Our Man Bashir

DVD, DS9 S4 (Our Man Bashir)

Another holodeck malfunction story? No, this time it's the transporter and there's good reason, damaged by the explosion as another Runabout bites the space dust. So far they've lost about one of these a year, and there's only one of the original three still intact: the Rio Grande. This time it's the Orinoco, one of the early replacements from Season 2. There have been so many holodeck or transporter malfunction stories that you begin to wonder why anyone used them at all - suddenly the Enterprise NX-01 crew's wariness of the technology begins to make sense, but if it weren't for that, Sisko, Dax, Kira, Worf and O'Brien would have died. It was only thanks to Eddington taking control of the situation and Rom's ability to fix anything that they were saved. You can see the distaste on Eddington's face when he realises he has to rely on a Ferengi to save the crew, and not even the most important Ferengi on the station, but a mere servant of the bar. Rom doesn't seem to notice, and this episode may have been one of the steps in his building self-confidence which led to 'Bar Association.'

We'd had a Bajoran terrorist group meddling with Federation/Bajoran affairs (The Circle), but the enemy this time is a Cardassian separatist group called The True Way, unhappy with the treaty with Bajor and the Federation and regardless of the fact that their government was saved by the actions of Sisko and the Defiant crew, they want out of the partnership. Not the best time for them to be active with the Klingons having taken control of Cardassian colonies, but probably the only time such a group had the opportunity to sprout up - the Obsidian Order's decimation by the Dominion has led to more freedoms, but the downside of that is clearly illustrated by the emergence of The True Way. We've seen how difficult it was for the dissident movement to survive during the administration of the secret police organisation always watching, but now there's no internal power for good or ill. So the advantages of freedom can sometimes lead to new dangers, though these risks are better taken than the alternative. I wonder if it might have been better to see a representative of the Way as they are a faceless organisation, whereas the Circle had Minister Jaro at its head for us to boo and hiss at. Even so, the Way was another threat to add to the Maquis, the Klingons and the Dominion.

My only serious observation of this episode is to question where the science teams are? I know Dax is the Science Officer and she's one of those incapacitated, but I think I only saw about one blue shirt in the entire episode. Instead, we have two security chiefs and a Ferengi civilian working on a problem that in reality would have all the science specialists excitedly rising to the challenge like the engineers in 'Starship Down.' It must be assumed that science wasn't a priority at that moment, what with the threats of war from all quarters - perhaps those crewmembers left for other assignments, or maybe there never were science teams stationed on 'DS9' and that area was covered purely by Dax? One thing we learn from this episode is that sometimes it's not good to have a large brain - it takes all the station's computing power to store the brain patterns of Sisko and the others, but it was probably Dax responsible for most of it with her many lifetime's worth of braininess: all the computer memory was taken up by her memory!

There have been a fair number of themed episodes in Trek - Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, Robin Hood, the Wild West, but it wasn't something 'DS9' did very often. This one stands proud above the other variations because it went for it so strongly. It's sad that this meant the secret agent program was never used properly in an episode again (the brief appearance in 'A Simple Investigation' notwithstanding), as, like the Holmes program on 'TNG,' the Bond filmmakers were unhappy with the 'tribute' to their character and film series. Though it's claimed Bond was only one of many influences, the style, language and in-jokes are geared far more to that than anything else so I can see why copyright holders were displeased. Regardless of the legal side of it, I'd have loved to see more episodes, as they later did with the Vic Fontaine program, and a continuing story would have been great fun.

The characters don't often get the chance to play someone completely different while still wearing their regular look - Kira still has the nose ridges even though she speaks in a Russian accent (and does so very well, I felt), Worf is Worf, but with a smart, white jacket and massive cigars, O'Brien gets the eyepatch and leather jacket and Sisko's bald head and goatee are there for all to see. But it's the complete absence of the characters we know that make it so compelling. Dr. Noah is the best new character, for me. His mad restraint is like a megalomania below the surface barely kept in check. We've seen Sisko go mad physically, such as his fight with the Jem'Hadar when they invade the Defiant's bridge in 'The Search,' and here that strength and intensity is bottled up, exploding out only in his eyes or brief, sharp laugh.

The episode rests on the friendship between Garak and Bashir and the testing of it, but unlike Bashir's recent disagreement with O'Brien over the Jem'Hadar in 'Hippocratic Oath,' taking the lead and forcing Garak down the right path as he sees it, actually reinforces the Cardassian's fondness and respect for the doctor. He's seen Bashir grow immensely from the early seasons and when it comes to actually challenging him and taking control of the situation for his own safety Garak finds hidden steel in the doctor. He's forced him into a confrontation, but when it's the lives of his friends, Bashir won't back down. I think it's as much his surprise that makes Garak follow along with the plan so meekly after that, but he wasn't likely to underestimate Bashir again. To Garak, standing up and taking the necessary action is more important than any moral considerations and so rather than be affronted by Bashir's shooting of him, he's almost pleased that his friend had the gall to do it!

The sets are lavish, the stereotypes fun and the stakes are high, the only bad thing about it is that is doesn't last as long as a Bond film! I could easily have done with this being a two-parter or a featurelength episode, but they'd already done one that season and they weren't in the habit of it, unlike on 'Voyager.' So it remains an all too brief adventure that is blamed for breaking the bank and lessening the budgets of other episodes in the season, most obviously the following two-parter. But it was worth it, if nothing else than to hear the 'DS9' theme in 60s Bond-style.

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