Far Beyond the Stars
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 9 February 1998
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- Avery Brooks
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 538
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler; story by Marc Scott Zicree
Shaken by the war, Sisko begins having vivid visions of 1950s New York, where he is Benny Russell, a black science fiction writer with a story about a space station nobody wants to print.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Shaken by a friend's death in the war, Sisko starts seeing visions of 1953 New York. There he is Benny Russell, a writer for a science fiction magazine whose staff look strikingly like his crew. Inspired by a sketch, Benny writes a story about Deep Space Nine and its black captain. His editor refuses to print it, fearing readers will not accept a black hero, and even when Benny reframes it as a dream, the owner has the whole issue pulped and Benny fired. Two white police officers who resemble Dukat and Weyoun make his life harder still. Benny breaks down and is taken away in an ambulance, while a street preacher tells him he is both the dreamer and the dream. Sisko wakes, deeply moved, and wonders whether Benny might be dreaming them all.
- 01Marc Scott Zicree's original pitch centred on Jake Sisko and did not deal with race.
- 02Avery Brooks directed the episode as well as starring in it.
- 03Several regulars and recurring actors, including Michael Dorn, Armin Shimerman and J.G. Hertzler, appear without their alien prosthetics.