Gimme That Star Trek Ep.12: The Bashir-O’Brien Bromance

At the heart of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is one of the great Trek pairings: the Bashir-O'Brien friendship. Siskoid and DS9 super-fan Kurt "Speedball" Onstad track how, across seven years, it organically grew into the cherished relationship it eventually became. Plus, Star Trek news and listener feedback!

Listen to Episode 12 below!

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Credits:
"Star Trek Theme" by Alexander Courage, with the Irredeemable Shagg on vocals. End theme: "Deep Space Nine Theme" by Dennis McCarthy.

Bonus clips from: Star Trek Deep Space Nine's "The Storyteller", "Explorers", "Hard Time" and "Extreme Measures", starring Siddig el Fadil and Colm Meany; and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" by Leonard Nimoy.

And thanks for leaving a comment!

19 responses to “Gimme That Star Trek Ep.12: The Bashir-O’Brien Bromance

  1. The Siskoid, AMAZING SHOW! The Bashir/O’Brien friendship was one of the things that helped prove why DS9 was the best ST show of all time. We got to see something develop. The holy TOS trinity was fully formed, so we can’t count that. TNG didn’t really forge any new relationships that weren’t pre-established – except for Picard/Data, which was a great teacher/student-surrogate dad/son thing, and Worf/Troi , which died a merciful off-screen death. Voyager tried to mirror the B/O’B’ness with Kim and Paris to lesser success. And Enterprise had a Tucker/Malcolm thing, but who really wants to be Malcolm’s friend?

    Again, you’re doing the prophets’ work here, Siskoid. I’m curious about your thoughts on Bashir’s and Jadzia’s development. Out of the original DS9 crew, they probably were the least thought out characters, but they sure blossomed.

    1. Well, Voyager did do a decent job with some of 7 of 9’s relationships. But yeah, DS9 was better at this than all the rest. (We also had Jake/Nog, Worf/Dax. Bashir/Garak, and even a bit of Rom/O’Brien there…)

      1. Agreed, David: Worf/Troi was a hot mess, but we got a great book out of it. Imzadi 2 by Peter David. Not as good as the original Imzadi novel (which detailed Riker and Troi’s first meeting and relationship), but a good read nonetheless.

  2. I’m not as up on DS9, but this episode made me want to check these episodes out in particular. And Kurt may be the Sensational Podcast Find of 2017! Looking forward to hearing more!

    Chris

    1. Thank you, Chris! Your check is in the mail.

      My goal for next time I appear on a podcast is to reduce the amount of “y’know”s that come out of my mouth. Other than that, I was pretty happy with my podcast debut, and am readily available to talk comics, Star Trek, Doctor Who, role-playing, or any number of geeky topics at pretty much anytime.

  3. DS 9 is also my favorite Trek iteration, and I’ve just bought the set and started to work through it all again. Given this episode, which I loved, I wonder if you might also consider a “Frenemy” episode regarding the tempestuous cat-and-mouse relationship between Constable Odo and the legally-challenged Quark.

  4. While TNG was my favorite series, DS9 made me long for imperfect characters and longer storylines, preparing me for Farscape and Firefly. So DS9 is very near and dear to my heart.

    The next best Trek friendship to me is Data and Geordie, which I’d love to analyze as I think it also developed during the series. But Bashir and O’Brien was by far the best. Wonderful discussion, gentlemen. I’ll have to rewatch those episodes soon. Break out the tissues for Hard Time. (I’m not crying, you’re crying! Don’t look at me!)

    And Kurt, yes please to a New Warriors podcast! I’ll be there!

    1. So you made me rewatch the Bashir-O’Brien episodes, and found one of my favorite bits. Sorry if you mentioned it in the podcast, I can’t recall. In “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”, when O’Brien is being interviewed about Bashir for the LMH program.
      “Are you sure this is confidential? I’d hate for it to get back to Julian. … Well, he’s a fantastic doctor. Brilliant. Compassionate. … Are you sure Julian won’t hear this?”
      Just the best. Thanks for “making” me revisit this show. Cheers!

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