A Geek History of Time - Episode 281 - Gabriel Bell Riots Revisited Part II

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Hi Geek Timers, it's me again. This is the second week of us replaying old episodes. Specifically, if you are starting now, you should probably go back to the previous episode and listen to that very long. And I dare say excellent intro that I did. But if you are a monster and decide on starting things in the middle and work your way out to the edges, then fine. This is episode two of us doing a watch along of the episodes of Star Trek called Past Tense parts one and two that covered the Gabriel Bell riots which happened in September of 2024. This is now September of 2024. So if you're listening to this as it came out, then you know why we're doing it. Anyway, give it a listen. I wouldn't say enjoy exactly, but let it provoke you. Let us know what we got right or wrong.

Feel free to email all of your hate to Ed, because he actually checks his email, and I don't. Either way, I hope you enjoy the second watch along episode of us watching Past Tense way back in October of 2020 about a episode of Deep Space Nine that's supposed to take place in September of 2024. And now we're re-releasing it in September of 2024. I'm sure that the time police are going to come get me and me and John Claude Van Damme will Spin kick me into oblivion now, but either way here it is Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere you are destroying the Constitution of the United States may God have mercy on your souls

We could be said if we just elected the right white man to power. That's creepy, but that's in a different category of creepy. Zit-zoo, zit-zoo, zit-zoo. Gary Gygars. Of course he introduced zoning laws. OK. You know what?

Don't. The less I have to do with that game, the better. Here's my favorite part of the defense. Clodius was probably fucking his sister. Jughead not Jarhead, I have nothing against Marines. I'm gonna make that very clear. I'd be really interested to find out what fucking truth that one of them was trying to get at.

Like with most episodes, I can bring him back to wrestling. Right, well he's got other people who work for him who also do things and they can mutate Okay. human size into smaller worlds after all. Fuck you. I still don't give a shit about getting and they can transmute human size into smaller worlds after all. Fuck you. I still don't give a shit about getting fake property in a fantasy game.

This is a geekek History of Time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history teacher here in Northern California. Currently engaged in distance learning. And earlier today I had the wonderful fun of for the first time having a student try to join my class under the pseudonym Ben Dover. I Don't get it. Is that not his name?

No, he's not on my roster. I don't know weird. Send him to council. Yeah, I'm sorry Mr. Dover, you're gonna have to go speak with the principal because we don't have you on my roll. Yeah, here we go Yeah, so we did we did wind up having an issue come up where a number of kids got kicked off of everybody's roster Because they they don't have their current T DAP records Turned in oh Which like here's the deal I fully believe that you know if a kid isn't up to date on their immunizations Then they shouldn't be going to school

With that being said though right now, of course This is northern California and I'm in a county on the watch list, which means they're not actually going anywhere to go to school so like It kind of seems I mean seemed like I understand we need to make sure they get those records updated. But do I need to actually have the conversation with them that I can't let you into my class right now because we

don't because your parents talked to the office? I actually had to say that to students today because the office told me I had to say that to students today, because because the office told me I had to say that to students today. And it was it was one of the most surreal experiences I've had in in in this error. Slow motion catastrophe is like, well, okay, your immunization records aren't up to date. So you can't come to school, but you're not actually coming to school. Yeah, it feels like all the anti-vactors would actually be able to attend class.

You think, right? But, you know, so, yeah, it was it was truly like it felt like like like waiting for good dough I mean it felt like I can't remember the author's name right now, but it really it really felt like that kind of play No, no I'm sorry. It's comedy of the absurd Yeah, that was Beckett. Yeah. Yeah, it literally felt like something out of Beckett like no no I can't yeah I can't let you into my you know plague classroom because you're not immunized.

Wow. Like, hold on. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the best awkwardness of part of my day today. Who are you? I'm Damian Harmony. I'm a distance Latin teacher.

I haven't had to kick anybody out of my Zoom rooms for not being vaccinated, but I do know that every couple years I have to get a tuberculosis test. And because I taught kids who were from refugee camps in the early part of my career, I ended up testing positive for tuberculosis because I developed antibodies. Never had TB, but I was around kids who had it or who had themselves been exposed to it. The result is I can't do the little sticky in the arm test. I have to get a chest X-ray. So every couple years I have to get a chest X-ray showing that I don't have TB. So I went to them and I got a chest X-ray.

This was a few years back. And when I did, I said, okay, can you send it over to my employer, no problem, boom, boom, boom. So got the x-rays. The employer says, oh, we need to have the actual x-rays. I said, okay, I can have them emailed to you. Well, an email won't count. I said, okay, well, what do you need?

They said, well, if you could fax it to us. I said, you do realize a fax is a paper version of an email, right? And they said, well, if you emailed it to us, it would have to have the letterhead or like the masthead of the website of the hospital on it as well. I said, okay, well, if I faxed it, it wouldn't have that. And they said, oh yeah, but that's fine, a fax works. I said, oh, um, so. Oh, yeah. And it was this weird, like, I'm not even gonna say it was Beckett-like or even Ionesco-like, I'm gonna say it was Kafka-esque.

There was no way I could get out of this Gordian knot that was also a Mobius strip like and it was and then here's the thing okay interrupt because the the punchline is coming go ahead okay I'm gonna I'm gonna argue I don't think it's Kafka mm-hmm I think it's Heller what what you're describing is a literal catch 22 could be could be, could be. Here's why I'm gonna say that it's actually Kafka-esque. Because at the end of it all, I got them what they needed and they said, okay,

you're still not cleared to work with kids. I said, why not? They said, because you need to fill out this survey. And the survey was two boxes. Yes and no. Do you have tuberculosis? No. And then I handed it to them. They said, great. I said, Did you actually need any of the other stuff then? And they said, Oh, no, this would have done just fine. You can just do no, I said, What do we need to do next time? And they said, Oh, you just fill out the survey next time and it's fine You know that I could have lied on that

And I wouldn't have to go get the damn x-ray and take a day off So so here's the thing I have two wonderful children And they grew up Lord and say, they come home, dad, I'm queer, cool. You met someone? They come home, they say, dad, I'm voting for whatever party exists at the time. Okay, that's fine, I guess.

