by Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Trek It's a franchise that has a lot of dialogue that has become an integral part of our shared popular culture, and even non-fans tend to say things like “He's dead, Jim” or “Turn me on.” However, one veteran Trek writer believes an overlooked conversation in a largely forgettable episode may be one of the franchise's greatest moments. According to prolific novelist J.M. Dillard, a quick conversation between Commander Sisko and Dr. Bashir V Deep Space Nine The episode “The Forsaken” made television history by subverting the usual racist portrayals of on-screen characters in the 1990s.
Conversation
The conversation begins when Bashir visits Cisco's office to talk about the Doctor's assignment of escorting troublesome foreign ambassadors around the station. in Star Trek – Where no one has gone beforeDillard admits that “there's nothing unusual about this conversation” because it's “the kind of conversation that happens every day in offices all over the world.” However, “the difference is that when a black man talks to a Middle Eastern man in a typical TV drama, he is almost certainly talking about drugs, crime, terrorism or violence – and is more likely to be presented as uneducated.” Or scathing, immoral, or antisocial – but never seen in Star Trek.
For younger audiences who were born yet Deep Space Nine Dillard's claim may seem a bit exaggerated, but it's worth remembering that this show has deliberately focused on issues of race from the beginning. Avery Brooks' Sisko was the first black hero in a Trek show and remained the only one until the film's premiere discovery. Later DS9 episodes would explore race and racism more directly, including “Far Beyond the Stars”, an episode that reveals the entire show may have been invented by Penny Russell, Science fiction A writer confronts extreme (and very ugly) racism in 1953 America.
Such storytelling may seem on the nose now, however Deep Space Nine The writers felt it was necessary because Dillard was right: too many black characters in the 1980s and 1990s were portrayed as dangerous thugs rather than good heroes. Brooks, for example, is presented sympathetically in his breakout role in the film Spencer for hirebut his character Hawkeye was still a largely unscrupulous hitman who often seemed written more like a racist caricature than a character.
Whether Hawke was a token or lead character is certainly up for debate, but Brooks himself later noted that his portrayal led many white fans to assume that he was really a gun-toting man and the producers recruited him from “a street corner somewhere.” Some of those same fans, he said, “speak to me in slang that's supposed to be black speech?” Hollywood wasn't much better for these fans: while DS9 was still running, he starred in the film The big hita big-budget film in which he portrayed (what else?) a violent mob boss.
From the beginning, Deep Space Nine It centers on race, with its human characters and characteristics Aliens. For example, the story of the Cardassians using the Bajorians as slaves on the titular space station clearly evokes America's troubled racial history. And Brooks was never afraid to step in and talk to writers when he thought they might be accidentally fueling racial stereotypes. This is most evident in the series finale: Brooks insisted that Cisco tell his pregnant wife, Cassidy Yates, that he would come back one day because he was uncomfortable with the story of a black man abandoning his wife to raise their child alone.
As Dillard notes, the real magic of Deep Space Nine is that it can tell stories about race that nevertheless don't always give much importance to the whole thing. Even at its most preachy, the series never feels like we're being lectured through a 1980s-style “very special episode.” Instead, DS9 presents characters of all genders with dignity and professionalism, showing us that a better tomorrow is about more than just replicators and warp drives. It's also about leaving our old hangovers and prejudices in the past as we reach toward a better future for everyone regardless of the color of their skin.
