S06.E13: Far Beyond the Stars

[John Potts]

Quote

 

Benny Russell, a '50s science-fiction writer, envisions a future where a black man commands a starship.

 

I get the feeling this episode was trying to tell me something, but I'm not quite sure what it was...

OK, I realise that as a middle class British white guy, I'm perhaps not the best person to critique this episode, but it just wasn't very interesting. I found myself agreeing with not-John Campbell (Odo) when he told Benny Russell (Sisko) that he wouldn't publish Benny's story if it had a black captain. Benny writes it that way anyway... and it doesn't get published. We even hear that Campbell had tried to run Benny's story despite his misgivings (by his own account, at least): it was the distributors who withdrew it. But the whole story felt rather pointless - for the overall plot, it doesn't really matter (seeing how they decided against having the whole series ending with Benny Russell presenting his story to the camera) whatever happens here and could be lifted out entirely (I know it is briefly revisited in Shadows and Symbols (7.02) but it's not critical to that story, either).

I did wonder if it might have been better if Benny HAD changed the black Captain to (say) a Bolian ("So, it's OK to have a BLUE Captain, just not a BLACK one?").  It would be very Trekkian to use an analogy to make a point (like racism in Let this be Your Last Battlefield or gay rights in The Outcast)... only neither of those episodes were exactly brilliant either. They could even have made something of the experiences of "CK" (not-DC Fontana) who hid her (female) identity in order to get published - it wasn't until I was 20 that I realised that DC stood for Dorothy Catherine and discussed whether working within the system was better than kicking against it (which could have been related to the then contemporary argument within the civil rights movement between the likes of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King).

(But that's probably enough of a contemporary white guy pontificating about the black experience in 50s America!)

[readster]

The episode tries to be a reflection of how people of color were so outcast or thought of less and as Jake's character in the flashback was shot and killed not for stealing a car, but was getting something out of it. The police mistook it as a theft, but he was black, so he must be a criminal. Hence why we see the police change to Cardassians and Vorta because the Dominion sees the universe like that too. If you are not like us, you need to be taken out or oppressed. I get what Avery Brooks was trying to do since he was the director and a college professor on Black History in Entertainment. However, when you look at this and the Season 7 two part premiere, I agree it doesn't really add to the story. Especially when the Orb of the Emissary was saying that the Pa Wraiths were the reasons for the visions and how the Prophets were trying to curb that with Benny overcoming that. It's similar to how they were trying to do with the Maquis, but in the end I felt it was too much over exposure and looking at it now, you can see the similar themes, but it still moves from Roddenbury's vision of overcoming those problems. Here it was basically saying: "Humans learn to move past racial and prejudge by learning they weren't alone in the Universe, but other races, FUCK THat!" 

[iMonrey]

I did think it was kind of fun seeing everyone out of their alien make-up, especially Aron Eisenberg. I didn't realize how old Rene Auberjonois was. It would have been fun if we'd seen Max Grodenchik in there somewhere too. But yeah . . . I get the point of the story but not within the context of Star Trek and the DS9 universe. Just seemed like a very awkward after-school special type of episode.

[Ailianna]

It's interesting to see how much the rest of you didn't like this one, because it's one I really enjoy. Of course, there is the fun of seeing everyone in their regular faces, but there was a lot about more than just the obvious racial issues to me.  Everyone was hiding their true selves in some way, and not able to live as they wished.  I can't remember all the 50s names, but there was Miles unable to write anything except robots.  And more robots.  And Odo with the pseudo power of the editor, but unable to do anything about the way the bureaucracy above him wanted things done. All the black characters who were trapped in their stereotypical roles.  Even the police were stereotypes rather than persons.  But someone trying to stand up for himself and being beaten down, both figuratively and metaphorically, without a chance to realize their visions.  It's ham handed in parts, but I fell like their inability to be themselves is something that is very relatable then and now.

[starri]

On 7/30/2017 at 1:02 PM, Ailianna said:

I can't remember all the 50s names, but there was Miles unable to write anything except robots.  And more robots.

Robots are very...efficient.

The best joke in the episode isn't even an on-camera joke.  There's a note on Herb (Quark)'s desk that says that no one would believe a story abut a cheerleader who fights vampires.

[rmontro]

On 7/30/2017 at 1:02 PM, Ailianna said:

 Of course, there is the fun of seeing everyone in their regular faces, but there was a lot about more than just the obvious racial issues to me.  Everyone was hiding their true selves in some way, and not able to live as they wished.

I think you're very perceptive with your comments here, because I got the impression there was more going on than what I was picking up on.  I just thought it was a sad story about racism.  

 

On 6/29/2017 at 4:31 AM, John Potts said:

But that's probably enough of a contemporary white guy pontificating about the black experience in 50s America!

This is another comment sort of along those lines:  I couldn't figure out why Benny had to make Sisko a white or black guy at all.  Why not just write him as Sisko, without any references to race?  That way the reader could envision him as however he liked.  I know that's kind of missing the whole point of the episode, but it's no worse than seeing it as a dream IMO.  And certainly better than re-envisioning him as white.  I know Sisko wanted to make his point, but it was apparent he wasn't going to be allowed to publish his story as intended.  He would know the truth as to the real nature of Captain Sisko, it would just have to be a secret for now.  But as you say, enough.

