History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E11PastTensePartI

* DeadPersonImpersonation: After realizing the man killed trying to help them was Gabriel Bell and the riots may go dramatically different without him, the end of the episode has Sisko take on the roll and call himself Bell to try and keep things on track.

* HandWave: One of the biggest ones in the entire franchise. TimeTravel is explained as [[TechnoBabble chroniton buildup in the Defiant's cloaking device caused the transporter to deliver the team to another time period]], and handily gave the crew RippleEffectMemoryProof as well allowing them to fix the problem.

* DeadGuyImpersonation: After realizing the man killed trying to help them was Gabriel Bell and the riots may go dramatically different without him, the end of the episode has Sisko take on the roll and call himself Bell to try and keep things on track.

* {{Subtext}}: Sisko and Bashir, who are dark-skinned, are treated with suspicion and taken into custody. Jadzia, who is white, is treated kindly and given assistance. The story never points this out explicitly, but the choice was an intentional one. In classic ''Star Trek'' fashion, both the haves and the have nots are shown as being of multiple different races throughout the episode (rather reflective of real life San Francisco).
** At the same time, Sisko and Bashir are men, while Jadzia is a woman by herself.

* ForWantOfANail: Without Bell around to protect the hostages, Earth's entire future is changed: Starfleet and the Federation no longer exist (and there are no longer any satellites orbiting Earth, suggesting humanity has either lost space travel or gone extinct) and the Romulans have apparently reached Alpha Centauri.

* {{Zeerust}}: 2024 looks a lot like a 1990s conception of the future. The computers have large CRT monitors with low resolution. The fact that they are touch-screen is supposed to be futuristic, but they require styluses, something that never really caught on in real life. The episode ''is'', however, just new enough to know that major transactions will be conducted over the Internet.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The episode is set in 2024, 29 years after its original air date of 1995. Projectile-based shotguns are still the firearm of choice, San Francisco's homeless problem since the 1970s has spiraled out of control, most business is apparently conducted over the internet, there's a new socialist government in France, and the fashion sense of the time seems to have shifted to something resembling the turn of the 19th century.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: All three officers must acclimate to being in hundreds of years in the past , when things weren't so utopian. For her part, Jadzia almost instantaneously figures out how to fit in, calling her communicator a "broach" mere seconds after waking up.

* SanDimasTime: When Gabriel Bell is killed in the past, Starfleet disappears in the present, though by rights it should have happened immediately after they traveled into the past.

* {{Zeerust}}: 2024 looks a lot like a 1990s conception of the future. The computers have large CRT monitors. The fact that they are touch-screen is supposed to be futuristic, but they require styluses, something that never really caught on in real life. The episode ''is'', however, just new enough to know that major transactions will be conducted over the Internet.

The ''Defiant'' is headed for earth for a conference. Odo, Kira and O'Brien stay on board while Sisko, Bashir and Dax beam down to San Francisco, but a convenient teleporter accident intervenes, and the computer says they never materialized where they were supposed to. Turns out that the teleporter has indeed placed them in San Francisco... ''2024'' San Francisco. And they've been knocked out by the process.

Sisko and Bashir are lying out in the open and are promptly robbed of their combadges. The police arrive to roust them as vagrants, and as they're hustled away, we see that Dax was unnoticed in a nearby stairwell. She lucks out, being discovered by a nice fella named Chris Brynner, who offers to assist her in getting a new ID.

While O'Brien pieces together what happened in orbit, Sisko and Bashir are shoved into a Sanctuary District; the place where the jobless, homeless and general unfit for work types are crowded into. They find the situation rather distressing. Residents of the Districts have been reduced to three categories: "gimmes", those who actually want to work and need help finding jobs; "dims", the homeless and hopeless, often mentally ill but unable to afford the necessary treatments that would allow them to be normal; and "ghosts", those who hadn't "integrated well" into the population, and have become bullies and thugs. Sisko notices the date on a nearby wall display -- August 30, 2024, mere days away from the infamous Bell Riots. The San Francisco Sanctuary District will rise up and take hostages to call attention to their plight, led by a man named Gabriel Bell. Hundreds of people will die, including Bell, but the nature of Bell's death -- sacrificing himself to save the lives of hostages -- will make him a hero, and the incident will set the groundwork for massive social reform. Sisko realizes they can't interfere with such a historically significant event. Bashir isn't happy, but he agrees. Lacking any money or resources, Sisko and Bashir are forced to sleep on the streets.

Sisko and Bashir conclude that as long as they can avoid the ghosts and stay out of the rioting, they'll be okay. Staying out of it they meet a man named B.C. robs a man and taunts Bashir and Sisko to do something about it, but they avoid the incitement. After trading their uniforms to get into a building, Bashir helps treat an injured boy. His wounds aren't serious, and their assistance nets them a new friend: his father, Michael Webb, a gimme.

