Ok, the green makeup lines they put on Spock to show he got whipped is a cute touch

Spoke's green whip marks made me smile. It is a nice touch.

Jewish actors dress up as and disrespect Nazis. Star Trek and Hogan's Heroes: gotta love the Sixties.

Fun fact: That episode wasn't broadcast in Austria until the mid-90. And even then its first airing was "well hidden" in the late night tv schedule.

🔔 13:33 "There's no bluffing their way out of THAT one."?!? SURE THERE WAS! Kirk: "I see that you've noticed his ears. Well, there's a good explanation for that." Spock: "An unfortunate childhood accident..." Kirk: "With a...mechanical rice picker."

I think that it is important to take this episode in historical context, not just the WWII context, but the context of when this episode was produced. Airing in the second season, it had only been 22 years since the end of WWII. Most of the veterans of that war were younger than I am now. Fascism and fighting Nazis was still very much on the minds of most Americans. With his typical lack of subtlety, Roddenberry wanted to address 1960s concerns about hatred and totalitarianism, and put it into a Star Trek format. Patterns of Force was one of my favorite episodes when I was a kid. My dad taped all the episodes after buying a VCR in 1978, and some episodes I just watched over and over again. I also read all the James Blish novelizations of the episodes.

Sadly, just like the clever security password used in "Whom Gods Destroy", the transponders are very good ideas that were never used ever again. 😢

A part of the episode I greatly appreciate is when Kirk and Spock ask Isak why the Ecosians are so vehemently hateful toward the Zeons, he answers: "Because without that there would be nothing keeping them together," which couldn't be a more apt description of fascists (even those who hide behind seemingly non-fascist ideologies or simply deny they are fascists). Thank you for the video, Steve. LLAP🖖

I really need a "How dare you accurately cite examples from the history of my shitty planet?" t-shirt

12:12 - Kirk: "You look quite well for someone who's been 'utterly destroyed', Mister Spock."

I imagine shirtless Spock has jump-started puberty for legions of Trekkies

Another thing about this episode's approach: PoF was written in an era where the Nazis were the ultimate foe who we were so lucky to have taken down, at great cost. As many a SF/F series will show, it always seems like we were one time travel tweak away from being dominated by them forever. However, while there was nothing humorous about the horror and evil of the regime, they were in actuality not natty-dressed nigh-supermen always unified on all fronts. The back-biting and crippling departmental rivalry smacked more of Hogan's Heroes than the desperate struggle against transcendent evil we often see depicted. Another thing they needed was other places to expand into - it was the only way their economy could ever work. Star Trek TOS was still of its time, and while the horror is never diminished, the nigh-victory we used to see as theirs was at minimum much further away and perhaps a complete illusion. Then again, even Twilight Zone had Lost Cause-ish eps and depicted Custer's last stand as heroic, so historiography of the era is hard to escape. They were more like Stalag 13 than the Draka.

By disguise themselves as Ekosians, we mean Kirk and Spock don the clothes they stole in "The City on the Edge of Forever".

This is the episode that I never got to see during my childhood - because I'm German, and this episode only got dubbed into German for the first VHS release of TOS in 1995. First airing on TV in 1999, first airing on free-to-watch TV in 2011. Germans in the 1970s (when the first dub was airing here) and even in the 1980s (second dub) were a little on the sensitive side when it came to actual Nazi symbols, not to mention that showing those symbols outside of an educational context is expressly forbidden by law here (that includes the swastika as well as the "lightning" runes of the SS). Depictions in fictional media have gotten a little more leeway in recent decades, but this episode would have whipped up a storm of controversy if it had aired during the first run of the show on German TV. It makes for an interesting historical curiosity, but its depictions of Nazis actually got a lot of flak from German reviewers when they finally got around to making it available.

Valora Noland/Baum/Tree was so beautiful. For once, an alien Kirk didn't try to hit on, too. Died last year at 80.

