Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)

Trapped three hundred years in the past, Sisko, Bashir, and Dax find themselves confronting one of the darkest hours in Earth's history…



USS Defiant orbiting Earth

Defiant orbiting Earth



Kira Nerys and Miles O&#039;Brien, 2371

"According to our sensors, they never materialized at their destination. They're just – gone."

In the transporter bay, Sisko, Dax, and Bashir step onto the transporter pad as Kira and O'Brien wish them well. Sisko informs Kira that she is in command of the ship and tells O'Brien to energize the transporter. The three officers disappear in the usual flash of blue light, but an alert comes from the computer and O'Brien notices something strange. Kira asks what is wrong and he reassures her that it is only a minor problem with the annular confinement beam. However, he is dumbstruck when, after stabilizing the beam, a chart appears on the screen indicating that Sisko and the others never materialized at their destination.


Act OneEdit





Act TwoEdit





Act ThreeEdit






Act FourEdit






Act FiveEdit




Memorable quotesEdit

"Then what did they do to deserve this?"
"So they get put in here?"
"Welcome to the 21st century, Doctor."

- Sisko and Bashir



"What year is this?"
"The same year as it was yesterday – 2024!"

- Benjamin Sisko and Bernardo Calvera


- Bashir

"You ever hear of the Bell Riots?"
"It was one of the most violent disturbances in American history, and it happened right here. San Francisco. Sanctuary District A, the first week of September, 2024."
"That's only a few days from now."
"Which means if we don't get out of here very soon, we'll be caught right in the middle of it."

- Sisko and Bashir, about the Bell Riots

"Just how bad are these riots going to be, Commander?"
"Bad. The Sanctuary residents will take over the District. Some of the guards will be taken hostage. The government will send in troops to restore order. Hundreds of Sanctuary residents will be killed."
"Hundreds? And there's nothing we can do to prevent it. Starfleet's temporal displacement policy may sound good in the classroom, but to know that hundreds of people are going to die and to not be able to do a thing to save them…"

- Bashir and Sisko, about the Bell Riots

"I sympathize, Doctor, but if it will make you feel any better, the Riots will be one of the watershed events of the 21st century. Gabriel Bell will see to that."
"The man they named the Riots after. He is one of the Sanctuary residents who will be guarding the hostages. The government troops will storm this place based on rumors that the hostages have been killed. It turns out that the hostages were never harmed, because of Gabriel Bell. In the end, Bell sacrifices his own life to save them. He'll become a national hero. Outrage over his death, and the death of other residents, will change public opinion about the Sanctuaries. They'll be torn down and the United States will finally begin correcting the social problems it has struggled with for over a hundred years."

- Sisko and Bashir, about Gabriel Bell

"One thing's for certain – right now, this ship is all that's left of Starfleet."

- O'Brien, on the Defiant's bridge after Starfleet is erased from the timeline

"If push comes to shove, if something disastrous happens to the Federation… if we are frightened enough, or desperate enough… how would we react?"

- Bashir

"I've waited a long time for this and I know I won't be disappointed; ain't that right, new boy?"
"The name is Bell, Gabriel Bell."

