WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 9, "Fissure Quest"

25 years later, Star Trek: Enterprise's T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), a pre-Jadzia Curzon Dax (Fred Tatasciore), and a bevy of Ensigns Harry Kim (Garrett Wang).

The USS Anaximander's medical officers are based on potential realities from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This holographic Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) is ostensibly based on the Long-term Medical Hologram that engineer Lewis Zimmerman (Robert Picardo) started building in DS9 season 5, episode 16, "Dr. Bashir, I Presume". Holo-Bashir shares medical duties with an alternate reality version of Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson). Prime Garak was only joking when he asked Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) to sponsor Garak's Starfleet application in DS9 season 5, episode 14, "In Purgatory's Shadow", but this Garak probably wasn't.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Makes Bashir & Garak A Couple 25 Years After DS9

Everything Is Possible In Star Trek's Multiverse

Bashir and Garak kissing LowerDecks

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 9, "Fissure Quest", makes Dr. Julian Bashir and Elim Garak a couple, 25 years after Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended. Captain Boimler's voice-over introduces Starfleet Garak and Holo-Bashir as a married couple, and the delightful (if somewhat antagonistic) banter that ensues between the long-term pair is a perfectly believable extension of their DS9 characterizations. Both Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson return to reprise their DS9 roles, and bring with them the same chemistry that inspired speculation that Bashir and Garak would become a couple in the first place.

T'Pol from Star Trek Enterprise, Jack Quaid Boimler in live-action (center), Harry Kim from Star Trek Voyager
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The twist is that neither half of Star Trek: Lower Decks' animated version of Garashir are the Garak or Bashir that we grew to love in Star Trek's Prime Universe. Instead, they're alternate versions of Julian Bashir and Elim Garak who hail from different realities, trying to make their relationship work despite their different origins. To fulfill fans' desire to see this long-awaited ship set sail, Star Trek: Lower Decks smartly uses Star Trek's vast multiverse to explore one way Garak and Bashir's relationship could play out, without changing what happened in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Why DS9 Teased But Failed To Make Bashir & Garak A Couple

Even Garak? Dear Reader, Especially Garak

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine teased Bashir and Garak as a couple, but never actually sealed the deal on pairing DS9's Chief Medical Officer and resident Cardassian spy/tailor romantically, because Star Trek producer Rick Berman vetoed Garak being queer. Berman feared that 1990s audiences would be turned off by actual gay representation in Star Trek. Instead of dating Julian, Garak was awkwardly written into a heterosexual relationship with Tora Ziyal (Melanie Smith), Gul Dukat's (Marc Alaimo) half-Bajoran daughter. Robinson plays Garak's feelings towards Ziyal as more friendly than romantic, and even that was just to get under Dukat's skin.

Star Trek's first same-sex kiss, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4, episode 5, "Reed", was a one-time event that pointedly commented on 1990s-era homophobia. Negative response to Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) and Lenara Kahn's (Susann Thompson) relationship proved exactly why the episode was even needed in the first place.

Making Garak and Bashir a canon couple has been a long time coming. Robinson intentionally played Garak as sexually interested in Bashir since Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's first season. From there, the pair enjoyed flirtatious lunches and holosuite adventures together. They even unraveled the occasional Cardassian conspiracy, though any reciprocated interest between Julian and Garak had to remain implied in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That's not so in the streaming era whenStar Trek are normalized, so Star Trek: Lower Decks can finally give Garak and Bashir the romantic ending they always deserved.