Diplomatic Reception

Zine
Title:	Diplomatic Reception
Publisher:	Orion Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Sherri Fillingham
Cover Artist(s):	Madalena Mumford
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1996
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Language:	English
External Links:	Orion Press
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cover by Madalena Mumford

Diplomatic Reception is a gen Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 246-page novel by Sherri Fillingham. It was edited by Ann Zewen and the front cover is by Madalena Mumford.

Summaries

The story takes place between 'The Crossover' and 'The Search, Part I.' Trained from childhood in the ways of diplomacy, Julian Bashir rejected the family career and instead embarked on a lifetime dedication to the field of medicine. But it's not his skills as a doctor that are needed now. The Federation has ordered him to take the place of slain diplomats. It's an assignment that will reveal new insights into Bashir's character, talents and background. It's also an assignment that will change him forever.

Trained from childhood in the ways of diplomacy, Julian Bashir rejected the family career and instead embarked on a lifetime dedication to the field of medicine. But it's not his skills as a doctor that are needed now. The Federation has ordered him to take the place of slain diplomats. Grieving for his dead relatives, fearful that his missing father might, too, have been slain, and in danger himself from the terrorists, Bashir rises to the challenge. With support from Sisko and Odo, Julian sets to work to complete the job first begun by his grandfather and pursued through the years by his father, uncle and cousins. It's an assignment that will reveal new insights into Bashir's character, talents and background. It's also an assignment that will change him forever from the eager young Starfleet officer who first arrived at Deep Space Nine. Note: This is an alternate universe as the novella was written before Bashir's background was developed.

Reactions and Reviews

It is the most relentlessly depressing (and convoluted) story I've read in some time. So much so that by the end, which should have been the emotional climax, I was too numb to feel anything. And Julian's reaction was downright underwhelming. Do NOT read this if you're already feeling down. The editor didn't pay attention to some rather important details. It's supposedly set between "Crossover" and "The Search," but Winn is still a Vedek, which places it before "The Collaborator," and Dax talks about 8 lifetimes, which places it after "Equilibrium." And there were 3 other episodes in that time frame which aren't in the story. The biggest problem is that the Julian who would have survived this is not the same Julian who appears on the show after the time frame. The author assumes that being an ambassador is customarily a hereditary position. Real foreign service requires a great deal of training and skill; in a universe as complex as the Federation, it would be even truer. Julian could, in theory, have served as a figurehead, but not as a real ambassador. And the premise also set up was that he would be forced to continue as an ambassador, no matter how unwilling he was to do it. No government in its right mind would ever want an untrained, unwilling ambassador around. Julian's godfather is a Trill when it has been established, more than once, that he'd never met a Trill before. The plot device serves no useful purpose; a 120-year-old human could have known both Julian and his grandfather (and Curzon), and it makes Julian seem like a liar. The sex scene near the end is utterly superfluous; she makes a point of saying Julian doesn't do one night stands, yet that's exactly what it was. And there were problems with the characterizations of Garak, Quark, Dukat, and Zek ~ the last two were way off.