You know, maybe we'll have some ideological differences, but hopefully they'll have gone way further left than I did They come home, and they say dad. I'm gonna major in business I'll respect their lifestyle choice, but I won't endorse it They come home, and they say dad I've gone to work for your district and I'm going to be the one instituting these these kinds of policies

They will not be allowed in my house ever again Because I raised them better than that I raised you to be the people god damn it. Yeah No, I understand god damn it. Yeah, I know I understand. I understand. Yeah, so, all right. Last time we talked about a couple of really good episodes of Deep Space Nine that are eerily prescient.

This time, we're going to do a watch along. So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna ask you, as well as everyone else okay to cue up okay on Amazon Prime if you've got it because I don't think Netflix does it anymore or if you have Hulu without the commercials this will work too you're gonna queue up episode or season 3 episode 11 it's called Past Tense Part 1. Go ahead and cue it up. I have it cued up already.

I'm right there. And while people are cuing it up, honestly you all can just hit pause while you do it. You don't have to do this live. Beauty of the Podcast. This is asynchronous learning time right now. You can do this at your own pace. This is asynchronous. This is asynchronous learning time right now You can do this at your own pace. That's right. And now you sir you you specifically at this Yeah, you need to make sure you skip the ad and you need to make sure you scrub that little ball all the way back And hit pause. This is what we call targeted instruction Okay, so so we have our camera turned off so I can't show you five fingers for I'm totally on board.

Three fingers for I'm mostly there and one finger for like I'm completely lost. Right. Can't can't do that one. But I can tell you that I have done all of that. I am at zero zero zero zero ready to hit play when you say. Good. I actually I had the kids today. I was like, hey, I'm teaching them how to use the Zoom.

And I said, hey, go ahead and click on the React. Give me a thumbs up if you've done this. And then they do that. And all these thumbs just fill the screen. And I'm like, I haven't seen this many thumbs up since I was at the doctor's. And some of the kids are wide eyed. fuck I'm like I just have really good health and the doctors are all very proud of me and

moved on Because it also works that way see See you teach high school so you can get away with a joke like that. Yeah, I can be the middle schooler. I Envy you yeah, no teaching no seven seventh and eighth graders. No, I'd, I'd there'd be a parent there to a hundred percent be a parent complete. Oh yeah. So. All right. So everybody's cute. I envy for you birds. Yeah. All right. Here we go. All right. I'm gonna say three, two, one. I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna say go. After I say go, you click play. All right. So we'll just practice real quick. Here's the cadence of it. Don't everybody do it yet. Three, two, one, go. And then you'd

click it. All right. Here we go. Now make sure that your closed captioning is on Ed, because we're not going to do it with sound because then we'll get busted for copyright. Everyone else, watch it with sound. Just have us in one ear. Alright, we ready? Three, two, one, go. Alright, cold flying to Earth. Yeah. And somebody has a sister in Portland. Interesting. Okay. And for some reason they managed to fit the entire Ops crew on the bridge. I don't get how or why. I don't get why Jadzia would be the as the science officer she would be at the helm. I don't get why O'Brien would be I guess he's an engineer. So that would make sense. So yeah, and Bashir I could understand but again, doesn't the station need all of these senior officers?

So here's Cisco before he shaved his head and before he got his beard. Yeah Yeah And then I'm trying to look at who else oh and why would why would anybody from Bajoran? Liaison offices beyond this ship going to earth Earth yeah, I don't know. Yeah, that's bizarre Yeah, oh and here's here's here's making an appearance because we got it We got to see everybody right you're on an emergency channel. Yeah, and he he is Just basically he's doing what he can to talk about the Grand Nagas and again, why would Odo be there too?

Yeah, well, yeah, I it is it is a writing choice I don't quite understand. Mm-hmm. Okay, so yeah, slight misunderstanding. Yeah, okay. So nepotism amongst the Ferengi, big shock. Yeah. And here's where Cisco actually quotes back the rules of acquisition to Quark. I have been reading up and he has suitably impressed Quark.

It also reminded me of the 217th rule of acquisition. You can't free a fish from water. Nice. I'll be sure that Nagus gets the message. So here we are. And I love how, since this is a smaller ship, it's got a tiny transporter, which again, O'Brien by the way is stuck using the transporter. Yeah. Uh-oh. That's strange. Nothing serious you say. Power fluctuation, ann That's strange. I think nothing serious you say power fluctuation annular confinement beam

Well, that's impossible Yep, and so now we've got the tech talk tech talk tech talk that gets us to the actual they're just gone What happened? Yeah, and oh hey, so okay all right I I Just kind of want to say that you know based on the conversations. I've had about you know transporters actually being suicide machines Mm-hmm, I feel like O'Brien ought to be a little more horrified of the fact that you know three of his friends Have just been disintegrated and not shown up where they were supposed to be. Like, it seemed an awful lot, like, you know. Oh, well, that's really weird.

