First off if we judge our star trek captains by their acting ability then this who series would never have engaged viewers from the 60's until today like it obviously has.
Concentrated effort, enough to write a great play, book or movie script requires a form of insanity, and Bennie Russell aka Benjamin Sisko is so affected by the vision he has created that to reject it causes a break with reality. And in fact this character does have a mental breakdown.
Immediately connect to an episode in the following season (Imagine in the Sand) where this same Bennie Russell aka Benjamin Sisko is into that asylum and the doctors are trying hard to stop him from writing his Deep Space Nine story. As a sort of unique "pair of episodes" this is quite the special event. If you cannot somehow understand the irony of juxtaposition Sisko is in and relish the angst he must deal with then there is no hope you'll be a Star Trek fan at all.
"Far Beyond the Stars" breaks the fourth wall of Deep Space Nine and shows each of the Star trek characters without their heavy makeup and appliances, "Image in the Sand" requires we join Bennie Russell in his insanity and root for him to complete the storyline. It is a first for Star Trek and something that everyone needs to be questioned about in their own lives. Just how willing are we to overcome our limits and go beyond convention.
There is noting better within the whole Star Trek universe than this "pair of episodes" But the first of them Far Beyond the Stars is the better of the two for breaking that fourth wall and showing the actors "au natural."
Concentrated effort, enough to write a great play, book or movie script requires a form of insanity, and Bennie Russell aka Benjamin Sisko is so affected by the vision he has created that to reject it causes a break with reality. And in fact this character does have a mental breakdown.
Immediately connect to an episode in the following season (Imagine in the Sand) where this same Bennie Russell aka Benjamin Sisko is into that asylum and the doctors are trying hard to stop him from writing his Deep Space Nine story. As a sort of unique "pair of episodes" this is quite the special event. If you cannot somehow understand the irony of juxtaposition Sisko is in and relish the angst he must deal with then there is no hope you'll be a Star Trek fan at all.
"Far Beyond the Stars" breaks the fourth wall of Deep Space Nine and shows each of the Star trek characters without their heavy makeup and appliances, "Image in the Sand" requires we join Bennie Russell in his insanity and root for him to complete the storyline. It is a first for Star Trek and something that everyone needs to be questioned about in their own lives. Just how willing are we to overcome our limits and go beyond convention.
There is noting better within the whole Star Trek universe than this "pair of episodes" But the first of them Far Beyond the Stars is the better of the two for breaking that fourth wall and showing the actors "au natural."