Doctor Bashir , I Presume ( episode ) Doctor Lewis Zimmerman arrives on Deep Space 9 to use Bashir as the model for his new Long - term Medical Hologram , but his plans could unveil a dark secret that Bashir has carried since childhood . Summary . Teaser . One day in the bar , Rom is trying to work up the courage to finally ask Leeta on a date . . . however this is something Rom has been trying to do for weeks without any success , leaving Quark doubtful his brother will actually go through with it . Indeed , when Leeta ( who herself has feelings for Rom and is simply waiting for him to ask her out ) comes over from her stint at the dabo wheel , Rom instantly loses the little courage he had summoned and bolts . Leeta worries that there ' s something wrong with her , and Quark does little to reassure her before sending her back to work . Meanwhile , over a game of darts , Doctor Bashir and Chief O ' Brien discuss the latter ' s efforts to spend more time with his daughter Molly to ensure she doesn ' t feel left out due to the attention focused on her new baby brother . However the discussion is suddenly interrupted by Doctor Lewis Zimmerman , Director of Holographic Imaging and Programming at Jupiter Station , who is looking for Bashir . He tells Bashir that he intends to make him " immortal " . Act One . Later , Bashir and Zimmerman are in Captain Sisko ' s office discussing the reason for Zimmerman ' s visit to Deep Space 9 . The engineer explains that he was the designer and template for the innovative Emergency Medical Hologram ( EMH ) , which was designed to provide short - term medical care in an emergency , with the capability to substitute for an entire medical staff if needed ( although Deep Space 9 doesn ' t have one due to it being incompatible with the station ' s Cardassian technology ) . Starfleet has decided it wants to expand the concept and create a program that can operate full - time in isolated outposts ( such as subspace relay stations or research outposts ) where living space is at a premium and the holographic doctor wouldn ' t be required to leave sickbay . Furthermore , Starfleet Medical has chosen Bashir to be the template for the new Long - term Medical Holographic program ( LMH ) . Zimmerman requests a list of technical modifications to the station , which Captain Sisko approves before telling Bashir how proud he and everyone else is . Later , Zimmerman has Bashir filling in an extremely long and detailed questionnaire which requests information on seemingly insignificant details of Julian ' s life . Zimmerman explains that the LMH will need to interact with people for long periods of time which may require funny stories or anecdotes from its life . Zimmerman also begins mapping Julian ' s body for the LMH ' s physical template . Later , at Quark ' s bar , Zimmerman and Bashir watch over the dabo wheel where they see Leeta . Zimmerman is instantly drawn to her , and Bashir explains that she is his ex - girlfriend . Zimmerman decides to add her to his list of people to be interviewed , mentioning that he intends to interview Bashir ' s family and friends . Odo arrives and calls Bashir away in regards to quarantined cargo that is holding up a freighter ' s departure , however before he leaves Julian explicitly requests that Zimmerman not contact or interview his parents as they are currently estranged . Zimmerman tells Bashir he understands , however Julian ' s desire not to have his parents brought in has just made Zimmerman more eager to talk to them . Act Two . In the infirmary , the LMH is activated . Bashir examines his holographic self and mostly compliments the replica ( although notes that he doesn ' t like the eyes ) . Zimmerman then activates Deep Space 9 ' s new EMH and copies its database to the LMH . Soon , the LMH is just like the EMH . . . disparaging and not very likeable . The EMH is quickly deactivated before he can complain too much about his replacement , then Zimmerman explains that while the LMH is currently simply the EMH with a new skin , he will write a completely new personality from scratch for it . Zimmerman then begins his interviews with several of Bashir ' s colleagues , including Captain Sisko , Kira , Dax , Worf , Jake , and Morn ( who just shrugs ) . During his interview , O ' Brien admits that he considers his friend to be an extraordinary person with many great qualities ( although he makes sure Julian won ' t find out what he said ) . After the interview with Leeta , Zimmerman asks the Bajoran out to dinner . That night , as the two share a meal , Rom is listening in from a distance , then finally interrupts the date to once again to ask Leeta out , but again can ' t bring himself to do it and instead makes up a lame excuse , leaving both frustrated . The next morning , as Bashir and Captain Sisko discuss station business Dax arrives with a surprise for Bashir . . . his parents , Richard and Amsha . Julian is