TREKCORE > DEEP SPACE NINE > CAST > Doctor Julian Bashir

PLAYED BY: Siddig el Fadil [took the stage name Alexander Siddig at the start of Season 4]
FULL NAME: Julian Subatoi Bashir
SPECIES: Human (indeterminate descent, perhaps Arab/British)
POSITION: Chief Medical Officer, Deep Space Nine
RANK: Lieutenant Junior Grade until 4th season; Full Lieutenant thereafter
BIRTHPLACE: Earth (lived on Invernia Prime at age 10)
PARENTS: Richard Bashir (father); Amsha Bashir (mother)
OTHER FAMILY: Watley (great-grandmother; a Starfleet officer in the 23rd century; no one knew the identity of Julian's great-grandfather); Singh al-Bashir (ancestor; a 15th-century Earth poet)
LOVE INTERESTS: Palis Delon; Jadzia Dax; Melora Pazlar; Leeta; Sarina Douglas; Ezri Dax
OTHER FRIENDS: Erib (an Academy buddy); Dr. Elizabeth Lense (valedictorian of his Academy class); Lt. Cmdr. Data (see "Birthright, Part I" [TNG]); Felix (a holoprogramming expert)
HOBBIES: Exotic cuisine, including Klingon and Vulcan; Tarkalean tea; tennis, racquetball, darts, classic literature (such as mystery and spy novels); meditation (using rhythmic breathing); history (except the 21st and 23rd centuries)
DISLIKES: Cardassian literature

As a child, Julian (called Jules by his parents) was small for his age, awkward, and slightly slow mentally. Then, just before his seventh birthday, he was taken by his parents to Adigeon Prime and given DNA resequencing treatments over a two-month period. Among the things that were enhanced were: his IQ, hand/eye coordination, stamina, vision, reflexes, and height. After returning to Earth, his family moved to a different city, where Julian joined a new school with falsified records. When he realized at age 15 what had been done, he believed that his parents had considered him defective, and did not forgive them for years, while he thought of himself as "unnatural".

At 10, Julian had been living with his family on Invernia II when he and his father were caught out in an ionic storm and sought shelter along with a native girl who became ill, dying because no one present knew that a nearby herb could have saved her. This memory influenced his ultimate choice of career. (He told Dax in "Equilibrium" that he was afraid of doctors as a child, but later realized that they helped people, and he wanted to have their knowledge.) His first ambition, though, was to become a pro tennis player, but after a disastrous first match, he made his decision to practice medicine.

While attending Starfleet Medical Academy, Bashir designed a nutritious candy bar to replace Federation rations, was first in his class in pediatric medicine, and was captain of the racquetball team that won the sector finals in his last year. He graduated as salutatorian, missing one question on the final: he mistook a preganglionic fiber for a postganglionic nerve. Bashir was offered a job at a prestigious medical complex in Paris by the father of Palis Delon, his Academy sweetheart, but decided to stay in Starfleet instead. He had his pick of assignments, but chose DS9 because he wanted to practice "real frontier medicine".

The gung-ho young doctor, eager to make his mark in the "wilderness", and intrigued by tales of mystery and heroism, struck up a friendship with Garak, who involved him in spying on Lursa and B'Etor ("Past Prologue"). He was an unwitting host for the consciousness of a Kobliad criminal named Vantika, who tried to hold him hostage ("The Passenger"). Bashir was very interested in Dax, and when fantasies started coming true on the station, he was somewhat embarrassed by the doppelganger of her that appeared and fawned over him ("If Wishes Were Horses"). However, he did get to be a hero when he babysat a delegation of ambassadors and earned their gratitude by saving their lives in a fire ("The Forsaken").

Bashir helped Garak uncover the truth about Rugal ("Cardassians"), and in "Melora", he was romantically involved with Ensign Melora Pazlar. He came up with a treatment to allow her to walk in normal gravity, but she chose to discontinue it, and eventually left the station.
Although O'Brien found Bashir annoying at first, their friendship started to grow after they were maneuvered by Quark into playing a grudge racquetball match ("Rivals"), and when they were stranded together and on the run in "Armageddon Game", when the T'Lani and Kellerun governments conspired to kill them because they knew the formula for the Harvesters.

Bashir moved mountains to find the cause of Garak's life-threatening headaches and cure it ("The Wire"); and in "Crossover", he accidentally visited the mirror universe with Kira, where he became a slave in the ore processor until escaping. Bashir was later stranded in 2024 San Francisco with Sisko and Dax ("Past Tense, Parts I and II"). In "Life Support", Bashir fought to keep Bareil alive, but drew the line at replacing his entire brain. He became the youngest nominee ever for the Carrington Award in "Prophet Motive".

In "Distant Voices", Bashir was mentally attacked by a Lethian, and had an experience in which he was trapped in his own mind, represented by a besieged DS9, with the other officers as aspects of his own personality.

When Dr. Elizabeth Lense, valedictorian of his class at Starfleet Medical, visited the station, Bashir was in a state, but when they finally talked, they ended up friends. Bashir also met Leeta, and later became romantically involved with her ("Explorers"). He was promoted from lieutenant j.g. to full lieutenant sometime between "The Adversary" and "The Way of the Warrior". Soon afterwards, Bashir was captured with O'Brien by a group of Jem'Hadar and forced to research a cure for their addiction to Ketracel-white ("Hippocratic Oath").

