Our Man Bashir

I've said it so many times, but the writers of a science fiction series often have carte blanche to do as they wish. The James Bond bit here is set up nicely with the malfunction that occurs at the start. Of course, because this is a series, we are more interested in how things are done rather than the result (unfortunately, we know that all will turn out OK). Bashir makes a good spy and Garak is a good sidekick. Watching each of the principle characters assume roles in the program is great fun. There is also a kind of a neat thing going on with Rom, who actually has the responsibility for saving the day with his technological expertise. This was a nice diversion. Purists will hole their noses, but, in the world created, it is quite good.

DS9 is the one Trek spin-off that wholly captures the spirit of the parent series. TNG would occasionally get it right, but only DS9 gets the mix of opposition and friendship between the characters was perfect, and was never more delightful in this ep that gives us Nana Visitor as a sexpot KGB colonel, a Garak envious of the Bondian excesses of MI-6 agent Bashir ("It appears I joined the wrong intelligence service"), eye-patched O'Brien, and a Sisko/Dr. Noah who fits nicely n the mold of Dr. No, Blofeld, and Goldfinger, and white-jacketed cigar aficionado Worf/ Duchamps...Only DS9 ever got away with the alternating great tragedies ("Duet"), an elegiac original tale of the time-lost in "The Visitor", the pure silliness of "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", and brilliant tribute episodes.like "Trials and Tribble-ations..." , all with the spiritedness of the original,. And "Our Man Bashir" by using the 1964 super spy template, we also get the '60s naughtiness without which TOS would have been a long-forgotten dud.

This one goes to eleven.

I really enjoyed it, you'd never believe it was all set in the holosuite. Loved the sneaky and not so sneaky Bond references. The now what would be seen as sexist request by Bashir that Honey Bare take off her glasses and loosen her hair I didn't mind at all, that was then. I would have liked to know if Julian told Ben and co about 'their' adventures. If, as was suspected, Sisko and the others were floating about in the ether somewhere could it be part of them were acting out what they would do give the chance. Kira as a Russian spy, Dex as a top scientist etc? Rom came to the rescue again.

I have seen almost all Star Trek series, except Enterprise, Discovery and Picard, and loved most them; though such a series as ST: Voy had a lot of potential which was never realised. DS9 was almost as good, if not as good, as TNG.

As for the episodes in which some malfunction occur, be it the transporters, holo decks (or holo suits in DS9) or accidental time travel; this is by far the best of those, both in terms of spoofing more than one franchise (like TNG: Elementary dear Data, spoofs Sherlock Holmes), the episodes spoofs most if not all spy films and franchises of the 1960 in one way or another, but also the story.

If there is one thing I'm missing in this episode, it's some character (perhaps Bashir himself) pointing a major flaw in Dr. Noah's plan: Unless there are at the very least 50 people left to create a new population and each of the women has at least 2 children with different men, within a few generations inbreeding would most likely occur and the new population would eventually be unable to breed and therefore the population would cease to exist. But this is pretty much the only "flaw", if it should even be defined as such, in the episode; there are a few other "flaws" but those are so minor that I won't even bother mentioning them.

Bashir and Garak get trapped in a holodeck James Bond fantasy.

This is a reasonably entertaining episode.

These type of stories employee the clichè that something goes wrong in the holodeck to raises the stakes, but for me the writers would be better off just immersing the characters in the fantasy and just following it for laughs.

The script is okay, but for me it relies on the actors to elevate the material. It is fun seeing them playing these roles, but I think it feels a bit of a stretch for an entire episode.

I like the set design, costumes and the bond-style fight sequences. My favourite moment is when a certain character appears quite theatrically on a bed.

All performances are great but the standouts for me include Andrew Robinson, Nana Visitor, and Avery Brooks.