alexander siddig star trek picard

Alexander Siddig

IMDbPro Starmeter Top 5,000 166

• Contact info
• 2 nominations

• Doctor Julian Bashir
• Captain Julian Bashir
• Julius Eaton
• Rao Vantika
• 1993–1999 • 173 eps

• Kareem Nazir

• Dr. Ebling Mis
• Post-production

• Cardinal Russo

• Khader Khan
• 12 episodes

• Advocate Xylas

• Senator Avi Singh (voice)

• Dr. Julian Bashir

• Ahmed Suidani

• Issouf Al Moctar

• Ra's al Ghul
• 24 episodes

• Aristotle Onassis

• Director (as Siddig El Fadil)
• performer: "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow"
• performer: "Jerusalem" (uncredited)
• In-development projects at IMDbPro

Personal details

• Official Fan Site
• Siddig El Fadil
• 5′ 11¾″ (1.82 m)
• November 21 , 1965
• Nana Visitor June 14, 1997 - April 2001 (divorced, 1 child)
• El Tahir El Mahdi
• Relatives Malcolm McDowell (Aunt or Uncle)
• Other works Appeared as Dr. Scott in the Brian Clark play "Who's Life is It Anyway?" at the Comedy Theatre, London, England.
• 6 Interviews
• 3 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia One of his uncles (his father's brother) was the Sudanese prime minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi . Another one (his mother's brother) is Malcolm McDowell .
• Quotes I aspire to be a director...I think it stems from wanting to be a conductor, another desire of mine from my childhood, though I was not interested in music, not at all. I just wanted to control that orchestra.
• Trademark His beard
• How old is Alexander Siddig?
• When was Alexander Siddig born?
• Where was Alexander Siddig born?

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‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ Paved the Way for ‘Picard,’ and Shaped Our Era of Serialized Storytelling

Eric deggans.

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It was a key scene in the second episode of what has become a triumphant final season for Paramount+’s science fiction series “Star Trek: Picard.”

A corrupt crime boss named Sneed — from a hyper-capitalistic alien race called the Ferengi — has a cat-and-mouse-style conversation with a woman pretending to be an addict who is actually an undercover intelligence operative. Played by Aaron Stanford, Sneed is streetwise, confident and relishes the game he’s playing, dumping the decapitated head of a former associate on a table to prove the operative is lying.

And when Armin Shimerman, one of the first actors to play a Ferengi on TV, saw Stanford’s work as Sneed, he admits it brought one feeling above all.

Related Stories ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Hasn’t Even Aired Its Third Season, but It’s Getting a Fourth ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Kicks Off Final Season with David Cronenberg Posing a Moral Dilemma — Watch Clip

“I turned to my wife and said, ‘That’s the way I should have played the Ferengi from the first,’” said Shimerman, who played one of the aliens in their first TV appearance, a 1987 episode of “ Star Trek : The Next Generation” called “The Last Outpost.” Later, Shimerman would become the actor who helped define the race onscreen, playing Ferengi nightclub owner Quark on the syndicated series “ Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ” for the show’s seven-season run.

“[Sneed] was both cunning and oily and believable and less cartoonish … it would have been an entirely different species if I had played a Ferengi as well as that actor played it,” said Shimerman, who developed a reputation on the “DS9” set for resisting attempts to turn the greedy, trollish-looking characters into one-dimensional comic relief. “If I had his approach from day one, the world would be very different.”

Picard’s third and final season has now wrapped, sparking headlines and a deluge of fan affection for its kinetic, updated storyline reuniting the principal cast from “The Next Generation.” But the show’s characters and storylines have emerged as an extended love letter to three Trek TV series which aired from the late 1980s to the early 2000s: “Next Generation ,” “ Deep Space Nine,” and “Voyager.”

As the series which arguably got the most criticism for its pointed and repeated departures from traditional “Trek,” “Deep Space Nine” may also be the most vindicated by the repeated references in “Picard” – prompting a re-examination of the series as it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

“There are uncomfortable conversations that must be had. I think we’re at that point in the world, and that’s where ‘DS9’ was. This is multiculturalism at its realest.” —Nana Visitor

“We recognized the problems with authority, we recognized the problems of a bunch of different races living together…things that were automatically accepted in the previous “Star Trek” shows were questioned on our show,” said Shimerman of the series, set in a bustling space station. “I think we made ‘Star Trek’ that much more real. That’s a huge legacy that we gave to the franchise.”

Nana Visitor, who played the space station’s second in command, Kira Nerys, says “Deep Space Nine” is a “Trek” series that highlights the difficulty in bringing diverse cultures together equally — a struggle reflecting where the world is right now.

“There’s a space missing between everybody getting along and everybody being [at war, like] Klingons,” she said. “It’s not going to be pretty. There are uncomfortable conversations that must be had. I think we’re at that point in the world, and that’s where ‘DS9’ was. This is multiculturalism at its realest.”

The show also featured the first Black starring character in “Trek,” casting Avery Brooks as Commander (and later, Captain) Benjamin Sisko. But Cirroc Lofton, who played Sisko’s son Jake, still doesn’t think Brooks gets enough credit for the pioneering role he played on “Deep Space Nine” as a capable Black leader and caring single father.

“I feel like there’s a slightly vague avoidance to address Sisko and really what his legacy is in the world of ‘Trek,’” said Lofton. “In this latest iteration, there’s a lot of respect given to Picard and his adventures. … I just want that same kind of energy when you talk about Sisko.”

Lofton suspects one reason the show hasn’t embraced Sisko’s legend so readily is that he was played by a Black man with a history of speaking on social justice issues in ways that make Hollywood bigwigs uncomfortable.

“‘Star Trek’ has this duality,” he said. “It represents the ideals of what we want to strive for … where we work together for the common good and we explore the universe to spread knowledge and to help people. But the show is produced in Hollywood, which still has to deal with its own racism and bigotry and sexism.”

Building a different kind of “Trek” series

Debuting in 1993 amid the success of “The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine” was pointedly different – set on a space station instead of a starship, featuring characters who mistrusted and sometimes openly disliked each other, in an area of space which eventually would be embroiled in an interstellar war.

“Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991 years before the debut of “DS9,” had a strong vision for the franchise, dating back to the debut of its first iteration, now called “The Original Series,” back in 1966. Roddenberry often insisted storylines about war and conflict among humans could not be part of a franchise set in humanity’s idealized future where Earth was part of a United Federation of Planets.

The stories of “Deep Space Nine” were also occasionally serialized — written to unfold over several episodes, instead of wrapping up in one — which was antithetical to how syndicated TV worked back then.

For many reasons, some working on the show felt overshadowed and underappreciated — laboring on the only “Trek” series which almost always had to compete with another “Trek” series also simultaneously airing new episodes: first “Next Generation” and then “Voyager.”

But the nods in “Picard” to “Deep Space Nine” — featuring a race created for the show, the Changelings, as a major villain, motivated by events during a war which took place during the “DS9” run — has shown the value of storytelling the earlier series pioneered decades ago.

“The thing that does my heart good is when someone comes and tells me, ‘I’m not really a fan of ‘Trek’ that much, but I love Deep Space Nine.’” —Ira Steven Behr

Looking back 30 years, “Deep Space Nine” was making a style of television which would become the standard for streaming TV — an extraordinary validation for an often overlooked series that its former showrunner sometimes wished wasn’t even identified as a “Trek” show at all.

“The thing that does my heart good is when someone comes and tells me, ‘I’m not really a fan of “Trek” that much, but I love “Deep Space Nine,”‘” said Ira Steven Behr, a talented iconoclast who served as showrunner on the series over four years and helped assemble a 2018 documentary on the program, “What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

“By season four, I kept saying, ‘Can we take “Star Trek” off the name of the show?,’” Behr added. “Can we just free ourselves from the bonds of what “Star Trek” is and just be “Deep Space Nine”?'”

Rick Berman remembers “Deep Space Nine” beginning with a meeting, where the head of Paramount Studios, legendary TV executive Brandon Tartikoff, wanted to discuss making another Trek program, drafting off the success of the “Next Generation” series.

Berman, a former Paramount TV executive who had helped “Star Trek” creator Gene Rodenberry develop “The Next Generation,” was now its executive producer and ready to please his boss. Tartikoff, Berman remembered, liked to describe new projects by referencing a combination of old ones.

“What I got [from Tartikoff] was, ‘How about ‘The Rifleman’ in space … a father and son story?,’” said Berman, referencing a 1950s-era TV series starring Chuck Connors as a rancher raising a young son in the Old West. “My response was, ‘Yes, sir.’”

Still, Berman felt a responsibility to uphold Roddenberry’s vision, which had a lot of rules for what was and wasn’t true “Trek.” There couldn’t be conflict among members of Starfleet. The greed for money had been overcome. Humans were united beyond war and petty prejudices. In other words, all the stuff TV writers often use to spark storylines and drama were pretty much off limits.

But Berman thought they had found a loophole. What if the conflict came from characters who weren’t human?

Setting “Deep Space Nine” on a space station was a good contrast with the first two “Star Trek series,” set on spacefaring starships named Enterprise. In “DS9,” which Berman co-created with executive producer Michael Piller, Starfleet would be helping a race called the Bajorans by jointly running the space station after they liberated themselves from brutal oppression by the imperialistic Cardassians. A Ferengi named Quark would run a bar and casino on the premises which could be a watering hole for a wide diversity of alien species.

At the center of it all was stage and TV veteran Avery Brooks, who would complicate the story of “Deep Space Nine” in many different ways.

Casting Benjamin Sisko

Behr remembers wondering if Brooks — a tall, stentorian actor with an almost palpable authoritative presence — was right for the role before they even started filming.

“When I saw Avery’s audition, I thought, ‘What the hell are these guys doing?,’” the producer said. “As it was written originally, he’s supposed to be this young commander or this younger commander who needs some guidance. … They picked Avery because … he had this gravitas that said ‘Star Trek Captain.’ Avery Brooks is already a goddamn captain.”

But Berman disputes Behr’s recollection, noting that Sisko had to be old enough to have a tween-age son. Berman said he originally wanted to cast British-raised actor Alexander Siddig as Sisko, but upon learning that Siddig was then 27 years old, he instead cast him as the space station’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Julian Bashir.

“Deep Space Nine” bucked “Trek” tradition in many ways. In the show’s first episode, Sisko is shown hating Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard, because Picard led an attack on Federation starships when he was controlled by cybernetic villains, the Borg. The attack led to the death of Sisko’s wife — this anger at Picard over his actions as a member of the Borg was revisited/called back on “Picard” by an emotional scene with Todd Stashwick’s Capt. Liam Shaw, who served on a ship which was also destroyed by the Borg, with Picard commanding the villains.

Nana Visitor’s Kira Nerys was a strong-willed, ex-guerilla fighter who didn’t initially trust Sisko much, either. Visitor, who is writing a book on the women of “Star Trek,” said fans would come up to her at conventions and ask why her character was so strident — she said they called Kira a bitch — or wonder if she was a lesbian.

“The rule of the ‘90s in Hollywood (for women) was … are you fuckable?,” added Visitor, who said she came to “Deep Space Nine” after a string of unfulfilling roles as someone’s girlfriend, wife, or mother. “So when I read the [Kira] role, I thought it was a man’s role because of her first scene [confronting] Sisko … Kira was like a door that opened for me and I ran through as fast as I could. I had people say to me, ‘You’re trying to play a man’s strength as Kira.’ And I was like, ‘No. that’s actually me. That’s the woman I am.’”

Syndicated TV series like “Deep Space Nine” were shown by different TV stations in different cities across the country at different times; episodes could be delayed or pre-empted by sporting events or news coverage in one market, but not another. So Paramount strenuously resisted “Deep Space Nine” storylines which played out over multiple episodes, fearing audiences would get confused.

Behr didn’t care. “I was told by executives that I was killing the show … [but] it was a show that was meant to be serialized, whether Mike and Rick realized that when they created it,” added the producer, who often felt hamstrung by the rules imposed by “Trek” orthodoxy. “At the time, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, they really expect us to be writing these shows with crayons.’ I mean, every show should have questions about morality and the problems of command. It just told me how much of a comfort food [‘Trek’] is.”

Rene Echevarria was a writer on “The Next Generation” before he would move over to work as a producer and writer on “Deep Space Nine.” And as “DS9” was developed, he remembered “TNG” writers were envious of the freedom writers for the new series would have.

“We were convinced we were just going to be eclipsed,” he added. “The [‘DS9’] characters were going to have friction, they’re going to have warts. We were, as writers, very jealous and very sure that we were going to get forgotten in the dust of this new show.”

And there was the issue of Brooks’ look. As the show went on, the actor asked to change his look from clean shaven to wearing a goatee and later, with a shaved head. But Berman said Paramount executives feared that look was too close to a character called Hawk that Brooks had played years earlier in an ABC series, “Spenser: For Hire.” Also, they worried it was “too street” or “too urban.”

Berman insists those phrases weren’t euphemisms for “too Black.” “It all came from the studio, and it was a question of making him look too much like Hawk,” he added.

But Lofton felt a little differently. “Certain elements of white America are threatened by certain images of Black people, certain looks,” he said. “But you can’t take away the man inside the skin. It doesn’t matter what you do to his face or how you cut his hair; he’s going to portray these characters in a certain light, that is positive and inspiring for future generations.”

“I started to learn those things as I got older…How (Benjamin Sisko) was counter to the stereotype of absent Black men in the household” —Cirroc Lofton

Lofton said he was about age 14 when “Deep Space Nine” started production, so he was largely unaware of many issues the adult actors faced. He also didn’t watch the show much while he was acting in it and didn’t talk much with Brooks about the relationship between their characters.

Instead, Lofton said, Brooks led by example. “I started to learn those things as I got older … how few Black role models there were on television and how few Black fathers were raising children on television. … How [Benjamin Sisko] was counter to the stereotype of absent Black men in the household,” he said. “Once I learned that, I started to have more appreciation for the work we did representing.”

Echevarria recalled that Brooks, who could be tough to read and had a no-nonsense approach on the set, seemed to loosen up when he adopted the goatee in season three, shaved his head for season four and began directing episodes.

“It was transformative,” Echevarria said of Brooks’ revamped look. “We all thought, ‘He looks badass.’ And it seemed like he felt it. He felt the way he wanted to feel.”

“It was a long and winding road to get the character to what Avery deserved, basically,” added Behr. “Keeping your Number One [actor] on the call sheet comfortable and happy in his own skin … that should be your number one concern.”

Shimerman also waged a silent battle to upgrade his character, Quark. Some critics have lambasted the Ferengi as a collection of antisemitic tropes — a group of money-obsessed, evil trolls. But the actor insists that — especially because he, Behr, and Berman are of Jewish heritage — that the Ferengi were never antisemitic, but were often cartoonish and not well fleshed out.

“When Rick told me that I was cast on the show, my sole agenda was to take a one-dimensional character and turn it into a three-dimensional character,” said Shimerman, a longtime “Trek” fan before joining the shows who believes he was the first actor cast on “Deep Space Nine.”

“I wanted to erase out of people’s minds what I had done on that first encounter with the Ferengi [on ‘The Next Generation’], because I was so embarrassed by it,” added the actor, who resisted portraying scenes which might make the character look too simple. “I wanted to take the character with the least amount of potential and make him the character with the most amount of potential … that became my mantra for Quark.”

Playing the character could be tough. Just applying the oversize forehead, ears, nose, and other makeup required to adopt the Ferengi’s look took about two hours to assemble and an hour to take off, Shimerman said, for shooting schedules which could involve 16-hour days.

Behr said conflicts with various actors over the direction of their characters and tensions on set connect to his biggest regret: That he didn’t visit the set enough to talk with the actors and communicate with them about its creative direction. (Behr’s efforts in this direction likely weren’t helped by what Visitor and Berman called an unwritten rule back then that the “Trek” shows’ writers were not supposed to speak with the actors.)

“My communication with the actors was not up to snuff,” Behr said. “I just wanted to believe, they see the material, they see how much we’re using them, we’re giving them good stuff, that’s enough. And it’s really not enough. I know the actors were constantly being confused that things were happening that they weren’t expecting and no one’s really explaining it to them.”

The initial reception was rough

TV critics may have loved the way “Deep Space Nine” challenged the typical “Trek” formula — TV Guide called it “the best acted, written, produced, and altogether finest” series in the franchise. But some fans criticized the show as too stationary, too riddled with conflict, too dark.

“I think some of the real purists [believe] ‘Star Trek’ is an idea that should focus on the positive benefits of the future … that gives us hope for what’s to come,” Berman said. “With ‘Deep Space Nine’ that fell back a little bit, because it didn’t have that same positive, uplifting attitude. … It didn’t end with somebody saying ‘make it so’ at the end of every episode.”

