If Wishes Were Horses (O.B. 16 May 1993) score: 5

In his Cinefantastique feature previewing DS9 (April 1993), Mark A. Altman made-new-friends by quoting a studio flack:

"Do not call (Quark's facilities) sexual Holosuites or a brothel!" 

a quote from TOS "Shore Leave"

Presumably, this inspired the production's press blackout of the magazine, but is quoted here to illumine DS9's penchant for fantasies and hallucinations (see also "Distant Voices," "Our Man Bashir," "Far Beyond the Stars" as well as the Vic Fontaine and "crossover" segments).  Such a range deflects criticism, in reminding the viewer of the fantasist in the mirror.

"If Wishes Were Horses" unreels pleasantly enough, as the crew sleuths the sudden appearance of baseball great Buck Bokai (Ben's holo-character), a submissive Jadzia (Julian's desire), and Rumpelstiltskin, the latter promising to save the station in exchange for Molly (Miles and Keiko's first-born, of course).  Answers come as grinding technobabble, but it helps that the cast is uniformly excellent.  Keone Young was cast by a baseball fan, clearly, in that he'd make an unconvincing representative of most any other sport.  Michael John Anderson is better known for art-TV (Twin Peaks, Carnivale), while Terry Farrell has a ball as alt-Jadzia.

Star Trek is a plot-based confection, so from "The Naked Time" forward, character fancies are off-format.  They're also inevitable, given the need for 22 episodes per.  For narrative tension they'll update The Odyssey -- the lotus-eaters, Circe, the Sirens -- with Trek regulars little more likely to die than Odysseus (the latter's shipmates, then, were early redshirts).

Ultimately, "If Wishes Were Horses" is similar to "Shore Leave," "Spectre of the Gun" et al., as the regulars prevail by disbelieving the figments.  The tag hints at a sequel, never produced.  On the other hand, the episode's aliens are so reticent, who can say?

** Rumpelstiltskin joined the scenario after Colm Meaney rejected leprechauns as problematic stereotype.  Of course, interrogating same would've duplicated the Dax subplot. **
** DS9 stepped nearer self-definition with Ben Sisko's love for baseball, otherwise extinct.  Despite pace-of-play hand-wringing, there's little sign of baseball expiring, but Buck Bokai was nevertheless prophetic: we're told he broke DiMaggio's streak (of consecutive games with a hit), whereas Ichiro Suzuki (then 19) was destined to be the global "hit king" (if MLB and Japanese-league stats are combined).  

Progress (O.B. 9 May 1993) score: 6

Finally, a Star Trek series has a female character (more than one) to carry an episode without strain.  With "Progress," DS9  avoids Voyager's mistake (whatever happened with those Maquis-Starfleet tensions?), paying off Kira as the former terrorist bending to politics.  Here, her agonized arc recalls Admiral Jarok (James Sloyan) in TNG "The Defector," with Sisko attenuating Picard's dressing-down of a traitor.
It's tempting to overrate "Progress," but the stalling isn't all Mullibok's.  This is another DS9 that's sci-fi just barely, indeed, torching a farmer's hut likely caused a few Vietnam flashbacks (it's questionable this scene would've gained approval for a 1970s or 80s episode).

"Progress" works because of the cast, with Brian Keith one of the franchise's great guest stars.  Just as Star Trek has Westerns in its DNA, before his Family Affair Keith starred in Nevada Smith (with Steve McQueen) and Sam Peckinpah's The Deadly Companions, while gracing dozens of TV series; he was the lead in Peckinpah's short-lived The Westerner. 

Like Charlton Heston in Will Penny, Keith in "Progress" lends instant weight to the study of a formidable pioneer turned victim, because aged at epochal change.

** Trivia question: which DS9 guest dares address Kira Nerys as "girl," "child," and "dear"?  If a clue is needed, Mullibok also reckons her "halfway pretty." **
** In the B-story, "self-sealing stembolts" might've been inspired by the self-sealing bags available to comics and magazine collectors, a group which includes a few Star Trek fans and reviewers. **   

The Storyteller (O.B. 2 May, 1993) score: 4

Star Trek Voyager takes a licking, but it got up-to-speed better than either TNG or DS9.  Showrunner Jeri Taylor was both focused and in her prime.  Compare DS9 S1, produced during TNG's final season with Star Trek: Generations on the white board.  With Berman and Piller spread thin, latter S1 falls off the table, as one timeworn script runs into the next.

Miles O'Brien, captive audience

To be fair, "The Storyteller" is hard to appreciate for a TOS fan, being a qualified remake of "The Paradise Syndrome."  Again, circumstances make a Starfleeter shaman of a native group: here, it's O'Brien as the accidental "Sirah," facing the dragon equivalent, evoking both Forbidden Planet and The Village.  As in the 1968 episode, the crewman must be extricated (a jealous local brandishes a knife) without disrupting the culture.

"The Storyteller" adds a B story reminiscent of TNG's "The Dauphin," about a pretty young alien leader interacting with Jake and Nog (Varis is played by Gina Philips, later of Ally McBeal and Boston Public).  Like all Star Trek series, DS9 attempted to lure kids and families, with the Jake-and-Nog combination working better than most (Wesley, Naomi Wildman).
"The Storyteller" was a leftover script from TNG, but that's not the problem, in fact the rewrite launches the satisfying O'Brien-Bashir relationship.  While there's nothing terrible here (except perhaps the effects for the Dal'Rok), there's also little that's memorable.  Also, a plot surrounding the fitness of new leaders is awfully similar to "The Nagus," then green in memory.
But as Doris Day sang, que Sirah, Sirah. 

Battle Lines (O.B. 25 April, 1993) score: 6

At this point in the original run, I was still resisting Deep Space 9 : "attempts a substantive episode, but there's really no moral question here, no decision to be made ... a ripoff of 'Day of the Dove.'" 

Well, Jonathan Swift and Paths of Glory both predate "Day of the Dove."  And there is a moral question, if nothing new: how do we stop hating?  "Battle Lines" has no answers, except to leave Kai Opaka on the planet as possible savior.  Note these alien fighters seem to have no spirituality of their own; perhaps it fell to their all-encompassing conflict. 
The point of the episode, of course, is combatants who've long forgotten what started the war.  In turn, they seem forgotten by those who cast them into exile.  Still, it's interesting Brokeback Mountain will use the name Ennis.  For Baby Boomers, Nol-Ennis evokes the grassy knoll of JFK assassination lore.
I've vaguely dreaded reviewing this episode, ever more pointed.  Its gloomy, blasted prison is the American civic landscape.  We tear at each other in the press, then ask leading questions of strangers to distinguish Ennis from Nol-Ennis.  Some disingenuously hope for progress, as generations turn, but any student of history knows we are cursed with immortality.   

Kai Opaka shows up later in the series, but I won't bother checking.  We know it's eternal dusk, and the Ennis and Nol-Ennis are at each other's throats.

** It's no coincidence this episode defines the Federation as non-military (per the DS9 Companion, Rick Berman imagined more of a trading alliance).  Sisko describes an alliance for mutual scientific, cultural and defensive benefit. **