Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (abbreviated as ''DS9'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. The fourth series in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise, it originally aired in syndication from ...

broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

Winrich Kolbe Winrich Ernst Rudolf Kolbe (9 August 1940 – September 2012),Robert Gillan and was turned into a script by producer

Ronald D. Moore Ronald Dowl Moore (born July 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on ''Star Trek''; on the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series, for which he won a Peabody Award and an Em ...

. Both hairdressing in the episode and the score by Jay Chattaway were later nominated for

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s. The episode's plot involves the combination of two much-used ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' plot devices: a transporter accident and a

holodeck The Holodeck is a fictional device from the television franchise ''Star Trek'' which uses "holograms" (projected light and electromagnetic energy which create the illusion of solid objects) to create a realistic 3D simulation of a real or imag ...

malfunction. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures on

Deep Space Nine ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (abbreviated as ''DS9'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. The fourth series in the '' Star Trek'' media franchise, it originally aired in syndication fr ...

, a space station located near a stable

wormhole A wormhole (Einstein-Rosen bridge) is a hypothetical structure connecting disparate points in spacetime, and is based on a special Solutions of the Einstein field equations, solution of the Einstein field equations. A wormhole can be visualize ...

between the Alpha and Gamma quadrants of the Milky Way Galaxy. In this episode, Dr. Julian Bashir ( Alexander Siddig) plays a 1960s secret agent in a holosuite game, accompanied by his friend Garak ( Andrew Robinson), who is himself a former spy. After a transporter accident, the physical likenesses of several crew members are temporarily stored as characters in the holosuite memory; Bashir and Garak must prevent any of them from dying in the game or else they will be lost to the real world. The production team had deliberately avoided episodes centering on holodeck malfunctions as they felt they had been overused on '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. However, Gillan pitched the circumstances that caused the issue seen in the episode and Moore came up with the 1960s setting. Although the episode takes its title from ''

Our Man Flint ''Our Man Flint'' is a 1966 American spy-fi comedy film that parodies the ''James Bond'' film series. The film was directed by Daniel Mann, written by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr (from a story by Hal Fimberg), and starred James Coburn as master ...

'', a major inspiration for the story was the

James Bond films James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Nive ...

. This obvious influence resulted in

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

complaining to the studio, and later references to Bashir's holosuite game in the episode "

A Simple Investigation "A Simple Investigation" is the 115th episode of the television series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', the 17th episode of the fifth season. Actress Dey Young guest stars as the mysterious stranger Arissa. More than 5 million viewers were esti ...

" were toned down. "Our Man Bashir" received

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

of 6.8 percent, and while the episode was mostly praised by reviewers, with particular attention paid to the performance of Avery Brooks, there was some criticism levelled at the depiction of women.

Plot

Dr. Julian Bashir is playing a holosuite game in which he portrays a glamorous secret agent in 1964. His friend

Elim Garak Elim Garak is a fictional character from the television series ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', in which he is portrayed by Andrew J. Robinson. In the series, Garak is an exiled spy from the Cardassian Union and a former member of the feared ...

, a former spy, tags along. Meanwhile, the other officers of

Deep Space Nine ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (abbreviated as ''DS9'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. The fourth series in the '' Star Trek'' media franchise, it originally aired in syndication fr ...

are rescued from the explosion of a runabout by Cmdr. Eddington, who beams them out in the nick of time. The transporter is damaged by the explosion, and Eddington must store their patterns in the station's computer memory. Their physical patterns end up in the computer controlling the holosuite, appearing as characters in Bashir's simulation. Eddington informs Bashir that he can't shut down the program or let the characters die, or else the patterns of the crew members may be deleted. Making matters worse, the holosuite safeties are disabled, meaning Bashir and Garak could be hurt or killed by the game. In the game, a Russian spy, Anastasia Komananov, appears with Major Kira's likeness. Komananov explains that a mad scientist, Dr. Noah, is kidnapping elite scientists; Bashir's orders are to rescue Professor Honey Bare ( Jadzia Dax). After escaping the assassin Falcon ( Miles O'Brien), Bashir, Garak and Komananov go to a casino to speak to Noah's associate Duchamps (

Worf Worf, son of Mogh is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. He appears in the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (''TNG'') and seasons four through seven of '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (''DS9'') as well as t ...

