Far Beyond the Stars

Zicree – who was not a regular writer for the series – pitched the story with Jake Sisko as the main character, and did not deal directly with racial issues. He originally patterned the Bashir/Kira characters on Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, and the O'Brien character on Isaac Asimov.[3] This story was combined with ideas that story editor Robert Hewitt Wolfe had written for a script called "Cold and Distant Stars", a very early draft for the season 3 two-part episode "Past Tense". The story, suggested by Wolfe, featured Sisko as a contemporary homeless man who believes he is a star base captain, but who is diagnosed as schizophrenic and drugged to suppress his visions. At that time, producer Ira Steven Behr had rejected the hallucinatory element in favor of a time-travel story, because it felt too much like a "gimmick".[4][5] Researcher Allen Kwan wrote that the episode may have originally featured a more positive ending, where instead of showing Benny hospitalized with a breakdown, it would show him on a set, producing an episode of Deep Space Nine; that ending was reportedly not used for fears of breaking the continuity of the franchise.[6]

The production crew included several references to past Star Trek series and episodes, as well as other science fiction series. For instance, a memo from Pabst to Rossoff is visible in the office, complaining to him that "no one would believe that a cheerleader could kill vampires", a reference to Shimerman's role as Principal Snyder on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[5]

Much work was put into making the New York City presented look authentic. Brooks, who both directed the episode and played Sisko/Russell, went to great lengths to ensure period authenticity, even during post-production. Brooks went to the music spotting session, and had long discussions about things such as what music Russell would dance to, and the style of the scoring. The only other Star Trek director to attend a music spotting session was LeVar Burton, when working on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Inequality was also portrayed through design; the ambulance which carries Benny was portrayed as dirty and outdated because, as Brooks notes, "that's what they would have sent."[5]

Avery Brooks both directed the episode and played Sisko/Russell.

Brooks was chosen to direct by the production staff because they wanted a director who had personally experienced racism.[5] The scene where Russell collapses and has a breakdown was perhaps more realistic than most fans had realized. Once the assistant director called cut, Brooks did not stop. Brooks was so into the part that, as Lou Race remarked, even if he had stayed for half an hour, Brooks would have "kept on".[7]

The cast had little trouble separating their characters in this episode from the ones they normally played. Ira Stephen Behr, for instance, had been concerned at how René Auberjonois might react to being the only main cast member to play a "bad guy". However, Auberjonois loved the part, and was delighted to play it. Armin Shimerman (Quark/Rossoff) agreed, claiming that Rossoff is not an extension of Quark, as Rossoff, a communist, was "about as far from a Ferengi as you can get".[5] Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun/Mulkahey) had some trouble at first "finding Weyoun" in Mulkahey, but realized that Mulkahey and Weyoun are both "suppressing authority figures" in Sisko's mind, and played the character from that perspective.

With few science-fiction elements, one of the few special effects in the episode was a shot where a drawing of the space station falls out of Russell's hand, and lands near the foot of a police officer. The drawing was attached to a helium balloon which was connected to some monofilament on a fishing line, and had to be "yanked" towards the foot of the officer, and land at the right orientation for the camera. Despite concerns that it could take hundreds of tries, the shot was completed on the second attempt.[5]

Makeup was unusually easy for this episode; since most characters appeared as humans, only standard makeup was required. Appearing out of costume was an unusual experience for many cast members. Shimerman said that wearing the mask for Quark normally helped him avoid being nervous about how he looked on camera, and that appearing without it was a "very bizarre" experience. J. G. Hertzler had never appeared on Deep Space Nine out of Klingon makeup as Martok, and enjoyed the role of Ritterhouse. Hertzler draws as a hobby, so when Ritterhouse was seen drawing in the episode, the actor was really drawing the cast.[5]

In a paper published by the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, Allen Kwan argued that while the episode should be "given credit" for portraying racism more directly than any other episode, the ending in which Russell is institutionalized weakens the moral of the story. Parallels, Kwan claimed, can be drawn from Pabst, the racist magazine editor, to the producers of the Star Trek franchise. Kwan maintains that, like Pabst, the franchise as a whole tends to ignore actual diversity, instead opting to portray a future with only a single cultural and racial norm.[6] Jan Johnson-Smith has noted parallels between Sisko being "the dreamer and the dream" and Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech.[16]

The storyline of the episode has been compared to a real-life experience of African-American science fiction author Samuel R. Delany, whose novel Nova was rejected by Analog magazine editor John W. Campbell, Jr. in 1967, claiming it was because "he didn't feel his readership would be able to relate to a black main character.[17]