I thought it was a very good episode. Sure, it was a 'love interest of the week', but it was one of the best love-interest-of-the-week stories in all Trek, IMO, and certainly not a standard one. Sarina was an interesting character (personally, I enjoyed the Jack Pack in general), and Bashir's cluelessness with women, which used to be a source of comic relief in early seasons, was for once tragic and sad. Colm Meaney was great in the scene when Bashir is telling O'Brien about Sarina being the woman of his dreams, and O'Brien obviously gets the idea what is going on but isn't sure whether to speak up or not - it's such a recognizable situation when you don't know if it's worse to hurt your friend by confronting them with the truth and telling them what they're doing is wrong and a huge mistake, or to remain silent. I think
this sums up the episode really well:
Spock and Uhura in Trek XI are literally the first Trek couple that I think have a shot at not being boring/annoying/written at an obnoxiously juvenile level.
Other than Sisko and Yates, I (sadly) agree.
My favorite Trek relationship was probably Bashir and Sarina Douglas, but that's far from immune from your criticism--
it's just that he was supposed to be operating at an obnoxiously juvenile level. However, this is first time they actually followed through on the consequences of Bashir (or anyone) perpetually acting like an idiot man-child when it came to girls.
Still, it rang true for this idiot man-child.
Between the two, I could see something happening a few years down the line, after she's gotten used to the world again, and after she experiences the casual bigotry the genetically engineered apparently face in the 24th century. She might start realizing what drove Bashir to go after her in the first place, despite the ethical problems inherent in it. (I mean, her other Augment option is freakin' Jack. Or Patrick. Yikes.)
But you've got to wonder about Bashir. He had, iirc, three big romantic stories.
The first was with a woman who might have been literally retarded. Okay, she probably wasn't that bad off, but Leeta was pretty dumb. Hot, but dumb. This isn't bad. It's not unethical or unhealthy to have sex with hot, stupid people. However...
The second was with Ms. Douglas, who was
his patient. That's messed up, as has been discussed before.
And the third was with Ezri Dax. The resurrected form of the Dax symbiont. The same symbiont that lived in the woman whom he, like the total dork he is, pined for on-and-off for
years.
It's like if someone you had a huge crush on rejected you, so you started banging her little sister instead. Personally, I think Ezri's tons cuter and more likeable, but it's still got to be an issue with them. He's got to ask "Why weren't you with me when you were her? Am I a second choice here?" and she's got to ask "Am I just second rate wish-fulfillment? Are you just corpsefucking Jadzia?" Personally, I wouldn't reckon it would last.
Then again, they got together by realizing they had the common trait of being bumbly dorks, so maybe they're soul mates. Who knows?
Also, this post is a bit harsh on Bashir. I actually do rather like the character. Like I said, I identify.
Oh, and fun fact--it turns out Nicole de Boer was in the Kids in the Hall movie,
Brain Candy. Only a few lines, but she is wicked hot. I'd forgotten she was Canadian.
