Benny Russell

File:BennyRussell.jpg

Science fiction writer, Benny Russell

In a psychiatric hospital, a Doctor Wykoff attempts to persuade Benny to remove his own obsessive writings

"You are the dreamer and the dream."

- The Preacher (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")

Benny Russell was an identity which Benjamin Sisko assumed during visions from the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths.

Benny was an African-American science fiction writer living in 1950s New York City who wrote in the Incredible Tales magazine. The editor, Douglas Pabst, and the owner of the magazine were reluctant to reveal that Russell was African-American, at a time when racism was prevalent in the United States. His greatest work chronicled the adventures of a black captain who commands a space station, a work which was based on a drawing by Roy Ritterhouse.

Benny was determined to see the story published despite the opposition to its subject. Russell's fellow African-Americans, including his fiancée Cassie and friend Willie Hawkins and especially Jimmy, believed he was wasting his time because the public did not care about the stories of their people. Russell cited the works of other influential African-American authors of the time, such as James Baldwin and Richard Wright, as evidence that black people had as much to say as whites and that their contributions were important.

Even so, his story was never published and the terrible disappointment, as well as a physical assault, lead to his eventual commitment to a psychiatric hospital for treatment for a delusional breakdown. In Sisko's mind, the Pah-wraiths tried to deter him from opening the Orb of the Emissary by making him think that Sisko is Benny, writing out his actions on his room walls. Dr. Wykoff tried to have him paint over the drawing, making Sisko bury the Orb but luckily, Ezri Dax is able to remind him of his promise to Jadzia as Benny finishes the story, opening the box. (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars", "Shadows and Symbols")

Background Information

Benny Russell, like Ben Sisko, was played by actor Avery Brooks.

According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, there was some talk that the final scene of "What You Leave Behind" would be Benny Russell sitting outside a sound stage holding a script that read "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," essentially making the series, and all of Star Trek, a dream.

Interestingly, Jerome Bixby - a real science fiction writer to whom a later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode entitled "The Emperor's New Cloak" was dedicated - reportedly used the pen names "Albert Russell" and "J. Russell".

Apocrypha

In the Deep Space Nine Millennium book trilogy, the Pah-wraiths play off Sisko's fears that Benny Russell is real and that he himself is imaginary, by trapping Sisko in a Pah-Wraith hell where he is given visions that Benny is sitting in his Harlem apartment writing about Benjamin Sisko's adventures.

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