- B.C. and Sisko

Background informationEdit

Story and scriptEdit

  • A working title of this episode was "Cold and Distant Stars". The original teleplay, written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, involved Sisko going back in time and ending up homeless. His claims that he was actually from the future and was the commander of a space station prompted those around him to think he was insane, and he was eventually given thorazine. This script was written by Wolfe as a commentary on the apathy of the people of the 20th century towards the homeless. However, nobody was very happy with the script, including Wolfe himself, until Ira Steven Behr came up with the idea of the Sanctuary Districts and the Bell Riots. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
  • Robert Hewitt Wolfe explained that what he and his fellow writers tried to portray in this episode were the circumstances that led Humans to try to improve their societal conditions. "The whole idea was that the Bell Riots were a formative thing in the history of the Federation," he commented, "because it was what made people feel really bad enough to try to make the Federation." (Time Travel Files: "Past Tense", DS9 Season 3 DVD, Special Features)
  • To an extent, this episode's two-parter was also written as essentially an attempt to make the audience more socially aware. "The future we extrapolated [in the episode] is very, very likely to happen in some form or another," Ira Behr pointed out. "It was intended as a wake-up call." (Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before, paperback ed., p. 194)
  • Chris Brynner, Vin, Lee, Bernardo Calvera, and Britt were all named after characters from the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven. Brynner also takes his name from Oscar-winning actor Yul Brynner, who played Chris Adams in the film. B.C. was named after First Assistant Director B.C. Cameron.
  • Ira Steven Behr stated that there is a subtle examination of racism in this episode. When Dax is discovered, she is treated like royalty, but when Sisko and Bashir are found, they are treated like criminals. Of this situation, Behr said, "The simple fact is that a beautiful white woman is always going to get much better treatment than two brown-skinned men." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
  • While the episode was filming, an article in the Los Angeles Times described a proposal by the Mayor that the homeless people of that city could be moved to fenced-in areas so as to contain them, in an effort to "make downtown Los Angeles friendlier to business." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) Shortly thereafter, Alexander Siddig stated, "It turned out that 'Past Tense' was the best timing of all because the L.A. city council is actually trying to set up something called 'Sanctuaries' in L.A. for the homeless people right now which are enclosed areas where they wish to put all the homeless people. The anti-sanctuary people saw our show and were astounded to see that someone had done this. It's a happening thing and at the moment sanctuaries are going to be developed in L.A." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 102, p. 49) In retrospect, Siddig later commented further on this coincidence: "The episode was almost a cinematic version of that statement by the LA council." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) As Ira Behr commented, the plan was "to put aside part of downtown Los Angeles as a haven, nice word, a haven for the homeless." Similarly, as Robert Wolfe said, "That was what the Sanctuary Districts were, places where the homeless could just be so no-one had to see them, and literally there it was in the newspaper. We were a little freaked out." (Time Travel Files: "Past Tense", DS9 Season 3 DVD, Special Features)

Cast and charactersEdit

  • Just as Sisko assumed the role of Gabriel Bell, John Lendale Bennett (who briefly appears as the original Bell) assumed the role of Sisko on numerous occasions, acting as a stunt double and stand-in for Avery Brooks in numerous episodes including this one. Earlier in the third season, Bennett also played Kozak in "The House of Quark".
  • Alexander Siddig liked how this episode showed a different side to the characters of Sisko and Bashir. "That's the beauty of what they've done with Avery's character, especially in 'Past Tense' which I think is the best show that's come out of Deep Space Nine [….] Both characters (Sisko and Bashir) took a real leap," Siddig commented, "because the writers could write about real issues and just put that (Starfleet) manual aside [….] Bashir was very capable when it came to dealing with problems in that episode [&hellip.] I thought it was about time that I could do that without misleading anybody. There are times in everybody's life when you are like that because the nature of the incident merits it. Bashir got pissed to the point of wanting to hit people." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 102, p. 49)



