To the section about Dax getting routed to the rich section of town, it didn't escape my notice that she is also someone who can pass for an attractive, young, white woman. That buys her a ton of benefit of the doubt relative to the black guy and the Middle Easterner.
I did social work for about 20 years, including managing a homeless shelter for a brief period of time. I used to joke that I had never met a social worker who was both social and a worker, but it was not until I started doing the job did I realize why that was the case. Society is set up in a way that assumes that all people start at the same place. The establishment assumes that everyone is capable of working, that rent is affordable, and that everyone has a credit rating that will allow an individual to advance. In the meantime, in the United States, there is no universal health care, no affordable education for college degrees, and no public feeling that all people should be given the opportunity to advance. This episode addresses many of the problems that people who are disadvantaged face. The solution is not a riot, but a fundamental change in the way society treats people. I read recently a meme where the question was posed, "What's classy if you are rich and trashy if you are poor?" The answer was "Take money from the government."
This episode pretty explicitly indicates that a riot was the answer, though? The Bell Riots are what made society start its changes. I don't know how else to say this, but sometimes, violent disobedience is the way things start to change.
@@buckchesterfield8886 Yeah, sorry, people don't need tax credits and subsidization, they need universal housing and healthcare. The most liberal states in this country also feature some of the most violent state crackdowns on their local homeless populations.
"Commander, there's been some kind of...temporal accident, and the captain has been sent to the past!" "Please don't erase Starfleet, please don't erase Starfleet..." "Sir, I've attempted to contact Starfleet HQ, but it's not there!" "God dang it!"
The scene where Bashir can't comprehend the Sanctuary district because it's so far removed from what he knows about humanity is truly a chilling and heartbreaking scene. This is a great episode. I always love it when Trek holds a mirror to society.
"Past Tense" is a beautiful marriage of Gene Roddenberry's hopeful vision of the future tempered with DS9's gritty pragmatism in regards in to how to go about doing it. It's something I wish I could have seen more often (and still do) in Trek.
I've been working in homeless services for the past 13 years and it's kind of scary how similar the 2024 of Past Tense is to the 2024 we can expect to see next year. Steve's off-hand snark at the beginning of the video ("Oh, the government is actually feeding people") is right on the mark. That is, we aren't (yet) actually creating sanctuary districts (though some cities aren't that far off [San Antonio]) but some places have even gone so far as to make it *illegal* to serve food to people experiencing homelessness [*ahem* San Antonio again]. And it is definitely true that people have given up. Not too long ago Austin, TX finally took their anti-homelessness ordinances off the books and when the people who had been homeless all along started camping out in the oen instead of hiding from law enforcement and people started seeing the real scope of the problem they started clamoring, not for housing to end people's homeless episodes, for a return to the old ordinances so that people would return to the greenbelts and other places where they hid themselves away instead of being a constant reminder of the city's failures. It was clear in the arguments people made for why this was really the best thing for everybody that they took for granted that there would always be homelessness and that the people who were currently experiencing it would always be so. Nonsense, all of it, but it was very much a part of the discourse that there wasn't really anything that *could* be done but hid it away where the out of towners wouldn't see it. You are right that the same dynamic afflicts other problems (like global climate change) but it is so on point for homelessness specifically, I wanted to sound the horn again. We know how to end homelessness. We do it all the time as a matter of fact, on the scale of individual households. There are two reasons we haven't already. 1. there aren't enough resources dedicated to the issue to house everybody, so in any given year we only end homelessness for a fraction of the population and 2. in most communities and on average, there are three people who enter homelessness (either for the first time or after a long absence) for every person who get off the street. If it weren't for the fact that a significant number of folks are able to resolve their own situations (at least temporarily) the numbers we see would be truly exponentially increasing (yes, I said exponentially and I meant it).
There is one thing I think really separates watching today vs watching in 1994, and that's the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring uprising basically spread on Twitter, just the way the Bell Rioters needed a tech billionaire's Internet platform to get their message out. Exploring the points of analogy and disanalogy probably takes more than a TH-cam comment, but I think it's really hard for me to mention this episode without mentioning the Arab Spring, exactly because the Arab Spring uprisings were still impossible science fiction in 1994.
I will note they were only nominally feeding the people in the District, Bashir had to queue for hours and hours for a piece of bread and some scrambled egg. Many people don’t even bother. Which is quite similar to how the modern US prison system nominally feeds the inmates 3 meals, but does so so cheaply and so miserly that they’re still starving.
The closer we get to 2024, the more plausible this two-parter becomes. Which is depressing on so many levels. Unfortunately I don't think we're getting a Gabriel Bell moment
There's a sanctuary district and a group of people who have taken hostages to draw the public to the deprivation they're facing literally right now. It's up to YOU to pay attention.
Reflecting back on these episodes, we basically have de facto sanctuary cities in many major American cities, except they’re just kind of existing and nobody does anything about them. No food, no health care, no job placement service, and no permanent shelter. Just rows of tents occupying freeway underpasses, and undeveloped land. As cruel and inhumane as the DS9 version of 2024 San Francisco, the real 2023 San Francisco in some ways is worse
I’ve had discussions with some people where I’ve said the two guys who brought Sisko and Bashir in were really metaphors for the much wider system of “being moved along” until you finally find some place that you don’t get moved along from. It’s just narratively easier to say “government says you gotta be here” than to lecture a viewer about all the factors which lead to it. It’s really validating to see someone else bring that up. I would note though that the food is said to be hugely inadequate, multiple characters make explicit they’ve never had a single job service experience nor did anyone else they know in the District, and the row houses are all full up with many living in tents on the streets. So it’s just barely a step up from the reality today - and IMO the extra dressings exist more so the middle class in the setting can convince themselves they help people rather than admitting that they’re all about containment. That’s the biggest difference I see against the real political world: IRL plenty of people are happy to admit it’s all about containment and some even fantasise about how torturous the lack of food and water will be.
18:18 " … remember when things are bad that they can only get better *_when we make them better;_* but also remember when things are good that they'll only stay good if *_we keep them that way._* … Eternal vigilance is not only the price of _liberty_ it's also the price of _progress."_ God damn! Writers of DS9 aren't the only ones showcasing some excellent composition this episode! Fine writing, great delivery. I came for the little hit of nostalgia from listening to a witty recap of a show I liked as a kid; but the quality of your thoughts are the star of the show here. Great content! Much appreciated.
What was immediately apparent when I first watched this episode (and every time since... because it's a fave of mine too!) was what an amazing set of supporting players this episode got. From Bill Smitrovich's Webb to Frank Military's B.C. (not to mention Vinn, Bernardo, Preston, even Clint Howard's "Dim" [who apparently had the name "Grady"... though I didn't know that until I looked it up]) the supporting cast just turns in stellar performances. I especially loved Frank Military's B.C. He went from simple gang/thug first impressions to a rich complex character who gave voice to the despair and cynicism that grows from their lives of being treated as less than human. I could quote these characters' all day based on the amazing writing coupled with equally amazing performances. Just... wow!
