The episode of the “Star Trek” series that predicted one of the worst social crises affecting the United States today in the 1990s

It’s tempting to interpret fictional stories set in the future as visions, dystopian or not, of what’s to come. But the most successful works have been able to survive and reach new audiences, even if their predictions have proven wrong.

For example, the eternal war in George Orwell’s “1984” was not happening when the date in the novel’s title arrived. The interplanetary journey of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ also did not exist when the new millennium dawned.

However, these stories remain relevant decades after their predicted dates, thanks to their broader perspectives on timeless topics, from authoritarianism to human evolution.

Star Trek (“Journey to the Stars”), with its 11 television series and 13 films produced by the franchise over seven decadeshas seen several of the events he inevitably predicted debunked.

The original 1960s series features the famous villain of Star TrekKhan presented viewers with the ‘Eugenical Wars’, a massive conflict that arose in the 1990s following experiments with human genetic engineering.

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Later episodes predicted that hard times would lie ahead, with World War III starting in 2026, followed by an era of ‘post-atomic horror’.

These apocalyptic predictions are the key to the franchise’s backstorywhich charts humanity’s difficult path towards the idealistic 23rd and 24th centuries, which provide the main setting for ‘Star Trek’.

While some of the catastrophes they predict may seem exaggerated, they also conceal a message of hope: that the grave mistakes humanity has committed can lead us to a more equal and peaceful future.

According to the 90s series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (“Star Trek: Space Abyss 9”), one of humanity’s greatest mistakes comes to a head in 2024.

But unlike other predictions of Star Trekthat error does exist and in 2024 it is still as urgent a problem as it was when the episodes aired.

The current problem is homelessness, and humanity’s mistake is to hide it, instead of solving it. The issue is addressed in a two-part episode titled “Past Tense,” which aired in January 1995.

This episode features the series’ protagonist, Commander Sisko, and some members of his crew accidentally transported from their 23rd century spaceship back in time to San Francisco in 2024.

While awakening from time travel-induced unconsciousness, Sisko and one of his crew, Dr. Bashir, wrongly identified as homeless by armed police. “There is a law against sleeping on the streets,” they tell the confused time travelers.

Sisko and Bashir are escorted to a walled part of the city known as the Shrine District.

We learn that this facility is designed to separate the homeless and unemployed from the rest of society. “At the beginning of 2020, there was a place like this in every major city in America,” Sisko explained to Bashir.

Shortly afterwards, Sisko, an expert in 21st century history, realizes that the date of his arrival is important. Remember that Outrage over the Sanctuary Districts reaches a boiling point in 2024resulting in “some of the most violent riots in American history.”

Sisko adds that this uprising “will change public opinion about shrines. They will be demolished and America will finally begin to correct the social problems it has faced for hundreds of years.”

The inspiration of the Sanctuary Districts

After receiving this 21st century history lesson, the idealistic Bashir is shocked. He admits that he has never studied about that era because he finds it “very depressing.” He could serve as a representative of the viewer’s discomfort with the problem.

This discomfort was a major inspiration for the episode’s writers, who believed that the In the mid-1990s, the US was not addressing homelessness problems.

The main screenwriter and executive producer of Deep space nineIra Steven Behr recalled that a visit to Santa Monica, California, inspired the episodes. “It was a beautiful day,” Behr said. He saw that “there were homeless people everywhere” and how tourists “walked past these homeless people as if they were part of the landscape.”

Behr and his co-writer Rober Hewitt Wolfe took this idea to the extreme They imagined what a near future would look like where homeless people could be completely ignored. Thus the idea of ​​Sanctuary Districts was born.

For Stephen Pimpare, a senior scholar at the Carsey School of Public Administration, this concept reflects the U.S. government’s attitude toward the problem of homelessness in the 1990s. “Sanctuary Districts are simply a way to remove homeless people from the public eye,” he says. BBC Future. “We see this in contemporary examples from the time in which the episodes were written.”

“For example, in San Francisco, when Art Agnos was mayor, There was a group of homeless people who had set up a camp in front of the town hall without permission. It was called Camp Agnos. “He deployed the police and wiped it out.”

Pimpare also cites Rudy Giuliani’s policies when he was mayor of New York in the 1990s and his strategy to remove the homeless population from public view. He did this even though President Ronald Reagan had signed the Stewart B McKinney Homeless Assistance Act just a few years earlier, which provided federal funds to homeless programs.

Today, the Sanctuary Districts seem even more plausible to some who worked on the series’ episodes.. “On the eve of 2024, those Sanctuary Districts could easily make headlines on tonight’s news,” said Michael Okuda, who served as artistic supervisor on the “Time Past” episodes.

His wife Denise, who also worked in the art department Deep space nine, you agree. “We have clearly failed to address the conditions that contribute to homelessness in American cities,” he said. “The number of homeless people has exploded since ‘Time Past’ aired.”

In 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that there were 228,621 homeless people nationwide. By 2023, the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that the number had increased to approximately 653,100 people.

But collecting exact numbers on this problem is notoriously difficult. “The data on this topic is not good even today,” Pinpare explains. “They were even worse in the 1990s. So you have to take these figures with a grain of salt.”

However, Pimpare believes that this apparently negative trend has been caused by policies that only try to hide the problem, rather than tackling its causes. “You can see it in the rhetoric you hear today,” he says. “We complain that we have to see people living on the streets, instead of complaining about the problems that make it impossible for them to have shelter.”

This attitude is reflected in the ‘Past Tense’ episodes of Star Trek. In addition to the plot of Sanctuary Districts, there is a secondary storyline involving San Francisco high society.

When the subject of Sanctuary Districts comes up at an exclusive party, one of the guests says she was unaware of their existence: “I thought they had stopped doing that,” she says. “Why would they stop?” answers another guest. “It’s the only way to get those people off the streets.”

“Nothing ever changes”

The vision of Deep space nine of the sanctuary districts has not yet become a reality. “We don’t have walled fortresses where we forcibly imprison homeless people,” Pimpare explains. “But we have all kinds of authorized camps.”

For example, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, there is a designated area known as Campo Esperanza, where homeless people can pitch their tents and have access to running water and electricity. In San Diego, California, there are “safe sleeping areas,” official campsites that were inaugurated at the same time that camping in public places in the city was banned.

Pimpare argues that these sanctioned camps are “better than nothing for many people, because nothing is often the alternative.” But while this policy is more benevolent than the Sanctuary Districts, They are still only temporary solutions.

In the “Past Tense” episodes, long-term change only begins when the situation gets so bad that it leads to an uprising. The conclusion is bleak, but one that is consistent with the vision of Star Trek of how difficult the route to a more egalitarian future can be.

“Star Trek “He never promised a utopian tomorrow.”, explains Michael Okuda. “Many episodes even warn of what can happen if we make bad decisions. However, Star Trek It says that tomorrow can be a better place if we are smart, if we work hard and if we are ethical, compassionate and inclusive.” (JO)