Boldly Parking.

[hannah]

Midway through the second season of Deep Space Nine, I’m very happy I’ve finally gotten around to watching in earnest - I’d seen a few episodes here and there over the years, and coming across them as I go is a particular delight.

It hits no end of my buttons - found families, happily married couples, lots of aliens, long-running emotional development, examination followed by deconstruction and reconstruction of Star Trek itself. It’s like someone put Star Trek into a centrifuge, took out everything I didn’t like about the franchise, refined everything I loved, and served it to me with sprinkles on top. Less than two seasons in, it’s the Trek of my heart.

That said, I’m really looking forward to finishing it, so I can write something on how Bashir is incredibly easy to read as being on the autism spectrum and most of the given evidence supports that theory. Because it really, really does.

Comments

[quarter_to_five]

Yay DS9!

Bashir: Keep watching :-) Seriously, that's actually a really cool catch from season 2.

[hannah]

I spent more than five minutes on TV Tropes, so I was spoiled for a later detail - and I'd still read him as autistic spectrum even without it, given the way he misses social cues by just enough to show he's aware of them, trying very hard, but falls just short of grasping them completely.

[quarter_to_five]

Yes, it fits him nicely when they add that, though apparently they didn't plan it ahead - they just always had him be somewhat stilted and socially awkward. I find it vaguely interesting to wonder if he's awkward as a consequence of what they did to him, despite it, or if it's just an organic function of being defensive and secretive all his life.

[hannah]

From a Doylist perspective, it's character development and Siggig's deliberate choices as the show went on. From a Watsonian one, it's probably the consequence of being defensive and secretive, as you suggested. Personally, I'm going with the idea that it's part of his natural character, since what happened to him did manage to fix a lot of brain problems but some personality aspects are just an inherent of him as a person.

I'll keep watching and amend my theories as I gather more information. Yay, Bashir!

[quarter_to_five]

He could be someone who started out with low intelligence, and then they went in and raised his ability to do maths or surgery or whatever, but either couldn't or didn't bother to do anything with his social/emotional intelligence - because that was just not important? Because it's ethically a step too far? Or not - there's always something there to get your teeth into with characterization on DS9. Go DS9.

[hannah]

I was thinking more along the lines of correcting a lot of imbalances and misapplied connections which do occur in autistic brains - it's rightly called a disorder for a lot of reasons - and also improving his physical coordination and talents, but not doing much for who he is as a person in terms of character. Because that part isn't something which can really be fixed or corrected the way communication between brain hemispheres can be.