Past Tense (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

"Past Tense"
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes
Episode nos.	Season 3 Episodes 11 and 12
Directed by	Reza Badiyi (Part I) Jonathan Frakes (Part II)
Story by	Ira Steven Behr Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Teleplay by	Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Part I) Ira Steven Behr (Part II) René Echevarria (Part II)
Featured music	Dennis McCarthy (Part I) David Bell (Part II)
Production code	457 & 458
Original air dates	January 2, 1995 (1995-01-02) January 9, 1995 (1995-01-09)
Guest appearances
Jim Metzler as Chris Brynner Frank Military as B.C. Dick Miller as Vin Al Rodrigo as Bernardo Tina Lifford as Lee Bill Smitrovich as Michael Webb Deborah Van Valkenburgh as Preston Clint Howard as Grady Richard Lee Jackson as Danny John Lendale Bennett as Gabriel Bell

"Past Tense" is a two-part episode from the third season of science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the 57th and 58th episodes overall and the last episode to air before the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager. It is also the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to not feature any scenes on the DS9 space station, except for the opening credits.

In the episode, a transporter anomaly accidentally sends Commander Sisko, Dr. Bashir, and Jadzia Dax back in time to a pivotal moment in Earth's history. The episode received critical acclaim for analyzing U.S. social issues in a science fiction context, but also for addressing various societal issues such as homelessness, poverty, and technology.

Broadcast

This installment of the Star Trek science fiction television show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine aired in two approximately 45 minute episodes on syndicated television in the United States. The first episode aired on January 2, 1995 and the conclusion (Part II) aired on January 9, 1995.

Plot

Part I

When Commander Sisko, Dr. Bashir, and Jadzia Dax beam down to Earth from the Defiant, an accident occurs and they materialize in San Francisco in the year 2024.

Dax is separated from her crewmates but is helped by a prominent businessman, Chris Brynner.

Meanwhile, Sisko and Bashir are awakened by a pair of police officers, who believe them to be vagrants and warn them to get off the streets. They are escorted to a "Sanctuary District", a fenced-off ghetto that is used to contain the poor, the sick, the mentally disabled, and anyone else who cannot support themselves. Sisko realizes they have arrived just days before the "Bell Riots", a violent confrontation in the San Francisco Sanctuary District, that Sisko recalls as a watershed moment in human history. Dozens will be killed, including a man named Gabriel Bell, the leader of the demonstration. Bell will become a hero because of his self-sacrifice while protecting hostages. As a result of Bell's heroism, attitudes toward the disadvantaged begin to change. Unable to find a building to sleep in, Sisko and Bashir live in the street.

Attending an affluent party with Brynner, Dax realizes that Sisko and Bashir have been taken into the Sanctuary District, and sets about finding them.

Disaster strikes when a fight breaks out because Sisko and Bashir resist attempts to steal the food cards they have been given. A man who comes to their aid is killed, and Sisko and Bashir discover after the fact that he was Gabriel Bell. Sisko quickly realizes that due to their presence, the course of history stands to be radically changed, since Bell is no longer around to play the prominent role of hostage protection in the historical narrative. Sisko, who bears some resemblance to Bell, assumes his identity to ensure that history is not altered.

Back in the 24th century, the crew left on the Defiant, Major Kira, Odo, and Chief O'Brien, lose contact with Earth as all traces of the Federation suddenly vanish; Bell's death has radically altered the timeline. O'Brien calculates several possible time periods in which Dax, Sisko, and Bashir might have arrived, and Kira and O'Brien begin transporting to one period at a time in order to search for them.

Part II

Sisko (posing as Gabriel Bell) and Bashir return to the employment center (note: the clock on the wall gives the date as 09-04-2024) just as it is stormed by a group of disgruntled Sanctuary Residents and its staff and police officers taken hostage. Sisko takes on leadership of the revolt, trying to ensure that no one gets hurt, and understanding that at the resolution of the revolt Gabriel Bell must die. He makes demands to the governor, insisting they be given airtime to express their grievances. He wants the Sanctuary Districts closed and he wants the people to be given opportunities to earn an honest living.

