Lastly - and least of all, obviously - this episode gave Michael Dorn a great gift; he got to sleep in for a week because he didn't have to be up at 4am to put his Klingon makeup on.
When I first saw FBTS, as a black man, I IMMEDIATELY knew why they chose Dukat and Weyoun to play the cops. I wasn't a bit surprised. Not to mention Odo playing the Status Quo guy.
This episode really highlights that while Odo is a sympathetic ma8n character, hes not exactly a "good guy" he dishes out the law regardless of the morality of said law.
This episode was the moment I knew I messed up watching Deep Space 9 first because how could it possibly get any better than this? And now I'm watching Voyager.... . .
@@patrickgreene2062Chakotay: "My people have a saying: We are whatever this week's writer says we are." Janeway: "...Is that REALLY something they say?" Chakotay: "This week, yes."
aw man, i watched ds9 last because the picture quality on the pilot was so bad. they were on a space station… i thought there’s no way this will be any good. now it’s my favorite trek. and then i watched enterprise lol
Nice! Sounds like a good paper. I referenced an Enterprise episode in a grad school paper last year sometime, I think. My prof was also a Trekkie, and I got an A. :D
I was about 13 years old when I first saw Far Beyond The Stars. I lived in a very diverse town. White British comprised about 60% of the population, with the rest largely Pakistani, Indian, African, Carribbean, East Asian... I watched this episode and thought racism was a problem they had in the USA because they didn't have the "benefit" of coming from a former Imperial nation with colonies of every culture you can imagine. Naïve, for a lot of reasons. After I saw that episode, I got to asking questions to some of the other kids in the school. Pretty much everyone I spoke to had experienced some racist comments or discrimination or insulting attitudes. They just thought it was normal. Prejudice was just normal. Kind of flipped a switch in my head. I'd like to class myself as a progressive supportive accepting (ie. woke) person and this episode kick started that.
Growing up in the north of England in exceptionally white towns, there was an interesting thing I noticed, which is that almost without exception the few black folks you'd ever encounter were always middle class professionals with "posh" sounding accents from areas in the south. Accountants, Bank managers, Doctors, etc. This was always a major contributor of examples to the whole "stealing all the good jobs" kind of narrative among the white population, but of course when you understand the circumstances surrounding it all you get that these are all the really good graduates who couldn't find work in those more affluent areas they came from and studied in, and thus had to move to deprived areas desperate enough to hire them, just to get a job.
Growing up in the north of England in exceptionally white towns, there was an interesting thing I noticed, which is that almost without exception the few black folks you'd ever encounter were always middle class professionals with "posh" sounding accents from areas in the south. Accountants, Bank managers, Doctors, etc. This was always a major contributor of examples to the whole "stealing all the good jobs" kind of narrative among the white population, but of course when you understand the circumstances surrounding it all you get that these are all the really good graduates who couldn't find work in those more affluent areas they came from and studied in, and thus had to move to deprived areas desperate enough to hire them, just to get a job.
I live in a smallish place in the UK - I once visited the local indy coffee shop around 0910, since I had nowhere else to be, and it was usually quite civilised. Seems 'civilised' doesn't kick in until after 1100. Bunch of people my age (grandparents dropping in after the school run, so, nearing 60) entered in dribs and drabs, and they all knew each other. Once settled with their coffees, there was the usual chit chat. I had my nose buried in my book, since I really didn't want to play, and was thus ignored. Seems, before 11AM, the coffee shop is a portal to the world of The Man in the High Tower, or the novel Fatherland. Their abiding dislike of pretty much everything and everyone east of the English channel, and south of the Isle of Wight was quite disturbing.
Nice to see someone that actually knows what 'Woke' means (Being aware of social injustices) instead of the way it is most often used as today as a weapon to deny there is any injustice.
"You are the dreamer _and_ the dream..." That line had a lasting impact on me. I'm not a good enough writer to explain how it makes me feel, but It helped me understand that _hope_ comes with a tremendous responsibility.
I admit, this episode opened my eyes up to something. I grew up thinking racism was mostly a binary deal: either you're a Klansman or you're okay with Black people. When Worf mentioned that white baseball fans like him on the field well enough but they'd never let him move in next to them, that didn't add up to me at all. I had to sit and process that for a bit. These days it's a lot clearer to me: bigotry is highly situational, and we all have to check ourselves for bigotry in a LOT of situations. Would you be fine with Black neighbors? With Black coworkers? How about a Black boss? What if your kid dated a Black person? Black president? And then there are the subtler things where white people can be "uncomfortable" with Black people if they don't do the right "code-switching". I am convinced that more Black people are denied jobs not through any deliberate racism, but because the interviewer "has a good feeling" about the white person for speaking exactly the right way, and the Black person didn't sound exactly "right". Teal deer, it's very complicated, and we white people all have to keep an eye on ourselves to make sure we're doing right by Black people. Not because our motives are bad, but because it's easy to get it wrong. I look at it like personal hygiene: there's no sin in being prone to stinking, the sin is in not attending to one's hygiene. You have to shower, you have to put on deodorant, you even have to wipe if you don't want to stink. Likewise, you have to examine yourself for signs of racism, and take care of them, if you don't want racism to waft off you.
This is really such a good description of exactly what is meant by "systemic" racism. All the people in the system might think they are perfectly happy with black people, but it's still the case that if the "code-switching" means people feel uncomfortable around that person, or all kinds of other small things, it's going to work to make things harder for those in the minorities, without anyone being overtly white-supremacist at all.
I have a Black coworker from Gambia. At first, I kind of dismissed him, he spoke with a very noticeable accent which made it somewhat harder to understand him, and we didn't exactly have a lot of shared interests to talk about in the first place. I would have never considered myself racist, but over time I realized that I did actually dismiss him in a racist way, and that he's actually a really fun person to be around who has interesting stories to tell. It's uncomfortable to realize that one's actions were informed by racism, even if unintentional like in this case, but it's an important process to try and counter-act so it won't be repeated.
While I agree with almost all you say, except with 1 minor thing. Yes, you have to shower to remove stale sweat but you don't have to use deodorant, fresh sweat is not offensive & is in fact an aphrodisiac & a natural method of attracting a partner. We have been taught that it is offensive to not use deodorants & to persecute people that don't use them as 'Dirty People' which is a form of discrimination. There is also 'Deodorant' discrimination where people will reject people if they don't like the smell of that deodorant & as an asthmatic that can have an attack triggered by strong artificial fragrances I tend to distance myself from people that use a lot of deodorant & prefer the natural smell of a clean person.
“In the South, they don’t mind how close I get, so long as I don’t get too big. In the North, they don’t mind how big I get, as long as I don’t get too close” - Dick Gregory
I think the biggest thing that isn't mentioned is that it's not just that the episode of the magazine wouldn't be released, not that it was pulled, but that it was printed then pulped. They sent it to be printed, then the owner had it destroyed. That, to me as a journalism kid at the time, was a clearer detail. They printed it, and the owner had the run destroyed. I feel in this context Benny realized what that meant.
Same. The whole run being pulped meant that there was no way anyone -- not Benny, not Benny's boss, not the probably-Black janitorial staff at the printer's -- could get their hands on even a single copy to prove it had happened. The publisher had Benny's triumphant story put down like it was a rabid dog.
@caitlyncarvalho7637 As a kid watching the show at the time I had no clue he was supposed to be anything other than a weird French guy. When I grew up and learned more about the actor I got confused what the character's background was supposed to be other than genetically enhanced. He always came off as a scared French noble that was on a poverty tourism kick.
Pulping the whole run did a number of other things as well: 1) It destroyed the work of Benny's coworkers, pressuring them to "put Benny in his place" in order to protect their own jobs and reputations. 2) It costs a lot of money to print a full publication and then spend money destroying it. This applied a huge amount of financial pressure on Douglas, the editor, to not make the same "mistake" again. 3) It warned K.C. Hunter, Kira's alter ego in the episode, to not try the same thing with a feminist story. 4) It was a very overt symbolism that the owner would rather destroy his own wealth to preserve the status quo than run the slightest risk of changing anything. And if he is willing to destroy his own wealth, what else might he destroy? Perhaps he'd give a list of names of subversives, radicals to those racist cops.
The power of the episode to me is that it *wasn't just a one-off.* Forget "Images and Symbols," Sisko refuses at first to help Vic Fontaine in "Badda-Bing, Badda Bang" because of how the holodeck whitewashes '50s Vegas. And then the "throwaway" call-back in _Strange New Worlds_ showing that he continued to write and that some of his works survived, at least in obscurity, into the 23rd century, felt like an acknowledgement that Russell helped bring about the future that he dreamed. Ira Behr's original idea for the final shot of _DS9_ was to pull back the camera and show the Paramount soundstage, with Russell behind the camera. I understand why that is problematic, but my headcanon is that in the _Trek_ timeline, Russell was _their_ Roddenberry and inspired the Mae Jemisons, Guion Blufords and Stephanie Wilsons of their universe to join NASA and explore the stars.
This always stuck out at me, because it's so intensely Sisko feeling it. Cass and Jake can't understand it, to them it's all too far removed from their experience. Sisko is the one who feels it, and when pressed he goes full Avery in explaining himself. Also to answer the other commenter asking for clarification, if you look at the copy of "The Kingdom of Elysian" Doctor M'Benga reads, it's written by Benny Russel.
I loved that. It meant Benny Russell wasn't institutionalised for the rest of his life (for the "psychosis" of being anti-racist). He did get out, he did get published, and he was (at least moderately) successful. Good for him!!
Let’s remember that this episode was loosely based on something specific too: a reprint of the EC Comics story “Judgment Day”. In the story, an astronaut named Tarlton is visiting a planet called Cybrinia to determine if it’s ready to join the Galactic Republic. While there, he learns that the natives, a race of robots, divide themselves arbitrarily based on the colour of their casing. Orange robots get to live in luxury, while Blue robots, which are otherwise functionally identical, get the shitty jobs and the poor education. While the Cybrinians regard this as normal, Tarlton is so disgusted he decides that no, Cybrinia needs to get its shit together before it can even get a look-in at the Republic. And now comes the big twist: see, Tarlton has been in his spacesuit for this entire time. As he leaves the planet, we the reader finally learn that he’s black. The story was first published in Weird Fantasy in 1953 without issue, but later was republished in Incredible Science Fiction after the Comics Code Authority rejected an original story. This reprint actually saw a hurdle in that it pissed off Code administrator Judge Charles Murphy (albeit just because he was racist, not because of any problems with the Code). Of course, by this point William Gaines was just sick to death of Code bullshit (almost all of which targeted EC), and he just ran the story anyway and then gave up publishing comics. We should also note that the story there was written by Al Feldstein, who was white.
