Although no stardate is given during this episode, external sources give the stardate as 2534.0. This is somewhat curious, as it would place this show chronologically among the early first season episodes. All of the other stardates of the late second season, when "Patterns of Force" was produced, have stardates in the high 4000's. An early dating for this episode would, however, explain Kirk's surprise at seeing a culture modeled on Earth when by the end of the second season it should be old hat to him.

The man who seved as the broadcast announcer early in the episode also appears as the broadcast announcer in the episode Bread and Circusses as well as being the voice of the Guardian of Forever.

To George--all of those voices were supplied by James Doohan. If you listen very closely, you'll recognize his voice. Doohan had been a prolific radio performer in Canada and was very skilled at voice work (another reason why he got the Scotty role--he was good at accents).

Doohan did supply a lot of the voices, especially for the animated series. However, the guardian and the announcer in this episode were performed by vocal actor Bart Larue. He can also be heard as the voices of many of the aliens in the Irwin Allen series like "Lost in Space" and "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea."

Todd--sorry, my mistake.

No biggie!

When Spock and Kirk attempt to escape the prison cell by using the makeshift laser, they are both supposed to be handcuffed. Yet if you look carefully, one of Shatner's cuffs is open and hanging off his arm!

I guess the director thought that they couldn't afford the time to do another take.

Kirk and Spock are roughly the same age, Spock being perhaps a few years older. Presumably, both attended Starfleet Academy in the same decade. Therefore, why would Kirk have had John Gill as a professor at the Academy, but not Spock? In my view, history, which Gill taught, would be a required course at the Academy for all cadets.

I always thought Spock was older than Kirk. By how many years, I can't say, cos it's hard to tell with Vulcans.

As to the course, Gill was probably not the only history professor teaching at the Academy. Or Gill could have been teaching an elective history course that Spock didn't take.

It's also possible Gill taught a 100 level (or future equivalent) course that Spock, coming from Vulcan, had already completed the requirements for.

The Chronology states that Kirk was born in 2233, and is 35 in this episode. Spock was born in 2230 and is 38 in this episode (early 2268).

Don't forget- many episodes imply that Kirk specialized - or majored in - history, just as Janeway is implied repeatedly to have a science background. It is reasonable to assume that Kirk took more advanced courses than Spock.
As for age, Shatner and Nimoy are exactly the same age.
Dohhan and Kelley are exactly the same age.
And, yes, Koenig and Takei are exactly the same age.

I love the idea of a subcutaneous transponder. Why don't they use it any other episodes? It sure would come in handy whenever they have their communicators taken away. It's interesting that Captain Kirk, entering an unknown situation, seems to predict that they will get locked up. Fortunately, as the old saying goes, "You can never lock up Captain Kirk for very long".

After they pull the neat trick with the transponders to open the cell door, Spock discards them. Shouldn't they keep them so that Scotty can beam them up at the proper time?

Why didn't Spock test the reassembled communicator before they infiltrated the site of the broadcast?

At the end, Kirk quips ".. we've just been through one civil war..". This was not a civil war.

I can't believe for one iota of a second that Gill thought the Nazis to be more efficient. What about the Holocaust?
How can one overlook the deaths of 6 million people?

It is also known that Hitler dabbled with the occult and actually communicated with Satan.

Efficient? No. Ignorant? Yes.

Maybe a case of history being deluded through the years in history books to the point of making WWII not seem so bad, perhaps? Hard to believe that anyone would be so fascinated with that time period that they'd want to change a civilization to mimic the whole Nazi way of life, right down to the S.S. Melakon must have drugged Gill early on, questioned Gill about the Nazis, and made Gill's 'peaceful' Nazi government as brutal as Earth's.

That sounds believable.

Even today, certain individuals try to warp history.

Nazis living today go on trial, they deny the Holocaust ever happened....

The U.S government says JFK's assassination was not a conspiracy,

yada yada yada

I think that TOS had so many episodes with "earthlike" clothing and buildings in order to save production expensesby reusing existing costumes and sets. I dont think TNG had too many planets which looked just like earth.

