Quark watches with detached bemusement as Rom backs out of declaring his interest in Leeta.
As O’Brien celebrates a win over Bashir at darts, Dr. Zimmerman, a hologram researcher (whose face Star Trek fans will instantly know from the then-contemporary Trek series Voyager) says he’s here to make Bashir “immortal.”
Starfleet has chosen Bashir as the model for a “Long-term Medical Hologram,” and Zimmerman plans to interview Bashir in order to use his memories and personality as part of the programming.
O’Brien finds it all very amusing. Upon learning that Zimmerman plans to interview his co-workers, friends, and family, Bashir casually (but not so casually) asks Zimmerman not to interview his parents, saying “We’re not close.”
Some sci-fi comedy comes when the real Bashir, a holographic Bashir, the human Dr. Zimmerman, and the Emergency Medical Hologram we know from Voyager briefly interact. (This is low-hanging fruit, and thankfully it’s brief.)
More comedy comes from lightning-quick edits as the series regulars (minus Odo, for some reason) all comment on Bashir. O’Brien, who has been smirking throughout the episode, rather adorably heaps praise on his friend, with the caveat, “I wouldn’t want this to get back to Julian.”
A jealous Rom overhears an enamored Zimmerman chatting up Leeta, and marches over, presumably to stake his claim, but he loses his nerve, leading her to conclude that he must not be interested in her.
In Sisko’s office, Bashir is stunned by the arrival of a beaming middle-aged couple, who call him “Jules” and hug him. Of course we know who they are. Bashir can barely mutter an introduction to Sisko.
Richard Bashir presents the air of an important man, and settles into a chair ready to regale Dax and Sisko stories, but Amsha and Bashir redirect him.
Bashir is furious with Zimmerman.
When Zimmerman shows up at Leeta’s quarters with flowers, she’s delighted. “It’s never a bad time for flowers!”
It just so happens that the manager of the cafe at his research station has decided to quit, and Zimmerman is offering Leeta the job, and inviting her to stay with him.
Actor Robert Picardo delivers a wonderful performance. His Dr. Zimmerman is sardonic, annoying, self-serving, charming, and apparently sincere.
Likewise, Chase Masterson’s Leeta does a great job as she gives Rom an opening wide enough to pilot a Galaxy Class starship through. “If I had a reason to say, I’d stay. Do I have a reason to stay?”
At a tense family dinner, we learn that Richard is a charming bullshitter, and that Amsha tries to smooth things over but she’s an enabler. Bashir warns them vaguely to be “careful” during the interviews, which strikes a nerve in Richard: “Well what about us? We could go to prison, Jules.”
Later, Richard and Amsha enter the infirmary. Richard makes the oddly specific and detailed promise that “at no time in our interview with Doctor Zimmerman will we ever mention or even hint at the fact that you were genetically enhanced as a child.”
Which is convenient for the plot, because after they leave, we realize they were actually talking to the hologram of Bashir, and that O’Brien and Dr. Zimmerman overheard from the next room.
Bashir infodumps furiously to O’Brien that when he was six, he was so far behind in school that his parents took him to another planet for shady genetic enhancement that the Federation considers illegal. Bashir plans to resign before Starfleet can dismiss him.
Meanwhile, Quark offers Rom the brotherly advice that females are trouble. Rom seems unconvinced.
Still blustering, Richard plans to take the matter to the Supreme Court, but Bashir is disgusted by his father’s evasiveness. Bashir seems to be about to have the last angry word when Amsha speaks up with an earnest speech that convinces Bashir that his parents did what they did out of love. Bashir ends the scene without fireworks, saying he just wants to leave the station quietly.
Later, Bashir enters Sisko’s office, presumably to resign, but finds instead that Sisko has put Bashir’s parents in touch with an admiral who agrees that Bashir can keep his commission if Richard agrees to plead guilty to violating the Federation law against genetic engineering.
Later, at the airlock, Bashir and his parents part warmly.
Leeta and Zimmerman are also at the airlock, but from a distance we hear a sustained shriek that turns out to be Rom shouting “Waaaait!”
He professes his love, he and Leeta kiss, and just in case we feel a little bad for Zimmerman, he eyes a passing extra even before he exchanges goodbyes with Leeta.
Later at Quark’s, Rom and Leeta are happy together, and O’Brien is miffed, reasoning that his genetically modified darts opponent has been going easy on him.
“Play then,” he insists. “Really play!”
After Bashir throws three effortless bulls-eyes, O’Brien announces that from now on, Bashir will stand twice as far from the board.
The episode was well-directed, and the writing and performances were the usual high quality, but I didn’t care for the “Bashir is genetically augmented” storyline, since it changed our understanding of the character, who up to now we believed was privileged but still earned all his intellectual achievements the old-fashioned way. I remember reading that the actor Alexander Siddig wasn’t too keen on this, either, and that he deliberately underperformed any time the writers tried to bring up the augment storyline, in the hopes that the scenes wouldn’t work.
