#Ambassador Vadosia

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DS9 1x17 The Forsaken: More Feelings about the Augmented Abilities of Julian Bashir

(Apologies, shutting up about Julian is not within my capabilities.)

In The Forsaken, Bashir is charged with looking after three Federation ambassadors while the entire station is having a meltdown. At one point, he and the ambassadors are walking along a corridor when suddenly: FIRE

The bulkheads close, Julian tries to open the door and finds it locked... the scene ends.

We're then left in suspense for the rest of the episode; we only see Sisko and Kira's side of things, who are assuming the worst, not knowing how badly they all got hurt.

Eventually they get in and find Julian and the ambassadors, who immediately start heaping praise on Julian:

BASHIR: Here, take my hand, Madam Ambassador. Watch your head. TAXCO: Please, Julian. Call me Taxco. SISKO: Ambassador, are you all right? VADOSIA: Yes, thanks to Julian. LOJAL: The doctor was remarkably calm and logical for a man of his years under such severe conditions. VADOSIA: We'll be putting him in for a commendation.

Sisko congratulates him ("Nice work, Doctor Bashir." "Just in the right place at the right time, sir.") and that's the end of that.

But I couldn't stop thinking about how different Julian is to how we've seen him so far in season 1.

It's pretty well established that Julian in the early seasons (and some might say, all of them) is often smug and insufferable. In Season 1, we've seen him boast about the most minor things (becoming salutatorian, Q-Less) to how good a doctor he is ("I was very impressed, Doctor." "And well you should have been." The Passenger).

But at the end of The Forsaken, he seems positively startled to be praised. In complete contrast to The Passenger, in which he takes Kira's compliment and adds to it himself, here he doesn't even take the praise, but dismisses it as luck. What's changed?

Well, I think there are a few things in play here. For one, he's shaken up, he really hasn't been in that many life-or-death situations - maybe the boasts come out later. For another, he usually boasts about his medical expertise, which he knows is good; he might not have felt he did anythign special here. But most importantly, I believe - this is the first situation he's been in where he's had to choose between revealing his augmented abilities or potentially letting people die.

We don't see much of what he does, admittedly, but we do see him trying to unlock a door: first he tries the access codes, when that doesn't work he strains to rip the cover off to get the the lever underneath, which he tries to pull until one of the ambassadors touches him, when he appears to give up. I find it pretty easy to read that touch as having reminded Julian that he's not alone, he has to act normally.

(sorry for the poor quality)

Yes, we really don't know if he could have got them out using his augmented abilities, or how "superhuman" he had to be to get them into the vents. But I think it's very possible that he did have to find a balance between getting people to safety, and not showing an above-average ability in the methods he used.

And keep in mind these are Federation Ambassadors. Julian's already stated in this episode - though it's unsure how seriously - that spending time with the ambassadors could "destroy his career". How much more aware will he be of keeping his secret around them, when they already appear to dislike him and would have the power to investigate if anything did slip?

Other people have hypothesised that his boasting is a way to hide his abilities in plain sight, as it were - and this makes enough sense to be at least part-way true. I think his boasting is a mix of genuine pride in his work; being, in brutal honesty, a young, naïve idiot; badly misjudging how to make himself likable; and attempting to normalise how good he is by showing off at every opportunity.

But this event is one he wants to downplay - he doesn't want a reputation for being good at anything else. He can't afford people to question how a doctor forced entry into the vents, or whatever he needed to do to get in there. While the ambassadors are coming out, he sticks to his job and doesn't respond to their praise - in fact you could say he looks concerned or worried. After they've gone, and Sisko congratulates him, he's startled out of his thoughts for a second, before responding: "Just in the right place at the right time, sir" - a throwback to their earlier conversation, and a dismissal that he did anything particularly special.

(again, awful quality, I've never made GIFs before!)

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k d e e p s p a c e n i n e created by rick berman, michael piller The Forsaken [s1ep17]