So Bad It's Almost Good---If Wishes Were Horses

"If Wishes Were Horses" finds the space station undergoing manifestations of  their imaginations including characters from children's novels.

What I find confusing about this episode is, are the manifestations, including a 21st century baseball player, responsible for it, or are the manifestations (who are actually aliens trying to learn more about the humanoid species) just visitors when a threatening anomaly occurred?

At this point, I couldn't have cared less because I was laughing too hard. A Jadzia Dax is all over Dr. Bashir and his fantasies are exposed. We learn from the Dax double that Julian views her as a "cold fish" and Dax is amazed that her double is so submissive.

And the Rumpelstiltskin character just bugs the hell out of O'Brien. He appeared after the chief had read the novel to his young daughter at bedtime.

But all's well that ends well. Sisko figures out that the riff out in space that was about to blow apart the space station was also a figment of the imaginations of the crew, who deduced that what they were experiencing was real. Don't believe it, Sisko commands them. Then everything turns back to normal. The visitors exit but not before letting Sisko know they meant no harm and were just curious and may return.