Top 20 Episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine #2: Far Beyond the Stars

There’s a lot to cover in this episode, so let’s dive right in. We open with Captain Sisko feeling like he’s carrying the weight of the universe on his shoulders what with the Dominion War still in full swing. Even a visit from his father, Joe Sisko, can’t seem to lift his spirits.

Just as an aside, since we have yet to cover an episode featuring the character, I really love the character of Joe Sisko. An old soul and a master chef, he can be stubborn and set in his ways, but is still a friendly guy who cares about his family a great deal. And of course, the best part is that he’s played by the always awesome Brock Peters.

Anywho, as Sisko begins contemplating stepping down and letting someone else taking on his burden, he begins hallucinating. The visions are brief and sporadic at first, though eventually, Sisko finds himself in 1950’s New York City, and what’s more, he’s no longer Ben Sisko, he’s Benny Russell, a pulp science fiction writer for a magazine. Just to make sure we’re clear, Benny is not Sisko trapped in an alternate reality or something as you’d expect from Star Trek. Benny is, for all intents and purposes, an entirely different character, having memories and a life of his own. As I said, Benny works at a magazine as a sci-fi writer, and working alongside him are several other writers, each of them played by other DS9 regulars. I’ve been told many of Benny’s fellow writers are actually based upon real life science fiction writers. What I love about this is that even though the regular cast members fill these roles, as well as various others throughout the episode, these characters are not just the DS9 crew with a different coat of paint, but rather feel like wholly unique and fleshed out characters in their own right. It’s especially nice to get to see guys like Armin Shimmerman, Rene Auberjonois and Michael Dorn, who normally are seen in heavy makeup and prosthetics, show their real faces for a change. As the day begins, the writers are handed their assignments, each one choosing a drawing to write a story around. Benny finds himself drawn to an illustration that resembles Deep Space Nine, and says he can do something with it. However, things soon take a turn for the uncomfortable when Douglas, the head of the magazine tells Benny that he needs to take the day off tomorrow because they’ll be taking photos of the writers, and the public isn’t ready to accept a Negro writer. What’s worse, on his way home, he’s harassed by two crooked cops. However, on his way home, a mysterious street preacher tells him to “walk in the path of the prophets” and “write the words.” Inspired, Benny writes the story of Deep Space Nine, complete with his Negro main character, Ben Sisko. However, the more he writes his story, the more Benny begins to hallucinate himself as Ben Sisko.

The next day, Benny brings his story in to work and it is met with overwhelming praise from his peers. However, Douglas tells him he can’t run it because the main character is a colored man and the people won’t accept that. One of the inspirations for this episode was an old comic strip story called Judgment Day. The story takes place in the far future in which the human race has joined a great federation of worlds. An astronaut from earth named Tarlton has been given an assignment to evaluate a planet of robots to see if their ready to join the federation. However, upon arrival, Tarlton sees that while the orange robots live in luxury, the blue robots are forced to live in ghettos and may only perform low class functions. Tarlton denies the robots entry into the federation. When the head robot pleads with the astronaut, Tarlton reassures him by saying that the human race was once like them, but once they learned to live together and put aside their differences, the universe was suddenly theirs for the taking. The final panel of the comic shows Tarlton removing his helmet for the first time, revealing that he is, in fact, a black man. An inspiring sentiment, but at the time, the story created a great deal of controversy for the same reasons that Benny’s story would.

Despite being told his story could not be printed, Benny is not prepared to give up and writes six more Ben Sisko stories. Finally, Douglas agrees to publish his first story, on the condition that it be reworked to have been a dream. Reluctantly Benny agrees. As he’s celebrating with his girlfriend that night, Benny finds that a friend of his has been gunned down by the cops, and when he tries to interfere, he gets beaten himself for his trouble. Things get worse the next day as Benny learns that the owner of the magazine has refused to publish his story and he has been fired. Finally at the end of his rope, the ordinarily quiet and calm Benny explodes as Brooks delivers an incredible and powerful performance as Benny says to hell with the magazine, loudly declares that no matter what they do to him, his story is real and cannot be destroyed, breaks down into tears, and finally, collapses. As Benny’s dragged off to the hospital, he suddenly finds himself back on the station, and Ben Sisko once again.

After his unusual experience, Sisko has been revitalized. As Benny he was a man without hope, a man who had done everything humanly possible to see a better tomorrow for himself and his people, but was still told it wasn’t enough, but even in the face of his despair, Benny had hope that this imperfect world may one day become the better one that he envisioned. Sisko was the realization of Benny’s dream, and through Benny, Sisko himself has found inspiration to continue on in the face of his own challenges.

This episode is simply incredible. The performances, the writing, the message, all of it comes together brilliantly. I simply cannot praise this episode enough. The characters introduced in Benny’s world were highly engaging. Some of the standouts were Michael Dorn’s Willie, a baseball player who chooses to live in the ghettos where he can be an adored celebrity instead of in a rich white neighborhood where he’d be just another black man, Cirroc Lofton’s Jimmy, a smalltime criminal who is friend’s with Benny, and Colm Meany’s Albert, a shy and unassuming colleague of Benny’s who, with his love of stories about robots, is meant to be an homage to Isaac Asimov.

Armin Shimmerman in an interview once described this episode as not only one of the best episodes of Star Trek, but also one of the greatest works of science fiction, period. I don’t exactly disagree, but we still have one more episode left on the countdown. Join me next time for our final article in the countdown and the number one episode of Deep Space Nine. And what better is there to end place to end, than where we began?