Is Far Beyond the stars overrated?

[mattpa]

It's a good episode but I've never felt it was worthy of all the praise it gets.

1) It's not exactly subtle.
2) Avery Brooks performance. I'm sorry but he overacts to a huge extent. The whole 'its real' speech.It's so OTT.

Now admittedly I say this from a perspective of a white man who will never know what's it's like to deal with the racism Benny (and so many others) had to deal with, and maybe that means I can never fully appreciate the episode in the way some do.

However, as per my subject thread, I do think it's overrated. Good, an interesting take, important subject matter for sure, but not the greatest episode of all time.

Am I very much alone in this assessment?

 

[Michael]

No, it really isn’t.

It’s easily one of the most imaginative, most impactful and most meaningful episodes of the whole show, if not the whole franchise. Each line, shot, editing choice, costume and character beat is on point and I would be hard-pressed to find any flaw in it at all. Even the score is fucking fantastic.

Brooks absolutely plays for the people sitting far in the back of the audience. That’s just his style and I can’t say I ever found it anything but powerful and brilliant. Benny is having a complete mental breakdown in the scene you mentioned. Each of his acting choices are perfectly on point in that scene.

“Far Beyond the Stars” is almost magical to me and I can’t imagine ever growing tired of rewatching it, even 26 years after I originally saw it.

Am I very much alone in this assessment?

Rarely if ever is anyone ever really alone with these sort of unpopular opinions. So yeah, I’m sure there’s people who feel similarly.

I’m curious, what do you think are some of the best episodes of the show?

 

[mattpa]

No, it really isn’t.

It’s easily one of the most imaginative, most impactful and most meaningful episodes of the whole show, if not the whole franchise. Each line, shot, editing choice, costume and character beat is on point and I would be hard-pressed to find any flaw in it at all. Even the score is fucking fantastic.

Brooks absolutely plays for the people sitting far in the back of the audience. That’s just his style and I can’t say I ever found it anything but powerful and brilliant. Benny is having a complete mental breakdown in the scene you mentioned. Each of his acting choices are perfectly on point in that scene.

“Far Beyond the Stars” is almost magical to me and I can’t imagine ever growing tired of rewatching it, even 26 years after I originally saw it.


Rarely if ever is anyone ever really alone with these sort of unpopular opinions. So yeah, I’m sure there’s people who feel similarly.

I’m curious, what do you think are some of the best episodes of the show?

Well i much prefer 'The Magnificent Ferengi' which is a few episodes earlier in the series!

Don't get me wrong, I like the episode, I just think it's massively overrated.

I also fee similar about Duet in regards to over acting btw.

 

[Michael]

I absolutely love “The Magnificent Ferengi”, a super nice comedy episode. But for my money it’s lacking in terms of any sort of moral or thoughtful message being conveyed. That’s what, for me, sets apart episodes like “Far Beyond the Stars” and “Duet” from the rest. They are actually about something. And with us living in a world that still needs a protest movements like BLM, has a big chunk of society reject any attempt at bringing more justice and diversity into all sorts of areas of life and still has unspeakable atrocities committed on a daily basis, one could make a case that these episodes are still as topical as they were back then, if not more topical.

I admit I just never really understood the urge among Trek fans to make out episodes that are “overrated”. In most cases it seems pretty obvious to me why an episode is as popular as it is.

 

[mattpa]

I admit I just never really understood the urge among Trek fans to make out episodes that are “overrated”. In most cases it seems pretty obvious to me why an episode is as popular as it is.

For me it's about discussing it with other fans and seeing if I might be missing something, getting different perspectives etc.

It's certainly not about pouring scorn on things people love.

 

[Oddish]

Emotional? Yes.
Brutal? Yes.
Hits you like ten million pounds of runaway train? You better believe it.
Hard to watch sometimes? Definitely.
On my "rewatch regularly" list? No. Dealing with that level of drama is more than I can usually take.

Overrated? Definitely not.

 

[evilchumlee]

Yes and no.

It's a brilliant episode, with a brilliant story and theme. Deserves it's praise, for sure.

At the same time, it's also an episode that I don't believe I have ever rewatched after the first time. While it's an absolutely amazing story, it's also not really what i'm looking for when I turn to Star Trek, for repeat viewings anyway. It's not a sci-fi story at all. It's a good story, and they they made it happen via sci-fi, but the story itself isn't... which makes it unattractive for repeat viewings, given the circumstances.

To compare, I love Indian food. And I love steak. They're both great. But if i'm craving steak, I don't want Indian food. I happen to like steak MORE than Indian food, so more often than not, i'm going to go for the steak. That doesn't diminish how good Indian food is, it's just not hitting the craving i'm looking for.

I like the social commentary, but in this context I prefer to have a bit more of an explicit sci-fi wrapper.

 

[at Quark's]

No, I don't think it's overrated. I love it for several reasons. As a reminder of how far 24th century humanity has come since the 1950's, and that even in the enlightened Federation era, these securities and 'freedoms of' aren't guaranteed, and that the fight for those ideals is worth fighting. It therefore sends a strong message that has meaning both within the DS9 universe and to us as viewers.

Also, because it is deliberately left ambiguous at the end who is the dreamer and who is the dreamt.

