TREKCORE > DS9 > EPISODES > PAST TENSE, PART I > DS9 Chronicles

These are 1-minute intros that were taped by several of the regular cast members. 40 episodes were chosen by the producers, and the intros were included in the reruns shown by some TV stations that run DS9 in a strip syndication package (i.e., five days a week). These intros, however, were only made for episodes in the 1st through 4th seasons.

Here are transcripts of the intros, for those of you who may not have a chance to see them. Each one is done with "Okudagram"-style graphics around the actor as he/she speaks, with a rotating image of the station, and the DS9 theme music playing in the background. The paragraphs in italics describe clips that were shown.

Narrated by Terry Farrell

Sometimes the things we imagine are more real than we think. When the writers on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine decided to confront a political issue head-on, they sunk their teeth into a real-life controversy that was just beginning to heat up. This episode, "Past Tense, Part I", throws my character of Dax, as well as Sisko and Bashir, into Earth's past, the not-so-distant future for the viewers.

Sisko is lying on the concrete; Vin wakes him up and says, "There's a law against sleeping in the streets."

In this time period, the homeless situation is dealt with by confining those people in fenced-off sections of San Francisco, known as "sanctuaries".

Scenes of the Sanctuary district; Bashir asks, "Do you think there's a way out of here?"; Sisko replies, "If there is, we'll find it."

While the episode was being shot, an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times proposing that a large industrial area downtown be closed off and used for the same purpose. Real life can mirror fiction more than we'd like. I'm Terry Farrell for the Deep Space Nine Chronicles.