“Every new show is ruining ‘Star Trek’ [to some fans],” Visitor added. “And we certainly got that feedback. And we were not well received in many areas. And I remember Armin telling me, ‘In 20 years, they’ll get what we’re doing.’”

Adding to the impact, Berman and Piller began working on another series, “Star Trek: Voyager,” just a couple of years into the “Deep Space Nine” run centered on a starship marooned on the far side of the galaxy. So, instead of “Next Generation” ending so “DS9” could step into the full spotlight, Paramount executives began planning to have another starship-based “Trek” series ready for the launch of the UPN network in 1995.

“I would say I felt abandoned … I would imagine the others felt abandoned as well,” Shimerman said. “We felt that we were the heirs to the original ‘Next Generation’ show. And all of a sudden we were no longer important, because here was a new show that needed to be coaxed into being because it was going to be a flagship of this new network.”

But there was at least one person connected to “Deep Space Nine” who saw the focus shifting to “Voyager” as a blessing.

Behr recalls Piller stopping by his office to deliver what he saw as terrible news. After some pacing, Piller told him that “Voyager” was going to be the new flagship “Trek” show and “Deep Space Nine” would never get that honor.

As Piller left, Behr realized top executives at Paramount and the “Trek” shows would be too focused on “Voyager” to stop them from enacting storylines and changes that would stretch the limits of the franchise — from creating an authoritarian empire controlled by the Changelings known as The Dominion, to pitting them against the Federation in a war that would stretch over many episodes and inspire the changeling villains on “Picard.”

“Let them swarm all over ‘Voyager’ … [and] let us go our quiet way and just be our subversive little selves and push the franchise, like a fucking boulder, up a mountain,” Behr said. “‘Voyager’ was the best thing that ever happened to ‘Deep Space Nine.’”

“Deep Space Nine” ended its run after seven seasons; Berman said Paramount had another unwritten rule that all “Trek” TV series would end after seven seasons, as “Next Generation” and “Voyager” also did (“Star Trek: Enterprise,” the show which debuted after “Voyager,” only lasted four seasons.)

And now, as “Picard” has woven new drama from characters and storylines introduced in “Deep Space Nine,” one of the most maligned “Trek” series is earning renewed consideration for its groundbreaking qualities on its 30th anniversary. Just last year, auteur producer Bryan Fuller, who was the original showrunner of “Star Trek: Discovery” praised “Deep Space Nine” for creating room for LGBTQ representation .

“Years later, we are being shown that we were appreciated, when, for many years, we didn’t think we were being appreciated,” Shimerman said. “It’s an acknowledgement that there is a history here — a history that needs to be acknowledged and appreciated. It’s very flattering and I’m grateful.”

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Casts ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Vet James Callis As Picard’s [SPOILER]

Where to stream:.

• Star Trek: Picard

'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Renewed For Season 4 At Paramount+

Bill maher applauds william shatner for controversial 'star trek' interracial kiss, patrick stewart was asked to wear a wig at his 'star trek' audition — a wig that flew by itself from heathrow to lax, tom hardy "never said 'good morning'" or "good night" while filming 'star trek: nemesis,' says patrick stewart.

When  Battlestar Galactica veteran James Callis was spotted on the IMDb page for Paramount+’s  Star Trek: Picard a few months ago, we should have seen the twist of his character coming. The clues were all there, right in front of us, but it wasn’t until this week’s episode that the show revealed who he was playing. And in fact, James Callis is none other than Maurice Picard, Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) father.

Spoilers for  Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 7 “Monsters” past this point , but in the hour Picard (the younger) is trapped inside his own mind, living through two very different scenarios. The first is what seems to be a psychological evaluation on the  Enterprise , done by none other than James Callis’ character. Given this a cranky doctor, you might have been forgiven from initially thinking the character was a recast Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) from  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . But no, it’s a new character — though having Callis in the role is possibly a cheeky nod to the fact that the two sci-fi friendly actors have often been mistaken for each other.

Still, the whole psych evaluation is just a feint. The crux of the episode is a memory we’ve seen over and over again from Jean-Luc’s youth; his mother running and hiding, some sort of monster seemingly grabbing her in the catacombs under Chateau Picard. Though we don’t get to see the whole memory played out — that’s saved for a later episode — we do get to see what really happened. Picard’s mother Yvette (Madeline Wise) suffered from psychotic episodes, and in a period of fear she took her young son deep in the tunnels under their house. There, Picard got his foot stuck in some loose boards, which is where it’s revealed that Callis is actually Maurice, who saves him.

When Decider talked about the season with Stewart , he teased that this reevaluation of his family history was a key part of  Picard ‘s second season.

“Picard gradually comes to understand that his belief that his father was a bad guy and his mother was a victim was not exactly the truth, that the horrible thing that happened to his mother, she was responsible for,” Stewart explained. “And his father was in every possible way, trying to do things to help her and failing to do them. And Picard has hidden himself from that knowledge for maybe 50 years. But now he’s facing it and as such, it would appear that he is now able to make commitments of the kind he could not make when we first knew him and Next Generation .”

Though we haven’t seen Picard come out the other end of this yet — there still are several more episodes to go before the season wraps up — adding Callis as Maurice Picard, a role previously played by Clive Church, gives the flashbacks a sense of gravitas and history. And in fact,  Picard EP cast Callis is a similarly surprising family role back on one of his previous jobs, the excellent  12 Monkeys . There, Callis played the grown-up version of main characters’ Cassandra and James Cole’s son, a key figure in the show’s mythology. On one show he was a surprise older than expected son, the next a surprise younger than expected father. What’s next for Callis: an uncle who is just the right age??

We’ll just have to keep watching  Picard to find out.

New episodes of  Star Trek: Picard stream Thursdays on Paramount+.

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Interview: Alexander Siddig On ‘Skylines’ & Dr. Bashir’s Life 20 Years After ‘Star Trek: DS9’

| December 15, 2020 | By: Anthony Pascale 44 comments so far

Since wrapping up seven seasons as Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Alexander Siddig has kept quite busy, appearing on the big screen and the small, including recent recurring roles on high-profile shows like Peaky Blinders and Game of Thrones . His latest project is Skylines , the third film in the sci-fi Skyline franchise. TrekMovie had some time with Siddig to talk about the new movie and his time with the Trek franchise.

Let’s start with your new movie. Skylines is dealing with a pandemic. I guess that is just a coincidence, but do you feel that there’s a resonance there?

It’s a total coincidence. There’s no way we would have foreseen back in March last year that this was going to happen. Oh, Crikey! Yes, I’m sure there’ll be some sort of resonance. Some people will probably think – because most don’t really understand the speed at which movies get made – that we’re reacting to the COVID crisis.

In recent years you’ve done a ton of contemporary dramas, period dramas, but also a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. Is it a function of you being drawn to genre or the genre being drawn to you?

I am drawn to the genre. I’m sort of indebted to Star Trek, and it’s shaped me, although I started by doing historical dramas, but that seven years on Deep Space Nine just turned me into a different person with a taste range that veers towards that stuff. So if I can get projects that really appeal to families – I don’t really like R-rated stuff. I’ll do R-rated art movies, but not R-rated sci-fi. And if it looks good fun, that is the key, isn’t it? If it just looks fun, I’ll do it.

Well, how would you describe Skylines ? For those who aren’t familiar with the franchise, would you describe it as a fun sci-fi movie?

It is definitely fun. It’s a romp. It’s like glam rock. For people who know music, the difference between Radiohead and Muse. This is Muse, definitely not the cerebral Radiohead. And it’s really hard to make this kind of film. In a weird way, it’s harder to make this sort of thing work than it is to do a Hollywood blockbuster with Marvel characters and things. Because it depends entirely on how well you execute it and what the performances are like. So it was a risky move, but I’m really glad I did it.

Your General Radford – I hope you don’t mind me saying – is a bit of the elder statesman of this movie, the guy in charge.

Yeah. He’s what you get when you hit 55. That’s what you start to play. [laughs]

Now, the star of the movie – Lindsey Morgan – said working with you was a “master class,” and would ask you for acting insight on set. You have worked with some other younger casts, like Gotham . Are you finding yourself at 55 in this mentoring role on set?

Yeah, I am, and I love it. Because you get to set a tone. And you can either be a grouchy, old, curmudgeon guy in the corner telling people to “go away!” or you can be you have fun with everybody.  My brother’s 16 years younger than me, and my son is 24. So, I have plenty of frames of reference of people who I am close to and hang out a lot with when I can. I love hanging out with young people. It’s just about being nice, isn’t it? Everybody responds to that stuff. And that’s kind of what I do. A master class? I don’t know. [laughs]

Alexander Siddig in Skylines

The situation was a little reverse back in the early 90s. You were in your 20s when you started out on DS9, and you were also working with some more experienced actors like Rene [Auberjonois], Armin [Shimerman], Avery [Brooks], and Andy [Robinson]. Were any of them doing master classes?

Everyone was, yeah. They did exactly the same thing. Apart from anything else, they were like respectful and decent human beings and fun to be around. And that is, it’s the most relaxing thing. And I’ve worked on sets with huge stars that are not the nicest people. But if the mood on set is frigid, it is unpleasant, and people don’t look forward to coming into work.

[On DS9] they been around the block and done a ton of movies. Rene and Armin and Avery had been on all kinds of stuff. And Nana too was in a bunch of different things. And Andy, of course. So I was among really, really safe hands. I was in safe hands on Star Trek. And anytime I started to lose it, there’d be someone there very carefully, just gently going, “Hey, you’re cool, everything’s fine, everything will work out. This is not an important thing you’re losing your mind over. Let’s get back to work.”

And I try and do that now for the youngsters that I come from lucky enough to come into contact with. I mean Lindsey! For people who are interested in watching the minutiae of performance should check her out. She does something really cool, and it’s something that Angelina Jolie couldn’t pull off when she tried to be an action star with Tomb Raider . It’s the steely bitch and the charming gentle, gorgeous person. And she manages to meld those two together. Her character is so believable.

Recently when I spoke to Andy he revealed something a bit surprising. He said playing those attraction undertones between Garak and Bashir was a choice he made entirely on his own on his first day on set.  And no writer or producer over the years ever talked to him about it. Did you notice it off the bat, and is that something you guys ever discussed or worked with him to develop?

I completely noticed it! [laughs] I was sitting there in the Replimat in the scene and he came hovering around me all predatorial. It was a bit like Kim Cattrall from Sex in the City . I was like, ‘My gaydar isn’t very good, but this is pretty on it.’ [laughs] And that kind of set the tone for relationships, which was fantastic. Oh my goodness. That really had never been explored, it certainly had never been explored by me. We had to careful not to take it too far. Because the moment it was really noticeable, I think they would have stopped it. It was just so subtle, and Andy’s such a master of the subtle.

And no one said a word?

Not a single director, not a producer. No one. It wasn’t until just a couple of months ago, [DS9 showrunner] Ira [Steven Behr] came on my little social Zoom thing [ Sid City Social Club ] and said, “Yeah, implicitly there’s a homoerotic relationship.”

Didn’t he once say he regrets not making it more overt? Is that something you would have liked?

No. I wouldn’t have liked it at all. I like the implicit thing. I wouldn’t have had the stamina to keep a kind of explicit homoerotic relationship alive for seven years. I couldn’t even keep a heterosexual one going, you know?

Garak introduces himself to Dr. Bashir in “Past Prologue”

Well, they did throw so much stuff at your character over the years. What were some of your favorite parts of Bashir’s arc, and maybe least favorite?

My favorite one was definitely the one with Andy, with Garak. And I wished there was more of the Ezri Dax one, that really didn’t get time to get going but I thought it had a lot of interesting potential. Because we never really got a chance to actually fall in love. And we never really sort of enunciated that, said that. And I kind of have a great memory in the sense that I forget everything that I don’t really like.

What about the genetic enhancement thing?

The genetic enhancement thing I hated at the time. I really hated it at the time. I thought – and I was wrong I am sure – but I thought it was a cynical ploy to gin us up in the ratings. Because if they could make Bashir more like Data, then people would like to show more. Even though I loved Worf’s introduction, I felt at the time that was introduced it was a blatant attempt at commerciality, which it was. But we were all a bit offended by that because we didn’t feel we needed it. We felt pretty comfortable with whatever it was, nine or twelve million people watching every week, which now is an astronomical number. But back then was considered low rent.

And because it came on on the heels of that, I thought it was another move in that direction. I thought they were Data-fying Bashir, and I really didn’t like that. I couldn’t be farther from right, because in retrospect that didn’t happen at all. But maybe it would have happened if I hadn’t thrown my toys out of the pram. That’s the only time I ever objected to anything.

One of the more controversial storylines – at least among fans – was the whole Section 31 thing. But it allowed you to play in a grayer area which should be fun for an actor, right?

I loved that. Yeah, that was wonderful. Again, we didn’t have really have time to get up to full steam with that idea. But I understand Enterprise took it and ran with it. At least it had a future that’s now being sort of made real. But at the time, I really, I really enjoyed that. Because I thought Deep Space Nine dealt with some things really well. They dealt with the fragility of the Federation, which now seems ordinary and commonplace. Of course, a big institution, it’s got to be fragile. It’s got to have kinks.

But up until then, the Federation had been inviolable. The Federation could do no wrong. Which was not how the world worked, and not how America was looking at the time because, of course, America was making mistakes internationally on the state on the big stage and terrorism was rearing its ugly head.  And the Federation, which is always America, has problems. It has faulty intelligence, and the CIA doesn’t always work the way it should. And the politicians aren’t always as crisp and clean as they need to be. So Section 31 introduced that in a really bright, iridescent way. And I quite like that.

Have you been keeping up with the franchise? Do you know one of the new shows they are developing is a Michelle Yeoh-led Section 31 show?

That’s a great idea. No, I have no idea what’s going on. I found out Enterprise was going on a bit late. And then I heard – to my staggering disbelief – that Picard was out. Oh my goodness, there’s another one! It’s great.

Bashir introduced to Section 31 in “Inquisition”

With these news shows, including an animated one you might not know about, they have been bringing back some of the actors from your era. Do you feel that you are done with Bashir, or could you see reprising the role?

I absolutely could see reprising the role, if asked. It’s very precious to me in a weird way. It means a lot of unusual things to a lot of different people so I’ve kind of become very protective of the role. Particularly for vulnerable people who really found something in Bashir they really, really liked and could identify with. So I’ve got to be kind of careful about how that works out. But otherwise, yeah. I think I’m just young enough to go back to do something Star Trek again and be credible.

I don’t know how it would be. What is he? Is he a retired professor? Or is he the Section 31 nebulous leader? Who knows what Bashir ends up as. His need to abide by his Hippocratic Oath is a really interesting paradox for him going forward if he is indeed still in Section 31. And also, if he becomes command material and the fact that he’s a doctor at heart. Or maybe he’s just teaching kids at an Academy.

Here’s a complicated question. I know that during the show, you changed your name. Can you talk about the background of that? And did you ever want to explore Bashir’s cultural background more and make it closer to your own?

I quite like the fact that we didn’t talk about it. Because I love the fact that we talk about Avery and we talk about and that stuff historically, and the African-American history because clearly, it’s something you have to explore if your ship’s captain is now African-American for the first time in history. But Bashir was kind of the other side of the same race coin. And that was that society has evolved and indeed it can be shown to have evolved if they don’t need to talk about it anymore.

And so I think Deep Space Nine and the writing crew did a really good job of kind of straddling both sides of that fence by saying how evolved the Federation have become because they don’t need to mention it. And also going back historically and discussing some of the problems that happened back in the day, which Sisko did with his son, etc. So, I like that Bashir didn’t really talk about it. But if in the future if something happened that did discuss it, then I’d probably be open to that too. But I kind of like that Bashir was just a human being and that was good enough. That was pretty much all we needed to know about him.

Well human, and British.

He’s definitely British, I can’t get away from that.

He even sang British drinking songs.

Yeah. Exactly. I mean he really packed it on. And with Miles O’Brien! Hello?… He happened to choose the most colonial British song ever written. For an Irishman to do that was hilarious.

O’Brien and Bashir sing “Jerusalem” in “Explorers”

See Siddig in Skylines this weekend

Vertical Entertainment will release  Skylines in select theaters, drive-ins, and on-demand on December 18th.

Keep up with all the interviews at Trekovie.com .

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Great interview, thanks! The discussion about Bashir’s life after the series makes me long to see one or some of the DS9 characters appear in Picard or somewhere. We’ve seen references to Quark, Nog, Bajor, the Prophets, O’Brien, but not an actual person. Not mindless fan service but something plot worthy would be amazing.

