Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
I just know Julian owns an acoustic guitar and only ever learned like 3 songs but still tried to play it at every college party he went to and I know he has a file buried deep in his computer titled “girl with the spots.mp4” which he wrote when he first met Jadzia and was still in his internalized homophobia era
Julian is surprised to discover that Section 31 leaves him alone after he steals the cure for the Changeling disease. He eventually chalks this up to them finally deciding he will never work for them and that they’re wasting their time.
In reality, Garak figured out what happened and of his own initiative negotiated a deal with Section 31 to protect Julian, because they were pretty committed to either recruiting or killing him after he proved how dangerous he could be to them.
In a completely unrelated series of events, a few high-ranking Starfleet officers have damaging information leaked which ends their careers. Shortly thereafter, Section 31 comes into possession of some top-secret Obsidian Order research on how to poison Romulans without detection. (The stick and the carrot.)
Dr. Julian Bashir, blissfully ignorant of these machinations, meanwhile finds a very effective treatment for a rare Bajoran spinal degeneration disorder.
Dr. Julian Bashir being genetically enhanced was a very stupid subplot altogether since we see him being a bit of a himbo in the beginning, but the story could have been redeemed if they had followed through with him curing the Jem’Hadar of their addiction to ketracel white. His motivation to do that could have been not just his compassion as a doctor but empathy for them because they were genetically engineered against their will like he was.
I favor the interpretation that Julian’s subpar social skills - which do improve over the series - are the natural result of his parents denying him opportunities to develop interpersonal acuity. For some personal background, I was homeschooled for first, second, and third grade. It took me twenty years to mostly catch up on social skills. (True story: the first time Mr. Nova asked me on a date, he asked, “Would you like to get coffee?” To which I replied, in all seriousness, “I don’t drink coffee.”) What I’m saying is, I can see how Julian would be so out of his league socially because I’ve been there. If you add in that his parents moved around a lot and probably wanted to keep people from getting to close so they didn’t suspect, you can very easily have young Julian missing out on critical social development.
What I like about this, too, is that it gives another layer to his resentment of his parents. He wants so desperately to be liked but everything he does to try to make friends drives most people (except Garak) away because he doesn’t know. Because he’s doing what he should’ve learned didn’t work in elementary school, except his parents deprived him of that opportunity, and he’s trying to figure it out twenty years too late, so he’s angry that his parents cared about what he could accomplish and not other crucial skills so he could be happy.
I hate the episode Dr. Bashir I Presume because all the key elements were right there for Julian’s complicated backstory of theoretically growing up sheltered and in paradise except it turns out hell can be both personal and very localised, but instead they went with ‘big sacrifice saves the relationship’.
At the end of the episode Julian’s parents should have abandoned him while claiming that he abandoned them first by going to live on DS9. Their very presence should have turned him back into Season 1 Julian as he stumbles and fumbles and tries oh so hard to show how smart he is because it’s the only thing they value and he can’t drop the habit of trying to please them because it’s been a lifetime even though he hates it. He should have told white lie after white lie about how he NEVER uses the holosuites for ‘playing like a child’ and how he DEFINITELY spends all his time working on his next big research project that’s going to TOTALLY win him the Carrington award instead of just getting him nominated, and of course it’s fine they didn’t call when that happened, of course he knows they totally would have called if he actually won, what was it Father always says? Nominees are just losers they make public? True, Father, very true, sorry for disappointing you.
And then when the truth comes out - that’s he’s been making inappropriate friends (Garak the Cardassian, Miles the Enlisted Man, Dax the (Seriously Jules? A Worm?) - and playing (the horror) at being a spy in the holosuites instead of being productive, that he visited Risa, on purpose, RISA, his parents let slip that they didn’t MAKE him to be that way. Not raise him, make him, and they don’t realise that they are being overheard as they berate him and he argues back because he’s tired of it and he actually likes his life and his friends, and that’s how Dr. Zimmerman overhears and reports it to Starfleet.
Julian’s parents should have left him to deal with the consequences alone and he should have been allowed to stay in Starfleet because Sisko et al backed him up and argued against a frankly insanely unjust law that bars him from doing things not because of who he is but because of what he is (human rights movement, do I hear a good analogy brewing?).
It probably would have taken two episodes to tell the whole story but frankly it should have. The whole genetically enhanced plot is a fucking huge twist in Julian’s tale and it deserved more than it got.
Rant over, sorry for hijacking but I’ve typed it all now so I may as well hit the button.
Hijack away! I very much dislike the ‘big sacrifice saves the relationship’ angle as well. In fact I’ve posted about it before. =) I think “Prodigal Daughter” was a much better look at a dysfunctional parental relationship, and at least in that one we get a line from Julian which suggests that everything with his parents was not in fact fine.
You can certainly read Richard going to prison as something he did for himself rather than Julian. One, he gets to be the martyr in his own mind. Two, he gets the continuing satisfaction of knowing Julian is still accomplishing great deeds.