I never understood why that officer wanted Spock to take off his helmet? I mean what was it about Spock’s face that made him think Mr. Spock was hiding a secret under his helmet? It really came out of nowhere.

Took me way too long to notice that "Zeons" is probably derived from "Zion."

When the picture of Gil sitting "catatonic" in the chair I thought "Mike Pence was in Star Trek" for just a second.

1:51 - It also looks like the town in "Return of the Archons". Funny, that!

When Indana Jones knocked out Nazis and stole their uniforms I flashed back at this episode every time.

And I’m forever wondering why a Federation historian didn’t use the Federation as his model for a society given as that’s clearly the model that has worked the best.

I love the way Kirk at one point foolishly says that John Gill is from his planet, instantly making them suspicious, rather than saying "He's a criminal from my world who has violated our highest law" which would have instantly told them EXACTLY what is going on. This is similar to the typical Voyager episode. Janeway:"This is the Voyager, we noticed... Something... And thought we see if you needed anything." Alien "Hi, were desperate aliens who would ordinarily be friendly but our civilization was assimilated by the Borg and we are one of a handful of survivors on a poorly maintained and ill supplied space craft. Can you spare some food and dilithium? " Janeway: "Of course, I'll send over Enseign Kim and 7 of 9 with some supplies and they can help you get your engines running again" Alien: "7 of 9 is an odd name, and she has some very unusual medical in plates that somewhat resemble..." Janeway: "She's a Borg!" Alien: "OMG SHES A BORG AND YOUR IN LEAGUE WITH THE BORG AND WERE ALL GOING TO DIE" I mean seriously, why not say "She's a human. She was rescued from the collective after being taken by the Borg. We removed all the implants we could but some we couldn't." Yea, some people would be very uncomfortable, but everyone with a family taken by the Borg would have fantasies that such a thing were posible.

One question: How on Earth did the Nazis detect Kirk’s communicator? You’d think that technology would have been a bit beyond the abilities of their antiquated technology.

Awesome scene when Spock is standing on Kirk's back.

Gill held a rally to Make Ekos Great Again on Stardate 010621.

"The Nazis caught Spock and Kirk in the closet". Thats some top tier fanfiction shit Also on a more serious note: The most important message for me is: The lesson we have to learn from the Nazis is that any sign of their ideology or way of thinking returning, if not stopped, will eventually lead to this. Its a comment on people saying things like "yeah the Nazis where bad, but they build the Autobahn (which is only halfway true. Hitler didnt build the first Autobahn, that was Adenauer in his time as Mayor but the Nazis quickly degraded that road so they could claim to have built the first one) or that Hitler stopped the depression or joblessness. The whole economy of Nazi Germany was build on money they didnt have. The government gave out checks (called Mefo), that the big companies (especially military industry) could clear years later. These mostly funded the rebuilding of the Wehrmacht. When that point came and the government had to pay, they just gave them a different kind of check( called Reichsschuldverschreibungen, which was a prove, that the state was indebted to you) they could clear even later. These were always intended to be payed by the spoils of war taken and robbed from the countries the Nazis had long intended to attack.

Okie dokie.....im officially a spock stan! Kirks over the shoulder, smolder look, doesn't come close to a bare chested spock! That being said, the original Star Trek... continues to amaze me, as no matter how far away from the time period of the show, the message is still on point, and relevant to today! Im amazed this show was greenlighted back in the sixties! Though, grateful I am!

Thanks for this. Star Trek was my favorite TV show. When it first came out my family had a b&w TV. When a friend of mine got a color TV, my 1st question was 'what color is Uhura's uniform?' Love that you talk about TOS. None of the other Star Treks can compare (to this old Trekkie that is)

The trope of nazi "efficiency" is strong with this episode, but it is a busted myth at the end at least. I could be wrong, but I think the blond actress also played a resistance contact in Hogan's Heroes, same basic timeframe. She was also a nazi in that episode, or was disguised as one, I can't remember.