I’m planning to watch DS9 on Netflix or Hulu soon. Do you have any advice for me? Give me a heads up.

Start at episode one, then keep going until you get to the end! It’s pretty easy. :)

By the way, DS9 is the best of the shows, hands down. The first season is a little weak, but that’s often the case. Stick with it–you’ll be blown away.

TNG first, then DS9.

I have to agree with Rios on this. It’s a bit of a slow burner but once it finds gets going, you’re in for a treat. Enjoy!

(Nice agreeing with Rios for once :-D)

I’m very agreeable once you get to know me. I’m like DS9–a slow burner until I get going.

While DS9 definitely has excellent characterization, I disagree that its the Best Trek Evah. It’s too much of a war story, and all the battles blend together in a blur — here a Chintoka, there a Chintoka, with a smattering of AR-447s and Betazeds thrown in for good measure. Add weak plot points like the lounge lizard Vic Fontaine, going to the well in the mirror universe too many times, and the endless parade of Wacky Ferengi Episodes (TM), and I think you have a strong case that TNG/Picard and ENT are better.

Nah. At 26 episodes a season, its batting average is excellent. Vic might not be everyone’s glass of champagne, but he is a conduit for some charming performances by Darren and important character growth for Odo and Nog, plus much needed levity during the harrows of the Dominion War (only two seasons, and I never had trouble following the story), which some of the Ferengi stories provide as well. Sometimes the latter get out of hand, but they do develop Ferengi society and culture very well. Quark, Nog and Rom make great strides from Emissary to What You Leave Behind.

Yeo. Vic leads to one of the show’s very best episodes–and Nog’s most affecting storyline.

Just about every character on the show has real and deliberate growth and development over 7 seasons. I adore TNG, but the same cannot be said for every character. Crusher and Geordi? The latter got a promotion, that’s it. Voyager took the edge off Chakotay and Paris pretty quickly and never found an arc for Tuvok outside of a begrudging friendship with Neelix. Enterprise came up short for Mayweather and Hoshi. And while I may not like many of the actors or characters or how limited the scope of character focus is, Discovery has developed all its major characters pretty doggedly.

But DS9 did it with the main cast and a huge cast of recurring characters. So impressive to me.

DS9 benefited from the continuing story format, which was not allowed in TNG. I was not as big a fan of DS9 as TNG or TOS, but for character growth and development it won, hands down. And it was absolutely, whole-heartedly better than ENT and Picard.

Enterprise is not good at all. They wanted to explore new things and all they did was retread the same ol’ stuff with a new name. Discovery is what Enterprise wanted to be, but didn’t have the guts at the time. While TNG is my favorite, DS9 is by far the best.

Hey, Ninja!

First, good luck on your exams. Reward yourself afterward by entering the Bajoran system, but watch out for the Denorios Belt!

I saw the premiere episode of DS9 when it first aired, when TNG was at its height. It didn’t immediately grab me. I realized it was because the characters were still largely unformed and they needed to work out their interrelationships, etc. By the end of the first season it started coming together and by the end of the second season the show really began to take off and establish its distinctive character.

Like other Trek series, it has certain “types” of shows: Bajoran politics, Bajoran religion (Sisko as the Emissary of the Prophets – which really explodes), Ferengi shows (often comic relief), “let’s torture O’Brien,” the Dominion arc, the mirror universe episodes, relationship stories, etc. etc. On the last, some of the relationships are often deeply moving: Ben and Jake, Jadzia and Worf, Jake and Nog, Bashir and O’Brien, Quark and Odo, Kira and Zeyal, and others. Some of these will appeal to you more than others, but give them all a chance because series-spanning character development can occur in unexpected places.

The writing on the series is seldom not of a high quality, especially when the writing team settled into place. The casting and acting of the series regulars and recurring characters is outstanding.

Rather than spoil things, I’ll just end by saying that being set on a strategically situated space station instead of a starship unavoidably led not only to serialization but also to the development of an enormous cast of supporting characters, some of whom became almost regulars. This also enabled certain scenes where Federation values are insightfully or pointedly commented upon by alien characters (watch out for the “root beer scene” between Quark and Garrack).

There’s lots more that could be said. So I’ll just say “enjoy”!

I need to watch DS9 on Netflix or Hulu at some point. I am missing out.

At least I got Netflix and Hulu. I only use CBS All Access because of Discovery to watch new episodes of that.

I have seen TOS, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard.

DS9 is the only Star Trek show I haven’t seen yet.

I will watch DS9 over winter break after I’m done with college exams.

Doing my finals tomorrow and Thursday for the fall semester. I failed my fourth road test today too. Having bad luck right now.

Wish me luck.

You really are missing out. DS9 is brilliant, even the earlier seasons, which are always weak for Trek, have some great episodes.

I remember reading an interview, I believe shortly after DS9 finished it run, from one of the writers or creators of actors (I seriously can’t remember who!) about how they were probably one of the best shows on the air at the time, but nobody realized it! And it’s completely true. Looking back to that period, DS9 was arguably the best show on the air, and it would still be one of the best shows on the air were it to be released today.

In some ways, I think the DS9 earlier seasons — before they turned it into a war story and amped up the martial aspect of the theme song — were stronger. The first season, perhaps less so, but even that featured “Duet” and “In the Hands of the Prophets,” as well as Kai Opaka.

Good luck! And when you get to DS9, you are in for a treat. It’s like nothing else!

I’ll wish you luck. Apart from the new shows not named “Lower Decks,” DS9 is handily my least favorite Trek series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got its strong points; but I find it to be very unengaging at times, and it’s also got a lot in it that doesn’t really work for me as Star Trek. But hey, lots of people adore it, so maybe you’ll be one of them!

You need to be patient with DS9 through the first season or two. It kind of didn’t know what it wanted to be yet — you can see the show struggle between being TNG on a station vs. it’s own thing. But then over time it finds it’s way, finds it’s own place in Star Trek, and it gets really good.

Like someone said, the show has a slow burn. Once it introduces the Dominion, that thread carries through the rest of the series.

They had me by Duet and never let go. Alien characters are allowed to be alien, conflict between characters isn’t tamped down, the recurring guest cast is enormous and colorful, the slow burn stories rewarding, the station’s sets and lighting fantastic. Never tire of rewatching this one.

Also one of the best opening themes for music. No Doubt watching that opening you get the idea these people are Deep in space and you get that lonely feeling.

Great interview! But I take exception to his Muse v Radiohead comparison – Muse can definitely be cerebral music! :p. Their latest album – “Simulation Theory” is very much a fun romp, but previous albums such as “Resistance” and “The 2nd Law” tell fascinating and thought provoking stories. But I digress ;)

I was very happy to see most of the DS9 alums pursue healthy careers after 1999, and seeing Siddig do especially well was gratifying.

He’d have made a magnificent Jaffar in Disney’s execrable Aladdin remake.

was the best version of ra’s al ghul i have seen on screen in ‘gotham’.

After “The Passenger” I wasn’t sure I’d ever want him to play a villain again, but what some extra experience (plus way more time to prepare than he had there) will do!

I saw the first “Skyline.” It was kind of fun in a trashy, Syfy-level way. Didn’t know they’d made a sequel; probably won’t be bothering to check that out, much less the sequel to the sequel. Siddig being in it makes me want to, though.

I enjoyed his work in Game of Thrones, it was good to see him again. Peaky Blinders, too.

He was on Game of Thrones… what character was he?

The ruler of Dorne. It’s a much bigger part in the books, unfortunately it doesn’t go anywhere in the series.

I have been watching DS9 over the last couple of years while following along with the Mission Log podcast. I know I have not seen every episode so it has been fun running into episodes that I never watched and getting to enjoy them for the first time. And I think the Mission Log team have done an excellent job discussing the episodes overall (no offense to the TrekMovie podcasts, which I also enjoy). For those who haven’t watched DS9 yet, your in for a treat. It really does hold up well.

Yes DS9 does hold up well, and Siddig really blossomed as an actor during it’s run. But I would say that Terry Ferrel has the biggest improvement from all the actors, she really came into her own in the last few seasons.

Off topic: one thing that always bugged me with all of the old Star Trek shows since cell phones came around was the act of communication in the show. Why does Kira or O’Brien have to tell Sisko he has a call from the admiral or Kai Winn when he has a communicator on him? It’s weird, but then we are used to cell phones now.

I want to watch DS9 so bad!

I actually thought Angelina Jolie was great in the Tomb Raider movies. She made them at a time when women weren’t considered action stars, and she showed that women COULD do action roles. If somebody 20 years later can do a better job, well duh — it’s because she’s standing on Jolie’s shoulders.

Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton proved women could be action stars.

Agreed, Allen. Trailblazers, they were.

Yes indeed.

If I had to pick the moment the modern female action star was born, it would have to be when Ripley takes over command of the Nostromo and tells Parker to shut up. Great scene.

I saw Alien in first run with a group of friends.

None of us had any idea what was coming. I recall someone’s popcorn went flying.

My lasting impression was “Wow, that’s different.”

Haha, yeah. Not something you easily forget.

TG47, I saw Alien when it first came out, too. Scared the shit out of the whole audience. Good times!

You live in Toronto, right?

Wonder Woman and Black Widow are women action movies we have now.

And Michelle Yeoh! She was headlining action films in Hong Kong and doing her own stunts since 1985.

Tomb Raider is not a movie I would watch as often but you have a excellent point.

So he wont do R rated Sci-Fi but he will do R rated fantasy. Game of Thrones. Very strange.

Hi, what are you looking for?

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Deep Space Nine star Alexander Siddig discusses his time on Star Trek, the future of conventions and his new film Skylines

Alexander Siddig , who played Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for seven seasons, has stayed busy with a multitude of projects since wrapping up on the series 22 years ago. With work in television and feature films, ranging from 24 , Game of Thrones , and Gotham , to Kingdom of Heaven , Hannibal and Clash of the Titans , the seasoned actor shows no signs of slowing down. His latest project Skylines , the third and final installment in the Skyline film series, harkens back to his science fiction roots on DS9 with the character General Radford. Siddig recently sat down with TrekNews.net to discuss his time on Deep Space Nine , appearing at conventions, a possible return to Star Trek, and compares Bashir to Radford.

Hi, Alexander. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today! Let’s kick things off with a couple of Star Trek questions:

Deep Space Nine has had a major resurgence in popularity in recent years — due in part to the release of Ira Steven Behr’s What We Left Behind documentary, along with the series’ availability on DVD and multiple streaming services. Being such a major part of the show, as Dr. Bashir, how do you look back on DS9?

I look back on the series with great affection. I remember that as soon as it finished, I was relieved that it was over because I was itching to get on with life and was feeling out of place in Los Angeles among all the glamorous people there jostling for attention, but as my fledgling career started to take shape and I could achieve some sense of perspective, I realized how ridiculously lucky I was to have been part of such a noble enterprise.

“Would he have quit the Federation altogether and become a professor? Maybe he wound up in command? Goodness only knows.”

In the documentary, a hypothetical eighth season was discussed in some detail. What would have you liked to have seen happen to Bashir if the series had continued?

Bashir had been recruited by Section 31 by the end of the seventh season. It would have been really interesting to see how the sometimes antithetical elements of that shady life might have caused real problems for him as a man of medicine. Also, his genetic enhancement and the internal struggles he may have had once that secret was out might have interesting to explore.

There’s been rumors and some vocal desire to see the series remastered and released in high definition. Have you heard anything about DS9 in HD and do you think we’ll eventually see that happen?

I don’t know anything about that. I remember that we switched to filming the show in an HD-ready format during the run of the show.

[Read our interview with Robert Meyer Burnett discussing some of the complications in releasing Deep Space Nine and Voyager in HD.]

Prior to the pandemic, you attended quite a few Star Trek conventions over the years and got to see first-hand the appreciation fans still have for DS9. Have you had any memorable experiences at conventions and is attending them something you miss?

I had so many memorable experiences, some life-affirming, others, not so much: stalkers, lurkers… I kind of worry for some of the vulnerable people I met and shared a laugh and hugs with so many others. The fans make Star Trek what it is.

What do you think Bashir would be doing now, more than two decades after leaving space station Deep Space Nine (following the events of the series finale “What We Leave Behind”)?

The mind boggles! Would Section 31 have finally compromised his ethics? Would he have quit the Federation altogether and become a professor? Maybe he wound up in command? Goodness only knows.

“I kind of like being slightly wicked.”

Do you keep up with Star Trek in its current form ( Discovery , Picard , and Lower Decks )? If so, what are your thoughts?

I’m sorry to say that I don’t — I watched a few excellent episodes of Discovery when it made its debut — but we have an embargo in my household on the ever-expanding list of channel subscriptions. We just had to draw a line once we realized that we were spending more on TV than food!

Would you have any interest in appearing as Bashir again — maybe in Star Trek: Picard or the announced Section 31 series with Michelle Yeoh?

Of course but I’m not sure I’d feel like stepping back into Bashir’s shoes again for a cameo, a disposable tidbit to move the action along in. I’d certainly be interested in a good in-depth look at him and where he’s at though.

Let’s switch gears a little and discuss one of your most recent projects, Skylines, where you play General Radford. For those who aren’t familiar, the film is the third and final installment of the Skyline series. What can you tell us about the movie and your character?

It’s a wonderful, old school film. Entirely entertaining and great COVID time relief. I play a general who gets a crack group together to go millions of light-years away from earth to deal with an alien species that threaten to destroy our home. It’s familiar and strange at the same time and that’s the right combination for good, honest entertainment. I highly recommend it if you like high octane sci-fi.

Both being sci-fi characters, how would you compare Radford to Bashir?

They are completely different. Radford could more easily compare to a mirror universe Bashir though!

Do you have any new year’s resolutions?

None. I don’t have the resolve or strength of purpose to see anything worthwhile to the bitter end in the name of self-betterment. I’m totally riddled with vices, I’m sure, but I kind of like being slightly wicked.

Alexander, thank you so much for joining us!

My pleasure!

Skylines is now available on YouTube , Amazon Prime and Vudu .

Check out the trailer below.

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Lower Decks , Star Trek: Prodigy , and more.

You can follow us on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram .

Founded TrekNews.net in 2011. UX, visual designer, and published photographer based in the Boston area. Connoisseur of Star Trek, sci-fi, '80s horror, synthwave sounds, and tacos. You can follow Brian on Twitter @brianwilkins .

January 19, 2021 at 2:51 am

The question or status of DS9’s HD remaster was resolved years ago. TNG’s Blu Ray release underperformed in the market. That put the brakes on any talk about remastering DS9 or Voyager. CBS/Paramount isn’t going to foot the bill for it, and none of the streaming platforms have offered either. Upscaling is a nice notion, but as of today, nothing will look as good as scanning the original negatives.

January 19, 2021 at 9:52 am

I’m still holding out hope that it happens. The interest level in DS9 and to a lesser extent VOY seems to rise every day. Fingers crossed.

Dusty Ayres

February 4, 2021 at 3:28 pm

You’ll be keeping them crossed forever, MK2900, because it will still never happen . Time to face reality and deal.

February 4, 2021 at 3:23 pm

My sentiments exactly, E, and I also tried to tell others in the comments section of the article about why said remastering would never happen, only to be accused of having a stick up my ass and of ‘being a liberal’, whatever that meant. Looks like people need to be reminded why, again.

Joanna Durkin

January 19, 2021 at 9:50 am

I would love to see Bashir return in Discovery (through time travel) or if that Section 31 series ever gets off the ground. Make it happen CBS!

January 19, 2021 at 10:14 am

We need more Bashir! More Sisko, Quark, Kira, Worf, O’Brien and Dax too!

May 8, 2023 at 9:09 am

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Biggest Unanswered Questions From Season 1 Of Star Trek: Picard

WARNING! SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 OF  STAR TREK: PICARD  FOLLOW!

If you've been following the new adventures of the former Captain of the Enterprise , then you know CBS All Access' first season of  Star Trek: Picard   has come to an explosive close. At the last minute, Soji (Isa Briones) shuts down the beacon to the powerful synthetic lifeforms prophesied to destroy all organic life. Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) leads a fleet of ships in a standoff with the Zhat Vash, and the Romulans blink first. Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) goes one-on-one with the Zhat Vash agent Narissa (Peyton List) and Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) finally succumbs to Irumodic Syndrome. Thankfully, Picard's consciousness is transferred to a new synthetic body; before he wakes up, Picard gets to say goodbye to his old friend Data (Brent Spiner).

Picard  opens with a host of mysteries and a lot of those have been unraveled, but there's still a lot that's been left unsaid. For example, the fates of some characters were conspicuously missing, and in other cases characters have changed in surprising ways that still haven't been fully explained. The events of the season finale have potentially far-reaching ramifications that we can't predict, and there are still plenty of old friends and enemies we're waiting to hear from.