Honestly, I’d have preferred a two-episode arc where they challenged the legal premise of punishing people for decisions which were made by their parents, or some such. The end of the episode was hand-wavy and unsatisfying, probably because Siddig asked the writers to change the original ending where only Miles knew.
And I love your ideas about Julian lying and reverting to please his parents, even if it’s just around them. This idea really puts the holosuites in perspective - he’s having fun because his parents never let him.
Notixing a parallel between obrien making bashir play loads if tennis with him cos keikos gone and bashir (trying) to get obrien to have philosophical lunch debates with him
:
can’t stand people who are like “Julian’s so pretty it’s a shame he’s so obnoxious 😔” like it’s not my fault you’re weak. out of my way neurotypical I’m about to get it
Omg @illusion2me your tags on my other post about Julian’s Augmentation were perfect. I almost responded directly on that post but my thoughts ended up meandering Out of Scope. Because you’re right! It literally isn’t true that all Julian cares about is tennis and medicine. The fact that he’s extremely opinionated about art and culture is one of the FIRST things established about him. UGH.
One of my favorite things about Julian, which really only exists in early seasons (though they bring it up from time to time later) is that he actively enjoys consuming large amounts of cultural content. Julian is one of the only trek characters that we get cultural opinions and comparisons from. I only know that Tor Jolan is the greatest Bajoran composer and that his work is “slightly derivative” of older composers because he tells me. I only know that current media being produced on Earth is repurposing other planets’ stories because he tells me. And both of those things tell me so much about the cultures! Like the fact that humans would take other stories and try to fit them into a human narrative makes so much sense, we do that all the time with other cultures right now.
And it’s great most Trek characters don’t offer comparative analysis! We get descriptions of art or literature or whatever, but no comparison so you can’t really locate it. It adds a lot to both the character and the world and it really is too bad that they didn’t lean more into it when they did the augment stuff. Now we know he can read and consume at inhuman rates but we never get a scene, for example, of him discussing different Klingon operas.
It’s honestly too bad that they basically write this characterization completely out by Season 4-ish. We get hints of it here and there like when he’s describing a biography of Davy Goddamn Crocket (do Not get me started) and describing it to Miles or the fact that he and Ezri are bonding over books. (An aside- I always think its cute that Miles is like you’re exchanging books?? Must be serious! Because he knows how much Julian likes to read- incidentally also making his relationship with Garak more text than subtext but I digress). But both the book Ezri recommends and the book he describes to Miles are both Earth books and it’s too bad. I really really loved how much Julian enjoyed learning about other cultures.
Anyway- I know they decided to make his character, in general, more “serious” in later seasons, and that’s fine I guess- but I wish they had kept that sense of curiosity and cultural passion.
Another day another round of me being angry about how clearly official post and beta canon Trek content’s obsession with Section 31 especially in relation to Julian reveals the extent to which the powers that be behind Trek in general think that was the only interesting or worthwhile thing about his character
Also just to say. I feel like my rants get misconstrued or misunderstood sometimes, so I want to be clear: almost 100% of my frustrations and complaints about a lot of trek stuff are about non-diegetic things, Doyleist things. I’m not upset about how characters act like Julian’s annoying, or about Section 31, or whatever, because I think it’s unrealistic or bad narrative (I mean, I do dislike section 31 broadly, but that’s a completely different grumble to the one I’m usually on about.) What angers me, what I’m usually ranting about, isn’t a moral complaint about the actions of characters or whether I think they should or shouldn’t do whatever. It’s a frustration with framing. A frustration with the meta, and what it reveals about the people behind the camera and the broader messages they’re trying to send. I’m not frustrated that everyone in season 1 treats Julian like he’s annoying, but that the show consistently puts us on the side of those people, with cinematography and meta choices that I don’t have the film school knowledge and vocabulary to describe. My personal opinion on whether or not Julian should be connect to Section 31 is irrelevant to my primary complaint here, and that’s why this doesn’t and never will apply to fan content. Personally, I don’t love Section 31 as a path for Julian, but that’s me, that’s MY personal opinion and interpretation - and everyone is entitled to their own, and I begrudge NO ONE for disagreeing with me on that point. What grinds my gears is the way that actual canon’s obsession with Section 31 to the detriment of everything else about Julian makes it clear that the showrunners/writers/etc think that that’s the only thing interesting about him, the only thing worth focusing on. Character’s actions and choices are simply narrative. You can agree or disagree with those choices all you want, but that’s all opinion, and always will be. But framing, canon focus, etc, speak to the message that the show wishes to send, the parts of their own questionable beliefs and philosophies that the showrunners leak into the content. I disagree that Julian would end up in section 31, but I’m not angry about that. I am angry about the way that lays bare the fact that Star Trek as an enterprise often doesn’t think his character is interesting without that, and the broader meta-statement that makes about what that machine thinks of soft, kind men, of ND people. Of whatever.
okay this was long whoops. And I know I’ve said this before but I’m still mad about it. Not sorry.
