Wanderlust

1.16 — “If Wishes Were Horses”

1.16 — “If Wishes Were Horses”

Plot: The appearance of Rumpelstiltskin following O’Brien’s reading of a bedtime story to his daughter triggers an extensive meditation on the probable potency of hallucinogenic drugs in the 24th century.

Thoughts: The manifestation of figures out of the crew’s imagination is like “Shore Leave” (TOS 1.15) and “Where No One Has Gone Before” (TNG 1.6), except that the products of this crew’s imagination are not especially deadly and include a fuddy-duddy old baseball player. I think when they say he played in the 40s, they mean the 2040s or 2140s.

Nostalgia for baseball is not going to win me over. Is there a lot of crossover between Star Trek and baseball fandom?

Isn’t it funny that the fantasies celebrated include transforming a female cast member into a mindless sex fiend obsessed with the gratification of a male character? I hope the actors had fun shooting it, but that’s demeaning. And Quark has two voiceless beauties drape themselves over him like trophies or slabs of meat. Boy, I couldn’t have seen that coming. Full of surprises this week.

You can almost smell the desperation as the writers try to stretch the premise into a full 43 minutes. This midstream snippit of dialogue is telling:

RUMPELSTILTSKIN: We don’t know any more than when we started.

{. . .]

RUMPELSTILTSKIN: How much longer do you suggest we devote to this?

BUCK: As long as it takes. It ain’t over til it’s over.

This lines were probably transcribed from conversation in the writers’ room during script development. Other overly honest lines include Kira’s “What the hell does that mean?” and “This doesn’t make any sense!”

I do think it is remarkable that O’Brien is depicted holding a lavender Kindle, in a show that aired May 1993.

Verdict: skippable. 1 of 5 dudes on fire, for no reason.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/If_Wishes_Were_Horses

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5 responses to “1.16 — “If Wishes Were Horses””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    I’m not as upset about this one as you are, Kev.

    When I compare it to “Go Along Home”, it’s not nearly in the same category.

    I thought there were some cute moments: Odo fantasizing about putting Quark in jail (although it does trivialize their relationship some, he was annoyed at the time). Bashir being put in his place for objectifying Dax and Dax-on-Dax arguing (which could have been sexist but doesn’t feel that way to me… it’s funny to see Dax annoyed at being accused of not being sex-positive enough when it’s been established that she is plenty sex-positive… I don’t like the actress but she’s better here than in most episodes).

    I also thought it interesting the casting choice of the ballplayer (I didn’t realize that they could be that out-of-shape-looking, but then I’m not a baseball fan).

    I do think it’s an interesting question why we would choose to imagine things that terrify us (my 4 year old does this… strange). The idea that our imagination makes us unique is hard to imagine (not sure how other races do science then). But it’s true we probably don’t appreciate or understand our imaginations nearly enough.

    Yes, waaay too much technobabble and time-wasting and I can’t pretend to be a baseball fan. But overall I thought the ep had enough redeeming qualities that I’d say it was watchable.

    Reply
  2. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Dogs and cats have imaginations. Mal used to stalk through our backyard, obviously fantasizing about hunting situations that were not actually happening. Dogs are known for having running dreams where their legs start kicking while asleep and wake up their humans.

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  3. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    That’s an interesting point… the REM sleep cycle and wakeful imagining may well be closely related. The purpose of the REM cycle (or, one purpose) is enabling our brains to store memory in related places to prior memories that evoke similar emotion or have similar themes… like a “defrag cycle” for the brain. So perhaps imagination is a necessary by-product of that process. I do think one could claim that imagination is something unique to mammals on Earth (and related species per the recent TNG episode). So perhaps these aliens have an alternate evolutionary history.

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  4. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    I’ve been catching up reading Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion (2000) by Terry J. Erdmann, and I thought this tidbit about filming this episode would be of interest to those who have experience with four-year-olds:

    “Special effects aside, [Robert] Legato’s greatest challenge in directing the episode may have been getting a performance out of his smallest cast member: little Hanna Hatae, who plays Molly O’Brien. According to Legato, four-your-old Hanna had a cold the day they were to shoot the scene in which she comes out of her bedroom to announce the presence of Rumpelstiltskin. ‘She didn’t feel good, and she was tired, and she didn’t want to play, ‘ recalls Legato. ‘And she simply would not do it. Her mother came in to talk to her, and the assistant directors and the studio teacher, and she still wouldn’t do it. After forty minutes of absolutely nothing, I had a talk with her and told her if she didn’t come out, I’d get in a lot of trouble. They’d be really mad at me. Then I told her that if she’d do the scene like she was supposed to, I’d be really appreciative and give her one of the nice toys in Molly’s bedroom set. At that point, I didn’t care how much they cost or if they were rentals or what!’ Then, notes Legato, they crossed their fingers, set up the scene once again, turned the camera on, and called ‘Action!’

    “‘The door opens up, she comes running out and says her line like a champ, and the camera man was so surprised that he blew the shot!’ laughs Legato, who says they finally got the shot in ‘four or five takes’–and four or five toys later.”

    Reply
  5. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Yes… bribery is an oft-employed tactic in our household! We try to bribe with acrobatics or tickling but will stoop to cookies if desperate.

    Reply

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