Did you notice there's Login sleeping on the streets? Yeah, oh yeah. And they're asking for ID. Identification, U-H-C card. And they're asking for ID identification you made you see card oh First mention of dims With shotguns in the cops cops have shotguns about this yeah, yeah

Well there there Seems it was yesterday 2024 You know, there's there's something I Don't know how I was wondering how they really how they divided them notice that Dax is actually Physically not too far from them, but she ended up You know on the subway inside inside the subway station now. I'm not skipping the intro, so we're just going to let that play. OK, and while we're playing that, there's something about 90 science fiction shows.

And DS9 was one with pretty high level production values. But there's something about the I don't know if it's lighting or the medium of on which stuff was recorded but there's there's that scene in broad daylight with you know everybody in in in the uniforms in their outfits reminded me very strongly of like the kind of a aesthetic That you got on shows like monsters and tales from the dark side. Mm-hmm Which I don't know how familiar you are with either one of those but not something okay, some something about the jumpsuits the cops were wearing and and

There's there's a certain I don't I don't quite want to say cheapness But a certain I don't know it is very feels very feels very studio. Yeah. Well it is it's a back lot I mean you saw the the background there and it was you know a Quick easy shop front and and you have just a nice tight shot on everything so you don't really see what's going on Yeah, so by the, the guy that played, the guy that called them Dems, his name is Dick Miller. He has been in everything. He was in The Terminator, he was the pawn shop clerk.

He, yeah, like he has been in everything. He did voice work, he's kind of one of those everymen. Yeah, yeah. On TV tropes, the name of that trope is, Hey, it's that guy. So, alright, here we are back. Alright, so here we are, okay, Jed Zia. Now she's in the subway,

and she's wearing her communicator, which means that she's got a little bit of gold on her Get jacked or something, you know robbed And he's asking her now notice white woman not being asked by the authorities asked by a private citizen. Right, and he's doing everything to be nice. As opposed to, oh, you guys must be dims. Yeah.

Shouldn't be walking around with that idea, but there were some replacements. Come on up to my office with me. Yeah. I also like that 90s thought that in 30 years that style would still wouldn't have necktie anymore. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, yeah, well yeah that that the that the male uniform since you know Practically well since the easily Victorian era since since Dickensian times that Well, you know he kind of has a tie, but it's not but it's not a long So yeah Now this is an exterior shot that was probably shot in LA. Yeah. But...

Yeah. Could be just about the exterior of just about any high rise office building. Now, here we're back with Cisco, or not Cisco, O'Brien and Kira trying to figure out what happened. And so, we're just going to see that they're trying to solve the problem, and it's going to be a little bit. This honestly, this is the service to the fact that they're in the future and that they're trying to fix the problem.

But it's not the real plot. Well, yeah. Narratively, that's... Yeah. No, it's not. It's the explanation of, you know, meanwhile, in order to try to find a way to get them back Because Cronot on particles on its own oh, jeez I'm

Did it build the clock and sometimes it come lodged in the ship good god. Are you kidding me? Okay, you know here's the deal when the series was on Okay, you know, here's the deal when when the series was on Oh, there was a certain amount of of like There's a surge in there was a surge in temporal energy and that's the science explanation the transporter Yeah, tell me it's a clue. It's a clue. All right, I just don't know what it means yet. Yeah, so You know back when when the series was ongoing It was it was kind of a a loving joke of joke of, look at all this techno babble nonsense.

After 25 years after it was on, that was actually a little bit hard for me to read. I have to be honest. Yeah. You know, it flows a lot better when O'Brien's saying it, though. Now, what you see here is interesting, because you actually see a multi-story building with lots of people stuffed into it and then essentially like the Berlin Wall style behind

them, right there behind Bashir, including like a large iron gate that basically keeps everyone in. Yeah. And then what? And then we find a way home. So, see, they are being, I don't want to say roughly handled, but they're being handled and they're being taken in for processing. They're definitely, yeah, they're being manhandled. I wouldn't you know Even DS 9 was too

genteel to to show the marriage like Yeah, you know what I mean But they'll get roughed up by other homeless people. Well, yeah, because, you know. This series was made by Americans, so that's how that's going to work. Now, you see here and when I went and did comedy in San Francisco before the plague times, like there were tents

everywhere on the street. So this is not that different from San Francisco that I've come to know. These guys are giving all the exposition tax by the way. What's that? OK. Just the the. Just your description of what's going on in the city. It's been a while since I've been down there.

Oh, yeah, yeah. So that it's gotten that bad. It's bad, yeah. I can't, unfortunately, I can't say it's shocking, but it's disappointing. But they were giving all the exposition text to what had happened there. Yeah. And so now she's, what I love too is like, okay, you just went from that scene where you had everybody crammed

into such a small space. His office number one, very high up very clean, tons of space, lots and lots of space, very orderly lines. And she's using his computer, which they thought that we would still have desktop consoles yeah yeah there's there's a number of things about that that oh okay hold that thought because they're gonna talk about the tattoos and he's just so broly of him. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Just like everybody else.

In the 90s. I had to have it removed. Yeah. Everybody doing that tribal bullshit. Government contracts. That they weren't tribes of. Had to live like all the rest of the drought. Yeah.

So yeah, so she passes off her trail marks as tattoos. Body art. Yeah. And he mentions, you know, as a white guy, urban professional, and he's actually a tech bro, that he had a Maori tattoo down his arm. I just, I love that. Yeah. So so anyway, you were saying.

No, you know, the the failure of science fiction writers to predict the Internet. Yeah. I mean, by the time this was made, of of course it wasn't a you know predicting the internet but but not being able to Or overlooking I don't want to say not being able to but but the fact that You know the way our interlinked, you know net connected present was

like completely not thought of. Right. By everybody. You say that, but actually she just used the internet. She was on his terminal. Okay, good point. Yeah. Let me change that a little bit.

