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!

I appreciate it. It’s very strange. The only other thing I can think of is that when moving that damn rider lawnmower, I might have injured my hernia mesh repair in some way, and my body is freaking out internally. I would have assumed, though, that would come with abdomen pain, and I don’t really have any.

@Acute_Engles@hexbear.net, @the_itsb@hexbear.net, @goose@hexbear.net, @LaGG_3@hexbear.net

Well, I got all my test results back. So to recap, it’s not the Flu, Covid, Strep, and now, It’s not any of the 5 Tick Borne diseases they tested me for, and it’s not Lyme. Now, the Lyme test could have been too early, but who can say. This doxycycline they have me on seems to be helping. I’ve been feeling decreasingly fatigued as the days go on, but I still have some moments where it comes back. Yesterday afternoon, I needed to take a big Advil to tamp down another fever… I’m starting to wonder if I injured my hernia repair, but I don’t really have a lot of pain in that area. Anyway, follow up on Monday with the GP I’m not a fan of, so lets see what happens next.

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.

Thanks comrade. I have one lined up, but the intake appointment isn’t until October. I’ve been on the books for like 4 months.

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.

Is this not a map of Waterdeep?

I can hear it!

Our oldest got one from Grandma, and she loves it. I think It’s because I use one, and also because it has Elsa on it and Olaf toothpaste. She’s been improving at loading the tooth brush and brushing all her teeth all by herself. It’s great to see.

The worst is I saw a review someone left of him a while back that said “Do not go to this man, my wife went several times complaining of X, and he told her it was probably nothing. Well, we didn’t like that answer and got a second opinion, it turned out to be cancer.” When I had an obvious hernia, he took a look at it and said “Yeah, looks like you have a little hernia there. You could most likely just live with it, or if you really want, I could give you a referral. Up to you.” and I looked at him and said “Well, you’re the doctor, does it seem like something that needs to get repaired?” and he dodged the question, so I said to give me a referral. The Hernia specialist took one look at it and said, “Oh… yeah we really need to get that taken care of, that’s not looking great.”

I cannot wait to get away from this asshole, and men physicians in general, talking to me about my body. This is coming from another man too. Shit, statistically you have better health outcomes if you see a woman as your GP, according to some studies.

And Engle’s was a factory owner. Castro was from the upper middle class of Cuba.

It’s all good. I didn’t detect any ill will from your comment. They have my blood being run through a tick panel, but they couldn’t do it on site so I’m just waiting for results. We have a guy in another department at work who had Lyme several years ago and it sounded no fun. I really am dreading getting brain fog. I already can’t remember shit thanks to my ADHD, I don’t need brain fog in my life. My luck though, they won’t find any tick illness and then I’m back to square 1.

Another night waking up with a fever last night.

The RN I talked to made it sound like 28 days will clear Lyme and I’ve been told its common to start the treatment before test results. Regardless though I think he believes I might have something bacterial going on. He told me “if it’s not Lyme you’re going to need a battery of tests”. But they’re not just testing for Lyme, just anything a tick could give me.

I took 600mg of Advil this morning and felt better again. About 7 hours later my fever came back while visiting my parents. Took some more, and on the way home I had this really weird mussel ache that I felt in my arms and legs. Started sweating again and about 10 min later felt totally fine.

Whatever I have, it fucking sucks.

That’s very frustrating. Good look having that talk with those parents!

Yeah it’s very frustrating. I both hope its lyme and dread it being lyme. Lyme can fuck you up permanently. If its not Lyme though, then what the fuck do I have going on!?

I also suspect I might have adult onset asthma. Which apparently my grandmother had happen to her. So something else yo worry about.