History Recap / StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce

* SubterfugeJudo: ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patterns of Force]]": A planet, Ekos, is revealed to have taken on the mindset of Nazism, from the Federation historian who was sent to investigate it, who has taken the reins as the ''Furher'' of the planet. (although [[spoiler: the original plan of cold order without murder and prejudice was hijacked by another.]]) When Kirk and Spock beam down, they steal some SS uniforms, and intend to waltz right into the Chancellery (Main Headquarters) undercover, except Spock and Kirk do not salute an SS Major properly, and...:

The FanNickname for this episode is "The One With The [[PlanetOfHats Nazi Planet]]".

The FanNickname for this episode is "TheOneWith The [[PlanetOfHats Nazi Planet]]".

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Gene's not too subtle about anything in this episode. The Space Nazis' scapegoats come from the planet Zeon (Zion) and have names like Isak and Abrom. The way Melakhon talks about how Spock's physical features are obvious evidence of inferiority also evokes Nazi eugenics.

* DatedHistory: It was often thought for a while after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII that Nazi Germany was efficiently run because of its fast ascension from military impotency, collapse of national morale, and economic devastation to a world power and scary conquering machine. As more and more research has been unveiled, the Third Reich has been shown to have sacrificed any hope of long-term efficiency in order to implement their short-term solutions, and even those needed to be augmented by expansion into the resources of UsefulNotes/{{Austria}} and UsefulNotes/{{Czechoslovakia}} to work. Ironically, this would perfectly tie it back in with their ''lebensraum'' attempt into Zeon.

** Kirk repeatedly refers to the SS uniforms as "Gestapo," which was the plain-clothes secret police. Gestapo personnel did wear SS uniforms in occupied territory to avoid being mistaken for civilians, which this isn't.

** Kirk repeatedly refers to the SS uniforms as "Gestapo," which was the plain-clothes secret police. Gestapo personnel did wear SS uniforms in occupied territory

** Kirk repeatedly refers to the SS uniforms as "Gestapo," which was the plain-clothes secret police.

* ReverseMole: Daras and Chairman Eneg are both introduced as loyal servants of the regime before revealing that they're working with the resistance.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Kirk is exasperated when Spock's BluntMetaphorsTrauma keeps him on Kirk's post-whipping back for a little too long.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Yes, Gill actually had good intentions when he recreated Nazi Germany.

* DelayedReaction: Even after beaming down in an SS uniform and struggling to get his boot on, it takes Bones about half a minutes to realize that ''everyone'' is wearing Nazi uniforms and ask what the hell is going on.

The ''Enterprise'' crew are headed off to the planet Ekos to pick up famed cultural observer John Gill, with whom the Federation has lost contact with for some time. In a bit of HeroWorship, [=McCoy=] and Spock share a poignant discussion about their relationship with the man, with Spock admiring Gill's take on historical events as causes and effects rather than that boring system of dates and events that normal history teaches us.

Things start to get interesting, though, when a nuclear interplanetary missile is launched at the ship from Ekos -- technology that shouldn't even be possible for the planet's primitive inhabitants.

Kirk manages to overpower Daras, but is prevented from killing her by the man she shot; turns out, Daras is a member of the underground, and the raid was an elaborate test to see if Kirk and Spock are friendly. Deciding things are screwed up enough without worrying about the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]], Kirk comes out and tells the group that Gill is an alien sent to observe Ekosian culture, and that something has gone horribly wrong to make him interfere with the planet's development so radically. With the underground's help, Kirk and Spock break into the headquarters, once more, just in time to catch a televised message from Gill seemingly announcing a "FinalSolution" to eradicate Zeon once and for all. However, with the help of a very reluctant (and late to the party) [=McCoy=], they're able to determine Gill is actually being drugged and kept in a stupor; a quick MindMeld further reveals his second in command Melakon has taken over, using him as a figurehead while he wields the real power behind the swastika.

With some drugs to help stimulate him into light consciousness, they're able to get an answer to the multi-million credit question: why did Gill break the Prime Directive and use ''UsefulNotes/NaziGermany'' as a template for his interference? As it turns out, Gill just couldn't stand idly by as the Ekosian people were tearing themselves apart by their barbarism, and thought the [[NoDelaysForTheWicked efficiency of the Nazis]] could be used to civilize them, if malice wasn't put to the fore, and it worked until Melakon took over. Eventually, Kirk manages to get Gill lucid enough to cancel the Final Solution order before Melakon kills him, who is in turn killed himself. With the Nazi planet now [[DecapitatedArmy leaderless]], all the other Nazis just step down without a fuss, and it'll be a breeze for LaResistance and Zeon to reform a whole planet full of Nazis filled with anti-Zeon propaganda.

* BlatantLies: The Nazis announce that one of their missiles utterly destroyed an enemy space ship - that ship being the very ''un''-destroyed ''Enterprise''.
--> '''Kirk:''' You look quite well for a man who's been utterly destroyed, Mr. Spock.

--> '''Eneg:''' You are not from Zeon.\\
'''Spock:''' Obviously.
* CycleOfRevenge: Averted at the end - Melakon kills Gill, while Isak kills Melakon. When another soldier raises his rifle at Isak, Eneg stops him and declares "There has been enough killing."
* DatedHistory: It was often thought for a while after World War II that Nazi Germany was efficiently-run because of its fast ascension from military impotency, collapse of national morale, and economic devastation to a world power and scary conquering machine. As more and more research has been unveiled, the Third Reich has been shown to have sacrificed any hope of long-term efficiency in order to implement their short-term solutions, and even those needed to be augmented by expansion into the resources of Austria and Czechoslovakia to work. Ironically, this would perfectly tie it back in with their ''lebensraum'' attempt into Zeon.

