Things aren’t going great in California right now for the poor. Instead of being taken care of they’re being treated like prisoners, which is exactly what happened in the 1995 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Past Tense.”
In the episode, Commander Sisko, Lieutenant Dax, and Doctor Bashir get into some sci-fi nonsense and yadda yadda yadda… they accidentally wind up stuck in San Francisco during an event called the Bell Riots on the last weekend of August 2024.
Does that date seem familiar?
I should confess that I probably don’t count as a Trekkie and have never been to a convention. I’m mostly a fan of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, although I think I’ve seen most of The Original Series with Shatner and Nimoy. Anyone who’s encountered someone annoying on Muni has wished they could do the Vulcan nerve pinch like Spock did to that punk guy in 1984, am I right?
While the plot of Past Tense may not exactly apply to today, the general message of punishing the poor for being poor is spot on. Perhaps things would be different if BART had built the second Transbay Tube that appears on a subway map in the episode. Or not.
Oh and the episode involves a massive violation of the Prime Directive, but it wouldn’t be a good story without that, would it?
Say what you will about Star Trek but modern day San Francisco could learn a thing or two about its overall hopeful and progressive politics.
Live long and prosper.