In "Our Man Bashir", Bashir's holoprogram in which he played a 1960's spy became crucial to the survival of five other officers, who became characters in the story. He eventually saved them by "destroying the world". Bashir also saved O'Brien in "Hard Time" when he talked him out of committing suicide. In "The Quickening", he was unable to immediately save the people in the Teplan system who had been ravaged by a Dominion-engineered disease, but he did manage to create an antigen that cured babies in utero.

While at a burn treatment conference on Meezan IV, Bashir was taken prisoner by the Dominion and replaced by a Changeling. This occurred at some point before the change of Starfleet uniforms in "Rapture". Bashir was in Dominion internment camp 371 for 37 days before he was found there by Worf and Garak. They all later managed to escape along with Martok ("In Purgatory's Shadow"/"By Inferno's Light"). Not long afterwards, Bashir was chosen as the template for the new Longterm Medical Hologram, and his parents came to the station to be interviewed by Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. After they inadvertently revealed the secret of Julian's genetic enhancement, his father chose to go to prison for two years in exchange for Julian being allowed to stay in Starfleet and in medical practice ("Doctor Bashir, I Presume").

Bashir was among the Starfleet crew who left DS9 in "Call to Arms" and returned in "Favor the Bold"/"Sacrifice of Angels". Then in "Statistical Probabilities", he interacted with four institutionalized genetically-engineered people who were brought to meet him. He recommended surrender after they calculated that the Federation couldn't win against the Dominion; however, he foiled their plan to "save lives" by giving strategic information to Weyoun. In "Inquisition", Bashir was abducted by Deputy Director Sloan, who subjected him to a holosimulation in order to determine whether he had been spying for the Dominion. Convinced of Bashir's innocence, Sloan tried and failed to recruit him into Section 31.

Bashir's genetically-enhanced charges returned in "Chrysalis", including Sarina, whom Bashir successfully treated, bringing her out of her cataleptic state. He fell in love with her and wanted to pursue a relationship; but finally realized she wasn't ready, and Sarina left to join a research center. In "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", Bashir reluctantly undertook his first assignment for Section 31, to assess the Romulan leadership during a conference. After trying to stop Sloan from assassinating a Romulan official, he realized that he had been set up to cause the downfall of Senator Cretak.

While analyzing a sample of Odo's "goo", Bashir discovered that Odo had been infected by the disease that was killing the Founders. He eventually realized that the disease had actually been manufactured by Section 31. With O'Brien, Bashir decided to get the cure from them ("When It Rains..."), and planned to lure a Section 31 agent to DS9 by claiming to have found the cure ("Tacking Into the Wind"). The plan finally worked in "Extreme Measures", when Sloan showed up on DS9. Bashir captured him, planning to use an illegal Romulan memory scanner to probe Sloan's mind. Sloan committed suicide, forcing Bashir and O'Brien to enter Sloan's mind themselves to search for the cure, which they eventually found.

During this time, Julian was slowly realizing he had deeper feelings for Ezri Dax, and in "The Dogs of War", they finally got together romantically. After spending the night with Ezri, Bashir was present on the Defiant during the final assault on the Dominion. He said his goodbyes to Garak on Cardassia Prime; and later, to O'Brien as the latter left for Earth. Bashir was one of only five regular characters remaining on the station at the end of the series ("What You Leave Behind").

Other facts: Bashir may have had the potential for engramatic dissociation (a theory put forward by Sloan in "Inquisition"; given credence by the events of "The Passenger"). His most prized possession was his childhood teddy bear, Kukalaka. His blood type was B-negative. He had total recall and the ability to control his own vital signs, a legacy of his genetic enhancements. The genetic enhancements were not revealed to the audience until "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" (5th season).

Alexander Siddig

Alexander Siddig played Dr. Julian Bashir, a graduate of Starfleet Medical and a brilliant specialist in multi-species medicine. He graduated second in his class and could have gone anywhere, but due to his naivete and his zealous expectations of adventure, he chose the remote space station Deep Space Nine. "Julian is a humanist, and a bit of a philosopher," according to Siddig. "He's confident and incredibly enthusiastic about medicine. Although, along with that level of confidence, there is a certain youthful arrogance as well."

Born in Sudan and raised in England, Siddig was a student of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), and appeared as the lead in such productions as "Hamlet" and "Arthur." Upon completion of the three year program at LAMDA, he joined the Manchester Library Theater in London, where he appeared in productions of "Brother Eichemann" and "Sinbad the Sailor."

Still in London, Siddig then went on to try his hand at directing, and made his directorial debut at the Arts Threshold Theater with productions of "Lotus and the Rats" and "Julius Caesar." During this period he was called back to acting, only this time on television. In 1991, Siddig made his TV debut in the independent British television production of "The Big Battalions," a three-part drama. He also appeared in "A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia" which aired on PBS.

In 2000, Siddig appeared in the action-adventure feature film "Vertical Limit."

Alexander Siddig bio from StarTrek.com