Past Tense, Part I

When this episode was broadcast, it was largely ignored; looking at it from 2022 it is eerily prescient in predicting the homelessness crisis and the inadequate government response to it. The homeless encampments where I live look very much like the Sanctuary District Sisko and Bashir find themselves in after inadvertently transporting to San Francisco in 2024.

It is also a wry commentary that two men of color, Sisko and Bashir, and locked away after being discovered without ID while Dax, an attractive Caucasian female, is rescued by a white knight.

This is also the first episode in the series that depicts Sisko as a "hero" whereas he is usually the competent administrator of DS9. This two parter marks the beginning of DS9 finding its footing and becoming what I believe is the best incarnation of the Trek franchise.

Jadzia, Bashir, and Sisko try to go to a conference in San Francisco. During the transport, something goes wrong and they find themselves in 2024. LIfe on earth has become a serious class structure, where the poor and defenseless are put in ghettos. The problem has to do with the mutation of time due to actions taken by Sisko and Bashir. The second half should be interesting.

This is a two-part episode that marks the first time the folks from "Deep Space 9" went into the distant past. In this case, Dr. Bashir, Jadzia Dax and Commander Sisko are beaming down to Earth when, inexplicably, they arrive in 2024! This turns out to be a real lousy time and place, as San Francisco has special 'zones' where they place the poor and homeless--and Sisko and Bashir are stuck in this hellish place. As for Jadzia, she's is a heck of a lot smarter than her companions and soon she ends up finding herself with the HAVES-- living life among the rich elite. It's easy to admire her ability to think on her feet and figure out that she's in the past much faster than the guys. Regardless, the two guys turn out to be REAL stupid, as they turn out to be responsible for killing a guy who is important to history--and as a result, the timeline is seriously destroyed and the Federation doesn't appear to be affected.

This is a decent episode but I also marveled at how clean and very well groomed these homeless folks often were! Also the explanation for why the Defiant continues to exist seems REALLY lame and contrived. And, the whole Gabriel Bell angle is a bit predictable. Decent but it could have been better.

The problems get all solved in the future apparently LOL. Yet said problems were worse before capitalism appeared.. then said problems increased with the rise of anti-capitalism / socialism..

Then there's the time loop paradox goofs.

It's not that Time Travel stories are *explained* well in the Trek Universe, it's that they are *performed* and Produced well.

Every time travel tale has a gimmick or a gadget. I should say, every "Unwanted Time Travel" tale because in Trek, these are all accidents. Twice in the Trek Universe has time travel been done deliberately, in 1968's The Original Series episode "Assignment Earth" and in 1986's "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home".

As far as I can recall, these are the only two instances that were deliberate, maybe The Original Series "All Our Yesterdays" - Which had Kirk deliberately setting up a time portal for Spock and McCoy. Although, the original time travel was an accident because Mr Atoz (Ian Wolf) accidentally let Kirk jump into the "Atavacron".

Whether in TOS, TNG (Time's Arrow), Voyager or on DS9, Trek has a style when it comes to Time Travel stories, there is always some gadget that caused it, be they the Walls of the Cave on Dividia II, or in this case, a malfunction of the Romulan Cloaking Device which had been installed on The Defiant.

What interests us here, is that in our world, this story almost happened - In Los Angeles, where creation of something like what we see here, a "Sanctuary District" almost happened, by bean-counting reactionary politicians in that city whose solution to the Homeless problem is to not see them and then refuse to acknowledge their existence. One thing I will say, is that this so-called "Forced Welfare State" will never happen, it is always the choice of the Citizen to use Welfare, or to not use it. Most people who are on it, don't like the necessity of being on it. But it is better for it to BE there so we CAN choose to use it or not, I won't have someone else "Choosing For me", by denying me the right to choose it - By Eradicating it.

Fortunately, this concept was shouted down by the public in our world, it never happened. However, in our Trek story, this is going to happen in 2024, about 9 years from now.

What is great about Trek is that they can foresee future technology, sometimes getting it right - We already have communicators (iPhones) and things like Tricorders. What I like here are the Future "Internet Terminals", which look like a cross between a 1980 Dynagraphyx Dumb Terminal and a 80486 or maybe even a Pentium system, with extra displays and a Stylus. One thing was done right, the security cards used to access the terminals, I don't think USB had been put into use back when this was made, but today we have security chips flashed into USB drives, I use one for Pro Tools to enable my Plugins, it holds my I-Lok User ID and my Account Info.

This is not the first Trek episode involving Time where something got changed and our Principles must needs change it back, Harlan Ellison wrote "City on the Edge of Forever"- Which is the same as we see here, future is changed, something very bad has to happen to change it back. Or rather, something bad did happen, was accidentally prevented, and it changed the whole future.

These episodes are basically iterations of "The Butterfly Effect", or in Fringe science, "The Firefly Effect", but it is all the same thing, the idea that if time travel can occur, would changing very minor things result in a drastic change in our history? This is a premise that cannot be tested - YET.