How Star Trek: Lower Decks Made A Fan Favorite Couple Canon Explained By Showrunner: "I Didn't Do The Heavy Lifting"

Showrunner Mike McMahan discusses “Garashir” becoming canon after the couple’s delightfully unexpected appearance on Star Trek: Lower Decks. Chief Medical Officer Bashir and Cardassian Garak struck up an unlikely friendship while stationed together on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s titular space station. Fans shipping Bashir and Garak became a thing over the course of the series, but the pair never became romantically attached in Star Trek canon, until their recent animated appearance on Lower Decks season 5.

Hologram Bashir and Garak are now officially Garashir in canon thanks to Lower Decks‘ “Fissure Quest” episode, but it was always that way in the mind of showrunner McMahan, as he discussed during a recent interview where he addressed making fan fiction come to life, if only briefly (via Collider):

“Well, what’s so funny to me is I’ve always felt like Garashir was kind of canon. I didn’t do the heavy lifting on that, you know? To me, the surprise was getting to do it in a way that made sense with when the show takes place, and I really don’t like to mess with what Ira [Steven Behr, DS9 showrunner] did, you know what I mean? I’m very, very careful about what I do with other people’s characters. I think for me, getting to do a multiversal story really helped be able to tell the story without having to add any asterisks to it.”

McMahan then discussed turning medical officer Bashir into a hologram, in homage to Star Trek: Voyager‘s holographic doctor:

“I love the Doctor from Voyager, so making Bashir a hologram was a treat for me. And then saying, ‘Yeah, Garak is one step away from being a surgeon, then a tailor.’ It kind of involves sewing stuff, you know what I mean? Getting to have that added texture to it more than what anybody had ever seen in anything else that had been talked about with those characters, and then on top of that, getting them to have been in… It’s not a new relationship for them, you’re coming into a relationship where they have a pattern. I wanted fans who love that dynamic to feel like they were getting a feeling of, ‘We’re coming in in the middle of it, and they’re happy, and this is fun.’”

What This Means For Bashir And Garak

Lower Decks Respected The Past While Updating Canon

Lower Decks’ “Fissure Quest” made amusing use of the multiverse concept by giving new animated life to several characters from Star Trek lore. Multiple versions of Voyager’s Harry Kim appeared, as did single variants of Enterprise’s T’Pol, DS9’s Curzon Dax and Star Trek: First Contact’s Lily Sloane. The show gave all of the above some amusing business, but the highlight was the realization of countless shipping fantasies as Garak and hologram Bashir were revealed to be married.

The idea of Garak and Bashir being a couple was spawned from the characters’ many interactions, often over lunch, on DS9. In McMahan’s mind, fans already did the “heavy lifting” on bringing the two characters together, and te multiverse opened up by “Fissure Quest” was just the perfect opportunity to realize the longed-for coupling in canon without altering the characters as originally conceived on DS9. McMahan indeed was sensitive to “messing with” what the characters originally were under DS9 showrunner Ira Stephen Behr, a sign of his respect for other Star Trek creatives, and for Trek lore overall.

Our Take On “Garashir” Becoming Canon

Lower Decks Makes Homage Fun

Lower Decks’ Garashir reveal was, first and foremost, a fun nod to DS9 fans. It was also further evidence of the refreshing new life Lower Decks has brought to the Star Trek universe, through the use of animation and humor. New-era Star Trek is always nodding to the past, but sometimes overdoes the blatant nostalgia, while often losing the real spirit of Trek in the process.

Tipping a cap to the past is always best done in small doses, with a sense of respect rather than reverence, and that is how Star Trek: Lower Decks goes about paying homage to the universe and its deep lore. The imagination and sense of fun behind the animated Paramount+ series helps it toy around with Trek lore but not insult it.

Source: Collider