Yet when it did happened...it seemed impossible, but there it was!

Gill seems to have been arrogant enough to think there were good points to Nazism that he could use without risking a repeat of what happened in Germany. In reality ultranationalism needs enemies as a focus of its energies, with preditably bigoted results.

Its interesting that not only did he duplicate the Nazi social and political structure along with its trappings he also went to the trouble of recreating Nazi era small arms. Very thorough wasn't he! Strangely enough if I remember correctly one of the resistance has a revolver of the typical Colt or Smith and Wesson pattern.

For that matter, why duplicate the symbols of Nazism at all (swastika, uniforms etc.)? Wouldn't choosing these items from their own cultural history have more of an impact on the Ekotians?

There's a blooper reel on this episode with Gene Roddenberry standing on a short flight of stairs and the recording of "Hail, Fuhrer" playing in the background. (or something like that)

Some nits:

1.) After Kirk&Co beamed down to the planet, somebody shouts "HIDE!!!!!!" Some SS-soldiers nearby DON't look for hidden people! That shows that nazis have an IQ below 47.

2.) Starfleet has no contact to Gill for YEARS. Why didn't they take a look a bit earlier?

3.) Why does Spock's Laser make so much noise?

1) Not to argue with you on the Nazi-IQ question, but the way that scene is shot, I think the Zeon is supposed to have yelled 'Hide!' while the soldiers were still out of earshot. (Besides, he doesn't really what you'd call yell, exactly, does he? I seem to remember more of a tortured moan.)

2) Excellent point. And why did they suddenly decide to go check for him when they did?
(Theory: An old professor crony finally looked up from his thesis and muttered, "Y'know, that Gill fellow was showing a lot of interest in The Fall and Rise of the Third Reich, just before he left. Perhaps we should go make sure he hasn't done anything foolish....")

3) Well, the crystals he uses were originally part of a communications device. Maybe they have a really high resonance or something?

The stairs that Roddenberry is standing on while we hear "Hail Fuhrer" are the Denevan interiors used for "Operation Annhiliate." John, did you go to those New York cons in the '70's as I did, as that blooper reel was shown at all of them?

Adam---nope...never been to a convention...but I hope to be at one soon...there's some coming in Illinois...maybe I'll go.

Why does Spock's phasor make so much noise?
It needs a new muffler from Midas (R)

It's phaser, not phasor or laser. Lasers were used in The Cage but not since.

Actually, Spock made a laser to escape his cell in this episode.

Great SFX: In the opening..the Enterprise is approaching TWO planets. (Yeah, I KNOW there's supposed to be two...but we've never seen a shot like this...it's looks REAL GOOD!)

Great Lines:
"You should make a convincing Nazi" Spock to Kirk.

"We'll make a human out of you yet."
"I hope not" Kirk & Spock's playful banter

Some of the footage on the big screen in the middle of the town is ACTUAL Hitler footage! Now THAT'S attention to detail!

YAHHHHHH! The Orion ship from "Journey to Babel" is attacking again! Just kidding...it's SUPPOSED to be a nuclear warhead, but they ain't foolin' nobody.

The explosion of the nuclear warhead is VERY GOOD SFX...KUDOS!

The camera that captures Gill's image is the same camera used to film Tomlinson's wedding in "Balance of Terror"

Spock's "home-made" laser sfx is very cool!

The corridor with the two doors in the Fuhrer's building looks EXACTLY like the corridor with the two doors in the jail building. (The door on the left in both buildings had a sign saying "Fire stairs".In the jail building, the door on the right was for the lab--with a sign indicating it so. In the Fuhrer's building, the door on the right was Gill's door)

The first Nazi guard that Kirk gives the karate chop to looks like Bilar from "Return of the Archons" (He's the guy with the derby who asked Kirk & Co. if they had a place to sleep for the night)

RUMINATION:

This is the first episode in which we get to see Spock's bare chest.

