

(written from a Production point of view Real World article

Jake and Nog get into trouble while trying to cheer up Sisko by acquiring a mint-condition 1951 Willie Mays rookie baseball card; the Dominion offers to sign a nonaggression pact with Bajor.

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Summary

Teaser

The mood aboard Deep Space 9 has grown dark as the Dominion threat has intensified. Three ships, including the USS Tian An Men, have disappeared along the Cardassian border in just the last three weeks, Odo has canceled a vacation to Bajor due to an 75% increase in thefts of food rations and medical supplies, and the crew is generally gloomy – Captain Sisko most of all. What's more, Kai Winn Adami announces she'll be visiting the station. Fortunately, Jake Sisko has a plan to lift his father's spirits – Quark has invited him to an auction at which a mint-condition Willie Mays rookie year baseball card will be available. He'll show up, purchase the card, and make a gift of it. "How hard can that be?" Jake asks.

Act One

Jake convinces Nog to let him use some of the gold-pressed latinum he's saved up over his lifetime so he can purchase this gift for the captain, by guilting him through a reminder that the captain made it possible for Nog to attend Starfleet Academy. Meanwhile, Kai Winn meets with Captain Sisko and reveals that the Dominion has requested a meeting with her. Kai Winn requests that Sisko take a walk with her on the Promenade. Both Sisko and the Kai are concerned about how Bajor will be able to cope with a pending Dominion invasion. The Kai tells Sisko that she is concerned that, with the conflict between the Dominion and the Federation quickly escalating, Bajor could get caught in the middle and would result in the destruction of her world. Sisko promises that he will do whatever it takes to safeguard Bajor.

Meanwhile, at the auction, the baseball card Jake desires comes up for auction. It is included in an Andorian chest along with a pre-Surak Vulcan bracelet, a 6th century Bajoran mandala, and a 23rd century ion-transtator. Bidding begins on the contents of the chest but Nog's entire life savings isn't enough to out-bid a mysterious man at the back of the room. He bids 10 bars of latinum (twice what Nog has saved) and then disappears out the back.

Act Two

Nog tries to convince Jake they've lost the card, but Jake is determined to come through for his father. They intercept the man as he leaves the auction in Quark's but he mutters something about refusing to get involved with any "soulless minions of orthodoxy" and disappears into a turbolift.

Meanwhile, Weyoun arrives on the station to meet with Kai Winn and exchanges insults with Sisko.

Finally, the man who bought the baseball card – Dr. Elias Giger – requests a meeting with Jake and Nog after learning of their relationships to Captain Sisko and Quark. It seems he needs some supplies he believes they're in a position to obtain, and he's willing to trade the baseball card, minus the original packaging and chewing gum, for those supplies. Jake agrees, even after learning that Dr. Giger plans to use the supplies in the construction of his cellular regeneration and entertainment chamber – a device designed to keep the cells of the body from getting bored, thus prolonging life indefinitely. Jake and Nog agree that the man is crazy, but since he has the baseball card they have little choice but to acquiesce to his demands.

Act Three

Giger provides a lengthy list, and Jake and Nog go straight to work. For a neodymium power cell from a Cardassian phase-coil inverter they visit Chief O'Brien, but he's too busy re-calibrating EPS regulators to help. Nog, always a Ferengi, strikes a deal: Jake and Nog will do the work while the Chief visits a holosuite for a chance to go kayaking for the first time in weeks. In exchange, O'Brien will find the power cell.

For five liters of anaerobic metabolites suspended in a hydrosaline solution, they call on Doctor Bashir, who's not only busy but is doing something he wants to do (so they can't strike a deal like they did with Chief O'Brien). However, through additional probing, Nog gets Bashir to admit that he'd be much happier if he had Kukalaka – his teddy bear. When he was still dating Leeta, Bashir let her borrow Kukalaka and she never gave it back. Nog manages to retrieve the bear from Leeta while she's sleeping.

While Jake and Nog are running errands, Kai Winn discusses Weyoun's proposal with Sisko. The Dominion wants to sign a nonaggression treaty with Bajor. She recognizes that Starfleet can't possibly protect Bajor from the full strength of the Dominion, but also knows that allying with the Dominion could make Bajor the next world conquered. Sisko advises that she stall for time and keep Bajor's options open. He tells her she needs to trust him this time. She puts her hand on his ear to read his pagh, then agrees.

Meanwhile, Jake delivers a batch of Dr. Giger's requested items to his quarters. Giger then removes a chip from one of the devices just delivered, and uses it to activate a console panel on his wall, which then begins making a humming sound. The view then pans up, to the quarters above, where Weyoun is being accommodated; the sound has alerted him and his two Jem'Hadar guards that something is going on below him.

Later, Nog agreed to filter out subharmonic distortions from Worf's Klingon opera recordings while Jake helps Kira with an upcoming speech to the Bajoran Agricultural Ministry. When they've collected the last of the supplies, however, they find that Giger and his equipment are no longer in his quarters.

Act Four

Jake and Nog visit Odo, who insists there never was such a person in those quarters. When he hears about the "Cellular Regeneration and Entertainment Chamber," he reads them a list of charges including making a false report and wasting police time and scares them out of his office.

On their way out, Jake witnesses Kai Winn talking to a vedek on the upper level of the Promenade who had also bid on the lot containing the baseball card during the auction. Thinking that she was after the Bajoran mandala that was auctioned in the same lot as the baseball card, he deduces that she kidnapped Giger as a result of losing the bid.