I love that this episode was just an excuse to raid the Paramount costume vaults for old Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, and Nazi Party uniforms left over from the then-last 20 years of WWII movies and TV shows. Notice the SS cuff bands have Adolf Hitler's name on them; those are supposed to be uniforms of the 1st SS Panzer unit "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" aka Hitler's SS bodyguards (he had a small Brownshirt formation called "Stosstrupp Hitler" to guard him in the 1920s.)

The idea that a competent historian would have the "Nazis were so *efficient*; Nazis without all that evil would be a great society" reaction is ridiculous, but it was a general idea that a lot of people in late 20th century America seemed to have, and I think this episode was specifically trying to attack that. I get reminded of John Gill way too often.

"Maybe they had help". :)

I thought that bit in the intro was part of the formula, but I had forgotten last week's was "gangsters" and not "ancient Rome except modern"... so I was, I guess, remembering a review from a few weeks from now (assuming you do it at all :p) I definitely agree with you that the core message is there. But it buries the lede under all that justifying why he tried to set up a "good" version in the first place... I'm with you that they could've spent more time analysing the problems. OTOH it was within living memory for a lot of the audience, who perhaps wouldn't need to be told how it was basically a failed state.

At first, I thought you were going to compare it to "Springtime for Hitler", which sort of made sense since "The Producers" came out about the same time.

The good old days. Need a dangerous undercover operation? Send the two ranking commanding officers. Of course

Even the series pitch for Star trek had the "Hodgins law" of parallel planetary development. As a reason they could reuse sets from other shows and save money.

also quite useful that the uniforms are a good fit

Sigh. Another episode where the Prime Directive is conveniently forgotten to advance the plot. I began imagining another outcome where Dr. Gill is transported back to the Enterprise to recover from his severe drugging and broadcasts his message of peace. It was somewhat tense but lacked dramatic flare. I've watched it quite a few times. Good review, thank you.

suprised you didnt bring up how spock mentioned that gill's use of the nazis was a good idea in theory ... because of how efficient they were

i couldnt remember the name for this episode ... but i could easily describe it ... thanks for reminding me

This is one of my favorite episodes. This is one of the episodes that would have been better if it had been longer. It really needed time to build on the whole underground, especially Enoch. You should make a video on all the Naxis programs that were made during the sixties, in particular the Daleks.

It makes you wonder about the subsequent weeks, months and years on the planet Ekos, following the deaths of John Gill and Melakon. In what ways was Ekos for lack of a better term, de-nazified. Regardless of whether Melakon's acolytes willingly decided that since Gill had outed (And then murdered by.) Melakon in full view of (Presumably.) the whole planet, or if either a civil war or a power grab by some of the more militant higher ups (Let's call them mega's i.e. Make Ekos Great Again).

Six months seems like a pretty swift response for Starfleet.

They should retcon this episode so that John Gill turns out to have been a big computer the whole time.

13:25 Looks an awful lot like Von Trapp, or at least Christopher Plummer as Von Trapp, if Plummer aged differently

They say history doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes….

Also to be fair, it's not unreasonable to have high ranking Nazi officials actually be part of the resistance. Look at the officers in July 20th plot like Claus von Stauffenberg or the head of German Intelligence, the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, who absolutely was a Nazi, also did a ton to help bring down the regime he was a part of. That's according to Great Britain's intelligence leader during World War 2, that Canaris helped a lot, and eventually the Nazis did figure it out but Canaris probably shortened the war by years by his actions. I mean it's convenient for the show, but it also happened in the real world to some extent as well.

Absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptible.

Thanks Steve!

This review couldn't have come out at a better time👍

Of course you realize that TNG's "Code of Honor" is also an alternate Earth episode. An alternate Earth where for some reason a variation of African culture became the dominant culture.

Many of the Nazi costumes were reused from the 1939 war film Confessions of a Nazi Spy, the same costumes were also used on Hogan’s Heroes.

