WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 9, “Fissure Quest”
25 years later,Star Trek: Lower Decksfinally makes a fan-favorite couple fromStar Trek: Deep Space Ninecanon.Star Trek: Lower Decksseason 5, episode 9, “Fissure Quest”, follows up with Captain William Boimler (Jack Quaid), the transporter duplicate of Lieutenant Brad Boimler who was assigned to Starfleet’s Section 31 after faking his death.Captain Boimler’s crew is assembled from alternate reality versions ofStar Treklegacy charactersfrom acrossStar Trek’s multiverse of timelines, includingStar Trek: Enterprise’s T’Pol(Jolene Blalock), a pre-Jadzia Curzon Dax (Fred Tatasciore), and a bevy of Ensigns Harry Kim (Garrett Wang).
Star Trek: Lower Decks Makes Bashir & Garak A Couple 25 Years After DS9
Everything Is Possible In Star Trek’s Multiverse
Star Trek: Lower Decksseason 5, episode 9, “Fissure Quest”, makes Dr. Julian Bashir and Elim Garak a couple, 25 years afterStar Trek: Deep Space Nineended.Captain Boimler’s voice-over introduces Starfleet Garak and Holo-Bashir as a married couple, and the delightful (if somewhat antagonistic) banter that ensues between the long-term pair is a perfectly believable extension of theirDS9characterizations. Both Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson return to reprise theirDS9roles, and bring with them the same chemistry that inspired speculation that Bashir and Garak would become a couple in the first place.
Star Trek’s Biggest Crossover Ever Just Happened With 6 Shocking Legacy Character Comebacks
Setting up its season 5 finale, Star Trek: Lower Decks goes big by bringing back characters from DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, and First Contact.
The twist is that neither half ofStar Trek: Lower Decks’animated version of Garashir are the Garak or Bashir that we grew to love inStar Trek’s Prime Universe. Instead, they’re alternate versions of Julian Bashir and Elim Garak who hail from different realities, trying to make their relationship work despite their different origins. To fulfill fans' desire to see this long-awaited ship set sail,Star Trek: Lower Deckssmartly usesStar Trek’s vast multiverse to explore one way Garak and Bashir’s relationship could play out, without changing what happened inStar Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Why DS9 Teased But Failed To Make Bashir & Garak A Couple
Even Garak? Dear Reader,EspeciallyGarak
Star Trek: Deep Space Nineteased Bashir and Garak as a couple, but never actually sealed the deal on pairingDS9’s Chief Medical Officer and resident Cardassian spy/tailor romantically, becauseStar TrekproducerRick Berman vetoed Garak being queer.Berman feared that 1990s audiences would be turned off by actual gay representation inStar Trek.Instead of dating Julian, Garak was awkwardly written into a heterosexual relationship with Tora Ziyal (Melanie Smith), Gul Dukat’s (Marc Alaimo) half-Bajoran daughter. Robinson plays Garak’s feelings towards Ziyal as more friendly than romantic, and even that was just to get under Dukat’s skin.
Star Trek’s first same-sex kiss, inStar Trek: Deep Space Nineseason 4, episode 5, “Rejoined”, was a one-time event that pointedly commented on 1990s-era homophobia. Negative response to Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) and Lenara Kahn’s (Susann Thompson) relationship proved exactly why the episode was even needed in the first place.
Making Garak and Bashir a canon couple has been a long time coming. Robinson intentionally played Garak as sexually interested in Bashir sinceStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s first season. From there, the pair enjoyed flirtatious lunches and holosuite adventures together. They even unraveled the occasional Cardassian conspiracy, thoughany reciprocated interest between Julian and Garak had to remain implied inStar Trek: Deep Space Nine. That’s not so in the streaming era whenLGBTQ+ characters inStar Trekare normalized, soStar Trek: Lower Deckscan finally give Garak and Bashir the romantic ending they always deserved.
