Patterns of Force
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 16 February 1968
- ON
- NBC
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- Vincent McEveety
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 52
WRITTEN BYWritten by John Meredyth Lucas
Searching for a missing Federation historian, Kirk and Spock find the planet Ekos remade in the image of Nazi Germany, and the man they seek is at its head.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
The Enterprise goes to Ekos to find John Gill, a respected historian and Kirk's former teacher, who was sent there as a cultural observer. The ship is attacked by a nuclear missile Ekos should not be able to build, and on the surface Kirk and Spock find a fully fledged Nazi state, with Gill hailed as its Führer and the neighbouring Zeons marked for extermination. In stolen uniforms they make contact with the underground, including the Zeon Isak and the Ekosian Daras. Gill turns out to be drugged and used as a puppet by his deputy, Melakon. Gill had imposed the Nazi model because he believed its efficiency could be kept without its cruelty. Revived by McCoy, Gill denounces Melakon in a live broadcast and admits his mistake, then is shot by him. Isak kills Melakon, and Ekos's own people begin to rebuild.
- 01Because of its Nazi imagery, it was long kept off German television, the only Original Series episode withheld there in the original runs.
- 02The resistance leader Eneg is named after Gene Roddenberry, his first name spelled backwards.
- 03Footage of Hitler in a car came from Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935), and the V-2 rocket clips were genuine film.