Star Trek – Patterns Of Force

★★★★★ February 16, 1968 Season 2 Episode 21

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog. 

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry and John Meredyth Lucas

This is a very interesting episode. Kirk and crew take on another planet’s Nazis.  A plague of thought/speech spread on a planet called Ekos. The Ekosians, a warlike primitive people, are subverted to channel their aggression against their peaceful neighboring planet, Zeon. The Zeons were more advanced up until a few years ago; but now, Ekos have the same technology, and plans are made to exterminate the Zeons. It all started innocently enough. It’s a bit strange.

The Federation has had this non-interference directive, the Prime Directive, in place for at least a century or more. I understand a sometimes aggressive hotshot like Kirk rationalizing around this directive at times of intense situational imperative, but now an elderly Federation historian, a supposed expert on what tampering with history means, decides to re-arrange a culture’s status quo on what appears to be a whim…a chance to play God, as McCoy puts it.

The Ekosians are the Nazis here, whereas the Zeons are stand-ins for the persecuted Jews. The episode does succeed in capturing some of that brutality associated with the Nazi regime and there’s plenty of suspense as Kirk & Spock attempt to infiltrate the Nazi HQ to see their Federation rep, now Fuhrer.

If anything, this is the serious version of “A Piece of the Action” – the scary contemplation of how an entire society can be deluded into following a certain doctrine.  The most intriguing aspect is Melakon, the deputy Fuhrer who is, in fact, the actual incarnation of Hitler or Himmler…take your pick.

From IMDB:

Due to the post-war German ban on Nazi-related imagery and paraphernalia, this was the only Star Trek episode that was not shown on German TV until mid-1990s, when these restrictions were gradually relaxed to allow for artistic expression.

All the Nazi uniforms used in this episode are taken from Paramount’s costume storage, and were previously featured in many of the studio’s World War II-era films. Many of them featured mismatched epaulets, collar tabs, and other rank-identifying insignia. However, McCoy’s collar tabs, bearing a single silver oak leaf, correctly identify him as a colonel, as Kirk had ordered.

Leonard Nimoy refused to have any publicity pictures taken of him in Nazi uniform. He was due to attend Hanukkah services later that month (filming took place in December), and did not want any controversies to arise.

This episode with its Nazi storyline proved rather difficult to make for a lot of the cast and crew who were Jewish. This included William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

The name of the planet Zeon is a variation of the word “Zion”, a Hebrew term, as in Mount Zion, near the city of Jerusalem. The names of the Zeons: Isak, Davod and Abrom are obvious references to Isaac, David and Abraham, traditional Hebrew biblical names.

According to Valora Noland (Daras), her costume originally did not have a swastika on it and it was added right before filming. Noland, whose parents fled Nazi Germany, was offended by this and stated that she would not have taken the role if she knew she would be wearing a swastika. Noland quit acting entirely after this episode.

This is the second mention of Nazi Germany in Star Trek, the first being in Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967). However, in Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror (1967), Scotty did compare Evil Sulu’s security system to “the ancient Gestapo”.

In one of the sequences of news footage, all of which consisted of stock shots and stock footage, a car with Adolf Hitler accompanied by soldiers is used to represent John Gill as the Führer on the planet Ekos. The sequence is a use of stock footage from The Triumph of the Will (1935), the infamous Nazi propaganda film for whose production Leni Riefenstahl was responsible.

The “leader principle” Kirk mentions at the end of the episode was a foundation of the leadership in Nazi Germany. Known in German as “Führerprinzip”, it essentially can be described as a state of law in which there are no laws above those of the Führer, and that the government must obey and enforce such laws.

The character Eneg (Patrick Horgan) is Gene Roddenberry’s first name, spelled backwards.

Skip Homeier, who plays Melakon, would later play the insane demagogue Dr. Sevrin in Star Trek: The Way to Eden (1969).

The front of the Ekosian Chancellery has all of its windows and shutters closed, for the real world reason that the actual building was an active office of Paramount Pictures with daily business going on inside while the film crew and actors were shooting the exterior. Even so, two individuals who appear to be curious Paramount Pictures employees can be seen looking down on the courtyard from an upper window.

This is the only episode of Star Trek besides Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967) in which Leonard Nimoy is seen without a shirt.

The underground area is the same set as was used for Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967).

The remastered version of “Patterns of Force” aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 19 May 2007. While the episode required very few new effects, an entirely new shot of the Enterprise phasering the Ekosian warhead was substituted. In addition, Ekos was given a CGI-makeover as a more Earth-like planet, with new orbital shots of the Enterprise, and the rubindium crystal beam was refined.

