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 EPISODE REVIEWS | ||
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Far Beyond the Stars Airdate: Week of February 9, 1998
Written by: Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler (Teleplay); Marc
Scott Zicree (Story)
Directed by: Avery Brooks
In short:If Deep Space Nine does last for 400 years, it is
quite possible that they will look back and say, "This was their finest
hour."
Brief Summary: Sisko, growing weary at the toll of death and
strain the war has brought, considers leaving Starfleet... and then suddenly
finds himself writing science fiction in the 1950s under the name Benny
Russell, unable to get a story of his, called Deep Space Nine, published,
because the story's hero is black.
Review: Usually I do my Voyager reviews before my DS9 reviews when
boh shows air first-runs in the same week. Not this week. Now, before you
get angry, I should point out that Voyager had a fairly good episode this
week. But... it has nothing on "Far Beyond the Stars." No Voyager episode
ever shown does actually, and I'm not sure if DS9 has one that can compete
either. Maybe "The Visitor." Maybe "Hard Time." Maybe "Necessary Evil."
Maybe "The Die Is Cast." Maybe "Call to Arms." Maybe. "Far Beyond the
Stars" is not Trek's first ever story on racism, but it is certainly its
best by far, weaving the personal struggle of Ben Sisko and the fate the
Prophets have laid out for him with an absolutely compelling story of a man
not even able to express his own dreams because of his race, all on the
tableau of a wonderfully refreshing and even humorous tale of life in the
1950's at the birth of what we call science fiction. Yes, that was one
sentence.
The concept of "Far Beyond" at first glance isn't terribly new. Yes,
yes, we all know that blacks had a hard time with life in the fifties
because whites wouldn't even acknowledge their existences. All those
authors Benny mentioned... well, I've read them, and I don't need a history
lesson. To be a little more blunt, I can't say I was eager to have an
episode based on a guilt trip. But the story of racism here works, and it
works because of three things. One, the twist this time around is
absolutely fascinating. Having Benny at a science fiction magazine, one of
the hopefully more enligtened places you could work at during that era, is a
wonderful turn that I feel I can just connect to. The magazine should be
colorblind because magazines are about ideas, and no one can stifle another
person's ideas, can they? "Far Beyond" showed us that they could, making it
much more than the simple shoeshine-boy-can't-get-a-job tale. Second, the
episode wasn't just a recantation of "Racism, baaaaaaaad." It was much more
subtle than that, allowing for different levels of racism by fleshing out
the characters within it rather well. Benny's story wasn't published, not
because he was black, but because his hero was black, and thus "commercially
unacceptable." It's a much less sinister racism. For every detective like
the Marc Alaimo character out there, there's a Pabst, a man who probably
doesn't think blacks are inferior to whites, but who is simply too afraid to
risk his own well-being over the issue. In a sad way, you feel sorry for
Pabst, because you realize that he probably knows he is doing wrong, but he
doesn't want to give himself to a higher, more noble cause. He is as much
a tragic
character as Benny is.
The third reason it worked was because of Benny Russell, or perhaps more
correctly, Avery Brooks' portrayal of him. I have always had mixed feelings
about his portrayal of Sisko. On one hand, Sisko is damn cool and I respect
the dude, but at the same time, he can be far too brooding, and that comes
off as unrealistic. But Avery Brooks was on top of his game here. His
quiet, methodical delivery told us that Benny has been beaten down again and
again despite possessing a very bright mind, and all that was apparently
left in him was a quiet anger that could never bubble to the surface. That
quiet facade broke down in the end however, in a quivering burst of rage
that itself broke down into a nervous collapse. Some might argue that the
final scene was overwrought and Avery Brooks being Ben Sisko, not Benny
Russell. But I'd like to point out that quite likely none of us have
actually witnessed a nervous break down of that sort, so we don't excatly
have any frames of reference. Benny wanted to not only do well, as Cassie
wanted him to do, but also to make a difference in the world. Russell was a
broken man who had pinned his hopes on one innocent story, only to be told
"no," because, of all things, his hero was black. He wasn't guilty - his
idea was, and I cannot blame him for going over the edge.