Weyoun meets again with Kai Winn, and she tells him he'll have to wait until she's given a report to the First Minister. He says he understands, and that he and she are very much alike. She puts a hand on his ear as she did with Sisko, then says, "No, we are nothing alike," and leaves. Shortly afterward, she is accosted in a nearby corridor by Jake and Nog.

Sisko is furious when he finds out that they have essentially accused the religious leader of Bajor of burglary and kidnapping, but Jake, still wanting to surprise his father, lies and insists that he and Nog got drunk at Quark's before approaching the Kai. Naturally, this makes Captain Sisko even angrier, and he tells them that he was wrong to place so much trust in them. He confines both of them to quarters and angrily dismisses them.

As the two argue on a turbolift after they leave Sisko's office, they're suddenly beamed onto Weyoun's ship.

Act Five

Weyoun inquires about their connection to Dr. Giger. Jake explains that they were only trying to acquire a baseball card, but Weyoun doesn't believe him. He tells them that he knows about the polarized particles coming from Giger's room, that Jake and Nog have been holding secret meetings with the senior staff of the station (to acquire the requested items for Giger), and the fact that they met with Kai Winn immediately after she left him.

The Jem'Hadar bring Giger into the room, carrying the auctioned box, and revealing that it was Weyoun who had kidnapped him. Giger, seeing Jake and Nog, accuse them of betraying him to the soulless minions of orthodoxy, before he is relieved of the box. Weyoun then begins to examine its contents, telling Jake he would like them to be friends, but they must be truthful with each other.

Seeing no other option, Jake says he and Nog were working for Starfleet Intelligence, and concocts an absurd story about hunting for a mysterious man from the future named Willie Mays. Weyoun realizes their original story was truthful.

Weyoun turns to Giger and asks for an explanation of his machinery. Nog dismisses Giger, quipping that he is working on a way to become immortal. Weyoun, who himself is a recipient of "immortality," immediately becomes interested in Giger's work. Giger says it will take some time to explain his theories. As Giger starts to explain the chamber, Weyoun allows Jake and Nog to leave… with the baseball card.

"Captain's log: Stardate 50929.4. Two days ago, this station felt like a tomb. I'd never seen so many of my crew depressed at the same time. But for some reason, it now seems as though a new spirit has swept through the station … as if someone had opened a door and let a gust of fresh air blow through a musty old house.

"Why this is happening is frankly a mystery to me. After all, nothing has really changed. The Dominion is still a threat, the Cardassians are still threatening to retake the station, and I can still see the clouds of war gathering on the horizon.

"So why do I sense a newfound sense of optimism in the air? But maybe I'm over thinking this. Maybe the real explanation is as simple as something my father taught me a long time ago. Even in the darkest moments, you can always find something that'll make you smile."

Due to unintentional benefits of Jake's and Nog's trades, Chief O'Brien had time to go kayaking in the holosuite, Dr. Bashir has Kukalaka back (though Leeta is confused about losing him), Major Kira's speech was well received, and Worf is able to listen to his opera collection on the USS Defiant's bridge again. Weyoun even takes an interest in Giger's work on immortality. But most importantly, Captain Sisko has a mint-condition Willie Mays rookie baseball card from Earth, 1951. The whole station feels happier.

Log entries

Memorable quotes

"Mr. Worf, you've been paroled. The party's over."

- Sisko



"It's my money, Jake! If you want to bid at the auction, use your own money."

"I'm Human, I don't have any money."

"It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement."

"Hey, watch it. There's nothing wrong with our philosophy. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity."

"What does that mean exactly?"

"It means… it means we don't need money!"

"Well, if you don't need money, then you certainly don't need mine!"

- Nog and Jake



"Sold… to the blue man… in the good shoes."

- Quark



"Do you want to die?"

- Giger, to both Jake Sisko and Weyoun, introducing his cellular regeneration and entertainment chamber



"Let's come up with something else to cheer up your dad, like a new pair of shoes."

"Shoes?"

"What's wrong with shoes?"

"Nothing, except it's stupid."

- Nog and Jake



"I'm not crazy… I'm just a little obsessed."

"A little?"

- Jake and Nog



"I have some experience in that area as well."

- Kai Winn, referring to political intrigues



"Maybe the soulless minions of orthodoxy finally caught up with him."

"The who?"

- Nog and Odo, on Giger's disappearance



"You accused the Kai of burglary and kidnapping?!"

"We didn't really accuse her of anything."

"Oh, I see, you just implied it."

"Exactly."

- Sisko, Jake, and Nog



"I see that my faith in the two of you has been sadly misplaced. You both are confined to quarters until further notice! DISMISSED!!!"

- Sisko, to Jake and Nog



"Lions and Gigers and bears."

"Oh, my."

- Nog and Jake



"The entire future of the galaxy may depend on us tracking down Willie Mays… and stopping him."

- Jake, to Weyoun



"He's harmless, he's just working on a way to become immortal."

"Really? I have a background in, shall we say, creative genetics. I'd be most interested in hearing your theories."

- Nog and Weyoun

Background information

Story and script

Production

Reception

This episode proved to be a big hit with the fans, and was also popular with the producers. According to Ira Steven Behr, "All the plot machinations, all the humor, all the tech talk, everything, it ultimately comes down to simple Human emotion of trying to make someone you care about feel better. It's very simple and very nice." Similarly, Ronald D. Moore states, "The father and son are really tight, and they really do love each other. It's a family that works, and that's important to us. In this particular episode, Jake's feelings ground everything, and it makes you actually care about all the ridiculous stuff. There's heart to it." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

Trivia

Video and DVD releases

Starring

Also starring

Guest stars

Special guest star

Uncredited co-stars

References

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