Our Man Bashir (episode)

A transporter accident replaces the characters in Bashir's secret agent holodeck program with the physical forms of the station's senior staff.

Summary

SUMMARY

"A lot of kick for a '45 Dom." --Bashir, after he shoots Falcon with the champagne bottle

"I think I joined the wrong intelligence service." -- Garak

"Kiss the girl, get the key. They never taught me that in the Obsidian Order." -- Elim Garak

"Save the day by destroying the world?" -- Garak

This episode is a homage to spy movies, particularly the James Bond series. The title is a homage to the 1966 film Our Man Flint.

In typical Bond fashion, many character names (particularly those of the females) have secondary meanings; for example, Mona Luvsitt is obviously sexual innuendo for "Mona loves it." This tradition dates back to at least Goldfinger, which featured the notorious "Pussy Galore."

When Bashir describes his fall from the dirigible -- "I had a parachute... and there was a submarine waiting for me" -- this is more than likely a reference to the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, in which Bond has a similar fall and, after a ski chase, finds a submarine waiting for him.

Bashir's game of Baccarat, in which he wins the fee for a visit with Hippocrates Noah by assuming he can win Duchamps' money, is yet another Bond homage, for Bond frequently took similar risks and was fond of card games such as Baccarat.

At one point, Bashir warns Garak that the program is supposed to end with either Honey Bare or Anastasia Komananov dying and the other ending up with him. Yet another classic element of James Bond is that, although Bond usually has sex with several women over the course of a film, he always ends up with one of them in bed for the final scene (with the others either going back to their respective lives or dying). This has been the case ever since Bond's brief marriage in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

The plot of Bashir's holonovel is a classic Bond-style plot, particularly reminiscent of several films in which Roger Moore starred. In the holonovel, Hippocrates Noah plans to use lasers concentrated around Earth to cause a chain reaction that will flood the planet and allow him to start a new Human race on Mount Everest. Similarly, Moonraker features a billionaire who plans to poison Earth and start over in outer space, while The Spy Who Loved Me revolves around a plan to cause nuclear war and begin a new civilization under the sea.

And, of course, Noah explains his plan in great detail shortly before he plans to kill Bashir. After Bashir floods the Earth intentionally ("You've destroyed ze vorld!" Kira exclaims), Noah observes that somehow he didn't expect to win.

Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) does not appear in this episode.
The fifth season episode "A Simple Investigation" was a sequel of sorts in that it also involved Bashir's holo-novel. In that episode, the crew plays various roles by choice and most everyone takes part.
Komananov's confusion over Kira's name ("Who is this... Nerys Kira?") is one of the few instances in which the issue of Bajoran name order is addressed. Early on in the series, many fans were just as oblivious as Komananov to the fact that Bajoran surnames come first, and thus although Kira's name is "Kira Nerys," "Kira" is to "Nerys" just as "Sisko" is to "Benjamin."

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Season 4

Next episode:
Homefront