The riots are in full swing outside. Dax watches from Brynner's office, knowing Sisko and Bashir are caught in the Sanctuary District and are in danger, and heads down to find them. She sneaks through the lines via a sewer pipe and is caught and delivered to the employment center to explain herself. There Sisko and Bashir catch up with her in secret. She sneaks back out, certain that Brynner will be able to order a terminal activated at the employment center so that the leaders of the revolt can tell their stories and have them broadcast worldwide, which was the main force that turned the tide of opinion, leading to the end of the Sanctuary Districts.

With only enough energy for one more transport, Kira and O'Brien finally transport themselves to the correct time in history and contact Dax. They stand by to rescue Sisko and Bashir if they can. It is a close call as the SWAT teams move in on the employment center to end the riot once and for all. They open fire, killing the leaders of the revolt; Sisko takes a bullet in the shoulder to protect the hostages and survives. Once the riots are over, the two police officers who first confronted Sisko and Bashir agree to slip Sisko's identification (with Bell's name) onto one of the dead men, and also to tell the truth about what has happened here. The DS9 officers are beamed back to the Defiant in the 24th century and find everything back to normal, history having unfolded just as it should have. The only difference in time (as revealed at the end of the episode) is that Bell's entry in the historical records now shows Sisko's picture in place of his own.

Development

The Attica Prison riot served as a source of inspiration for the Bell Riots from this episode. Another inspiration for the episode were the writer's experiences with homeless people in California.

According to the DVD commentary, as this episode was finishing production an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times describing a proposal by the then mayor, Richard Riordan, to create fenced-in "havens" for the city's homeless, to make downtown Los Angeles more desirable for business. The cast and crew were shocked that this was essentially the same scenario that Past Tense warned might happen in three decades, but was now being seriously proposed in the present.

Reception

In 2015, Geek.com recommended this episode as "essential watching" for their abbreviated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine binge-watching guide.

SyFy ranked "Past Tense" as the seventh best time travel plot in Star Trek, in 2016.

In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter rated "Past Tense" (Parts I & II) the 47th best television episode of all Star Trek franchise television prior to Star Trek: Discovery, including live-action and The Animated Series but not counting the movies. Between 1966 and 2005, there were about 726 episodes of Star Trek television.

Ars Technica in 2016, pointed out "Past Tense" as example of how the series had good stories and is "beacon of hope for people living in dark times." They praise the "dogged Utopianism" and note how the characters try to help the poor.

In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter ranked this episode the 11th best of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In 2016, Empire ranked this the 39th best out of the top 50 episodes of the 700 plus Star Trek television episodes.

The Atlantic reviewed "Past Tense" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 2017, suggesting it was the "most political episode" of all Star Trek. They note that in the two-part episode Benjamin Sisko travels back in time to early 21st century Earth aboard the USS Defiant spacecraft. They show this is used as a plot device to explore America's issues with racism, violence, and "apathy toward human suffering".

In 2017, Business Insider listed "Past Tense, Part I" and "Past Tense, Part II" as some of the most underrated episodes of the Star Trek franchise at that time.

In 2018, Vulture rated the pair of "Past Tense" episodes as the 15th best episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In 2018, CBR ranked the "Past Tense" pair as the 20th best episodic saga of Star Trek overall.

In 2020, Den of Geek listed "Past Tense" as one of the best stories of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In 2020, SciFiNow ranked this one of the top ten episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In 2021, Vox compared the vision of the future 2024 San Francisco presented in "Past Tense" with the state of some of the issues touched upon in the episode, such as poverty, riots, and technology. In an interview with one of the writers about this episode, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, one prediction about the 2020s that they felt was inaccurate was the computer technology. The writer said they were not actually trying be "predictive" but rather were inspired by their experiences at that time. Ira Behr (another writer for the episode) said that one of the inspirations for episode were the homeless people in Santa Monica, California.

Releases

"Past Tense, Part I" and "Past Tense, Part II" were released on LaserDisc in the United States on October 5, 1999. The two parts of the episode were released on VHS tape also by Paramount Home Video

The episode was also released on June 3, 2003 in North America as part of the season 3 DVD box set. This episode was released in 2017 on DVD with the complete series box set, which had 176 episodes on 48 discs.

External links

• "Past Tense, Part I" at IMDb
• "Past Tense, Part II" at IMDb
• Past Tense, Part I at Memory Alpha
• Past Tense, Part II at Memory Alpha