stunned ( and can only just contain his horror ) to see them , and sheepishly introduces them to Sisko . Act Three . Richard begins waxing lyrical to the captain about his newest project as a landscape architect as well as claiming to be the one who convinced his son ( who he called " Jules " ) to study medicine . Amsha tells Richard they can talk to the captain later , while revealing they ' re here at Zimmerman ' s invitation . Bashir extricates himself and his parents from the office , promising to find them quarters . Afterwards , Bashir confronts Zimmerman and demands to know why they were summoned despite his request not to have them in any way involved in the LMH project . Zimmerman is completely unapologetic , explaining that they ' re an important part of Julian ' s background . Zimmerman is also busy on another , more personal , project as he calls on Leeta as she gets out of the shower . He tells her that the manager of Jupiter Station ' s cafe has decided to quit , and he has put in a good word . As a result , Leeta has been offered the job . Leeta is so blown away she accidentally exposes herself to Zimmerman , as the doctor tells her that as well as coming to Jupiter Station he makes clear he has serious feelings for her . Leeta , unsure of what to do , tells him that she needs time to think . Julian shares a very awkward dinner with his parents , as Richard talks about the rudeness of the transport captain that brought them to the station stating his own experience on shuttles . However , from the way Richard talks , its clear that he is remembering himself as being a shuttle captain when Julian points out he was a third - class steward for six months before he was dismissed ( although Richard claims he resigned ) . Amsha tries to diffuse the situation by asking her son about his research , but Richard is dismissive as he feels Julian should have remained on Earth rather than wanting to practice ' frontier medicine ' . Julian brings up Richard ' s new career as a landscape architect , as the elder Bashir has always had a distinct lack of focus and real ambition instead stumbling from one job to the next . The three start to discuss Zimmerman ' s upcoming interviews , and Julian tries to coach his parents to not give any answers that leave any opening for Zimmerman to explore . It is made clear from their conversation that there is a dark secret at the heart of the family which could destroy Julian ' s career and land all of them in a lot of trouble . Richard takes offense at what he sees as Julian ' s lack of respect or trust in them , causing Julian to angrily walk out , remarking this is why he never visits them . Act Four . Leeta tells Rom about Zimmerman ' s offer , ostensibly asking his advice but she is clearly desperate for him to ask her to stay . Once again , Rom can ' t express himself clearly and ends up agreeing when Leeta says she should maybe take the job . Angry and upset with Rom , she leaves . Remorseful for their earlier argument , Richard goes to the holographic lab to apologize . Richard pledges to Julian , standing in befuddled silence , that he will never reveal the big secret that he was genetically enhanced ( complete with DNA re - sequencing ) and that they are proud of their son and what he has become . Julian appears to accept the apology , and his parents leave . . . at which point , O ' Brien and Zimmerman appear . It is revealed that " Julian " was actually the LMH ( who did not recognize Julian ' s parent ) and the two have just overheard the entire conversation . O ' Brien immediately tells Bashir what has happened , leading to the latter being furious with the chief for setting up his parents . O ' Brien explains that they just testing the LMH ' s ability to deal with an unexpected situation , but that ' s not important anymore , as now instead Zimmerman is now most likely going to report to Starfleet that Bashir is unsuitable to be the LMH model due to his " suspected " genetically enhanced background . Bashir knows immediately what this means for him . . . once Starfleet Medical is informed , he will be discharged from the service and his license to practice medicine will be revoked as according to Federation law DNA re - sequencing is illegal for anything other than repairing serious birth defects . O ' Brien is surprised to realize that what Bashir ' s parents said is true , and the doctor tells him the full story ; when he was a small child , Julian was having trouble keeping up with the other children his age and may even have had a learning or mental disability . He wasn ' t as physically able as he should have been , and while children around him were starting to learn to read Julian barely understood the world around him . Just after he turned seven , his parents took him to Adigeon Prime where he was given several illegal treatments over a number of months to enhance his mental and neurological abilities . Eventually , the only part of the original Bashir that was left was his name and when he returned to Earth his parents moved to a different city and enrolled their son in a new school using false records where he no longer struggled but instead was a star pupil . No one has ever suspected anything , however as far as Julian is concerned , he ' s a fraud . O ' Brien tries to convince his friend that his genetic enhancements aren ' t what gave him his compassion , ambition or personality . He also points out that there hasn ' t been a case like this is over a century , so there ' s no way to know how Starfleet will react . Bashir , however , is convinced he will be quickly drummed out of Starfleet , and intends to resign his commission before Zimmerman files his report . O ' Brien isn ' t ready to give up , but Julian has already accepted that this could happen and asks to be left alone . Act Five . Meanwhile , Rom is pouring over his own woes with Quark as he laments that he didn ' t tell Leeta how he felt . Quark has little sympathy , instead reminding his brother of what happened with Prinadora when he entered a five - year marriage contract so he could have a son , and how he instead fell in love with her and requested an extension . As a result of Rom not reading the fine print , Prinadora ' s father swindled him out of all his money and Prinadora abandoned her husband and son for a richer man . Rom insists that Leeta is not Prinadora , but as far as Quark is concerned all females are exactly the same . Instead , he offers Rom use of one of his racier holosuite programs to take his mind off Leeta . Richard is determined to fight to save Julian ' s career , but Julian has already resigned himself to his fate . This leads into another argument between the two , as Julian thinks of himself like one of Richard ' s jobs ; he didn ' t like the one he had , so he substituted for something he wanted more . He especially snaps at being called ' Jules ' , telling Richard that he stopped using that name when he turned fifteen and found out what had been done to him and as far as he ' s concerned ' Jules ' died in the hospital after his parents were too ashamed when he couldn ' t keep up . Amsha argues back against the accusation that they did what they did because of shame , speaking of the heartbreak she felt when she saw her young son trying his best but falling a little further behind each day while wondering if they ' d done anything wrong . She convinces Julian that they did it out of love , not shame . Julian , accepting this , hugs his mother then tells both his parents that in the morning he is going to talk with Captain Sisko , resign his commission and then leave the station quietly . The next morning , Bashir enters Captain Sisko ' s office to find his parents already there having told him everything . Also present is Rear Admiral , Judge Advocate General of Starfleet , presiding over the matter via holoprojector . At this point , Bashir ' s parents both call their son " Julian " out of respect for who he is now , not who he was as a child . They explain that a deal has been reached ; Richard has taken full responsibility for everything , pleading guilty to genetic engineering and will be serving two years in a minimum - security prison ( no mention of Julian ' s mother facing any criminal charges ) . In exchange , Julian can keep his commission and medical license . Julian starts to protest , but Bennett explains exactly why genetic engineering is outlawed within the Federation ; because " for every Julian Bashir that can be created , there ' s a Khan Singh waiting in the wings " . Julian accepts his father ' s sacrifice , and Bennett tells Richard to report immediately to him upon his return to Earth . Sisko decides to leave the family alone . At the airlock , Bashir says goodbye to his parents and promises to visit more often . It is also time for Zimmerman and Leeta to leave , when they suddenly hear a strange noise in the distance which is growing closer . They soon find it is Rom , screaming for Leeta to stay . The Ferengi declares his love for Leeta and asks her to stay , and this is all Leeta needs as she returns his feelings and the two share their first kiss . Leeta then apologizes to Zimmerman , but he accepts that he cannot stand in the way of true love and decides to accept his life is one of solitude . . . until another attractive alien walks by . Zimmerman bids Leeta and Rom a very quick goodbye before leaving to catch up with the new apple of his eye . Back at Quark ' s , Bashir and O ' Brien engage in yet another darts match . Bashir tries to thank O ' Brien for what he said earlier , but O ' Brien ( as always ) shrugs off the kind words before suddenly realizing that as Bashir ' s hand - eye coordination was also enhanced then he should be easily winning . Bashir admits to lowering his game a little to make it fair , and O ' Brien demands that he instead