We think these loose ends — and more — make up the biggest unanswered questions from season 1 of  Star Trek: Picard .

Will the new crew stay together

At the end of  Picard 's season 1 finale the heroes are on board  La Sirena , presumably on their way back home. A new romance appears to be blooming between Seven of Nine and Raffi (Michelle Hurd), while Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera) and Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill) seem to be continuing their relationship. Picard and Soji are there, as well as the Romulan warrior Elnor (Evan Evagora). 

But will this crew stay together? After all, this isn't like  Star Trek: The Next Generation   ( TNG ). None of them are active Starfleet officers. La Sirena  has no extended mission to explore anything. Jurati came aboard as a spy for the Zhat Vash, Elnor's there to help Picard in the mission that's already concluded, and Rios has more than completed the job Picard's paying him for. 

We're guessing something will pop up in season 2 of  Picard   to keep its titular hero in the stars — and in the meantime, the writers have provided the glue for these characters to stay together. Even though officially Elnor only agreed to the mission to save Soji, he idolizes Picard and will probably go wherever the retired admiral does. Jurati has romantic reasons to stay on board  La Sirena , as does Seven. As for Soji, why not follow her new friends on other adventures now that she remembers her life on Earth was a sham? 

What happened to Narek?

One character who is conspicuously missing from the end of  Picard 's season 1 finale is Narek (Harry Treadaway). The Romulan spy spent most of the season seducing Soji so he could manipulate her into triggering her memories and revealing the location of her homeworld. Eventually we learn that while Narek and other members of the Zhat Vash are merciless, their goal isn't without merit. They mean to stop a galactic apocalypse they call Ganmadan which they believe will be caused by the higher order of synthetics — the so-called Synthetic Alliance — Soji and her brethren mean to summon. The last we see of Narek, he and some of the heroes have tried and failed to destroy the synthetics' beacon. We don't see him aboard  La Sirena  when it leaves, and the Zhat Vash fleet leaves Coppelius without beaming him up.

Picard  showrunner Michael Chabon addressed this through his Instagram (via  ComicBook.com ). Apparently there wasn't enough time to show the resolution to Narek's story, which presumably would include learning Seven of Nine killed his sister. In an Instagram story, Chabon said, "Yeah. Narek. We know, we know. A casualty of the editorial process, alas. The intention was for him to be taken into Federation custody ."

That doesn't necessarily mean that will prove to be what happened, however. Since we never saw it happen, the writers could always choose a different fate for the sneaky Romulan. 

Who is the Synthetic Alliance?

"Et in Arcadia Ego: Part 2" — the season 1 finale of  Picard — has its heroes facing two opposing threats. On one hand there's the massive Romulan fleet ready to decimate everyone and everything on the planet Coppelius. On the other, there's the Synthetic Alliance that Soji means to summon to protect her and other synths. Unfortunately, the Alliance's supposed method of protecting other synthetic life is to eradicate all organic life — Romulan, human, and everything in between.

We don't see much of the Alliance, but we're shown enough to be convinced of the danger. After the portal opens, we see huge mechanical tendrils — like massive tentacles — reaching out. Picard convinces Soji to shut down the beacon and close the portal, keeping whatever was on the other end of those tendrils in their own corner of the universe. 

We're left without knowing much about the Synthetic Alliance. How did it come into being? Where are they from? How many of them are there? Do they truly mean to wipe out all organic life, or have we misunderstood their intentions? After all, while what we see come out of the portal looks menacing, at the time the Romulan fleet was planning to wipe out all the synths on Coppelius. 

Perhaps the most pressing question of all: now that they know about the synths on Coppelius, will we be seeing them again?

Will Dr. Jurati face justice for killing Bruce Maddox?

"Stardust City Rag" has possibly the most shocking ending of any episode in  Picard 's first season. After being reunited with her colleague and lover Bruce Maddox (John Ales), Dr. Jurati murders him in  La Sirena 's sick bay. In "Nepenthe," we learn that the Zhat Vash spy Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita) approached her on Earth before Jurati joined  La Sirena 's crew and used a mind meld to give her a vision of the galactic apocalypse the Zhat Vash fear. 

Once the other heroes learn of Jurati's betrayal, initially they seem eager to get her off the ship. Picard has every intention of turning her in to the Federation. Later, they seem more understanding, believing she was not in control of her actions when she murdered Maddox. Shortly after the airing of the season finale, Michael Chabon answered fan questions for  TrekMovie.com , and while the season ends without Jurati being arrested, Chabon said  "She will put herself in the hands of the law."

So we know Jurati intends to take responsibility for what she did, though it remains to be seen what consequences — beyond her own guilt — she'll have to face. Considering the influence of Commodore Oh and Jurati's help in the showdown above Coppelius, there's good reason to think they'll go easy on her. Then again, the Federation has changed; it might be tough to predict what they'll do. 

Where is the rest of the TNG crew?

Picard isn't the only old friend we're reunited with in the first season. Along with Seven, some other  TNG  alums show up. Data stops by and we get to see Riker make pizza , while Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) proves as insightful as ever. We even get to a chance to see Jonathan Del Arco reprise the recurring  TNG  role of Hugh, a Borg drone who becomes an individual. 

But what about everyone else? Wesley Crusher was nowhere to be found in the story even though Wil Wheaton hosted  Picard 's aftershow,  The Ready Room . We don't hear from Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Worf (Michael Dorn), or Geordi LaForge (Levar Burton). Nor do we know what any of them have been doing in the intervening years. Worf is made Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire in the series finale for  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine   ( DS9 ), but we don't know whether he still holds the position as of the events of  Picard or if he's moved on. 

We know for sure at least one TNG  cast member will show up in season 2. The day before  Picard 's series premiere aired on CBS All Access, Patrick Stewart appeared on  The View   to invite co-host Whoopi Goldberg to reprise her recurring  TNG  role of Guinan  for Picard 's second season. Goldberg happily agreed — hugging Stewart and appearing emotional for the rest of the segment. 

What about other characters from Voyager and DS9?

Fans were pleasantly surprised to see Seven of Nine — who never even met Jean-Luc in any of the series or films — as a recurring character in  Picard . There are still plenty of fans who love  DS9  and  Star Trek: Voyager who would love to see heroes from those shows return at least briefly in future episodes of  Picard . 

We haven't seen  Voyager 's former captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) since her cameo in 2002's  Star Trek: Nemesis ,   when we learn she's been promoted to admiral since her return to the Alpha Quadrant. There are plenty of questions we'd love to have answered about the rest of the  Voyager  crew. Is The Doctor (Robert Picardo) still around? Would Chakotay (Robert Beltran), Torres (Roxann Dawson), and other former Maquis crew have to answer for their crimes after returning to Earth?

Then there's the  DS9  alums. Besides Worf, we haven't seen any of the regular cast of  DS9  reappear in a  Trek  production since the series finale, though "Stardust City Rag" shows us through an Easter egg that Quark (Armin Shimerman) has moved his operations to Freecloud. Is Ben Sisko (Avery Brooks) still with The Prophets? Asked which two DS9 characters he would bring aboard La Sirena if he could, Michael Chabon named the enigmatic exiled spy Garak (Andrew Robinson) and the Cardassian's best friend, Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig). We expect fans would be happy to see either of those old friends again.

How will synths fare in the Federation?

At the end of the season finale, we learn that with the revelation that the synthetic attack on Mars was orchestrated by the Zhat Vash, the Federation lifts its ban on synthetic life. That's good news for Picard, since technically he has become a synthetic lifeform. 

But while allowing synthetics to exist in the Federation may be the right thing to do, it doesn't seem likely everyone is going to be comfortable with it. The attack on Mars is portrayed as a deeply traumatic event for the Federation. We learn the fires caused by the assault still rage on the red planet years later. It's difficult to imagine that with so much loss of life touching so many people, there won't be a vocal group of Federation citizens against the ban's lifting. It seems likely it will be a long time before the Federation sees synths in regular use as they were at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards. 

Picard might find himself the target of anti-synthetic prejudice. What will happen when those closest to Picard find out, biologically speaking, he's no longer human? Especially considering Picard is the same man who unwittingly helped the Borg almost bring the Federation to its knees?

Is Q watching?

Of the major figures in Picard's life, the one most conspicuously absent so far from  Picard is the trickster entity Q (John de Lancie). First encountering Picard in  TNG 's premiere episode "Encounter at Farpoint" and hounding the  Enterprise  captain throughout the series — including in the series finale — Q develops a particular interest in Picard over the course of TNG . While Q would often claim to be testing humanity, it's eventually clear that for better or worse, Picard is important to the powerful alien. 

It's difficult to take in the events of  Picard  without imagining Q watching from somewhere in the Q Continuum with fascination and amusement. Picard is synthetic now? Can you imagine all the jokes Q would get from that development? Not to mention we never got to see Q in any of the movies. What would he have to say about the return of the Borg in 1996's  Star Trek: First Contact  or the conflict with Picard's clone in  Nemesis ? 

Of course, it could be that Q no longer exists. That's not likely considering he's basically immortal, but it isn't out of the realm of possibility. In  TNG  we see him temporarily stripped of his powers, and in  Voyager  the Continuum suffers a destructive civil war. A Picard/Q reunion would be amazing, but who knows if it's in the cards?

Is Picard's connection to the Borg severed?

After Picard's assimilation by the Borg and subsequent rescue in  TNG 's two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds," Dr. Crusher removes his Borg implants. Regardless, it's clear he still retains some connection to the Collective. For example in  First Contact , he dreams of the Borg shortly before learning of their new assault on the Federation and he guesses they're on their way before Starfleet tells him. During the battle with the Borg cube, he knows exactly what part of the enemy ship to strike.

But  Picard 's first season ends with the hero's consciousness transferred into a synthetic body. Which means, ironically, becoming fully synthetic may have finally freed him from his connection with the Borg. We don't know exactly what it was that kept his link to the Collective alive, but it seems reasonable that whatever it was would not carry over to his new body. 

Of course, anything's possible in  Star Trek and we could eventually learn there's still a part of Locutus — no matter how small — within Picard. But maybe his goal to get back the rest of his humanity somehow needed him, physically speaking, to lose it.

How did Seven develop such strong emotions?

The Seven of Nine we meet in  Picard  is very much a changed woman since her days aboard  Voyager , and not just because she wears her hair down and has jettisoned the skintight outfits. In  Voyager Seven keeps her feelings in check as much as a Vulcan, while in  Picard  Seven expresses powerful emotions. Speaking to  Syfy Wire , Jeri Ryan said the moment Seven finds Icheb (Casey King) and mercy kills him in "Stardust City Rag" is probably "the first time that Seven truly let go of her emotions."

But that leads us to a big question: How are Seven's powerful emotions even possible? In "Human Error" — an episode in  Voyager 's final season — Seven uses holographic simulations to help with her social skills and to continue exploring her humanity. Eventually we learn that experimenting with emotion is more dangerous than she realizes. The Doctor reveals her Borg implants include a failsafe that will shut down her higher brain functions if her emotions are stimulated too much. He offers a potential surgical solution, but Seven turns him down.

From what we've seen in Picard 's version of Seven, that failsafe  definitely  should have gone off if it's still active. Maybe after so many years of separation from the Borg, the failsafe stopped working. Or maybe she finally allowed the Doctor or someone else to perform the necessary surgery. Regardless,  Picard  doesn't give us the answer. 

Is this the end of the Zhat Vash?

Picard 's first season ends with the Zhat Vash's plan to annihilate the synthetics foiled, but their overall goal of stopping the galactic apocalypse they believe the Synthetic Alliance will cause is fulfilled without their help. Picard convinces Soji to destroy the beacon and close the portal to the higher order of synths; faced with the prospect of a battle with a Starfleet armada, the Romulans leave Coppelius unscathed. 

What happens to the Zhat Vash now? They've operated for centuries within the Tal Shiar but now their existence has been brought to light. It isn't clear whether they're officially sanctioned by the Romulan government. If not, then they've made a target of themselves. Not only did they almost bring the Romulan Empire to war with the Federation, but they failed in their mission. The Romulan Empire is not the kind of place where failure is rewarded, or even tolerated. 

You could argue that with their Ganmadan averted, there's no longer any reason for the Zhat Vash to exist, though we're willing to bet they could find a reason to keep going. Of the members we've met, at least one — Narissa, the woman who kills Hugh and is later killed herself by Seven — finds any kind of artificial life disgusting. Sadly, that kind of hatred usually defies logic and finds a way to thrive.

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The Intriguing World Of Entertainment

Whatever Happened to Alexander Siddig, ‘Doctor Bashir’ on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?

By Kelly OLone | January 15, 2023

Alexander Siddig is a Sudanese actor and director best known for his role as ‘Doctor Bashir’ on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also has starred in several additional roles like 24, Atlantis, and Game of Thrones. 

Actor Alexander Siddig was born on November 21, 1965, in Omdurman, Khartoum, Sudan, to his parents, Tahir El Mahdi, a Sudanese, and Gloria, an English woman. 

The actor was initially born Siddig El Tahir Fadil El Siddig Abdurrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Madhi but later changed his screen name to Siddig El Fadil before his current name of Alexander Siddig. The actor said it was difficult for people to pronounce “El Fadil” and decided to change his name once again. 

His parents later separated; his mother eventually remarried, and he had a son with her new husband. As a child, Siddig spoke Arabic but later forgot it after living in Britain for two years. 

The actor comes from a long line of influential family members. His father attended Cambridge University, his uncle was the prime minister of Sudan in the late 60s and late 80s, and his great-great-grandson of a Nubian leader. 

Siddig attended the University College London for one year before enrolling at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After leaving school, he pursued a career in theater as a director and an actor. 

Acting Career 

Siddig’s first onscreen role was in The Big Battalions (1992), a British six-part miniseries. Not long after, he appeared in the film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1992), the sequel to Lawrence of Arabia. 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

In 1993, Siddig landed the role of Dr. Julian Bashir on the hit series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the part would become one of his best-known roles to date. The actor stayed on for all seven seasons and directed several episodes throughout his time on the show. 

Siddig’s character was part of the Post-Eugenics Human Augment species and served as a chief medical officer in Deep Space 9. His character was born in 2341, and as a young child, he was not very bright; however, he received enhancements to boost his I.Q. and eventually became an excellent student. 

Siddig did not care for how his character was portrayed as the series went on and was vocal about how he tried to sabotage the situation. The actor did not like that Dr. Julian Bashir was eventually revealed to be an augment. 

The actor was quoted as saying, “I did it the only way that an actor can. I completely destroyed the lines that they gave me regarding the situation.” 

Star Trek: The Next Generation

In 1993, Siddig appeared in one Star Trek: The Next Generation episode as his original character, Dr. Julian Bashir in the episode ‘Birthright’. The series was the third in the Star Trek franchise and followed the happenings of the USS Enterprise. 

What did he do after Deep Space Nine?

Siddig managed to add a long list of television and movie credits to his name after appearing on Deep Space Nine. 

Reign of Fire

In 2002, Siddig starred alongside Christian Bale in the science fantasy film Reign of Fire. The actor played Ajay with the movie centering around a group of fire-breathing dragons that emerge from inside the earth and begin destroying everything and taking over the planet. 

Siddig appeared in seven episodes of the hit FOX series 24, playing the character of Hamri Al-Assad. The actor played a former terrorist in season six of the series, which aired in 2007. The action-drama series received high praise for its innovative plot, covering 24 consecutive hours each season. The show starred Kiefer Sutherland and ran for a total of nine seasons. 

The science fiction drama, Primeval, ran for five seasons, from 2007-2011. Siddig played the character of Philip Burton for the show’s series four and five (episodes 24-36). The British television series follows a group of scientists examining the appearance of earthly oddities throughout the United Kingdom while also trying to prevent the world’s end. 

Siddig played King Minos for eight episodes in the British fantasy-adventure series Atlantis. The show premiered in 2013 and stayed on the air for two seasons. While the show initially had high ratings, it was canceled after the second season. 

Games of Thrones

For six episodes, Siddig played Doran Martell on the fantasy drama series Games of Thrones. From 2015-2016, the actor had a recurring role on the popular show, an adaptation of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire. 

Da Vinci’s Demons

Siddig played Al-Rahim for thirteen episodes of the television series Da Vinci’s Demons. The historical fantasy drama portrays a fictional account of the early life of Leonardo da Vinci. 

Peaky Blinders

In 2016, Siddig played Ruben Oliver for six episodes of the British crime drama Peaky Blinders. The show follows the crime gang, Peaky Blinders and their exploits after WWI. In addition to Siddig, the series starred Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, and Sophie Rundle. 

