What a fun episode! I can't recall any other buddy/heisty episodes of Trek before let alone any that work as well as this one. It manages to have an A story about Jake and Nog on a zany quest to get a baseball card and interweaves it with a story about Bajor considering a non-aggression pact with the Dominion. It even works in a C story about a man on a quest for immortality just for kicks. I also really enjoyed the scene just before the end of the episode where it shows how much joy the two friends brought to the so many people on the ship in their quest for the card.
The episode opens with a dinner at the Sisko's but everybody is feeling depressed about the Dominion. The next day at Quark's Nog, Jake and Quark are discussing an upcoming auction Quark is hosting and the topic of what will be available to bid on comes up. Nog reads a list of "worthless" items including a box containing, among other things, a mint condition rookie season Willie Mays baseball card. Jake convinces Nog that he owes it to the captain to help him get the card to help cheer Ben up a bit. And he needs some cheering, Ben is stuck in a meeting with Kai Winn, it seems the Dominion has asked for a meeting with her and she has agreed to meet their representative on the station. That evening the auction takes place but Jake and Nog are outbid by a furtive man in the aisle who runs out after the item is acquired. They track him down but he accuses them of being agents of orthodoxy and runs off.
The next day Nog receives a message from Dr. Giger, the man who won the auction, calling for a meeting in his quarters. It seems he is a bit of a nut who has decided he can gain immortality by entertaining the cells of a humanoid body. He is willing to exchange the card for some equipment and supplies and after some debate they agree to get it for him. They start with Miles who is busy working on calibrating some EPS regulators. He is sure there is on of the parts they need around somewhere, but he doesn't have time to get it. So they agree to do the calibration for him so he can go kayaking and he agrees to send the part to their quarters. Next they go to Julian who after some convincing agrees to get them some medical supplies if they can get his teddy bear back from his ex Leeta which Nog does without any problems. But speaking of problems Weyoun shows up to try and convince Bajor to sign a non-aggression treaty. Sisko gets Winn to agree to stall a bit longer, but that isn't much of a solution.
Weyoun has notice the sounds coming from Giger's quarters and is extremely suspicious about them, but more on that soon. Jake is working on spicing up a speech for Kira and Nog is tuning out distortions from a klingon opera for Worf. They finally have all the stuff they need but when they go to Giger's quarters there is no sign he was ever there. They try reporting it to Odo but he says there is no record of any Dr. Giger on the station. Jake for some reason decides Kai Winn is behind it but confronting her goes even worse than talking to Odo and Ben confines Jake and Nog to quarters. But that doesn't stop Weyoun from beaming them onto his ship and accusing them of conspiring against him somehow. He brings in Giger but he only accuses Jake and Nog of being agents of orthodoxy. Jake tries to convince them all that he and Nog are spies, but that only convinces Weyoun that maybe their story about wanting the baseball card for Ben is accurate. He and Giger hit it off talking about the cellular entertainment thing and Jake leaves with Nog and the card. Ben and many of the crew they helped along the way are cheered up greatly which is good because there are dark times ahead.
Review: Just about everything in the episode works really well. It manages to involve almost the entire crew without feeling like it was just trying to bring everybody in just because. Some of the comedy bits work great and it is fun to see Jake and Nog's different strengths come together to accomplish a goal so well.
8 out of 10
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