Julian was a typical ten year old, scared out of his wits as he and his father struggled to survive an ionic storm on Ivernia II. He and his father were lost in the storm when they ran across a young Ivernian girl who was dying. Bashir's father, a Federation diplomat, went to get medical help, but he was too late. The girl died.
To his horror Julian learned that a common herb, readily available and growing nearby, would have saved that child's life: he could have saved her if only he had the knowledge. This one event influenced Julian's decision to choose medicine over all the other career opportunities available to the young student.
When he would visit someone's home in the company of his father, young Julian would slip off to his host's library and begin exploring whatever medical or science books he could find. The boy would find a quiet corner and work unseen while his hosts discussed some momentous question in their respective technical fields of expertise.
That Julian so indulged himself, albeit quietly and unobtrusively, was revealed when his father and a doctor friend were discussing a medical breakthrough, about which Julian had recently been reading. In his eagerness to learn more and be a part of all this, Julian slipped up behind the doctors and began asking a series of technical questions about the new procedure.
While the physicians were initially annoyed and skeptical about the boy's behavior, they quickly became impressed that a ten year old could acquire so much knowledge. Young Julian was rewarded for his enthusiasms by being allowed to sit in on some of their informal gatherings. Actually, Julian admitted that they did not invite him so much as they allowed him to remain when he sat down with them, so long as he didn't become too intrusive. To make up for this he would take careful notes and look up the answers to his questions later.
When his friend was admitted, he and his companions were required to stay in the waiting room. While there, Julian offered comfort to a couple who brought in their sick baby by pointing out how efficient the staff was and how up to date the equipment. Julian was so impressed by what he had seen at the hospital that he began to visit the medical center whenever he could, in spite of the best efforts of the medical staff to shoo him away. However, the hospital was as important to young Julian Bashir as was eating and breathing.
Finally he was allowed to perform small tasks such as keeping the waiting room neat and orderly and getting drinks for visitors. Because he made certain that he did not get in the way of the doctors and orderlies, Julian was not only tolerated but also given increasingly more freedom.
Minutes later Julian was standing silently at the doctor's side, looking up at him as the physician asked for instruments whose names the boy had learned long ago. When a patient had been stabilized, the boy helped push the gurney out of the operating theater so that the next one could be rolled in. He wiped sweat from the faces of the hard-working doctors until everyone took him for granted. What Julian could not take for granted, however, was the act of pulling the sheet over the face of a young girl who had been too badly hurt to be saved..
Six hours later an exhausted boy sat silently in the staff lounge, thinking about all that he had seen and done that day. The doctor who had first put Julian to work walked in and looked down at the boy wearing the now blood spattered green surgery gown. He sat down next to Julian and gently thanked him, pointing out that he firmly believed that two of the patients on whom he had worked would not have survived without Julian's assistance. He thanked the boy and told him never to give up his dream of being a doctor.
Although medicine had been his dream since he was ten years old, when he was a teenager his parents took him on a tour of other planets; this tour marked yet another turning point in his young life. Seeing all that the galaxy had to offer made him more aware than ever before of the possibilities the future held. The stars called to him and he knew that he could accomplish more out in the galaxy than he could by remaining on Earth.
One of the most interesting facets of this journey had been all of the aliens he saw, broadening the possibilities in space medicine. When he applied to Starfleet Medical, Julian knew that one of his specialties in space medicine would be alien lifeforms. In fact he did not wait see what Starfleet would teach him but once again dove into an intensive course of study and research on his own.
Some very illustrious people had written authoritative texts on xenobiology: for instance, Zephram Cochran, inventor of the warp drive. Cochran had an extended lifespan due to an alien being. He became, an expert in the field of space medicine as it applied to non-humanoid lifeforms. Of course there was Leonard McCoy, a legend in Starfleet by the time Julian Bashir entered his official years of training at Starfleet Medical. Vulcan physiology was also an important course of study and included a class taught by Commander Selar, who served for a time on the Enterprise under Jean-Luc Picard.
Julian spent eight years in Starfleet Medical to insure that he was as prepared as possible to practice medicine. Somehow he was able to complete his studies with high grades while not neglecting a secondary interest--the opposite sex.
Julian did indeed graduate from Starfleet Medical second in his class and this position meant that he would have a better opportunity to be posted exactly where he wanted to go--the furthest frontier of the Federation where anything was possible. After he arrived at the space station called Deep Space Nine some people misunderstood his enthusiasm as naiveté. Julian's enthusiasm was simply a love of adventure; and, for him, practicing space medicine at the edge of the galactic frontier was the height of adventure.
Julian was determined to be the best doctor possible and so was troubled by state of the Deep Space Nine sickbay. The Cardassians had left the sickbay in disrepair and Julian constantly requested equipment and material to update the medical facilities.
Although Dr. Bashir and Miles O'Brien did not initially hit it off, they have managed to develop a respect and understanding for each other and have even played racquetball together. They had a spirited series of matches before Quark, using a charity benefiting Bajoran war orphans to entice the two, tricked them into playing a grudge match. Quark billed it as Miles "The Mechanic" O'Brien vs. Julian "The Doctor" Bashir. The match was going in O'Brien's favor when he smashed the video monitor and realized that the laws of probability had somehow been scrambled up in his favor, both in the game room and on the rest of the station as well. The match was halted in order to investigate this phenomenon further and ferret out the truth.
