Conjuring

"The Storyteller" Plot Summary:

O'Brien and Bashir find themselves in a Bajoran village where it is believed that only a great storyteller can keep a great menace from destroying the population. Mistaken for the storyteller and his assistant, the two at first enjoy the fame, but when O'Brien must save the village from an energy being created out of their own fears, he realizes that the favors he has received may not be worth the price.

Analysis:

This is an episode which could have been about virtually any two characters on any Trek series; there is nothing which made O'Brien particularly relevant as the storyteller, and the Bajorans as a race seemed quite out of character. People occupied by a real and present menace like the Cardassians for forty years are going to be scared off by a phantom energy being, only to need rescue by an alien? It's rather insulting to them and no particular credit to O'Brien that he managed to talk them into calming down before they and he all went up in the same cloud of fear and despair. Bashir wasn't particularly impressive either. The exterior shots were a nice break for a series set on a station, but otherwise this episode had little to recommend it.