The opening of this review reminded me of your most recent SNW where folks are angry that the show didn’t get the eugenics war right, I wonder if they are thrilled that this one is coming true
Bashir: How could things get this bad? Rom: Oh, hey, I've been reading this "Karl Marx" guy I discovered in the Bar Association episode and he has some thoughts on that..... Of course, what this gets wrong is that if such an uprising as the Bell Riot was to happen, the government wouldn't do much or anything to help. It would toss a WHOOOOOOLE lot more money at the police.
One of my favorites. Would you believe I shared this with my college honors history teacher back in the 90s'. (and she watched it!) Its all the more relevant today, unfortunately.
The single most hard to swallow aspect of this episode is the idea that a riot by a bunch of poor downtrodden people would actually get the public's attention or lead to any lasting change.
Insightful review of one of the great Star Trek stories. I also have to point out the presence of the legendary Dick Miller, who makes everything he's in that little bit better.
I have had a relationship with these episodes since they came out. Originally I loved them as a cautionary tale. At the time they didn't seem very realistic. The turn of the millennium was a pretty optimistic time, the end of the Cold War and the rise of the internet made life seem pretty good for me and my college age friends. The lessons of Past Tense were important but comfortably remote. Then in the late '00s and 2010s, I was watching the show again on Netflix. Being able to go through the entire series in order became an annual tradition. It was fun thinking of Past Tense like Back to the Future Part 2- 'it's neat how far away this seemed once, but it's coming up now. Then the recessions, the Obama presidency and the rise of the Tea Party, I started to worry whenever I listened to how the Republicans talked about the poor and the disabled the the mentally ill. Chronic illness had put me on permanent disability, so it was very important to me as a voter. Obama's hard work was cause for some optimism, but the rise of Trump was very very scary. Past Tense and it's framing of the 'future' didn't seem so far away at all. After Clinton lost, I actually had to skip watching the episodes on Netflix because they really bothered me. I still think how if Trump had gotten a second term, and people like Stephen Miller had gotten more years in power, we could easily have ended up with a very unpleasant analogue of Sanctuary Zones (whenever the GOP talked about what they wanted to do to 'sanctuary cities, I got very nervous). This year I got Paramount + and tried to watch Past Tense. Still can't manage it. Maybe once we're in 2025.
This episode looks like every democrat ran city in the u.s. in 2024 For eg LA skid row looks like this, parts of NYC, Chicago, Philly and San Francisco all look like this.
One might wonder what would have happened if Sisko and Dax (or Bashir and Dax) had swapped places at the landing site. One gets the impression that C. B. only stops to help Dax because she's a visually stunning woman.
Maybe it should be noted that the episode was filmed just two years after the LA Riots of 1992. Like Strange Days, released shortly after the episode, it's set in the near future, but drawing heavily from then very recent events.
Strange Days is a underrated classic scifi movie. Though it's particular bit of scifi tech hasn't really came to be, the internet, VR and cameras everywhere sort of replicate it.
@@ShorterThanYouKnow though the 'happy' ending of Strange Days is so much depressing in retrospect. All they had to do there was to show the police brutality to the public, the responsible cops got arrested and all ended well. 30 years later, and we're seeing those kinds of videos on a weekly basis and nothing happens.
I always thought this episode can be retconned as one of the Emissary's missions from the Prophets when we later learn that Sisko also lives a somewhat non-linear life ("Far Beyond the Stars", "Image in the Sand", and of course the finale). I'm not claiming the writers had everything sorted out at that point but it ties in very well with what comes later. It's an amazing two parter in its own right as well and one of my favorite shows in all Trek. Thanks for the review! ❤
The most striking thing about this episode, as an ex-homeless person, was it's treatment of the homeless. For once, they weren't villains and monsters, objects to be pitied, even just tools for the protagonist (like the way "Sherlock" treated them - pretending to be pro-homeless because they enable the hero, but have no role or character beyond that). They had character and agency. Even BC and his gang, whilst framed as they were, were given character and agency. And whilst his death was narratively called for, the story still brought some humanity to him. And even though the heroes have to save the day and get back home to the future, it was a homeless person who's ideas they followed in order to get the best outcome for homeless people. That really mattered. The idea that you cannot solve homelessness without the homeless having the main seat at the table. It wasn't perfect, but it did a good job of giving a voice and role models to homeless folks. It purposefully made them human, made their stories matter, and presented them as heroes and protagonists. Their relief wasn't granted, but was fought for by them, because their lives were lives and they mattered. Yes, outside help was required, but they led the charge. And the outcome was on their terms, and so was the framing in the episode. For that reason alone, it stands as the best star trek episode in my view. I didn't see it that way at the time. It would be a decade before I became homeless. But rewatching it, my heart was hit with a club. And in the decades since, it is to my dismay that we have never seen a primetime or mainstream tv show portray homelessness and homeless people in such a manner. Not in 3 decades. Even now we're still relegated to villains, objects of pity or tools for the hero. I watch this episode and for once I see myself and people I've known as the hero, as people, as someone who can drive their own destiny. Thank you for reviewing it and reminding me of it. It's a hard watch to anyone who's knocked on wood (a British term for having been homeless), but it's a good watch. We aren't just survivors all the time. Sometimes we can make history.
It's sad how prescient and relevant this story remains today. If anything, they didn't make homelessness and poverty in 2020's San Francisco bleak enough. Also, I want my second Transbay Tube. DS9 promised me a second Transbay Tube!
Thanks for this retro review, Steve! Like many others here, I’m struck by the prescience of this episode, and have vivid memories of watching it when it first aired. But your review also hit home because there are actual riots happening right now in France in response to the wrongful death of 17-year old Nahel Merzouk (plus decades of police brutality and institutional racism). Those protesters, too, face a government that only cares about restoring order and a larger public that just wants to ignore them. While “Past Tense” focused on American cities, it’s worth noting that many countries are dealing with ostensibly intractable problems, and we can (and should) care, act, and be allies to Gabriel Bells all over the globe.
I wouldn't say Star Trek got it completely wrong with the eugenics wars... I would say they were just a few decades too early. Because manipulating genetics will DEFINITELY cause some issues in the future. I don't know if its going to be wars like in star trek, but it will cause its own problems (I'm a biology student so believe me when I say CRISPR is BIG in biology and biotechnology and will only increase in relevancy)
I like how they make a subtle nod to social class in the teaser when Miles says that he doesn't have to go to the fancy dinner because he's an enlisted man rather than an officer.
Past Tense is my favorite episode. There are so many political issues packed into it. You are definitely a lot nicer in how you think of those " liberal" wealthy people than I am. Today, they still are a major obstacle to change. They are the epitome of the "not in my neighborhood" liberals. They talk with contempt of the poor and are Capitalists. It touches poverty. The inaccessibility of social welfare programs. Inaccessibulity of mental health care (I am lucky enough to have been diagnosed finally at the age of 35, only after decades of struggling and no one saying anything, but I cannot even find a pharmacy to fillmy meds because of an adderall shortage that lasted over a year.)
The rich characters here remind a lot of the well to do Seattle liberals (and I will note I'm very much on the left politically). They think they mean well and have the right intentions, but you're right in that they want to preserve their comfort and wealth when push comes to shove. Brilliant author Ijeoma Oluo wrote a book called Mediocre (The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America). She's a black woman who lives in Seattle and recounts how often white liberals would still lock their car doors or show soft racism around her. I only bring up Seattle because I lived there a long time and got a bit frustrated with that segment of the liberal population. Another example is back in 2020 when the George Floyd protests started. My friend called it. She said, "at some point white people are going to try to take over the protests to 'help'", rather than shutting up and listening to the BLM movement. And sure enough, that's what happened.