Gaines of course would go on to publish Mad Magazine which produced lots of silly comedy but continually made a point at mocking racism, even the occasional poke at middle class liberal complacency. But they also constantly dismissed the counterculture even while acknowledging most of its criticisms of American culture were completely valid. It led to some weird takes.
I'm an elder Millenial, and the crazy thing about this ep for me is that it portrays a small-scale, intimate backlash against the very idea of a Black space station captain. But when DS9 first aired, there was a very real, widespread and public backlash against a Black space station captain on a Star Trek series. By, y'know... 1990s racists. It's the other layer of metaphor underlying Far Beyond the Stars that I still find so profound.
Crazy it took 6 seasons to be able to "respond" to that criticism. I remember seeing early interviews with some of the cast and a few of them made a massive point of calling Avery their captain and it seemed corny to me, knowing now the ammount of crap being said, i understand why.
In some ways the real life contemporary racism and the horror that this is still active in a supposedly technologically advanced, liberal democracy may have been to raw a wound for Avery to feel up to addressing it. Sometimes just getting through the day and putting your best face forward takes all the energy you can muster. Now, I really wish they could have put some effort towards a positive depiction of a single black mother, but that takes nothing away from how much good I think the character of Sisko accomplished for representation and for providing opportunities for empathy towards non-white characters which is why representation will always be a non-trivial topic.
one of the things that you touched upon Steve was the hint that it wasn't the actual violence that Benny faced that was the straw that broke the camel's back but was the denial of his personhood by his boss by refusing to publish the story (on behest of his own boss) and then firing him as well and it's a subtly that not many people may pick up on at first and also connects to something very important that still goes on today I am a non-white American living in "the South" it has been expressed by myself and other POC southerners that we prefer blatant racism usually associated in the South than the polite liberal racism more associated in the North at least when people are blatantly racist they'll say they hate us to our face polite racism can often be so much more of a mental load because it's not necessarily the act itself but getting it recognized for what it is "are you sure they meant it that way/ are you sure you aren't over reacting/ i think you're reading into it" just because a slur wasn't used it's exhausting and often gaslighting even worse it can come from close friend or family, people that we trust and suddenly they're unwilling to fight for us they're happy or at least willing to let things remain the way that they are the idea that things will be better in the future, this "maybe one day we'll live in a world where xyz" often infuriates me because I find it coming from people who won't try to make it that way because they have no dog in the fight
Im not a Star Trek fan, but my black father is. I never understood why he liked it until this video. I knew it was a progressive series, but my father is a 1960s black man, and I've repeatedly caught episodes from Deep Space 9. It really clicks into place.
Your retelling of the episode's plot got me legit emotional. "You are both the dreamer and the dream". Credit to all involved creating the og show, and credit to you as well mr. youtube man.
I think Sisko also sees that he is the proof that the fight can be won. Benny was part of the fight to ensure black people would be accepted as equals, and Sisko shows that, at least in their world, that fight was won. And if Benny's fight could eventually be won despite how hopeless it felt at the time, so could Sisko's fight, no matter how hopeless it might feel to him in the moment.
This is the optimism that Star Trek represents to me. I don’t want dark and gritty without that light of hope. I have enough dark just knowing what is happening in my own time. I want to believe that one day things will get better. That the fight is long and difficult, but it has an end and it can end with things better than they are now. The hope that one day we can reach for the stars with others standing beside us as equals and comrades without the need for any of us to prove that we deserve to exist. Star Trek is the future I hope we will see. It’s the future I’m willing to fight for. It’s also a future I don’t expect to see myself. I can live with that so long as I believe that one day we will find our humanity here on Earth, as well as amongst the stars.
The bit where René Auberjonois was like "Don’t tell me what I know. Besides, it's not about what's right, it's about what is". He's thinking he feels bad about it, sure, but what can he do? As a white liberal I was like "Oh that's me. That's the jab at me". I could do more. I hadn’t even read MLK's letter from Birmingham jail yet.
@@dwaynemoring6631That letter should be part of every grade school's curriculum, with the emphasis being that this has not changed. Middle class complacency may be one of the most difficult things to wipe out in the history of the west, and so much more than racism is maintained by it. From global warming to the militarization of American society, to pandemics from AIDS to COVID it rears its ugly head anew ready to defend the status quo.
When I was a kid in a right wing family I hated this episode because I thought it was "boring" and generally thought it was out of place and pointless. As a teen and as I grew older and more progressive it became one of my favorite episodes.
Without context it is jarring and seems out of place. With context it's a masterpiece. But they really do try and smack you with the context so it's fairly obvious. Maybe just not for a kid, though.
The reference to Dr. King isn't lost on me, that's for sure. Considering Nichelle Nichols said it was basically him that kept her from quitting Star Trek because he and his family were huge fans. Even though I heard the story loads of times, I asked Nichelle to tell it at a convention I met her at in the UK. She told the story happily, and blew me a kiss afterwards.
Excellent point about the story referring to the many micro-aggressions people of colour suffer every day. I'm reminded of Pam Grier's autobiography, where she talks of the constant drip, drip, drip of little things that really wore her down, like obviously empty buses not stopping for her, and shopkeepers putting her change on the counter, rather than risking touching her hand.
It must have been very weird to be affirmed as being one of the hottest women on the planet while still constantly hearing she was less than a person. And then finally having to reckon with the fact that sometimes it was the exact same people conveying both messages. I don't see how anyone bears up under such insanity.
You don't a choice ,you live and enjoy your life as best you can understanding you are a human being no matter what our sick fellow citzens think.@@donaldbarber3829
@@donaldbarber3829 honestly, as a woman I find those two sentiments regularly co-occur in a distressingly high proportion of men. The sexier one is viewed, the easier it seems to objectify and depersonalise as well. :(
I haven't seen the video yet, so it's possible this is mentioned. But while I'm thinking about it: To me, the most crushing aspect of this episode is that after Benny sacrifices, compromises, begs and borrows to get some version of his vision approved by the editor, he "wins" at long last, after enduring horrible hardships...only for someone above Pabst to pull the magazine from circulation. There's no "final boss" of racism. It's guys like Pabst all the way up. And Pabst doesn't even have the decency to be a cartoon villain. He's a regular guy with ingrained, unexamined prejudices trying not to rock the boat, in a system where it's regular guys who can't see how horrifying the status quo is for oppressed minorities all the way up _if you're lucky._ Really rams home how horrifically intractable this all can feel.
Much has been said about Avery's performance in this episode - which he both starred and directed in - but for me it's the performance of the greatly missed René Auberjonois that hits home the most: In the scene where he delivers the news to the writers that the issue has been pulped, he manages to portray his guilt exquisitely, with a subtle underlayer of resentment towards Avery's character that embodies the entire premise of the episode. 10/10
René was such a great actor. It’s damn hard to portray as much emotion as he generally is able to do even while wearing prosthetics that eliminate most of the subtle facial expressions. This episode allows us to see all those facial expressions directly, which serves to highlight what we can’t see the rest of the time. And yes, absolutely, Avery Brooks is AMAZING in this role and this episode. Brilliant as both actor and director. I can see why people analyze the episode in college courses.
The episode also takes a minute right in the middle to shock the audience, dropping the only n-word ever uttered in Star Trek - in case there were some people who found it just a bit too subtle. Avery Brooks is amazing in the episode, but Cirroc Lofton delivers a fantastic performance too
Actually I think the n-word was used in another Star Trek episode - The Savage Curtain - the one which has Lincoln joining the crew in a game where he and Surak represented "good" while Kahless and Gengis Khan would be "evil". In that episode Lincoln is brought onboard the Enterprise and as he sees Uhura he uses the n-word... but immediately regrets and apologises stating that he actually assumes that would not be appropriate in far more advanced culture than the one he represented...
@@vidalaacLincoln didn't use the n-word but referred to Uhura as a "negress" (feminine of negro). And apologized for using a term that might imply ownership. ua-cam.com/video/2BBOWsWODX4/v-deo.htmlsi=JVG7GJlFGGvjCUeT. As opposed to what said at 1:52 of this clip ua-cam.com/video/ZvTm9ireZXE/v-deo.htmlsi=735IzQ30UrPDv3dd.
@@vidalaac In The Savage Curtain, Lincoln uses a variation of the n-word that ends in "egress," which ain't great, but isn't quite the same as the variation with the i double g hard R.
I always felt that making Sisko a commander rather than a captain at the beginning of DS9 was the exact sort of compromise that Benny was asked to make in this episode. I have no way of knowing if this is true but I can just imagine an executive from the network saying "people" wouldn't accept a black captain.
That could be. A provable compromise that Ira and Avery had to make was Sisko having hair and no facial hair. During that time part of him saying yes was that got to keep his shaved head and facial hair. But Rich said it looked to 'street' we all know what that coding means. But as the show went and with behind the scenes stuff, Avery was able to go back to his preferred shaved head and facial hair.
@@kamenwaticlientsI heard the initial rejection of Brooks' preferred hair situation was mostly because they didn't want him to look like his past character, Hawk. "Softening" his appearance to make him more "approachable to white people" was secondary.
Check out the crowd-funded documentary "What We Left Behind", and they covered off on this in a fair amount of detail. In short... he was a Commander because the character was supposed to be younger, and just making his way in his Starfleet career following the tragic loss at Wolf 359... and that choice became ALL WRONG when Avery Brooks was cast. Now... the issue about the HAIR? That was racist all along. Studio push to avoid (as stated in the documentary) his looking "too street" [insert facepalm here].
As a kid who remembers Classic Trek in syndication (I was born in '66), I remember seeing Let That Be Your Last Battlefield and seeing the message because of the relative obviousness of the whole black on one side vs. black on the other. Pure brilliance that was an active live message in the 1960s! Seeing Captain Cisco (AND Avery Brooks) at the tail end of that episode is purely heartbreaking. Seeing retrospective stuff after the fact made (and makes) even more so per Nana Visitor. One of the most poignant portrayals of racism I've ever seen. You feel hurt for the fellow that our DS9 Captain is playing and equally so for the excellent actor playing him.
The plot about the story not being published because of racism reminds me of the Comics Code Authority and the publication of the story "Judgement Day". The CCA wanted the reveal of the black astronaut removed, but the editors weren't having it. Also Colm Meany basically playing Asimov was kinda fun :)
Just to review that writers room Douglas Pabst (Renee) is John W. Campbell Herbert Rossof (Armin) is Harlan Ellison Albert Macklin (Colm) is Isaac Asimov Kay “K.C. Hunter” Eaton (Nanna) is a blending of Catherine “C.L.” Moore and “D.C.” Fontana Jules Eaten (Alexander) is Moore’s husband Henry Kuttner Benny is obviously representing many people, but if one stands out it is Samuel R Delany
The episode even touches on antisemitism with one of the exchanges between Armin Shimerman and Rene Auberjonois. All the author characters were pastiches of the classic sci-fi greats as well.