(All the women scream with sheer delight then faint)

I must note too that when our heroes look down the corridor towards the Fuhrer's door there's no guards present...yet when they stroll down that way...the guards *magically* appear!

A rare mistake on my part....disregard the previous post...the guards are there after all.

FUNNY THOUGHT:
It's a good thing Gill also didn't choose to have the Imperial Galatic Empire from "Star Wars" as his government...this episode might have been called: "Patterns of THE Force"

(Insert SFX: synthesized exhale)

Re your comment on July 9th, John. This is in fact the only time we get to see Spock's bare chest. Star Trek as whole is sadly "hirsutist" and makes its furry males cover up (Robbie McNeill is another example).

Mind, what with the whips, handcuffs etc, this episode almost makes up for the lack. I'd still have like to seen a little more - I mean we get Kirk's shiney torso almost every episode! Maybe Shatner's fragile ego couldn't stand the competition

A beautiful moment in that scene to draw to your attention. Being a good Vulcan, Spock completely fails to respond to being whipped, despite green blood stains all over him. Then during the conversation with Eneg, the SS chap thumps Kirk. Watch carefully, as Kirk doubles over, Spock winces. He's very aware of his friends pain!

And yes, I admit to having watched that scene a few time ;-)

In the Guide (and several people above) question why any historian would want to re-create a brutal society like Nazi Germany. However, John Gill, and Spock for that matter, both seem to buy into the notion of "brutal Nazi efficiency". History shows that the German economy under Hitler was actually terribly inefficient Although Hitler is sometimes hailed for improving the German economy between 1933 and 1939, his economic policies were actually less effective than Roosevelt's "New Deal". There is a great deal of writing on this subject, but for a quick reference check out Ian Montgomerie's essay on "The Nazi Economy" at:
http://gateway.alternatehistory.com/essays/NaziEconomy.html
Montgomerie agrees that the German economy under Hitler improved significantly from its near-collapse of the early 1930's. However, in comparison to other western economies, Nazi Germany had very sluggish rates of growth and productivity. The Nazi's interference with business left German industry isolated and far less competitive than other western free market societies. Furthermore, the high levels of deficit and military spending were not sustainable in the long run. Finally, the Nazi regime was
notoriously corrupt, thereby further restraining the economy. So if the Nazi system wasn't that effective in improving the economy, and the concentration of power in the hands an elite few tended to lead to a corrupt system, what was John Gill thinking when he use Nazi Germany as a model of efficiency for Ekos?

Maybe the Ekos' economy was even worse?

Or maybe after the Eugenics War & World War III & whatever other disaster that's supposed to come, a lot of recorded knowledge was destroyed and some neo-neo-nazi wrote a book on the History & Economy of the Third Reich & made it look as if Germany did better under Hitler than it really did?

I'm with KAM. Historians are a notoriously pet-theory-ridden lot, and I have no trouble believing that someone could have twisted the facts to support Nazi efficiency.

Besides which...as far as actual economic structure is concerned, we don't know that Gill followed the Nazi model note-for-note. (Really, he couldn't, given that he's dealing with a world-wide economy instead of a national one!)
Maybe he modified it for the Ekosian system, got some good initial results, and that led to overconfidence in implementing the rest.

Strange coincidence....

Marge Schott once said, "Hitler started out right at first..."

Gill said, "It (Nazism on Ekos) started out right at first..."

Maybe John Gill is a desendant of Marge Schott, former owner of the Cincinatti Reds.(?)

Either way, both people were wrong, cuz' as McCoy said near the end, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"

What is wrong with Gill's chair? Almost every five minutes it keeps falling backwards into a reclining position.

^&*%$$&%* Nazis - they can get the trains to run on time, sure, but ask them to fix a lousy office chair...

Seriously...I'm thinking that the chair was doctored intentionally to make the actor playing John Gill slump down in it even further and so look even more out of it. A BILC thing.