Full agreement about this one being one of the best Star Trek episodes. I also liked that they did some slightly unusual character pairings: Sisko & Bashir and Kira & O'Brien. I'm sure there's other episodes where this happened, but I think they got a lot out of these characters by doing so here. Had 2020 gone another way, I suspect we'd be much closer to this episode's version of 2024 than we are now...though we got a LOT of work to do to avoid warehousing/othering groups of marginalized people.
Also, "Past Tense" was a truly groundbreaking episode for the series. The show finally broke out of messing about in the Bajoran/Cardassian sector or dicking around in the Gamma Quadrant and did their first (and thankfully not last) "and now for something completely different" episode of the series (see also: "Little Green Men" and "Trials and Tribble-ations"). It's the first episode since the pilot that truly knocked my socks off and rekindled my interest in the series.
One of my favorite DS9 episodes. Good time travel episode, with a message that still resonates today. I love watching Sisko and Bashir navigate this world where they're assumed to be less than. And despite their attempts to lay low, they of course get drawn into the rebellion. Wonderful episode!
Not too many years ago the city council in Columbia, SC wanted to set up a facility outside of town and bus the homeless there. They would be free to leave, but they wouldn't be bussed back to town so they'd be stuck miles outside town. Thankfully the citizens were appalled enough by this that it never became reality. I also remember Trump suggesting something like sanctuary districts while he was in office. How much on the head, down to timing, this episode came is a bit scary.
13:20 "There are so many issues we face today; issues which are caused by the bigotry, ignorance & cruelty of a relative few; but which persist and grow because they seem so big and intractable that many of the rest of us are too exhausted or too hopeless to fight back. *_It's not the lack of caring … it's the feeling that caring won't make any difference."_* Damn, well said.
The supposedly liberal city I live in regularly bulldozes homeless tents without there being a single shelter bed available, even during brutal winter weather. The sanctuary districts seem good in comparison to the reality here.
Another on-point analysis Steve! One of my favorite Star Treks episodes, and you are absolutely right about eternal vigilance also being the price of progress. Here in the Valley of the Sun, it was announced that the Phoenix city council will be establishing what they are calling a "campground" for the city’s growing homeless population on about 5 acres of unused land in downtown Phoenix. It's being touted as "a safe space for those in need," but when I heard about it on the local NPR, I giggled a little and thought "Oh my god! They're building a Sanctuary City! Bell Riots, here we come!"😄 Now I'm reading in the news that more state-run "campgrounds/safe-spaces" are appearing in San Diego, LA, Santa Fe, San Antonio, Anchorage (and the list goes on)... and I am not giggling anymore. Just hoping this just another POI along our road to progress, and not one to ruin.
Awesome summary, Steve. Thank you. You wrap an encompassing vision of the problems of hubris, nobility, and growing lax: all in a few choice sentences. It's on par with one of Jean-Luc's Picard's closing arguments. ~ Peter Ferber ❤️
Spot on with this review. Bashir and Sisko were not usually combined as a pair like this, but it works really well and both sell their characters. Sisko is ace in this as well.
Currently watching this in San Francisco whilst also wearing a Niners shirt. Love this two parter, and Far Beyond the Stars as well I really wish more people could watch those and get the message, it's pretty hard not to. I also thought in the final season with the Nagus instituting social programs and reforms, choosing Rom as his successor, etc. and how annoying that was to Quark and Brunt was a really clever way of making a statement about the politics of money. A couple of 3 things about Past Tense - 1. How would the Defiant have even been aware anything had changed, since it all happened in the past wouldn't they have changed along with it or were they stuck in some sort of technobabble bubble? 2. One thing I thought would've been pretty funny is if towards end they wonder aloud if anything changed as a result of their actions, and something minor was different that they just kept the rest of the series. "Miles, when did you grow a mustache?" "I've always had this Julian, you feeling alright?" _startled looks between bashir and sisko_ 3. A poignant quote I found from Behr about criticism of the episode - “People are still even writing that we only presented ‘one side’ in ‘Past Tense’ and that we should have presented ‘both sides’ and not just the ‘liberal’ point of view-and I’m still trying to think what that means. In other words, we should have showed the positive aspects of putting the homeless into concentration camps? And I do admit we probably failed in that-we really did not show the many, many wonderful aspects of life without money and living in over-crowded camps.”
It's episodes like this that make me wonder how there can be so many anti-progressive fans of Star Trek. It truly boggles my mind how they can hold their views and still derive enjoyment from the show.
Yes. And claim that "Trek never used to be woke." Any time I hear that, I know that they have no real understanding of Trek or a strangely specific idea of what it is to be woke. (or probably both actually)
By having the heroes in that episode to land in both sides of society, shows both the rich and the poor are both sides of the same coin. I say that episode inspired somebody who watched that episode to at least try to change things for the better, maybe somebody who may have gave up back then, and now, to not to give in to giving up, this world needs all the help it can get! Since you mentioned about next week's review of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I saw the next episode is going to be an Ortegas episode!👍
according to a friend of mine while filming this episode someone on the crew got a hold of a newspaper article where the city government was seriously considering doing exactly this kind of program.
I hesitate to chime in here presuming that everyone here knows this fact but I still find it a neat and overall unrecognized fact. The fact that Desilu Culver was the facility utilized by TOS for the first several episodes and pilots enabled Gene to head across the street and quite literally borrow actual sets (Krell passageways etc.) from the MGM scenedock and have them stakebedded over for use on the Cage. Resourcefulness, much like refashioning the white gorilla suit Desilu had in its wardrobe dept inventory (seen in the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour episode where Lucy is lost on a island) and added the horn and the rest.
The whole "could we (Federation) act like this if things got bad?" speculation is interesting in light of the 1st season of Picard, built on the back of a Romulan refugee crisis, where the Federation tried/was badgered into helping at first, but bailed when problems cropped up.
Such a banger of an episode, one of the best aged depictions of the future for the era. A favourite moment for me is when Dax is at the cocktail party: WOMAN: You're lucky. We had to cancel our trip to the Alps this year because of the student protests in France. CHRIS: I thought the Neo-Trotskyists were going to put a stop to that. WOMAN: They're not having any more luck that the Gaullists did. MAN: Europe is falling apart. WOMAN: Well, at least we don't have to worry about that kind of thing here. DAX: Don't count on it. absolutely ate
When this set of episodes was on TV, early 1995, I was living in Chicago, during Grad School for Art. There were many times one would go on or off the EL, or a bus, or any street corner downtown, or in any park, and one would encounter people who were homeless. During the cold winter, I saw a few people, put in bodybags, off the sidewalk. I frankly didn't help everyone. I didn't have enough money. After I was mugged at gunpoint, in Chicago, and was paranoid and unhappy being asked for money,...I was rude, a few times. Yet, DS9 "Past Tense" made so much sense with reality living in a big city,...and 30 plus years later, and it's 2024 almost, this set of episodes if prophetic! And, "Picard" Season 2 used the reality of this set of episodes, and mythology, is still very true. Trek is and has been socially aware in the series, and many episodes. "Woke" is positive!