I actually remember watching Far Beyond the Stars when it was first broadcast. I think I was in my 2nd year at university. Me and my housemate looked at eachother when it finished and he said something like "fuck me, that was an intense one" or something like that.
Every time a conservative whines about historically left-wing media "going woke," I always think about those statements by Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling about how they happily used sci-fi to get progressive messages out. They knew that the liberals would get it, but the conservatives would miss it in the spectacle. Liberal writers have been using and abusing conservative media illiteracy for decades, and right-wingers still don't get it!
The first time I saw someone claim Star Trek has now gone woke I let out an audible guffaw. NOW, NOW in 2024 Star Trek has gone woke, not back in the 1960s when Star Trek aired the first interracial kiss on TV?
Funny thing about WEB DuBois...he actually did write Science Fiction! Most of it was unpublished during his lifetime but something like thirty or forty stories were found in a box of his papers.
You being a TREKKIE. your STOCK just went ... UP^^^^^! While I, myself, have been a Trekkie from the early 70's when I was a lil' boy and my Uncle Peter was/is a HUGE FAN of the franchise, I am BIASLY rating this episode of yours as ONE OF MY FAVORITES 😍. You had my UNDIVIDED ATTENTION while you spoke. WELL DONE! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As a brown man with an afro and an accent, with the luck of living in New York, this episode hit me very hard when I saw it as a teenager, and worst as I’ve gotten older. The long and slow and mostly dismissed small acts of racism accumulate to almost make you want to feel like you really are just “allowed “ some comforts or some goals. It’s devastating some times how much episodes like this have never lost their power. And yes, much like this episode, hope is a powerful and cleansing feeling, but just once in a while, I think everyone wishes rather than hopes shit would finally get somewhat better.
The second half of the "leave your bigotry in your quarters" moment has got to be my favourite part! "There's no room for it on the Bridge" really effectively communicates the way bigotry fills a room; proverbially suffocating anyone affected by it, stifling their comfort, their freedom of expression, even their right to freely exist. It isn't just an innocent opinion someone holds, it's like a noxious gas. To knowingly permit it to fester is to cause negligent toxic exposure.
I grew up watching Star Trek TNG, DSN, and Voyager. Despite the influence of those shows, my father still managed to raise us to be very racist, just like him, and it took 18 years living on my own to unlearn his bullshit. Watching these shows in my late 30s now, I realize things I never noticed or had the ability to pick up on, and it makes me wonder how someone like my father can even still exist in this day and age.
The idea that basic rights, welfare, and even life itself are controversial or political, is something I deeply hope that humans [collectively and individually] can overcome. But it doesn't start in some far-off future. It starts now, right here.
Also, I've been trying to figure out why a lot of people don't seem to like this episode, or say that it's overrated and cringy. Is that just typical internet discourse, or do people genuinely not like this episode?
We should also remember that Cisco spent much of the run of DS9 as a commander, because real world racism wouldn't allow a black captain. And since the commander of a major station would normally be an Admiral (so visiting ship captains couldn't tell him how to run his station), Cisco, and Mr. Brooks, never received their due.
They (kind of) got around that second point because DS9 wasn't supposed to be a major station. It doesn't even belong to the Federation - they're just brought in to run it for the Bajoran government because they have the experience that the Bajorans don't.
With that in mind, it seems highly probable that Sisko being a captain in Benny's story was a not-so-subtle Take That (TM TVTropes) to the studio execs who wouldn't allow the main character of the show to be a black captain.
A great discussion on one of the best Trek episodes ever. One thing I really appreciate is how it looks at the culpability of people like the editor, who claims he wishes things were different but this is just how they are, rarely giving it a chance and then blaming the victim when the chances they do give get shot down from above.
Everyone at the magazine is culpable. At least, all the writers are. They're sympathetic to him, but none of them try to leverage their position to back Benny up except Armin Shimerman's character, who threatens to quit over this - but ultimately, he doesn't go through with it.
Worth noting: the actors who played the two cops, Marc Alaimo and Jeffrey Combs, were also part of the regular/recurring cast of DS9. Alaimo played Gul Dukat, and Combs portrayed the Weyoun series of Vorta, who served the Dominion. Both the Cardassians and the Dominion made war on the Federation and hated Sisko because they "were some place they didn't belong." And Sisko was also a go-between for two worlds as Envoy of the Prophets. There are so many layers to this episode.
If Discovery did an episode like this, all the haters would be busy screaming this is too woke or “not as subtle and organic as something like DS9 would do”
A fantastic analysis of an incredible episode from my favorite Star Trek spin-off / series. Even as aware of it as many people are, it still sometimes feels as if the genius of social commentary presented in Star Trek can be slept on at times.
@@karabenomar Sadly, we had to come up with a saying in response to that "inhumanity to man" a rule that became golden in its luster. "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You." We forget that rule and end up with bad things happening each and every time.
I can't believe how touching I found it when you mentioned how talking about "dream" will remind people of Martin Luther King, and then you pulled on to that photo of him, beginning with his hand and slowly drawing across to find his face. Like I got what you were talking about instantly, but the fact that the photo reveal took a fair few seconds gave me time to really think about that man and that fight, and what that all meant.
I absolutely love the episodes where the actors get to play different characters. I enjoy basically all the Dark Mirror content, even when it gets cheesy, just because I can tell the actors are having fun, and I like theorizing how things might have turned out different in another life, another set of circumstances. EDIT: I can't believe I forgot Inner Light! But the Benny Russell universe was next level. The racial commentary was spot-on and I really enjoyed the meta implications of Benny being in Sisko's mind, but also Sisko being a machination of Benny's. Real hand drawing the hand sort of thing.
Of course, the irony here is that, if they were to make this episode today, it would be torn to pieces on social media for being "woke" by the same people who'd watch clips from 1980s and 90s shows on UA-cam and then add comments like "back when TV was good and not the woke nonsense of today."
I love Far Beyond the Stars. They were all fantastic but Avery Brooks and René Auberjonois were the stand outs though. I bet many viewers didn’t even realize the editor was Odo at first.
Damn, brother. You brought some tears to my eyes. I've always loved this episode, but you contextualize it in such a brilliant way. I hate when I hear people that I personally know say to my face that "yeah, things aren't great, but look how far we've come". Yes, we have come a long way, but that doesn't mean stop. Progress should never stop, hence why I'm proudly a progressive. If we stop moving forward, we skip backwards. I think the MAGA phenomenon has proven that a thousand times over. Thank you for your eloquent review of this fantastic episode, Steve.
its literally one of the best tv episodes ever made and stands on its own. I had a friend who hates sci fi and trek watch this and he actually admitted it was a brilliant episode and more importantly, story. so well done.
It's funny - I actually requested another UA-camr to talk about the episode. Both your videos are equally good. I like how the episode has the bravery to acknowledge all the bigotry of the past and how it shows that patriarchy and white supremacy areIntrinsically linked . Great video Steve
There is a glimmer of hope, coming decades after DS9, that Benny defied the odds and published a story centred around black characters and infused with images of his heritage. Doctor M'Benga in Strange New Worlds reads 'The Kingdom of Elysian' to his daughter, and if you freeze frame on the cover, you can see that Benny Russell wrote it. Centuries after his death, copies of his work still persist. That copy happened to be in the hands of a black father and respected doctor, reading to his daughter in a time when inter-human racial prejudice is seen as strange, and so far out of the norm that it's practically unthinkable. Not only does it mean both Benny and Sisko's experiences happened, but that Benny kept fighting to write the stories he needed to write, and in at least one case he won.
I mean, they could complain about nu-Trek being an incoherent mess that isn't capable of actually addressing social issues in the same way as the better series did... But that would involve them requiring to actually analyse media.
@eryqeryq I couldn't agree with you more, but I had to delete my in-depth defense of your comment because some people are so fucking crazy that it often isn't worth expressing yourself about a piece of popular media.
i wondered that for a long, long, LONG, time. The conclusion is that those people are the same people who complained in their English classes that they don't need those classes. Now they suffer severely from media illiteracy, and are honestly just sadly stupid.
It always has been. "Biological Essentialism is evil and should be eradicated from society" and "Augments are biologically evil and should be eradicated from society" is double-think typical to the ideology. Not to mention the whole fascist "A species is it's own entity capable of of learning and evolving separately from the individual" that Star Trek's Utopia is built on, the heavy integration of Star Fleet officers into all parts of the economy, and the aforementioned ostracized group that's used as a bogeyman, it's literally just Nazi Germany with a Utopian veneer.
I consider this my favorite piece of television. The concept is neat and fohgeddaboutit, Avery Brooks is The Master, what a performance! And all the regulars out of costume, which was great to see. The writing is on point, too. Glad you covered this Steve!
Most excellent! Having grown up in the Fifties, that particular episode resonates more than you later-borns can ever know. This episode, like almost all of the Trekverse, is but a promise to be kept. We have yet far to go. And miles to go before we sleep. And miles to go before we sleep.
I get why people put this show as their favorite. Incredibly well written and willing to 'go there' in a way that people will have a hard time hand-waving away as 'silly alien sci-fi'.
Some Trek fans have certainly tried to dismiss this episode as just 'oh racism is bad', and 'not being consistent with the Dominion storyline', and that 'it's just Brooks getting his own way'. On the Jammer's Reviews website, for example, a whole lot of them were certainly triggered by FBTS.
This was my favourite episode for years. Powerhouse of writing and acting. The little details are so clever and gel together so perfectly well. Still one of my top ten episodes of Star Trek, even with nine hundred to choose from.
this episode never fails to move me to tears, especially since we are rapidly heading back to these times - thank you for all you do and excellent video
I first watch DS9 during the Covid pandemic. With the racial context of the time (and since, sadly) it was gut wrenching how timeless the episodes on racism and oppression were. Far Beyond the Stars is incredible, moving, and more
This was an incredible episode. After watching it, I remember feeling "how can an episode exist which has the least trappings of Star Trek, and yet feels so utterly to the spirit of Star Trek".
They still left a thin layer of allegory in this story by depicting it as a dream. Making Benny an actual ancestor of Sisko's and framing this episode as Sisko recounting that ancestor's dealings with the racism of his time might have been an even better way to confront the subject. Or maybe I'm just splitting hairs at this point. Outstanding episode regardless.
