Mini Review #91: Star Trek DS9 3x11/3x12 "Past Tense Part 1" and "Past Tense Part 2" (Patreon)

I'm going to combine both these episodes together in this review as a lot of the things I will be talking about can be attributed to both parts of the story (besides the story beats of course). I LOVED these two episodes so much and they took my by so much surprise not only because time travel on Earth is something I would never have expected DS9 to do, but because the year Sisko, Bashir and Dax travelled to was 2024. They traveled to THIS YEAR which was so awesome. Even though obviously the events and technology was different, it was just cool to say that this episode of DS9 was happening this year. Anyways, I loved these two episodes as well for how grounded and gritty they felt. Seeing Sisko and Bashir tough it out in the horrible Sanctuary was eerie and sad to watch. The concept of Sanctuary's and the idea of throwing jobless or homeless people behind walls felt like something that could actually happen in the near future for us which terrified me. I loved exploring the lore of Earth and the Sanctuary with Sisko and Bashir and watching as the people living there were brought to a boil which eventually lead to a riot. The Riot was also so cool to watch and made me cheer countless times, especially whenever Sisko was leading in some way and raising his voice. Love that man. Dax on the other hand, while not having as compelling a story, still had an interesting one. While she was also stuck in 2024, she was stuck there with the rich. It was interesting because we got to see their point of view of what a Sanctuary is and what they think of the people unfortunate enough to be there. Seeing their negligence and utter lack of knowledge of it was fascinating to see. I also didn't like Dax's hair these two episodes it looked like a jellyfish without the tentacles. It was just cool overall to see a DS9 episode that dealt with social dynamics and societal hierarchies in a way that utilized Earth and felt relevant to me watching it IN 2024. Really fun one to watch and again, season 3 comes out swinging with fantastic episodes.