FAR BEYOND THE STARS
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FAR BEYOND THE STARS:
The episode opens. Sisko and Kira are reviewing the latest casualty list of the war. Sisko finds the starship Cortez among the casualties. The Captain of the Cortez was Sisko's friend; Sisko introduced the Cortez's captain to his wife. Meanwhile, Sisko's father is taking a tour around the station. During a moment between them, Sisko reveals that he is considering leaving Starfleet. Then, Sisko notices a person in a fedora walking by his door, and when he goes to investigate, the person is gone.
It turns out that Kasidy is back on the station. Sisko warns her about the dangers of using her ship while the war goes on. Suddenly, Sisko sees this person in a baseball uniform calling him "Benny". Sisko follows him into a room, and finds himself in the middle of a busy street. While trying to find his way around, he is upended by a taxi.
Sisko wakes up in the Infirmary, surrounded by his father, Kasidy and Jake. Bashir reveals that he has found strange synaptic potentials, the same that caused the visions which nearly killed him a year ago. As Sisko is reading the PADD with the info on his condition, he finds himself phased back into the busy streets of San Francisco, reading a magazine. He is met by a co-worker (who looks like O'Brien) and they head back to the office, but not before "Benny" buys the magazine from a vendor (who looks like Nog). At the office, most of the people working there are the senior staff from Deep Space Nine. They are all employed by a science fiction magazine in the 1950s. They write stories based on pictures. A person comes in (who looks like Martok) and shows them the pictures for this week. One picture, a crude drawing of DS9, fascinates Benny.
On the way home, Benny is harassed by two police officers (who look like Weyoun and Dukat), and is met by a preacher (who looks like Sisko's father) who knows his name, and tells him to write "the story that will open their eyes" and to "walk with the Prophets". Benny ponders his words on the way home. Using the typewriter and the picture, Sisko writes a story about a space station 500 years in the future, captained by a Negro.
On the way to work in the morning, Benny drops by the local restaurant to see his girlfriend Cassie (Kasidy). He drops hints about his new story, and what success it will bring, when Cassie suggests that they go into business together, owning the restaurant where she works. There he meets Willie Mays (who looks like Worf), a Negro baseball star who still doesn't get the respect he wants. He also likes Cassie. There's also Jimmy (Jake), a hood, who was just stolen a watch. Benny insists he starts an honest life and stop putting his life on the line, but Jimmy refuses.
Benny submits this idea to his co-workers, and they like, even the new secretary (Dax). Everyone except the editor (Odo), who insists that it isn't possible, that people won't read a story about a Negro captain being the hero. The editor tells him to either burn the story, or re-write it to make the captain "non-coloured". Benny doesn't like this at all. On the way home, Benny meets the preacher again, who tells him to keep pushing.
Benny has an upcoming date with Cassie that night. However, the lure of the typewriter is too much, and he begins work on a new story, with the same characters as before. Benny wakes up hours later, with Cassie by his side. It's late night, and any chance of redeeming their date. However, Benny agrees to a last dance before she's off home. While they're dancing, Benny has flashes to dancing with Kasidy, where she mentions the Dominion, and this throws him completely off-track, making him believe that he's losing his mind.
The next day, Benny submits his new stories to the magazine writers. Still, the editor denies these stories, unless they can be modified. They all compromise to make it to be all a dream of a man who dreams of a better life for mankind. This story is to be printed in the next issue, and Benny will make 3 cents per word.
Benny heads over to the restaurant to celebrate. There, Cassie and Benny make plans to go out that night, dancing, dinner, the works. Benny talks to Jimmy, who's apparently gotten into some trouble. Benny wants to offer assistance, but Jimmy says he can handle it. Willie Mays is also at the diner, and he's just had a great game. When Willie Mays tells Benny about his latest game, he sees Worf in a Klingon uniform, and he falls off his chair. Benny insists he's OK.
When Benny and Cassie go out that night, they hear gunfire. Benny investigates, and finds Jimmy dead, killed by the two police officers who harassed Benny before. They killed him simply because he tried to break into a car with a crowbar. Benny struggles with the two police officers, and gives him the beating of his life.
Weeks later, Benny has partially recovered from his injuries, and is ready to go back to the office to see through with the publishing of his story. When he gets there, he finds out that the publisher has rejected his story because it "does not live up to the magazine's usual high standards". To say it lightly, Benny does not take this well, and has an attack. When the ambulance comes, he is met by the preacher again, who says he has walked with the Prophets, and that he is the dreamer and the dream. Sisko wakes up in the Infirmary, his condition completely cured, and he's only been out for at least 3 minutes.
Sisko father has to leave the next day, and before he leaves, Sisko reveals that he no longer has any intention of leaving Starfleet, and then questions his entire existence, that there is a Benny out there, dreaming about Deep Space Nine.
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Guest Cast:
Brock Peters as Joseph Sisko
Jeffery Combs as Weyoun
Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat
J.G. Hertzler as Martok
Aron Eisenberg as Nog
Penny Johnson as Kasidy
Brock Peters as Preacher
Jeffrey Combs as Mulkahey
Marc Alaimo as Ryan
J.G. Hertzler as Roy
Aron Eisenberg as Vendor
Penny Johnson as Cassie
Creative staff:
Story By: Marc Scott Zicree
Teleplay By: Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler
Director: Avery Brooks
Other Info:
Airdate: February 11, 1998
Stardate: Unknown
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