Let’s not forget the actor, who plays Sisko’s father, Brock Peters, was apart of another great movie of it’s time that faced racism head on - To Kill a Mockingbird. I love your work. Please keep it up. You are a great UA-camr and writer. I love all of your videos and analysis of Star Trek series. And you make a lot of great arguments comparison to how science-fiction it’s not just art imitating life, but in my opinion delayed reality.😊
Far Beyond The Stars was the first television series episode that didn't hide its racial commentary subterfuge and innuendo. Every time I watch it, or even watch a well-crafted discourse about the show's intentions, I cry when Benny cries. Avery Brooks's portrayal of Ben Russel reminds me of my struggle. Even today, the regular lives of black citizens still are measurably similar to those in the 1960s. Our lives are indeed different; there's more access and more opportunity. But something I'm constantly reminded of is that black people have to be twice as good as their white counterparts to even be considered.
Being from England and being born after the civil rights movement, i only knew of it from school lessons but this episode really stuck with me. Avery brooks knocked it out the park with his acting......pun intended!! Loving the Niners t-shirt and cap combo!!
I grew up in the 90s. My skin is as white as milk and only about 10% of the folk in my area weren't people who looked, at least superficially, like me. This episode is so well acted, so well written, and so well executed that it brought me to tears. It spoke to something deeply human inside us all.
I was too young to comprehend the debate and importance of Avery Brooks being cast as Captain Sisko. I grew up on trek and just assumed the utopian vision of a more fair society was how it was supposed to be and how the world just was or was becoming. I rewatch TNG, DS9 and Voyager all the time and as I’ve gotten older this episode is such an important piece of media. I’m glad Star Trek could teach me, a kid, that this science fiction world is how it should be and I’m equally glad trek didn’t pull punches to remind us how far we have yet to go to get there.
I found your channel through your political videos. Ive never even watched star trek. but omg this video was really freaking good and yours is one of my favorite channels.
"The mountain we have still to climb before we reach the promised land, may be even higher, steeper and more treacherous than Dr King imagined" Wow. That brought a tear to my eye, thank you.
I remember the first time I saw this episode, I cried, and after it was over I just sat there thinking about what I had just seen. It was so powerful and the acting was so amazing. When Avery Brooks broke down at the end you could actually feel his anger, his pain and his frustration compounded with his refusal to give up.
This episode always has made me wonder what could have been if Voyager had been as high quality as DS9 and made a Janeway-centric episode of the same dramatic power that truly dealt with misogyny head-on. (The closest we got of a Trek episode that dealt with that issue was TOS's "Charlie X", fwiw.)
Yeah that's why I love Deep Space Nine it was way ahead of his time tackling uncomfortable social topics head-on like racism, sexism homelessness, gay rights ect. This is also why I don't understand how can conservative say Star Trek is going woke, like.. bru!
As a black man from London, I have been in that emotional situation, having to deal with micro aggressions and out right racism from my own and other people. Far Beyond The Stars was a brilliant episode, but it was painful to watch when Benny Russell has a nervous breakdown in front of his friends. Avery Brooks was expertly speaking to the experience of every black man who see's Benny's story.
One of your best videos yet Steve, the metaphor style of handling prejudice from the original series seems to go over the heads of most conservative star trek fans but the Benny Russel stories are simply not discussed among them as they just choose to not acknowledge it instead of discussing it. Star Trek, when confronting real world bigotry and prejudice does a good job addressing human to human hatreds, but does such an awful job of shunning bigotry against other aliens such as Klingons, and Romulans in particular from the original show and when you consider the Klingons and Romulans being analogous to the Russians, Chinese and black people, we're just back at square one.
You rock, Steve; I just recommended this episode last night to a friend whose only Trek awareness is TOS. and then I saw this today and sent it to him.
Thank you for this. You give voice and express a lot of things I have never been able to articulate about why this episode was so powerful and how it affected me.
Incredible episode. It really hit me when I heard the story of MLK urging Uhuru not to quit Star Trek as she was such an inspiration to women and people of color.
I was very young when I first saw TOS, TNG and DS9 and very rarely ever revisited them. I really admire your ability to describe these issues and the shows in a way that brings it back and allows me to follow your essay as if I saw them yesterday.
Thank you thank you thank you. Your essay on that episode has me, a 60 something Black man of British Caribbean background bawling with tears rolling down my face. Shakespeare said all the world is a stage, now I think I understand the role that Black people have to play in the Western tradition. It seems to be our role to withstand brutality not necessarily from White peoples, but from a power structure designed to destroy humans for the benefit of some. It is because of Star Trek that I am against hating someone because of who they are. Especially the minorities that are scapegoated for political power. I live in Quebec where my skin colour is less important to the provincial majority than the language I speak. I am part of the linguistic minority here. Our status is viewed as a problem. The three English Universities have come under attack by the Quebec government. As a Black man, I have seen this rodeo before. In Star Trek. As a child in England, I saw Black/White confrontations. Here in Quebec, I see the White English minority vs White French majority. Oh we humans never learn. Thank you so much for this essay. It is just what I needed in on the journey of learning to love myself as a Black man in this life.
You knocked this out of the park. Really glad you gave us a reason to review this episode with the eyes we have today, vs the ones that had been told and believed, racism was a thing in our past, not something that people were being oppressed by that day. We also don't think that young us made any connection between that struggle and the one we were going through at the time, that had us giving up on life before ever getting to try to live it. No, we just thought racism was over and all the other isms were just a fact of life.
God, I was so excited when I saw this video, I just knew which episode it would be about. This episode really stuck out to me when I first watched it as a kid, it's one of DS9's best, in my opinion.
To me FBTS is the best example of why DS9 works. It isn't afraid to show you an hour of television that "doesn't matter" to the plot. The story is important, it is important to Sisko's character, it is important to the themes of the show, and more importantly it is important to the audience. Shows with dedicated 5 season story arcs, or hyper cut down made for streaming shows can't really afford the filler, or the off beat, not strictly in character moments. Ds9 took the time to breath, and sometimes spent it on a farce, and sometimes took us to the the show's themes.
Absolutely loved this video. I remember watching this episode in the 90’s as a teenager. It’s one of those unforgettable Star Trek episodes that makes you think. Sadly I think in today’s environment that if you aired this same episode people will be shouting with their keyboards that it’s “Woke”. No discussion about it, no analysis of the episode, no character study of the actors. Only that it’s woke; that’s it. How did a four letter word become so misused, misunderstood and weaponized that even a Star Trek show; which from the onset of the franchise in the ‘60’s has tackled diversity, racism, sexism and every other ism issue out there is not immune to the foolishness of these so called “fans” and apparent gatekeepers of what Star Trek should and shouldn’t be. It’s episodes like Far Beyond the Stars that remind me of what I love about Star Trek and why I’m of fan of the franchise.
Greetings, Steve Shives. I have been watching your videos for about a month. I enjoy the Star Trek ones, and the video essays make me think. I am black, female and in my 70s, so I’m probably not your typical subscriber. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed “When Star Trek Confronted Racism Head-On.” I look forward to diving more deeply into your channel.
I suspect Kira and Bashir in this are also a reference to C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, a married couple who wrote sci-fi and fantasy for the pulps and were so in tune with each other they could sit down at the typewriter and keep going if the other had stopped mid sentence. There's so much little scifi history detail in this episode I could talk about it endlessly and I can't find anyone saying it's intentional but it had to be.
I'm going to be 70 next month. I recently told my sons about one of my black friends back in early 1974 being brave enough to start calling herself black and not a colored girl...and to come to my home for lunch...without her husband's permission. He would have been very angry bc I was white. We had to hide this action from both our husband's. HOW very sad.
Lastly - and least of all, obviously - this episode gave Michael Dorn a great gift; he got to sleep in for a week because he didn't have to be up at 4am to put his Klingon makeup on.
"Seven years is a long time to wear a turtle on your head."
-- Michael Dorn
J.G. Hertzler (General Martok) as well. Also, Marc Alaimo and Jeffrey Combs had some non-makeup scenes.
No wonder he's so cheery in this episode :)
And the Ferengi characters
“Things that people like me… might dismiss at trivial. Those are the things that irritate … that grind down” he put this so well.
When I first saw FBTS, as a black man, I IMMEDIATELY knew why they chose Dukat and Weyoun to play the cops. I wasn't a bit surprised. Not to mention Odo playing the Status Quo guy.
This episode really highlights that while Odo is a sympathetic ma8n character, hes not exactly a "good guy" he dishes out the law regardless of the morality of said law.
@@DrewLSsix hence why he was selected for that role. He's basically the defender of the status quo; no matter the consequences.
@@sinisterintelligence3568 I say again, "Preditor".
Status QuOdo.
Nice observation. 👍
status quodo
This episode was the moment I knew I messed up watching Deep Space 9 first because how could it possibly get any better than this? And now I'm watching Voyager.... . .
Chakotay as a character does his best to single-handedly undermine any discussion of racism or colonialism covered in DS9, lol
@@patrickgreene2062Chakotay: "My people have a saying: We are whatever this week's writer says we are."
Janeway: "...Is that REALLY something they say?"
Chakotay: "This week, yes."
@patrickgreene2062 Voyager does its best to single-handedly undermine Star Trek.
@@patrickgreene2062it doesn’t help that their Native American advisor was a fraud
aw man, i watched ds9 last because the picture quality on the pilot was so bad. they were on a space station… i thought there’s no way this will be any good. now it’s my favorite trek.
and then i watched enterprise lol
I actually wrote a paper in college comparing this ep to the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird. The professor was a Trekkie. I got an A.
Nice! Sounds like a good paper. I referenced an Enterprise episode in a grad school paper last year sometime, I think. My prof was also a Trekkie, and I got an A. :D
I was about 13 years old when I first saw Far Beyond The Stars.
I lived in a very diverse town. White British comprised about 60% of the population, with the rest largely Pakistani, Indian, African, Carribbean, East Asian... I watched this episode and thought racism was a problem they had in the USA because they didn't have the "benefit" of coming from a former Imperial nation with colonies of every culture you can imagine.
Naïve, for a lot of reasons.
After I saw that episode, I got to asking questions to some of the other kids in the school. Pretty much everyone I spoke to had experienced some racist comments or discrimination or insulting attitudes. They just thought it was normal. Prejudice was just normal.
Kind of flipped a switch in my head.
I'd like to class myself as a progressive supportive accepting (ie. woke) person and this episode kick started that.
Growing up in the north of England in exceptionally white towns, there was an interesting thing I noticed, which is that almost without exception the few black folks you'd ever encounter were always middle class professionals with "posh" sounding accents from areas in the south. Accountants, Bank managers, Doctors, etc. This was always a major contributor of examples to the whole "stealing all the good jobs" kind of narrative among the white population, but of course when you understand the circumstances surrounding it all you get that these are all the really good graduates who couldn't find work in those more affluent areas they came from and studied in, and thus had to move to deprived areas desperate enough to hire them, just to get a job.