Julian and Miles were officially reported as dead when they vanished during an attempt to destroy a deadly biogenic weapon. The two had been targeted for death, along with all the scientists who had knowledge of the deadly "Harvesters" virus. Miles was infected with the plague, forcing him to bond with Julian. They waited together for a seemingly impossible rescue, which somehow arrived in time.
Julian falls in love with Melora as he helps her adapt to the station, taking her out for Klingon food and sampling other delicacies. She surprises him in the Klingon restaurant because instead of being repulsed by the Klingon "gagh" she instead berates the amused chef for serving up half-dead meal-worms. She is attracted enough to Julian to allow him into her private micro-gravity room where the two dance in the air.
Melora later asks Dax about the advisability of an interspecies romance. Dax notes that it has been 150 years since romance worked for the symbiont, but she inspired Melora with the tale of a hydrogen-breathing Lothra who fell in love with an Oxygene. They were together for 57 years despite being limited to 40 minutes a day contact without breathing apparatus.
In spite of how skillfully Dr. Bashir had managed to work his technological marvels on Melora, she decided to stop the treatments. Their ultimate success would prevent her from returning to her home planet to fly among her friends and family. She preferred the chair to losing her own identity as an Elasian. She pointed out that Julian would still be able to publish a paper on his work applying Tarros' research from 30 years before to combine the neurostimulators with the neo-eleptic transmitters. This inspired application allowed for neuro-muscular increases in tensile strength, thereby allowing the body to support itself in gravity much higher than Elasian physiognomy would normally permit.
Julian arrived at the frontier outpost called Deep Space Nine searching for adventure. His fellow officers at first mistrusted this adventure-seeking, but they have come to recognize that Dr. Bashir is truly one of the most skilled doctors Starfleet has ever produced and that Julian is a fast friend as well.
An incident that occurred when he was just ten years old propelled young Julian Bashir into a life of medicine. Although he didn't realize it at the time and wouldn't for years to come, that incident on a lonely desolate planetoid would shape his destiny.
Searching for Answers
Julian was a very sociable child, unlike many children whose intellect is near the genius level. While growing up he tended to choose his friends from among the children of professional people.
Modern Medicine
Julian was always interested in sports. When he was twelve, one of his friends was hurt during a ballgame and it was then that Julian had an opportunity to witness the complicated inner workings of a hospital. He entered the medical center with his friend and soon found himself distracted by everything he saw, from the smell of the sterilized facilities to the variety of equipment.
A Matter of Life and Death
The turning point occured when a freak explosion in the city suddenly caused the emergency room to be flooded with patients. After listening helplessly as a doctor called for a nurse when none were available, Julian stepped forward uncertainly, expecting to be brutally rejected, and offered to help. The doctor paused for just a second and then told him to get scrubbed and back at his side as quickly as possible. Death and terror was in the air and lives hung in the balance.
New Horizons
Julian thanked him and tried to smile; even though the doctor said that he had help save two people who might otherwise have died, he could not stop thinking of the little girl who was not so fortunate. She reminded him of that other little girl who had died before his eyes. This time he knew that nothing could have saved the girl, but he hated the thought that death could so quickly snatch away the life of one so young--younger even than himself.
The Lure of Starfleet
While in Paris, Julian met and fell in love with a ballerina whom he intended to marry. His soon-to-be-father-in-law offered him a job at a Parisian hospital but Julian turned down the job because he was determined to go to Starfleet Medical. This ended the relationship with both the ballerina and her family. Years later he would express regret over this and wonder whether he could have somehow had a wife and a career had he taken different turns in his life.
A Failure to Communicate
Julian loved women and women, in turn, were drawn to his dark good looks with equal enthusiasm. Though he was charming, he lacked one important trait: he didn't know how to talk to women. Unless they were medical students like himself he would bewilder them with a maze of technobabble. This problem still plagued him even after he completed school and was posted to Deep Space Nine. He talked at length about how he finished second in his class only by missing one question concerning a misidentification of pre-gangliatic fiber. "The stuff salutatorians are made of," he would explain as his date's eyes glazed over. It took some big brotherly advice from Miles O'Brien to finally get Julian to see the obvious.
The Unreachable Dax
After arriving on the space station, Julian began pursuing the lovely science officer, Jadzia Dax. That she is a Trill containing a several-hundred-year-old symbiont did give him pause, but the exterior of Dax that most intrigued him. After months of platonic meetings and polite rebuffs, Julian finally got the message and began directing his attentions elsewhere.
The Woman Who Could Fly
Bashir had an unusual romance on Deep Space Nine with an Elasian Starfleet Officer, Ensign Melora Pazlar. Melora arrived on board the USS Yellowstone on Stardate 47229.1 to do a series of studies in the Gamma Quadrant. Elasia is a low surface gravity world so Melora is one of the few Elasians to ever leave home. She must sit in a special chair and use a low-grav field actuator which allows her to overcome the station's artificial gravity.
A Crucial Decision
Julian used neurostimulator therapy developed by Nathaniel Tarros for neuro-muscular adaptation. It was with this therapy that Melora was able to overcome Falat Kot. Shot with a phaser set to kill, the neurostimulators protected Melora. She knocked out the gravity generator and overpowered the murderer who had come to kill Quark.