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Revision as of 22:46, 5 April 2007
"Far Beyond the Stars" is a season six episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The teleplay was written by Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler, based on a story by Marc Scott Zicree. Avery Brooks directed.
Plot summary
Sisko is talking to his father when he is distracted by a vision in the window of a man who looks like him but is dressed in 20th Century clothes.
Benjamin Sisko considers leaving Starfleet, but before he makes a decision, a vision from the Prophets shows him as Benny Russell, an African-American science fiction writer on Earth in 1950s New York City. Dr. Bashir's tests of Sisko show the same synaptic potentials as he had when he had visions a year ago (in the episode "Rapture").
Benny Russell writes for the science fiction magazine Incredible Tales, where his colleagues are human versions of Sisko's subordinates, including: Herbert Rossoff (Quark), who often threatened to quit; Julius Eaton (Dr. Bashir), considered to be maudlin in his writing; K.C. Hunter (Kira Nerys); and Albert (Miles O'Brien) who prefers to write stories about robots.
Pabst (Odo), the editor of the magazine, announces photo day and Hunter takes the hint that she should not show up that day so that the readers don't learn she's a woman. Benny Russell also realizes he's not expected to show up for photos either, but he is appalled.
Russell is inspired to write a story about a U.S. Air Force space station called "Deep Space Nine", whose commanding officer is the African-American Benjamin Sisko. The other writers like the story, but Pabst is hesitant to publish it. Albert suggests that Benny makes the ending of his first story a dream, a compromise that both Benny and Pabst accept after it is clarified that the dreaming is being done by an African-American (or, to use 1950s vernacular, a "Negro").
A hustler (Jake Sisko) who was a friend of Benny's is killed by the police (Gul Dukat and Weyoun), who severely beat him when he becomes angry at the sight of the dead body. On his first day back at the office, he learns that Pabst's boss does not like the story, and the whole month's run of the magazine is “pulped.” Angry over the news, and the news that he is being fired over writing his story, Russell has a nervous breakdown and is taken away by ambulance. As he falls unconscious, he sees through the window to find not a cityscape, but star streaks as if traveling at warp speed. Sisko wakes up, to the relief of his father and his son. He is deeply disturbed by his vision, and now wonders what is real, his life on Deep Space Nine, or his life as Benny Russell.
Notes
Zicree's original pitch for the episode featured Jake Sisko as the main character, and did not deal directly with racial issues. Zicree originally patterned the Bashir/Kira characters on Henry Kuttner, and C. L. Moore and the O'Brien character on Isaac Asimov.
Benny Russell appears in another vision in the episode "Shadows and Symbols". An often rumored but never produced ending for the series would have involved the camera panning out after the final episode to reveal the edge of the show's soundstage, showing an elderly Benny Russell watching the show's filming and clutching a script reading "Deep Space Nine", his life work finally having been produced as the television series we had been watching. This metafictional ending would have had the controversial effect of possibly reducing the entire Star Trek timeline to a dream (see The Tommy Westphall Universe).
Joseph Sisko quotes a passage from the Holy Bible, which Benjamin remarks is unusual for him (it is also unusual in Star Trek in general).
The hustler Jimmy (Cirroc Lofton) uses the racially charged word "nigger" in this episode, in reference to the fact that black people, in his view, will never get into space except to shine white people's shoes. This is the first and only use of the word in the Star Trek universe.
Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor, who portray Julian Bashir and Kira Nerys, respectively, portray married couple Julius and Kay Easton in this episode; the pair were married in real life at the time.
During an argument, Julius Eaton (Bashir) says "We're writers, not vikings" in the style of the typical Star Trek doctor's line, "I'm a doctor, not a ...".
Many of the covers for the science fiction magazines list titles of original Star Trek episodes, including some by D.C. Fontana (analogous to Kay Hunter in this episode, who, like Fontana, publishes using her initials to prevent her gender being discovered, although the relationship between Hunter and Eaton might also reflect C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner).
Incredible Stories' offices are in the "Arthur Trill building", a reference to both the Trill species and the real-life Brill Building.
Aron Eisenberg (Nog) is a newsboy, vending magazines, one of which shows Starbase 11 from the original series episode "The Menagerie." Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun, and Brunt of the FCA) and Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat) play policemen. J. G. Hertzler (Martok) plays the artist at the magazine whose drawings inspire the writers. Michael Dorn (Worf) plays a baseball player, the first African-American player for the local major league team (the New York Giants). Penny Johnson (Kasidy Yates) plays a waitress at a diner, aspiring to own the diner. Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) plays a delinquent teenager who scoffs that black people might ever have equality with whites. Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko) plays a priest who counsels Benny Russell to write his story, boldly. Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) is Pabst's secretary (she exclaims about the "worm" in Jadzia's belly).
Since Michael Dorn is seen wearing a New York Giants baseball uniform, the events experienced by Benny Russell must have taken place before or during 1957, the year that the team moved to San Francisco, California.
Although dressed as a Roman Catholic priest, Brock Peters' street preacher refers to the "Prophets" and at one point touches Benny's ear as a Bajoran cleric would to sense one's pagh.
At one point, Benjamin's dream slightly derails and he sees Kira Nerys instead of K.C. Hunter. At another point, while dancing with his bride to be in his apartment, Benjamin sees himself dancing with Kasidy on DS9 for a brief moment. He also sees Worf in a Klingon uniform instead of Willie the baseball player, and Dukat and Weyoun as the detectives while they are beating him.
References
- Joe Nazzaro (June 1998). "Going Far Beyond the Stars". Star Trek Monthly. Titan Magazines. p. 42-46.