The Schulberg Building (formerly, the Directors Building) and the Lubitsch Building (formerly, the Producers Building), both located on the Paramount Studios lot, were used for the exterior shots of the Ekosian Nazi headquarters complex.

The attacking V-2 rocket on the viewscreen of Enterprise was reused footage of the Orion scout ship from Star Trek: Journey to Babel (1967) earlier in the season.

This episode was finally shown on German pay TV in 1996 and included on all DVD/Blu-ray season sets. This episode was also finally shown on the public network channel ZDFneo on November 4, 2011.

The missile fired at the Enterprise was shown to be a V2. In 1942, one of these ethanol/liquid oxygen-fueled rockets reached an altitude of 118 miles, making it the first man-made object in space.

Skip Homeier, who plays Melakon, had his feature film debut playing a Nazi youth in Tomorrow, the World! (1944).

Several uniforms, such as Kirk and McCoy’s, show cuffbands reading “Adolf Hitler”. They represent members of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, special bodyguards of the Führer.

V-2 rocket footage from World War II Germany is used in the newscast showing Ekosian missiles.

Due to a re-rating in late 2016, this episode is now suitable for ages 12 and up in Germany.

An early draft had the source of cultural contamination arriving aboard a small Ambassador-class vessel called the Magellan. The name was later applied in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) to the Ambassador-class of ships in the mid-24th century.

Gilbert Green, who played the S.S. Major, also played Nazi General Hans Stofle in Hogan’s Heroes: Hello, Zolle (1966).

The second occasion, after Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967), where Vulcans are shown to have body hair, with Spock fully removing his shirt to show a full front torso covered in hair.

This takes place in 2268.

Two of the main guest stars, Richard Evans (Isak) and Patrick Horgan (Eneg), died four days apart on October 2 and 6, 2021, respectively. Eddie Paskey (as a Nazi storm trooper rather than his regular role of Lt. Leslie) had died a few weeks earlier on August 17, 2021. Two other iconic Trek guest stars would die just a matter of days after Evans and Horgan. They were Jan Shutan (Lt. Mira Romaine in Star Trek: The Lights of Zetar (1969)) just a day after Horgan on October 7, 2021, and then, three days later, the repeat Trek actor and stunt performer Bob Herron (Jeffrey Hunter’s stunt double in the pilot Star Trek: The Cage (1966)), Kirk’s gym buddy Sam in Star Trek: Charlie X (1966) and the recreation of the villainous Klingon warrior Kahless the Unforgettable in Star Trek: The Savage Curtain (1969)). Evans’s passing had not been widely known until a time after the later death of Horgan was reported. Learning afterward that Evans had died first lent an oddly spiritual twist to his most famous line, referring to their respective characters, when Isak says “Eneg is one of us.”

Summary

The Enterprise travels to the planet Ekos to search for the missing Federation cultural observer Professor John Gill. When they arrive, they find that Ekosian society has been completely patterned after Nazi Germany – down to its uniforms and the hatred of everyone from their neighboring planet Zeon – and the Fuhrer of this neo-Nazi regime is John Gill! Kirk and Spock are soon taken prisoner, but they also learn that there is an underground movement that opposes the totalitarian and vicious regime. As they realize that Gill has been incapacitated, they focus their efforts on dethroning the real power – Melakon, the Deputy Fuhrer.

HERE IS THE PREVIEW…I TRIED 5 DIFFERENT VIDEOS AND ALL CAME UP AS “AGE RESTRICTED” AND WOULD NOT LET YOU GET TO THE VIDEO…SO CLICK ON THE LINK. 

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Richard Evans … Isak
Valora Noland … Daras
Skip Homeier … Melakon
David Brian … John Gill
James Doohan … Scott
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Patrick Horgan … Eneg
William Wintersole … Abrom
Gilbert Green … S.S. Major
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Lev Mailer … S.S. Lieutenant (as Ralph Maurer)
Ed McCready … S.S. Trooper
Peter Canon … Gestapo Lieutenant
Paul Baxley … First Trooper
Chuck Courtney … Davod
Bart La Rue … Newscaster
Benjie Bancroft … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley / S.S. Trooper (uncredited)
John Blower … Ekosian Gestapo Lt. Col. (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Len Felber … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler … Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Blonde in Audience (uncredited)
Sean Morgan … Second Trooper (uncredited)
Basil Poledouris … Trooper (uncredited)
Robert Strong Robert Strong … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Bob Whitney … Soldier at Party (uncredited)