At this point I'm just binge watching DS9 (one episode per day) and I haven't seen season seven yet.  I had watched the first several seasons when they first aired, but I lost interest over time.  DS9 was the only Star Trek series I hadn't watched in its entirety (except Discovery - don't want to pay for another network).  But from the comments here, we haven't seen the last of Benny Russel.  I wasn't aware that they wanted to end the series as being the stories presented by 50s writer Benny.  Terrible idea.  First off, it's like making the whole series a dream (like in this episode), and that's a copout.  Secondly, it doesn't explain how it fits into the rest of Trek - is Kirk and Picard part of this story also?

[SVNBob]

On 6/29/2017 at 3:31 AM, John Potts said:

(But that's probably enough of a contemporary white guy pontificating about the black experience in 50s America!)

In regards to this, the production staff felt that way too.  I saw a BTS thing about this episode somewhere (YouTube probably), that said that when this episode was approved, the production team all agreed that the story would be best served by having an African-American director, instead of a white guy.  They were also somewhat reluctant to have Avery do it, since he would be in every scene of the episode, and self-directing on that level is incredibly difficult.  But the needs of former argument outweighed those of the latter, and Avery was given the episode. 

And crushed it.

[rmontro]

I'm kind of curious as to what the accepted literary language was at the time to denote the captain of the ship being a black man?  I know for sure they hadn't come up with the phrase African-American yet.  He could have written a description of his having brown skin, but some might interpret that to mean it was a guy with a tan, especially considering the prejudices of the day.

[legaleagle53]

5 hours ago, rmontro said:

I'm kind of curious as to what the accepted literary language was at the time to denote the captain of the ship being a black man?  I know for sure they hadn't come up with the phrase African-American yet.  He could have written a description of his having brown skin, but some might interpret that to mean it was a guy with a tan, especially considering the prejudices of the day.

In the 1950s, the standard word was "Negro."  That's the word that would have been used.

[rmontro]

22 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

In the 1950s, the standard word was "Negro."  That's the word that would have been used.

That's the word Benny Russel himself would used in his story?  There was no offensive connotation to it at the time?

[legaleagle53]

4 hours ago, rmontro said:

That's the word Benny Russel himself would used in his story?  There was no offensive connotation to it at the time?

Not really.  Today it would have such a connotation (and sound extremely outdated, if not downright archaic), but back then it and "colored" were the go-to terms regardless of race, and they were considered more neutral than they would be today.

[rmontro]

18 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Not really.  Today it would have such a connotation (and sound extremely outdated, if not downright archaic), but back then it and "colored" were the go-to terms regardless of race, and they were considered more neutral than they would be today.

Okay, thanks!

[Melgaypet]

On 5/13/2018 at 10:51 AM, rmontro said:

I couldn't figure out why Benny had to make Sisko a white or black guy at all.  Why not just write him as Sisko, without any references to race?

Because if Benny hadn't specified the race of his character, 99.99% of his readers would have assumed Sisko was white. White was the default. Hell, today many people still, unconsciously or not, assume white is the default.

[legaleagle53]

And because one of the points of the episode was to show how institutionalized racism was in the 1950s, even in places where you wouldn't expect it to be.  The prevailing mindset then was that nobody would read a story in which the protagonist was anything other than a heterosexual white Anglo-Saxon Protestant male.  Deliberately specifying Sisko as black underscored this racist mindset.

[rmontro]

4 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

And because one of the points of the episode was to show how institutionalized racism was in the 1950s, even in places where you wouldn't expect it to be. 

Well yeah, I realize the show couldn't make their point without Benny specifically writing Sisko as black.  And I'm sure Benny also thought there was a principal at stake.

I'm just saying, if he wanted to keep his job, and get his story printed, he could have just written Sisko without ever specifically stating his race.  At least HE would know that he was black.  And apparently he wanted to write a whole series of these DS9 stories.  So if he was careful, he could have even dropped a few subtle hints along the way about his race without ever overtly stating it.  And if he waited long enough, changing attitudes might eventually allow him to state Sisko's race.  

I know that wouldn't be fully satisfying, but writers have to bow to editors' wishes all the time.  It wouldn't be fair, it certainly wouldn't, but the limitations of the time could not have been a huge surprise to Benny, since he lived in that world - his friends weren't surprised.  It just depends on how important it was to him to get his stories published.

[Melgaypet]

10 hours ago, rmontro said:

And if he waited long enough, changing attitudes might eventually allow him to state Sisko's race. 

Benny wanted to help make those attitudes change, which wasn't going to (and didn't) happen by magic. Writing sci-fi stories with an unambiguously black hero was his way of doing that, instead of shrugging and waiting for other people to do the hard work for him.

[rmontro]

10 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

Benny wanted to help make those attitudes change, which wasn't going to (and didn't) happen by magic. Writing sci-fi stories with an unambiguously black hero was his way of doing that, instead of shrugging and waiting for other people to do the hard work for him.

I can see that, but we also saw that he wasn't going to be allowed to break that particular door down at that particular time.  That's why I was saying why not leave out any mention of Sisko's race (for the time being), get your stories printed, make your money, survive, and wait for an opportunity.  Seems like a better outcome than landing in an insane asylum writing on walls.

[Melgaypet]

Because Benny was done with that. Done with being told, "Don't make trouble. Be quiet. Be grateful. Be satisfied with what you have, or we'll take away even more."

It didn't work out well for him, but because of the power and cruelty of the racist society arrayed against him, not because he was wrong to try.