Doctor Bashir, I Presume

[Alexspaceman]

I missed this episode on my initial watch and it does give Bashir a sympathetic backstory. Space Seed and the Enterprise storyline about the augments are both good but I didn't like how SNW tried to handle this topic.

Spoiler: Una's trial in season 2 of SNW.

(it seemed a tad one sided when they assumed starfleet was being stubborn about it's restrictions against genetic manipulation and made the Illyrians seem like victims).

 

[somebuddyX]

"Dr Bashir, I Presume" is fascinating because up until that point in the series there was no way Bashir was genetically engineered, just like there was no way Bashir was a changeling infiltrator before "In Purgatory's Shadow." But then going back it colours how you perceive Bashir. I think about that line in "Distant Voices" that he deliberately made a mistake in his final exam, and before maybe it was he just didn't want to seem too smart because of confidence issues or something, but now it could just be him hiding his abilities.
I love the episode for the the Robert Picardo appearance and his interaction with Leeta. To be honest, I prefer Leeta and Zimmerman over Rom.

 

[Farscape One]

"Dr Bashir, I Presume" is fascinating because up until that point in the series there was no way Bashir was genetically engineered, just like there was no way Bashir was a changeling infiltrator before "In Purgatory's Shadow." But then going back it colours how you perceive Bashir. I think about that line in "Distant Voices" that he deliberately made a mistake in his final exam, and before maybe it was he just didn't want to seem too smart because of confidence issues or something, but now it could just be him hiding his abilities.
I love the episode for the the Robert Picardo appearance and his interaction with Leeta. To be honest, I prefer Leeta and Zimmerman over Rom.

I actually think looking backward after watching "DOCTOR BASHIR, I PRESUME", there are clues that point to his genetic enhancement.

Like with "DISTANT VOICES"... as you said, that line from the Lethean inside his head can be taken as Bashir simply hiding his abilities. But there is also something else that points to his enhancement: Bashir himself, at the end, said telepathic attacks like what he went through are usually fatal. His brain upgrade helped his survivability there. (I don't count the Lethean knocking Kor out in "THE SWORD OF KAHLESS" on the same level as here... he was actively looking for information. Altovar was trying to kill Bashir because he walked in on him raiding the medical supplies.)

Also, in "OUR MAN BASHIR", when he shot Garak toward the end, it was 'awfully close' to killing him. While Bashir may have said "what makes you think I wasn't trying to kill you", I think that was him just being coy about his enhanced hand/eye coordination and aiming. Because that was some really pinpoint accuracy to graze his neck like that without killing hin.


I can't say there was 'no way' he could be genetically enhanced if this episode never happened because there's enough little things to look at. It simply pieced them together here.

 

[Oddish]

Honestly, I really can understand both the plight of Bashir's parents, but also for the need to keep genetic manipulation of humans on a tight leash.

I'm in a rare but probably not unique position here; I work with special needs kids, but I was special needs myself. My social impairment is significant enough that it has hamstrung me in aspects of life most people consider stsndard: no IRL friendships, no career, no romance, no possibility of marriage or children. I have a pretty good idea of the challenges ahead for many if not most of my kids, and let me tell you, if there was a way I could delete the autism or whatever other issue they have to deal with, at the mere cost of subtracting two years from my life... I would take that trade. I'd take it for more than one of them if I could.

But then, we have the dilemma... while I'm sure that severe physical and mental conditions can lawfully be cured via genetic tweaks (the EMH had no ethical issues with fixing Miral's spine), where does the line get drawn? Jules Bashir has a learning disability, does it cross the line to fix that? Or a speech impediment, or severe myopia, or a cleft palette? Once we let the genie out of the bottle, it gets harder and harder to stop, until finally genetically designed humans become the standard, rather than the "break glass in emergency" solution for the worst case scenario.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I take it they were either so desperate, they couldn't wait however many years for whatever improvement therapy or conventional non-genetic treatments could afford their son, or there were no such treatments for his condition.

 

[Lynx]

I must admit that I wasn't too fond of the "Bashir is genetically manipulated" thing.

He became too much of a "superhuman", I think that he was better before that genetic manipulation was revealed.

 

[Oddish]

I must admit that I wasn't too fond of the "Bashir is genetically manipulated" thing.

He became too much of a "superhuman", I think that he was better before that genetic manipulation was revealed.

Maybe. But at least it showed that the showrunners and writers were trying to salvage a character who was in danger of stagnating. Instead of demanding that he go nowhere, as their counterparts on VOY did.

 

[Lynx]

Maybe. But at least it showed that the showrunners and writers were trying to salvage a character who was in danger of stagnating. Instead of demanding that he go nowhere, as their counterparts on VOY did.

I think that they could have done it without making him Superman.
But at least they did something constructive instead of dumping him and then bring him back for one episode to destroy him.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

How would you have changed the character, then? Suppose genetic augmentation (past, present, or future) was off the table?