"Far Beyond" seemed so rich, so real, not only because of Brooks' acting,
but because of his directing as well. Kudos should go out as well to Behr
and Beimler,
as well as Marc Scott Zicree, for giving us a script truly evocative of the
era it was set in. The atmosphere was simply wonderful - perhaps Trek's
best ever period piece. Dennis McCarthy did an outstanding job with the
music, particularly when he mixed the low jazz with the theme to Deep Space
Nine right when Russell first saw Sisko in the window. Best of all,
however, was the sort of wink-and-nudge look at the world of science fiction
in
the Fifties. The political atmosphere between left and right was dead on,
and although most writers in that era were actually freelancers and not
salaried contributors, the feel of the story process and the subject matter
covered by magazines like the imaginary Incredible Tales was right-on...
especially with some of the less memorable works, like Honeymoon on
Andromeda or
wherever that was. The opportunity to see this wonderful setting that Trek
owed so much to in my mind justifies its only tenuous connection to life
back on Deep Space Nine. All in all, a wonderful tribute, not just because
of the atmosphere, but for other, larger reasons that I will explain below.
But before I gush over those reasons, another point of interest. All
throughout the episode, I kept thinking to myself "This may or may not be
the best DS9 episode ever... but it feels the most connected to what is
going on in the show, and I'm not sure why." Apparently they know at last
where the Sisko character is going. Where exactly that is we don't know
(and indeed that annoyed me somewhat about "Far Beyond"), but I can't help
to feel a little pleased that they at least are putting up the front of
taking him as a character from point A to point B, and doing it with a bit
of depth. Yes, he has developed as the Emissary... but never did his own
hopes and dreams really come into play, just his political opinions. It was
a mutation more than anything. Not even on B5 (actually, B5 is weaker in
this department than you may think) do we see the captain taking this kind
of journey and making it a personal one, and the thought of all this being
done on Deep Space Nine makes me giddy, not quite as giddy as a schoolgirl,
but giddy for sure.
The overall connection between Sisko and Benny is less clear than I would
have like it to have been, but it was still there. It is clear that some
attempt was made to make the world of Benny Russell like the world of Ben
Sisko simply because each character within the story had connections to
Sisko's own personal struggle. The police officers, in this case the great
enforcers of not just any order, but a malevolent one with racial
undertones, were none other than Dukat and Weyoun, the enforcers of the
Dominion's racially based order. Pabst was Odo, and in many ways at least
allowed Benny to suffer because it helped preserve order, much like what
motivated Odo to help Dukat and Weyoun in the war. Of course, I don't know
how far we can read into this. Was the Jake character's death a sign that
Jake himself will die at the hands of Weyoun and Dukat, or just a signal
that Sisko himself faces suffering ahead? In a way, I hope so, because it
would an incredibly gutsy move. I suppose we'll have to see.
To me, this interplay between reality and dream, this puzzle piece in a
larger scheme of things, is one of the many signs of the simply good writing
that went into this episode. The twist at the end about "Who's dream is
this?" was, while a little overdone, still nice. But it's more than that.
I can't recall
another Trek episode with this almost organic feel to it. No, I don't mean
it it had a lot of carbon (Oh, bad joke, I'm sorry). At times it seemed as
if every word of dialogue interconnected and became part of something larger
within the story, as if to say every word had a specific purpose in the
script. Take for instance when the writers discuss whether of not Benny's
story should be a dream. Herb says "it guts the story" and he may very well
be correct... just as someone may be right when they say the ambiguous
nature of reality in this episode gutted it. And who can forget Kay's
reference about how attractive writers are? The words of the "Prophet"
relate this as well. At several points this year Behr and Beimler have
resorted to sloppy writing that left too many questions afterward. Here,
they finally wrote a script with how it appears to the audience in mind.