play to his full ability . Bashir obliges and quickly throws three consecutive bulls - eyes . O ' Brien responds by doubling the distance from which Bashir must throw the darts in the future , promising further measures if that doesn ' t work . Memorable quotes . " " He needs a woman with body and brains " " . " " I have brains . " " " " Sure you do , honey . That ' s why I hired you . Now eat up and then take those " brains " back to the dabo wheel where the customers can get a good long look at them . " " " " She ' s a female , Rom , and the one constant in the universe is : females are trouble . " " " Why is everyone so worried about holograms taking over the universe ? " " " " Note , contact subject ' s parents immediately . " " " " Wow , think of it , Julian . If this thing works you will be able to irritate hundreds of people you never even met . " " " " What do you want me to do ? " " " " Just stand there and look like a doctor . . . if you can . " " " " Beginning data transferral . " " " " Data transferral ? ! Am I being replaced ? " " " " You ' re being supplemented by a new long term program . " " " " By him ! ? " " " " There , transfer complete . " " " " Please state the nature of the medical emergency . " " " " Oh , that ' s original ! He doesn ' t even look old enough to be a doctor ! " " " " If you want my advice , you should delete this program . Now that I ' m here , why would you want an archaic piece of software like him ? " " " " Archaic ? ! " " " " We can discuss this at another time . " " " " Waaaiiit . . . " " " " I ' m still your father , Jules , and I will not have you talk to me like that . " " " " No . You used to be my father . Now you ' re my architect , a man who designed a better son , to replace the defective one he was given . Well , your design has a built - in flaw . It ' s illegal . " " " " You decided I was a failure in the first grade . " " " " Jules , you don ' t understand . You never did . . . " " " " No , " you " don ' t understand ! I stopped calling myself Jules when I was fifteen and I ' d found out what you ' d done to me ! I ' m Julian ! " " " " What difference does that make ? " " " " It makes every difference ! Because I ' m different , can ' t you see ? Jules Bashir died in that hospital , because you couldn ' t live with the shame of having a son who didn ' t measure up ! " " " " You ' ve never had a child . You don ' t know what it ' s like to watch your son . . . to watch him fall a little further behind every day . You know he ' s trying , but something ' s holding him back . You don ' t know what it ' s like to stay up every night worrying that maybe it ' s your fault ; maybe you did something wrong during the pregnancy , and maybe you weren ' t careful enough . Or maybe there ' s something wrong with you ; maybe you passed on a genetic defect without even knowing it . " " " " Amsha . . . " " " " No , this is important . You can condemn us for what we did ; you can say it ' s illegal or immoral or whatever you want to say . But you have to understand that we didn ' t do it because we were ashamed . But because you were our son . And we loved you . " " " " Two hundred years ago , we tried to improve the species through DNA resequencing . And what did we get for our troubles ? The Eugenics Wars . For every Julian Bashir that can be created , there ' s a Khan Singh waiting in the wings – a superhuman whose ambition and thirst for power have been enhanced along with his intellect . The law against genetic engineering provided a firewall against such men . And it ' s my job to keep that firewall intact . " " Links and references . References . accelerated critical neural pathway formation ; Adigeon Prime ; Adigeon Prime aliens ; Antidean transport ; argonite ; Bajoran interceptor ; Bashir ' s first grade classmates ; Bashir family move ; birth defect ; Bolian s ; break ; Cardassian ; cargo management unit ; cat ; cerebral cortex ; dabo ; dabo girl ; ; darts ; DNA resequencing ; dog ; dom - jot ; drafting studio ; Earth ; Emergency Medical Hologram ; ; Eugenics Wars ; Federation ; Federation Supreme Court ; frontier medicine ; ganglionic cell cluster ; hand - eye coordination ; health certificate ; holo - communicator ; holosuite ; immortality ; IQ ; Judge Advocate General ; Jupiter Station ; intelligence quotient ; " Kama Sutra " ; landscape architecture ; level 3 diagnostic ; Long - term Medical Holographic program Test Program 1 ; Long - term Medical Holographic program ; ; O ' Brien , Kirayoshi ; O ' Brien , Molly ; Nagus ; ; New Zealand ; New Zealand Penal Settlement ; Nog ; parts per million ; penal colony ; prayko ; Prinadora ; Prinadora ' s father ; prion ; Promenade ; psychological profile ; pupil ; Quark ' s ; questionnaire ; rear admiral ; replicator ; Singh , Khan Noonien ; stamina ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Headquarters ; Starfleet Medical ; steward ; tree ; ; ; visiting hours ; " " ; ;