Far Beyond the Stars

Zicree's original pitch for the episode featured Jake Sisko as the main character, and did not deal directly with racial issues. Zicree 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 being institutionalized, it would show him on a set, producing an episode of Deep Space Nine. Supposedly, that ending was not used for fears of breaking the continuity of the franchise.[6]

Much work was put into making their version of New York City as authentic to reality as possible. The production crew included several references to past Star Trek series and episodes – as well as to Deep Space Nine itself. Inside the office, memos from Pabst can be seen. For instance, one is addressed to Rossoff, complaining to him that "no one would believe that a cheerleader could kill vampires", a reference to Shimmerman's work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[5]

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 Inequality was also portrayed through design; the ambulance which carries Benny was portrayed as dirty and outdated because, as Brooks notes, "that's what they would have sent."[5]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 by the production staff because they wanted a director who had 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 character who had to play a "bad guy". However, Auberjonois loved the part, and was delighted to play it. 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. Armin Shimmerman (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]

One of the few examples of special effects in the episode was the shot where Russell's drawing of the station falls out of his hand, and lands near the foot of a racist police officer. The drawing was attached to a helium balloon which was connected to some monofilament on a fishing line. Then, it had to be "yanked" towards the foot of the police officer, while making sure it would land in the right direction for the camera. Despite concerns that it could take hundreds of tries, the shot was completed with only two attempts.[5]

Makeup was unusually easy for this episode; since most characters appeared as humans, only minimal makeup was required. Appearing out of costume was an unusual experience for many cast members. Shimmerman said wearing a mask had been his mechanism for support, it recused him from being nervous about how he looked on camera. Appearing without one, then, was a "very bizarre" experience. Even though J.G Hertzler (Martok/Ritterhouse) had never appeared on Deep Space Nine out of makeup, he enjoyed the role. Hertzler has a drawing hobby, so when Ritterhouse was seen drawing in the episode, Hertzler 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.[14]