Growing up in the north of England in exceptionally white towns, there was an interesting thing I noticed, which is that almost without exception the few black folks you'd ever encounter were always middle class professionals with "posh" sounding accents from areas in the south. Accountants, Bank managers, Doctors, etc. This was always a major contributor of examples to the whole "stealing all the good jobs" kind of narrative among the white population, but of course when you understand the circumstances surrounding it all you get that these are all the really good graduates who couldn't find work in those more affluent areas they came from and studied in, and thus had to move to deprived areas desperate enough to hire them, just to get a job.
I live in a smallish place in the UK - I once visited the local indy coffee shop around 0910, since I had nowhere else to be, and it was usually quite civilised. Seems 'civilised' doesn't kick in until after 1100. Bunch of people my age (grandparents dropping in after the school run, so, nearing 60) entered in dribs and drabs, and they all knew each other. Once settled with their coffees, there was the usual chit chat. I had my nose buried in my book, since I really didn't want to play, and was thus ignored. Seems, before 11AM, the coffee shop is a portal to the world of The Man in the High Tower, or the novel Fatherland. Their abiding dislike of pretty much everything and everyone east of the English channel, and south of the Isle of Wight was quite disturbing.
Give us a clue @@rog2224, just a county will do!
Nice to see someone that actually knows what 'Woke' means (Being aware of social injustices) instead of the way it is most often used as today as a weapon to deny there is any injustice.
"You are the dreamer _and_ the dream..." That line had a lasting impact on me. I'm not a good enough writer to explain how it makes me feel, but It helped me understand that _hope_ comes with a tremendous responsibility.
"We live inside a dream..."
@@SciontheDark?kcoR s'teL
I admit, this episode opened my eyes up to something. I grew up thinking racism was mostly a binary deal: either you're a Klansman or you're okay with Black people. When Worf mentioned that white baseball fans like him on the field well enough but they'd never let him move in next to them, that didn't add up to me at all. I had to sit and process that for a bit.
These days it's a lot clearer to me: bigotry is highly situational, and we all have to check ourselves for bigotry in a LOT of situations. Would you be fine with Black neighbors? With Black coworkers? How about a Black boss? What if your kid dated a Black person? Black president?
And then there are the subtler things where white people can be "uncomfortable" with Black people if they don't do the right "code-switching". I am convinced that more Black people are denied jobs not through any deliberate racism, but because the interviewer "has a good feeling" about the white person for speaking exactly the right way, and the Black person didn't sound exactly "right".
Teal deer, it's very complicated, and we white people all have to keep an eye on ourselves to make sure we're doing right by Black people. Not because our motives are bad, but because it's easy to get it wrong. I look at it like personal hygiene: there's no sin in being prone to stinking, the sin is in not attending to one's hygiene. You have to shower, you have to put on deodorant, you even have to wipe if you don't want to stink. Likewise, you have to examine yourself for signs of racism, and take care of them, if you don't want racism to waft off you.
This is really such a good description of exactly what is meant by "systemic" racism. All the people in the system might think they are perfectly happy with black people, but it's still the case that if the "code-switching" means people feel uncomfortable around that person, or all kinds of other small things, it's going to work to make things harder for those in the minorities, without anyone being overtly white-supremacist at all.
"teal deer" I love it!!
I have a Black coworker from Gambia. At first, I kind of dismissed him, he spoke with a very noticeable accent which made it somewhat harder to understand him, and we didn't exactly have a lot of shared interests to talk about in the first place. I would have never considered myself racist, but over time I realized that I did actually dismiss him in a racist way, and that he's actually a really fun person to be around who has interesting stories to tell.
It's uncomfortable to realize that one's actions were informed by racism, even if unintentional like in this case, but it's an important process to try and counter-act so it won't be repeated.
While I agree with almost all you say, except with 1 minor thing. Yes, you have to shower to remove stale sweat but you don't have to use deodorant, fresh sweat is not offensive & is in fact an aphrodisiac & a natural method of attracting a partner. We have been taught that it is offensive to not use deodorants & to persecute people that don't use them as 'Dirty People' which is a form of discrimination. There is also 'Deodorant' discrimination where people will reject people if they don't like the smell of that deodorant & as an asthmatic that can have an attack triggered by strong artificial fragrances I tend to distance myself from people that use a lot of deodorant & prefer the natural smell of a clean person.
“In the South, they don’t mind how close I get, so long as I don’t get too big. In the North, they don’t mind how big I get, as long as I don’t get too close” - Dick Gregory
I think the biggest thing that isn't mentioned is that it's not just that the episode of the magazine wouldn't be released, not that it was pulled, but that it was printed then pulped. They sent it to be printed, then the owner had it destroyed. That, to me as a journalism kid at the time, was a clearer detail. They printed it, and the owner had the run destroyed. I feel in this context Benny realized what that meant.
Yeah. “We would rather LOSE MONEY than allow a Black man to even have a DREAM of equality.”
Same. The whole run being pulped meant that there was no way anyone -- not Benny, not Benny's boss, not the probably-Black janitorial staff at the printer's -- could get their hands on even a single copy to prove it had happened.
The publisher had Benny's triumphant story put down like it was a rabid dog.
cause he is British@caitlyncarvalho7637
@caitlyncarvalho7637 As a kid watching the show at the time I had no clue he was supposed to be anything other than a weird French guy. When I grew up and learned more about the actor I got confused what the character's background was supposed to be other than genetically enhanced. He always came off as a scared French noble that was on a poverty tourism kick.
Pulping the whole run did a number of other things as well:
1) It destroyed the work of Benny's coworkers, pressuring them to "put Benny in his place" in order to protect their own jobs and reputations.
2) It costs a lot of money to print a full publication and then spend money destroying it. This applied a huge amount of financial pressure on Douglas, the editor, to not make the same "mistake" again.
3) It warned K.C. Hunter, Kira's alter ego in the episode, to not try the same thing with a feminist story.
4) It was a very overt symbolism that the owner would rather destroy his own wealth to preserve the status quo than run the slightest risk of changing anything. And if he is willing to destroy his own wealth, what else might he destroy? Perhaps he'd give a list of names of subversives, radicals to those racist cops.
The power of the episode to me is that it *wasn't just a one-off.* Forget "Images and Symbols," Sisko refuses at first to help Vic Fontaine in "Badda-Bing, Badda Bang" because of how the holodeck whitewashes '50s Vegas.
And then the "throwaway" call-back in _Strange New Worlds_ showing that he continued to write and that some of his works survived, at least in obscurity, into the 23rd century, felt like an acknowledgement that Russell helped bring about the future that he dreamed.
Ira Behr's original idea for the final shot of _DS9_ was to pull back the camera and show the Paramount soundstage, with Russell behind the camera. I understand why that is problematic, but my headcanon is that in the _Trek_ timeline, Russell was _their_ Roddenberry and inspired the Mae Jemisons, Guion Blufords and Stephanie Wilsons of their universe to join NASA and explore the stars.
Wait, I totally missed the SNW reference to Benny, what episode is that in?
This always stuck out at me, because it's so intensely Sisko feeling it. Cass and Jake can't understand it, to them it's all too far removed from their experience. Sisko is the one who feels it, and when pressed he goes full Avery in explaining himself.
Also to answer the other commenter asking for clarification, if you look at the copy of "The Kingdom of Elysian" Doctor M'Benga reads, it's written by Benny Russel.
@@DarthBoolean Now THAT is a hell of a subtle continuity nod.
Thanks for pointing out the call back in SNW! Subtle and deep at the same time.
I loved that. It meant Benny Russell wasn't institutionalised for the rest of his life (for the "psychosis" of being anti-racist). He did get out, he did get published, and he was (at least moderately) successful. Good for him!!
Let’s remember that this episode was loosely based on something specific too: a reprint of the EC Comics story “Judgment Day”.
In the story, an astronaut named Tarlton is visiting a planet called Cybrinia to determine if it’s ready to join the Galactic Republic. While there, he learns that the natives, a race of robots, divide themselves arbitrarily based on the colour of their casing. Orange robots get to live in luxury, while Blue robots, which are otherwise functionally identical, get the shitty jobs and the poor education. While the Cybrinians regard this as normal, Tarlton is so disgusted he decides that no, Cybrinia needs to get its shit together before it can even get a look-in at the Republic.
And now comes the big twist: see, Tarlton has been in his spacesuit for this entire time. As he leaves the planet, we the reader finally learn that he’s black.
The story was first published in Weird Fantasy in 1953 without issue, but later was republished in Incredible Science Fiction after the Comics Code Authority rejected an original story. This reprint actually saw a hurdle in that it pissed off Code administrator Judge Charles Murphy (albeit just because he was racist, not because of any problems with the Code). Of course, by this point William Gaines was just sick to death of Code bullshit (almost all of which targeted EC), and he just ran the story anyway and then gave up publishing comics.
We should also note that the story there was written by Al Feldstein, who was white.
"The story was first published in Weird Fantasy in 1953"
And this episode is set in 1953. That had to have been intentional.
Gaines of course would go on to publish Mad Magazine which produced lots of silly comedy but continually made a point at mocking racism, even the occasional poke at middle class liberal complacency.
But they also constantly dismissed the counterculture even while acknowledging most of its criticisms of American culture were completely valid. It led to some weird takes.
I came here to make the same point. Thanks. In watching the episode I kept hoping the publisher would be more of a Gaines and less of a Gernsback.
Thank you for posting about this. had never heard of the story. Gonna seek it out and read it now.
I'm an elder Millenial, and the crazy thing about this ep for me is that it portrays a small-scale, intimate backlash against the very idea of a Black space station captain. But when DS9 first aired, there was a very real, widespread and public backlash against a Black space station captain on a Star Trek series. By, y'know... 1990s racists. It's the other layer of metaphor underlying Far Beyond the Stars that I still find so profound.
Crazy it took 6 seasons to be able to "respond" to that criticism.
I remember seeing early interviews with some of the cast and a few of them made a massive point of calling Avery their captain and it seemed corny to me, knowing now the ammount of crap being said, i understand why.
No one gave a fuck in the U.K. wasn’t even an issue.
In some ways the real life contemporary racism and the horror that this is still active in a supposedly technologically advanced, liberal democracy may have been to raw a wound for Avery to feel up to addressing it. Sometimes just getting through the day and putting your best face forward takes all the energy you can muster.
Now, I really wish they could have put some effort towards a positive depiction of a single black mother, but that takes nothing away from how much good I think the character of Sisko accomplished for representation and for providing opportunities for empathy towards non-white characters which is why representation will always be a non-trivial topic.
@@donaldbarber3829 Penny Johnson is a single mother in The Orville.