Dr. Severin was a Nazi? Nah...just the same person acting different parts in different episodes

"This just in: The Chairman of the Ekosian Nazi Party has just identified the occupant of Grant’s Tomb…"
Great Line: "Obviously." -Spock deadpanning to the Chairman of the Party, after the latter says half-askingly, half noticing for himself, "You are not from Zeon."

Uh, actually Shatner really was sweating. He just came off his coffee break
The creators did a great job in the detail on Kirk and Spock’s torture scene. Not only did they correctly remember to make the bloody whip marks on Spock’s body green, but they also made sure to spray Will Shatner down with a mist of water in order to make him appear sweaty and exhausted of the beating, while leaving Nimoy as he is, correctly indicative of Spock’s greater Vulcan stamina and resistance to pain.
Even MacGuyver was heard saying, "Aw, gimme a break!"
Spock’s ability to make a laser out of a light bulb and a strip of metal far outstretches the bounds of plausibility, and I’m surprised you didn’t mention this, Phil. First, Kirk simply tugs on the metal bed frame strip, and it pops off easily.
I guess after the torture scene, the prop masters were fresh out of blood
Second, taking the transponders out doesn’t cause a wound or produce blood, despite the crude nature of the tool used for its extraction.
This just in: Mr Wizard has suffered a massive brain hemorrhage caused, according to his doctors, by a condition they’re describing as "massive amounts of bulllshit"
Third, Spock’s mentioning of the crystals in the transponders is ludicrous. Sorry, Spock, but you need A LOT more than just a light bulb and a crystal to make a laser. Just because lasers use crystals doesn’t mean that all you need is a crystal to make one. Nor can the light bulb provide enough energy to make a laser. There’s also the difference between the white light of a light bulb or the sun, and laser light. White light contains all wavelengths of the visible spectrum: red, violet, blue, green, orange, yellow, etc. This is why the light is white. Additive pigmentation, or combining all colors of light, produces a white light. A laser, on the other hand, is coherent light. That is, it only exists in one wavelength of light, such as red, green or blue. The second difference is that a laser is light that is in phase. This means that the light waves, which in a light bulb, for example, will go out in all directions, with the wave crests often overlapping one another, effectively canceling out some, are perfectly aligned in a laser beam. This is why a laser can travel so much farther than white light. For a laser, you need a container, usually cylindrical, filled with electrons, excited by pumping in energy, causing photons to ricochet back and forth inside the cylinder, until they shoot out of the cylinder in a coherent, phased beam.
Wait a couple of decades, maybe he’ll play one hiding in Argentenia
I don’t mean to sound too morbid, but does actor Skip Homeir have a thing for Nazis? Here he plays Melakon, and his first movie was the 1944 film, Tomorrow the World, in which he played a Nazi youth!

while leaving Nimoy as he is, correctly indicative of Spock’s greater Vulcan stamina and resistance to pain.

Also, because Vulcans don't sweat.

Actually we had an old bed with strip springs like in the episode and they were just riveted on. or held on by a small weld were the rivets had already popped. It was circe 1940BC or something but if you ynaked on them or sat on them or even breathed on one sometimes the rivet would pop and youd have a strap to use to chase your brother around the bedroom with......

As for the laser form the transponder crystal, this crystal can be detected from an orbiting starship and used as a transporter tracer. i think it may be a rather energetic crystal in and of itself and the lightbulb may have been able to excite the crystals enough to create the laser. Of course this is using knowledge that the folks in the universe might have but us out here dont.

ScottN: Vulcans don't sweat.
Luigi Novi: Which episode established that? There's no episode or movie references in the Encyclopedia that mentions this. And is my memory wrong, or did Spock perspire during the koon-ut-kal-if-fee in Amok Time? Given the Vulcan climate, how do they keep cool?

Logic Man: I think it may be a rather energetic crystal in and of itself and the lightbulb may have been able to excite the crystals enough to create the laser.
Luigi Novi: There's no such thing as an "energetic crystal."

