i have my suspicions that the reason julian had so many alien partners was that being with an alien allowed him to be intimate with someone without tearing himself to pieces with worry over his big secret. spend too much time around a human and they’re likely to figure out that there’s something off about you, like you’re just not quite human. an alien, however, especially one that hasn’t had a lot of experience with humans, is more likely to shrug any inconsistencies off as natural variety in your species, or perhaps not notice there’s anything different about you at all. they won’t judge you like a human will. you’ll never be a freak to them. (though i wasn’t a fan of the pairing for obvious reasons, it’s interesting to consider the singular human love interest he has in the show is sarina, who is also an augment.)
From the perspective of someone who does sew things for people they love (my husband has so many ridiculous shirts), Garak doing the same for Julian is one of my absolute favourite things in fanfic. Before you make a garment for someone, you have to design it, and design it for them. You have to know the person, what style suits them, what colours suit them, plus what they like in the first place. It’s like a wearable portrait.
If I were a fic writer I’d write a whole piece from Garak’s perspective about designing a gift for Julian. I’d have him sneakily arrange some samples on the cutting table for him to fiddle with, surreptitiously gauging his reaction, figuring out which ones he reaches for, which ones he recoils from, which ones he unconsciously holds up to his cheek.
I’d write about the hours spent poring over the cut of the garment, how much of his Cardassian aesthetic he puts into it, how much of Earth, how much of everything else. Garak would do his research - he’d look into Earth symbolism, to try and tell a story in his embroidery. He’d laugh himself into a coughing fit when he figured out that Earth people had at some point chosen the wrong mythological staff to represent the medical profession, and then decided to just run with it. He’d sew in a branching, tree-like pattern that ascended up each sleeve, repeating seven times, and push down a flutter of nervousness about whether Julian would get the reference.
I’d write about reconciling the Julian he knew with the measurements he’d - not stolen, if such information was so easily found. Tailoring the fit of the garment to him would feel oddly daring, a feeling he’d never encountered when the numbers were just numbers, and the bodies were just bodies. His eyes would follow the tapered lines from the shoulders to the waist and find a strange kind of intimacy in those clean, pressed seams.
When it came time to give him the gift, he’d wait. He’d wait for an opportune moment, when Julian was out wearing some poorly-tailored asymmetrical monstrosity, something that didn’t lie flat along the shoulders, machine embroidered, with a neckline that sat far too high. He’d tell Julian about all of these shortcomings in detail, remarking widely on his awful taste in clothing and his clear inability to dress himself. Then, and only then, he’d tell him to come by the shop later. Don’t leave me waiting for you, Doctor.
thought i had while driving: the cardassians we see in TNG are all incredibly lean/lanky. gul “considers himself real hot shit” dukat is similarly proportioned. garak isn’t - he’s pretty solidly built for a cardassian we see onscreen
you know who else is almost upsettingly lanky? julian bashir, who is 2/3s leg. please imagine julian and garak as cardassia’s most confusing power couple. here’s this human who’s proportioned like the most perfect symbol of cardassian masculinity, married to a stout older man who is shorter than him. garak finds this hilarious. julian has no idea why particularly willowy cardassians keep staring at him balefully. to the average cardassian eye theyre the cardassian equivalent of one of those sitcom couples where one partner is super hot and the other one is just Aggressively Average and garak never stops being smug about it
its honestly perfect that bashir’s love interest is a spy cuz thats kinda how he sees all unconditional love anyway, incomprehensible and extremely suspicious
garak being a spy makes it so much easier on julian cuz he can just be like ah he loves me? he treats me kindly and tenderly without any expectations of equivalent exchange? obviously he’s just trying to gain my trust so he can use me because he’s a spy. its ok that I’m attracted to him bc there’s no possibility for a real relationship with him bc he’s a spy and nothing between us is real. meanwhile garak is literally just like wow hot twink i love our dates i hope he knows lol
Garak: *banging a datapad on a table out of frustration* Julian: Hey, be nicer to that datapad. Would you like it if I banged you on the table? Garak: Garak: I don’t know the correct answer to that question
Fixing the Changeling Bashir Timeline. Or: Uniform Changes and Bedside Manner
Common wisdom is that Bashir was kidnapped and replaced by a Changeling between The Ascent and Rapture, as when he appears in the prison-camp, he is wearing the old uniform.