The ubiquity in our current world of WiFi. Sure. Is kind of more where I was going. And the idea that now we have moved, you know, shit has moved into the cloud. We don't have, like, you know, the hard drive on your computer is almost turning into a vestigial device now.

You know, all that kind of stuff was totally overlooked. No, so now they've been fingerprinted. Oh, and the fact that they don't have an interface account. That's an interesting wrinkle. And he gives the reasons for. And you're supposed to rest like clouds. You figure it out. You're supposed to rest like clouds. You figure it out. So this is kind of, this is where, you know, this is social services, but it's been defunded

quite honestly. Yeah, well it's, well, yeah, well it's been defunded and the guys that are handling it are you know have I mean it's a fabric badge, but it's still a badge and shotguns like This this is literally the the opposite of defunding the police yeah, I Do find it remarkable that they're making that there there was clearly a point made To select extras who were people of color yep For that was very per se in the sanctuary. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure I know What I'm saying is you know the the point that's being made there was

You know quite a point to be made for the 90s like it's Quite a thing. All right, so we have Technobabble, Technobabble, redirected where not aware when that's such a Star Trek Technobabble line. They arrived in San Francisco just like supposed to but not when they were supposed to. Right and now you got to figure out and that's what this is basically the B story or a C storyline because the B storyline would be Jidzia this is the C storyline yeah of trying to figure this out so

yeah Cisco is sitting amongst a bunch of people who are in need of medical care, mental health services. And Bashir is actually trying to actually get things moving along. That's three words. Yeah, in his very Bashir way. Yep. What I what I find in you character is here in just a second yeah oh yeah yep this is actually we're recording this Goddamn about a week. Yeah, I hate a week and four years late. Yeah a

Week late and four years early four years early. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so So yeah, by the way cute that they thought we'd get to the Celsius system by now. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, come on, by 2024, we have to have woken up from our, you know, English system, imperial system nightmare, right? Yes, yes. I mean, for God sakes, the British Empire doesn't even use the imperial system anymore. Right. But we do. And we have, you know, one of them having paid attention in history class and the other one not. Which gives us exposition.

Those moments in it shows, you know, which gives us exposition. That's one of those moments I always enjoy as a history teacher is when one of the characters remembers what they studied and the other one's like, wait, what? Yeah. You moron, were you not paying attention in high school of course you aren't and now he's Exactly what's gonna happen?

Where you have essentially the sanctuary riots the Gabriel Bell riots yeah Starfleet, okay, I love how Starfleet has a temporal displacement policy. Yes. Like what kind of freakish super science organization do you have to be part of where you can talk about the temporal displacement policy with a straight face? Yeah, well, and an ethics organization too. Yeah, yeah. You know, now what's really remarkable of course is that they are in the middle of a temporal displacement.

So me saying that, I'm not giving them quite enough credit because clearly, you know, that means that something like this has clearly happened before. Right. So. Yeah, well we've seen several temporal episodes by this point anyway. So this is true. That's a good point. Okay, I just want to want to take a second to to give really great credit to Avery Brooks. Because I mean he's an amazing actor anyway but in moments like this is when you

remember that he played Hawk in Spencer for hire Spencer and he has and he has and he has that that really the timber of his voice and the way that he gets very serious that way. Yeah, there's a level of gravitas he has in moments like this that's amazing. Now, I love this room. So they're working with a social worker. this room. So he's they're working with a social worker. She's got a screen. Not even a flat screen, very small screen on the wall. But she like look at how well they've dressed up her office paper paper everywhere. stains on the wall.

Yeah. So and then she's she's even saying like so again we're getting a ton of exposition because this is part one of a two parter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know but she's she's basically you know do you have anything lined up and she's explaining the way the system has broken down and she's explaining it from the inside. Yeah. I'd also point out she's African American. She's explaining the way the system has broken down and she's explaining it from the inside. I'd also point out she's African American.

She's an African American woman social worker. Yeah. So. But here's the interesting thing. They are restricted for their own safety by law. Yeah. And then and here comes the paradox. We're stuck in here. Yeah. Right. Catch 22. How long does that usually take? Yeah. I'm sure I can give you an answer. Yeah. And you're

basically, yeah. What with the economy and all Yeah, and and and yep what I what I find Remarkable about about the actors here is you can see the the differences in in They're having internalized their own characters. Yes in in the way the two of them are responding to the Cisco is like Yeah, of course, right? and and Bashir meanwhile is like utterly baffled by all of this because even even in the

classless society of the Federation he's He's he's been yeah, he's he's he's been. Yeah. He's he's an upper class twit. I say it lovingly, but he really is the upper the upper class. Oh, the first three seasons. He was very much that that was that was a thing. You

know, he really like pushed hard in it all. So, yeah. And then we get to the story story. So Dax is in the upper crusts and she's getting all the help she needs. She's got a place to stay. She's got money. She's got all kinds of things. He's not actually making any passes at her. That's one of the things I like about this is he's just a nice guy. But meanwhile those guys just got told you could stay anywhere you like, passes at her. That's one of the things I like about this is he's just a nice guy. But meanwhile those guys just got told you could stay anywhere you like, which is code for

we don't know, we don't care. Yeah. And for people who are wondering, we're at the 22 minute, 25 second mark now. Yeah. So we're roughly halfway through the episode. OK. Yeah, this is a very sympathetic portrayal of the tech bro, I'm going to say. Yeah. I wonder, speaking of everything is the product of a time in which it gets made, I wonder if his character would

be as sympathetic if this was made today in the wake of The me to movement I Don't know being you know I power high-powered tech bro her being a helpless woman in that situation you know I mean because I I had forgotten The B plot of this episode and I'm remembering as we're going along, but I'm still expecting at any moment

for there to be the, well, I kind of think you're hot and I've done all this stuff for you. Kind of thing going on. He keeps her from opening the door kind of thing. Yeah, and none of that has happened yet, which I think, I hate to say it, but I feel like it's almost naive. You know? Yeah.