@@donaldbarber3829 - Democracy? Well, the committed racists are working hard to change all that. 😖
one of the things that you touched upon Steve was the hint that it wasn't the actual violence that Benny faced that was the straw that broke the camel's back but was the denial of his personhood by his boss by refusing to publish the story (on behest of his own boss) and then firing him as well
and it's a subtly that not many people may pick up on at first and also connects to something very important that still goes on today
I am a non-white American living in "the South"
it has been expressed by myself and other POC southerners that we prefer blatant racism usually associated in the South than the polite liberal racism more associated in the North
at least when people are blatantly racist they'll say they hate us to our face
polite racism can often be so much more of a mental load
because it's not necessarily the act itself but getting it recognized for what it is
"are you sure they meant it that way/ are you sure you aren't over reacting/ i think you're reading into it" just because a slur wasn't used
it's exhausting and often gaslighting
even worse it can come from close friend or family, people that we trust
and suddenly they're unwilling to fight for us
they're happy or at least willing to let things remain the way that they are
the idea that things will be better in the future, this "maybe one day we'll live in a world where xyz" often infuriates me because I find it coming from people who won't try to make it that way because they have no dog in the fight
Exactly this 💯%
Right, a kind of gaslighting. It's exhausting to second guess harm as a victim and a reprieve for bystanders.
Im not a Star Trek fan, but my black father is. I never understood why he liked it until this video. I knew it was a progressive series, but my father is a 1960s black man, and I've repeatedly caught episodes from Deep Space 9. It really clicks into place.
Your retelling of the episode's plot got me legit emotional. "You are both the dreamer and the dream".
Credit to all involved creating the og show, and credit to you as well mr. youtube man.
I think Sisko also sees that he is the proof that the fight can be won. Benny was part of the fight to ensure black people would be accepted as equals, and Sisko shows that, at least in their world, that fight was won. And if Benny's fight could eventually be won despite how hopeless it felt at the time, so could Sisko's fight, no matter how hopeless it might feel to him in the moment.
This is the optimism that Star Trek represents to me. I don’t want dark and gritty without that light of hope. I have enough dark just knowing what is happening in my own time. I want to believe that one day things will get better. That the fight is long and difficult, but it has an end and it can end with things better than they are now. The hope that one day we can reach for the stars with others standing beside us as equals and comrades without the need for any of us to prove that we deserve to exist.
Star Trek is the future I hope we will see. It’s the future I’m willing to fight for. It’s also a future I don’t expect to see myself. I can live with that so long as I believe that one day we will find our humanity here on Earth, as well as amongst the stars.
The bit where René Auberjonois was like "Don’t tell me what I know. Besides, it's not about what's right, it's about what is".
He's thinking he feels bad about it, sure, but what can he do?
As a white liberal I was like "Oh that's me. That's the jab at me". I could do more.
I hadn’t even read MLK's letter from Birmingham jail yet.
Please read MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail asap!
That line calls us both out, brother.
@@dwaynemoring6631That letter should be part of every grade school's curriculum, with the emphasis being that this has not changed. Middle class complacency may be one of the most difficult things to wipe out in the history of the west, and so much more than racism is maintained by it. From global warming to the militarization of American society, to pandemics from AIDS to COVID it rears its ugly head anew ready to defend the status quo.
@@dwaynemoring6631I have since I watched this.
Ah well, “I could do more” is an impossibly high standard. Everyone other than Arron Bushnell could be doing more.
When I was a kid in a right wing family I hated this episode because I thought it was "boring" and generally thought it was out of place and pointless.
As a teen and as I grew older and more progressive it became one of my favorite episodes.
I think it’s great seeing the gang play different roles. Especially Avery Brooks and Rene Auberjonois.
Gene would be pleased. That is what ST is meant to do.
Nothing is Pointless.
better to progress slowly than NOT at all
Without context it is jarring and seems out of place. With context it's a masterpiece. But they really do try and smack you with the context so it's fairly obvious. Maybe just not for a kid, though.
The reference to Dr. King isn't lost on me, that's for sure. Considering Nichelle Nichols said it was basically him that kept her from quitting Star Trek because he and his family were huge fans. Even though I heard the story loads of times, I asked Nichelle to tell it at a convention I met her at in the UK. She told the story happily, and blew me a kiss afterwards.
That is a great story! I bet you melted haha
Excellent point about the story referring to the many micro-aggressions people of colour suffer every day. I'm reminded of Pam Grier's autobiography, where she talks of the constant drip, drip, drip of little things that really wore her down, like obviously empty buses not stopping for her, and shopkeepers putting her change on the counter, rather than risking touching her hand.
It must have been very weird to be affirmed as being one of the hottest women on the planet while still constantly hearing she was less than a person. And then finally having to reckon with the fact that sometimes it was the exact same people conveying both messages. I don't see how anyone bears up under such insanity.
You don't a choice ,you live and enjoy your life as best you can understanding you are a human being no matter what our sick fellow citzens think.@@donaldbarber3829
@@donaldbarber3829 honestly, as a woman I find those two sentiments regularly co-occur in a distressingly high proportion of men. The sexier one is viewed, the easier it seems to objectify and depersonalise as well. :(
I haven't seen the video yet, so it's possible this is mentioned. But while I'm thinking about it:
To me, the most crushing aspect of this episode is that after Benny sacrifices, compromises, begs and borrows to get some version of his vision approved by the editor, he "wins" at long last, after enduring horrible hardships...only for someone above Pabst to pull the magazine from circulation.
There's no "final boss" of racism. It's guys like Pabst all the way up. And Pabst doesn't even have the decency to be a cartoon villain. He's a regular guy with ingrained, unexamined prejudices trying not to rock the boat, in a system where it's regular guys who can't see how horrifying the status quo is for oppressed minorities all the way up _if you're lucky._ Really rams home how horrifically intractable this all can feel.
Much has been said about Avery's performance in this episode - which he both starred and directed in - but for me it's the performance of the greatly missed René Auberjonois that hits home the most: In the scene where he delivers the news to the writers that the issue has been pulped, he manages to portray his guilt exquisitely, with a subtle underlayer of resentment towards Avery's character that embodies the entire premise of the episode.
10/10
René was such a great actor. It’s damn hard to portray as much emotion as he generally is able to do even while wearing prosthetics that eliminate most of the subtle facial expressions. This episode allows us to see all those facial expressions directly, which serves to highlight what we can’t see the rest of the time.
And yes, absolutely, Avery Brooks is AMAZING in this role and this episode. Brilliant as both actor and director. I can see why people analyze the episode in college courses.
The episode also takes a minute right in the middle to shock the audience, dropping the only n-word ever uttered in Star Trek - in case there were some people who found it just a bit too subtle. Avery Brooks is amazing in the episode, but Cirroc Lofton delivers a fantastic performance too
As if Cirroc Lofton isn't always phenomenal
Actually I think the n-word was used in another Star Trek episode - The Savage Curtain - the one which has Lincoln joining the crew in a game where he and Surak represented "good" while Kahless and Gengis Khan would be "evil". In that episode Lincoln is brought onboard the Enterprise and as he sees Uhura he uses the n-word... but immediately regrets and apologises stating that he actually assumes that would not be appropriate in far more advanced culture than the one he represented...
@@vidalaacLincoln didn't use the n-word but referred to Uhura as a "negress" (feminine of negro). And apologized for using a term that might imply ownership. ua-cam.com/video/2BBOWsWODX4/v-deo.htmlsi=JVG7GJlFGGvjCUeT. As opposed to what said at 1:52 of this clip ua-cam.com/video/ZvTm9ireZXE/v-deo.htmlsi=735IzQ30UrPDv3dd.
@@vidalaac In The Savage Curtain, Lincoln uses a variation of the n-word that ends in "egress," which ain't great, but isn't quite the same as the variation with the i double g hard R.
Barring Spock's death, the absolute finest acting in the entire franchise
‘Sometimes this Star Trek shit; it’s pretty good..’ Amen to that brother ! 👍
I always felt that making Sisko a commander rather than a captain at the beginning of DS9 was the exact sort of compromise that Benny was asked to make in this episode. I have no way of knowing if this is true but I can just imagine an executive from the network saying "people" wouldn't accept a black captain.
That could be. A provable compromise that Ira and Avery had to make was Sisko having hair and no facial hair. During that time part of him saying yes was that got to keep his shaved head and facial hair. But Rich said it looked to 'street' we all know what that coding means. But as the show went and with behind the scenes stuff, Avery was able to go back to his preferred shaved head and facial hair.
I fully believe this lol… I was always offended in the beginning knowing Sisko was a Commander and not a Captain!
He's a commander because it's a station.
@@kamenwaticlientsI heard the initial rejection of Brooks' preferred hair situation was mostly because they didn't want him to look like his past character, Hawk. "Softening" his appearance to make him more "approachable to white people" was secondary.
Check out the crowd-funded documentary "What We Left Behind", and they covered off on this in a fair amount of detail. In short... he was a Commander because the character was supposed to be younger, and just making his way in his Starfleet career following the tragic loss at Wolf 359... and that choice became ALL WRONG when Avery Brooks was cast. Now... the issue about the HAIR? That was racist all along. Studio push to avoid (as stated in the documentary) his looking "too street" [insert facepalm here].
As a kid who remembers Classic Trek in syndication (I was born in '66), I remember seeing Let That Be Your Last Battlefield and seeing the message because of the relative obviousness of the whole black on one side vs. black on the other. Pure brilliance that was an active live message in the 1960s! Seeing Captain Cisco (AND Avery Brooks) at the tail end of that episode is purely heartbreaking. Seeing retrospective stuff after the fact made (and makes) even more so per Nana Visitor. One of the most poignant portrayals of racism I've ever seen. You feel hurt for the fellow that our DS9 Captain is playing and equally so for the excellent actor playing him.
The plot about the story not being published because of racism reminds me of the Comics Code Authority and the publication of the story "Judgement Day". The CCA wanted the reveal of the black astronaut removed, but the editors weren't having it.
Also Colm Meany basically playing Asimov was kinda fun :)
WOW!! Funny that the History Channel didn't cover THAT, when they covered the history of comic books!
Inexplicable, since there's no racism in the US anymore. @@TheKitsuneCavalier
Just to review that writers room
Douglas Pabst (Renee) is John W. Campbell
Herbert Rossof (Armin) is Harlan Ellison
Albert Macklin (Colm) is Isaac Asimov
Kay “K.C. Hunter” Eaton (Nanna) is a blending of Catherine “C.L.” Moore and “D.C.” Fontana
Jules Eaten (Alexander) is Moore’s husband Henry Kuttner
Benny is obviously representing many people, but if one stands out it is Samuel R Delany
The episode even touches on antisemitism with one of the exchanges between Armin Shimerman and Rene Auberjonois.