Nazi Germany saw a marked downturn in the quality of German sausages... they were the wurst!

So are you just skipping right over "Bread And Circuses" in your parallel Earth series?

Thanks!

My thought when I first saw this episode, (when it first aired,) was how everything was written in English. Then; after re-watching (after ten times,) how did I miss the most important line, Spock: ". . . the treatment of history . . ."causes and motivations, rather than dates, and events." That's why I love Mary Beard's "SPQR" on Roman history. By the way; if Kirk's "karate chop" is as effective as Spock's neck pinch, why did the neck pinch ever become necessary? 7.2 mm, for the laser thing. . . Star Trek tries to convince America to convert to the metric system!!! (Probably just showing off science.)

i liked this episode ... but i was always happy when they visited an alternate earth ... or even the mirror universe

I was looking forward to your take on this episode and present day.... insanity.

Please circle back and review "A Taste of Armageddon." I think that this episode has Kirk at his most Kirkness. 🖖

I like how the Nazi who is secretly a good guy but does nothing until the VERY end has a name that is "Gene" backwards. Was that flattery or criticism of Roddenberry?

A whole lot happened in six months. Wonder what would have happened if it had been 100 years later?

Snitches do not end up in stitches because stitches are only used for the living. The saying is "Snitches End Up In Ditches."!

This has been one of my favorite episodes for a long time. Any episode where the main characters fight the Nazis is a good episode

3:25 I did not see that coming.

G-d bless you, sir. Keep up the good work.

I really been enjoying this channel lately, I’m curious if the host has ever watched Stargate SG1, Atlantis, or universe. That late 90s early 2000s era of television, especially a sci-fi program, I enjoyed Stargate more than Star Trek at the time, obviously now I recognize Star Trek beings superior series for obvious reasons, but there is a sense of groundedness in a series taking place in contemporary times If anyone can direct me towards any of the videos, he might’ve made on start date I would appreciate it. I have a feeling he kinda probably wouldn’t like the glorification of the military, though I do like how corporations are seen as a great threat in Stargate as well as the sense of internationalism and Stargate Atlantis in universe

You would think that if a historian had good intentions of modeling them after nazis, he would have chosen a different symbol and not modeled the uniforms on them.

🔥🔥

I enjoy this episode, but Space Nazis is such a worn-out trope. Some bits: Spock shows his much-discussed green blood... and greenish torso (much more pronounced greenish here than in, say Plato's Stepchildren.) It also has to be (I assume) satisfying for two Jewish actors to stick it to the Third Reich on TV... much the same way the cast of Hogan's Heroes included several German Jews.

Great video, Steve. I'm definitely interested in your review of "The Omega Glory." To me, it's always been the worst TOS episode.

This is one that I don't like as much as an adult as I did as a kid. It's sad, because I love the trope the protagonists fighting a Nazi regime on an alternate Earth. But yeah.... his plan makes no real sense. "Oh, but they were efficient," is like "state's rights". Right to do *what*? Efficient at doing *what*? It just doesn't hold up.

hey, look! a comment to boost engagement. by the way, i actually sat down and watched my first episode of strange new worlds. . . . . . holy $#!+ is it some good trek!

Actually, Zeon had developed nuclear weapons. They gave them up. Ecos hadn't developed them.

Good work as usual Steve do you watch Dr who if you do çan do a video on it 😊

While I guess I can cut Star Trek some slack due to this not actually being a time travel episode set during WW2, but just a reenactment on another planet, I do find the recurring trope about every not-outright-evil character actually being part of the resistance etc, troubling in a lot of movies and shows dealing with Nazi Germany. Even fantastic movies like Das Boot or Stalingrad (the 1993 one) have all the characters "just being soldiers" and not actually believing in the nazi cause, silently ridiculing the leaders behind the back. I think that's creating a false narrative where it's implied that most people didn't support or weren't aware of what was going on, and as a counterpoint I'd recommend the 70s documentary Shoah where it's clearly established how just about everyone did what they could to help the genocide - entrepreneurs inventing clever ways to gas people to death in the back of trucks with the blood and excrement collected in trays below, happy rail company workers helping finding out how to transport people as cheaply and effectively to the concentration camps as possible and using the victim's belongings to pay for the costs. Most people didn't resist.