Non canonical, but Starfleet Medical Reference Manual, and Nimoy's bio "I Am Spock" both explicitly state that Vulcans don't sweat (cf. Corbomite Manuver, wherein Spock sweats... Nimoy states that it hadn't been established yet -- they were still getting a handle on Vulcans.).

Non canonical, but..
Luigi Novi: Aha!

The Corbomite Manuver, wherein Spock sweats...
Luigi Novi: AHA!!

There you have it. Vulcans sweat. Neener, neener, neener....

Well like he said there is no energetic crystal in this universe but by the time of Kirk and company they may have discovered an "energetic crystal" as of right now there is no such thing as Dilithium crystals that I am aware of either.

The problem is that Spock is only half Vulcan. Maybe the human sweat genes are unexpectedly strong?

And maybe we'll discover that the speed of light is not what we really thought it was, which explains the nit Phil pointed out in Tin Man(TNG), in which light from a supernova travels 3.8 billion kilometers in only 50 seconds, and maybe we'll discover that sound and fire and can really exist in outer space, and that there really is matter, which is why ships bank when they turn, etc., etc.

It's a common SciFi myth that lasers require crystals. Crystal lasers are weedy things - the sort that just project a spot of light. IIRC, for cutting power you need a gas laser.

(I had some rude thoughts about how they could make a gas laser, but I'll leave that to your imagination...)

And maybe we will discover that cows really can fly......Behold the Power of BEEF!

For a simple nitrogen laser you only need a few metal objects, plastic foil and a HF generator. Always a nice experiment in physics course.

Some people here asked why Gill did introduce the Nazi system. Well, there are enough people around today, not only brain-dead neonazis, but people who are educated enough so you'd expect them to be able to think, who think that the nazis had good points, after all, that the holocaust didn't happen... All that kind of nonsense. I have heard of an infamous british doctor, who writes book about how the holocaust was impossible. The neonazis, of course, jump onto these books.
Its sad, but true, that even somebody who has been to college is able to tune out certain facts that don't fit into his worldview, thus arriving "Scientifically" at gross theories. Probably Gill is one of those people. At the same time, as long as they don't talk about this special subject, they are able to appear quite normal, balanced and so on.

Constanze, I thought that Gill's fascination with Nazism stemmed from it's efficiency, not the more gruesome aspects presented by the holocaust. Perhaps I don't remember this so well?

Yep, that was the reason given in the story. He was trying to do the efficiency without the brutality.

I think constanze still has a good point, though, re: academics and their blinkers. I've read enough history to know how far even the most dedicated theorist will muff the facts to fit his/her idea of what really happened.

Besides - and not by any means to denigrate the true and abiding horror of the Holocaust here - but in the very different 23rd century enough time and (literally) space might have elapsed for who knows what theories to be developed re: Nazism. Maybe Gill didn't fully realise the ugliness he was unleashing because he'd never had even remote experience with the real thing.

There's a current German propogandist kook named Ernst Zuendel who is advocating exactly the kind of thing Gill is in this episode, that Nazi government had some good points, and so Germany should return to the leadership of the Nazi party.

Actually, Todd, Zundel is a Canadian who's advocating a lot more than that - he's a Holocaust denier of the first water. (Call it a contradiction if you want, but having a grandfather who was an anguished eyewitness to the death camps' liberation really makes me want to lay some serious hurt on these people...)

>

But how could a 'Red' be a Nazi? ;)

There seems to be some disagreement on how to pronounce the name of the oppressed planet. I heard both "Zee-on" and "Zay-on" in this episode.

The sound of the home made laser is the same as the probe penetrating the amoeba in "The Immunity Syndrome"

One of the character's name is "ENEG"...spell it backwards & guess who that character is named after!