* ForgottenPhlebotinum: Gee those Transponders might have come in handy in any of the other 78 episodes in which the landing party's communicators get taken away.
* HumanLadder: Kirk and Spock make one in their escape attempt. Given that they've both been whipped, it's very uncomfortable for the captain.
* IdiotBall: A massive one for John Gill for coming up with Fascism as the best way to peacefully unite a planet, while he already has an excellent example of one in the Federation itself (which has united Earth for centuries already). Though it's interesting to note it worked, as merely an efficient state rather than 'evil nazis', the latter of which only happened when Melakon drugged him and changed things. Even still, he himself notes in his dying moments that 'even historians can fail to learn from history'.
* InexplicableCulturalTies: ''[[AvertedTrope Not]]'' the case, which is noteworthy because that is often forgotten in summaries of TOS, and because the fact that it looks like this is one of the main things that tips off the Enterprise crew that something is seriously wrong despite the fact that [[Recap/StarTrekS2E25BreadAndCircuses only four episodes later]] they will react to another planet being very similar to an Earth society (in that case UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire) complete with names and symbols by handwaving it as just an example of natural parallel development.

* TheManBehindTheMan[=/=]TheManInFrontOfTheMan: Melakon, officially the Fuehrer's second-in-command, combines both tropes when he's revealed to be the one behind the Zeon purges.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: When Kirk asks why Bones hasn't beamed down yet, he's told the Doctor is having trouble getting his Nazi uniform on. Kirk says "I don't care if you have to send him down naked, just get him down here!" Cue Kirk's reaction when he hears the transporter beam whine start immediately after this. (Don't worry...it was the boot the Doc was having trouble with.)

* NonLethalDeadlyWeapon: Daras fires a gun at Abrom and kills him. After Kirk and Spock grab her, Spock takes her gun away from her. Abrom then gets up, revealing that her gun was filled with blanks. Spock points the gun at Daras, even though it can't shoot her. Perhaps justified by the fact that even blanks can cause serious injury from the range he is threatening her with it. (And from the look on her face when this happens, she agrees.)

* PseudoCrisis: Our heroes are surrounded by Nazis! (ad break) But they're with the resistance, so it's okay!

* SdrawkcabName: Chairman Eneg, probably.

** The Ekosian missile on the viewscreen is recycled footage of the Orion scout ship from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E10JourneyToBabel}} Journey to Babel]]".

* TakeAThirdOption: When Ekosians launch the invasion fleet against Zeon, Daras, the Ekosian resistance fighter, pleads with Capt. Kirk to have the Enterprise destroy it to save Zeon, saying that the loss of Ekosian lives is the lesser of two evils. Kirk balks at that and manages to get Gill to cancel the invasion instead.
* TrojanPrisoner: A couple of times when Kirk and Spock (and later Kirk and Spock and Isak) don't have enough uniforms to go around, they use the "just taking this prisoner for interrogation" method to get past guard posts.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Yes, Gill actually had good intentions when he recreated Nazi Germany.

-->'''Kirk''': I...don't care if you aim at the broad side of a barn. Just hurry, please.\\
'''Spock''': Captain, why would I aim at such a structure?\\
'''Kirk:''' ''(sighs)'' Never mind, Spock, just...get on with the job.

** Shots taken from the 1935 Nazi propaganda film ''Triumph of the Will'' are used in the Ekosian newsreel. Adolf Hitler is clearly visible, arriving in a car in one of these.

Taking high orbit over Ekos, Kirk and Spock beam down in local attire to see what they can find about this turn of events, only to be more baffled when a televised message reveals that not only is the planet an exact duplicate of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, but that John Gill is the planet's Führer. Ambushing a pair of Nazi soldiers in order to [[DressingAsTheEnemy dress as the enemy]], they attempt to infiltrate the Führer headquarters to get some answers, but are caught and brought in for interrogation. There, they meet a Zeon prisoner by the name of Isak, who explains that the planet had actually been a rather nice place to visit, during the initial rule of the Führer, but turned into a nightmare once the old Nazi prejudices came up - now the Ekosians are on their way to eradicating the inhabitants of their sister planet [[MeaningfulName Zeon]] in much the same way the Nazis tried to eradicate the Jews and other hated minorities. Using crystal transponders embedded into their flesh, Kirk and Spock manage to free themselves and Isak, and escape into the underground that Isak is a member of. However, before they can prove to the underground that they're friendly, a Nazi task force led by a young woman named Daras -- crowned a hero of the fatherland in the same transmission that revealed Gill as the Führer -- comes in and shoots one of the underground, threatening to kill them all if they don't comply.

!!Tropes:

-->'''Spock:''' What impressed me most was his treatment of Earth history as causes and motivations rather than dates and events.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Daras is working with the resistance because she believes the Nazi leadership has gone off the rails. Also, it's noted late into the episode by Isak that Eneg is one of them, which explains why when he was tasked with finding a spy within the building and stumbled upon Kirk and company (up to no good, certainly, but even being found alone in a room would've been suspicious at that point), he pretended he'd never seen them before/'bought' their fairly obvious BlatantLies.

* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: John Gill's NewEraSpeech. Spock points out that it follows no logical pattern.

* ExcusePlot: The episode pretty much only exists because the studio had a bunch of Nazi uniforms already available from various movies so the show could skip making costumes for a week.

* ActualPacifist: The Zeon are so peaceful that Isak worries that they'll fall to the Ekosians without a fight.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Daras is working with the resistance because she believes the Nazi leadership has gone off the rails.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Kirk is exasperated when Spock's BluntMetaphorsTrauma keeps him on Kirk's back for a little too long.

** Kirk repeatedly refers to the SS uniforms as "Gestapo," which, while a branch of the SS, was the plain-clothes secret police.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Yes, Gill actually had good intentiones when he recreated Nazi Germany.