TMC
09-01-2024, 06:50 PM
https://www.looper.com/1654858/star-trek-bell-riots-september-2024-explained/
BY KIERAN FISHERAUG. 31, 2024 10:57 AM EST
The "Star Trek" franchise boasts an array of memorable time travel-themed episodes, but "Past Tense" is arguably the most politically-charged and memorable of the bunch. In this two-part installment of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and his crew are sent to San Francisco in the year 2024, where they encounter a city that's ravaged by social problems and violence.
The episodes center around the Bell Riots, an uprising that occurs in a closed-off area of the city known as Sanctuary District A, during the first week of September. In short, this is where the government and wealthy elites have dumped society's undesirables in an effort to separate them from regular society, and let's just say that the segregated citizens aren't happy about it. This leads to riots and the government sending in the National Guard to take care of the insurgents, and the Starfleet crew get caught up in the middle of it.
The episode is an exploration of inequality, but societal attitudes toward the District's poor citizens change when America learns about Gabriel Bell (John Lendale Bennett), who protects the employees of the local Processing Center — a government building — from harm. He even gives his life to save them, which causes an outcry across the nation, forcing the government to become more humane and compassionate toward the less fortunate. At the same time, complications arise after Sisko and co. arrive on the scene.
BY KIERAN FISHERAUG. 31, 2024 10:57 AM EST
The "Star Trek" franchise boasts an array of memorable time travel-themed episodes, but "Past Tense" is arguably the most politically-charged and memorable of the bunch. In this two-part installment of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and his crew are sent to San Francisco in the year 2024, where they encounter a city that's ravaged by social problems and violence.
The episodes center around the Bell Riots, an uprising that occurs in a closed-off area of the city known as Sanctuary District A, during the first week of September. In short, this is where the government and wealthy elites have dumped society's undesirables in an effort to separate them from regular society, and let's just say that the segregated citizens aren't happy about it. This leads to riots and the government sending in the National Guard to take care of the insurgents, and the Starfleet crew get caught up in the middle of it.
The episode is an exploration of inequality, but societal attitudes toward the District's poor citizens change when America learns about Gabriel Bell (John Lendale Bennett), who protects the employees of the local Processing Center — a government building — from harm. He even gives his life to save them, which causes an outcry across the nation, forcing the government to become more humane and compassionate toward the less fortunate. At the same time, complications arise after Sisko and co. arrive on the scene.