I do agree about Sisko's breakdown scene though, that scene felt too forced and artificial to me, compared to the several real life breakdowns I witnessed in my life. Even though I can't exactly say what caused that feeling. But perhaps some people really do breakdown like that.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The blatancy only stands out because DS9 was generally subtle, especially when compared to other Star Trek series. However blatant it is, Far Beyond the Stars achieved a lot because of that blatancy. It covers a large spectrum of the urban African American experience, showing how they interacted with a broad swath of mid century America. It shows the guts of the science fiction genre, fighting between being progressive and sensational. It shows how individuals could be limited by how society judges them in spite of talent and righteousness. It is a good representation of the racism of a society that produced foundational science fiction. And Cirroc Lofton said that we haven't evolved much from the world of Far Beyond the Stars, he was largely correct.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

No, it's not overrated. It's the best DS9 episode.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

It may even be underrated. That's not necessarily the same as being the Best DS9 episode ever as I've seen perhaps half of them over the years. (DS9 as a whole seems to be an underrated TREK show in certain quarters. Maybe it's seen as too similar with BABYLON 5.)

BEYOND THE STARS and Brooks in particular were so memorable it inspired me to write an unpublished novella with Brooks in mind as a central (medical) character with multiple major issues. Strangely enough, I wrote him ''backwards'' scene-for-scene, thinking up his last line first. It was ''Go home, Dragon.''

 

[Takeru]

It's overrated. keep in mind that calling something overrated doesn't mean it's bad, just not as good as the majority seems to think it is. While the majority rates it 10/10 and among the show's best episodes I'll give it a 7/10, it's definitely above average and worth watching but some things bring it down for me.

I was never the biggest fan of Avery Brooks acting style, it's very stagey and that doesn't work for me on tv because people usually don't sit 30 feet away from the tv so don't act for the people in the last row. The "IT'S REAL" scene has already been mentioned and it makes me cringe a bit, I don't feel for Benny, I want to look away, it didn't work for me at all. I also didn't care for the ending and the "Is Benny the real person?" question because the answer is no, obviously not. If Benny is real the entire Star Trek universe exists in his head, you can do that kind of story in a self contained novel or story but not as part of a sprawling decades old franchise, it simply doesn't work.

It's still a good story and I get why people love it even if I don't. It's not an unwatchable stinker like The Visitor, now that's an episode where I never got why people like to so much, it's among the worst episodes of the series for me.

 

[evilchumlee]

The blatancy only stands out because DS9 was generally subtle, especially when compared to other Star Trek series. However blatant it is, Far Beyond the Stars achieved a lot because of that blatancy. It covers a large spectrum of the urban African American experience, showing how they interacted with a broad swath of mid century America.

This is where the episode shines, in comparison to another from DS9 that broached the issue, "Badda Bing, Badda Bang".

Sisko's reluctance to join the Vegas holodeck program felt super weirdly out of place. Sure, I understand having an understanding of cultural heritage, but Sisko's reaction felt alittle bit too... modern to really make sense. Also just somewhat hypocritical "No, I won't do that because they were racist to black people. But also I really like mid-20th century baseball that... was... racist to black people."

 

[kkt]

This is where the episode shines, in comparison to another from DS9 that broached the issue, "Badda Bing, Badda Bang".

Sisko's reluctance to join the Vegas holodeck program felt super weirdly out of place. Sure, I understand having an understanding of cultural heritage, but Sisko's reaction felt alittle bit too... modern to really make sense. Also just somewhat hypocritical "No, I won't do that because they were racist to black people. But also I really like mid-20th century baseball that... was... racist to black people."

Jackie Robinson integrated baseball playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Were any of the holosuite baseball games Sisko watched before that? I don't think so, but I might be misremembering.

 

[trekfan_1]

I must agree with OP. It's good but not exceptional. I agree Brooks overacts but mainly only towards the end in the nervous breakdown scene . But I 100 percent disagree about Duet ( it was perfectly acted IMO). I would put Duet, The Visitor and In the Pale Moonlight on the mount Rushmore of Ds9 episodes. For me I woud even put "Hard Time" "The Wire" "Die is Cast" and "Visionary" ahead of Far beyond the Stars .

For me it seems to get more praise than it deserves for the subject matter more so than the sheer writing or quality of the episode. Before anyone screams at me, I would still put Far Beyond in my personal top 20 of DS9 episodes. And I conceed many will disagree with me.

 

[BillJ]

I found it boring. But, I never was a huge DS9 fan.

 

[Tosk]

Is Far Beyond the Stars overrated? That's easy...to some, yes. To others, no.

I've never particularly liked The Inner Light, so I know how it feels to be bored by a beloved episode. Keep on truckin'.

 

[BillJ]

I've never particularly liked The Inner Light, so I know how it feels to be bored by a beloved episode. Keep on truckin'.

That episode feels like watching paint dry.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The one where Picard is mind-raped by a space probe? Yeah, that's what an overrated episode looks like.

What an overrated DS9 episode in particular looks like? "The Way of the Warrior." Why? They gimped the Klingons.

 

[Oddish]

I still say it would have been hilarious if the "one use only" Kataan mind probe had locked onto Spot. If Data is present, he just figures his pet is sleeping. The cat spends 35 subjective years rubbing ankles and sitting on laps on Kataan... and then wakes up and begins washing himself like nothing happened.