Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine
Episode
Particulars: S1EP15, “If Wishes Were Horses”
Summary: After
reading his daughter a fairy tale, O’Brien is both stunned and a bit concerned
when the subject of that fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin (Michael John Anderson)
shows up in her bedroom. Similar apparitions start appearing around the
station, including one of Sisko’s favorite baseball players, Buck Bokai (Keone
Young) and a clone of Dax who keeps trying to seduce Bashir. It quickly becomes
apparent that these figures are spawned from people’s imaginations, and they
seem to be coming from an anomaly that’s spawned near the station and runs the
risk of destroying the whole region. Now the crew has to figure out how to stop
it, with the added wrinkle that they really
can’t let their mind wander.
Standalone
Thoughts: Maybe it’s because I’m a creative type, and therefore have quite
an active imagination myself, but I wound up enjoying this episode. It’s got a
decent mixture of humor and seriousness, and the whole thing is entertaining,
if not always the most cohesive. The episode toys with the main conflict being
due to one of three Star Trek tropes
(Holodeck malfunction, anomaly, and a third one I won’t spoil), and while it’s
clever on the one hand, it can also be a bit annoying or feel like a cop-out.
This is especially true of the resolution, which works on one level but also
feels a little too convenient. I think this is one of those things that are
enjoyable in the moment but become more flawed the more you think about them,
but as long as you mostly enjoyed yourself, it’s not that big a deal. It does
make my job a little harder, though.
How it Relates to
the Whole: There’s not a lot that’s relevant in this episode either.
Despite the hint of a “sequel” at the end of the episode, I don’t believe
there’s any follow-up to this. We get a little more of the Bashir/Dax
not-quite-relationship (which in turn says some things about Dax that I believe
wind up changing as the series goes on), but it’s not really going to make a
gigantic impact on things. The only thing this might lead to is the use of a certain prop on Sisko’s desk, but
that’s not something that’s going to have major ramifications. It’s not a bad
episode, but it’s definitely not what I would call “essential viewing”.
Other: *Quark
continues to be kind of wonderful. He’s smart enough to recognize business
opportunities, and his snarky line deliveries are almost always fun. As someone
who likes both humor and cunning, he’s right up my alley. I don’t think he’ll
ever be my absolute favorite character from the show, but he’s certainly been
the most consistently entertaining here in Season One.
*Odo also has some great moments here, like when he’s
first trying to deal with the bird on the promenade (see above), or his
curmudgeonly, almost philosophical musing on imagination early in the episode. With
him and Quark playing off each other, you pretty much have the best parts of
the episode.
*Dax suggests Bashir distract himself by taking a “high-pitched
sonic shower”, which I assume is the equivalent of a cold shower. I get the
point of the joke, but all it does is make me wonder how sonic showers are even
supposed to work? How do they get you clean? I’m sure there’s an explanation
somewhere, but I’m not going to dig around to find out. Besides, I can only
wade through so much technobabble.
*I do have to wonder who keeps conjuring up the birds,
and why. Is it an ornithologist, or someone who used to keep the birds as pets?
Best
Line/Exchange: This is probably the most obvious line I could have chosen,
but it’s the sort of deliberately silly line that I like, so…
Odo (Speaking
to a crowd): Ladies and gentlemen—and
all androgynous creatures—your attention please! As you may have noticed, we’re
experiencing some difficulties. I’m going to have to ask you all to please
refrain from using your imaginations!
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