Today's Nerdom

I love Star Trek; like love Star Trek; to the point of being slightly annoying to my family. Knowing that you'll understand why I geeked earlier this week. 

In January of 1995, there was a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode where several characters go back in time to San Francisco on August 30, 2024. So, being the gigantic Trek nerd that I am, I had to watch that episode on August 30, 2024. I mean, how could I not do that???

I've seen the episodes (it's actually a two-part episode)  many times before, but something about watching it today was pretty cool. Then I found this article from the San Francisco Chronicle. (I copied the article and posted it on my blog because it won't always be available on their website.) So incredibly interesting. It may be a 100% nerdy thing to think, but I really do hope humanity can someday build the future Gene Roddenberry dreamed of...

Uncanny Accuracy

This 1995 ‘Star Trek’ episode predicted a 2024 San Francisco crisis with uncanny accuracy

By Peter Hartlaub,Culture CriticAug 28, 2024Originally published at:https://www.sfchronicle.com/totalsf/article/star-trek-predicted-sf-2024-crisis-19722416.php?

In a “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” episode called “Past Tense,” commanding officer Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and chief medical officer Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) are detained by authorities in 2024 San Francisco. Paramount Domestic Television

The date is Aug. 30, 2024, in San Francisco, and city leaders have decided it’s time to show tough love.

Unhoused residents are forced into shelters, setting up “Sanctuary Districts” where they’re told they can find a room and apply for jobs. The city’s wealthiest citizens are driving political decisions, supporting police sweeps that clear tents from city streets. And with fewer visible homeless, officials declare the mission accomplished.

What sounds like rhetoric from a recent mayoral debate, or one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s euphemism-filled plans to tackle poverty, is actually a 29-year-old dystopian plot from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” In early 1995 the series released a two-part episode called “Past Tense,” predicting what San Francisco would look like … this coming weekend. 

They got it eerily, and alarmingly, correct.

“Star Trek” since its inception in 1966 has used time travel to aid its social commentary, whether it’s Captain Kirk and Spock visiting Depression-era New York City to explore the moral dilemmas of love and duty, or a jaunt to 1986 to save two Bay Area whales and spread a message about environmentalism (while showing punks the right and wrong way to act on a Muni bus).

“Past Tense” was written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Ira Steven Behr, operating with a micro budget compared to modern “Trek.” Both parts of the episode were filmed entirely in Hollywood, with a studio back lot built to resemble New York standing in for S.F. But the ideas age incredibly well, as if Wolfe and Behr had time travel powers of their own. 

“Past Tense” begins on space station Deep Space Nine about 350 years from now. Earth is part of the United Federation of Planets, which has built a post-currency society, wiping out poverty and most illness and crime.

A transporter accident — the form of “Star Trek” time travel least expensive to film — sends three crew members back to San Francisco on Aug. 30, 2024. 

Commanding officer Benjamin Sisko and chief medical officer Julian Bashir, played by actors of color (Avery Brooks and Alexander Siddig), are discovered by police, labeled as destitute “dims” and sent to a walled in Sanctuary District. Science officer Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), a space alien who appears as a white woman, is found by a tech entrepreneur who takes her to his high-rise.

In a “Deep Space Nine” episode called “Past Tense,” science officer Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) sits on a 

subway station stairway with tech entrepreneur Chris Brynner (Jim Metzler).

Paramount Domestic Television
San Francisco geographical references are sparse. Sisko declares, “I caught a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge a few blocks back.” Dax enters aBART-like station called “TransFrancisco” thatadvertises a Transbay Tube. 

But the themes are oddly prescient, strongly reflecting the city’s challenges in 2024. Sisko, a student of 21st century history, provides exposition to Bashir, who is increasingly frustrated by the lack of adequate mental health resources and medical care in the Sanctuary District.

Bashir: Why are these people in here? Are they criminals?

Sisko: (They’re) just people without jobs or places to live.

Bashir: So they get put in here?

Sisko: Welcome to the 21st century, Doctor.

There are wild parallels to 2024 and the past decade throughout. 

The forced relocation of unhoused residents in “Past Tense” mirrors the homeless sweeps ahead of the 2016 Super Bowl and 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The containment zones evoke the state of the Tenderloin District during and immediately after the pandemic shutdown.

And the episode’s dialogue echoes many San Francisco politicians of the past 30 years, advocating for more police, working to make unsightly problems less visible to wealthy residents, and then declaring the tenuous results a political victory. 

(In the episode, a police officer references “Buck Bokai,” an Asian professional baseball player who is setting records. Did Wolfe and Behr predict Shohei Ohtani?)

On the ground in past/present San Francisco, Sisko and Bashir quickly discover they’re one day away from the Bell Riots, “one of the watershed events of the 21st century,” where hundreds of innocent Sanctuary District citizens are slaughtered by authorities, exposing the system’s flaws and hypocrisy.

As the plot thickens, the writers’ predictive abilities show their limitations. Computers are chunky and require a stylus to operate. Dax’s wealthy benefactor is too nice and emotionally stable for an Elon Musk comparison. And perhaps most strangely, the poor people who make up the armed resistance wear fedoras, like out-of-work men in a 1920s soup kitchen. 

