Doctor Bashir, I Presume?

Doctor Bashir, I Presume?
"Doctor Bashir, I Presume?"
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 16
Directed by David Livingston
Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
Story by Jimmy Diggs
Featured music Dennis McCarthy
Production code 514
Original air date February 24, 1997 (1997-02-24)
Guest stars
Episode chronology
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"By Inferno's Light"
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"A Simple Investigation"
List of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes

"Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" is the 122nd episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Overview

EMH developer Dr. Lewis Zimmerman comes aboard to make a holographic template of Dr. Bashir, interviewing both co-workers and family. Zimmerman develops an immediate attraction to Bashir's ex, Leeta, who wants Rom to want her to stay with him.

Plot

Dr. Lewis Zimmerman comes to Deep Space Nine with the intent of using Dr. Bashir's physical and personality likeness as a template for a long-term medical hologram (as opposed to the short-term Emergency Medical Hologram installed on such ships as USS Voyager and the Enterprise-E), which will provide medical care on distant and isolated outposts. In order to make the hologram as robust as possible, Zimmerman needs a complete personality profile on Bashir. In addition to questioning Bashir himself, Zimmerman interviews Bashir's colleagues and makes arrangements – against Bashir's wishes – to invite Julian's estranged parents, Amsha and Richard Bashir, to the station.

Julian is embarrassed by his father's tendency toward hyperbole, for example referring to the time he "ran shuttles" when, in fact, Richard was merely a steward who was fired shortly into his career. Bashir implores his parents at dinner not to reveal to Zimmerman anything about a secret from his childhood. Later, his parents go to the infirmary to try to assuage their son's fears, stating emphatically that they will not tell Zimmerman that they had Julian genetically modified when he was a child. They point out that they have kept the secret since he was a child, and that because such modification is illegal in the United Federation of Planets, they, too, are criminally culpable.

However, Bashir's parents are unaware that rather than speaking to their son, they are speaking to Zimmerman's new hologram; Zimmerman and Chief O'Brien, who is assisting Zimmerman, are right around the corner. O'Brien informs Julian about what he heard and Julian confirms that he had been genetically modified. As a child, he reveals, he was a poor student, with some form of learning disability and possibly mental retardation, and seemed destined to failure. His parents took him to Adigeon Prime for DNA resequencing, greatly improving his intelligence and dexterity. With the secret out, Bashir sees no alternative but to resign from Starfleet.

However, before Bashir can file his resignation, his parents take matters into their own hands. Richard strikes a deal with the Starfleet Judge Advocate General's Rear Admiral Bennett: Richard will spend two years in prison for illegal genetic engineering, and Bashir is allowed to retain his commission.

In the midst of all this, Zimmerman pursues Leeta's affections, to the point of asking her to accompany him back to Jupiter Station to open her own bar. Shy Rom is too scared to say anything to convince her to stay, despite it being clear that Leeta would welcome any reason to stay with him. She is on the verge of getting onto a transport with Zimmerman when Rom careens around the corner, in one long yell for her to wait (until he gets there), and asks Leeta to stay – to which she agrees.

Arc significance

  • This marks the first and only appearance of Bashir's parents on Deep Space Nine.
  • It is revealed that Dr. Bashir was secretly genetically resequenced as a child, to compensate for a learning disability or possible mental retardation.
  • This episode also marks the last-seen use of the holographic communicator.

Notes

  • This episode has an average fan rating of 4.1/5 on the official Star Trek website as of September, 2009.[citation needed]
  • The episode features a familiar face from Star Trek: Voyager, Robert Picardo, playing the creator of the Doctor, his main Star Trek: Voyager character. Of greater significance to Deep Space Nine's lore, however, is a major twist in Julian Bashir's backstory.
  • Rear Admiral Bennett's collar shows he is actually wearing the rank insignia of a 4 Pip Admiral. This can clearly be seen in the close up of him standing in the holo-communicator in which his collar is lit up by the blue light signifying the fact he's a holo-projection.
  • The Eugenics War was stated to be in the late 21st century instead of the 1990s. This is one of few instances thus far where a continuity error is openly acknowledged by the writers as a mistake and not a retcon. [1]

References

  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine DVD set, volume 5, disc 4, selection 4.

See also

  • Khan Noonien Singh – Genetically-altered superman whose actions contributed to the ban on genetic engineering
  • "Space Seed" – Khan's first appearance
  • "Statistical Probabilities" – Introduces characters whose genetic engineering did not go as well as Bashir's.

External links


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