| "Patterns of Force" | |||
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| Star Trek: The Original Series episode | |||
The Enterprise visits the "Nazi planet", Ekos |
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| Episode no. | Episode 50 | ||
| Directed by | Vincent McEveety | ||
| Written by | John Meredyth Lucas | ||
| Production code | 052 | ||
| Original air date | February 16, 1968 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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David Brian |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Star Trek: The Original Series episodes | |||
"Patterns of Force" is a second season episode of the science fiction television program Star Trek: The Original Series, and was broadcast on February 16, 1968. It is episode #50, production #52, written by John Meredyth Lucas, and directed by Vincent McEveety.
Overview: The crew of the Enterprise visits a planet dominated by a "Naziesque" regime.
Contents |
The starship Enterprise arrives at the planet Ekos in the M34 Alpha System, to investigate the disappearance of a Federation historian named John Gill, whom Kirk recalls was one of his professors at Starfleet Academy.
As soon as the Enterprise enters orbit around Ekos, it is attacked by a rocket armed with a thermonuclear warhead. It carries technology that is too advanced to be from Ekos or their closely neighboring planet Zeon. The ship easily destroys the weapon, and moves out of range of the planet's detection devices.
The crew is confused as to how the inhabitants of Ekos acquired such technology, since records indicated the Ekosians are supposed to be a primitive, warlike people in a current state of anarchy. Zeon has a more advanced technology level, but the inhabitants are peaceful and would never make such weapons. However, Kirk suspects Gill may have been responsible for the technology introduction, which means he has violated the Prime Directive.
No contact can be made with Gill. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock decide to beam down to the planet to investigate. Before they transport to the surface, Dr. McCoy injects Kirk and Spock with subdermal transponders, which can be used to locate and retrieve them if they are not heard from within three hours.
Upon their arrival, Kirk and Spock are approached by a Zeon man who urges them to hide. Kirk and Spock then watch the Zeon as he is arrested by Ekosian soldiers who appear dressed in uniforms that resemble Nazi German brown-shirted Stormtroopers of the mid-20th century. Kirk wants to intervene, but Spock reminds him of the Prime Directive (the Federation law forbidding interference in the development of alien civilizations).
Kirk and Spock then watch a video broadcast that shows that the Ekosians and Zeons are at war. Kirk is astonished that another planet could independently develop a culture so similar to one that once existed on Earth, Spock agreeing the odds of it happening naturally are virtually impossible. They watch the broadcast further as a female Nazi officer, Daras, receives a medal of honor. Kirk and Spock learn that the denizens of the planet are collectively obsessed with "a final solution" — the extinction of all Zeons who reside on their planet, in addition to the destruction of the neighboring planet Zeon. The broadcast ends with the reporter making a Nazi salute to the Führer — John Gill.
Kirk is determined to get to the bottom of this and find Gill as soon as possible. He and Spock are approached by a Nazi SS officer who questions them, but Kirk manages to overpower him and steal his uniform. Spock, now disguised as an Ekosian soldier and Kirk acting as his Zeon prisoner, disable a Gestapo officer and Kirk obtains his uniform.
They then try to infiltrate the main headquarters, but are caught when Spock neglects to salute an SS officer and is forced to remove his helmet. They see his Vulcan ears and the two are arrested. Their weapons and communicators are confiscated and they are taken for interrogation and torture. Afterward, a senior commander orders them thrown in a cell for an hour for further interrogation. They meet Isak, the Zeon man they saw being arrested earlier. Isak informs them that the Nazi movement started just a few years ago, which coincides with John Gill's arrival, and an all-out invasion of Zeon is being planned.
Spock removes the rubidium crystals from the subcutaneous transponders he and Kirk received earlier, and fashions a crude laser from them. Using the focused light of an incandescent bulb on the wall, Spock directs the resulting beam which cuts the lock off the cell door. After overpowering the guard, they recover their dismantled communicators, but discover that their phasers have been taken to another location. Isak takes them to meet the underground resistance led by his brother Abrom. Kirk explains to Abrom that he needs to find John Gill in order to stop the war. Abrom is not keen on helping them until Kirk persuades him that it is their only chance for success. Meanwhile, Spock tries to call the Enterprise with a reassembled communicator but is unable to make contact because the ship is still out of transmission range. Spock surmises that the lack of transmission range of the communicator is a result of the device's reassembly.
Suddenly, the resistance group headquarters is raided, led by Daras, the officer who was being honored on the newsreel broadcast. She manages to shoot Abrom before Kirk overpowers her and takes her weapon. Now convinced that the strangers can be trusted, they are then told that the raid was only a ruse to test their loyalty. Abrom is actually unhurt, shot only with a blank. Daras is actually a fifth columnist — a member of the resistance group. The medal they had seen her receive on the newsreel was awarded for her turning in her father to the Gestapo. Her father had planned this in order to get her elevated to a position of trust within the Nazi government.