Gotham 

Siddig had a recurring role in the superhero crime drama Gotham, which originally aired on FOX. The actor played Ra’s al Ghul for twelve episodes, from 2017-2018. The series was developed by Bruno Heller and also starred Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, and David Mazouz. Siddig’s character was the influential head of the League of Assassins. 

In 2019, Siddig appeared as Issouf Al Moctar in season two of the British thriller series Deep State. The series only aired for two seasons, with Siddig appearing in seven episodes, centered around a retired Field Agent for M16 who becomes recruited back into the field. 

What is Alexander Siddig doing now?

The actor appeared in the 2019 miniseries, The Spy, alongside Sacha Baron Cohen. The series ran for six episodes and was based on real-life events surrounding the exploits of Mossad spy Eli Cohen. 

In addition, Siddig will appear in the upcoming drama thriller series Shantaram as Khader Khan. The show is based on the book by the same name and revolves around an Australian bank robber who flees to India and will air on Apple+ TV. 

Conventions

While the actor kept his distance from the Star Trek series for some time, he does attend conventions for the all the Trekkie fans. In 2022 he attended the Star Trek: Mission Chicago convention.

Sid City Social Club

Alexander is a frequent guest on his fan club site Sid City Social Club. He appears regularly on video chat and talks to fans and answers questions and talks about the going-ons in his life.

During the pandemic lock-down in 2020, Alexander participated in an online script read of a Deep Space Nine fan-fiction, entitled ‘ Alone Together ‘.

The script read was streamed on Alexander Siddig’s website, Sid City Social Club and had appearances by Cirroc Lofton , Andrew Robinson, Armin Shimerman and Nana Visitor .

Is Alexander Siddig on Picard ?

Finally, to debunk some rumors, Siddig is not on the Star Trek: Picard series, as many fans have wondered. Instead, the show features his potential look-a-like actor James Callis, who even pointed out on Twitter the uncanny resemblance, posting a picture of the two actors together. 

Relationships/Marriage 

Alexander is currently married to a ‘civilian’, although her details have been kept private.

He was formerly married to his Deep Space Nine co-star, Nana Visitor . The couple had a son in 1996, Django El Tahir El Siddig. Alexander and Nana was married from 1997-2001. While the couple divorced over two decades ago, they remain friendly. 

Django El Siddig is an actor who has appeared in various small budget movies. He also currently hosts a podcast with his mother, Nana, and they talk about various subjects and topics about their lives.

After Nana Alexander found love with Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall in 2005 after starring in the theater production Whose Life is it Anyway? However, the two did not remain together long. 

Related Posts:

About Kelly OLone

Kelly is a contributing writer who has been a TV and film junkie since an early age. When she’s not writing or binge-watching her favorite show, she’s trying to keep up with her three kids and rescue pup, Chloe. More from Kelly

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A star observed through a ship's window is replicated as a model in the ship's office. Picard sits talking with a therapist/counsellor who looks like DS9's Dr. Bashir (but it's not Alexander Siddig, the actor is James Callis). It is a routine psych evaluation, but Picard is resistant and angry.

In an effort to get Picard to open up, the therapist hands him the model star to inspire a story. Picard tells a made-up story of a queen with red hair who is talented at telling stories. The scene shifts to a fantastical version of Picard's childhood with his mother. As a child, he expresses a desire to be like his mother rather than his father. His mother looks sad at this.

The scene becomes sinister. The window they are painting comes to life and they run away to the dungeon. The child stumbles and the queen is dragged away into the darkness.

Picard, in Dr. Ramirez's clinic, is still unconscious but becoming agitated.

Seven and Raffi head back to La Sirena to try to track down Jurati. They discover the system has been encrypted with Borg coding.

In the clinic, Tallinn prepares to dive into Picard's subconscious.

She finds herself in the dungeon.

In the therapy session, Picard realizes something has changed. The therapist notes that Picard's story indicates depression and plans to recommend he be relieved of duty in case he takes his crew on a suicide mission. He comments, "There's a thousand ways to die out there," which triggers something in Picard.

Tallinn wanders through the dungeon, hearing Picard's voice speaking lines from his time aboard the Enterprise. She finds the boy prince. He insists on waiting for his mother. She tries to find a solution to the situation. He explains that a monster took his mother.

In the therapy session, the therapist questions Picard's inability to open up, guessing there's a guilt he hides from everyone. A thumping comes from outside the room. Picard angrily cuts off the therapist's analysis of him.

Tallinn and the boy prince hide from the enemies in the dungeon. The boy tells her they need to get to the white door that moves because his mother is behind it.

A fog rolls in and they are attacked by monsters.

Dr. Ramirez returns to the clinic with her son. She is upset to find the door to Picard locked and demands the keys from Rios. She sees Tallinn in her subconscious investigative state.

In the dungeon, Tallinn fights back against her monster but the monster who has the boy prince shackles him.

Dr. Ramirez insists on taking Picard to a hospital. Rios orders up a neural oscillator for Picard from Raffi. Teresa sees the item transport in, shocked.

Rios directs her to use it on Picard to stabilize him.

In the dungeon, Tallinn realizes the boy prince is calling up the monsters to prevent him from saving his mother out of fear of what he might find. She reassures him.

The oscillator works. Teresa asks Rios if he's from outer space. He admits to working in outer space.

A door appears in the darkness. Tallinn and the boy prince open it and walk through.

On La Sirena, Raffi brings coffee to Seven who has managed to hack into the system. They find a security log video showing Jurati implanting the Borg code into the system.

In Picard's mind, the therapy room disappears and turns into Chateau Picard. Tallinn and the boy prince walk in.

They hear banging and turn to find the therapist reading a book next to the white door. The boy prince calls the therapist a monster, accusing him of trapping his mother. The therapist reveals that he's Picard father, Maurice. Picard accuses him of ruining his mother. Maurice tells Picard to remember the real past.

Picard remembers his mother frantically urging him to go into the tunnels under the Chateau. In the tunnels, he gets stuck and she leaves him behind. His father finds him hours later. His mother had to be restrained in her depressive states. Maurice locked her away to keep her safe.

Young Jean-Luc stands at the white door. Tallinn tries to reassure him. She steps away and sees him take a key out of his pocket as the mother's voice calls to him for help. As he goes to unlock the door, Tallinn realizes there's more to the memory.

In the clinic, Picard sits up, and Tallinn returns to consciousness as well.

Out in the waiting room, Rios and Teresa's son create a chalk mural. Rios and Teresa talk about trust. To convince her he's telling the truth, he transports the three of them to La Sirena.

Raffi and Seven are in LA, looking for Jurati. They find surveillance footage of her entering a pub. Jurati enters, breaks a window, picks up a big guy.

Raffi fills Picard in on their search. Tallinn checks in with Picard to let him know Renée is fine. She also shares that she is actually Romulan.

Picard is in a rush to continue their mission. Tallinn points out that he's skipping something important. He deems it irrelevant, but she persists and Picard realizes that Q is personally invested in this trial. He posits that if they know what Q has to risk, they can lead the dance.

Picard goes to Guinan to try to summon Q. She brings out a bottle that contains the truce between the El-Aurians and the Q. She performs a summoning ritual but it doesn't work.

Watching the footage again, Seven deduces that the queen is doing things for a rush of endorphins in order to assimilate Jurati faster and become capable of assimilating others.

At Ten Forward, Guinan and Picard discuss what did and didn't happen. A stranger walks in, looking for a drink. He keeps interrupting them. Eventually, he shows them a video of Picard transporting to the street outside the bar. Suddenly, there are FBI agents everywhere. Picard and Guinan are put into custody under suspicion of being aliens.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 7 Quotes

Picard: The man who hates enclosed spaces spends his life in the infinite cosmos. It's almost too obvious. Therapist: Isn't it. Picard: But then, the man chooses a life on a vessel where his only access to the outside is holographic. Now the man becomes more interesting. Therapist: Does that concern you at all? Does that bother you in any way? You're not very interesting. Picard: It's not my job to be interesting. Permalink: It's not my job to be interesting. Added: April 12, 2022

The true sovereign of nature. Giving life. Allowing life. And yet we know will be the thing that one day swallows us all. Therapist Permalink: The true sovereign of nature. Giving life. Allowing life. And yet we know will be the thing... Added: April 12, 2022

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 7 Photos

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'Star Trek: Picard's Gates McFadden Talks 'InvestiGates' Season 2, Dream Guests, and What She Loves About Beverly Crusher

She also discusses what she's learned from running her own podcast and whether she'd return for a 'Star Trek: Legacy' spin-off.

Gates McFadden , best known for her role as Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation has taken the small screen by storm once again, reprising the role 20 years later in Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard , which is rocketing towards its final episode. McFadden has also taken over the airwaves recently, launching Season 2 of her podcast InvestiGates: Who Do You Think You Are? earlier this year, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday. On InvestiGates , McFadden goes on a deep dive with her fellow Star Trek stars and creatives to learn more about who they really are beyond the small screen.

Recently Collider's own Samantha Coley sat down with McFadden to discuss Season 2 of InvestiGates and Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard . During their conversation, McFadden revealed her dream guests for the podcast, what she's learned about editing and creating content, and why she uses this platform to find the human connection in commonality. McFadden also discussed Beverly Crusher's moral dilemmas in Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard , what she loves about the character after all these years, what it was like to film the Next Generation reunion, and whether she would be open to returning for a Star Trek: Legacy spinoff series .

COLLIDER: You've been doing this podcast for a couple of years now. How would you say that it's evolved since you started it and have your goals for these conversations changed since those early episodes?

GATES McFADDEN: Well, the biggest difference is that the first group were friends of mine that I was very close to. And now this season I'm talking to people who I've either just met recently before I spoke with them. Now, I know them better. But either that or they were people from other shows who I would meet and I had talked to, but I didn't really spend a lot of time with. I didn't know a lot about them. People like Alexander Siddig or John Billingsley I knew very well because we would end up being in green rooms together, for example.

RELATED: Jonathan Frakes Talks 'Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction's 25th Anniversary, 'Star Trek: Picard', and His Meme Status

McFADDEN: So, I think it's a lot of fun to get to know new people, especially because I think I was more nervous doing my friends, which is funny, but I know how particular they are and so I thought, "Well, okay. I don't know what they're going to be willing to share or go over it. Are there stories they've told too many times?" So, I think I was maybe better with some of the... I think my second season might be better than my first season because I learned more about what to ask. When you hear your own voice, I don't know how you feel about this, but it's like torture.

Oh yeah, I completely agree.

McFADDEN: And also, I don't know about you, but there were so many times, and there still are, where I go, "Just shut up Gates. Just shut up." Does that ever happen to you, Samantha?

All the time. I do a podcast as well and I cannot listen to it back.

McFADDEN: There's just so many ticks and all of that. So if you ever want to learn about what you don't want to know about yourself, but you should know, do a podcast and listen to yourself.

What would you say is the biggest thing that you've gained from doing this podcast and what are you hoping people take away from it?

McFADDEN: Well, I've learned how to sound edit. Which is a huge thing actually. It takes hours and hours. And then I send it to the technician who really cleans up my edits, but they don't change my edits. My edits are my edits. I've taken out all of the people clearing their throats and things like that, as well as just tightening things up because I've learned not to do so long of a podcast because I end up having to edit it down to 50 minutes basically, or 55 minutes. And the more I have, the harder that task is.

But also, it gives me a range of stories or things to talk about. So, it's a plus and a minus. I think what I want people to take away from it is that every one of us has all these interesting stories and you think you know someone, but maybe you don't know.

Sort of like a peek behind the curtain.

McFADDEN: Yeah, and I feel we are all connected as human beings and we all have our struggles and I wanted to try to be as honest as I could be about different things that we all go through and what our dreams are and what we're wishing for and the commonality in our struggles and the joy in family and talking to each other. And it's a Star Trek community, it's a brilliant community. I'm so honored to be part of it. And now I'm finally taking it all in. As an older person, I'm going, 'Man, what a wonderful ride this has been. What a fortunate community I live among.' So anyway, I've really learned how my struggles are just like other people's struggles and being vulnerable, and I do feel vulnerable when I do this.

Absolutely.

McFADDEN: I think that's been very hard. You have to stay open and risk sounding like an idiot.

If it helps, I’ve listened to quite a bit and you don't sound like an idiot.

McFADDEN: Well, thank you. Maybe I edited out the idiot part. So, I don't know.

Well, you're very good at it. So as you mentioned, for this season, you're talking to a lot of talents that you haven't worked with necessarily on screen. Can you go into a little bit more about what it's like to engage with these people that you may not have worked with in a show, but whose careers overlap with yours so significantly?

McFADDEN: Well, I think that's why I wanted to do this InvestiGates . I like to go back to who their parents are, where did they grow up, what was it like—things that I often go back to. I feel that the games we play as children are very important. Did you have a sense of play when you were young? So many actors had a great sense of play and the games they played are really important to how their creativity unfolds sometimes. So, that's very fascinating to me personally. I love that about anybody. It could be the person sitting next to me on the plane. You can have a very deep encounter with someone you don't know very well if you all just listen and ask the right questions.

Absolutely. You've mentioned that you do a lot of research for each guest that you have on. How does that differ from person to person?

McFADDEN: Well, take Tawny Newsome. I wish I could see her live performances at Second City , improvising in Chicago. I would love to have seen that, but I can't. So, instead, I know a lot about Second City . I have had friends who've been in Second City . So on something like that, I know the kind of improvisational background she has. I had a very strong impression of her when I first met her. She's extraordinary and very smart and beautiful. So when you have a really strong gut feeling about somebody, it makes it fun to just see what you can find out there on the internet. And I watched different shows that she had performed in and I would find things she'd acted in. You look at interviews, I would listen to podcasts that she had spoken on, and that's kind of where you start.

And as I was researching with hers, for example, I was finding the things we had in common, be it astrology or being brought up Catholic, whatever it is. And that's kind of where you start. With Kate Mulgrew, I read her books and I watched all the different things that she did. I didn't see everything. I didn't have to see everything. And I know a lot of people who are friends of hers. Even though I hadn't spent as much time with her, I spent a lot of time with these friends of mine. People like Andy Robinson. He and I were both at USC together teaching. So, he was head of the graduate acting department. I mean, again, there are overlaps and that's what's really fun about it, is to figure out the overlaps.

I think that the level of personal care and dedication you put into each of these conversations really comes through in each episode. I was just listening to your conversation with Tawny this morning and the way that you two light each other up was delightful.

McFADDEN: Oh, thanks.

You have a few more episodes in this season. Who are some guests that you have lined up that you're excited to talk to if you haven't recorded already, or episodes you’re excited for fans to hear that are not up yet?

McFADDEN: Well, the one's coming up... So, today is Alexander Siddig who played the doctor on Deep Space Nine . Yeah. I mean, what a fascinating man. What a brilliant actor. Next week I have Terry Matalas, who was-

McFADDEN: Yeah. Our producer for this season of Picard , who I adore, and he's just wonderful. So, people are going to learn more about him. I have Ed Speleers coming up who plays my new space son on Picard Season 3. And then I have Anson Mount. And that will conclude Season 2.

Those all sound like amazing episodes. If you come back for a third season, who are some of your dream guests that you'd like to talk to?

McFADDEN: Well, I really would love to speak with Sonequa. I think she's an extraordinary actor and whenever we've met in the green rooms, she has this very extraordinary presence. I would like to get to know her, find out about her. I think all of the actors in the new shows are terrific. Obviously, my dream guest probably is Michelle Yeoh. That would be amazing.

McFADDEN: But I doubt I could get her at this point. But who knows? That would be a dream person. And also the other actors on Strange New Worlds , some of the Lower Deck actors. And then we have the maybe two new series happening. And of course Todd Stashwick. I mean, he's just fantastic. So, I'd love to speak with him. I adore him. So, that's a good start.

Yeah, those are great answers. I would love to listen to those conversations. So speaking of the third season of Picard , you're doing some truly fantastic stuff with Beverly. How much influence did you get to have over some of these really key moments for her? Namely, the conversation with Picard in Episode 3, and then most recently, her moral conflict with Vadic.

McFADDEN: With the third episode with the scene with Patrick [Stewart] and I, that one was the trickiest because I did not want one person or the other to have clearly made the wrong ethical choice, and I was worried about that the most. So, I fought for certain things. Certain things got taken out that I thought were more on Beverly's side as an explanation, but I tried to play it as strongly as I could in the way it was written. As I've said several times, the show's called. It's not called Crusher. So, I think he was going to have more final say in how the scene was going to be in terms of lines. I think the one with Vadic, it's a very tricky scene. I love the fact that you see this woman who's so vulnerable and exhausted by this. This has been going on for quite some time in her life.

