"Far Beyond The Stars" - Deep Space Nine

I am aware that this has already been posted here, but I decided to post it again, in a longer form. This has to be one of the most dramatic performances I have ever seen, not just on Star Trek but anywhere.

This also has to be one of the most well-written episodes of all the Star Trek series, and is definitely one of my all-time favorites. As a writer (and a minority), I identified with a great deal in this episode, and this scene is forever a part of me for that.

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• brooks

[shiites]

Respectfully, I don't know what you mean when you write that this episode is self indulgent. It harkens to a time when it was unspeakable for a black man to be concerned in such a story line. DS9 is only a hand full of shows that that tackled issues of race, sexuality, homophobia and other hot button issues we still struggle with today. All that said, the writing and acting here are superb. Peace...

[KEYSERSOZE1965]

And yet to this day you wonder how in the world Avery Brooks didn't win an Emmy for this performance, not even a nomination.

[mdfilmguy]

Anyway, that's why when Picard plays his flute alone at the end of TIL, I tear up, but when Sisko looks out the window at the end of FBS and wonders if they're all just Benny Russell's dream, I just shake my head.

[mdfilmguy]

FBS, while an interesting premise, doesn't really have much to do with the story of DS9 and the Dominion War or of Star Trek overall, nor does it really add any new dimension to Sisko's character or anyone else's. How are the Prophets helping Sisko by placing him in a situation completely irrelevant to his own? He's dealing with war-weariness, not racism. It's just too obviously contrived as a "message" show.

[mdfilmguy]

Furthermore, TIL is a great character piece. Picard loves history, archeology, and studying ancient civilizations. Int hat episode, he gets to study a civilization in the most intimate and personal way imaginable and in so doing, gets in touch with unexplored parts of his own personality and psyche. We see him get a chance to embrace having a wife and children, something that, in his real life, he sacrificed for his career. He learns to cherish his friendships as a result of the experience.

[mdfilmguy]

I'm gonna expound at some length as to why I don't think this episode works by contrasting it with another trek installment: TNG's "The Inner Light" Both episodes have a similar premise: the captain is incapacitated by an alien intelligence and forced to experience another person's life inside his mind. But TIL suceeds because it's a great story in the "Star Trek" ethos: it's about an encounter with a new species, done in a unique way.

[Musemistress]

@genericusername337 I didn't see this as a guilt trip & I'm pale, pink and squishy. The historical portrayal of inequality vs the limitless imagination of the human race as a whole shined out. It made me feel that it was only a few decades prior that it was normal to see eachother thus, that women were second class, that image truly was everything. And yet the Star Trek universe has NONE of that. Humanity had transcended its tired limitations and embraced the stars. THAT was the message I saw.

[genericusername337]

@mdfilmguy agreed

[genericusername337]

and I heard the writers wanted to end the SERIES with benny looking out the window, as if all of Star Trek was the imagination of a black man in the 50s. how bad of an idea would that be?!?! i mean that's just over the top. People watch this show for its scifi and futurism, not more didacticism.. you get that cheap anywhere

[genericusername337]

effective episode and all, but what I don't like about it is that it's drawing out the issue. It reminds me perfectly of Black History Month. yes it happened yes yes yes tears sorrow racism black people lynching rights buses yes, but it's just not relevant anymore. Not even when this aired. I hate these guilt trips self-righteous people force on the rest of the world and if we don't bow down at the profundity of it then we're racist..

[mdfilmguy]

People seem to either love this episode or hate it. Personally, it just confuses me. If there was a movie or TV show about a black science fiction writer in the fifties, I would be very interested in seeing/watching it. It's an interesting story, but what in hell does it have to do with the story of Deep Space Nine? How are the Prophets helping Sisko by trapping him in a hallucination of someone else's life?

[RowdyRogersTV]

@Nothruzem - Me too!!!!