Deep Space nine - Far Beyond the Stars

Plot: Sisko dreams he's SF writer Benny Russell in 1953 NYC. He struggles to publish a SF story about a space station commanded by a black hero.

This is an absurdly over-praised episode that suffers from a lot of problems:

•  The story has no connection to DS9. It’s a stand-alone dream episode about Racism in 1953 NYC, with all the cast playing characters nothing like their DS9 roles. Its as if the entire cast decided to do a Teleplay version of “In the Heat of the Night”. Sisko is not time travelling nor is he even Sisko. He’s Benny, black SF writer
• The plot is boring. There’s a whole lot of racism goin’ on. Benny gets his Negro SF story rejected. He gets hassled by two white cops. His friend (Jake) is shot dead by white cops.  Benny gets fired and has a nervous breakdown. And that’s  about it.
• Some of the acting is terrible. Once again, Avery Brooks shows he’s a very limited actor. His nervous breakdown is over-the-top. And Dorn (worf), is too bland as a Baseball player.  As expected, Quark and Odo, the two best actors on the show, dominate their scenes. 
• The story gets the 50s wrong. It starts with a newsboy claiming he likes action filled war movies like…From here to eternity. LOL! We get a ridiculous comment by Kira that she writes using her initials and doesn’t want her picture on her books, because “She’s a woman”. Half the bestselling authors in the USA were women in the 1950s, and a SF publisher would’ve LOVED to had women writers.
•  Even worse we get Odo the office manager, saying  “A story with Negro in charge of space station would cause a race riot”. Frank Yerby was a famous black historical novelist of the 1950s. Heinlin made a Filipino the hero of “Starship Troopers” in 1959. And Blacks had been writing mainstream novels ever since the “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s.
• Finally, its not Star Trek.  DS9 is set in the 24th century.  People are beyond Race. Sisko would not have thought of himself as "black".  Or about "whites" oppressing him. Its absurd, he's surrounded by space aliens of all shapes and sizes.  He treats them as equals, and these space aliens are interbreeding with humans.  But Sisko still thinks about "racism"?  Ridiculous!

Summary: This episode had one thing going for it. Its fun to see Worf, Odo and Quark without makeup, and Dax shows a flair for comedy. Otherwise, its a bore. What's astounding is how so many people think this uncreative jab at 50s racism is somehow "Cutting edge" or "original" in any way.

I assume the high IMDB rating is based on politics.  The producers wanted to make some grand statement about 1990s Police brutality and racism and used this episode to do it. But even if you like that sort of thing, plenty of 1990s TV drama shows were doing the same thing, and doing it much better.  Rating **