Alright, after my long absence, I have some time today, so I made my way randomly up and down my list and landed on…
Alexander Siddig might not be a household name, but if you’re a Star Trek fan, you’ll know him.
Alexander aka Siddig El Fadil aka Sid played the brilliant and adorable Dr Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for all seven seasons.
If I’ve never had the opportunity to mention this before, DS9 is one of my favourite shows of ALL-TIME. I have been known to say I love it so much that I wish I could HUG IT – yes, the entire show. The characters, the cast, the show itself – ALL of it.
I know many Star Trek fans were not really keen on DS9 when it first aired. It was a huge divergence from The Original Series and The Next Generation, focusing on a space station versus a ship and adding stories of massive war/conflict for the Federation, along with religion and spirituality, in a way that we hadn’t ever seen before.
Personally, it was all of these things that made me love it. I could probably – and may one day – write an entire post on DS9 alone, and why I love it and think it’s actually started to gain much more appreciation now, 25 years out from when it first premiered, but this post is about Dr Bashir, Alexander Siddig.
When DS9 first aired, I was still a child (started when I was six, ended when I was almost thirteen), but my sister was in her teens to early twenties – prime time to have a massive crush… And that, my friends, she did.
My sister has loved Dr Bashir and Alexander Siddig since those days, and so, when it was announced that he’d be attending the premiere of his movie here, she was so eager to go see him – we’d had so much luck in the past meeting/seeing so many of my crushes/celeb-loves, maybe we’d get lucky for her too!
On the day of, I wasn’t really feeling it, though. My stomach was hurting, or something along those lines, and I was wavering on whether or not I’d actually go join her at the premiere to see him. Eventually, I rallied myself because I didn’t want to miss out on this experience – for myself, but even more for my sister.
I think this is as good a time as any to mention my favourite part of this story – for pretty much my entire life up until I started to actually meet some of my fav celebs, my sister used to tease me, saying that I’d NEVER be able to handle being in front of one of them. She hypothesized that I’d get too giggly, shy and completely clam up – leaving her to do all the talking for me.
To be fair, she had a basis for this, in that our dad used to promote Bollywood stage shows when I was (very) young and I did used to get really shy and awkward around these stars. Again, these experiences could fill other (multiple) posts, but suffice it to say, she’d seen this of me in the past – and she was, as the older, experienced, professional one, actually working with these celebs – much more on it than I ever was.
But on this fateful September day in 2012, who ended up being the starstruck one that couldn’t string two words together?
THAT’S RIGHT – MY SISTER!
We were extremely lucky, in that this was a premiere for a lesser known movie called Inescapable, in a bigger venue, which meant that there was hardly anyone there. The only other “big”-ish stars in the movie were Joshua Jackson – who, by the way, wasn’t very kind to his fans – but more on that another day and Marisa Tomei (and there is also a funny story about this too, but, again, another post for another day!).
With all this serendipitously working in our favour, the second Alexander Siddig got out of his car, we yelled out loudest to get him over to us. Luckily, the people around us were very kind and mostly hoping to see Jackson (and his girlfriend/partner, at the time, Diane Kruger), so they were more than happy to help us get the attention of my sister’s preferred star, for the fun of it.
And wouldn’t you know it, despite being slightly down the line, he came RIGHT TOWARD US. This was very reminiscent of my experience with Alan Rickman a few years later and, ironically, was the exact same venue, at almost the exact same spot.
As he headed our way, I noticed my sister’s nerves starting to get the better of her and when he did come to us – she just lost all ability to talk. Anyone who knows my sister and I know that… talking isn’t something either of us usually has a problem with, at all. 😛
Knowing this is what she was here for, I took the reins and explained to Mr Siddig (El Fadil) that my sister had been a huge fan of his since she was a teenager and asking if he would please take a photo with her. I’m pretty sure I must’ve mentioned something about how much we both love DS9, at least, I certainly hope I did, but what I remember most was trying really hard to make sure my sister got a picture with him.
We got the photo and it was a lovely moment and I was happy, and she was happy and then two seconds after that I realized WAIT-A-MINUTE, I can ask him for a picture too!!
I was so focused on helping my sister, I totally forgot that… I could ask him as well. I remember saying, “OH WAIT, can I get a picture too??”
He was very kind and happy to oblige and I ended up with this wonderful photo…
There is more to this story, but I don’t want to embarrass my sister further – I’ll just say that the second he walked two steps away, she managed to finally say something to all of us around and it just happened to be something pretty silly… And one of the security guards came over to tease her about what she said… so if he heard it, it’s pretty obvious Alexander Siddig heard it too. 😛
On the whole, this ranks up there as one of my favourite celeb encounters because:
(1) I was able to help my sister meet an idol, and I always love helping others and/or hearing stories about when they meet people they adore.
(2) I almost wasn’t even going to go and it turned out to be a really good thing that I did!!
(3) I got to meet an actor from DS9, one of fav shows ever, and this wouldn’t happen again for a few years!
Since this encounter, I rewatched the entirety of DS9 all the way through back in 2016 – funny enough, I ended up on the episode where Dr Bashir turns 30 the day before I turned 30, which I found really hilarious. Rewatching it all as an adult, I realized that it’s just as amazing as I always thought it was and so worthy of being one of my favourites, but also… Dr Bashir is damn cute.
Now that’s not something I’m really, necessarily, “allowed” to say – much in the way that my sister not allowed to EVER have crush on Obi-Wan Kenobi (which she once tried to allude to after watching Star Wars: Clone Wars – but I summarily shut that down because, as I said, “he is your brother-in-law” 😛 — also, yes, we are both aware that he is a cartoon on Clone Wars, but Obi-Wan on the whole, as a character, is AMAZING, okay? 😛 ).
BUT, what can I say, Dr Bashir IS cute! He started out quite annoying in the first season, but he matured and grew throughout the series, eventually becoming much more complex (he’s like the Pippin of Deep Space Nine, and I love Pippin too!).
So, sorry, I know the “hands-off” policy is in effect and I totally respect it, but after 25 years, I also get it too… 😛
And so, friends, that is where I’ll leave you today. Hopefully I’ll be back again with a post of some sort, some time soon.
If not… have a good first few months of 2018? 😛
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