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If Wishes Were Horses (DS9 episode)
Encyclopedia
"If Wishes Were Horses" is the 16th episode
of the science fiction
television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
.
tells Odo he needs to lighten up and have some fun, perhaps in a holosuite. Odo dismisses imagination as a sign that one is not paying attention to one's real life. Quark offers to create a shapeshifter "playmate," at which point Odo declares, "You're disgusting!"
At seeing Jake Sisko
walking toward a holosuite
, Odo warns that Quark had better not have created any "playmates" for him. Jake's program, Quark explains, is one that includes famous baseball players from Earth. Quark has made it his business to learn about human customs and traditions because a wise man, he says, can smell profit in the wind. He tells Odo to try it. "I don't have a sense of smell," Odo says.
As Quark explains economics
to Odo, on the other side of the bar Bashir
and Dax
are having lunch. Julian wants to become romantically involved but Jadzia politely refuses and points out that he has eyed several other women as well. She returns to Ops, where she finds there are elevated emissions in the nearby Denorius Belt. Dax and Sisko
hypothesize that it is due to the high amount of traffic at Deep Space Nine
.
Meanwhile, O'Brien
reads his daughter Molly the bedtime story "Rumpelstiltskin
," then tucks her in. However, Molly comes back out and claims Rumpelstiltskin is in her room. O'Brien returns with her and finds that Rumpelstiltskin truly has appeared in her room. A submissive version of Dax then tries to seduce Bashir in his quarters and Buck Bokai, a famous baseball player who broke Joe DiMaggio
's hitting streak in the year 2026, appears to Jake.
The characters eventually disappear and random events, such as snow on the Promenade, occur all over the station, seemingly from people's imaginations. Quark finds himself surrounded by beautiful women who are unable to resist him and hopes whatever is going on lasts forever, until he realizes every one of his customers is winning at his Dabo tables. He desperately tries to "wish" them to lose, but as Odo points out, Quark is outnumbered. Later, Odo returns to his office and runs a security sweep only to discover that he has wished Quark to appear in a holding cell.
The wishing spree continues until the emissions detected earlier turn into a void near the station. It continues to grow exponentially until Sisko realizes it is part of the wish effect, and as more people believe it exists, its size increases. Once the station wishes the void away, Buck Bokai appears in Sisko's office, where he explains that he is part of an extended mission that followed a ship through the Wormhole. His people wanted to see what "imagination" is really about in an attempt to learn more about humanoids.
Episode
An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
.
Plot
QuarkQuark (Star Trek)
Quark is a fictional character in the American television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The character, which was played by Armin Shimerman, was depicted as a member of an extraterrestrial race known as the Ferengi, who are stereotypically ultra-capitalist and only motivated by...
tells Odo he needs to lighten up and have some fun, perhaps in a holosuite. Odo dismisses imagination as a sign that one is not paying attention to one's real life. Quark offers to create a shapeshifter "playmate," at which point Odo declares, "You're disgusting!"
At seeing Jake Sisko
Jake Sisko
Jacob "Jake" Sisko, played by Cirroc Lofton, is a character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He is the son of Deep Space Nine's commanding officer, Benjamin Sisko.-Overview:...
walking toward a holosuite
Holodeck
A holodeck, in the fictional Star Trek universe, is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases. The first use of a "holodeck" by that name in the Star Trek universe was in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint", although a conceptually...
, Odo warns that Quark had better not have created any "playmates" for him. Jake's program, Quark explains, is one that includes famous baseball players from Earth. Quark has made it his business to learn about human customs and traditions because a wise man, he says, can smell profit in the wind. He tells Odo to try it. "I don't have a sense of smell," Odo says.
As Quark explains economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
to Odo, on the other side of the bar Bashir
Julian Bashir
Lieutenant Julian Subatoi Bashir, M.D., played by Alexander Siddig, is a main character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Bashir is the chief medical officer of space station Deep Space Nine and the USS Defiant.-Overview:...
and Dax
Jadzia Dax
Jadzia Dax , played by Terry Farrell, was a main character during the first six seasons of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine....
are having lunch. Julian wants to become romantically involved but Jadzia politely refuses and points out that he has eyed several other women as well. She returns to Ops, where she finds there are elevated emissions in the nearby Denorius Belt. Dax and Sisko
Benjamin Sisko
Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, is the main character of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.-Early life and career:...
hypothesize that it is due to the high amount of traffic at Deep Space Nine
Deep Space Nine (space station)
Deep Space Nine is a fictitious space station, and is the eponymous primary setting of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It serves as a base for the exploration of the Gamma Quadrant via the Bajoran wormhole, and is a hub of trade and travel for the sector's denizens...
.
Meanwhile, O'Brien
Miles O'Brien (Star Trek)
Miles Edward O'Brien, played by Colm Meaney, is Chief of Operations in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Before DS9, he appeared as a recurring transporter chief in Star Trek: The Next Generation...
reads his daughter Molly the bedtime story "Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin is the eponymous character and protagonist of a fairy tale which originated in Germany . The tale was collected by the Brothers Grimm, who first published it in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales...
," then tucks her in. However, Molly comes back out and claims Rumpelstiltskin is in her room. O'Brien returns with her and finds that Rumpelstiltskin truly has appeared in her room. A submissive version of Dax then tries to seduce Bashir in his quarters and Buck Bokai, a famous baseball player who broke Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
's hitting streak in the year 2026, appears to Jake.
The characters eventually disappear and random events, such as snow on the Promenade, occur all over the station, seemingly from people's imaginations. Quark finds himself surrounded by beautiful women who are unable to resist him and hopes whatever is going on lasts forever, until he realizes every one of his customers is winning at his Dabo tables. He desperately tries to "wish" them to lose, but as Odo points out, Quark is outnumbered. Later, Odo returns to his office and runs a security sweep only to discover that he has wished Quark to appear in a holding cell.
The wishing spree continues until the emissions detected earlier turn into a void near the station. It continues to grow exponentially until Sisko realizes it is part of the wish effect, and as more people believe it exists, its size increases. Once the station wishes the void away, Buck Bokai appears in Sisko's office, where he explains that he is part of an extended mission that followed a ship through the Wormhole. His people wanted to see what "imagination" is really about in an attempt to learn more about humanoids.
Arc significance
- Sisko receives a baseball as a gift from the aliens. It would remain on his desk for most of the rest of the series. (He would take it with him to EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
at the end of season six.)