WOW Steve i haven't seen any of your videos in years, i think you probably blocked me or i just lost interest before, but im glad to see you are still around and seem to be doing well.
Deep Space Nine gave each character great stories, one offs and lines, and this two parter was no different. It gives Dr. Bashir, what I consider, his best lines when talking about how ghastly it is when a people have forgotten how to care. Goosebumps every time.
I’m a social worker in Minnesota. The feeling of never being able to do enough is real. My coworkers and I have started sharing direct action opportunities so we can try to change some laws
Some days I think back to me, 15 at school studying the black civil rights moment in the 1960's... and thinking, Nahhhh that is not today. Boy was I wrong. Ghandi's idea of nonviolent resistance only worked because people were not used to seeing violence, That doesn't work now that we see it every day.
This was the two-parter that got me interested in DS9 as a teen - I was a TNG fan, but wasn't a fan of DS9 through the first two years, but caught the first half on re-run in the summer of 95 and got into it.
Reading #How to * Up a Pipeline". The first section makes a pretty compelling argument that at the credible threat of destabilizing violence has been required for every major civil rights advancement.
The most unbelievable part of the episode is that there isn't a major political party present demanding the rioters be put down by the cops and crowing about being the only political institution that cares about justice will simultaneously advocating for violent punishment of "criminals".
The two beam downs are commentary about the US major political parties. The first the first down in the 1920 with the rich flappers or the Republicans who aren’t all that concerned with O’Brien or Keira. The second beam down in the 1960s had the hippies who would layer be modern Democrats giving the visitors things of little sustenance and then feeling really great afterwards.
I remember this being a turning point for me with DS9. To overstate it a little, this was DS9's Best of Both Worlds. TNG had just ended and it felt like the good writers had moved to DS9, with this being the first episode that shook off the amateurish stink of the show's early episodes and confidently heralded its new maturity. I was already enjoying the show but was overjoyed at what it was suddenly becoming.
The one (small) missed opportunity in the story: Instead of a random 50/50 guess, O'Brien totally could have stopped and thought out what year they were in, given the limited options. He could have applied his own knowledge of history to ponder on which year had a pivotal historical event, and intuited the outcome. "Hold on... 2024... They would have still landed in San Francisco... You don't think... They're smack dab in the middle of the Bell Riots!"
I think there are 2 missed opportunities in this episode to highlight the "freedom to live as one desires" complexity wrinkle that is a very real concern in discussions of the unhoused, and mental illness.First, when Bashir wonders "Why is nobody helping these people?" when referencing mental illness, Sisco could have discussed the tension that exists there with people being free to live as they please. Second, there may certainly be groups of people that have found the chaos of the sanctuary districts to be their preferred living situation in a world where everyone is expected to live in society and conform to its norms whereas the sanctuary districts are seemingly lawless by comparison.
As bullseye as this was a originally, and more so year ago, I can't believe it's even still more so today. We seem to be going in the wrong direction. We're gonna need an actual Bell Riot.
Fashion for poverty? You think it's great when you can't afford clothes? Then why don't you give all your money and stuff to poor people in need, then live on the street in a cardboard box. Undoubtedly, you will then achieve a similar degree of "fashionability".
Apparently, you haven't watched very much Star Trek. Social commentary has been a part of Trek from the very beginning. A lot of TOS episodes were full of social commentary.
The Cloud Minders, A Private Little War, and the very presence of Uhura, Sulu and Chekov, being part of a racially diverse crew and shown as capable Starfleet officers and equals.
just watched this episode past night was a kid during DS9 it ran from K-5 for me but because pf how you spoke about the series I must say it is the best Star Trek series in so many ways
Despite "Past Tense" being a good two-part episode, I had trouble relating to some of the characters, and the situations, and, because of that, the episode(s) didn't resonate so much for me. "Far Beyond the Stars", and "The Visitor", had me spontaneously bawling. My reaction aside, the subject matter was salient and the writing around it courageous. This is what I came to admire about DS-9; excellent story-telling and connection to the human experience.
Our timeline is worse. The homelessness, drug use, and mental health issues are in plain sight and the government, charities, and common citizens dont know how to solve it. I was in Sacramento a year ago for a conference and wanted to go for a walk. There were homeless on every street, park, corner, and bush. Yes, I saw a lady pop out of a bush asking me for water. These lawmakers see this in their own capitol but there's little they want or can do to fix it
![ตีสิบเดย์ [FULL] | เปิดใจ "อาจารย์ เบียร์ ฅนตื่นธรรม" นักสนทนาธรรมสายดุดัน!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vqaBI_mnoDk/mqdefault.jpg)
To the section about Dax getting routed to the rich section of town, it didn't escape my notice that she is also someone who can pass for an attractive, young, white woman. That buys her a ton of benefit of the doubt relative to the black guy and the Middle Easterner.
That was a deliberate choice by the writing team, apparently.
@@AndrewD8Red and it was a smart one!
@@AndrewD8Red I know, that doesn’t reflect reality at all. Liberal writers. #sarcasm
Of course.
Yeah. And that rich guy was simpin' for her. Hard.
I did social work for about 20 years, including managing a homeless shelter for a brief period of time. I used to joke that I had never met a social worker who was both social and a worker, but it was not until I started doing the job did I realize why that was the case.
Society is set up in a way that assumes that all people start at the same place. The establishment assumes that everyone is capable of working, that rent is affordable, and that everyone has a credit rating that will allow an individual to advance. In the meantime, in the United States, there is no universal health care, no affordable education for college degrees, and no public feeling that all people should be given the opportunity to advance.
This episode addresses many of the problems that people who are disadvantaged face. The solution is not a riot, but a fundamental change in the way society treats people.
I read recently a meme where the question was posed, "What's classy if you are rich and trashy if you are poor?" The answer was "Take money from the government."
Sadly I understand this
“Riot is the language of the unheard…”
MLK
There is a good deal of public feeling that all people should be given the opportunity to advance. We’re called democrats
This episode pretty explicitly indicates that a riot was the answer, though? The Bell Riots are what made society start its changes. I don't know how else to say this, but sometimes, violent disobedience is the way things start to change.
@@buckchesterfield8886 Yeah, sorry, people don't need tax credits and subsidization, they need universal housing and healthcare. The most liberal states in this country also feature some of the most violent state crackdowns on their local homeless populations.
Nog: Doesn't this Gabriel Bell human look just like Captain Sisko
Quark: All hewmans look alike.
Hoomons ;)
"Commander, there's been some kind of...temporal accident, and the captain has been sent to the past!"
"Please don't erase Starfleet, please don't erase Starfleet..."
"Sir, I've attempted to contact Starfleet HQ, but it's not there!"
"God dang it!"
What makes this episodes message even more prescient is that LA was considering districts like that AT THE TIME. Only calling them "Haven Districts"
I mean, now we have people talking about "sanctuary cities", so I feel we're not too far removed from that still.
The scene where Bashir can't comprehend the Sanctuary district because it's so far removed from what he knows about humanity is truly a chilling and heartbreaking scene.
This is a great episode. I always love it when Trek holds a mirror to society.