Did no one even THINK to ask how Nimoy (who was Jewish) and Shatner (who was at leased raised Jewish) would feel about repeatedly dressing as Nazis?

I forgot about this one...and people still think Star Trek wasn't political...

2:28 today I learned Hugo Boss was a Nazi, and German, and a real person.

They are Zay-ons, noe ZEE-ons

The episode in which a couple of Jewish actors get to punch out Nazis.

So, the episode is saying that following “Hitler got some things right” inevitably leads to the crappiness of fascism?

🔔 Urban Dictionary: potsie potsie A usually harmless, well-meaning fool or idiot who bumbles through life unaware of how embarassingly ridiculous he or she is. potsie a potsie is a person who acts foolishly in a comical manner, but funny in that you're laughing at him, not with him. a potsie is usually rather dorky, yet likeable. potsy A clean living, gee-whiz feller. "Say, that Bill is quite a Potsy, he wouldn't even smell my finger!"

Speaking of fascists, Kissinger’s dead! 🦀 🦀 🦀

I liked this episode except for at the end when Spock said that system would make a fine addition to the Federation. Talk about not learning from history. You don't just don't turn off fascist tendencies like a light switch.

I wonder if more “in your face, Nazi’s are bad and authoritarian leadership is evil” stories would help today.

Re: Nazi Logos everywhere Suppose it could be just an overly excited Props Dept. making sure to have it plastered everywhere... Then again like in today's TV shows if there is a Branded item used in a Scene (Laptops, Monitors, TVs, Automobiles) it ain't unusual to have it Obscured, Altered, or just have a rather obvious Sticker Slapped over it... I'm sure some of that equipment must be branded... And not sure many companies would want to be associated with Future "Space Nazis" from another planet... Just like those "random" stickers obviously used on TV today the set designers sometimes can "hide" it better by plastering stickers on other things too... But it becomes a delicate balance. Using such recognizable symbols aren't often a good idea.

I completely thought the message was you can’t do a little nazi. It will mushroom no matter what.

Is it too easy to do a drinking game and take a shot every time the word Nazi is used in this review? *glug* 😏

The "achieved control through brute force, not competence" bit is important, I think. There is, I think, an unfortunate unintended message here, that Nazism is good for modernizing and state-building, regardless of how brutal and bigoted it may make people: the Space Nazi regime _did_ take a war-torn planet with no space technology or nuclear weapons to a unified planetary state capable of interplanetary invasions. The Nazis were parasitic: they capture the institutions of a strong and technologically advanced state and used them for their own purposes - and soon were damaging them rather badly to boot (the large scale immigration of scientists of the wrong ethnicity or political commitment was just the start of it).

As weird as this may sound, this episode fell for Nazi propaganda - there was a whole thing about how 'Nazi Germany turned its economy around' that was a popular talking point in history circles for awhile, but it seems that was actually a narrative from nazi propaganda. Modern historians generally agree that the 'economic turnaround' as a relatively short term effect that built trouble up for the German economy in the medium and long term, which ironically enough the collapse of the German front lines massively overshadowed and prevented from being focused on. Military historians had/have a similar problem where one sided accounts of the 'invincible German army' by German generals trying to a) pretend they has no links to warcrimes and b) trying to look good to get NATO positions. Didn't help the Russians weren't allowing people to see their records if for nothing else to hide the shit show their early to mid war effort was.