And she thinks it is because of this person. This is the person who has done all of the Changelings, and she doesn't know anything more than that. So, I feel that I've... Well, let me put it this way. I've always thought to myself, you see what people do, the horrible things humans can do to each other. And I've thought to myself, the only time I could ever see myself really just striking out and hurting someone or killing someone would be protecting my son, my family. And so, I think she's in that position. And if you're exhausted, you look at in wartime and the exhaustion that must happen and the post-traumatic stress of things, I don't think you always are in a state where you can control every emotion and reaction you're feeling. You strive to. And I think that certainly everyone's character is always striving to do that, do work for the greater good.

But she speaks honestly when she says, "I don't know, I think I'm losing my moral compass." She wants to hold on to that moral compass, but she's at least aware that it might be slipping. So, I love the fact that they present it so that the audience is going to have to think about what they would do. They end up not killing her, something else happens. But to just put yourself in that position and imagine what you would do is very important because none of us know what we would do until we're in that situation. I mean, look at the Holocaust, The Night of Broken Glass, when all that was happening, Crystal Night. If you weren't there, how can you say what you would do or would not do to save your family? So, again, I like the fact that it was a scene that was engaging us on those very extreme levels.

I think you played both of those moments in particular just phenomenally.

McFADDEN: Oh, thank you.

Wonderful work. What was it like establishing the new family dynamics with Jack and, to an extent, Picard? Did you do a chemistry read with Ed? You two just... I believe that relationship so much.

McFADDEN: Oh, thank you. Well, he's such a wonderful actor. Oh, he's so wonderful. We just clicked. We totally just clicked. And once I got over the fact that he was going to have a British accent, which was pretty funny. No, he was just a joy to work with. So, it was easy working with him. He's one of those actors. So, I'm glad it reads like we feel. I love him. He's got two great kids and a wonderful wife. And yeah, he feels like my new space son. I'm so lucky. I've got two space sons and a real son.

Well, I can't wait to listen to that conversation coming up. So I've seen through episode eight, and this will probably go up past that episode. Can you talk a bit about the reunion moment?

McFADDEN: Well, it was what you would imagine it was. But you see, we all are in each other's lives. We are close friends. We're in a group text. We know what's basically going on in each other's lives. What was a trip is to go back to this big observation lounge table. That was a trip. But it reminded us of how long those shooting days used to be. Because when we were around the observation lounge in the original show in the Enterprise D, it would take the whole day to just go around the table, even if you had one line because they had to do closeups and medium shots, and then the master shot. Now, they shoot things much faster because they have so many cameras going at the same time.

It still does take a long time though, when you have a group of people at a table. But it was pretty cool, I have to say. I think for me, the moment that really got to me though was when I was on the Titan bridge the first time with Patrick and Jonathan and I was like, "Oh my gosh, we're on a bridge of a ship and we're doing this and we're in costumes." It was something about the spaceship. It's an amazing set. But yes, it was tremendous to have the chance for all of us to be there acting together. I love them all. They're an amazing group of human beings, and they're wonderful actors.

I've just been loving this season. It's fantastic so far. Is there anything that you can tease for fans heading into the final two episodes?

McFADDEN: Absolutely not.

I completely understand.

McFADDEN: All I will say is it is such a ride. Oh my gosh, the pace quickens and the plot thickens, and look out. Yeah. Anyway, that's all I can say.

Fantastic, I can’t wait. There's been a lot of chatter about a potential spinoff, a Legacy spinoff about Jack and some of the other characters. Would you be open to returning to something like that? And what's your vision for Beverly in the future, if you can tease that at all?

McFADDEN: I would certainly be open to something like that. I have no idea what my vision of her would be. I mean, I'm interested in a lot of things. It would depend on the given circumstances. I think she certainly has... What's been great about this season is you see that she's the one who will keep looking for the solution. She's definitely a scientist as well as a humanist and a doctor, and I think that's really cool that she's always thinking, "What can I do to get us out of this situation and what am I not seeing?" And that's great. I love that about her character. I also think it's fantastic that we haven't seen her for 20 years and she was doing this exploring, going to all these dangerous places out in space. I mean, that's also would be really fun to see more of what that was like. But I'd love to see more with her space son. That would be fantastic. I use the word fantastic a lot. I've noticed that in my podcasts.

Well, when it fits!

McFADDEN: Anyway, that's about it. Yeah, there you are.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me.

McFADDEN: I hope you love the final episodes as much as I love them.

You can catch McFadden in the Star Trek: Picard series finale which hits Paramount+ on April 19, and you can listen to Seasons 1 and 2 of InvestiGates on your favorite podcast app.

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Star Trek's Alexander Siddig on the Sid City Social Club, DS9 fans, and his love for Julian Bashir

(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

It’s a good — no, great — time to be a Star Trek fan. While in the past, decades have gone by between new Trek projects, current Trekkies have no such dilemma — 2020 alone saw the introduction of new shows Picard and Lower Decks in addition to the third season of Discovery . But while 2020 was filled to the brim with new Star Trek shows, there was another, more unexpected addition to the Star Trek universe that’s helped bring joy to hundreds of fans over the course of COVID-induced lockdown: The Sid City Social Club . 

The brainchild of Deep Space Nine actor Alexander Siddig (Doctor Julian Bashir), the Social Club began in April 2020 as a bi-weekly meeting, a way for Siddig and his fans to connect while also staying safe at home. Fans can sign up on SidCity.net for a slot to chit-chat with the Trek actor about DS9 , cooking, pets — anything that strikes their interest.

Months passed, and the club grew in popularity — what once started out as an experiment (one that Siddig himself was unsure would be successful) slowly grew into a weekly fixture in the Star Trek community, attracting so many attendees that it’s now common for the meetings to hit capacity within seconds of the Zoom link going live on the website. The Social Club’s continued success prompted Siddig to introduce a new feature to the club — readings of fan-written scripts, performed live for attendees each week. 

Initially, the performances were limited to Siddig and fellow Deep Space Nine co-star Andrew Robinson (who played fan-favorite Elim Garak), but since then, just like the club itself, the performances expanded from a one-time performance to a multi-part series featuring appearances from Armin Shimmerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Kira), Cirroc Lofton (Jake), and Terry Farrell (Jadzia). SYFY WIRE (virtually) sat down with Siddig to chat about the evolution of the Social Club, performing the fan-written DS9 play  Alone Together , and his love for the character of Julian Bashir. 

I can’t believe you’ve been doing this since April. Did you expect to be continuing the Social Club for almost a full year?

[ Laughs ] No chance! I thought maybe we'll be doing it for ... just a couple of meetings, and that we’d have to work really hard to get people to come back because they'd be, like, bored. And it just didn't work out that way. It started off as a kind of entertainment but became a sort of group hug.

Why do you think people keep coming back? Like you said, you were worried that you'd have to fight to get people to stay, but now people are crossing their fingers to get on the list to get to talk to you every week. 

I think it's just because it's a really kind group of people. And we've come from everywhere with a load of different lifestyles and places where they live — different countries, continents. And it's reassuring to find that everybody's just really terrific, you know, really gentle and really that you can trust them. And that's hard to do with a group of 100 people in the room.

For you personally, what's your biggest takeaway from doing the club twice a week?

I think I've kind of become dependent on it, in a weird way. I get as much from it as some other people get from it. And I think it's broken down this barrier. I don't think I'm really a ‘celebrity’ anymore to any of those guys, you know. I mean, I am, but that's on the backburner. It's how they met me, but like any friends, you forget that really quickly, and we’re just guys hanging out, and it's really cool that it’s like that.

So the Social Club happens. It's great. People love it. It's amazing. And I'm sitting at home thinking like, wow, I'm so glad this thing happened. But then, on top of that, Alone Together happens. So not only do we get to talk with the actors every week, but we now get to see them performing. How did Alone Together develop? Where did that idea come from? Were you itching to act again? 

No, not at all! At the time, I was really inspired by all those guys in Milan, Italy. Singers and musicians who just got on to their roofs and on their balconies, because they were secluded, and sang and played for free from their balconies. And people got a lot of pleasure out of that. And I thought, "Well actors can't really do that. But you know what we can do? We can do something on zoom." And my wife's childhood best friend happens to be a huge Star Trek fan, I mean encyclopedic understanding of the genre. And he said, "I'll write something." And I said, "Terrific, let's go!"

And he wrote something. And it turned out to be really, really good. And then a bunch of other people wanted to write stuff, and their stuff turned out to be really, really good. So we just did a load of different things, from several authors. 

You've done so many projects — Gotham , Game of Thrones, Syriana , you’ve done all these things… What is it about Star Trek and Julian Bashir that keeps you coming back?

I think of Julian Bashir, as — there's a quote in Chaucer, in Knight's Tale — and you may or may not have read it, and it doesn't matter if you ever do. But they refer to one of the leads as a very perfect, gentle knight. And I see Bashir as a very perfect, gentle knight. He's the knight in shining armor. And when you get to know him, you find him kind of goofy, and you relax around him and you laugh. But he's the knight, you know? He's the guy who comes in and he's the cavalry. And I love that combination of really approachable hero, but faulty — faulty in a way that your friends are faulty, that you still love them, but they've got these irritating faults. And I just love the humaneness of him. He's my superhero.

How did the other Star Trek actors start getting involved in this? We've seen you do projects with Andrew Robinson before, writing plays and performing them at cons, but I feel like it's a whole different beast to have half a dozen of the original actors back.

Well, that was really me just picking up the phone and saying, "Come and watch." Andy [Robinson] and I did the first couple, and then Cirroc [Lofton] arrived. And it was just Matthew becoming more ambitious writing it. And Armin said, "I'll come," and he loved it. And once you've got Armin [Shimmerman], you get Nana [Visitor], and once you get Nana you get Terry [Farrell], and so everybody just piled in. 

DS9 turns 28 this year, and fandom is still very much alive and well. There was the documentary a few years back, now the Social Club, and then you have these new plays. What do you think has kept DS9 active all these years?

The fan base. They’re a kooky bunch, but they like to be in touch with each other. This group is really nurturing, and they’re just a very approachable group. You'd be surprised just how many people who thought they were kind of lost, found us, and don't feel lost anymore — which is really encouraging. I mean, people who are kind of outsiders, people who don't consider themselves one of the pack, people who don't consider themselves the life and soul of a party — that doesn't really describe the DS9 fan. I mean, we do have our lives and souls. But they've kind of come out of a closet [ Laughs ]. They weren’t lives and souls before they came out. And that's been really cool. So we get a lot of gender-fluid people, you know, nonbinary folk, and neurodivergent people. I think that those bonds created by people who have trouble creating bonds, are stronger than anything. So they've lasted for decades. I see faces in the Social Club who I've seen for 30 years. 

Credit: CBS

Before I let you go, we saw characters from The Next Generation and Voyager pop up in Picard . If you were asked, would you come back for Picard ? Would you like to see Bashir again?

If they respected the fact that I think of Bashir as my very perfect gentleman knight, then I would happily do that. If they mess with that image I have of him, then they'd be in all kinds of trouble.

Where would you want to see them take the character? If you had full control over Bashir’s arc, where would you go?

I don't know. I love not having control. So I would be really excited to see what another writer can come up with. My ideas are invariably the worst, you can just talk to my wife [Laughs].  But when I meet other people and listen to their ideas, suddenly something starts to cook and I look forward to someone else coming up with a good idea. I have a feeling that one of these days, he'll turn up.

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Published Sep 21, 2016

Catching Up with Alexander Siddig, Part 2

That blur you saw may very well have been Alexander Siddig zipping from one project to the next. Really. Siddig, who was known as Siddig El Fadil for much of his run as Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , is everywhere. He died a horrendous death as Doran Martell on Game of Thrones , co-stars on Peaky Blinders and just wrapped production on The Kennedys: After Camelot , a miniseries set to air next year. He even co-starred in a series pilot, Recon , that sounded fascinating, but failed to receive a pickup. And, yes, Siddig occasionally finds time in his schedule to appear at a Star Trek convention. In fact, he’s set to touch down in Birmingham, England, next month for Destination Star Trek Europe , which will be held October 7-9 at the NEC Birmingham. StarTrek.com recently chatted with Siddig about his current projects, DS9 past and appreciation for fans and conventions. Below is part two of our conversation; click HERE to read part one.

Post- Deep Space Nine , you have enjoyed a remarkably productive career. Obviously, a lot of it is earned and…

Luck is the right word.

We’ve heard Trek actors say they were typecast. You have done series after series and worked on big movies. How satisfied are you with life post- Star Trek ? And how fearful were you when you wrapped DS9 that you would not be in this position as we speak?

Well, I do remember telling someone, and it may have been you, while we were filming Deep Space Nine , in the last couple of years when the writing was on the wall. Someone said, “Very few actors from Star Trek carry on working.” I remember saying that it’s up to me, that everyone can be typecast, but you’ve just got to go out there and show that you’ve got a store with more variety in it than people expect. The lucky thing about it, I think in retrospect, was that I wasn’t really playing an Arab, per se, on Deep Space Nine . He had a kind of vaguely Eastern heritage, but no one really put their finger on anything. He could have been Pakistani, he could have been Indian, he could have been half of those. He could have been Arabic. No one was quite sure. The name was Arabic, but no one really knows the genealogy of names, or etymology of names. So no one really thought of me as an Arab actor, and I got a chance to really be an Arab actor when I left, because obviously horrible things happened in 9/11, and that was just a few years after the show wound to a close.

The world of entertainment looked around, and they said, “Well we just don’t have many Arab actors who anyone knows apart from Omar Sharif.” So I got work, because producers wanted a familiar-ish face on the screen. There were a couple of jobs I didn’t get because of the fact that I had been on Star Trek , but that was because producers thought Star Trek was corny, and some people were like that back in those days. Nowadays everything is reversed, and nerdy things are hip, and all that macho bulls--it is not hip anymore. So I was extremely lucky; it really was luck. And then I kind of started to forge a career as basically a character actor who did some leads every now and then, which is baffling, but wonderful. So I’ve been doing a really versatile set of roles, from really wildly different things, but different audiences. I’ve spread myself so thin, but there’s not really one demographic that hasn’t seen, or been in the position, to see something that I’ve done, for which I’m really proud and feeling really lucky. I feel really blessed.

Let’s switch to DS9 and Dr. Bashir. Looking back, what were some of the elements of the character that you most enjoyed exploring?

I think the thing that I was most anxious to impress upon the producers and the public at large was that this was a real boy, this was a real novice adult, and my being in L.A. at that time — he was, in a funny way, an anti-L.A. character. I was looking around L.A., I was going to certain parties. I was never good at parties, even before I went to L.A., and I certainly wasn’t good at them when I went to L.A., but I went to several, because I was young, and it was a crew, and you just float around and do stuff to keep things amusing. Although a lot of these youngsters who I was around, the young cast members from other hit shows, whether it was 90210 or Melrose Place or the beginning of ER at the time, and there was a group of actors who were floating around. I wasn’t impressed by what was happening to them. I thought there was a false projection of importance, and richness. L.A. is very dangerous in that way, because there is an enormous pressure to be wealthy, and to show your wealth. If you don’t look wealthy, then people don’t somehow respect you. You can’t just have a talent, a unique talent, you’ve got to have wealth to prove that your talent is successful, it is marketable, it is usable.

So… it’s not a town for poets.

It’s a town for beautiful young things, who have translated that beauty into wealth. And there’s something kind of sickening about that, and demoralizing about what the world wants to see, because you don’t just want to see people like that are the only people that do well. So Bashir was a kind of reflection of my idea of what that was, which is “Please don’t be that kind of person. Please be just a normal person who may seem to have the world at his feet, but keeps tripping up as he walks into a room, keeps having trouble.” And when the writers started writing shows where he made huge errors as a doctor and killed lots of people, that was so anti-heroic, and so wrong for television at the time, which then was all self-congratulatory, self-preening and vain. You look at Melrose Place or 90210 , these were white people’s problems those kids went through. Baywatch was on, too. That was another thing that was happening at that time. I think maybe just coming to an end, but nevertheless, it was the celebration of beautiful mediocrity that I really didn’t enjoy about it. That was basically the fashion at the time in L.A. Thank goodness the world has changed a lot since.

I was kicking back against it, and Bashir was actually really unpopular at the beginning because audiences just didn’t know what to make of him. This was not a kid who was beautiful and knew it, and strutted his stuff, and picked up all the girls. He just wasn’t that guy, but that was the fashion. So we had a few difficult years at the beginning, and I remember Rick (Berman), bless his cotton socks, would defend me to the studio for the first two seasons because they were desperate to fire me. And he said, “No, over my dead body. I picked this guy, I’m going to stick with this guy.” And over time, people changed their minds about Bashir, I think. A lot of people, you know, probably not the Trump supporters, which there were those in those days… There is a demographic that would never like someone like Bashir. He’s just not manly enough. But a lot of other people really loved him, really liked what he did. And a lot more humans, fragile humans, that exist everywhere, really identified with him. I still get letters of thanks from people who had a slightly tougher time in life than the ideal American Dream unraveling, which is sort of that myth. People who didn’t see America that way, didn’t feel their lives follow that path. So I got those people.