). After a game of baccarat, Duchamps drugs the trio, knocking them out. They awaken in Dr. Noah's lair on Mount Everest. Noah ( Captain Sisko) explains his plan to flood the rest of the world, wiping out the human race except for his kidnapped scientists. He has Bashir and Garak handcuffed to an underground laser that will flood the chamber with lava in five minutes. As the time ticks down, Bashir flirts with Prof. Bare, and she slips him a key. Bashir frees himself and Garak, who protests that continuing the simulation is too dangerous. Garak is about to close the program, potentially killing the other crew members, when Bashir shoots him, grazing him with a bullet. Garak is shocked, but impressed, and agrees to continue. They burst into Noah's study, and Eddington tells them he will attempt to rescue Sisko and the others in two minutes. To gain time, Bashir hits the button to activate Noah's plan, flooding the Earth. As he had not expected to actually ''win'', the shocked Dr. Noah is still about to shoot Bashir, but before he can pull the trigger, Eddington beams the crew's patterns out of the holosuite. Bashir and Garak end the program with relief, Garak commenting that Bashir "saved the day by destroying the world".

Production

Producer Ira Steven Behr wanted a holodeck episode for ''Deep Space Nine'' that was different from any seen on ''The Next Generation''. Story editor

René Echevarria René Echevarria is an American screenwriter and producer. He has worked on a number of television series, including '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', '' Dark Angel'' and ''Castle''. He created ''The 4400'' for USA Network, ''Carnival Row'' fo ...

was keen not to have a damaged holodeck story appear, as he felt it had been overdone in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. It was specified in the information sheet sent to freelance writers that ''Deep Space Nine'' was not accepting stories involving malfunctioning holodecks. Producer

Ira Steven Behr Ira Steven Behr (born October 23, 1953) is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his work on ''Star Trek'', especially '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', on which he served as showrunner and executive producer. He was th ...

explained that the show had been looking for a unique holodeck story that would be specifically for ''Deep Space Nine'' rather than

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

and Dixon Hill detective stories seen in ''The Next Generation''. Whilst Bashir and O'Brien's adventures in the holosuites in the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

and the Battle of Clontarf have been mentioned in episodes, they were simply too expensive to be shown on screen effectively. But Behr felt that the story for "Our Man Bashir" was within the budget of the show. Erdmann; Block (2000): p. 294 The story was initially pitched to Echevarria by Robert Gillan, who was on the staff of ''Deep Space Nine'' as Assistant Script Coordinator. Echevarria was immediately convinced, and told Behr about the story who was equally as enthusiastic. In Gillan's original pitch, there wasn't a specific setting clearly set out, but Behr and Echevarria were sold on the idea that nothing went wrong with the holosuites — it was simply where the computer decided to store the information following a transporter accident. Producer

Ronald D. Moore Ronald Dowl Moore (born July 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on ''Star Trek''; on the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series, for which he won a Peabody Award and an Em ...

came up with the 1960s setting, as he felt it was appropriate since Garak was a spy for the

Cardassian The Cardassians () are a fictional extraterrestrial species in the American science fiction franchise '' Star Trek''. They were devised in 1991 for the series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' before being used in the subsequent series '' S ...

Obsidian Order. He wrote the teleplay, and based it on a variety of sources including

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

, ''

Our Man Flint ''Our Man Flint'' is a 1966 American spy-fi comedy film that parodies the ''James Bond'' film series. The film was directed by Daniel Mann, written by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr (from a story by Hal Fimberg), and starred James Coburn as master ...

'', '' The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'', and ''

The Wild Wild West ''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western, espionage, and science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels w ...

''. He later explained that he "loved all of them as a kid. They had a certain panache. I loved writing that episode." Erdmann; Block (2000): p. 295 left, upJulian Bashir, played by Alexander Siddig, was the central character in this episode. Some of the elements were suggested by other staff members, with

Robert Wolfe Robert Wolfe (March 2, 1921 – December 10, 2014) was a World War II U.S. Army officer, historian, and retired senior archivist of the US National Archives. He was wounded in both the Pacific and European Theaters of Operation. He commanded ...

naming Colonel Anastasia Komananov and Behr changing Suzie Luvsitt to Mona Luvsitt.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

was later not pleased with the James Bond-style approach, and when Bashir's spy program appeared in the later episode "

A Simple Investigation "A Simple Investigation" is the 115th episode of the television series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', the 17th episode of the fifth season. Actress Dey Young guest stars as the mysterious stranger Arissa. More than 5 million viewers were esti ...