Still wondering about Gill's ideas about the Nazis.
Kirk says to him, "You know what they were.", and he comments to Spock that the Nazi regime was 'brutal and perverted', which seems to show that in the 23rd century history sources portray the Nazis as the evil people that they were.
How could Gill even want to surround himself with the elements of the Third Reich? Wouldn't that be like changing a society to appear like the Spanish Inquisition or some such extremely brutal, sadistic era in history? Isn't that just a little morbid, considering how many millions died in POW camps and the battlefields? How does anyone glamorize a period in time that could have erased the future as we know it from existence?
When Esak (sp?) fires his gun at Melakon, everyone present flinches. Even if they dubbed a louder gun shot over the true sound, it must have been a loud one for Nimoy and the others to react in such synchronization.
Kirk must have thought this was one helluva year; he's whipped in this episode, and again on Triskelion.

This whole episode is built on a massive mistaken assumption about Nazism. The Nazis were really as efficient as a pack of wolves. The top guys in the party were more concerned with sucking up to that paralyzed, syphilitic mongrel child with a silly little mustache than with working together and winning the war their racist nonsense inflicted on their country. If the Nazis were so efficient then the invasion of Normandy would not have hinged on Hitler being asleep at the most crucial moment, when tanks could have been sent to drive off the invasion. If they were so efficient, they would have picked targets for a reason other than having been named for the enemy leader, and Von Paulus and a whole army would not have been captured at Stalingrad. To expect Nazism to care about justice, reason or good government is just folly because it was never designed to provide any of those; it was designed to put this particular gang of losers in power so they could inflict their craziness on the world. There were plenty of people who were simply public servants or soldiers and were concerned with doing their jobs well, but they would have been the same way no matter who was in charge. It was people like them that kept the Nazis afloat for so long. However, because they were good at their work, a good number of them would question the higher-ups' plans and would either be relieved of their positions or killed.

How could Gill even want to surround himself with the elements of the Third Reich?

All I can do is reiterate that the mind-set of the dedicated historian (as opposed to the more black-and-white ditto of, say, an impulsive starship Captain ) allows for some amazing dips and bends in the interpretation of established reality. Gill might truly have thought he'd found a loophole in some aspect of Nazi behaviour that'd work to his advantage on Ekos, without necessarily negating the horror of the whole.

Isn't that just a little morbid, considering how many millions died in POW camps and the battlefields? How does anyone glamorize a period in time that could have erased the future as we know it from existence?

I don't know that Gill thought of it as 'glamourizing', exactly; his comments reflect a fascination with the efficiency of the Nazi regime, not it's ultimate goals.

As for morbidity, it's worth noting again that to these people this is nearly five hundred-year-old history. Of one Federation planet, at that.
To put it in immediate context, while we 21st-century types certainly mourn the victims of the Black Death when we happen to think of them, nobody makes Academy-
Award winning documentaries about their plight, either.

that to these people this is nearly five hundred-year-old history.

Three hundred, actually, but what's a couple of centuries between friends?

And let's face it. There are idiots today who think Hitler & the Nazis weren't as bad as they are made out to be.

I agree. Note the word idiots. Thank You Veterans especially on this a Fourth of July.

Hear, hear! I second that!

proofs in the scoreboard: given their tremendous advantages in 1939, if the Nazis had been 'efficient', they would have won.

Yea and as Hank Williams Jr sang: "If the south would have won we'd of had it made!"

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Quote:

By MattS on Thursday, May 13, 1999 - 02:47 pm: I love the idea of a subcutaneous transponder. Why don't they use it any other episodes?

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I was watching this ep on Star Trek 2.0 last night, and when Daras (Valora Noland) appeared, I couldn't help but think of 24's Nina Meyers (Sarah Clarke). Also, according to Trek 2.0 and IMDB, this ep was Ms. Noland's last acting assignment.

Plus, the Ekosians had HDTV. For some reason, it was in black and white, except for Gill's speech. Guess Daras getting a medal didn't rate a color broadcast.
When Kirk and Co. got into Gill's broadcast booth, where was the camera that broadcast his speech?
NANJAO - Kirk was never seen in the series with chest hair. But, he does have some plainly visible under his casual uniform shirt in Star Trek - TMP.