Continuity and triviaEdit

  • Ira Steven Behr said that this episode continues an investigation into the heart of Gene Roddenberry's universe which Behr himself had begun in "The Maquis, Part II". Behr pointed out that, as was well established in the Star Trek universe originally envisioned by Roddenberry, society had to go through Hell before reaching a state of utopia, and this episode is part of an examination of that Hell. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) As Robert Hewitt Wolfe elaborated, "How did we get from where we are today to the Federation? Was it a nice easy smooth ride? Well we know it wasn't. Gene Roddenberry mentioned the Eugenics War and World War III and all sorts of bad things from here to there, so what was the spark, what was the thing that made people think, 'We've got to do better.' And that's what we tried to portray." (Time Travel Files: "Past Tense", DS9 Season 3 DVD, Special Features)
  • Star Trek: First Contact, which was released a year-and-a-half after this episode aired, states that World War III took place around the year 2053, roughly thirty years after the Bell Riots. This presumably put the social changes mentioned in this episode on hold while the world recovered, as Commander Riker stated in the film that most of the major cities had been destroyed.
  • Starfleet's temporal displacement policy is mentioned for the first time in this episode. This policy subsequently returns in the fifth season episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", which also introduced a group of officers who enforce it.
  • Two new Rules of Acquisition are mentioned:
    • #111 – "Treat people in your debt like family… exploit them."
    • #217 – "You can't free a fish from water."
  • This is the first episode of the DS9 TV series to feature Earth.
  • Doctor Bashir's rhetorical question to Sisko – of whether mankind would revert, if faced with a real crisis – is addressed again in "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" (albeit by different characters) and Bashir expresses similar thoughts after learning of Section 31's existence at the end of "Inquisition".
  • This is the second DS9 episode from season three in which a character played by John Lendale Bennett is stabbed to death, leading to a main character taking his place. The first was "The House of Quark", featuring the death of Bennett's character Kozak.

Video and DVD releasesEdit

Links and referencesEdit

Main castEdit

Guest starsEdit


Uncredited co-stars Edit

Stunt doubles Edit

Stand-ins Edit


2024; 345 California Center; ablative armor; alcohol; Aldebaron III; Alpha Centauri; Alps; American history; anarchy; Annual Starfleet Symposium; annular confinement beam; assistant; August; Bajor; bath; bed; Bell Riots; Belongo; Blue Zone; Britt; brooch; Brynner Information Systems; budget; Burke, Helen; calendar; California; Calvera, Sonya; Cardassian; C; Channel 90; Channel 178; Chen, Robert; Christchurch; chroniton; Clift, The; cloaking device; combadge; constable; credit chip; doctor; Defiant, USS; dim; discount; disinfectant; disorientation; District Security; Dominion; Drazman; Dutch language; Earth; Earth satellite network; English; Errand of Mercy Meal Support; Europe; Federation; Federation communications satellite; France; Friday; Fudd, Elmer; Gamma Quadrant; Gaullism; ghost; gimmie; Golden Gate Bridge; Grand Nagus; green; Heisenberg compensator; high school; hospital; interface; Interface Operations; interface terminal; interpreter; jacked (aka robbed); Japan; job placement; level-one diagnostic; Luna; Māori; Mars; medical kit; microscopic singularity; mining; Molotov cocktail; money; Mount Cook; Mozart Piano Sonata Number 16; mugged; namesake; national hero; Neo-Trotskyism; net; Net Access; New Zealand; Ngomo; orbital habitat; Pan-Caribbean; pattern buffer; Portland; Prometheus Gifts and Knicknaks; Processing Center; protest; Proxima Maintenance Yards (Proxima Centauri); public relations; purple; ration card (aka food card); Red Zone; Remington Model 870; Replimat; riot; rioters; Romulans; Rules of Acquisition; SafeTech; sanctuary; San Francisco; San Francisco Municipal Code; San Francisco Municipal Government; Sanctuary District; Sanctuary District A; Sanctuary District A Admin Services; Sanctuary residents; schizophrenia; scrambled eggs; Seal of San Francisco; Sector 001; shave; shotgun; Sisko, Judith; skiing; Sleeping Beauty; Sol system; Starfleet; Starfleet Academy; Starfleet Headquarters; Starfleet Security; soylent; subspace bubble; subspace signal; tattoo; temporal displacement policy; temporal energy; terraforming station; Trans Bay Tube 2; Trans Francisco; transit pass; transporter; transporter beam; transporter log; transporter room; transporter sequence; transporter shock; transporter signal; tricorder; Trill; UHC card; United States of America; utensil; Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards; Venus; Wright; Zek

Related topicsEdit

alternate timeline; Human history; slang; time travel episodes

External linksEdit

Previous episode:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Season 3
Next episode:
"Past Tense, Part II"