All the author characters were pastiches of the classic sci-fi greats as well.
I actually remember watching Far Beyond the Stars when it was first broadcast. I think I was in my 2nd year at university. Me and my housemate looked at eachother when it finished and he said something like "fuck me, that was an intense one" or something like that.
I had a crisis in my life last week and your channel saved my sanity and literally helped me through the problem. Thank you and great work.
Every time a conservative whines about historically left-wing media "going woke," I always think about those statements by Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling about how they happily used sci-fi to get progressive messages out. They knew that the liberals would get it, but the conservatives would miss it in the spectacle.
Liberal writers have been using and abusing conservative media illiteracy for decades, and right-wingers still don't get it!
Great point.
Well yes, but then they just say "That's different. It was subtle then", because they don't know what words mean.
The first time I saw someone claim Star Trek has now gone woke I let out an audible guffaw. NOW, NOW in 2024 Star Trek has gone woke, not back in the 1960s when Star Trek aired the first interracial kiss on TV?
@@WolfA4 Are we talking about Khan kissing McGivvers or Kirk kissing Uhura?
@@WolfA4idiots ask “when did Star Trek go woke?” The answer is right when the first second of the first episode aired
This is the episode I give people when they say "I don't really like science fiction, but I trust you to suggest something".
Mine is Van Gogh episode when someone starts Doctor who.
Funny thing about WEB DuBois...he actually did write Science Fiction! Most of it was unpublished during his lifetime but something like thirty or forty stories were found in a box of his papers.
You being a TREKKIE. your STOCK just went ... UP^^^^^!
While I, myself, have been a Trekkie from the early 70's when I was a lil' boy and my Uncle Peter was/is a HUGE FAN of the franchise, I am BIASLY rating this episode of yours as ONE OF MY FAVORITES 😍. You had my UNDIVIDED ATTENTION while you spoke. WELL DONE! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As a brown man with an afro and an accent, with the luck of living in New York, this episode hit me very hard when I saw it as a teenager, and worst as I’ve gotten older. The long and slow and mostly dismissed small acts of racism accumulate to almost make you want to feel like you really are just “allowed “ some comforts or some goals. It’s devastating some times how much episodes like this have never lost their power. And yes, much like this episode, hope is a powerful and cleansing feeling, but just once in a while, I think everyone wishes rather than hopes shit would finally get somewhat better.
The second half of the "leave your bigotry in your quarters" moment has got to be my favourite part!
"There's no room for it on the Bridge" really effectively communicates the way bigotry fills a room; proverbially suffocating anyone affected by it, stifling their comfort, their freedom of expression, even their right to freely exist. It isn't just an innocent opinion someone holds, it's like a noxious gas. To knowingly permit it to fester is to cause negligent toxic exposure.
I grew up watching Star Trek TNG, DSN, and Voyager.
Despite the influence of those shows, my father still managed to raise us to be very racist, just like him, and it took 18 years living on my own to unlearn his bullshit. Watching these shows in my late 30s now, I realize things I never noticed or had the ability to pick up on, and it makes me wonder how someone like my father can even still exist in this day and age.
The idea that basic rights, welfare, and even life itself are controversial or political, is something I deeply hope that humans [collectively and individually] can overcome. But it doesn't start in some far-off future. It starts now, right here.
Also, I've been trying to figure out why a lot of people don't seem to like this episode, or say that it's overrated and cringy. Is that just typical internet discourse, or do people genuinely not like this episode?
@@kurathchibicrystalkitty5146 People don't like feeling guilty, even if only subconsciously.
Watching Avery Brooks give arguably his most powerful performance as Benny breaks down makes my jaw drop and makes me choke up every time.
We should also remember that Cisco spent much of the run of DS9 as a commander, because real world racism wouldn't allow a black captain. And since the commander of a major station would normally be an Admiral (so visiting ship captains couldn't tell him how to run his station), Cisco, and Mr. Brooks, never received their due.
They (kind of) got around that second point because DS9 wasn't supposed to be a major station. It doesn't even belong to the Federation - they're just brought in to run it for the Bajoran government because they have the experience that the Bajorans don't.
With that in mind, it seems highly probable that Sisko being a captain in Benny's story was a not-so-subtle Take That (TM TVTropes) to the studio execs who wouldn't allow the main character of the show to be a black captain.
@@JCCyCThis episode was in Season 6, and Sisko had already been (finally) promoted to captain. So Benny's story was consistent with his status on DS9
A great discussion on one of the best Trek episodes ever. One thing I really appreciate is how it looks at the culpability of people like the editor, who claims he wishes things were different but this is just how they are, rarely giving it a chance and then blaming the victim when the chances they do give get shot down from above.
Everyone at the magazine is culpable. At least, all the writers are. They're sympathetic to him, but none of them try to leverage their position to back Benny up except Armin Shimerman's character, who threatens to quit over this - but ultimately, he doesn't go through with it.
Worth noting: the actors who played the two cops, Marc Alaimo and Jeffrey Combs, were also part of the regular/recurring cast of DS9. Alaimo played Gul Dukat, and Combs portrayed the Weyoun series of Vorta, who served the Dominion. Both the Cardassians and the Dominion made war on the Federation and hated Sisko because they "were some place they didn't belong." And Sisko was also a go-between for two worlds as Envoy of the Prophets.
There are so many layers to this episode.
If Discovery did an episode like this, all the haters would be busy screaming this is too woke or “not as subtle and organic as something like DS9 would do”
This is exactly what they would be saying.
A fantastic analysis of an incredible episode from my favorite Star Trek spin-off / series. Even as aware of it as many people are, it still sometimes feels as if the genius of social commentary presented in Star Trek can be slept on at times.
Yeah but Steve Star Trek is too political these days cuz... uh... errr... cuz uhm... it's... uhhmm... It's... hrrr.... IT JUST IS OKAY???
"When did Star Trek go woke?" the morons will ask.
"How much time do you have?" I reply.
"I don't feel represented as a white male. Only HALF the cast are white males. That's white male genocide!!!1!1!1"
It's wild how "Treat human beings as human beings" is even a (harshly attacked) political opinion instead of just common sense and decency.
@@karabenomar Sadly, we had to come up with a saying in response to that "inhumanity to man" a rule that became golden in its luster. "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You."
We forget that rule and end up with bad things happening each and every time.
@karabenomar Right??? "Treat others the way you would want them to treat you." It's not rocket science.
I can't believe how touching I found it when you mentioned how talking about "dream" will remind people of Martin Luther King, and then you pulled on to that photo of him, beginning with his hand and slowly drawing across to find his face. Like I got what you were talking about instantly, but the fact that the photo reveal took a fair few seconds gave me time to really think about that man and that fight, and what that all meant.
I absolutely love the episodes where the actors get to play different characters. I enjoy basically all the Dark Mirror content, even when it gets cheesy, just because I can tell the actors are having fun, and I like theorizing how things might have turned out different in another life, another set of circumstances. EDIT: I can't believe I forgot Inner Light!
But the Benny Russell universe was next level. The racial commentary was spot-on and I really enjoyed the meta implications of Benny being in Sisko's mind, but also Sisko being a machination of Benny's. Real hand drawing the hand sort of thing.
I can't believe I was only 10 when this came out, but I watched this when it first aired, and at least on some level I actually got it...
Of course, the irony here is that, if they were to make this episode today, it would be torn to pieces on social media for being "woke" by the same people who'd watch clips from 1980s and 90s shows on UA-cam and then add comments like "back when TV was good and not the woke nonsense of today."
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was definitely NOT subtle. It put on a ski mask and mugged subtlety in a dark alley.
I joke that the allegory is so blatantly obvious, it’s barely an allegory.
The Tsar bomba was more subtle then “Let that be your last battlefield.”
Ah, yes: Loki and Commissioner Biel -- from the planet Charon "in the uncharted, southern part of the galaxy."
I love Far Beyond the Stars. They were all fantastic but Avery Brooks and René Auberjonois were the stand outs though. I bet many viewers didn’t even realize the editor was Odo at first.
Damn, brother. You brought some tears to my eyes. I've always loved this episode, but you contextualize it in such a brilliant way. I hate when I hear people that I personally know say to my face that "yeah, things aren't great, but look how far we've come". Yes, we have come a long way, but that doesn't mean stop. Progress should never stop, hence why I'm proudly a progressive. If we stop moving forward, we skip backwards. I think the MAGA phenomenon has proven that a thousand times over. Thank you for your eloquent review of this fantastic episode, Steve.
its literally one of the best tv episodes ever made and stands on its own.
I had a friend who hates sci fi and trek watch this and he actually admitted it was a brilliant episode and more importantly, story.
so well done.
It's funny - I actually requested another UA-camr to talk about the episode. Both your videos are equally good. I like how the episode has the bravery to acknowledge all the bigotry of the past and how it shows that patriarchy and white supremacy areIntrinsically linked . Great video Steve
There is a glimmer of hope, coming decades after DS9, that Benny defied the odds and published a story centred around black characters and infused with images of his heritage. Doctor M'Benga in Strange New Worlds reads 'The Kingdom of Elysian' to his daughter, and if you freeze frame on the cover, you can see that Benny Russell wrote it. Centuries after his death, copies of his work still persist. That copy happened to be in the hands of a black father and respected doctor, reading to his daughter in a time when inter-human racial prejudice is seen as strange, and so far out of the norm that it's practically unthinkable. Not only does it mean both Benny and Sisko's experiences happened, but that Benny kept fighting to write the stories he needed to write, and in at least one case he won.
Every time people complain about Star Trek recently "going woke" I have to wonder what the fuck they've been watching.
😂
I mean, they could complain about nu-Trek being an incoherent mess that isn't capable of actually addressing social issues in the same way as the better series did... But that would involve them requiring to actually analyse media.
@eryqeryq I couldn't agree with you more, but I had to delete my in-depth defense of your comment because some people are so fucking crazy that it often isn't worth expressing yourself about a piece of popular media.
i wondered that for a long, long, LONG, time. The conclusion is that those people are the same people who complained in their English classes that they don't need those classes. Now they suffer severely from media illiteracy, and are honestly just sadly stupid.
It always has been. "Biological Essentialism is evil and should be eradicated from society" and "Augments are biologically evil and should be eradicated from society" is double-think typical to the ideology. Not to mention the whole fascist "A species is it's own entity capable of of learning and evolving separately from the individual" that Star Trek's Utopia is built on, the heavy integration of Star Fleet officers into all parts of the economy, and the aforementioned ostracized group that's used as a bogeyman, it's literally just Nazi Germany with a Utopian veneer.
A brilliant episode of television and a brilliant commentary. Thank you!