They can cure that man now today if they gave a damn. Yeah. It's not that they don't give a damn, they've just given up. Right. Yeah. So, there you go. Now, this is again written at a time where homelessness was beginning its decline, but nobody knew that it was declining. Yeah.

But causing people to suffer because you have forgotten how to care. Right. See, and this is where we see that the upper-class twit is actually a Deeply decent guy yes You know he is an upper-class twit with you know all the privilege in the world on his you know as his baggage but he is Truly a soft-hearted compassionate guy and so yeah Oh here we come to that line talking about yep And so yeah. Here we come to that line you're talking about. Yep.

Mm-hmm. I mean he should be breaking the fourth wall and just asking us that. Yeah he really should. Yeah. By the way good job Jonathan Frakes directing like there's a lot of exposition here. There's a lot of preachiness here and he's keeping it fairly organic. Yeah. So and then you get to the aggressive homeless guy who

probably needs mental care as well. Well, certainly he's being played with some particularly wide eyes, which might be a thing. I, you know, I want to know where did they think in 1995, where did they think that all of these guys were going to get those hats? Well, they're old hats. In 90. Yeah, I understand that. But, you know, talking like like we talked about, Marin, you know, not wearing a necktie, right? Like we're as a costuming choice. Who who made the decision that, oh, yeah, we're going to we're going to dress

these guys like hobos from from the 20s or the 30s. Yeah, that's a good point. I think, again, your complaint earlier about the cheapness. Yeah. Oh yeah, it is kind of a hobo code kind of thing, isn't it? So, I mean, that's an explanation, but it feels like lazy costume-ing to me.

Yeah. Through the polarized chronotron particles. Technobabble, technobabble, technobabble. Where in time, Cisco and the others are narrowed it down to a dozen different possibilities. What's great about that is that you can have little technical glitches that get them to different costuming surpluses essentially. Yeah. You know, you're going to go to San Francisco. What I would have loved is if they showed up in San Francisco during Times Arrow and like you just see data walking behind them real quick. So, would have been cool. Yeah, that would have been a remarkable stunt. By the way,

almost guys playing with a toy there. Kind of a nice, nice touch. Yeah, that would have been a remarkable stunt right there. By the way, homeless guy playing with a toy there. Kind of a nice touch. A lot of cardboard everywhere. They did a good job of dressing up, which again, they would have seen, it's not like you had to go far, you know? Yeah. If we ever get home, I promise never to complain. Yeah. If we ever get home, I promise never to complain.

Yeah. Don't stay just in Cardassian beds ever again. I also love how Cisco is able to laugh about things. Like, he just, he shows so much range of emotional capability. Also, this also speaks to the warmth of their outfits because San Francisco at night is cold as fuck. So. Yeah, well, yeah.

Now, of course, this is being filmed in LA. True. Which also, I mean, depending on which part of LA you're in. Can be cold. You know, could also, can be if you're down, you know in in the any more coastal regions it can get pretty chilly at night but not you see that everybody's layered up though you see that there's yeah fire Yeah. Yeah. She's gonna get access to the roof. What he got to offer. That's what I thought. Yep. So, you see tarps in the background. Like there's, there's, you know, and this is all very obviously a back lot set.

You know, I've seen these same building fronts when people are in New York. I've seen these same building fronts. It feels like I've seen the same ones in Twilight Zone, which I very well might have, because this is Paramount. You probably could have. Yeah. This is Paramount, yeah. At least now we look like we belong here.

Yeah. Well, you know, there's something to be said for social camouflage. Absolutely. Just throwing that out there. Oh, man. Oh, no, no no no no no no no what? They're they're introducing a youngster who's in in you know Dire straight illness, and you know My kid is a toddler. I might not be emotionally prepared for what's gonna happen to this kid. Oh

He's all I'm saying he's he's It's really the the focus here is on Bill Smitrovich Okay, yeah Okay, who was the dad in life goes on by the way Yeah, he was mm-hmm. I was trying to trying to place where I'd seen him before So Bashir can't help being a doctor and doing good doctor stuff Yeah, so well, you know, but here's the thing So is he a Starfleet member first or is the doctor first because okay, we can't interfere in the timeline But as a doctor he's taking the Hippocratic oath. Right well you know and Cisco gives him

some leeway. Oh so this is a guy that got beat up the night before by the way. Okay. Yeah but Cisco gives him some leeway because Cisco he kind of danced the line quite a bit. Anytime they had an episode where they went to the alternate universe which by the way they had like episode where they went to the alternate universe Which by the way, they had like four or five of them Um, he had no problem interfering so Oh, yeah, you know Yeah, no, um

Cisco I'm i'm gonna solidly put cisco in the category of neutral good Yes here. Yeah um because he he put Cisco in the category of neutral good. Yes. Here? Yeah. Because he, I don't, I mean, it's later in the series. It's, yeah, but he winds up, I mean, we know. Spoiler alert for those of you unfamiliar with the series after 25 years.

I remember one of the most pointed moments in the whole series is him recording a very long Captain's Log entry. Hang on, hang on. And then, okay. He's talking about unionizing. Oh yeah. Just organizing.

Yeah. I thought you wanted to get out of here. Only way, oh, there we go. So of course you know he's gonna die because he's talking about organizing. Like, you can't let a leftist live and have it be a tragedy. Yeah. So, or he ends up being the one who gives them the plan to set everything up. Like, it's one of the two. Yeah.

