STAR TREK
Patterns of Force

From Wikipedia:

"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.

More here.

No, not "Naziesque." These are straight up Nazis. Go watch the episode.

Notes:

* "Zeon" equals "Zion." The Nazis of Ekos are trying to wipe out a planet filled with Jews, or, if you prefer, Zeons.



* These Nazis have nukes, which they're plan to use against Zeon for their "Final Solution."



* Major cultural contamination, big time anti-Prime Directive shit. I mean, this Federation historian guy, John Gill, has turned an entire planet into Nazi Germany. A far cry from Captain Picard's continual ethical struggles on the issue twenty years later in Next Generation.

* Less than ten minutes into the episode, Kirk and Spock are going native.



* Kirk says in amazement "The chances of another culture..." This is after they've been to a Mafia gangster planet and a twentieth century Roman planet. You'd think they'd start thinking of parallel Earths as normal by now.

* Kirk: "You're right! He's not one of us!" This is just the first of several extraordinarily funny remarks Kirk makes to try to get the Nazis to think he's one of them.

* It's impossible to be certain, but I've got a good feeling that this episode helped to inspire the infamous K/S stories. I mean, this is just soooooo gay.





* Most of the actors playing Nazis in this one totally suck, which makes them totally perfect.

* "Patterns of Force" has some of the funniest dialogue in all of Star Trek.

* This is another one, along with "Bread and Circuses," fueled by the weird Hollywood hybrid concept that makes Tarantino films so fun, in this case science fiction movie meets WWII movie.

* This is also a Holocaust episode. Who would have thought that genocide could be so amusing?

* Meathead is working for the underground for some reason.



* Engaging mystery drives the plot: what the fuck went wrong here?

* The Nazi war chants are hilarious: "Hail to the Fuhrer!" "Death to Zeon!" "Hail Victory!"



* There's something very postmodern about the documentary film makers ruse.



* "Enig is one of us." Really well executed moment of revelation.



* Melakon's racial analysis of Spock is hysterical. Why do they wait until the episode's almost over to bring this guy out? He's fucking great.





* I love it when they list conquerors, tyrants, and evil dictators who haven't yet occurred in history. Lee Kwan must have been one nasty badass.

* I give this one three stars. Good enough to engage you. It probably should only get two stars, but it's just so damned funny, and how could you not like Kirk and Spock taking on the Nazis?

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