Kirk asks questions about Gill; Abrom explains that Deputy Führer Melakon is the real one in command. In turn, Kirk and Spock explain that Gill is an extraterrestrial cultural observer in flagrant violation of his orders. Daras says that Gill is due to make a speech soon, one that will bring about a "Final Solution" to the Zeon problem, and she will help get them past security to meet him.
To gain entrance, they pretend to be a film crew that is shooting propaganda footage. John Gill is eventually seen sitting in a chair in a broadcasting booth surrounded by guards and giving a speech that is a barely-coherent string of almost random statements, as if they were pieced together. Isak insists that Kirk and Spock kill Gill as soon as possible, but Kirk refuses.
Spock finally makes contact with the Enterprise and explains their situation while Kirk orders Dr. McCoy to beam down and examine Gill. McCoy materializes in a cloakroom, disguised as a military doctor, but the party is discovered by a security team who have detected Spock's communications in the building. Although the search leader is Eneg, the same officer overseeing Kirk's and Spock's earlier imprisonment, he surprisingly does not seem to recognize them, and accepts their hasty excuses. Kirk then explains that McCoy was intoxicated, and ducked inside rather than embarrassing the Führer with his condition. After he leaves, Isak explains that Eneg has been on their side all this time.
Sneaking into the broadcast booth, McCoy examines Gill and confirms he is heavily drugged, and prepares a serum to counteract the effects. McCoy administers the stimulant to Gill, but it fails to revive him. Spock uses a mind meld on Gill, which brings him to a state of semi-consciousness that allows him to respond to questions. But Spock does confirm one fact — Melakon was responsible for Gill's condition.
Gill is barely coherent, but explains that he never meant for any of this to get out of control. He instituted a theoretical form of Hitler's National Socialism (obviously minus the ethno-religious scapegoats) upon the lawless Ekosians, because he honestly believed that it was the most efficient system of government ever devised. Spock does agree that this small nation rose from being beaten and bankrupt to near world domination in only a few years but Kirk points out it was a horrible system that had to be destroyed at terrible cost. Gill explains he only wanted to bring order to the people of Ekos, and it worked — until Melakon gained control, and took it further, twisting it into a racist policy to rid the planet of Zeons as Hitler tried to annihilate the Jews. Kirk makes Gill aware of the extent to which Ekos has progressed toward resembling Nazi Germany, and Gill, now lucid enough to speak his own mind, decrees that the invasion fleet headed to Zeon must be recalled and stopped. However, Melakon has already started the broadcast, announcing the planet's version of Hitler's Final Solution — a genocidal war with Zeon that Gill is to endorse in his speech. Through the help of Spock's mind meld, combined with medical stimulants, Gill renounces the invasion and declares that Melakon is a traitor. Melakon grabs a machine gun and opens fire on the broadcast booth, fatally wounding Gill. Isak shoots and kills Melakon in retaliation.
Before he dies, Gill tells Kirk he is sorry for violating the Prime Directive, and hopes the Ekosians and Zeons can work together and fix the damage he caused. Isak thanks Kirk for his aid, saying it is up to the two planets to rebuild themselves. As they leave, Kirk wonders if the two societies working together can join the Federation one day. Back on the Enterprise, Spock expresses confusion as to how a man as logical as Gill could make such a mistake emulating the Nazis. Kirk says the problem was not just the Nazi system but having one man possessing so much power. McCoy agrees that absolute power corrupts absolutely, Spock dryly pointing out all the examples from Earth history of that mentality and Kirk tells them "we just went through one civil war, let's not start another."
John Gill was mentioned in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly (Part II)", listed in computer records of the USS Defiant in which Gill referred to Jonathan Archer as "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century."
This episode was remastered in 2006 and was first aired May 19, 2007 as part of the remastered 40th Anniversary original series. It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered version of "Errand of Mercy" and followed a week later by the remastered version of "Shore Leave". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the Enterprise that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:
Because the episode contains Nazi uniforms and insignia, and features a character who makes the statement that Nazi Germany was the "most efficient society" ever created, it was considered unfit for entertainment in Germany. Consequently, this episode is the only one which was not aired during either of the two original runs in Germany (on the public ZDF network in the mid 1970s and on the private Sat.1 network in the late 1980s/early 1990s). It was only dubbed into German in 1995, and was presented in the original English with subtitles in all earlier German releases. It was finally shown on German pay TV in 1996 and included on all DVD/Blu-ray season sets. On November 4, 2011 it was finally shown on the public network channel ZDFneo as well.[1]
Patterns of Force is unusual in that it does not mention a stardate at any point during the episode.
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