Yeah. So, anyway, extra of the two. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, extra long log entry. Oh yeah, no, he winds up, it's after a whole bunch of skullduggery and chicanery has been committed for the greater good of the Federation and civilization. Oh yeah. And he winds up erasing the whole entry because everything he just admitted to is like eight kinds of illegal Yes, and and massively and and on top of that massively unethical They had to cancel their

No more love than the Gaullist Europe is falling yeah, at least we don't have to worry about that kind of thing Oh so so Optimistic okay, and and seeing these people all dressed up. Yes, I have to say The the you know I was complaining about lazy costuming before but I think I see something at work here There's a very art deco Yeah

aspect to all of their You know all the upper crust stuff That they're wearing and the feathers in her hair by the way, that's that's a gorgeous hairstyle. She's got on I just I like I cannot get over that Just I like I cannot get over that And and the the materials and the cut like a collar on her jacket Yeah, his is like as as a Dickens fair fan That is that like like there is a very distinct kind of historical era involved sure in in this and and so I think I see where

those old hats are coming from is it's the it's the everything old is new again retro idea okay yeah in action here that we're looking they're they're they're queuing us up to understand you know mention of the net by the way oh right right right her hair is reminiscent of a Gibson girl okay now while you're talking about costuming I want to break in for just a second because the rich people there first off there was pretty good racial representation in the rich too but also the things that they were talking about, they even said, wait, they still have that? They've completely ignored this 20 square block area that they don't have to see because they live so far.

Which gets back to what you were talking about in terms of, what do you call it, in terms of the Dickensian kind of aspect to it. What do you call it in terms of the Dickensian kind of aspect to it? Yeah Yep now is where the thickens Yeah, also, you know Picard like danced all over the place for Q and talked to him and argued with him Cisco punched the shit out of him the first time you met him. Cisco does not give a fuck He will punch you. Yeah, no Cisco Cisco. He's like

Shank you. Yeah, but he's like Picard's morality plus Kirk's willingness to fight Yeah He's well, he's Picard's sense of righteousness plus plus Kirk's willingness to mix it up is what it is. Yeah. Now, this gentleman who helped get them into that building before, he's about to get stabbed. And it's a problem.

Yeah. And notice no medical care. Yep. And his body's just kind of left there and then the police and this is going to be the you know sinking in the gut moment where you actually get a look at his ID right I mean you know anybody who you know saw the beginning of the beginning of the episode and saw Cisco's info dump earlier knows what they're about to realize because I mean there's no way. The man who just got killed. That man was Gabriel Bell. Now this will actually kind of shake up the the sea storyline You know if I'd gone to a hospital, yeah Now what's interesting is that Bell died in the riots anyway, right?

So in some ways you kind of have, I'm not going to say lazy writing, but I'm going to say writing that is limited in scope and imagination in that the black guy who preaches non-violence gets killed. Yeah. So I love that they're like, okay, we're going to dress like what we think people might Well, yeah, yeah, it's like wizards dressing up to try to go amongst the muggles like yeah Yeah, yeah, that's the same kind of thing yes, and and I do oh Appreciate things are gonna fall apart now Not getting a response from Starfleet oh Shit

Come on oh Shit come on with oh Okay, there are no Federation satellites in Earth orbit. Oh dear. It's our Earth satellite network. It's gone. Because? Yeah. Space dogs, orbital habitats.

Yeah. Oh, Utopia Planitia. I love how they call it utopia. It's like let's just be pointed here Or for the vicinity of alpha centauri is Romulans they've expanded Yeah Might have somehow altered the timeline and so now it's really important to get things the right way Okay, why aren't we affected? but maybe

For God's sake What does everybody have to use the phrase singularity for coming like come on? Isolated it from the changes in the timeline yeah yeah yeah well thanks for certain right down the ship is all that's left of Starfleet that's pretty heavy-duty so nobody nobody was like shocked or stunned or orified when Cisco and Dax and Bashir had been disintegrated with no known destination where they were put back together. But now, oh God, we're all fucking horrified because there's no Starfleet. Well, no.

They figured out that they had been shot back in time, and they were trying to solve that problem, but now it's become that much more urgent. Well, yeah, but before they figured out they'd been shot back in time, like when we went to the first commercial break, all that they knew was, well, they didn't show up anywhere that we can tell. They didn't show up anywhere that we can tell mm-hmm you know and and Yeah, anyway, that's it just bugs me. Yeah now you see get everybody at a rally with their families and their kids Again you know you've got people protesting

Yeah Kind of funny because I think after this epic this couple of episodes Yeah. Kind of funny, because I think after this couple of episodes, he ends up... Oh, look at that big-ass cell phone and where he hangs it up. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, they're trying to rally. Yeah. What's the whole point of the sanctuary? To give people in trouble food and a place to stay. Yeah. That's a pointed question.

Thank you, Dax. Thank you for pointing that out Day after tomorrow try to be there and tell everyone else you know 500 people I talk to you And you see a big old fire. Oh no. There's a big old fire. And now we see all the cocktails being thrown. And they're beating up the cops and this is when the riots start. And I mean, again, what had happened just two years earlier, you know, I mean, how does

this not look a little bit like the Reginal original Denny attack. And then you have, and this is the thing that bothers me a bit about pretty much any show in the 90s that does tackle social justice stuff is that you always like they handle racism, but they handle it in such a way where the black people are at once the saviors and the ones who are themselves also racist and they had to learn about themselves to like it's really catering to white fragility a lot. Oh yeah. So now you've got the tension between the guy who's prone to violence and everyone else. It's okay. Let's get this guy's name and try to remember from high school history whether this guy died in the riots or not. Right.

