bashir is the kind of person whose idea of flirting would be to tell you you have great veins. whether you're his patient and he's drawing blood or you're just having a drink at quark's is irrelevant.
I love it when odo drops a line he's clearly taken wholesale from one of his hardboiled detective novels fjdksah. 'you'll find I'm a man who... collects on his debts' yeah okay you embarrassing beige nerd
“lieutenant commander jadzia dax is a trill, a humanoid species that attains its fullest realization in symbiotic connection with a species of large, long-lived slugs called symbionts. a trill is also a musical articulation created, with an instrument, by the rapid alternation of two tones, either a whole or a half tone apart, or, with a voice, by the rapid vibration of one speech organ against another. a trill, then, is a singular musical motif created by the contiguous motion of two distinct notes or organs. it is simultaneously mobile and arrested, present and absent, ‘a sound locked in movement.’ likewise the trill are, in their fullest realization, a plural species, two distinct organs creating a unique and fluid singularity. the constant transformation between the two voices/organisms constitutes the fragile yet durable continuity of the t/Trill.”
— kathy e. ferguson, “this species which is not one: identity practices in star trek: deep space nine”
Thank you all for getting this post to over 1k notes!! It may not seem like a lot to some but it’s never happened to me and I appreciate it. Here’s the first edit I tried before the Spirk edit, I never posted it because it was more of an experiment and I didn’t like it as much, but I hope you enjoy (there isn’t a companion unfortunately, it’s really hard to find good screen caps and promo of this damn lizard😤😭)
An often overlooked aspect of character and relationship building is the question: "How do the characters adress each other?"
It's a surprisingly interesting facet of DS9. I think Worf not once calls Quark by his name, it's always "the Ferengi".
Rom calls him only "Quark", I think, once or twice in the whole run of DS9. Otherwise it's always "Brother" or "my Brother".
While Quark uses "my Brother" mostly derogatively, but when things get ugly, he says "Rom!"
[For all people reading this not familiar with Star Trek, another example: When Dean Winchester says "Sammy" you know things are escalating horribly.]
If someone knows an instance where Worf calls Quark by his name, let me know. I am looking for this for years. Maybe I heard it in the german translation.
Sisko is always called "Ben" by colleagues, which looks like an intimate name. Until you realize that he is called "Benjamin" only by his most intimate familiar, Dax.
And mockingly and twisted, by Dukat.
His full name is his pet name, while the abbreviated version is his more distanced, regular used name.
Awesome detail.
Odo even mocks Kira for being interested in Chief O'Brien. Excuse me, I mean "Miles" 😉
In my own comic (not Star Trek related, I'm not brave enough for that), I, as the time of writing this, have only three characters on screen. And I put a lot of thought into the question: How do they adress each other? And even made a bit of fun of it.
Why am I telling you all this? Because Garak and Bashir have a very interesting dynamic. Firstly, there is not one instance of Bashir calling Garak "Elim". Garak calls him "Doctor Bashir" or the classic "my dear Doctor".
Now when we imagine Garak telling Julian how he actually doesn't like him (at all!) and then he says "ok bye. Julian. wink wink 😉" I don't really know if it would feel out of character for Garak. Damn, somebody get Andrew Robinson on the phone and pay him to say it.
If Garak does it slowly with a thick, chocolady sarcastic tone and smirk, I think it would work. But it would also make him VERY vulnerable, no matter how he tries to overplay it. Which would be an interesting scene, to say the least. So it would have the need to feel earned.
It would also be an interesting callback to early twink Bashir, hopelessly in need of human(oid) connection. He forcefeeds Kira the "HEY KIRA I'M JULIAN CALL ME JULIAN! SAY IT!!! JUUUUUUUUULIAN!" stuff very early on. At the end of the Julian and the Federation Ambassadors-Episode, they respect him and call him Julian.
So Garak denying him that indulgence is an interesting trait. And if you're still reading this with me, maybe you agree on that. It's important to notice how our characters adress each other.
Garak denies Julian the un-formality of the first name (what Julian desperately craves), and would propably be shocked or even angry in return, if Julian himself called him "Elim".
What I'm saying it, it would be a big deal. Closing a speech with "Julian" could break that delicate balance and dynamic. Maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn't.
I would love to hear what Siddig or Andrew think about the question.
Or anyone other than the voices debating this in my head.
Do you have other examples for this?