10 Amazing Behind The Scenes Secrets Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Give any two characters screen-time and someone, somewhere, will insist that they're banging. I'm not going to go into any details here but, long story short, myself and a wrestler once had to stop filming skits together because the fan art was getting too graphic.

But sometimes there's no smoke without the fire of someone's burning loins and, of all Star Trek's great unresolved fan-shipping, Garak and Julian Bashir remain the gold standard. Partially because they had great chemistry together but, more importantly, because the writing and performances pushed gently in that direction.

Andrew Robinson, literally Garak himself, has said that he played the role "as someone who doesn't have a defined sexuality. He's not gay, he's not straight, it's a non-issue for him. But it's Star Trek and Americans really are very nervous about sexual ambiguity. Also, this is a family show, they have to keep it on the straight and narrow".

Sadly this was something that was always acknowledged in the writer's room, but never manifested into anything that happened in the show. Robinson also saying that by and large his portrayal was supported by production, but they just decided never to explicitly go there. And, if the writing didn't go there, then the acting couldn't because the two ultimately need to support each other.

So if you ever watched any of their lunches together and thought "hang on, is this... a thing?" then, yes. Yes it was. They just couldn't say it.