"Past Tense" is a beautiful marriage of Gene Roddenberry's hopeful vision of the future tempered with DS9's gritty pragmatism in regards in to how to go about doing it. It's something I wish I could have seen more often (and still do) in Trek.
I remember watching this episode when it came out as an 11 year old thinking: that can’t be how it will be.
Now..Jesus this hits home…hard.
I've been working in homeless services for the past 13 years and it's kind of scary how similar the 2024 of Past Tense is to the 2024 we can expect to see next year. Steve's off-hand snark at the beginning of the video ("Oh, the government is actually feeding people") is right on the mark. That is, we aren't (yet) actually creating sanctuary districts (though some cities aren't that far off [San Antonio]) but some places have even gone so far as to make it *illegal* to serve food to people experiencing homelessness [*ahem* San Antonio again]. And it is definitely true that people have given up. Not too long ago Austin, TX finally took their anti-homelessness ordinances off the books and when the people who had been homeless all along started camping out in the oen instead of hiding from law enforcement and people started seeing the real scope of the problem they started clamoring, not for housing to end people's homeless episodes, for a return to the old ordinances so that people would return to the greenbelts and other places where they hid themselves away instead of being a constant reminder of the city's failures. It was clear in the arguments people made for why this was really the best thing for everybody that they took for granted that there would always be homelessness and that the people who were currently experiencing it would always be so. Nonsense, all of it, but it was very much a part of the discourse that there wasn't really anything that *could* be done but hid it away where the out of towners wouldn't see it. You are right that the same dynamic afflicts other problems (like global climate change) but it is so on point for homelessness specifically, I wanted to sound the horn again. We know how to end homelessness. We do it all the time as a matter of fact, on the scale of individual households. There are two reasons we haven't already. 1. there aren't enough resources dedicated to the issue to house everybody, so in any given year we only end homelessness for a fraction of the population and 2. in most communities and on average, there are three people who enter homelessness (either for the first time or after a long absence) for every person who get off the street. If it weren't for the fact that a significant number of folks are able to resolve their own situations (at least temporarily) the numbers we see would be truly exponentially increasing (yes, I said exponentially and I meant it).
There is one thing I think really separates watching today vs watching in 1994, and that's the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring uprising basically spread on Twitter, just the way the Bell Rioters needed a tech billionaire's Internet platform to get their message out. Exploring the points of analogy and disanalogy probably takes more than a TH-cam comment, but I think it's really hard for me to mention this episode without mentioning the Arab Spring, exactly because the Arab Spring uprisings were still impossible science fiction in 1994.
Thank you. That's a really interesting observation❕
If the Arab Spring had been fiction, it'd probably have had a happy ending.
I will note they were only nominally feeding the people in the District, Bashir had to queue for hours and hours for a piece of bread and some scrambled egg. Many people don’t even bother. Which is quite similar to how the modern US prison system nominally feeds the inmates 3 meals, but does so so cheaply and so miserly that they’re still starving.
The closer we get to 2024, the more plausible this two-parter becomes. Which is depressing on so many levels. Unfortunately I don't think we're getting a Gabriel Bell moment
it was plausible in 95, now it's a better reality than our own. like he said, they at least are feeding and housing the homeless.
eh, we’ll be good.
Any of us can be Gabriel Bell if we're willing to put everything on the line.
@@Mallory-Malkovich For too many of us, everything is already on the line.
There's a sanctuary district and a group of people who have taken hostages to draw the public to the deprivation they're facing literally right now. It's up to YOU to pay attention.
Reflecting back on these episodes, we basically have de facto sanctuary cities in many major American cities, except they’re just kind of existing and nobody does anything about them. No food, no health care, no job placement service, and no permanent shelter. Just rows of tents occupying freeway underpasses, and undeveloped land. As cruel and inhumane as the DS9 version of 2024 San Francisco, the real 2023 San Francisco in some ways is worse
I’ve had discussions with some people where I’ve said the two guys who brought Sisko and Bashir in were really metaphors for the much wider system of “being moved along” until you finally find some place that you don’t get moved along from. It’s just narratively easier to say “government says you gotta be here” than to lecture a viewer about all the factors which lead to it. It’s really validating to see someone else bring that up.
I would note though that the food is said to be hugely inadequate, multiple characters make explicit they’ve never had a single job service experience nor did anyone else they know in the District, and the row houses are all full up with many living in tents on the streets.
So it’s just barely a step up from the reality today - and IMO the extra dressings exist more so the middle class in the setting can convince themselves they help people rather than admitting that they’re all about containment. That’s the biggest difference I see against the real political world: IRL plenty of people are happy to admit it’s all about containment and some even fantasise about how torturous the lack of food and water will be.
Yes, we've always unfortunately had "sanctuary districts." But we can remove the word sanctuary. They are called skid row districts.
18:18 " … remember when things are bad that they can only get better *_when we make them better;_* but also remember when things are good that they'll only stay good if *_we keep them that way._* … Eternal vigilance is not only the price of _liberty_ it's also the price of _progress."_
God damn! Writers of DS9 aren't the only ones showcasing some excellent composition this episode! Fine writing, great delivery. I came for the little hit of nostalgia from listening to a witty recap of a show I liked as a kid; but the quality of your thoughts are the star of the show here. Great content! Much appreciated.
One of the best episodes, always loved how Sisko's picture ended up in the history books lol.
Julian's speech still sends shudders up my spine.
The bit with a confused Kira giving a peace sign to the hippies was gold :)
What was immediately apparent when I first watched this episode (and every time since... because it's a fave of mine too!) was what an amazing set of supporting players this episode got. From Bill Smitrovich's Webb to Frank Military's B.C. (not to mention Vinn, Bernardo, Preston, even Clint Howard's "Dim" [who apparently had the name "Grady"... though I didn't know that until I looked it up]) the supporting cast just turns in stellar performances. I especially loved Frank Military's B.C. He went from simple gang/thug first impressions to a rich complex character who gave voice to the despair and cynicism that grows from their lives of being treated as less than human. I could quote these characters' all day based on the amazing writing coupled with equally amazing performances. Just... wow!
The opening of this review reminded me of your most recent SNW where folks are angry that the show didn’t get the eugenics war right, I wonder if they are thrilled that this one is coming true
I laughed out loud so hard at "the most realistic Star Trek character ever" that I woke up my huskies and they started howling at me.
Damn, 2024 was an eventful year. The Irish Reunification and the Bell Riots
the unfortunate truth is that sometimes in order to fix something you have to break it totally and completely first
The US caring about homeless folks in 2024? That was a hail mary and the ball flew right into the face of a crowd member
Bashir: How could things get this bad?
Rom: Oh, hey, I've been reading this "Karl Marx" guy I discovered in the Bar Association episode and he has some thoughts on that.....
Of course, what this gets wrong is that if such an uprising as the Bell Riot was to happen, the government wouldn't do much or anything to help. It would toss a WHOOOOOOLE lot more money at the police.
One of my favorites. Would you believe I shared this with my college honors history teacher back in the 90s'. (and she watched it!) Its all the more relevant today, unfortunately.
The single most hard to swallow aspect of this episode is the idea that a riot by a bunch of poor downtrodden people would actually get the public's attention or lead to any lasting change.