While warming up around a barrel fire, B.C. shows up again and starts a fight with Bashir and Sisko. A random man (who bears some resemblance to Sisko) intervenes and tries to help, and winds up stabbed for it. Sisko and Bashir attempt to treat his wounds, but they prove fatal. They're left with the man's ID... and it says ''Gabriel Bell''. Bell's death has immediate effects on the timeline. Back in the 24th century, Starfleet is ''gone'', though thanks to some TechnoBabble, the ''Defiant'' is immune to the changes. Odo, Kira, and O'Brien realize that finding out where Sisko, Bashir, and Dax were sent to is now of utmost importance.

Back in 2024, the riots have begun. B.C. has several hostages at gunpoint -- the ones Bell is said to have defended. History hinges on those hostages surviving. And Sisko knows what he has to do:

-->'''B.C.''' I've waited a long time for this and I know I won't be disappointed. Ain't that right, new boy?
-->'''Sisko:''' [[TheNameIsBondJamesBond The name is Bell. Gabriel Bell.]]

* AlienSea: To Dax and Kira, Earth's blue sea is rather odd (apparently, Trill's ocean is more purplish while Bajor's is more green).
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: After confirming that Sisko and Bashir are in the Sanctuary District, Brynner tries to assure Dax that they'll be fine, since it's just there to provide people with food and a place to stay. Dax asks why, in that case, it has a wall around it. Brynner clearly has no answer to that.
* BadassBookworm: B.C. picks on Bashir because he seems to be the meek one, compared to the more obviously dominant Sisko. However, when an all-out brawl breaks out Bashir lays out B.C. with just two punches, and does quite handily against a second goon who comes in to try to back B.C. up. It ends up taking 3 dudes to bring him down.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Subverted. Jadzia quickly realizes that she's in the wrong year and immediately plays along quite deftly, especially impressive when you consider she's not even from Earth.
** However, while it's still impressive how precisely and quickly she adapts to the time period, it also makes sense from a character standpoint; the Dax symbiont was born in the year 2018, and had lived through the lifetimes of half a dozen hosts, likely making it easier for Jadzia to recognize and acclimate herself to more primitive technological eras.
* FormerTeenRebel: Chris. If the story about the badass Maori tattoo he used to have is any evidence.

* MandatoryLine: It would've been hard to fit Quark into a story where the characters time travel to the 21st century Earth and have to pretend they're humans of that era, so he only has a couple of plot-irrelevant lines at beginning of the episode, and doesn't appear after that.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Some fans have complained about Julian's CPR method looking fake (not doing artificial respiration breaths), even though modern CPR requires 30 compressions followed by 2 breaths. Julian only made it to 19 before Sisko drags him away.

* TechnologyMarchesOn:[[invoked]] 2024 San Francisco is still using a 1990's style computer [=GUI=] (incidentally, remarkably similar to the one used by the 24th century Bajorans).
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The episode is set in 2024, 29 years after its original air date of 1995. Projectile-based shotguns are still the firearm of choice, San Francisco's homeless problem since the 1970's has spiraled out of control, most business is apparently conducted over the internet, there's a new socialist government in France, and the fashion sense of the time seems to have shifted to something resembling the turn of the 19th century. Also, World War III should be only a couple years away, but that never ties into the episode at all.

* {{Zeerust}}: 2024 looks extremely 1990's, and the computers look almost outdated even for then.
** At least partially made up for by the fact that it's the middle of an economic depression and most of the episode focuses on the sanctuary district, a run-down part of the city being used as a prison for the homeless. Becomes a little more apparently though in Dax's subplot showing rich people in this time period.

* SanDimasTime: When Gabriel Bell is killed in the past, Starfleet disappears in the present, though by rights it should have happened immediately after they traveled into the past (or [[spoiler:not at all, given the events of the next episode]]).

** Or, alternatively, they were in a StableTimeLoop and the real Gabriel Bell was just a decent guy who gave his life to protect strangers while the leader of the revolution was always Sisko working in his name. Current Sisko studied the riots without any way to know it was his own actions. However, Sisko seems to reject this interpretation in the end of Part 2, and the fact Bell's death temporarily erased the Federation suggests that Sisko and Bashir's actions did change the timeline.

* FormalFullArrayOfCutlery: Referenced. O'Brien mentions "a different fork at every meal" as one of the reasons he hates officers' parties, and why he stays as an enlisted man.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: 2024 San Francisco is still using a 1990's style computer [=GUI=] (incidentally, remarkably similar to the one used by the 24th century Bajorans).

Sisko and Bashir conclude that as long as they can avoid the ghosts and stay out of the rioting, they'll be okay. Staying out of it proves hard when [[{{Troll}} a particularly dickheaded ghost]] named B.C. robs a man and taunts Bashir and Sisko to do something about it, but they avoid the incitement. After trading their uniforms to get into a building, Bashir helps treat an injured boy. His wounds aren't serious, and their assistance nets them a new friend: his father, Michael Webb, a gimme.