A lot of gay guys, young gay guys who were clearly vulnerable at that time, because AIDS was sort of at its apotheosis at that time, so they were not comfortable in their own skin. People who weren’t comfortable in their own skin, people who didn’t feel like the quarterback on the team, or the cheerleader, they were the people that really liked Bashir. And since then, obviously, I think society has changed. I think that Deep Space Nine has become more relevant, weirdly, in the years that have ensued, and Bashir has become more accepted.

If we made you sit and watch three episodes of DS9 with us, which three would you pick? And why?

Really good question. Really difficult to answer because I never remembered the episodes when they came out, and I never watched the show. So elements of this might be influenced by what fans have told me over the years they really liked, and I’m like, “OK, that’s the one I liked too.” I think from a historical point of view, there is one episode that stands out that has nothing particular to do with Deep Space Nine , but it was such an unusual, such a beautiful homage, and that’s “ Trials and Tribble-ations .” That has to be on that list because it’s just such a great idea. I think “ Our Man Bashir ” was probably one of the most important in terms of changing attitudes towards Bashir. I think that was probably one of the most-influential episodes. I don’t know if it’s one of the best, but it is certainly super-influential. I remember opinions began to change after that episode. So that would probably be an important one, historically. And the third episode would probably be “ The Quickening .” “ Far Beyond the Stars ” is wonderful, too. Like I do with rock bands, I change my mind about what my favorite is every couple of weeks, but I just like the premise of “The Quickening.” It’s not on everybody’s top five list, but it’s one of those episodes I think is really important.

Destination Star Trek Europe will be held October 7-9 at the NEC Birmingham. Go to www.destinationstartrek.com for details.

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Alexander Siddig

• View history
• 1 Biography
• 2.1 Television
• 2.3 Other works
• 3.1 Appearances as Julian Bashir
• 3.2 Additional voice credits
• 4 Directorial credits
• 5 Star Trek interviews
• 6 External links

Biography [ ]

Alexander Siddig was born Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi in Sudan, in Northern Africa, but spent most of his life in Britain where he attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). His uncle on his mother's side is actor Malcolm McDowell ; another uncle, on his father's side, was twice the prime minister of Sudan.

Siddig attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) to study acting and theater; after leaving LAMDA he did a stage season in Manchester and worked as a director at a small London theater.

When he began acting, he adopted a shortened version of his name, Siddig El Fadil . He then changed his acting credit to Alexander Siddig at the start of the fourth season of Deep Space Nine . According to Siddig, " My name was a little confusing to people. And not just the audience. Casting directors are much more incapable of remembering one's name than the audience. And producers can be handicapped in that too. The other name said too much about what I wasn't. Siddig El Fadil is an important name. It is my name, officially, on my passport and all that, and one that I will keep. But for an actor it wasn't so suitable. So I started again, with half and half, which is more reflective of my character. As for Alexander, that was just a name out of a hat ". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. 257)) His directorial credit remained as El Fadil for one DS9 episode he directed: " Business as Usual ".

A union between Siddig and his Deep Space Nine co-star Nana Visitor produced a son, Django El Tahir El Siddig. Visitor's pregnancy was incorporated into the show by having the unborn child of the married Keiko O'Brien (played by Rosalind Chao ) transplanted to the womb of Visitor's character, the unmarried Kira Nerys . Django was born on 16 September 1996, during production on the DS9 episode " Let He Who Is Without Sin... ". Siddig and Visitor were married on 14 June 1997. The two divorced in 2001, two years after Deep Space Nine wrapped production.

In 2005, Siddig was briefly romantically linked in the press with actress Kim Cattrall , herself a Star Trek alumna, having played Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . [2]

Television [ ]

In 1979, Siddig had an uncredited non-speaking role as Tutankhamun in the BBC children's show Extraordinary , which was produced by a friend of his parents. [3]

Siddig first appeared to television audiences as Prince Feisal in the 1990 made-for-TV sequel to Lawrence of Arabia entitled A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia . When auditions came for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1992 , Siddig was originally considered for the role of Benjamin Sisko , but was reportedly deemed too young for the role. Michael Piller commented: " Rick [Berman] discovered Siddig on a PBS show, A Dangerous Man , a prequel to Lawrence of Arabia , in which he played King Farouk, and was very good. We'd been looking for Sisko from here to eternity and we told our people in Europe to find this fellow. We brought him in and we looked at him and he just jumped off the screen. There wasn't another doctor candidate. He was just delightful. We had not met Avery Brooks at that point and we asked ourselves, could Siddig possibly be Sisko? And we found out he was twenty-five years old, and that was too young ". ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p 21) [4] (X)

In 2009, Siddig gave an interview in which he remarked that he is mainly recognized for his role on Deep Space Nine and that he once had to wait for three hours in an airport for the FBI to arrive, just so they could have his autograph (Timestamp 8:46). [5]

Siddig continues to perform for television on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2003 he guest starred in an episode of the popular BBC spy drama series Spooks (screened as MI5 in the United States) and in 2004 appeared in the TV movie The Hamburg Cell . In 2005, he appeared in a major role in an episode of the British detective series Agatha Christie's Poirot entitled "Cards on the Table". In 2006 he starred in the BBC television movie Hannibal , playing the title character (opposite Ben Cross ). Also in 2006, he lent his voice to the "Patriot Games" episode of Family Guy , an animated series created by Trek fan Seth MacFarlane . He again voiced two characters in a 2009 episode of Family Guy .

In 2007, Siddig appeared as former terrorist Hamri Al-Assad in the sixth season of the hit FOX TV series 24 . Other Trek actors to appear that season include Michael Reilly Burke , James Cromwell , Roger Cross , Gregory Itzin , Glenn Morshower , Natalia Nogulich , Raphael Sbarge , and Maury Sterling . He also played a villain in an episode of the BBC series Merlin in 2008 with, which was broadcast on NBC in 2009.

In September 2009, Siddig appeared in the BBC forensic crime drama Waking the Dead as Dr. Mohammed, a psychiatrist at a high security psychiatric hospital who is hiding a dark secret. In April 2010, it was announced that Siddig had joined the cast of the British science fiction series Primeval [6] for series 4 and 5, airing in 2011. On this show, he played Phillip Burton, a charismatic scientist and technology tycoon who is a private contractor put in charge of running the Government's "Anomaly Research Centre" but is secretly using the technology developed for his own purposes. In 2010, he also appeared in two episodes of Strike Back .

In 2012, he made guest appearances in the TV series True Love and Falcón .

From 2013 through 2015, Siddig played the recurring role of Al-Rahim throughout the run of the BBC/Starz fantasy-adventure drama Da Vinci's Demons . In 2013, he portrayed King Minos on the BBC series Atlantis , which aired in the U.K. and Canada and premiered on BBC America in November. He voiced Isaac Newton in an episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and was narrator in the TV movie Egyptian Vice . In 2015 he appeared in the mini-series Tut , starring Ben Kingsley.

In 2015 and 2016, he played Prince Doran Martell in the fifth and sixth seasons of Game of Thrones . [7] He was also interviewed for the GoT fifth season specials "New Characters/New Locations" and "Anatomy of an Episode: Mother's Mercy". In 2016, he also appeared in the TV movie Recon , several episodes of Peaky Blinders (with Tom Hardy and Annabelle Wallis ) and in 2017 appeared in The Kennedys After Camelot as Aristotle Onassis (with Jonathan Whittaker ).

In 2017 and 2018, he portrayed the recurring role of Ra's al Ghul in the FOX series Gotham , with episodes featuring John Doman and Dakin Matthews . In 2021, he appeared in the Star Wars animated show The Bad Batch , starring Dee Bradley Baker . He is currently filming the upcoming Netflix limited series The Spy , starring Sascha Baron Cohen. [8]

In 1987, Siddig had a small role in the movie Sammy and Rosie Get Laid . In 1998, he also voiced several roles in the Tiantic -tie in video game Titanic Explorer (alongside Olivia d'Abo , Michael Gough , and Michael Ensign ).

Siddig has worked extensively in major motion pictures since production on Deep Space Nine came to an end in 1999 . In 2000, he appeared as an ill-fated mountain climber in Vertical Limit . Two years later, he had a role in the fantasy action film Reign of Fire , alongside Trek guest star Alice Krige (though the two did not share any scenes together).

Siddig co-starred in two major feature films in 2005: Ridley Scott's epic Kingdom of Heaven and Stephen Gaghan's highly-acclaimed Syriana . His performance as reformist Arabian Prince Nasir Al-Subaai in the latter film garnered Siddig much praise and even early talks of a possible Academy Award nomination. [9] [10] [11] [12] Syriana also featured fellow Trek performers Christopher Plummer , Robert Foxworth , and David Clennon .

In 2006, Siddig appeared as the angel Gabriel in the Biblical drama The Nativity Story (with Shohreh Aghdashloo ). He followed this with roles in the 2007 war epic The Last Legion , set during the last days of the Roman Empire, and the 2007 French drama, Un Homme Perdu (A Lost Man) . He then played Prime Minister John Hatcher in the 2008 futuristic action thriller Doomsday, co-starring with his uncle, Malcolm McDowell, and appeared in the short movie The Boundary .

Siddig appeared in another French movie, Espion(s) , and starred in a 2009 film entitled Cairo Time , which shot on location in Cairo, Egypt. In the film, Siddig played a retired Egyptian police officer sent to pick up his friend's wife, only to begin an affair with her. The following year, Siddig was seen in the blockbuster action/fantasy film Clash of the Titans , in which he appeared as Hermes/Mercury, and in 4.3.2.1 , an independent film that was written, produced and co-directed by Star Trek Into Darkness actor Noel Clarke . Siddig also co-starred in director Julian Schnabel 's 2010 drama Miral , acting out the father of the title character, a young woman who witnessed Hind Husseini's efforts to establish an orphanage in 1948 Jerusalem.

In 2012 and 2013, Siddig was the star on the Canadian thriller Inescapable (with Saad Siddiqui ) and appeared in the comic drama May in the Summer . He could then be seen in The Fifth Estate , a dramatic thriller about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , played in the film by Star Trek Into Darkness actor Benedict Cumberbatch .

In 2016, he played characters in City of Tiny Lights and the short movie Baby Mine and in 2017 co-starred in Submergence .

Other works [ ]

On stage, Siddig appeared with Kim Cattrall in a production of the play Whose Life Is It Anyway in 2005. It was as a result of this pairing that Siddig and Cattrall, both alumni of the LAMDA, began dating soon afterwards. In 2014, he played Saladin in the London-based play Holy Warriors .

Between 2008 and 2012, Siddig lent his voice to four Doctor Who audio dramas, making him one of few people to be involved in both Star Trek and Doctor Who productions. In one of those dramas the Doctor was voiced by Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), who had a character named after him in an okudagram and later appeared in Star Trek Continues . In 2015, he voiced the character Wolf in the radio drama Tumanbay .

Star Trek appearances [ ]

Appearances as Julian Bashir [ ]

• TNG : " Birthright, Part I "
• " Emissary " (first appearance)
• " Past Prologue "
• " A Man Alone "
• " Captive Pursuit "
• " The Passenger "
• " Move Along Home "
• " The Nagus "
• " Battle Lines "
• " The Storyteller "
• " Progress "
• " If Wishes Were Horses "
• " The Forsaken "
• " Dramatis Personae "
• " In the Hands of the Prophets "
• " The Homecoming "
• " The Circle "
• " The Siege "
• " Invasive Procedures "
• " Cardassians "
• " Rules of Acquisition "
• " Necessary Evil "
• " Second Sight "
• " Sanctuary "
• " The Alternate "
• " Armageddon Game "
• " Whispers "
• " Shadowplay "
• " Playing God "
• " Profit and Loss "
• " The Maquis, Part I "
• " The Maquis, Part II "
• " The Wire "
• " Crossover "
• " Tribunal "
• " The Jem'Hadar "
• " The Search, Part I "
• " The Search, Part II "
• " The House of Quark "
• " Equilibrium "
• " Second Skin "
• " The Abandoned "
• " Civil Defense "
• " Meridian "
• " Defiant "
• " Fascination "
• " Past Tense, Part I "
• " Past Tense, Part II "
• " Life Support "
• " Heart of Stone "
• " Destiny "
• " Prophet Motive "
• " Visionary "
• " Distant Voices "
• " Through the Looking Glass "
• " Improbable Cause "
• " The Die is Cast "
• " Explorers "
• " Family Business "
• " Shakaar "
• " The Adversary "
• " The Way of the Warrior "
• " The Visitor "
• " Hippocratic Oath "
• " Indiscretion "
• " Rejoined "
• " Starship Down "
• " Little Green Men "
• " The Sword of Kahless "
• " Our Man Bashir "
• " Homefront "
• " Paradise Lost "
• " Crossfire "
• " Return to Grace "
• " Sons of Mogh "
• " Bar Association "
• " Accession "
• " Rules of Engagement "
• " Hard Time "
• " Shattered Mirror "
• " The Muse "
• " For the Cause "
• " To the Death "
• " The Quickening "
• " Body Parts "
• " Broken Link "
• " Apocalypse Rising "
• " The Ship "
• " Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places "
• " Nor the Battle to the Strong "
• " The Assignment "
• " Trials and Tribble-ations "
• " Let He Who Is Without Sin... "
• " Things Past "
• " The Ascent "
• " Rapture "
• " The Darkness and the Light "
• " The Begotten "
• " In Purgatory's Shadow "
• " By Inferno's Light "
• " Doctor Bashir, I Presume "
• " A Simple Investigation "
• " Business as Usual "
• " Ties of Blood and Water "
• " Ferengi Love Songs "
• " Soldiers of the Empire "
• " Children of Time "
• " Blaze of Glory "
• " Empok Nor "
• " In the Cards "
• " Call to Arms "
• " A Time to Stand "
• " Rocks and Shoals "
• " Sons and Daughters "
• " Behind the Lines "
• " Favor the Bold "
• " Sacrifice of Angels "
• " You Are Cordially Invited "
• " Resurrection "
• " Statistical Probabilities "
• " The Magnificent Ferengi "
• " Who Mourns for Morn? "
• " Far Beyond the Stars "
• " One Little Ship "
• " Honor Among Thieves "
• " Change of Heart "
• " Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night "
• " Inquisition "
• " In the Pale Moonlight "
• " His Way "
• " The Reckoning "
• " Valiant "
• " Profit and Lace "
• " Time's Orphan "
• " The Sound of Her Voice "
• " Tears of the Prophets "
• " Image in the Sand "
• " Shadows and Symbols "
• " Afterimage "
• " Take Me Out to the Holosuite "
• " Chrysalis "
• " Treachery, Faith and the Great River "
• " Once More Unto the Breach "
• " The Siege of AR-558 "
• " Covenant "
• " It's Only a Paper Moon "
• " Prodigal Daughter "
• " The Emperor's New Cloak "
• " Field of Fire "
• " Chimera "
• " Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang "
• " Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges "
• " Penumbra "
• " 'Til Death Do Us Part "
• " Strange Bedfellows "
• " The Changing Face of Evil "
• " When It Rains... "
• " Tacking Into the Wind "
• " Extreme Measures "
• " The Dogs of War "
• " What You Leave Behind "

Additional voice credits [ ]

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen as Julian Bashir
• Star Trek Online as Julian Bashir

Directorial credits [ ]

• " Business as Usual " (as Siddig El Fadil)

Star Trek interviews [ ]

• DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Section 31-Hidden File 07" (interview from 18 September 1992 )
• DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine Scrapbook Year One" (interview from 18 September 1992)
• DS9 Season 4 DVD special feature "Section 31-Hidden File 01"

External links [ ]

• SidCity.net – official site
• Alexander Siddig at Wikipedia
• Alexander Siddig at the Internet Movie Database
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

• About SidCity.net
• Sid’s Biography
• Letters from Siddig: August 2010
• Letters from Siddig: September 2009
• Letters from Siddig: November 2007
• Letters from Siddig: March 2007
• Letters from Siddig: June 2006
• Letters from Siddig: December 2004
• Letters from Siddig: December 2001
• Letters from Siddig: September 2001
• Letters from Siddig: July 1999
• The Kennedys – After Camelot (2017)
• Recon (2016)
• Peaky Blinders (2016-?)
• Game of Thrones (2015-2016)
• Holy Warriors (2014)
• Da Vinci’s Demons (2013-2015)
• Atlantis (2013)
• The Fifth Estate (2013)
• May in the Summer (2013)
• Cairo Time (2009)
• Doomsday (2008)
• The Last Legion (2007)
• Un Homme Perdu (2007)
• Hannibal (2006)
• The Nativity Story (2006)
• Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
• Poirot: Cards on the Table (2005)
• Syriana (2005)
• Spooks (2003)
• Reign of Fire (2002)
• D&I Con 2023
• SCSC Book Club
• Sid City Social Club Guest List
• Sid City Social Club Presentations
• Poetry & Prose: Reading List
• Sid City Social Club 2020 Playlist
• Sid City Social Club International Cookbook
• Sid City Social Club BINGO Cards

Appearances

Want to see Alexander Siddig in person? Find out where you can meet him with this confirmed list of convention appearances.