And if he did, let's push history along a little bit. Yeah. Because I already don't like Kid Rock here. Oh shit, that's it. That's who he reminds of oh gosh tell me I'm fucking wrong no you're not wrong he's he's like a less racist kid rock oh and then you claimed his name yeah well because somebody has to, now that is to be continued. Because the temple displaced the policy. Yeah. So to be continued, which means the next episode will

be the final episode of this. So we finally developed it. We finally got it off the ground. And usually that's what happens is you end up padding the first episode of A Two-Parter a bit. And then you make sure that it cliffhangs on the major drama and then the whole second episode is the payoff. Well yeah. Yeah. You set it up and then the second act is where you get to the payoff. Yes. So what do you think so far? Again, Cisco is just the boss. Everybody always

wants to talk about Picard or Kirk or who and I'm like, well, okay Cisco And and I'm a big Picard fanboy Patrick Stewart is like goals for me. Yeah but Cisco Cisco is is the the He's attainable is the Yeah, yeah, he's he's the one that it's like, no, look, if I was actually put into that kind of leadership position, I would not be able to be as staunch in my eternal rectitude as Picard. And I don't want to wind up being the absolute id of Everybody on my crew like Kirk right so so Cisco Cisco is

No, no, here's the deal. I I have I have a moral compass That is that is immensely powerful And and I know what is right, and I know what is wrong, and I also know What needs to get done? in order for the right thing to happen right and You know and and again, you know solidly neutral good like

you know, I I Believe, you know, he he he is he is a guy who is obviously part of the system. He's a Starfleet officer, for God's sake. Yeah. So he believes in the institution. He believes in the system. But he also looks at it and goes, OK, no, look. I'm going to do what's the right thing to do,

whether that's the rules or not. what's the right thing to do, whether that's the rules or not. And yeah, so he's, yeah, and Avery Brooks portraying him just like there's almost too much charisma going on there. And then, I did not like Bashir like I actively disliked Bashir For at least the first two seasons of the show just because he was such a twit. Yeah like yeah Oh my god

You know aren't we aren't you supposed to be existing in a in a in a society where privilege like yours doesn't fucking exist? Like, doesn't your entire attitude disprove the success of Starfleet? Like, you know, or the Federation, I should say. Like, come on. And then to find out that, you know, he's a, you know, genetically engineered... Oh, yeah. You know know spoiler alert You know it's just like well, but of course he is

Because he's just so smart and so pretty like how could he not be you know right? and and Seeing him here I Think this is this is this is one of those steps toward understanding that no no I Need to give this character a shot His humanity really starts to develop because he's not just a fucking Yeah That's really what it is Trying to fuck boy and the second season he was just a twit. And then you're like, no, he's actually got depth.

OK. Yeah, OK. Yeah. And yeah, I think what you said about the 1990s lens of trying to be progressive and the limits of what that meant in terms of portrayal of characters of color and especially African American black characters. That there were these really limited set of tropes that they were allowed to operate in because majority culture was still not ready for them to have like full agency.

Right. Full, I don't know if agency is the right word for that, but they had to fit into the kind of magical minority stereotype or they had to be, they couldn't be balanced flawed people You know Yeah

and And and as much as this is very obviously true making a point. I'm not even gonna say trying to make a point It's making a point You know, it's it's still mired in that culture. Yeah, I would agree. So cool. Yeah, I think that's an observation that's well worth kind of hitting again.

How to put this, the subject matter of the episode kind of makes me Sad well does maybe it's kind of depressing that like I'm looking at this going, you know Somebody could be writing this about you know, five years from now about five years from now and I'd still be like, yeah Okay, that's near future. Sadly I can see like, yeah, OK, that's near future. Sadly, I can see. And it's still way too, way too relevant. And that's depressing. But at the same time, I can look at the way it's written and I can see that we've gotten to a place where our narrative is better In that way or it or it can be bad it's not always better, but it can be better Than that yeah in that way Yeah, you know we we have we have we have started to get to a place where the stories we tell give room for

Non-white characters to be people mm-hmm In in a way that they kind of weren't allowed to be in 95. Yeah and that's hopeful. Yeah I think I'm going to push back a little bit on that because you go the other way too. In Star Trek universe like his ethnicity is really never touched which is fine but at the same time you're erasing things and Cisco Brings it up when they all start to go into the holodeck and start to do like this

Heist film kind of episode and he's like I'm not gonna do it. And his girlfriend at the time, she's like, why not? He says, because we weren't treated like equals back then. This is some bullshit. This is a fantasy, this is not real history. And then they kind of make amends about it, but he brings it up, his blackness. And also his blacknessness brought up in the episode where he goes back in time. I think he gets some sort of fever and he dreams that he's a sci-fi writer, which is just,

it was a phenomenal episode. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I know. I know that when you're talking about. Yeah, everybody does. Yeah. But like... That's... Oh, yeah.

So that tackles his blackness too. But like, I think if you end up too far in the future, you end up erasing people's cultures. And if you stick to the old tropes of their stuff. So it's a hard line to dance. I do think so. And I think that DS9 actually did a pretty good job of it. I think Voyager took steps backwards Because they kind of fetishized Chakotay. They completely desexed Ensign Harry for a little while and then they over sexed him. Oh, yeah

Oh, they will know they they screwed Harry got screwed over like six ways to Sunday It's just like never promoted of all of all of the yeah Boys of the You know the writers of Star Trek hair. Yeah, Harry is just yeah, it's a poor son of a bitch. Yeah You know and and Your your point is well made and and I think I think Cisco gets the opportunity To do Cisco does get the opportunity over the course of series to do that

And I think it's important that did I think it was groundbreaking that he did But I'm kind of talking in broad time. I'm not so much just talking about DS9 here. I'm talking about in broad terms, talking about the narratives that there were at this time. You know, in other shows, in other places, we didn't get to see that. And we do see that in different places over the course of this series. But this series was one of the ones that actually started saying, you know what?

