Past Tense, Part I
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 2 January 1995
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- 48481.2
- DIRECTED BY
- Reza Badiyi
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 457
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Robert Hewitt Wolfe; story by Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
A transporter accident strands Sisko, Bashir and Dax in San Francisco in 2024, where the poor are walled away in Sanctuary Districts, just days before a notorious riot.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
A transporter accident sends Sisko, Bashir and Dax back in time to San Francisco on 30 August 2024. With no identification, Sisko and Bashir are picked up by police and placed in a Sanctuary District, a walled ghetto for the jobless, the poor and the mentally ill. Sisko realises they have arrived just before the Bell Riots, a turning point in American history in which Gabriel Bell died protecting hostages and changed public attitudes to the districts. Dax, separated from her friends, is helped by businessman Chris Brynner and persuades him to help her find them. When a resident who comes to Sisko and Bashir's aid is killed in a fight over ration cards, Sisko discovers the dead man was Gabriel Bell himself. Aboard the Defiant, Kira and O'Brien find that Starfleet has vanished: history has changed. As the residents riot and seize hostages at the processing centre, Sisko takes on Bell's identity to put history back on course.
- 01During filming, Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan proposed fenced-in areas for the city's homeless, strikingly close to the episode's Sanctuary Districts. Cast and crew were shocked by the parallel.
- 02The first DS9 episode to show Earth, and the first with no scenes set on the station itself.
- 03Several characters are named after “The Magnificent Seven”: Chris, Vin and Lee, while Brynner nods to the film's star Yul Brynner. B.C. was named after assistant director B.C. Cameron.