View Full Version : The Most Political 'Star Trek' Episode: 'Past Tense,' From 'Deep Space Nine'


TMC
10-09-2017, 01:14 AM
https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/m/fbf70dfb-5921-355b-9aae-2d16711f1240/ss_the-most-political-%27star.html

It’s that they’ve given up.” This was how Commanding Officer Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, described early 21st-century Americans in an episode from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. When it aired in 1995, “Past Tense” (http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/d457.php) spoke to contemporary concerns about homelessness by telling a story set in 2024-the near future for viewers, but the distant past for characters. In the two-part episode, Sisko and two of his companions from the U.S.S. Defiant find themselves stranded in San Francisco, where they’re reminded that the federal government had once set up a series of so-called “Sanctuary Districts” in a nationwide effort to seal off homeless Americans from the general population. Stuck in 2024, Sisko, who is black-along with his North African crewmate Dr. Julian Bashir and the fair-skinned operations officer Jadzia Dax-must contend with unfamiliar racism, classism, violence, and Americans’ apparent apathy toward human suffering.

king of comedy
10-09-2017, 09:10 AM
Still relevant today.