This is going to be a part of this character's personal history. This is part of this character's family history, and we need to be honest with it, and we need to be true with it. And we have Avery Brooks, who I'm just going to continually stan the whole time we're talking about this, because he's an amazing actor, and I don't think he gets enough credit for it And and it's like we have this guy who like we can give him this stuff to work with and he will Do amazing compelling shit with it. So let's do it and consciously You know to he absolutely chooses those choices.

If you listen to interviews with him, he's a little crazy sounding in his interviews, but at the same time, he is dialed in on, I am a black man in charge of something on TV. I am a black father. I am going to portray the warmth of fatherhood. I'm going to portray the responsibility. He was very, very much dialed

into the conscientiousness of his role. Yeah, well outside of our podcast together, I know you've talked at length about rewatching the series and especially the issues of fatherhood with Cisco and Jake being a thing. And for the time in which it was made, that was groundbreaking. And I think again, Avery Brooks and the writers

and the production team for this series deserve a lot of credit for kind of breaking ground with that. Because every place else but here, and in this episode we're kind of seeing it, that we have this nodding to white fragility kind of over and over and over again. And that was just landscape. And since then, partly because of what the writers did with Cisco and what later series and later shows have done, have been able to do.

We are now in a place where if this kind of writing showed up in a show today, mainstream TV critics would criticize it for, well, you know, we have these tropes of the Black Savior and this, that, and the other. These people are being troperized. It would be a criticism. And so I think the fact that we've gotten to a place where that is something that would be criticized is a reason to be hopeful. I can see that. Yeah. odd an odd indicator, but yeah Yeah, but but you know People people who wouldn't have been aware of it then are aware of it now. Yep, and

You know and it's a thing so yeah Yeah Yeah, just just great TV all around. Yeah. Awesome. I agree. So we're gonna watch the next episode next week. And so, you know, keep everybody. That's the fun thing about binging now too is I don't have to wait weeks between stuff, which the downside is that I don't grow with the characters.

But the upside is that I can notice patterns a lot quicker. So. Oh, oh yeah. Yeah, for nerdery like what we're doing. Yeah. Being able to binge a whole series in five days is amazing. Yeah. You know, the downside to binging is of course,

having to go to work the following morning. Ah. You know, the downside to binging is of course, you know, having to go to work the following morning. True. Very true. It's just one more episode. It's just one more episode. It's one o'clock in the morning. Okay, I'm almost done with the series. Okay. Yeah. But you can start to see narrative structures. You can start to see see recurring characters, recurring themes a lot easier when you're binging, but the downside is you're not growing as a person as these characters are growing. I do think that there's something lost in that. So hey, any, what's that?

No, I just said I can see that. That makes sense. That's a valid argument Yeah, any books you want to recommend any shows you want to recommend besides Deep Space Nine? I'm I'm you know if we're gonna talk about shows with it with an overall narrative arc We did a couple of episodes about it I'm gonna I'm gonna say I'm gonna highly recommend folks go back and look at the reboot of Battlestar Galactica Because as much as the episodes of DS 9 that we're taught that we're watching right now are

Sadly relevant to our current, you know political situation sure the the issues that come up in several different story lines over the course of Battlestar Galactica about military involvement in law enforcement and the role of government versus the military, how powerful should the government be, all of those issues Religious fundamentalism, I mean it's so much stuff that that series touched on So so brilliantly and again talking about a great set of actors You know really getting their teeth into some really good writing I Really recommend everybody go back and take a look at BSG

Also, that's that's really worth doing. I like that. So how about you? Any reading recommendations? Any other series? Yeah, actually I'm going to say, and you can also find this on Amazon. So when you're done watching this with us, there's something that came out in, I want to say 2018, 2019, I forget which. It's called What We Left Behind and it's essentially the entire cast of Deep Space Nine gets back together and talks about what they did 20 years ago. And you get the writers, they even like storyboard out a new episode, like a new season. It's kind of fun and they have it and it starts with

Garrick singing And then it goes to all the Ferengi. I think the Ferengi sing to end it I mean, it's just hilarious, but but they don't dress anybody up and make up or anything like that But they they touch on all kinds of stuff with it. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. Okay. Yeah. So I would say yeah, check that out. And if you... No, I'm going to leave it there. Check that one out. That's worth checking out. Okay. Yeah. All right. So where can we find you on the social medias? medias. Okay, on the various strands of social media you can find me on Twitter at EH Blaylock. You can also find me on TikTok at EH Blaylock. I actually recorded a TikTok earlier today for the second time. And on Instagram, I am at Mr. Blaylock, B-L-A-Y-L-O-C-K.

And of course, if you want to tell us we're wrong about anything, or preferably tell us how right we are about something, you can find us collectively on Twitter, at GeekHistoryTime. And where can they find you, sir? If you're looking for me, you can find me at the harmony.

That's the harmony on the Twitter and the Instagram two H's in the middle. You can also find me every Tuesday night at twitch.tv forward slash capital puns at 830 p.m. Pacific Standard Time and I will be slinging puns with the best pun slingers in all of well from from here all the way to England so far and so yeah it's it's a good tub of fun I invite you to dive into it. But again, if you want to yell at me for my, my inability to understand certain things that came out in the episode, I mispronounced a name or something like that. Yeah, hit me up at harmony on the Twitter. So for time, I am Damian Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock. And until next time, make it so.