If Wishes Were Horses

DVD, DS9 S1 (If Wishes Were Horses)

It's good to have a more lighthearted story, with a bit of mystery, after the more serious 'Progress'. This reminded me of 'Babel' in that it is a true ensemble piece, everyone getting a look in and no obvious leads. The O'Brien family is always nice to see, and little Molly is very cute. I wonder if they didn't actually have her in the scenes with Rumpelstiltskin so as not to scare her, as she is holding O'Brien's hand when they go back in the bedroom, but you can't see her. Then again, they do have her near him in one of the last scenes, but she's being held my Keiko.

The episode was a chance to have a bit of fun, go a bit wild, and I think that's the only weakness of it - it wasn't quite as visceral or strange or wild as would have made it work fully - more like the man on fire that rushes at Kira in a blazing explosion. The sets were all a bit too light, there was never really any sinister elements to the imaginations. They chose a more amusing side to it, which could have been milked even more. Michael John Anderson as Rumpelstiltskin did a great performance, as did Keone Young, with his nostalgic conversation about baseball, and even more in the final scene when Buck Bokai returns to explain to Sisko how meeting him has helped his people realise new things, such as the concept of imagination. Although... if they didn't understand imagination how did they go round the universe appearing as imaginary things to make contact? Oh well, they weren't Vulcans, so their lack of logic doesn't matter.

Vulcans did play a part in their historical remembrances, filling in a little piece of 200 years ago (Archer's time!) about a ship that got dragged into an anomaly. The double Dax trouble was terribly embarrassing for poor Dr. Bashir. I get the feeling some of the other characters such as O'Brien and Kira would have had fun with that if they weren't feeling so sheepish from their own experiences! I think they should have used the effect more as it was very real looking. I remembered the emus, but the snow was quite a surprise. A shame we didn't get to see more of that, too! The more episodes with Odo and Quark scenes, the better. This one starts with the pair at odds as usual. Quark's full of joy, and Odo's in a grouch.

I always enjoy episodes where all is not what it seems. This is a good one, but not quite as good as possible, and there is a little too much technobabble towards the end, so it can be easy to zone out a bit. At the same time I appreciate the effort to remain theoretically science-proof, and it all sounds clever, but it contributed a bit in making it feel a bit more like a 'TNG' episode, with a bit of a drier, clean-cut story than 'DS9' usually does.

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