I claimed yesterday the conclusion to “Past Tense” would get even more obnoxiously liberal and so it has. What is doubly worse is there is a pretentious sense the story is so tense and meaningful the brief comic relief elements have to be particularly absurd in order to make the audience feel better. Thoughtful of them, no?What strikes me is the parallels to the Attica prison riot of 1971. the correlation goes right down to the governor giving into every demand except amnesty, but deciding to send in the National Guard anyway. The national Guard chose to attack without much consideration who was a rioting inmate and who was a hostage. Twenty inmates and nine hostages were killed. Fictitious news reports, lawsuits, and a pardon of one inmate falsely accused of murdering a police officer have clouded the truth about what really happened.
The riot has not been a particular interest of mine, but it does appear to have captured the progressive imagination. It had all the ingredients; prisoners given one shower a week and one roll of toilet paper a month, racial overtones, and Nelson Rockefeller, a liberal Republican, as governor. When the left has to criticize a left leaning Republican, they have to go after his character rather than his policies. They do so brutally. Older readers may correct me if I am wrong, but I assume Attica wasthe key reason Rockefeller’s presidential prospects fizzled.
The processing center is where the bulk of action takes place. Sisko, posing as Gabriel Bell, Bashir, a Kid Rock impersonator, and Corky’s dad take charge of the hostages. Bashir fears that Sisko is going to martyr himself like the real Bell was supposed to in orderto preserve the timeline. For now, his priority is to see the sanctuary district’s demands get heard and the hostages remain alive.
The sanctuary citizens want the place shut down and the Federal Employment Act reestablished. The act is never explained, but one assumes it is a New Deal type law requiring the government to give everyone a job who wants one. That is about the only logical conclusion I can draw.
It turns out one of the hostages is diabetic. I expected the revelation to producea ticking clock element, but Bashir easily gets her insulin. Did they throw that in because the episode was running short?
Dax eventually discovers their location through Chris, the Bill Gates type. She sneaks in through the sewers, begging the question why did that never occur to any of the ten thousands residents who want to escape? Have these people never seen The Shawshank Redemption?
The government agrees to hold hearings on the matter, but will not offer amnesty. Neither suits Sisko. The governor decides to raid the place. Before that can happen, Dax convinces Chris to broadcast many of the residents personal stories across the web to gain public sympathy. It does not work fast enough. Many are killed in the raid. The now sympathetic guards allow isko and Bashir to escape, but promise to tell the story in order to effect the proper social change.
I noted the comic relief was absurd. The image of Dax, dressed to the nines, popping out of a manhole was too absurd for words. Seeing her sneaking along with Clint Howard happily trotting along behind her took it to a whole new level of weirdness. The other bit was Kira and O’Brien beaming it different eras interspersed throughout the episode, with predictable results. I do note one interesting bit: the boxig poster on a wall behind them in 1930 was the same one on a wall behind Kirk and Spock in “City on the Edge of Forever.” The implication being they are all on Earth at the same time. Nice touch, but implausible.
For all its excessive preaching and obnoxious progressivism, I cannot say I did not like the episode. It amuses me so much logic was sacrificed to get the message across. The timeline never should have changed in 2371 no matter what was going on in 2024. Even if it did, the Defiant should have disappeared, too. No one ever thought about escaping through the sewers? What, did it smell too bad? Kira and O’Brien had only a one in three chance of finding their missing comrades on their last trip, but they chose correctly. No one is ever concerned Sisko ad Bashir’s communicators are missing. Whole episodes are centered around avoiding such contamination, but not here.
But the point was made--socialism rocks! So I guess the logical flaws are okay. take it away, Buffalo Springfield:Rating: *** (out of 5)