I still enjoy this episode a lot, and it certainly earns it place as a distinctive "Other Earth" installment... But the nerdy pedant in me can't help but view it in the context of Trek as a whole, not just the context of its sixties production (and even then to a large degree... WTH?) which makes the premise shaky to me. Knowing how educated the population of the Federation is classically thought as, knowing how the lessons of Earth's pre-warp civilization (Ours, natch) would include a strong moral revulsion to what the Nazis stood for, why in all the multiverse would a Federation citizen, a historian, and a instructor at Starfleet Academy at that, ever choose the Nazis to pattern a society after? Yeah, I guess the myth of Nazi hyper efficacy (An interesting hold over from War Propaganda maybe?) was still in vogue in the 1960's, but its an odd premise given Gene's usual druthers. Also, I guess that there's no reckoning outside of death for the Federation citizen that broke the Prime Directive AND imported Nazism also rubs me wrong. And by that I mean we don't get a lot of his reasoning outside of believing in the ahistorical efficient nature of Fascist regimes. Given the history Kirk is supposed to share with this "Professor" you would suppose the Capt. could be used to give us more insights than just academic nostalgia for and old teacher. A lot of this is hindsight but I feel it's an important missing part of the story. At least give himts WHY Nazism was this guys go to arrow in his quiver ?

I would like to think that American fascists a mere 20 years after the end of WWII would be hiding, but apparently they were visible enough that Star Trek felt the need to call out the error of their ways. I wish someone would do that now.

Good thing that can never happen in the greatest country on earth, USA, USA, USA.

"Illinois Nazis. I *hate* Illinois Nazis!"

0:33 american history? Is this one of those "I say something silly to get people to comment" things? If so... bravo sir. Bravo. You sucked me in. Of course, since you are talking about whimsy, Nazis, and America. You could be talking about that gem of a work: The Producers. And the play-within-a-play: Springtime for Hitler.

I enjoy Star Trek...but honestly...Steve does a killer job with our current political news.

10:43 Weird, sounds like a certain political party in America right now...

Star Trek has unintentionally created a setting that wouldn't be out of place in fascist propaganda. Most alien civilizations are little more than a stereotype. Often they exist only as straw men to showcase a flaw, an example of what not to do. This wouldn't be a problem if it also served as a mirror for the characters to reflect on their own flaws, but when the main characters turn around and talk about how great their own society is, how humans have developed an "evolved sensibility", that starts to sound like humans are being depicted as the Master Race. Then consider the state of the galaxy. In the local neighborhood, there are planets who've seen the light and have become vassals of the Human Empire and there are enemies. You have the savage Klingons with whom war could break out at any moment. You have the duplicitous and untrustworthy Romulans. You have the greedy and conniving Ferengi. And you have the fascist Cardassians. In the hypothetical situation that the Federation was a fascist regime, or a military junta (Starfleet's outsized influence in politics and diplomacy does bear questioning), that doesn't mean that they'll get along with other authoritarian regimes. Autocrats don't automatically trust other autocrats. They might form alliances of convenience (see: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), but they're always going to mistrust the other, expect an eventual betrayal, and will betray the other themselves should it be convenient. In the larger galaxy, you have the Dominion and the Borg, both led by a hive mind that cannot be reasoned with, both existential threats that can only be dealt with using extreme force. Then there's the episodes where they invoke the Prime Directive to avoid helping a civilization on the verge of extinction. Now, they usually invoke shenanigans to violate the PD without technically violating it, but consider the mentality: they were fated to die. Why were they fated to die? It doesn't take much of a leap to go from there to "they didn't pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" or "they weren't sufficiently evolved or worthy". We see this very thing play out in "Dear Doctor" where the argument is literally Eugenics: an inferior species should be allowed to die out so that a superior species can thrive. This is a perversion of the PD. The original intent was that the incentive to exploit is great, but we can choose not to exploit today.

Who were the persecuted minority in Italy's version of fascism? Fascism is bad because it's totalitarian, just as Communist systems are bad. The comment you make about needing to have the people feel under constant siege could apply to North Korea. But Italy's version of fascism was very different from Germany's version in important ways. You seem to equate Fascism with Nazism.