There are a lot of classics that people will say, like “Measure of a Man”, “Drum Head”, “The Inner Light”, and these are great episodes, but one of my all-time favorite episodes is “Far Beyond the Stars” from DS9, Season 6, Episode 13.

It takes that classic trope in StarTrek, where the crew end up in a different time and place, usually in Earth’s history, and really pushes it. Instead, all these characters are new, just played by the same actors. They’re not Ben Sisko, they’re not Quark, they are Benny Russell, they are Herbert Rossoff.

It’s like the writers found a cheat code for the show, that allowed them to write an episode for an entirely different show, within the confines of DS9 and let all these wonderful actors really shine. The plot of the episode deals heavily with racism, with representation, and the struggles Benny Russell goes through as a black man in 1950s America. It is a powerful episode. It’s just good sci-fi writing through and through. I could say a lot about it, but maybe I’ll let Armin Shimerman talk about it:

ARMIN SHIMERMAN: “‘Far beyond the Stars’ is my favorite episode of DS9. It is not just good Star Trek, but the best of Science Fiction, powerfully combining fantasy with social commentary. Racism is bred in the bone of American culture. Even in the 21st century, we all need to be reminded of the scars and tragedies that plague left on our national conscience, so that we and future generations never forget its ugliness. It was brilliantly conceived by Marc Zicree, brilliantly written by Ira Behr and the staff, and most brilliantly directed by Avery Brooks. I especially remember Avery giving an Emmy-deserving performance as he broke down over the crushing of Ben’s dreams. I had tears in my eyes as I watched off camera. I know many of the Niner fans did the same. Non-Star Trek fans often sneer at our franchise’s frothy and light entertainment. ‘Oh yes,’ they say, ‘you pose some interesting questions; but to what end?’ I always suggest watching this episode to rebut the inanity of ‘To what end?’

Brooks’s performance as Benny in this episode is so incredible, that every time I watch it, I’m brought to tears. It is so tragic, and so intense, and so masterfully performed, that it always leaves me in awe. They get these people, with such raw, incredible talent, to play space soldiers in this generally jaunty, regularly campy, SCIFI action drama show, and every so often they lay a script in front of them that allows their full skill set to be revealed, creating these incredibly impactful peaces of media.

“Far Beyond the Stars” Is not just the best episode of Star Trek ever produced, it is, in my opinion, one of the best episodes of television ever produced.

I love Bar Association, it’s great.

Unloading bails of hay is no fun. I did it for a summer once at a cousin’s farm and after the first hour with no gloves I had to have someone find me gloves because I was getting deep cuts in my hands. They almost didn’t know where their gloves were because their hands were so calloused from the years and years of doing this kind of work during the summer.

Godspeed in your recovery, comrade!

Lol you think headlines like this do not matter? That the rapid normalization of anti-trans rhetoric like this isn’t the precursor to more violent actions by right wing agents, and as such, should be ignored?

I know that’s not precisely what you are saying here. Someone is giving it attention even if we suddenly stop, and that’s not going to change. Its not “click bait”, its propaganda and the normalization of fascist rhetoric. That matters.

Check out Drop Out TV or Worlds of Wonder - Wizard, Witch, and The Wild One actual play podcast. She’s great.

If only we could buy it

I’m sure America has nothing to do with that. I’m sure America would just sit back and let weapons be delivered into Gaza or Lebanon without reprisal.

I’ve always struggled with Gold Coins in D&D. I think it’s because of the roots of the game, where in the earliest editions, Gold was your Experience Points, and you only gained Experience Points if you could get the gold out of the dungeon.

As the editions came out, the game became less of a dungeon crawl and more of an action movie simulator. Especially with 4E and 5E. I don’t know in what edition they decoupled Experience from Gold, but that is probably when the Gold stopped making any sense. Just try finding an answer to the question “What are the wages of commoners per day/week/year”. You’ll get nowhere.

Once players have thousands and thousands of gold, most of the time, unless you’ve really invested in making it part of the game, they won’t even spend it. What are they going to buy with gold that’s better or more interesting than the items you’ve placed in the dangerous places? It puts you in this position where you either allow them to buy magic items or not. Being able to buy a +1 weapon has implications for your entire world.

I could write forever about this. The lack of guidance from Wizards is part of the problem. I think the next time I run a game of “D&D” it’ll be one of these OSR games like Knave or what have you.

I can hear it!

LOL

They’ll stage a terror attack there and blame it on the CCP so they have their 9/11 moment.

Imagine what they could do if they gave a shit about us.

I think the people who call her a Marxist either know that, or don’t care.

There is a reckoning coming for the medical industry.

Fair enough. I remember him doing dozens of types of diets, getting a trainer, being on Wellbutrin and complaining the whole time that he was getting nowhere. From what I was reading on the H3 Snark the loss came on sudden and fast, 5lbs a week, but this was after I stopped watching so maybe I’ve got the wrong idea.

This thread is so funny, such detail and organization.

He apparently does not talk about how he lost all the weight that he lost, but it’s pretty clear the subtext is he used something like Ozempic.

Now, I think that’s great. Ozempic is doing wonders for people I know, and I support his use of it, but it’s also very clear that he believes or has believed in the past that it is a form of cheating. It’s also entirely possible that he believes he’ll be accused of cheating. He is so critical of other people’s weight that, too then openly admit his struggle with weight loss and the necessity of something like Ozempic would make him look like a total ass, unless he also acknowledged and apologized for all of the hateful things he said about overweight people in the past.

I don’t think that’s very on-brand for him though, so we won’t see that any time soon.

Lock’m in a porta-potty and tip it over.

It’s pretty apparent that he has never had any respect for Hassan. The only thing he respected was the size of the audience that came with him when he was on Ethan’s shows.

Listen up jimbo you have your Jalapano Poppers, what more do ya need?