PREACHER: Rest easy, brother Benny. You have walked in the path of the Prophets. There is no greater glory.BENNY: Tell me, please... who am I?
PREACHER: Don't you know?
BENNY: Tell me!
PREACHER: You are the dreamer, and the dream...
"Far Beyond the Stars" is one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek in any incarnation. It says so much about the issues of the 50s and even today with regards to racism and humanity in general. It is the kind of episode that Star Trek cannot do very often, and breaks the mold of what a Star Trek episode should be in many ways.
One of the strengths of science fiction in general, and Star Trek in particular, is that it can examine and discuss social issues in a clandestine way, which means that it can talk about topics that, at the time, may be verboten to talk about openly. Examples of this can be seen in episodes such as "A Private Little War" (TOS), which was an allegory for the Vietnam conflict at a time when you could not talk about it on television, and the episodes "The Outcast" (TNG) and "Rejoined" (DS9), which dealt with issues of homosexuality, the former having aired as early as 1992. "Far Beyond the Stars" deals with the issue of racism in a much more direct way, however. This episode shows the effect of racism through the eyes of one man: an African-American science fiction writer by the name of Benny Russell. In many ways, the glimpse we get of his office and co-workers reveals a fairly enlightened place for the 1950s: working together alongside three white males are Kay Eaton (a woman writer), her husband who is a man of middle-eastern and British descent by the name of Julius, and Benny. However, as we find out more about the dynamics of the office, we see the spectre of racial tension (along with other prejudices) rear its ugly head:
PABST: Some of our readers have been writing in wanting to know what you people look like.KAY: Oh, write back and tell them we look like writers: poor, needy, and incredibly attractive!
PABST: Well, our publisher has a better idea. Mr. Stone has decided to run a picture of you in next months issue.
MACKLIN: Is that absolutely...
PABST: Necessary? I'm afraid it is. Kay, you can sleep late that day.
KAY: Of course I can. God forbid the public ever finds out that "K.C. Hunter" is a woman.
BENNY: I suppose I'm sleeping late that day too?
PABST: It's not personal, Benny, but as far as our readers are concerned, Benny Russell is as white as they are, let's just keep it that way.
ROSSOFF: Oh, yes. If the world's not ready for a woman writer, imagine what would happen if it learned about a negro with a typewriter. Run for the hills, it's the end of civilization!
One of the best observations about the episode I've ever read was an account by Avery Brooks about what the episode is about. He said that it's not necessarily about racism, but rather just a snapshot of life at that time. It was perfectly natural for someone like Douglas Pabst to work in an office alongside this rather diverse group and still hold the views he does. It may seem incredible, but it is a reality.
I don't pretend to know a lot about prejudice or bigoted behaviour, but I have experienced it in a very small way. I'm not a visible minority, but my background includes Metis and Cree Native on my mother's side. I don't look aboriginal, so without realizing that I have that background, people would make "Indian jokes" around me while I grew up. I didn't really know enough or have the confidence to take a stand against those attitudes and to correct false assumptions that people have, such as the "fact" that natives have their education paid for or are simply given money by the government "just because." I sometimes wish I had, if for no other reason than to possibly open someone's mind to reality. That is the largest and most pernicious aspect of racism: not the out-loud, in your face rantings of people that harbour true vitriolic hatred, but the small seeds of prejudice that allow a man like Douglas Pabst to get away with saying things like "It's not personal," or "It's just the way things are."
Stepping away from the racism aspect for a moment, I'd like to also speak about what a thrill it was to see the cast without their makeup. I especially love how certain members of the cast are almost unrecognizable, such as Aron Eisenberg, Armin Shimerman, or J.G. Hertzler. Also, sometimes it's difficult to take an actor seriously under a rubber mask or inches of makeup, but this episode makes it apparent: these people can act!
While researching this episode to write this, I learned something I hadn't known before. Apparently, one idea being thrown about for the end of the series was to have Benny Russell standing outside of a television studio wrapping up filming as he clutched a script entitled "Deep Space Nine." While I don't think they should have gone that route, I guarantee that that ending would have been talked about by Trekkies for years to come!
JOSEPH: Sounds like that dream you had helped you sort things out.SISKO: I suppose it did. But I have begun to wonder. What if it wasn't a dream? What if this life we're leading, all of this, you and me, everything... What if all of this is the illusion?
JOSEPH: That's a scary thought.
SISKO: I know, I know... But maybe, just maybe, Benny isn't the dream... we are. Maybe we're nothing more than figments of his imagination. For all we know, at this very moment, somewhere far beyond all those distant stars, Benny Russell is dreaming of us.
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