Insightful review of one of the great Star Trek stories. I also have to point out the presence of the legendary Dick Miller, who makes everything he's in that little bit better.
I have had a relationship with these episodes since they came out. Originally I loved them as a cautionary tale. At the time they didn't seem very realistic. The turn of the millennium was a pretty optimistic time, the end of the Cold War and the rise of the internet made life seem pretty good for me and my college age friends. The lessons of Past Tense were important but comfortably remote.
Then in the late '00s and 2010s, I was watching the show again on Netflix. Being able to go through the entire series in order became an annual tradition. It was fun thinking of Past Tense like Back to the Future Part 2- 'it's neat how far away this seemed once, but it's coming up now. Then the recessions, the Obama presidency and the rise of the Tea Party, I started to worry whenever I listened to how the Republicans talked about the poor and the disabled the the mentally ill. Chronic illness had put me on permanent disability, so it was very important to me as a voter. Obama's hard work was cause for some optimism, but the rise of Trump was very very scary. Past Tense and it's framing of the 'future' didn't seem so far away at all. After Clinton lost, I actually had to skip watching the episodes on Netflix because they really bothered me. I still think how if Trump had gotten a second term, and people like Stephen Miller had gotten more years in power, we could easily have ended up with a very unpleasant analogue of Sanctuary Zones (whenever the GOP talked about what they wanted to do to 'sanctuary cities, I got very nervous).
This year I got Paramount + and tried to watch Past Tense. Still can't manage it. Maybe once we're in 2025.
This episode looks like every democrat ran city in the u.s. in 2024 For eg LA skid row looks like this, parts of NYC, Chicago, Philly and San Francisco all look like this.
One might wonder what would have happened if Sisko and Dax (or Bashir and Dax) had swapped places at the landing site. One gets the impression that C. B. only stops to help Dax because she's a visually stunning woman.
And (apparently) white.
Maybe it should be noted that the episode was filmed just two years after the LA Riots of 1992. Like Strange Days, released shortly after the episode, it's set in the near future, but drawing heavily from then very recent events.
Strange Days is a underrated classic scifi movie. Though it's particular bit of scifi tech hasn't really came to be, the internet, VR and cameras everywhere sort of replicate it.
@@ShorterThanYouKnow though the 'happy' ending of Strange Days is so much depressing in retrospect. All they had to do there was to show the police brutality to the public, the responsible cops got arrested and all ended well. 30 years later, and we're seeing those kinds of videos on a weekly basis and nothing happens.
One of my favourite episodes ever. Gives me chills in the ending with Sisko not knowing how things got so bad.
I always thought this episode can be retconned as one of the Emissary's missions from the Prophets when we later learn that Sisko also lives a somewhat non-linear life ("Far Beyond the Stars", "Image in the Sand", and of course the finale). I'm not claiming the writers had everything sorted out at that point but it ties in very well with what comes later. It's an amazing two parter in its own right as well and one of my favorite shows in all Trek. Thanks for the review! ❤
A similar thought (re: Sisko being the Emissary of The Prophets) had occurred to me too.
The most striking thing about this episode, as an ex-homeless person, was it's treatment of the homeless.
For once, they weren't villains and monsters, objects to be pitied, even just tools for the protagonist (like the way "Sherlock" treated them - pretending to be pro-homeless because they enable the hero, but have no role or character beyond that).
They had character and agency.
Even BC and his gang, whilst framed as they were, were given character and agency. And whilst his death was narratively called for, the story still brought some humanity to him.
And even though the heroes have to save the day and get back home to the future, it was a homeless person who's ideas they followed in order to get the best outcome for homeless people.
That really mattered. The idea that you cannot solve homelessness without the homeless having the main seat at the table.
It wasn't perfect, but it did a good job of giving a voice and role models to homeless folks. It purposefully made them human, made their stories matter, and presented them as heroes and protagonists.
Their relief wasn't granted, but was fought for by them, because their lives were lives and they mattered.
Yes, outside help was required, but they led the charge. And the outcome was on their terms, and so was the framing in the episode.
For that reason alone, it stands as the best star trek episode in my view.
I didn't see it that way at the time. It would be a decade before I became homeless. But rewatching it, my heart was hit with a club.
And in the decades since, it is to my dismay that we have never seen a primetime or mainstream tv show portray homelessness and homeless people in such a manner. Not in 3 decades.
Even now we're still relegated to villains, objects of pity or tools for the hero.
I watch this episode and for once I see myself and people I've known as the hero, as people, as someone who can drive their own destiny.
Thank you for reviewing it and reminding me of it.
It's a hard watch to anyone who's knocked on wood (a British term for having been homeless), but it's a good watch.
We aren't just survivors all the time. Sometimes we can make history.
What are the soles of Doctor Spock's boots made from?
Answer: Vulcanized rubber.
The pediatrician?
Did you really have to go there. I like puns, but that one was truly awful. Lol.
It's sad how prescient and relevant this story remains today. If anything, they didn't make homelessness and poverty in 2020's San Francisco bleak enough.
Also, I want my second Transbay Tube. DS9 promised me a second Transbay Tube!
Around 14:00, when you spoke of the way Dax, by total random chance, lands in a great place, I was expecting you to cite John Rawls.
"Veil of ignorance" FTW!
Thanks for this retro review, Steve! Like many others here, I’m struck by the prescience of this episode, and have vivid memories of watching it when it first aired. But your review also hit home because there are actual riots happening right now in France in response to the wrongful death of 17-year old Nahel Merzouk (plus decades of police brutality and institutional racism). Those protesters, too, face a government that only cares about restoring order and a larger public that just wants to ignore them. While “Past Tense” focused on American cities, it’s worth noting that many countries are dealing with ostensibly intractable problems, and we can (and should) care, act, and be allies to Gabriel Bells all over the globe.
I wouldn't say Star Trek got it completely wrong with the eugenics wars... I would say they were just a few decades too early. Because manipulating genetics will DEFINITELY cause some issues in the future. I don't know if its going to be wars like in star trek, but it will cause its own problems (I'm a biology student so believe me when I say CRISPR is BIG in biology and biotechnology and will only increase in relevancy)
I like how they make a subtle nod to social class in the teaser when Miles says that he doesn't have to go to the fancy dinner because he's an enlisted man rather than an officer.
It is strange and depression that the Star Trek version of 2024 is still way more optimistic than and hopeful than what we're actually living through.
I love this episode. However, it just never felt right that the real Gabriel Bell wound up being deprived of his rightful place in history.
Past Tense is my favorite episode. There are so many political issues
packed into it. You are definitely a lot nicer in how you think of those " liberal" wealthy people than I am. Today, they still are a major obstacle to change. They are the epitome of the "not in my neighborhood" liberals. They talk with
contempt of the poor and are Capitalists.
It touches poverty. The inaccessibility of social welfare programs. Inaccessibulity of mental health care (I am lucky enough to have been diagnosed finally at the age of 35, only after decades of struggling and no one saying anything, but I cannot even find a pharmacy to fillmy meds because of an adderall shortage that lasted over a year.)
