Elim Garak

Character
Name:	Elim Garak ("Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak.")
Occupation:	tailor, (former) spy
Relationships:	close friendship with Bashir and Odo, brief romance with Ziyal, possible continuing relationship with Kelas Parmak
Fandom:	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Other:
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Elim Garak was a Cardassian tailor and Promenade shopkeeper of Garak's Clothiers who lived on station Deep Space 9.

Elim Garak on the cover of the print zine In Exile #1, artist unknown

Some Brief Canon Facts

• He had been an operative of the Cardassian Obsidian Order but was exiled to Terok Nor.
• He worked with Starfleet during the Dominion War, returning to Cardassia Prime just prior to the Battle of Cardassia.
• He was known to be a witty conversationalist and a skilled tailor.
• He was once a high-ranking member of the Cardassian intelligence agency, the Obsidian Order.
• As an Obsidian Order operative, Garak volunteered to have a cranial implant installed in his skull which would help him resist torture. The implant caused his brain to release endorphins when activated, thus making the experience of torture tolerable.
• He lies a lot. Another character commented about him: "Never tell the truth when a lie will do." Garak himself comments: "Truth is in the eye of the beholder, Doctor. I never tell the truth because I don't believe there is such a thing. That is why I prefer the straight line simplicity of cutting cloth."
• He knows Klingonese.
• For a while Garak and Bashir had weekly lunches together, but this was curtailed as, rumor has it, TPTB thought this was too gay.

Fannish Reaction

Garak was a fan favorite. "Viewers love his mystery, his banter with Bashir, the gleam in his eyes as he goes about his sly business." In a 1995 poll including all Trek characters, he came fourth of the DS9 characters, the highest ranked minor character, coming in at number eleven overall.

Many fans are drawn to Garak's creative interpretation of truth. Regann writes: "Garak detaches meaning and gravity from honesty at every turn. His truth is something much more complex than the correct facts. ... Garak, unlike many of the black-and-white moralists that make up Starfleet, has long since separated moral implications from lies and truth. They are just facts of life."

About Garak's Sexuality

Andrew Robinson, the actor who portrayed Garak, provided non-canon, and therefore fannish insight into his role when interviewed by Amazon.com, stating: "I started out playing Garak as someone who doesn't have a defined sexuality. He's not gay, he's not straight, it's a non-issue for him. Basically his sexuality is inclusive. But – it's Star Trek and there were a couple of things working against that. One is that Americans really are very nervous about sexual ambiguity. Also, this is a family show, they have to keep it on the 'straight and narrow', so then I backed off from it. Originally, in that very first episode, I loved the man's absolute fearlessness about presenting himself to an attractive human being. The fact that the attractive human being is a man (Bashir) doesn't make any difference to him, but that was a little too sophisticated I think. For the most part, the writers supported the character beautifully, but in that area they just made a choice they didn't want to go there, and if they don't want to go there I can't, because the writing doesn't support it."

From a review of "A Stitch in Time," the pro novel by the Andrew Robinson: "Robinson's novel is structured as a letter from Garak to Dr. Julian Bashir - his best friend and longtime breakfast companion on Deep Space Nine. Much fan fiction about Garak speculates that his feelings for Bashir went beyond the platonic relationship depicted on television, a belief Robinson does not refute. Indeed, in A Stitch In Time, Garak has crushes on both men and women. "I loved that sexual ambiguity," Robinson states. "I wanted to get away from our sexual prejudices. I thought, this is an alien! Who knows what alien sexuality is, if indeed there is strict heterosexuality or homosexuality, those delineations? That's something that I kept in the book. Though that was more interesting to me in the playing of Garak than the writing of it; this book is for kids too, so I chose not to get more explicit sexually because of that."

It is rumored that TPTB ordered the actors Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson to stop engaging in ribald speculation about their characters' true feelings for each other at fan conventions.

Fanfiction

Garak/Bashir is by far the major pairing. There's also occasional Gul Dukat or Damar slash, and a little featuring original characters. In het, the most frequent partner is probably Tora Ziyal, but Garak occasionally gets paired with a variety of women including Keiko O'Brien and even Kai Opaka. More recently, Elim Garak/Kelas Parmak has gained in popularity following the publication of the spin-off novel series.

Gen stories often focus on his pre-exile life on Cardassia, particularly his childhood and his time in the Obsidian Order. His complex relationship with Enabran Tain is a popular topic, as is his history with Dukat. Crossovers in which Garak appears in other sf universes are fairly common.

Some Examples

• Acts Of Kindness, by JA Chapman -- mild G/B
• Cardassian Hostage
• A Discreet Private Inquiry, by Henrietta Wotton -- backstory
• The Elim and Elmo Show, by Cardie-ologist -- Garak & Dukat backstory
• The Fabric of our Lives, by Una McCormack -- Garak/Ziyal
• In a Stone City by Liz Williams -- Garak/Ziyal
• Flowering by Henrietta Wotton -- Garak as a child; Garak/m
• Nowhere Man, by Selena -- crossover with Whoniverse
• Two Worlds, by Deborah Judge -- backstory with Kai Opaka
• You Can Be Me When I'm Gone by Emptyfox -- AU in which Garak joins with Dax; G/B
• Cardassian Connection by Eva Albertsdotter Enblom (1997)
• For more G/B examples and recs, see the Garak/Bashir article

Fanfiction Recommendations

• Espresso Recommendations: Elim Garak

Zines

• Cardassian Chronicles a zine from the 1990s containing gen and het fiction
• Tarkalean Tea (Garak/Bashir)
• The Plain and Simple Zine - multi-issue, no frills Garak/Bashir anthology zine with all stories written by DVS.
• No Holds Barred - specific issues of this normally multi-media zine had several all-Garak/Bashir issues
• Different Odds, a Bashir/Garak zine

Other Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanart

• I realized belatedly that this looks like a Progression of Fucks Given by Elim Garak, ^{Archived version} by wobblycompetencies. A sequence of illustrations of Garak's expressions. (~2017)

Meta

• DUTY, FRIENDSHIP, AND LIES IN THE WIRE (DS9 2X22), ^{Archived version} by babeltwo (~2014)

Additional Image Gallery

• 

  back cover of Salutatorian #1, Julian Bashir & Garak by Janet D'Airo

• 

  front cover of Trexperts #86, Rebecca Wise

• 

  cover of Outpost #7, Julian Bashir & Garak, artist unknown

• 

  a fan's paper doll clothes, published as a supplement to his fan club, around 1997, artist is Nancy Lee

• 

  cover of Trexperts #95, Julian Bashir & Garak by Jennifer Herd

Fanclubs

• Far Beyond the Stars -- Andy Robinson & other DS9 cast members