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Headscratchers / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S05E16 "Dr. Bashir, I Presume"

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  • If Julian has superior physical abilities, why does he lose so many fights, even when there is no one around to see him? In spite of being a doctor, he's a Starfleet officer, so he's received combat training. You'd think he'd be able to hold his own a bit better with such a natural physical advantage.
    • Holding back might just be a hard habit to break. He learned to fight at the Academy, where he'd be particularly sensitive to the need to avoid detection and so was especially careful not to show too much prowess. He pulls punches because that's how he learned to punch.
      • If Bashir can decide to score bulls eyes at will in darts despite spending his life deliberately being less accurate, then he should be able to decide to punch at full force as well. In fact, his instinctive self-preservation should make it much easier to discard any pre-programmed sand-bagging when fighting than when doing more mundane activities.
    • Also, look at the Badass Bookworm entry in Past Tense Part I; Bashir does pretty well when ambushed by three hardened thugs. Presumably, even when it seems unlikely no one can see he still has one eye on the possibility of being unknowingly observed, but when surprised by attackers he reacted instinctively and laid a guy out.
      • His performance there doesn't seem particularly superhuman, and he's been in other fights and fared worse.
    • It may be that there is some conflation going on between enhanced and superhuman thanks to the hangups the Federation has about genetic enhancement. Yes, Bashir's physical abilities are clearly enhanced well beyond what they would be naturally — but that doesn't necessarily mean his abilities are actually outside the bounds of what is possible for unaltered humans (this is especially as while his physical abilities were enhanced, it was his intellect that was the main focus of the treatments).
  • Why is Julian's mirror universe version smarter than average, if not just as smart as our own Bashir? Certainly there would have been no opportunity to augment his genetics while humans are a subjugated species. Even if one stretches mightily to explain away his early problems as a learning disability that could be overcome with proper nurturing and education, how could he have received that while a slave or hiding out in caves with rebels?
    • A disabled slave isn't much use. If we assume the mirror universe has no laws against creating augments, getting such a procedure is presumably no big deal, and might be done automatically if a slave isn't shaping up the way the Alliance wants.
    • Alternatively, Bashir's developmental disorder may be a result of something that happened in the regular universe but not the mirror; mirror Bashir is truly natural, without either the disorder or the therapy that compensated for it.
    • Julian may not have been nearly as disabled as his parents claim, just not as sharp as the rest of his class. Their motives remain suspect. Presumably Julian's account to Miles would be the most accurate, yet he says as a first grader he couldn't tell a tree from a house. He calls that "not very bright" but for a 5-6 year old, that would be a profound level of disability. He wouldn't even be in the same classroom. I suspect the real truth of his situation has been lost over the years due to the piles of lies.
      • Note especially that Julian describes discovering he was augmented, presumably not remembering (clearly) his time at Adigeon Prime - if he didn’t remember that, it seems terribly unlikely that he can accurately recall even earlier, and he probably got the specifics of his condition (the cat/dog and tree/house details) from his parents, when they were initially rationalizing why they had him modified.
  • Julian's criticisms of his father sound more like they come from a 20th century capitalist perspective than a 24th century, post-scarcity utopian perspective. As established in The Next Generation, Federation citizens now work to "better themselves" rather than acquire wealth and power. Julian castigates Richard for jumping from interest to interest and yet never finding success. But from a Federation perspective, what's wrong with enthusiastically trying one's hand in various pursuits and moving on to the next one when they don't work out? Richard doesn't need to be successful to fulfill his paternal obligations and support his family. Sure, everyone would like to enjoy huge success and make a big impact, but he merely needs to feel fulfilled by his work to be a good Federation citizen.
    • For one thing, if what Bashir says is true, he talks about having big prospects for the future but then bails before making them happen, suggesting a lack of commitment. For another thing, he exaggerates or outright lies about what he does/did. Being flighty and dishonest doesn't make him a better person or Federation citizen.
      • If that's the case, you'd think Bashir would have worded his criticisms differently.

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