The rich characters here remind a lot of the well to do Seattle liberals (and I will note I'm very much on the left politically). They think they mean well and have the right intentions, but you're right in that they want to preserve their comfort and wealth when push comes to shove. Brilliant author Ijeoma Oluo wrote a book called Mediocre (The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America). She's a black woman who lives in Seattle and recounts how often white liberals would still lock their car doors or show soft racism around her.
I only bring up Seattle because I lived there a long time and got a bit frustrated with that segment of the liberal population. Another example is back in 2020 when the George Floyd protests started. My friend called it. She said, "at some point white people are going to try to take over the protests to 'help'", rather than shutting up and listening to the BLM movement. And sure enough, that's what happened.
Full agreement about this one being one of the best Star Trek episodes. I also liked that they did some slightly unusual character pairings: Sisko & Bashir and Kira & O'Brien. I'm sure there's other episodes where this happened, but I think they got a lot out of these characters by doing so here.
Had 2020 gone another way, I suspect we'd be much closer to this episode's version of 2024 than we are now...though we got a LOT of work to do to avoid warehousing/othering groups of marginalized people.
This episode was Hall of Fame Star Trek. Thank you so much for reviewing it.
1:50 i mean what are the chances Dax randomly encounters Rick Astley here
Hello from August 30, 2024!
One fun detail of the episode - the nascent "internet" of 1995 was envisioned as a pseudo-Microsoft kinda thing...
Also, "Past Tense" was a truly groundbreaking episode for the series. The show finally broke out of messing about in the Bajoran/Cardassian sector or dicking around in the Gamma Quadrant and did their first (and thankfully not last) "and now for something completely different" episode of the series (see also: "Little Green Men" and "Trials and Tribble-ations"). It's the first episode since the pilot that truly knocked my socks off and rekindled my interest in the series.
2024 is a big year; Bell Riots and Irish Unification!
One of my favorite DS9 episodes. Good time travel episode, with a message that still resonates today. I love watching Sisko and Bashir navigate this world where they're assumed to be less than. And despite their attempts to lay low, they of course get drawn into the rebellion. Wonderful episode!
Not too many years ago the city council in Columbia, SC wanted to set up a facility outside of town and bus the homeless there. They would be free to leave, but they wouldn't be bussed back to town so they'd be stuck miles outside town.
Thankfully the citizens were appalled enough by this that it never became reality.
I also remember Trump suggesting something like sanctuary districts while he was in office.
How much on the head, down to timing, this episode came is a bit scary.
13:20 "There are so many issues we face today; issues which are caused by the bigotry, ignorance & cruelty of a relative few; but which persist and grow because they seem so big and intractable that many of the rest of us are too exhausted or too hopeless to fight back. *_It's not the lack of caring … it's the feeling that caring won't make any difference."_*
Damn, well said.
The supposedly liberal city I live in regularly bulldozes homeless tents without there being a single shelter bed available, even during brutal winter weather. The sanctuary districts seem good in comparison to the reality here.
Another on-point analysis Steve! One of my favorite Star Treks episodes, and you are absolutely right about eternal vigilance also being the price of progress.
Here in the Valley of the Sun, it was announced that the Phoenix city council will be establishing what they are calling a "campground" for the city’s growing homeless population on about 5 acres of unused land in downtown Phoenix. It's being touted as "a safe space for those in need," but when I heard about it on the local NPR, I giggled a little and thought "Oh my god! They're building a Sanctuary City! Bell Riots, here we come!"😄 Now I'm reading in the news that more state-run "campgrounds/safe-spaces" are appearing in San Diego, LA, Santa Fe, San Antonio, Anchorage (and the list goes on)... and I am not giggling anymore. Just hoping this just another POI along our road to progress, and not one to ruin.
Awesome summary, Steve. Thank you. You wrap an encompassing vision of the problems of hubris, nobility, and growing lax: all in a few choice sentences. It's on par with one of Jean-Luc's Picard's closing arguments.
~ Peter Ferber ❤️
I'm waiting for the extended cut, in which we see that *Carl* was behind the whole thing.
First comment, nerds.
Bet you all feel bad now.
*ehem*
This episode was a timely warning back in the mid nineties... it's even more relevant now.
I'd feel bad regardless of whether you beat me or not.
@@guaposneeze
Oh, that ain't good...
For what it's worth, I'm like ninety-two percent certain that you're an awesome person.
Clint Howard is STAR TREK alumni, dating all the way back to the original series (the Corbomite Maneuver).
This was, and still is, my favorite episode of Star Trek. It's a masterpiece of challenging the audience.
Spot on with this review. Bashir and Sisko were not usually combined as a pair like this, but it works really well and both sell their characters. Sisko is ace in this as well.
Currently watching this in San Francisco whilst also wearing a Niners shirt. Love this two parter, and Far Beyond the Stars as well I really wish more people could watch those and get the message, it's pretty hard not to. I also thought in the final season with the Nagus instituting social programs and reforms, choosing Rom as his successor, etc. and how annoying that was to Quark and Brunt was a really clever way of making a statement about the politics of money. A couple of 3 things about Past Tense -
1. How would the Defiant have even been aware anything had changed, since it all happened in the past wouldn't they have changed along with it or were they stuck in some sort of technobabble bubble?
2. One thing I thought would've been pretty funny is if towards end they wonder aloud if anything changed as a result of their actions, and something minor was different that they just kept the rest of the series. "Miles, when did you grow a mustache?" "I've always had this Julian, you feeling alright?" _startled looks between bashir and sisko_
3. A poignant quote I found from Behr about criticism of the episode - “People are still even writing that we only presented ‘one side’ in ‘Past Tense’ and that we should have presented ‘both sides’ and not just the ‘liberal’ point of view-and I’m still trying to think what that means. In other words, we should have showed the positive aspects of putting the homeless into concentration camps? And I do admit we probably failed in that-we really did not show the many, many wonderful aspects of life without money and living in over-crowded camps.”
Wow they were stuck in a dystopian San Francisco in the middle of a riot!
It's episodes like this that make me wonder how there can be so many anti-progressive fans of Star Trek. It truly boggles my mind how they can hold their views and still derive enjoyment from the show.
Yes. And claim that "Trek never used to be woke." Any time I hear that, I know that they have no real understanding of Trek or a strangely specific idea of what it is to be woke. (or probably both actually)
I love how, visually soeeking, every plannet and culture (including our own) is basically reduced to what mounts to a phone theme
By having the heroes in that episode to land in both sides of society, shows both the rich and the poor are both sides of the same coin. I say that episode inspired somebody who watched that episode to at least try to change things for the better, maybe somebody who may have gave up back then, and now, to not to give in to giving up, this world needs all the help it can get! Since you mentioned about next week's review of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I saw the next episode is going to be an Ortegas episode!👍
according to a friend of mine while filming this episode someone on the crew got a hold of a newspaper article where the city government was seriously considering doing exactly this kind of program.
This episodie reminds me, thematically, of the classic Star Trek TOS episode The Cloud Minders
I hesitate to chime in here presuming that everyone here knows this fact but I still find it a neat and overall unrecognized fact. The fact that Desilu Culver was the facility utilized by TOS for the first several episodes and pilots enabled Gene to head across the street and quite literally borrow actual sets (Krell passageways etc.) from the MGM scenedock and have them stakebedded over for use on the Cage. Resourcefulness, much like refashioning the white gorilla suit Desilu had in its wardrobe dept inventory (seen in the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour episode where Lucy is lost on a island) and added the horn and the rest.