I consider this my favorite piece of television. The concept is neat and fohgeddaboutit, Avery Brooks is The Master, what a performance! And all the regulars out of costume, which was great to see. The writing is on point, too. Glad you covered this Steve!
Most excellent!
Having grown up in the Fifties, that particular episode resonates more than you later-borns can ever know.
This episode, like almost all of the Trekverse, is but a promise to be kept. We have yet far to go. And miles to go before we sleep.
And miles to go before we sleep.
Avery Brooks was straight fire in his performance. Gets me almost as choked up as "The Visitor"
This episode still brings tears to my eyes.
Same. I still have no idea how the hell they came up with this episode, but I am so glad for it.
Also, Avery Brooks is a phenomenal actor, and a very accomplished classical pianist, if anyone didn’t know.
I get why people put this show as their favorite. Incredibly well written and willing to 'go there' in a way that people will have a hard time hand-waving away as 'silly alien sci-fi'.
Some Trek fans have certainly tried to dismiss this episode as just 'oh racism is bad', and 'not being consistent with the Dominion storyline', and that 'it's just Brooks getting his own way'. On the Jammer's Reviews website, for example, a whole lot of them were certainly triggered by FBTS.
This was my favourite episode for years. Powerhouse of writing and acting. The little details are so clever and gel together so perfectly well.
Still one of my top ten episodes of Star Trek, even with nine hundred to choose from.
this episode never fails to move me to tears, especially since we are rapidly heading back to these times - thank you for all you do and excellent video
I first watch DS9 during the Covid pandemic. With the racial context of the time (and since, sadly) it was gut wrenching how timeless the episodes on racism and oppression were. Far Beyond the Stars is incredible, moving, and more
This was an incredible episode. After watching it, I remember feeling "how can an episode exist which has the least trappings of Star Trek, and yet feels so utterly to the spirit of Star Trek".
They still left a thin layer of allegory in this story by depicting it as a dream. Making Benny an actual ancestor of Sisko's and framing this episode as Sisko recounting that ancestor's dealings with the racism of his time might have been an even better way to confront the subject. Or maybe I'm just splitting hairs at this point. Outstanding episode regardless.
Let’s not forget the actor, who plays Sisko’s father, Brock Peters, was apart of another great movie of it’s time that faced racism head on - To Kill a Mockingbird. I love your work. Please keep it up. You are a great UA-camr and writer. I love all of your videos and analysis of Star Trek series. And you make a lot of great arguments comparison to how science-fiction it’s not just art imitating life, but in my opinion delayed reality.😊
As an aside, I would do anything to have Brock Peters' speaking voice. He could have read the back of a cereal box and it would sound amazing.
When National Public Radio produced a radio-drama adaptation of Star Wars in the 1980s, Brock Peters was Darth Vader. Marvelous voice.
Far Beyond The Stars was the first television series episode that didn't hide its racial commentary subterfuge and innuendo. Every time I watch it, or even watch a well-crafted discourse about the show's intentions, I cry when Benny cries. Avery Brooks's portrayal of Ben Russel reminds me of my struggle. Even today, the regular lives of black citizens still are measurably similar to those in the 1960s. Our lives are indeed different; there's more access and more opportunity. But something I'm constantly reminded of is that black people have to be twice as good as their white counterparts to even be considered.
I still can't believe there are people who think star trek has "gone woke" in the 2020s. How do people watch this show and not comprehend it?
Being from England and being born after the civil rights movement, i only knew of it from school lessons but this episode really stuck with me. Avery brooks knocked it out the park with his acting......pun intended!! Loving the Niners t-shirt and cap combo!!
I grew up in the 90s. My skin is as white as milk and only about 10% of the folk in my area weren't people who looked, at least superficially, like me. This episode is so well acted, so well written, and so well executed that it brought me to tears. It spoke to something deeply human inside us all.
I was too young to comprehend the debate and importance of Avery Brooks being cast as Captain Sisko. I grew up on trek and just assumed the utopian vision of a more fair society was how it was supposed to be and how the world just was or was becoming. I rewatch TNG, DS9 and Voyager all the time and as I’ve gotten older this episode is such an important piece of media. I’m glad Star Trek could teach me, a kid, that this science fiction world is how it should be and I’m equally glad trek didn’t pull punches to remind us how far we have yet to go to get there.
I found your channel through your political videos. Ive never even watched star trek. but omg this video was really freaking good and yours is one of my favorite channels.
The best episode of any Star Trek. And you can FEEL Avery Brooks' own passion in it throughout his performance.
"The mountain we have still to climb before we reach the promised land, may be even higher, steeper and more treacherous than Dr King imagined" Wow.
That brought a tear to my eye, thank you.
This is one of the best DS9 episodes which pulled no punches, and this is one of your best critiques of an episode. Thank you.
I remember the first time I saw this episode, I cried, and after it was over I just sat there thinking about what I had just seen. It was so powerful and the acting was so amazing. When Avery Brooks broke down at the end you could actually feel his anger, his pain and his frustration compounded with his refusal to give up.
This episode always has made me wonder what could have been if Voyager had been as high quality as DS9 and made a Janeway-centric episode of the same dramatic power that truly dealt with misogyny head-on. (The closest we got of a Trek episode that dealt with that issue was TOS's "Charlie X", fwiw.)
Yeah that's why I love Deep Space Nine it was way ahead of his time tackling uncomfortable social topics head-on like racism, sexism homelessness, gay rights ect.
This is also why I don't understand how can conservative say Star Trek is going woke, like.. bru!
They apparently forgot that TREK has been "woke" since it started in 1966...
As a black man from London, I have been in that emotional situation, having to deal with micro aggressions and out right racism from my own and other people.
Far Beyond The Stars was a brilliant episode, but it was painful to watch when Benny Russell has a nervous breakdown in front of his friends. Avery Brooks was expertly speaking to the experience of every black man who see's Benny's story.
One of your best videos yet Steve, the metaphor style of handling prejudice from the original series seems to go over the heads of most conservative star trek fans but the Benny Russel stories are simply not discussed among them as they just choose to not acknowledge it instead of discussing it.
Star Trek, when confronting real world bigotry and prejudice does a good job addressing human to human hatreds, but does such an awful job of shunning bigotry against other aliens such as Klingons, and Romulans in particular from the original show and when you consider the Klingons and Romulans being analogous to the Russians, Chinese and black people, we're just back at square one.
You rock, Steve; I just recommended this episode last night to a friend whose only Trek awareness is TOS. and then I saw this today and sent it to him.
Wow! That was a perfect analysis of "Far Beyond the Stars". Well done, Sir.
The first time I saw this episode, it brought me to tears. Those tears come every time I think of it, and quote it.
Thank you for this. You give voice and express a lot of things I have never been able to articulate about why this episode was so powerful and how it affected me.
Incredible episode.
It really hit me when I heard the story of MLK urging Uhuru not to quit Star Trek as she was such an inspiration to women and people of color.
I was very young when I first saw TOS, TNG and DS9 and very rarely ever revisited them. I really admire your ability to describe these issues and the shows in a way that brings it back and allows me to follow your essay as if I saw them yesterday.
The ep always cracks me up at O'Brien's hapless tie-tying ability..
You broke me with that last part. I think, from here on out, we can all call ourselves "dipshits" with a little bit of hope.
Thank you thank you thank you. Your essay on that episode has me, a 60 something Black man of British Caribbean background bawling with tears rolling down my face. Shakespeare said all the world is a stage, now I think I understand the role that Black people have to play in the Western tradition. It seems to be our role to withstand brutality not necessarily from White peoples, but from a power structure designed to destroy humans for the benefit of some. It is because of Star Trek that I am against hating someone because of who they are. Especially the minorities that are scapegoated for political power. I live in Quebec where my skin colour is less important to the provincial majority than the language I speak. I am part of the linguistic minority here. Our status is viewed as a problem. The three English Universities have come under attack by the Quebec government. As a Black man, I have seen this rodeo before. In Star Trek. As a child in England, I saw Black/White confrontations. Here in Quebec, I see the White English minority vs White French majority. Oh we humans never learn. Thank you so much for this essay. It is just what I needed in on the journey of learning to love myself as a Black man in this life.
You knocked this out of the park. Really glad you gave us a reason to review this episode with the eyes we have today, vs the ones that had been told and believed, racism was a thing in our past, not something that people were being oppressed by that day.
We also don't think that young us made any connection between that struggle and the one we were going through at the time, that had us giving up on life before ever getting to try to live it. No, we just thought racism was over and all the other isms were just a fact of life.
God, I was so excited when I saw this video, I just knew which episode it would be about. This episode really stuck out to me when I first watched it as a kid, it's one of DS9's best, in my opinion.
To me FBTS is the best example of why DS9 works. It isn't afraid to show you an hour of television that "doesn't matter" to the plot. The story is important, it is important to Sisko's character, it is important to the themes of the show, and more importantly it is important to the audience. Shows with dedicated 5 season story arcs, or hyper cut down made for streaming shows can't really afford the filler, or the off beat, not strictly in character moments. Ds9 took the time to breath, and sometimes spent it on a farce, and sometimes took us to the the show's themes.
Absolutely loved this video. I remember watching this episode in the 90’s as a teenager. It’s one of those unforgettable Star Trek episodes that makes you think. Sadly I think in today’s environment that if you aired this same episode people will be shouting with their keyboards that it’s “Woke”. No discussion about it, no analysis of the episode, no character study of the actors. Only that it’s woke; that’s it. How did a four letter word become so misused, misunderstood and weaponized that even a Star Trek show; which from the onset of the franchise in the ‘60’s has tackled diversity, racism, sexism and every other ism issue out there is not immune to the foolishness of these so called “fans” and apparent gatekeepers of what Star Trek should and shouldn’t be. It’s episodes like Far Beyond the Stars that remind me of what I love about Star Trek and why I’m of fan of the franchise.
Greetings, Steve Shives. I have been watching your videos for about a month. I enjoy the Star Trek ones, and the video essays make me think.
I am black, female and in my 70s, so I’m probably not your typical subscriber. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed “When Star Trek Confronted Racism Head-On.”
I look forward to diving more deeply into your channel.
I suspect Kira and Bashir in this are also a reference to C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, a married couple who wrote sci-fi and fantasy for the pulps and were so in tune with each other they could sit down at the typewriter and keep going if the other had stopped mid sentence. There's so much little scifi history detail in this episode I could talk about it endlessly and I can't find anyone saying it's intentional but it had to be.
I'm going to be 70 next month. I recently told my sons about one of my black friends back in early 1974 being brave enough to start calling herself black and not a colored girl...and to come to my home for lunch...without her husband's permission. He would have been very angry bc I was white. We had to hide this action from both our husband's. HOW very sad.