Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 58: Past Tense, Part 2 [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the conclusion episode which finds Sisko, Bashir (sp), and Dax in the past on Earth. Sisko has to 'adopt' the identity of a famous person in an attempt to preserve the timeline while the 'Defiant' in orbit and protected from the time shift attempts to find and rescue them.

The techno-babble explination for how the Defiant managed to not be erased when time was changed is weak as is the lucky way in which the three crew members were eventually found. However this does not detract from the over all story of this episode.

Features a guest appearance by a child actor from early in the ORIGINAL Star Trek (name/episode escapes me)

Episode title: Past Tense, part II

Teleplay by: Robert Hewitt Wolfe & Rene Echevarria

Story by: Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Directed by: Jonathan Frakes

"Past Tense, part II" contains all the weaknesses of the first episode of this two-parter, but unlike that predecessor, it doesn't dwell on them.

This time, the story centeres around the sociopolitical aspects of the story, by the way of a traditional hostage drama. The use of that cliché as a driving fuel of the episode annoyes, but doesn't really damage the concept.

The biggest problems with this episode are the predictable nature of the story and especially the countless flaws of "Past Tense, part I", that made it probably the least beliavable trek episode ever.

It's follower doesn't stumble upon those weaknesses so obviously, however, as the focus of the story is kept at serious drama and strong interaction between admittedly two-dimensional additional characters and our familiar visitors from the future.

We get to follow the rescue operation of the lost-in-the-past crew members, and their attemts to keep history at it's right track.

The social questions the episode adresses are valid, and Avery Brooks' mild performance and even the Cliché filled ending can't ruin that.