Review by An Honest Fangirl
You'd really think that Garak would know better than to say something like that. Of course something almost immediately goes horribly wrong.
Episodes like this are always a ton of fun, not only for the audience but also for the actors. You can always tell when they're enjoying themselves playing someone so completely different from their normal character. I love that Sisko got to be the grandiose, mustache-twirling villain and that Kira got to be the femme fatale with the awful Russian accent. They were definitely two of the more enjoyable characters for me.
This was certainly a very fun setting for this kind of episode as well. Even though I've only seen one James Bond film, there's just something so classic and elegant about a traditional spy movie that you can't help but get swept away in it all.
Overall, this was an interesting take on the "holosuite malfunctions" trope. The problem didn't come from inside the suite, but from outside. It gave Bashir a compelling reason to stay in the suite and continue to play out his fantasy. If he left, people he cared about could potentially die. If he made one wrong move, people he cared about could potentially die. And of course, he had Garak in his ear prompting him to be cold and calculating, to accept the fact that he couldn't save everyone.
That is what really drove the true tension of this episode. Despite being very good friends, Bashir and Garak are two very different people with two very different world views that stem from their backgrounds and past experiences. Of course, optimism and moral action ultimately wins out in the end, but there were interesting moments where it seemed like Garak's insistence that a proper spy must be willing to sacrifice, to let people die in order to succeed made some sort of impression on Bashir.
Was he actually trying to kill Garak when he tried to leave the holosuite? I don't know. I don't think so. I think that Bashir trusted his aim enough to only scare Garak. But even if that was his intention, it's still fairly ruthless. It's generally not a moral action to deliberately wound someone in order to coerce them into doing what you want them to do.
Regardless, I really enjoyed this episode. It was a lot of fun, the costumes were great, and it focused on two of my favorite characters. What more could a fangirl ask for?
Random Thoughts
There are so many Bond references in this episode, which apparently got them into a little bit of trouble with MGM, who held the Bond rights at the time.
Today I learned that Bajoran surnames come before their given names when writing/speaking them.
I did enjoy Bashir stalling at the end by saying exactly what Garak had told him earlier.
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An Honest Fangirl loves superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, and really bad horror movies.
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