But as the story strays into bombast and overacting, it still gets many subtleties right.

Bashir rages when he sees an unhoused citizen having a mental health breakdown, pointing out that effective treatments for schizophrenia exist in a fictional 2024. (“They could cure that man now, today, if they gave a damn.”) Wealthy partygoers in “Past Tense” express self-satisfaction that the poor are being cared for compassionately. In reality, they’re not getting anything close to the housing or services they’ve been promised.

Wolfe in a 2020 interview with Vox suggested the episodes weren’t predictive, but reflective of scenes that existed in 1995. Indeed, housing struggles and wealth disparity were issues in San Francisco 30 years ago; it didn’t take supernatural foresight to assume things might get worse. 

“Past Tense” tries clumsily for moments of lightness and comedy. Some woefully stereotypical 1960s hippies are the worst addition. But the screenwriters manage to land the spaceship in the closing moments.

Society’s apathy toward human suffering leads to armed conflict, misunderstandings and hundreds dead. One of the last things Sisko, Bashir and Dax see before transporting back to their present is a San Francisco street strewn with bodies, as Bashir questions how citizens could let things get so bad. 

“Eventually,” Sisko says, “people in this century will remember how to care."

The Lady Jane

Recently the folks who work at City Hall were invited for a cruise on the Lady Jane. Richard and Jane Manoogian, the owners, often invite groups of people out on the boat. Since Allen is the director of the Department of Public Works and had a "plus one," I got to go, too. (Lucky me!)

We spent the evening on the water near the Island, finally anchoring by British Landing so people could swim.

It was a delightful evening, on a gorgeous boat, with wonderful people. Thank you, Jane; it was lovely to get to meet you!

Moving to College: Mackinac Style

This year, both of my children are heading off to college. When you live on Mackinac, you can't just pop out to the driveway to load the car - there is little bit more planning and organization required. Starting the day before. 

The day before Move-in Day, we were up early to load the luggage cart. It had to be ready for a 7:00 am pick up. (We didn't choose that time - that's when the dray was available.)

The driver hooked up the cart and hauled it down to the dock for us. For those of you who are curious, the fee for that was $45.00.

The dray delivered the cart to the dock and the ferry shipped it across to the mainland (no charge) where the cart waited for us until my husband got off work. Since the kids wanted to have their bikes at school they road down to the dock while I rode on a taxi with the few items they forgot to get on the cart.

Once we got to the mainland it was time to Tetris the back of the car. It took some finagling, but everything fit! Luckily my son's roommate was bringing the fridge and microwave, otherwise each kid would have had one of those items on their lap. (The car is a Ford Expedition Max, if you're wondering.) We like to go up to Marquette the night before and get an early start moving in. Campus is much easier to navigate on Move-in Day when you sign up for an 8:00 am move in time!

Once we arrived at Northern, we unloaded into two separate bins and each kid went their own way. K to Maple West and S to Magers Hall.

Mr. Second Year had absolutely no interest in help setting up his room... none.

but K, asked for help, so we spent some time unpacking and helping her get organized for her first year away from home.

Then Allen and I hopped in the car and headed home. Well, we actually stopped at Meijer first to pick up groceries and then we headed home. Home to an empty nest!

Calm and Quiet

Today was a foggy one on Mackinac. Which is fine because it meant I got to hear one of my favorite sounds in the entire world - the fog horn. Foggy days on the Island tend to be a little cooler and a little less crowded, so if you're a tourist don't let a little fog change your plans!

UGH

Someone in my house did not have a very good day today.

One of my kids got their first ambulance ride today. The intense pain required pain meds and a trip to the mainland for a CT scan. Kidney stones aren't common in teenagers, so the doctor felt a scan was important to determine if that was the issue. Turns out it was...

We're thankful Mackinac Island has a topnotch EMS service and a medical center to handle things like this. 

Edited to add: my kiddo is fine. At least part of the stone has passed, the pain has subsided, and hopefully with increased hydration this will not continue to be an issue.

Perfect Day

Both of my children will be heading off to college in a couple of weeks, so I have been really trying to spend time with them before they leave. It's been a challenge because we're all working and those schedules don't always make time together doable. Today the stars aligned and I was able to catch up with both of them. 

I started my day by having breakfast with K at the Chuckwagon. It's K's favorite, so it was no surprise she suggested we get a late breakfast there. Plus, she absolutely loves their corned beef hash.

 

S, on the other hand, wanted to eat dinner at the Carriage House, the restaurant at the Iroquois. His dinner of choice is two orders of escargot finished with lemon meringue pie. In between bites of garlicy deliciousness we contemplated life, the universe, and everything and it was a delight. 

I'm so excited for both of them as they prepare to head to school; year two for S and year one for K...

The Long Walk Home

Things didn't go the way I planned today. The front tire of my bike had a hole in it, so after leaving my bicycle at the bike shop for repairs, I had to walk home. As irritated as I was, I made a conscious choice to enjoy my walk and even took the long way home - through the woods. It was wonderfully cool and mostly silent. You'd be surprised how loud the sound of the wind through the treetops can be when everything else is calm. Today, it was exactly what my soul needed.