", the references were more generic. Dennis Madalone managed to save some time during the production as one of the shots involved Bashir seeing Falcon approach him from behind by seeing his reflection in a bottle of champagne. After time was already scheduled to attempt the shot, Madalone explained to the director that he could take the filmed sequence and digitally manipulate it onto the bottle. Madalone was also responsible for firing a cork from a bottle at Colm Meaney's head from off screen to make it appear as if Bashir did it, and managed to do it on the first take. "Our Man Bashir" was the longest shoot of any single episode of ''Deep Space Nine'', taking nine days to film instead of the normal seven. The episode required a great deal of stunt work and special equipment, such as stuntmen going through tempered glass instead of

sugar glass Sugar glass (also called candy glass, edible glass, and breakaway glass) is a brittle transparent form of sugar that looks like glass. It can be formed into a sheet that looks like flat glass or an object, such as a bottle or drinking glass. Desc ...

because of the better glass breaking effect. There was a great deal of new sets used as well, which each took longer to set up camera and lighting for as the crew were not as familiar with them as the standing sets. The backdrop used for Mount Everest was rented, but the crew realised it lacked snow so they had to modify it and then return it to the original condition afterwards. The majority of the 1960s style technologies such as Dr. Noah's base, were all custom built in house and where parts moved they were generally manually operated off screen. Art director Herman Zimmerman said that "Everything that could be manually operated was, because the brain is still smarter than most computers and you can still do some things faster by hand." Erdmann; Block (2000): p. 296

Reception

"Our Man Bashir" was first broadcast on November 27, 1995, in

broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

. It received

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

of 6.8 percent, placing it in eighth place in its timeslot and lower than the episode that aired the previous week, "

The Sword of Kahless "The Sword of Kahless" is the 81st episode of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', the ninth of the fourth season. It originally aired on November 20, 1995, in broadcast syndication. The story was ...

", which gained a rating of 6.9 percent. "Our Man Bashir" was the final new episode of ''Deep Space Nine'' to air in 1995, with repeats running until " Homefront" aired on January 1, 1996, with ratings of 6.8 percent. Zack Handlen of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' compared "Our Man Bashir" to "

Little Green Men Little green men is the stereotypical portrayal of extraterrestrials as little humanoid creatures with green skin and sometimes with antennae on their heads. The term is also sometimes used to describe gremlins, mythical creatures known for cau ...

" from earlier in the season, saying that this episode was "better paced". Another comparison made was to ''The Next Generation'' " Hollow Pursuits", saying that "instead of eginaldBarclay using the holodeck to enact his fantasies with people he can't bear to deal with in real life, Bashir is forced to keep his made up world going if he wants to save the lives of his friends". Handlen also praised the relationship between Bashir and Garak in the episode, and said "Our Man Bashir" demonstrates their characterisation. In Michelle Erica Green's review for TrekNation, she criticised the role of women in the episode, saying that they fared better in the James Bond movies. She also thought that taking the out-of-character element of the episode repeated elements seen in several episodes during the previous season, but praised the acting on the part of Avery Brooks and that Garak was "born to play a Bond sidekick".

Keith DeCandido Keith Robert Andreassi DeCandido (born April 18, 1969) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and musician, who works on comic books, novels, role-playing games and video games, including numerous media tie-in books for properties such ...

, writing for Tor.com, said that it was obvious that the actors enjoyed their new parts in this episode and said of the episode, "holy crap is it fun". In particular, he praised both Avery Brooks and Nana Visitor in their Bond-esque roles, saying that Brooks made a villain on par with those played by Donald Pleasence,

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...

, and Javier Bardem. DeCandido gave "Our Man Bashir" a rating of nine out of ten. In a list of the top 100 episodes of the ''Star Trek'' franchise, "Our Man Bashir" was placed in 77th place by

Charlie Jane Anders Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, t ...

at io9. She noted it as being one of goofiest ''Deep Space Nine'' episodes. In 2012, '' Den of Geek'' ranked this the seventh best episode of ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''. A 2015 binge-watching guide for ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' by '' WIRED'' recommended not skipping this essential episode. In 2016, ''Empire'' ranked this the 23rd best out of the top 50 episodes of all the 700 plus ''Star Trek'' television episodes. In 2020, Io9 said this was one of the "must watch" episodes from the series.

Awards

The episode was nominated for two

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s, in the categories "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series" (for the score by Jay Chattaway) and "Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series".

Home media release

The first home media release of "Our Man Bashir" was as a two-episode VHS cassette alongside "The Sword of Kahless" in the United Kingdom on June 13, 1996, followed in the United States and Canada by a single-episode release on October 3, 2000. It was later released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

as part of the season four box set on August 5, 2003.

Footnotes

References

*

External links

* * * {{Portal bar, Speculative fiction, Television, United States, 1990s 1995 American television episodes Holography in television Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (season 4) episodes Television episodes written by Ronald D. Moore