For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here
Overview – Captain Sisko is hosting his father
visiting the station. Recent news of the apparent death of a good friend,
Quentin Swofford, is causing Ben to rethink his career path. The captain finds
that he is seeing people dressed in 1950s garb, and goes to see Bashir. The
Julian runs some tests on him, and notices that Sisko’s neural patterns are
similar to when he was experiencing visions a year ago. As Sisko takes a look
at the readings, he suddenly finds himself on a street in New York City in the
1950s. People around him look familiar (the newsstand vendor looks and sounds
like an alien character named Nog), and he no longer sees himself as Benjamin
Sisko, Starfleet Captain, but Benny Russel, science fiction writer. At his
office, Benny takes a picture of a space station that inspires him to write a
story about a space station on the edge of the galaxy, a story that he calls
“Deep Space Nine”. As Benny becomes involved in writing his Deep Space Nine
stories, he has to confront the racism inherent in that era, both from the
violence perpetuated by corrupt police officers and an editor who does not want
to anger readers with stories of “negroes in space”, Benny endures with the
support of his fiancée Cassie (of whom Benny based the character of Kassidy
Yates off of) and a mysterious street corner preacher that looks like Ben
Sisko’s father, who admonishes “Brother Benny” to follow the prophets. After
being brutally beaten by the two corrupt police officers, Benny is fired from
his writing job and suffers from a nervous breakdown. While he is being taken
away in an ambulance, he sees the preacher, comforting him, and Ben Sisko
awakens in the infirmary, and his neural pathways are returning to normal. He
remembers the vision that he had been given, and seems to have found a new
resolve from this perspective that had been bestowed upon him
Score: 10/10 – “Far Beyond the Stars” is one of the greatest
episodes of television and science fiction ever conceived. I could leave it
there and have few arguments made against it, but I must elaborate. The story
came from Marc Scott Zicree, the teleplay was written by Ira Steven Behr and
Hans Beimer, and the episode was directed by Avery Brooks, who himself gave a
performance as both Benjamin Sisko and Benny Russel that should have earned him
an Emmy. This episode is why I have zero faith in awards shows like the Emmys
for not recognizing the amazing work that people in Star Trek and science
fiction in general do. The worthy nominations in things like effects and makeup
aside, it is a shame that there is such a blatant bias against acting in sci-fi
and franchise shows in general. There is so much that makes this episode a gem.
It hits every mark there is. Excellent acting, check. Engaging story, check.
Exploring relevant and timeless issues, check. A deeper exploration of the
human condition, big check. It is wonderful to see all of the actors out of
makeup and performing roles that are fresh. I really liked how each person had
their counterpart character similar to yet different enough from their main
character that they play on the show. Seeing how each person from Sisko’s world
fits into Benny Russel’s world and vice versa was a lot of fun to watch. We
also are given a real hard look into a dark part of America’s past that is
still affecting the country today. The racism shown then still exists today,
and the story does not pull any punches with it. Overall, a brilliant episode
in every respect.
Relevance – 3 points. A point scored for establishing
the Benny Russell character that will return in the Season 7 opening story arc.
Without seeing this episode, some of the events of “Shadows and Symbols” will
not make sense. I am also scoring a point for the reference to the episode
“Rapture”, where Sisko first experienced the visions from the Prophets. I am
going to score the third point for the depiction of the racism in the 1950s
that seems to have a great effect on Sisko. In the next season’s holo-adventure
episode “Badda Bing, Badda Bang”, Sisko shows that he has some reservations of
helping out Vic Fontaine in his Vegas club due to the fact that it glossed over
the racism in the 1960s. In fact, he was quite upset about it, and this episode
gave Sisko the experience that showed him how ugly racism was back then. This
shows how much of a long-lasting effect that this experience had on the good
Captain.
Continuity – 3 points. Honestly, I cannot think about
how any part of this episode goes against any type of continuity. It’s a bit of
an easy pass as most of the story is a vision given to Sisko by the
prophets/wormhole aliens. Because of that, any inconsistencies within the
characters or story is covered. Universe continuity is intact as the prophets
have used these visions before to communicate to Sisko, so it is no stretch of
the imagination that they are giving him this type of adventure.
Character Development – 2 points. A soli Sisko
episode, but sadly no other main cast character is given anything meaningful to
do. O’Brien, Odo, and Quark do not even appear in the episode. Still, we see
the burdens of war take their toll on Sisko, with the death of his friend
almost being the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. His
vision/experience from the prophets once again gives Sisko the spiritual
grounding that he needed in order to continue the good fight.
Social Commentary – 3 points. Yes, racism is a
main theme in this episode. Recently, it seems that America has made little
progress since the 1950s in its racial relations. There is still much to be
learned in that regard. Having said that, I feel that racism is only a means to
a greater end here and is not the central idea. What seems apparent to me is
the idea that in dealing with the issues of our current situation, we sometimes
need to refocus our perspectives and outlooks by examining our roots and our
past. We need to learn that sometimes we have to make a stand, even if it means
we are going to fall. Also, Benny failed in both his efforts to publish his
stories and in his mental health. At the end of it all, he was pushed past his
breaking point. From that, Sisko still learned what he needed to learn and
found the strength he needed to find. Failure is as powerful a teaching tool as
any.
Cool Stuff – 3 points. Wow, what isn’t cool about
this episode? First off, seeing all the actors playing different roles was a
lot of fun. I bet Rene Auberjonois, Armin Shimerman, Aron Eisenberg, and J.G.
Hertzler all enjoyed having an episode without once having to wear all the
heavy make-up they were accustomed to with their roles. I also am giving a
point for Benny’s breakdown scene. Avery Brooks shows his dedication as an
actor in one of the most powerful scenes in all of Star Trek (if not all of
television). Why he didn’t even get an Emmy nomination for his work in this
episode is beyond me. Finally, I have to score a point for the many Easter Eggs
about Star Trek that were woven into the story. There were some obvious ones,
such as the preacher telling Benny to “follow the prophets”, but there was much
more. A picture entitled “Honeymoon and Andoris” was a direct reference to the
planet Andoria, the cover of the “Incredible Tales” magazine has several
Original Series episode titles as the stories, the Arthur Trill building, and
Nana Visitor’s character of K.C. Hunter, a writer who uses initials of her
first name to hide her gender, is an ode to legendary Trek writer D.C.
Fonatana.
Rank – Admiral (24
points). A
near perfect score for a perfect episode. “Far Beyond the Stars” is Star Trek
at its finest, and it is both beautiful and compelling in its delivery. The
themes discussed are still relevant and timeless, and if this is not on your
Top 10 DS9 episode list, you better have a real good explanation for it. The
ideas that Sisko is left with (that he is both the dreamer and the dream) is the
result of excellent writing. The acting is excellent, and Avery Brooks was the
perfect choice for directing this episode, in spite of him playing the lead
character. Truly, this is a masterpiece of science fiction.
If you would like to read other reviews from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, please click the following link.
If you would like to read an episode review from any of the Trek series, click the following link to get to the series catalog. If the episode you want reviewed has not been done yet, then feel free to request it in the comments and I will see what I can do.
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