At first I thought the dialogue, particularly in the officeplace, seemed
clunky and off. I still am not terribly fond of Colm Meaney's acting here,
and Alexander Siddig seemed off early on. But upon further review, I've
come to realize how much *fun* much
of the script was. Michael Dorn was an absolute riot as Willie Mays I
thought. The Jake character was great as well. But more importanly, people
like Willie, and Pabst, and Herb, had real characterization, and that's
quite a feat when they were only sideshows to the much larger story of Benny
Russell.
And that story is about his dream, and the dream of the show we call Star
Trek. "Far Beyond," perhaps more than any episode in the history - yes, the
history - of the Star Trek franchise. I can think of many moments in the
history of the franchise that are pure expressions of the Trek mythos, the
Trek dream, but not an entire episode. This episode wasn't about the "race
issue" as much as it was why we have Star Trek... to dream of a future where
race does not matter. The vendor, played by Aron Eisenberg, who also plays
Nog, at the beginning of Sisko's dream asked Benny why he reads the
borderline ridiculous fantasies of the stories in magazines like Galaxy. In
many ways this episode showed us why we do read, and now watch, those
supposedly ridiculous things. We read science fiction and we watch Star
Trek because we want a better future, and we believe that such a better
future is not an unachievable chasing of the wind. It is the ideas, as
Benny pointed out, that change the world, because they motivate us to work
harder and become something more than ourselves. The true achievement of
"Far Beyond" is that is serves as a vindication of science fiction.
Did "Far Beyond" have its flaws? But of course, monsieur. "Far Beyond"
didn't have the emotional connection of, say, "The Visitor" or "The Inner
Light." Most episodes don't, but once you get to the level of "Far Beyond"
it stands out. The show certainly had its moments, such as when the Jake
character died,
but the episode itself almost had too much a realistic feel to it to be
truly heart-tugging. That certainly doesn't invalidate it, but it also
makes me a little sad, because I wonder if it could have been much, much
more.
This could have been done back on the station. We had plenty of time for
Sisko to do the speech by Picard in "Ship in A Bottle," but not enough to
explain how this dream actually affected him. I can assume that Sisko
decided to stay in Starfleet because he realized that by fighting for the
Federation he is in a sense fighting to preserve Benny's dream... but the
episode never really said that. As I said before, I think the writers know
where Sisko is going... but it sure would be nice if they would at least
tell us.
But, all in all, one of DS9's best, and perhaps Avery Brooks' strongest
performance on the show (somewhat ironic in that he did not play Sisko for
most of it), but a little short of being in the first circle of Trek's
pantheon. Still, many hours later it still fascinates me. If this episode
does not garner Emmy consideration, I must ask myself what possibly could,
especially when I consider the usual Emmy nominees and their failure to
express what "Far Beyond" expressed and with its dignity. If it does not
win the Hugo, I will be absolutely convinced that Babylon 5 fanatics are
petty, tasteless people. "Far Beyond" may or may not be DS9's best ever
episode. But that is mere semantics when we realize that it has affected
us, and that it does drive us onward to make a better world. It's why I
watch Star Trek, and my only regret is that an episode like it cannot air
the next week, and the week after, and the week after.
Some short takes:
- I noticed only two homages in the episode... the "Trill building,"
where Sisko worked, and the cover of Galaxy magazine, which was taken from
the matte to the TOS episode "The Menagerie."
- There has been some speculation as to who if anyone were the writers
modeled after. Some have suggested Asimov, the robot writer, was played by
O'Brien's character. Others have said the character of Kay played by Kira
was modeled after the writer KC Hunter, who like Kay working with Bashir,
worked often with men (no, not that way!) and hid her gender by writing
under her initials. I confess that I simply don't know.
- Anyone else think that one of those city shots, with the cars going
down the street, looked REALLY out of date?
Rating: A+
Quote:"I can see it now. The lonely little girl befriended by
empathetic aliens who teach her how to smile. It's enough to make you go
out and buy a television set."
-Herbert Ross, commenting on Roy's "art" work
Next week: Yes, you saw it right. A runabout shrinks. Sigh.
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