An in-depth look at the star crossed lovers we didn’t get to see in DS9 including interviews with the cast and crew about why it didn’t happen. Includes some details about the origin of slash fic
Robinson 110% played Garak as being sexually interested in Bashir in his first appearance. And in the (non-canon but very very good) novel A Stitch in Time that Robinson himself authored, he establishes Garak as having had relationships with men and women.
As the show developed the producers/writers/studio backed away from that idea (which, to be fair, I think is a spin that the actor himself put on the script, rather than being there on the page itself), hence giving Garak a girlfriend.
Personally I never read into any of their scenes together that Bashir was interested in Garak as anything more than a friend, but if the show had been more progressive in that respect I suppose it might have evolved into an explicitly romantic relationship. Early 1990s vs early 2020s I suppose.
DS9 was pretty progressive in that the idea of “being in the closet” wrt ones sexual orientation was never a consideration. In “Rejoined” for instance, nobody has an issue with Dax loving another woman - the taboo was about reassociation. And “Rules of Acquisition” people didn’t judge Pel (who people thought was a man at the time) for falling in love with Quark - the taboo was about Ferengi females wearing clothes etc. (Not sure if that Matt Baume video mentions this - it’s been a while since I saw it.)
As mentioned, I think there’s some evidence of Garak being queer, but not a lot of Bashir. That’s where fan theorising comes in. But even in fanon I don’t think people thought they were “in the closet”, ie hiding their sexuality. It was more a case of “what we see on-screen is not the whole story, the fun stuff happens when the cameras are off them”.
This is similar to how a lot of fans saw Seven as queer (even though I personally don’t think there was a lot, if any, evidence of it on screen). But there was sufficient momentum for this fan theory that the writers made Seven canonically queer in Picard.
I never took it as them being “in the closet”, just that they never overtly showed that side of their sexualities outside of flirting.
It is a gay relationship, even if it is just flirting, but no one is denying that both characters also had meaningful straight romantic relationships.
@startrekexplained @BobKerman3999 Doesn’t seem that hard to me. It’s entirely possible an entire room of writers would have considered existing apolitical and wanted to cast a gay couple as not even being remarkable, even back then.
I was also in the closet back then. Mostly because there’s people out there who want to make existing political, and want me dead now because of it.
I’ve always liked the pair of friends but this answers my question of why they were even a pair to begin with. Always thought it was weird Bashir just let this incredibly suspicious tailor hover around him. I chalked it up to the writers wanting to make an unlikely friendship situation.
Andrew Robinson wrote Garak as bisexual in A Stitch in Time so it’s an idea he’s had since shortly after DS9 ended at the very least.
I think Garak was canonically pan/omni or at least the actor playing him played him that way.
The video said that the queer coding went down as the seasons went on to downplay the flirting.
Is it ever stated that Kirk is “heterosexual” in the show? I mean, i’m trying hard to find a “heterosexual” explanation to Kirk’s reaction here https://youtu.be/Fw11Ak0mxyI
I mean characters aren’t heterosexual by default. Sexuality is a matter of interpretation when it comes to fictional characters, and it is definitely possible to interpret Garak as pan or bi.
I do remember reading that they did want to have those two characters being gay but the studio really pushed back on that. This is why it took so long for ST to have characters that are LGBT.
Didn’t Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson do a screen-read during quarantine of their respective characters as an old, married couple? Or was that something I just imagined? Obviously, not canon, but it’s something that the fan base has certainly gotten behind!
I’ve found the playlist – it’s called Alone Together. I’ve just started on the first episode and it’s pretty cool. It’s a fanfiction radio play!
Interesting background knowledge that they were supposed to be gay, puts a lot of things into new perspective.
That being said, I don’t really like the idea, I enjoyed them as these unlikely but good platonic friends. I don’t think adding a romantic aspect to them would have improved their characters. For example Garak has many traits that could be interpreted as stereotypically gay, especially within the time period the show was produced. Him being a flamboyant and well spoken heterosexual works better to subvert cliches. Come to think of it, Bashir also isn’t the manliest of men. Which i also find more interesting for a heterosexual character.
So much for fully automated luxury gay space communism.