NOTE: All appearances are subject to change based on filming schedules. 

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‘Monsters’ Traps Picard in the Uncanny Valley Between Star Trek and Prestige TV

This discussion and review contains some spoilers for Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 7, “Monsters.”

“Monsters” is a structural mess, an episode of Star Trek: Picard that botches the execution of what should be a series of seismic revelations about the early life of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart).

Modern Star Trek often seems trapped in an uncanny valley between prestige television and something much more banal. The modern iterations of the franchise long for the trappings of prestige television, with their moral ambiguity and character-driven storytelling, while yearning for the familiar comforts of the traditional procedural. “Monsters” is an episode that runs aground of this approach, lost in the gulf between these two irreconcilable approaches to storytelling.

The central hook of Picard is the idea of doing The Lion in Winter with one of the two best actors ever to grace the Star Trek franchise, to reflect on the legacy and the impact of a hugely influential piece of pop culture in a radically changed landscape. In its best moments, Picard seems to offer genuinely challenging and provocative questions of its central figure. What happened to the future that Jean-Luc Picard promised? What does the old man see when he looks back over his life?

The second season of Picard teased earth-shattering revelations about its central character, promising to get under the skin of a character defined by stoicism and restraint. “He’s wrestling with — or better yet, ignoring — the puzzle pieces of his past that are stopping him from embracing his future,” said showrunner Terry Matalas in pre-season interviews . “Of course, the re-appearance of Q is going to force him to look inward and get to the bottom of some of these issues.”

Patrick Stewart boasted that the season would offer a window into “ more of the romantic and emotional life of Picard .” This is an exciting hook. Part of the appeal of Star Trek: The Next Generation was the way that Stewart gave Picard a rich and vivid inner light, but his ability to really dig into the character was confined by the rigid episodic structure of a syndicated 1990s television show. There was never room, for example, to unpack the consequences of “ The Inner Light .”

In the years since The Next Generation wrapped up, television has become a more character-centric medium. Modern shows are willing to spend more time exploring the psychology and motivations of complex leading men. Brett Martin’s history of the revolution in cable television that led to shows like The Sopranos , Mad Men , The Wire , and Breaking Bad was even titled Difficult Men . The USA Network even adopted the promise “ Characters Welcome ” as its tagline in 2005.

Part of what is frustrating about Star Trek: Picard is the show’s half-hearted effort to have it both ways, to awkwardly strive towards the sort of nuance and interiority of those more sophisticated dramas while always retreating back into the comforts of nostalgia for fear of over-complicating a beloved character. This has been a problem with the show from the outset, most obvious in how the first season bungled its themes of generational failure for fear of alienating nostalgic fans .

“Monsters” snaps under these competing pressures. The episode is built around the idea of giving Picard a central personal trauma rooted in childhood that could be used to explain decades of characterization. Even before delving into the botched execution of all this, there is something reductive in that premise, in the idea that Picard’s emotional stoicism and restraint is something that needs to be “explained” by some formative event.

It is part of a larger pop culture trend, reducing characters to sets of simple “if… then…” inputs and outputs. This logic demands Cruella de Vil be given an origin story to explain her feelings about dalmatians and why she has such a comically evil name . It isn’t just pulp media that suffers from this — prestige television also falls into this trap. Mad Men over-elaborated on Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) history in such absurd convoluted detail that it becomes “ the backstory of a serial killer .”

“Monsters” focuses on conversations inside Picard’s head, in which the character confronts a therapist (James Callis) digging into his psyche. The therapist opines that Picard has “built such walls around (his) wounds that even a Betazoid can’t get a read.” He demands, “Why do you find it so difficult to be open, Jean-Luc?” He presses, “There’s a version of yourself you’re hiding.” He challenges, “What is it? What is it you define yourself by?” It is all trite and simplistic.

“Monsters” aspires to be a mature and sophisticated piece of character work. The scenes with the therapist evoke the structural framework of The Sopranos . The emphasis on repressed childhood trauma suggests Mad Men . There’s a seriousness to all this, right down to the casting of James Callis from Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica , one of the rare recent science fiction television shows to make a clear effort to break out of “ the ghetto ” to which such shows are often confined.

However, Picard simply isn’t capable of committing to what it is doing. “Monsters” initially suggests that Jean-Luc grew up in an abusive home, that his mother Yvette (Madeline Wise) was victimized by his father Maurice (also Callis), and that young Jean-Luc had internalized that horror. It is a very cynical approach to characterization — reducing trauma to a plot hook — but it might explain why Jean-Luc Picard grew up to be so wary of familial attachment and his own relationship to children.

Indeed, there are interesting implications bubbling beneath the surface in all this. Picard’s description of Yvette as “the Queen” with “fiery red hair” has decidedly Oedipal connotations given his complicated psycho-sexual relationships with both the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) in First Contact and redhead Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) on The Next Generation . The fact that Crusher was herself a mother, and any relationship would make Picard a father, adds interesting shading.

However, “Monsters” isn’t willing to actually delve into any of this. Instead, the episode quickly reveals that Picard’s memory of events, which was literally only just revealed to the audience, was wrong. In fact, Yvette dealt with mental illness. Maurice tried to protect both Yvette and Jean-Luc as best he could. Ignoring the cynicism of reducing Picard’s entire character to a simple game of cause and effect, there are the bones of interesting ideas here.

On paper, Yvette’s mental illness adds a sense of tragedy to her son’s diagnosis with the degenerative Irumodic Syndrome in “ All Good Things… ,” as growing up with that kind of condition within a family inevitably leaves scars. It also fits neatly with the recurring suggestion that Picard has become a reluctant surrogate father figure who “feels like a dad” to Rios (Santiago Cabrera) and who Jurati (Alison Pill) wished was her father in “ Assimilation .”

Unfortunately, “Monsters” isn’t actually interested in exploring these ideas in anything more than a superficial way. Instead, it reduces these revelations to mere plot points. They feel more like the summary of a Wikipedia (or Memory Alpha) article than an actual engaging narrative. The episode plays like a series of index cards arranged on a whiteboard, rather than a story that has been carefully constructed and articulated.

In “Monsters,” the audience learns an earth-shattering revelation about its central character, only to quickly discover that this was just a red herring and so immediately learns another completely different earth-shattering revelation. Even in terms of basic structure, these revelations would make more sense scattered across a whole season — establishing the fractured marriage in the season premiere and then developing it across the season, adding nuance and shading in an organic manner.

To be fair, this is a common problem with a lot of modern genre fiction, particularly those rooted in existing intellectual property. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has exactly the same problem. The film pauses right before the climax for a 10-minute explanation of the backstory of Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), only to immediately pause again and explain that the previous explanation was wrong and deliver another corrective 10-minute explanation of his real backstory.

The result of this approach is that none of this feels real or tangible. It just feels disposable. Ironically, despite gesturing at the tropes of prestige television, “Monsters” feels like a nostalgic throwback. This makes sense given how hard the second season of Picard has leaned into a “play the hits” approach to Star Trek . “Monsters” feels like the sort of one-and-done disposable tragic backstory episodes that older Star Trek shows would churn out and forget about.

These episodes were often terrible, built around hackneyed revelations like the death of Deanna Troi’s (Marina Sirtis) sister Kestra (Kirsten Dunst) in “ Dark Page ,” how Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) intentionally academically self-sabotaged in “ Distant Voices ,” or how Worf (Michael Dorn) straight-up killed a kid one time in “ Let He Who Is Without Sin… ” There were exceptions — great episodes like “ Doctor Bashir, I Presume ” or “ Gravity ” — but they largely existed to prove the rule.

There’s something exhausting in all this. “Monsters” essentially ends with a retread of the cliffhanger from “Assimilation,” albeit without any of the contemporary resonance. At the end of “Assimilation,” Rios was abducted by I.C.E. as an illegal immigrant, a striking and daring choice. In contrast, “Monsters” ends with Picard and Guinan (Ito Aghayere) taken into FBI custody, in what feels like just another ( understandable ) excuse to limit Sir Patrick Stewart’s potential exposure to COVID.

“Monsters” finds Picard caught between aspiring to be prestige television and formulaic Star Trek , and it does neither particularly well.

Michael Dorn Wanted Worf To Kill Quark In Star Trek: Picard, Says Armin Shimerman

• Michael Dorn wanted to kill Quark, not Sneed, in Star Trek: Picard season 3, but Armin Shimerman shut down the idea.
• Michael and Armin are friends in real life, making the request to kill Quark surprising to him.
• Listen to TrekMovie's All Access Star Trek podcast to hear more from Shimerman, Kitty Swink, and Jonathan Frakes about this funny Trek tidbit.

Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) killed the Ferengi named Sneed (Aaron Stanford) in Star Trek: Picard season 3, but Armin Shimerman says it was Quark who Dorn wanted to kill instead. Dorn and Shimerman starred together in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine seasons 4-7. Although the Klingon warrior never liked the Ferengi bartender, in real life, Michael is good friends with Armin and his wife, Kitty Swink - which is why Dorn's request for Worf to murder Quark caught Shimerman off guard.

Appearing on TrekMovie 's All Access Star Trek podcast to promote Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer 's fundraising and walk at PanCAN PurpleStride, Armin Shimerman, Kitty Swink, and Jonathan Frakes (joined by Juan Carlos Coto), Kitty asked Armin to recount the story of Michael Dorn requesting Worf kill Quark in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Read their quotes and listen to the clip on TrekMovie 's X post below:

Armin Shimerman: Dorn called me up and said, Im doing an episode of Picard where I kill off a Ferengi. Wouldnt it be great if it were you? I said no, it would not be great. I told him just to forget about that idea altogether. Kitty Swink: I gotta say, for all the times Ive baked bread for Michael Dorn, that was really a sh****y thing for him to say. (laughs) Jonathan Frakes: Im not sure he knew he was gonna cut his head off. Armin Shimerman: He knew that, he knew that. Because thats what he said to me. Jonathan Frakes: But that Ferengi was based on on your Ferengi, and the tightrope you walked, all levity aside, to represent what Roddenberry thought was this despicable capitalist pig with huge ears, and yet be humorous, smart, charming, clever all the qualities that Quark had and still be essentially a villain, and do it through rubber It takes a special actor, which you are.

You can listen to and download the excellent episode of TrekMovie 's All Access Star Trek Podcast here .

Star Trek Picard Season 3 Ending Explained (In Detail)

What is trek against pancreatic cancer, star trek is fighting against this deadly disease.

Jonathan Frakes, Armin Shimerman, Kitty Swink, John Billingsley, and Juan Carlos Coto formed a team called Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer to raise funds and awareness toward fighting the deadly diseas e. Frakes lost his brother to pancreatic cancer, as did Juan Carlos Coto, whose brother was Star Trek: Enterprise showrunner Manny Coto . Billingsley's mother died from the disease, while Shimerman's wife, Kitty Swink, is a 19-year survivor.

Star Trek continues to show its commitment to helping others.

Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer is walking at Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's PanCAN PurpleStride on Saturday, April 27 in Los Angeles. PurpleStride events are taking place in 60 cities across America on that day. Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer is the top fundraising team at PurpleStride, and if you wish to donate or learn more, their team page is PurpleStride.org/TeamTrek. Star Trek continues to show its commitment to helping others, and Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer is symbolic of living up to Star Trek 's ideals.

Source: TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast

Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are available to stream on Paramount+

Cast Orla Brady, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Jeri Ryan, Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Marina Sirtis, Amanda Plummer, Whoopi Goldberg, Gates McFadden, Todd Stashwick, Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, John de Lancie, Ed Speleers

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Michael Chabon

Directors Terry Matalas, Jonathan Frakes

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Michael Chabon

Cast Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Rene Auberjonois, Nicole de Boer, Michael Dorn, Andrew Robinson, Nana Visitor, Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig

Writers Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller, Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller

Where To Watch Paramount+

Screen Rant

Picard never appeared in star trek’s mirror universe but his doppelganger was just as evil.

TNG never visited the Mirror Universe, but Star Trek: Picard revealed that the Confederation of Earth's Jean-Luc was just as evil as any Terran.

• General Picard's reign of terror in the Confederate Earth was just as brutal as the Mirror Universe's Terran Empire.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation never visited the Mirror Universe due to a cooler, scientific approach by the producers.
• Fans had to wait until Star Trek: Picard to meet General Picard's evil alternate, as TNG rejected the idea.

Audiences never met the Mirror Universe version of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), but Star Trek: Picard revealed that he had an evil doppelgänger who was just as evil as anyone in the Terran Empire. In Picard season 2, the machinations of Q (John de Lancie) created an alternate timeline in which the United Federation of Planets becomes the Confederation of Earth. This brutal regime was the antithesis of Star Trek's Federation, drawing comparisons between the Confederation and the Terran Empire .

Both the Confederation and the Terran Empire placed humanity above all other species in the galaxy, leading to a bloody and brutal subjugation of other alien races. As Star Trek: TNG didn't visit the Mirror Universe , General Picard was the closest that fans got to seeing his evil counterpart. Just like the Mirror Universe version of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), the Confederation's General Picard was a cruel despot who had conquered countless worlds and killed scores of enemies .

Worf Ruled The Mirror Universe In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (No, Really)

General picard of confederation of earth was as evil as mirror universe.

Of the many reveals about Star Trek: Picard 's Confederation , the information about General Picard and his reign of terror was the most chilling. General Picard annihilated the Klingon home world Qo'noS, much like the Mirror Universe's Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) did in Star Trek: Discovery . Rather than command the USS Enterprise-D, Picard was in command of the CSS World Razer, a fearsome looking starship of which an oil painting was hung in the General's study . General Picard's study was also decorated with the skulls of some notable Star Trek figures, including:

• Borg Sentinel One of Two
• Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn)
• Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo)
• General Martok (J.G. Hertzler)
• Director Sarek (Mark Lenard)

Like his Prime Universe counterpart, General Picard also had a synthetic body, which he had acquired following a battle with Gul Dukat . The General's chateau was staffed by both Romulan and synthetic slaves, who maintained his home while he was on important business for the Confederation Corps. When Prime Picard arrives in the Confederation reality in Star Trek: Picard season 2, it's on the eve of Eradication Day, in which the General is scheduled to publicly execute the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching). The Borg Queen's skull would have joined the others in Picard's trophy room if Jean-Luc and the La Ceritos crew hadn't saved her.

Why Star Trek: The Next Generation Never Went To The Mirror Universe

The notion of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode set in the Mirror Universe existed from as early as 1987, when David Gerrold joked about a sequel to "Mirror, Mirror" in Starlog magazine which would have featured Edith Keeler (Joan Collins) and dangerous, carniverous Tribbles . Jerome Bixby, who wrote the original Mirror Universe episode of Star Trek: The Original Series pitched a sequel for TNG that would have featured older versions of the TOS characters . However, this idea was rejected by Paramount, who didn't want to feature them so heavily in TNG .

Of the many Mirror Universe episodes pitched to Star Trek: The Next Generation , hardly any of the failed pitches have become public knowledge.

A.J. Black's book Lost Federations: The Unofficial Unmade History of Star Trek suggests that the pulpy idea of a darkest timeline didn't sit well with " The Next Generation's cooler, scientific approach to Star Trek, particularly in the Piller era. " Black's assumption is largely correct, backed up by Michael Piller himself. Piller explained that he " wasn't interested " in revisiting the Mirror Universe during TNG , despite the multiple "Mirror, Mirror" sequels that were pitched to him . While Piller would eventually acquiesce and produce a "Mirror, Mirror" sequel on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , fans would have to wait until Star Trek: Picard to meet Jean-Luc's evil alternate.

All episodes of Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Picard

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After starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and various other Star Trek projects, Patrick Stewart is back as Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek: Picard focuses on a retired Picard who is living on his family vineyard as he struggles to cope with the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. But before too long, Picard is pulled back into the action. The series also brings back fan-favorite characters from the Star Trek franchise, such as Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes).

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.