I watched Past Tense part one and two. I thought it was a very deep pair of episodes. What did you think?
Past Tense
- Thread starter Tribble Threat
- Start date
Definitely! This was DS9s "City of the Edge of Forever" as far as I'm concerned, and even more meaningful from a sociopolitical perspective.
As I recall, while they were filming this episode or shortly after, but well after it had been written, there was a proposal being floated in the Los Angeles city council about building a big fenced-in area to keep the city's homeless. So like, wow, the writers pretty much hit that on the nose.
As I recall, while they were filming this episode or shortly after, but well after it had been written, there was a proposal being floated in the Los Angeles city council about building a big fenced-in area to keep the city's homeless. So like, wow, the writers pretty much hit that on the nose.
Here's what gets me about that episode:
The part where O'Brien and Kira are bouncing around through time and they end up in an altered 21st century (can't remember the exact year). We don't actually see this, but O'Brien later describes it something like "Earth's had its rough patches, but never THAT rough."
Now surely O'Brien is an educated man, he has to be aware of his history. Specifically, World War III. What could possibly be WORSE than that?
The part where O'Brien and Kira are bouncing around through time and they end up in an altered 21st century (can't remember the exact year). We don't actually see this, but O'Brien later describes it something like "Earth's had its rough patches, but never THAT rough."
Now surely O'Brien is an educated man, he has to be aware of his history. Specifically, World War III. What could possibly be WORSE than that?
It can always be worse.
Another one right after it.
Since it takes place in 2024, that probably would be a short time after that. The Chief then makes his best guess to send them to the proper point in time to help Sisko and the others.
It seemed really odd to me too that Chief commented on the mid-21st century being worse than it should be. People always say First Contact made a new timeline, but maybe this episode did. 
Just rewatched:
My theory is O'Brian is just unable to parse what WW3 actually looked like and it was a stable time loop.
My theory is O'Brian is just unable to parse what WW3 actually looked like and it was a stable time loop.
Or O'Brien just implicitly meant pre-WW3. He thought of the antebellum 21st century as a flawed but pleasant era.
It's one of DS9's better episodes. It predicted the direction of attitude toward poor people and immigrants in the 20s, and it's one of Trek's only forays into the near future rather than far future.
It's one of DS9's better episodes. It predicted the direction of attitude toward poor people and immigrants in the 20s, and it's one of Trek's only forays into the near future rather than far future.
I thought it was an ok two-parter and the message was needed. Two of my favorite characters - Bashir and Dax, even had integral roles in it and it was good to see the Captain doing his stuff. What really got me , though, was that one woman who felt her desk job was not going to make a difference in any real way that told the story of a young woman, a poor one, who abandoned her daughter and she let her disappear instead of intern her, was powerful.
And how could that possibly occur?
A global nuke war would destroy everything. Everyone knows that.
Indeed, wasn't it Einstein himself who said that he didn't know how World War III would be fought, but World War IV would be fought with sticks and stones?
What could possibly be worse than global nuclear war?
600 million dead? That's a huge number, but wouldn't an all-out global nuclear war result in many more casualties than that? It's less than 10% of today's world population, so though apalling as it is, it definitely could have been a lot worse than that.
Unless a LOT of people died in the Eugenics Wars. Then the percentage could be way higher.
The Eugenics Wars were 37 million dead. WW III was the 600 million.
I forgot about that. Where was that said?
Once we throw in global nuclear war, the question of how a society digs itself out of its social problems seems superfluous. It would be like worrying about a liver transplant for a brain dead patient.
The most unrealistic thing about the episode was that the events actually changed people's minds.
If the Bell Riots went down in real life exactly as it went in the show, it would just confirm everyone's existing opinion. Half the people would just say "This just goes to show how barbaric the sanctuary districts are" and then Tucker Carlson would go on his show and say "What happens to these lowlives after we let them out? They might live into YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. They don't want to work or contribute, they never had, the fact that they didn't manage to kill any of the hostages just proves we were right to go in shooting."
If the Bell Riots went down in real life exactly as it went in the show, it would just confirm everyone's existing opinion. Half the people would just say "This just goes to show how barbaric the sanctuary districts are" and then Tucker Carlson would go on his show and say "What happens to these lowlives after we let them out? They might live into YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. They don't want to work or contribute, they never had, the fact that they didn't manage to kill any of the hostages just proves we were right to go in shooting."
I really hate that I have to agree with this.
Similar threads
