Best of Star Trek DS9---Our Man Bashir

"Our Man Bashir" is the tenth episode of the 4th season and was written by Ronald D. Moore.

The episode begins with Dr. Bashir indulging his fantasies on the holosuit. His fun is interrupted by a pesty Garak, who wants to see how his friend spends his free time. Reluctantly, Julian invites him along and the two play spies.

In the meantime, the rest of the senior crew is on a runabout that's been sabotaged by a faction who are angry about the Federation's involvement with the Cardassian/Bajoran peace agreement. As Eddington beams them aboard the station at the moment of the warp core breach, the crew's patterns are lost somewhere in the computer. To locate them, the Eddington orders the stations computers shut down except for the patterns of the missing crew. The are located---on the holosuite!

Now, Bashir must remain on the holosuite and play out his program in order to keep the crew isolated while the remaining senior crew work to retrieve their neuro patterns. Because their bodies only were energized in the holosuit, they take on the personas of Bashir's characters in his program.

A mad scientist, in the body of Sisko, is about to destroy the world using electric underground lasers to simulate earthquakes. Sisko, AKA Dr. Noah, is about to kill Bashir (the safety protocols aren't working) when the missing crew's neuro patters are found and beamed aboard the Defiant, to which they are merged with their physical patterns and beamed aboard the station.

This episode was fun and offered the actors a chance to expand their talents playing different characters in a cheesy spy escapade.

What makes it even more interesting is the interaction between Bashir and Garak. When there were times when Garak believed they were going to die, at one time being tied in a pit awaiting hot molten lava, he kept insisting on contacting Eddington to open the doors to allow them to escape. This would have been risky if one of the embodied crew members decided to exit.

Bashir even warned Garak that if he attemtped to exit the doors, he would shoot him---and he did! Garak headed for the exit and blam! Bashir grazed him on the neck as a warning and Garak was impressed.

Avery Brooks was especially amusing as the mad scientist. It was a performance likened to a cheap B-Sci-Fi movie worthy of a mocking on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."