137. Far Beyond the Stars

Summary

After the loss of a friend in the war, Sisko considers giving up and leaving the fight to someone else--but then he begins having strange hallucinations, in which he is Benny Russell, a black writer for a science fiction magazine on 1950's Earth. Inspired by a drawing of a space station, Benny writes a story called "Deep Space Nine", about the adventures of Captain Benjamin Sisko, but the magazine editor, Pabst, refuses to run the story, believing that no one will want to read a story about a black captain. Pabst agrees to print it when Benny makes the story a dream; however, the publisher has the issue pulped. Benny is fired, and has an apparent nervous breakdown--yet when he awakens, Benjamin Sisko is inspired by Benny's determination that his dream can never be conquered.

Summary provided by The DS9 Encyclopedia and Lexicon by kind permission of Tracy Hemenover.