However, I would like to propose that that is not the case. Christopher L. Bennett, who writes tie-in novels, has pointed out that the timeline does not add up. Consider:
The Begotten takes place at least three weeks after The Darkness and the Light (in the latter Kira says that she is due in three weeks, and she gives birth in The Begotten)
The Begotten takes place during at least one week (Bennett says two, but I can only find that the baby Changeling has been with Odo for a week, so let’s say a week)
Kirayoshi was born “less than a month” before Purgatory’s Shadow.
Bashir says in Purgatory’s Shadow that he was captured “over a month ago”.
Let’s draw up a timeline based on this. This counts weeks from the end of The Darkness and the Light.
START - The Darkness and the Light
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4 - The Begotten
Week 5
Week 6 - (For the Uniform somewhere here)
Week 7
Week 8 ~ In Purgatory’s Shadow
We don’t know the gap between Rapture and The Darkness and the Light. Even if there is virtually no time in between, the timeline doesn’t add up if Bashir was impersonated by a Changeling for four weeks (as Bashir says in Purgatory’s Shadow) but this started before Rapture.
What is it that dates Bashir’s abduction to before Rapture? The fact that he’s in the old uniform. That is all.
So, let us say that Bashir was not abducted before Rapture, but sometime before The Begotten. Why is he in the old uniform? Bennett calls this “a paradox”. I do not agree. For this we have to look at how uniform changes in Starfleet happen.
For this part, I will be referring to uniform by numbers in the order they were rolled out (as terms like “TNG uniform” and “DS9/VOY uniform” are often confusing and feel odd when discussing things in-verse):
Uniform type I - the uniform seen in TNG. Black shoulders, division colour beneath, no visible undershirt.
Uniform type II - the uniform seen in Voyager and DS9 series 1-4. Division colours on shoulders, the rest black, grey undershirt.
Uniform type III - the uniform seen in DS9 series 5-7 and the TNG films. Grey shoulders, the rest black, division colours on undershirt.
The Emissary, Way of the Warrior and TNG Birth Right part 1 show that uniform changes are not done all at once. In The Emissary, we see Bashir and Dax in Uniform type I when they first arrive, and then change into Uniform type II. The same goes for Sisko.
In Birth Right, Bashir wears a type II uniform at the same time as the Enterprise crew wear type I.
In Way of the Warrior, when Worf turns up, he is still in Uniform type I, while the Deep Space Nine crew are in Uniform type II.
I propose that uniform changes happen gradually, not all at once. Deep Space Nine (the station not the show) undergoes uniform changes earlier than the Enterprise. If you stationed on Deep Space Nine, you are supposed to wear Uniform type II, and if you work on the Enterprise, you wear Uniform type I. If you are visiting, like when Worf and Geordi go over to Deep Space Nine or Bashir goes onboard the Enterprise, you don’t change your uniform for that short time.
So why would Bashir change from Uniform type III to Uniform type II?
We can find the answer in Homefront. Here is Sisko when he is acting head of Starfleet Security:
Like Captain Benteen (who is stationed on Earth), Sisko is in Uniform type I. Earlier in this episode, when Sisko is on Deep Space Nine, he is in Uniform type II. However, as soon as he comes to Earth, he changes into Uniform type I. This implies that it is about maintaining uniformity and making things like ranks easier to tell. The difference between this and the other cases when people do not change is that when Sisko goes to Earth, is a longer stay and a much more official one.
So my suggestion is this. At the time around The Begotten, Deep Space Nine has already changed to Uniform type III, but other parts of Starfleet are still wearing Uniform type II. Therefore, when Bashir goes to the burn treatment conference on Meezan IV, he changes from Uniform type III to type II. It is an official occasion, he is on duty and there is probably going to be a lot of Starfleet people. Deep Space Nine seems to be one of the first places where new uniforms are introduced, so it is plausible that many other participants will still be in Uniform type II. This explains how Bashir would be in his old uniform despite having left after the uniform change.
What is more, it makes much more sense that Bashir is not abducted until just before The Begotten. Let’s consider what he is up to and how he acts during the first four episodes after the uniform change.
In Rapture, he treats Sisko, eventually performing brain surgery. In The Darkness and the Light, he examines Kira and he treats her for a placental laceration and a haemorrhage. In The Begotten, Bashir treats Odo for a bad back - he also mentions treating Odo a week earlier for stomach trouble. He treats the baby Changeling too, first putting it through a electrophoretic diffuser to purge the radiation that was making it ill, and then later trying to save it when it is dying. Also, he briefly examines Kira (but he does not deliver Kirayoshi, as many claim, including Memory Alpha - that is the midwife Y’Pora who does). In For The Uniform, Bashir does not appear at all.
