into that universe, you should check out my James Bond film reviews where I go through every movie from the original Dr. No to the most recent releases. (get the reference now…Dr. Noah…Dr. No…)
• This episode is the first mention if the Cardassian dissident group The True Way.  They will return…
• We get to see more of Rom’s ingenuity with his engineering skills in this one as he has been fixing Quarks Holosuite with Kitchen utensils…

Thanks for reading the Retro TV Review,  I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you, one episode at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!  Next Review:  Homefront

If you would like to read more reviews I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more retro TV goodness check out the rest of the Retro TV Reviews here.

As always, please feel free to comment below and share your experiences with these episodes as well. If you just happened by, tell me what you think! Don’t Forget To Follow me if you like the blog!

Late To The Game 8/28/2019

Special Thanks to Memory Alpha as they are one of the best sources for details on Star Trek information available.  Although I have a pretty deep knowledge on the subject, they have proven invaluable as a regular resource.

“ Star Trek  and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other  Star Trek  franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made production intended for recreational use.  No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”

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Let’s Watch Star Trek

[DS9] Our Man Bashir

Read more at Memory Alpha Notes:

Bashir has a James Bond-like holodeck program that isn’t embarrassing at all.

Garak interrupts, making the whole thing a little better.

Meanwhile a runabout is sabotaged that was carrying Sisko, Kira, Worf, Dax, and O’Brien.

Eddington manages to beam them out but the explosion caused some problem so they couldn’t be materialized.

So their information is sent to the holodeck to be stored until they can be rematerialized. So.. .. so they’re holograms? Or they’re just kinda holograms temporarily? I feel like this raises a lot of big questions this episode isn’t prepared to delve into.

Bashir gets word that ending the program could kill them, but also that aside from their physical appearance, they are basically characters in the program. This makes no sense.

They find out the character using Dax’s image is captured. If her character dies, then Dax could die, of course.

They have a little fight to show us that the safety mechanisms are broken, which every star trek viewer already knows. The safety setting on the holodeck breaks from a slight breeze.

Bashir has to gamble with “Worf”. Or just Worf. Don’t worry about it.

Sisko is the main villain and Dax joined with him willingly! Oh boy does Avery Brooks act it up in this episode.

Just fix it already, Rom

For a minute things get really serious. Garak just wants to call the holo-doors for help, which could do something to the others, and Bashir shoots him, possibly trying to kill him. It’s a brief flash of interesting character stuff in an otherwise weightless episode.

Bashir needs to stall for time, so he joins with Sisko and destroys everyone in the world!

Then they’re all saved the end.

<Previous Episode ——————————————————– Next Episode>

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Star Trek Timeline

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Ds9's "our man bashir," 21 years later.

" Our Man Bashir ," one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's most-entertaining hours, aired on November 27, 1995 -- or a mind-boggling 21 years ago today. The episode, in which the DS9 crew replaced the characters in Dr. Bashir's secret-agent holosuite program following a transporter issue (rather than a holosuite malfunction), was pure 007-style fun. StarTrek.com takes a Bond, er, fond look back at "Our Man Bashir" with these details, figures and anecdotes:

Ronald D. Moore wrote "Our Man Bashir" based on a story pitch by Robert Gillan. The late Winrich Kolbe directed the episode.

The episode's working title was "Untitled Holosuite."

"Our Man Bashir" had the distinction of having the single-longest shoot -- nine days, vesus the usual seven -- of any DS9 episode. That was due mostly to the unusually high number of intricate stunts and the many detailed sets the episode required.

Best line: "Bashir. Julian Bashir."

Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor -- who later married and divorced -- were dating when they filmed "Our Man Bashir," thus their obvious chemistry. Actually, Visitor noted in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , "It was the first episode we did after Sid and I got together as a couple."

Mona Luvsitt and Honey Bare are clear homages to the names of old-school Bond females.

