Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 4x10 — Our Man Bashir

Aired 1995-11-27

SpaceOpera.com rating:7

Average reader rating:5.98

Synopsis

Posing as a 1960s secret agent in a malfunctioning holosuite program, Bashir is all that stands between his trapped fellow officers and certain death.

Filler rating: partial filler

The events of this episode are referenced later in a few minor ways but not in ways that are absolutely essential viewing.

Remarkable scenes

Garak barging in on Bashir's holosuite program.
Eddington saving the senior officers storing them in the computer.
Kira appearing on Bashir's holosuite program.
Worf's appearance in the holosuite program.
Sisko's appearance in the holosuite program.
Rom's modifications to the Defiant. Eddington: "O'Brien's gonna kill me when he gets back..."
Garak: "Hmm. Kiss the girl, get the key. They never taught me that in the Obsidian Order."
Bashir shooting Garak.
Bashir destroying the world in his holosuite program.
O'Brien: "What'd you do to my ship!?" His first line after beaming aboard the Defiant.
Garak: "Interesting. You saved the day by destroying the world."

Review

Bashir plays Bond, James Bond, in a holosuite program with trusty sidekick Garak. This episode features a rather cliched holosuite malfunction, but the implementation is very original and funny. Characters with names like Mona Luvsitt and Professor Honey Bare and great tributes to the James Bond movies. Kira does a great job with her accent. Worf as Sisko's thug is equally convincing. But my favorite performance is Sisko himself. He makes such a fantastic villain! The ending is fantastic. Bashir ultimately takes Garak's advice, opting to destroy the world and join the bad guy just to keep the holosuite program running a little longer. Doing so saves the lives of the senior officers. A fine show.

4 reader comments

I want to hate this episode but I can't. It's a totally pointless James Bond parody, but it's done so well that you have to love it.
There are so many references to real Bond movies you can't count them all: the basic plot is Moonraker; the gem identification scene is a rework of the fish identification scene from The Spy Who Loved Me; Doctor Noah -> Doctor No; the music could come from almost any 60's or 70's film; "You should have killed me while you had the chance"… and so on.
This could have been such a dreadful failure that I cringed when I realised what was going on, but as it played out I got more and more engrossed. It's a perfect melding of Trek and Bond, and the actors get into their roles so well, and I'm such a fan of both series… that it gets a 9.
by Rob Herbert | 07/30/2010 at 8:12 pm

If it takes the entire station memory to store the neural patterns of the crew, how did Scotty manage to keep his pattern in electronic stasis for 50 years?
by Michael | 06/06/2011 at 7:53 am

Loved it! What a great show, especially Kira, Sisko and O'Brien - and Bashir of course. Garak is one of my fave characters, but he was mostly whining in this episode. Interesting that Eddington (what a dull character…) got to play a bigger role this time.
by Hugo von Ahlenius | 04/18/2012 at 7:32 pm

The emergency scenario was just an excuse for them to have some fun, and it was. Being they were in a scenario based on Bond-logic, Bashir and Garak were never in any real danger as Bond's ability to get out of certain-death scenarios would be part of the program, but it's fitting that Garak was overly-concerned about coming to harm, as never having seen any Bond films he wouldn't know this. It was funny the way they had to outwit the cliches to keep everyone alive, especially to ensure Kira and Dax would both survive - one of the two women always dies and he ends up with the other one, but it's never certain which. Sisko's normal over-stated acting style made him perfect to play the villain. Love Rom's patchwork fixes for the holosuite. "Where's the core memory interface?" "It's… right behind the spatula."
by L | 05/24/2013 at 8:28 am