This episode was not one I really paid attention to at the time. That is an error on my part. This is truly one of the best Sci-Fi works of all time.
The whole "could we (Federation) act like this if things got bad?" speculation is interesting in light of the 1st season of Picard, built on the back of a Romulan refugee crisis, where the Federation tried/was badgered into helping at first, but bailed when problems cropped up.
Such a banger of an episode, one of the best aged depictions of the future for the era.
A favourite moment for me is when Dax is at the cocktail party:
WOMAN: You're lucky. We had to cancel our trip to the Alps this year because of the student protests in France.
CHRIS: I thought the Neo-Trotskyists were going to put a stop to that.
WOMAN: They're not having any more luck that the Gaullists did.
MAN: Europe is falling apart.
WOMAN: Well, at least we don't have to worry about that kind of thing here.
DAX: Don't count on it.
absolutely ate
Apparently the universal typeface of 2020s sanctuary districts is the Chicago font from a 1990s Macintosh computer.
When this set of episodes was on TV, early 1995, I was living in Chicago, during Grad School for Art. There were many times one would go on or off the EL, or a bus, or any street corner downtown, or in any park, and one would encounter people who were homeless. During the cold winter, I saw a few people, put in bodybags, off the sidewalk. I frankly didn't help everyone. I didn't have enough money. After I was mugged at gunpoint, in Chicago, and was paranoid and unhappy being asked for money,...I was rude, a few times. Yet, DS9 "Past Tense" made so much sense with reality living in a big city,...and 30 plus years later, and it's 2024 almost, this set of episodes if prophetic! And, "Picard" Season 2 used the reality of this set of episodes, and mythology, is still very true.
Trek is and has been socially aware in the series, and many episodes. "Woke" is positive!
Star Trek gave us this and the Irish reunification as our future.
WOW Steve i haven't seen any of your videos in years, i think you probably blocked me or i just lost interest before, but im glad to see you are still around and seem to be doing well.
Deep Space Nine gave each character great stories, one offs and lines, and this two parter was no different. It gives Dr. Bashir, what I consider, his best lines when talking about how ghastly it is when a people have forgotten how to care. Goosebumps every time.
Hi Steve, please make that format into a series: "specifically political star trek (DS9) episodes" That would be great, keep it up.
I’m a social worker in Minnesota. The feeling of never being able to do enough is real. My coworkers and I have started sharing direct action opportunities so we can try to change some laws
Some days I think back to me, 15 at school studying the black civil rights moment in the 1960's... and thinking, Nahhhh that is not today. Boy was I wrong. Ghandi's idea of nonviolent resistance only worked because people were not used to seeing violence, That doesn't work now that we see it every day.
This was the two-parter that got me interested in DS9 as a teen - I was a TNG fan, but wasn't a fan of DS9 through the first two years, but caught the first half on re-run in the summer of 95 and got into it.
Reading #How to * Up a Pipeline". The first section makes a pretty compelling argument that at the credible threat of destabilizing violence has been required for every major civil rights advancement.
The most unbelievable part of the episode is that there isn't a major political party present demanding the rioters be put down by the cops and crowing about being the only political institution that cares about justice will simultaneously advocating for violent punishment of "criminals".
The two beam downs are commentary about the US major political parties. The first the first down in the 1920 with the rich flappers or the Republicans who aren’t all that concerned with O’Brien or Keira. The second beam down in the 1960s had the hippies who would layer be modern Democrats giving the visitors things of little sustenance and then feeling really great afterwards.
I love this two part episode. I lied it well enough when it aired, but as time passed my appreciation for it grew. I love it now. Nice job.
Happy Past Tense day
Great video Dude! Very interesting interpretations!
I remember this being a turning point for me with DS9. To overstate it a little, this was DS9's Best of Both Worlds. TNG had just ended and it felt like the good writers had moved to DS9, with this being the first episode that shook off the amateurish stink of the show's early episodes and confidently heralded its new maturity. I was already enjoying the show but was overjoyed at what it was suddenly becoming.
One of your very best analsysis, and the bar was not low at all ;)
The one (small) missed opportunity in the story: Instead of a random 50/50 guess, O'Brien totally could have stopped and thought out what year they were in, given the limited options. He could have applied his own knowledge of history to ponder on which year had a pivotal historical event, and intuited the outcome. "Hold on... 2024... They would have still landed in San Francisco... You don't think... They're smack dab in the middle of the Bell Riots!"
2:12, 8:37 - Dick Miller!
Mr. Futterman from the Gremlins movies!
Absolutely love this channel.
I think there are 2 missed opportunities in this episode to highlight the "freedom to live as one desires" complexity wrinkle that is a very real concern in discussions of the unhoused, and mental illness.First, when Bashir wonders "Why is nobody helping these people?" when referencing mental illness, Sisco could have discussed the tension that exists there with people being free to live as they please. Second, there may certainly be groups of people that have found the chaos of the sanctuary districts to be their preferred living situation in a world where everyone is expected to live in society and conform to its norms whereas the sanctuary districts are seemingly lawless by comparison.
As bullseye as this was a originally, and more so year ago, I can't believe it's even still more so today. We seem to be going in the wrong direction. We're gonna need an actual Bell Riot.
I'm totally adopting the wardrobe style of "Past Tense" 2024 Earth.
I'm going to make it a thing, y'all; come join me!
Fashion for poverty? You think it's great when you can't afford clothes? Then why don't you give all your money and stuff to poor people in need, then live on the street in a cardboard box. Undoubtedly, you will then achieve a similar degree of "fashionability".
The sanctuary district style or Brynner and his rich buddies style?
"Why is Star Trek so political now? It certainly never used to be!"
Apparently, you haven't watched very much Star Trek. Social commentary has been a part of Trek from the very beginning. A lot of TOS episodes were full of social commentary.
The Cloud Minders, A Private Little War, and the very presence of Uhura, Sulu and Chekov, being part of a racially diverse crew and shown as capable Starfleet officers and equals.
I will note your and Bashir's comment at the end about the Federation going backwards if it gets bad, is also brought up in future DS9 Eps.
just watched this episode past night
was a kid during DS9 it ran from K-5 for me
but because pf how you spoke about the series I must say it is the best Star Trek series in so many ways
One of my favorite episodes. Love it
Despite "Past Tense" being a good two-part episode, I had trouble relating to some of the characters, and the situations, and, because of that, the episode(s) didn't resonate so much for me. "Far Beyond the Stars", and "The Visitor", had me spontaneously bawling. My reaction aside, the subject matter was salient and the writing around it courageous. This is what I came to admire about DS-9; excellent story-telling and connection to the human experience.
Our timeline is worse. The homelessness, drug use, and mental health issues are in plain sight and the government, charities, and common citizens dont know how to solve it. I was in Sacramento a year ago for a conference and wanted to go for a walk. There were homeless on every street, park, corner, and bush. Yes, I saw a lady pop out of a bush asking me for water. These lawmakers see this in their own capitol but there's little they want or can do to fix it
Quark summed it up a few seasons on when he said "Hoomons are a wonderful people, so long as their bellies are full and the holosuites are working.."