5. Star Trek: Deep Space 9, "Far Beyond the Stars" - The Reality And Origins Of Sci-Fi And Civil Rights
The people involved with Star Trek were very aware of the pulp science fiction history that their franchise was built upon. They knew upon which giant's shoulders they rode. And while Star Trek has shown some sensitivity to racial issues throughout its history, it never really got the grounded history and reality of it until it had Avery Brooks as a director and star. He manages to nail the feel of a writers room, the sense of separate communities in 1950's America, and the ever-present fear of racial profiling and persecution. The writers for Incredible Tales are a team of rejects who do amazing work, and yet half of them can't appear in the staff photo because they aren't white men. Eventually, Brooks character is forced to change his story because no one would believe that a black man could be a space captain. he turns it into the dream of an African-American laborer, echoing Cirroc Lofton's
character's assertion, an assertion that includes the only instance of the n-word appearing in Star Trek. So there's that distinction.