Superhero Ethics

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Far Beyond the Stars" is an examination of racism in science fiction, then and now. When Captain Sisko experiences a vision of himself as Benny Russell, a Black science fiction writer in 1950s New York whose story about a Black space station captain gets rejected and pulped, the episode becomes a meta-commentary on the genre itself. Matthew and Riki unpack how this episode critiques not just 1950s racism, but the sci-fi publishing world of the 1960s and 1990s and even Star Trek's own blind spots, while exploring what it means when we fail to imagine beyond our own experiences.Questions We Discussed:How does "Far Beyond the Stars" critique both 1950s racism and the science fiction publishing world of the 1990s?Why did the episode focus exclusively on Benny Russell's pain rather than showing how his white colleagues reacted to being called out?Is Avery Brooks' emotional performance as Benny overacting, or does our inability to imagine his pain reveal our own failure of imagination?