Rewatching early DS9 knowing that Bashir is genetically enhanced

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think Bashir's early development makes any sense in the light of his genetic enhancement.

Distant Voices has to be the greatest offender. Here we explore Bashir's insecurities and subconscious. We see crewmembers who represent parts of his personality, yet no manifestation of his genetically enhanced side. We see a huge hangup about failing to become a tennis player, when he must have tanked that intentionally if he was genetically enhanced.

It also makes the fact that he was willing to play tennis against O'Brien just to pound him into the floor more suspect. (And speaking of that episode, when the ball was always going toward O'Brien, they think 'Something is wrong with the laws of probability' before they think 'Quark is trying to fix the match'?)

The only thing about Bashir that makes retroactive sense when you hear of this twist is his medical skills and the post-ganglionic fiber.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

In "Dax" Bashir actually gets beaten up by one of Dax's kidnappers, a female who appears younger than he.

I don't really see how this is relevant to Bashir's genetic enhacenments. I remember it being explicitly stated that his hand-eye coordination was enhanced, but nothing that comes to mind ever suggested he was supposed to be any stronger than he would have been without the enhancement. He wasn't designed to be a new Khan, after all. I see no reason why he should be expected to be an extraordinary fighter - or even a particularly good one, if he hasn't bothered much with learning technique.

I think they established he had greater strength in Take Me Out to the Holosuite

 

[jibrilmudo]

The season 5 "Dr. Bashir, I presume" genetic engineering doesn't jive with earlier episodes.

Just take season 2's Melora episode where he's helping Pazlar try to go without her wheelchair.

Two things:
In the season 2 ep, he confides in her that he wanted to be a tennis player but after getting into the professional leagues, the first person to serve on him, he didn't even see the ball and he knew he was hopeless outclassed. So, okay, he may have been covering up enhancements there but why go into Tennis in the first place?

Second, the one that does bother me is that in S2 he mentions his father was a federation diplomat to Invernia II. Then in season 5, Richard Bashir gets downgraded to a complete loser who exaggerates having been a captain when he was really a III class steward on a shuttle run. But he never once mentions having been a diplomat when he could have.

Memory Alpha chose to keep him being a diplomat. But Federation Diplomats in previous eps were never losers, they were distinguished people not chosen at random. There is no reason for Bashir to lie about this in S2, because people can look up info easily, he himself would have known the truth if it was a lie.

 

[GameOn]

It's easy to pick holes in a massive retcon but when re-watching earlier episodes a few things do seem to support it and it explains his arrogance in earlier seasons.

2x11 "Rivals"
BASHIR: Captain of the team at Starfleet Medical Academy. We took the sector championships in my final year.
O'BRIEN: Against other medical students?
BASHIR: Against everybody. Played a Vulcan in the finals. Talk about stamina. I don't think he ever actually broke a sweat.
O'BRIEN: And you won?
BASHIR: Took him on a back wall riser shot.

3x18 "Distant Voices"
ALTOVAR: Remember, Doctor, I'm inside your head. I know all about you. When you were younger, you wanted to be a tennis player, didn't you.
BASHIR: I wasn't good enough to play professionally.
ALTOVAR: Don't lie to me. Not in here. You were good enough. But you knew your parents wouldn't approve of it. So you gave up and you became a doctor instead.
BASHIR: I love medicine.
ALTOVAR: But you loved tennis more. And what about medical school? You should've been first in your class. What went wrong?
BASHIR: I made a mistake in the final exam.
ALTOVAR: You mistook a pre-ganglionic fibre for a post-ganglionic nerve.
BASHIR: That's right.
ALTOVAR: But pre-ganglionic fibres and post-ganglionic nerves aren't anything alike. Any first year medical student could tell them apart. You purposely answered the question wrong.

4x24 "The Quickening"
BASHIR: I'm going to tell you a little secret, Jadzia. I was looking forward to tomorrow, to seeing Kira again and casually asking, how was the nebula? And oh, by the way, I cured that Blight thing those people had.
DAX: It's not a crime to believe in yourself, Julian.
BASHIR: These people believed in me and look where it got them. Trevean was right. There is no cure. The Dominion made sure of that. But I was so arrogant I thought I could find one in a week.
DAX: Maybe it was arrogant to think that. But it's even more arrogant to think there isn't a cure just because you couldn't find it.

 

[T'Girl]

Fighting isn't just about strength, remember.

It's about strength and technique.

Useful yes, but things like determination and the will to win are far more important.

It's not the dog in the fight ... it's the fight in the dog.




​

 

[IzzyAtWarp9]

So, okay, he may have been covering up enhancements there but why go into Tennis in the first place?

I don't see why people think Julian going into tennis is a weird thing. Just because he's enhanced doesn't mean he can't do stuff, otherwise he wouldn't have become a doctor. He just really liked tennis!