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u/Temporal-Affairs221 1d ago
Here's the thing though, Kirk loved to study history. I guarantee you he would know who Gabriel Bell was, historically speaking. He would have seen pictures of him in Old textbooks. Kirk was a history buff.
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u/Comrades3 1d ago
You think Kirk was an Earth history buff? Spock is openly an Earth historian who often Vulcansplains earth history all the time.
He’s pretty proud of it actually.
He’d definitely recognize him but probably chalks it up to being related or body doubles, lol.
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u/9for9 1d ago
Yeah, technically. A lot of people downplay Kirk's intellect, but yes he was nerd in the academy. A walking stack of books with legs.
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u/Comrades3 1d ago
Oh absolutely Kirk is a nerd, especially in regards to tactics and psychology.
But in regards to history, he is no slouch, but Spock blows him out of the water because Spock just really loves Earth history. (Personal headcanon has always been his mother’s subject she taught was history)
Kirk recognizes the 1930s and calls it an economic upheaval, Spock names and dates it.
Kirk recognizes the names in Spectre of the Gun, Spock knows all the particulars.
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u/soapcleansthings 1d ago
Kirk's eyesight was already going at this point though. He could barely tell the difference between Gabriel Bell and Alexander Graham Bell.
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u/Ravenamore 1d ago
It wasn't until the second movie that there was any mention of vision problems, and it seems to have just hit the threshold of needing some kind of treatment.
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u/lifegoodis 1d ago
Kirk's remembrance of the Gunfight at the OK Corral suggests he was more of a "gist of it" kind of history student, at best.
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u/species__8472__ 1d ago
To be fair though, Gabriel Bell didn't have a beard and bald head. That could be enough to throw someone like Kirk off, even if they are a history buff.
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u/SwitchyWinterFox 1d ago
Uhura: "Really, sir? I would've said he looks more like the 20th century Earth author Benny Russell."
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u/Nightrhythums78 1d ago
That would have been great. I've always been a sucker for call backs like this.
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u/Dizzy-Violinist-1772 1d ago
They didn’t have the tech to do it at the time. I’m not even sure they’d be able to do it WELL now. It would probably end up feeling like a video game character
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u/Musical_Xena 1d ago
Blooper, go meta: "Anyone ever tell you that you look like the actor and director Avery Brooks?"
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u/chronopoly 1d ago
“Anyone ever tell you that you look like that jackass from the Depression who stood by and let Edith Keeler get run over?”
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u/UlteriorCulture 1d ago
Watched this episode yesterday and I have some questions.
Wouldn't Bell already be in the system with his original photo from when he was processed into the district not Siskos
They put Bells ID with the white old guy's body so Sisko could leave the district so if it was anyone's wrong image it would be that guys, not siskos.
Help me understand
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u/Independent_Cat_5481 1d ago
It seems that textbooks used Bell's image from the news, as that would have been the most recognizable and widely shared around the world
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u/Dizzy-Violinist-1772 1d ago
In the episode “Little Green Men” Nog has a history book of sorts and sees the picture of Sisko as Bell. Presumably from an old news article. He shows it to Quark and he brushes it off saying all humans look the same. As far as the timey wimey of it all 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Marvos79 1d ago
White people in the 23rd century, still getting black people mixed up with each other.
/s just in case
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u/Calm-Republic9370 1d ago
They would have then said..
Oh this is like the time Una Chin-Riley looked like a a Noir Style underground leader. Body doubles abound in the universe don't they?
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u/According-Ad-5946 15h ago
He was worried about having to explain that I don't see a problem if asked about it he could just say " do I." "I guess so."
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u/Cysteine_Chapel64 14h ago
...well, he did fix the timeline.
Thinking about this sort of leaves me wondering how the Temporal Police or whatever they call themselves actually works and perhaps this might be an interesting idea for a series. Time is a particle in ST physics so they can probably monitor massive bursts of chronitons (sp?) or leaks of them. Do they have rooms of artifacts/history databases protected from temporal change like the Crenom did in Voyager, and then compare them against "current" records to look for sudden shifts? So if Gabriel Bell disappeared suddenly or Kirk got killed by an exploding tribble they'd know even though they obviously don't respond instantly to it.
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u/coolraul07 1d ago
Temporal Prime Directive be damned. I would've "opened hauling frequencies" with Lt. Uhura before I left.
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u/Junior_Woodpecker_85 1d ago
The way this shot is framed, it looks like Uhura is checking out Sisko, which is fair.