According to  Memory Alpha , via the  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion,  "Although Ronald D. Moore attempted to avoid directly referencing any of his primary influences, it seems that some names and situations skated a little too close for comfort. After this episode aired, the producers go an angry letter from MGM, the studio which holds the rights to the James Bond property. The  DS9 Companion  doesn't reveal the content of the letter other than to say, 'apparently MGM did not find imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery.' As such, in the fifth season espisode ' A Simple Investigation ,' which returns to Bashir's holonovel, the references to Bond are far more subtle."

Other influences on the episode included The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Our Man Flint (note the similarity to the title of the episode) and Matt Helm .

Which DS9 regular did not appear in this installment? That'd be Cirroc Lofton.

Another great line, this one uttered by Garak: "Kiss the girl, get the key. They never taught me that in the Obsidian Order."

Marci Brickhouse, who played Mona Luvsitt, later guest starred on Suddenly Susan, Baywatch, Boy Meets World, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Dragnet , among other shows. These days, she works as an artist.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, "Our Man Bashir" debuted a mere 10 days after GoldenEye , the first Bond film in six years, opened in theaters.

"I think it's safe to say that Julian Bashir, secret agent, will return," Bashir tells Garak at the end of the episode, yet another tip of the cap to the Bond films.

"Our Man Bashir" earned two Emmy Award nominations: Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series and Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Jay Chattaway).

"I think 'Our Man Bashir' was probably one of the most-important episodes in terms of changing attitudes towards Bashir," Siddig told StarTrek.com in September 2016, referring to the fact that, for a long time, he felt Bashir was an "unpopular" character. "I think that was probably one of the most-influential episodes. I don't know if it's one of the best, but it is certainly super-influential. I remember opinions began to change after that episode. So that would probably be an important one, historically."

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Our Man Bashir

A transporter emergency aboard the USS Orinoco replaces the characters in Dr. Bashir's secret agent holosuite program with the physical forms DS9's senior staff.

Andrew J. Robinson

Max Grodénchik

Ken Marshall

Marci Brickhouse

Melissa Young

Judi M. Durand

Michael Dorn

Nana Visitor

Terry Farrell

Cast appearances.

René Auberjonois

Alexander Siddig

Colm Meaney

Armin Shimerman

Avery Brooks

Episode Discussion

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Our Man Bashir Stardate: Unknown Original Airdate: 27 Nov, 1995

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Our Man Bashir

After a transporter accident, the physical forms of Sisko, Dax, Kira, O'Brien and Worf become characters in Bashir's new secret agent holoprogram.

• 2.1 Characters
• 2.2 Locations
• 2.3 Starships
• 2.4 Races and cultures
• 2.5 States and Organizations
• 2.6 Other references
• 3.1 Related stories
• 3.2.1 Notable cast and crew
• 3.4 External links
• 3.5 Connections

Summary [ ]

References [ ], characters [ ], locations [ ], starships [ ], races and cultures [ ], states and organizations [ ], other references [ ], appendices [ ], related stories [ ].

• Bashir's secret agent holoprogram would again be seen in " A Simple Investigation " and in the novel Hollow Men .
• The Eugenics Wars novel The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 1 reveals that Komananov was a real spy in Earth's 20th century.

Background [ ]

Notable cast and crew [ ].

• Avery Brooks as Benjamin Sisko and Dr. Noah
• Nana Visitor as Kira Nerys and Anastasia Komananov
• Rene Auberjonois as Odo
• Alexander Siddig as Julian Bashir
• Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax and Honey Bare
• Armin Shimerman as Quark
• Michael Dorn as Worf and Mr. Duchamps
• Andrew J. Robinson as Garak
• Max Grodénchik as Rom

External links [ ]

• " Our Man Bashir " article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Our Man Bashir article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.

Connections [ ]

• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 Intrepid class
• 3 Wesley Crusher

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series)

Our man bashir (1995), full cast & crew.

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