If we compare what Bashir does in Rapture and The Darkness and the Light to what he does in The Begotten, there is a noticeable difference. The stuff he does in the first two episodes are complex. Furthermore, throughout these episodes he is gentle and reassuring to his patients. In The Begotten, we do not see that kindness. He jokes around with Odo, but in retrospect, there seems to be an edge to it. When he tells Odo the baby Changeling is dying, there is none of the vulnerability we see when he breaks similar bad news to Kira in Life Support or the crew in Tears of the Prophets. The most of the medicine he does is Changeling-related, either the baby or Odo. He only sees Kira briefly, and when he leaves it is abrupt, saying that he is very busy. When he leaves, we see O’Brien give him a surprised, maybe even hurt look. Perhaps he wanted his best friend around for this. As for his absence in For the Uniform, this too might be an attempt not to have to interact with people very much, as it could give him away.
Bashir in The Begotten does not act like the Bashir we know. He removes himself from emotional and/or social situations quickly, leaving other medical personnel (Y’Pora) in charge. Overall, his bedside manner is lacking. Not only does he not act like the Bashir we know - he does not act like the Bashir in the previous two episodes. In those, he feels much more himself.
Based on this - the chronology based on dialogue, Starfleet uniform customs and how Bashir acts like himself in two episodes but not the third - we can make the following timeline:
Uniform change on Deep Space Nine occurs
Rapture (Actual Bashir)
The Darkness and the Light (Actual Bashir)
Circa three weeks later: Actual Bashir is abducted from a conference. Changeling Bashir returns to Deep Space Nine.
Circa one week later: The Begotten (Changeling Bashir)
Circa four weeks pass. For the Uniform happens during this time. (Changeling Bashir, but not seen on screen.)
Circa four weeks after The Begotten: In Purgatory’s Shadow (Changeling Bashir on the station, Actual Bashir in Gamma Quadrant.)
This means that it is the real Julian Bashir who we see in Rapture and The Darkness and The Light. The Changeling posing as Bashir does not turn up until The Begotten.
Sources:
Screenshots: Trekcore
Opinions and quotes of Christopher L. Bennett: Memory Alpha, article “Julian Bashir (Changeling)”.
ALRIGHT so quintotriticale got this like a week ago or something so I’m posting it! this is the doodle I drew for quintotricale the ds9 card exchange! This was pretty fun ahaha
And don’t worry I have no idea what’s happening here shipping wise either
Julian Bashir’s parents… I FUCKING HATE THEM! For argument’s sake I’m going to accept that Julian had a disability that would make him dependable of external care for all his life (which I’m not so sure about, but lets go with it), if these parents wanted to give their son a chance of an independent “normal” life, they would have made him normal (average), they would had engineered him into standard parameters, intelligent yes, but not genius intelligent, a healthy body yes, but not better stamina and better eye hand coordination than normal, nothing about his external appearance should have been touched (height for example), if they had done it this way i think no one would had care, I think most people would have seen it as if we could give the hability to see to the blind, or hearing to the deaf, it’s nothing better than the rest, is just like the rest. What they did instead is assured themselves that their son had not a chance to fail, Julian is, simply put, better than humans in general. And by doing that these parents robbed their son the chance to have a normal life, they robbed him the chance of living an open life, he had to hide himself for half of it (fuck but he saw himself as a monster for all that time), he had to lose on purpose, he had to fail on purpose, and he had to lie to everyone he knew because of what was done to him. It’s not an “easier” life when you live all of if with the fear that one day everything you gained could be rip away from you, that you could lose your title, your career, your job, everyone of your achievements and the respect and care of those you love. Julian was sadly right, he isn’t his father’s son, he is his father’s creation, and is fucking heartbreaking AND I WANTED THIS STORY TO BE MORE EXPLORED IN THE SHOW! I wanted for the show to explored the fact that for years Julian has hated himself, you can see it in the episode, the despondency with which he talks about himself, the solitude with which he has lived so far, is just… is truly sad, is no wonder that he connected with Garak the way he did, after all, they are not that different as people and they are (unknowingly for Garak) pretty much in the same position, they are, the both of them, outcasts… but that is for another post. To end this one and the central point of it… Julian Bashir’s parents are shitty parents and I hate them.