Darrius said she grew up to admire 'the Fuhrer' but I thought they had said that Gill had only been there a few years. How could anyone have grown up to admire him if he had not been there very long?

Gill must also have introduced English to these people, since signs painted on the wall were in English.

When the SS Major (Gilbert Green) is questioning Kirk and Spock, right before they enter the Headquarters building, you can see a twentieth century air conditioner on one of the windows behind the Major.

I believe that building is one that still exists today on the Paramount lot which they used for the exterior shot that you speak of. I believe startrek.com ran a little story about locations on the Lot used for shooting in Star Trek.

Right on, dotter. Here's a link to that article you mentioned.

Thanks, I knew it was there somewhere. :-)

JAL - I can't believe for one iota of a second that Gill thought the Nazis to be more efficient. What about the Holocaust?
How can one overlook the deaths of 6 million people?
Apparently schools in England are stopping telling students about the Holocaust to be accommodating to their Muslim students.

At least according to a recent news report I've heard.

According to "Memory Alpha", Eddie Paskey (Mr. Leslie) appears as two different Nazis, the first driving a car, the second wearing a mustache and working for the Ekosian underground

With all the Zeons running around, I'm surprised that the Ekosians have a huge TV screen right in the middle of town...right where someone might steal it or damage it.

Kirk (Shatner) is standing WAY TOO CLOSE to Daras when he's filming her with the camera. Just what is Kirk filming anyway? Daras' nose?

If you look REAL CLOSE, Eddie Paskey is driving BOTH CARS during the "Arrival at John Gill's Headquarters" scene.

(Sidenote: I'm not surprised by this, Mr. Leslie is able to leap from the Transporter Room to the Command Chair on the Bridge in a single bound)

What is wrong with Gill's chair? Almost every five minutes it keeps falling backwards into a reclining position.
Maybe it's the same broken chaor that Dabney Coleman used in the flick Nine To Five.

The transporter console seems to be situated closer than usual to the transporter platform.

I mean we get Kirk's shiny torso almost every episode!
Check out the scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, when Kirk is wearing the white short-sleeved uniform shirt. A lot of chest hair can be seen up by the open collar. Not shiny at all.

EPISODE AFTERTHOUGHT:

I cannot help but wonder if all the wardrobe and props for this episode came from "Hogan's Heroes"

(It wouldn't surprise me seeing how many actors/actresses appeared on "Hogan's Heroes")

Spock to Kirk: "You make a very convincing Nazi."

The irony in this episode is great with Spock suited up as a Nazi when Leonard Nimoy is Jewish....

>>>By "Gentlemen, I suggest you beam me aboard!" on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 7:35 am:
Spock to Kirk: "You make a very convincing Nazi."

The irony in this episode is great with Spock suited up as a Nazi when Leonard Nimoy is Jewish....>>>

So was Shatner (and Walter Koenig)...

I've always wondered how offensive that was to them, personally. Had the story not been so good they might have thought that any amount of money wasn't worth dressing up like a scumbag.

---

quote:

By John A. Lang:
EPISODE AFTERTHOUGHT:

I cannot help but wonder if all the wardrobe and props for this episode came from "Hogan's Heroes"

---

And John I se nuttin was a really Jewish Immigrant?

No, ?, I don't believe John Banner (Schultz) was, but Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink) was Jewish, and I believe a Holocaust survivor. IIRC, part of his contract was that the Nazis always had to lose.

RE: ScottN,

According to Wikipedia, John Banner was Jewish.

He escaped from an Austrian Concentration Camp.

Robert Clary (Le Beau) was also Jewish and escaped from a Concentration Camp...in fact, he had to wear long sleeves all through the series to hide the tattooed numbers on his arm.

This has become one of my favorites from the second season.
Leonard Nimoy gets off some good Spock lines here, especially "The flaw in this plan is that locked door, and the guard beyond it." And to think he threatened to walk after the first season.
DeForest Kelley is wonderful here, too. Watch him again when he beams into the closet while putting his boots on. He views his surroundings for a second or so, and says "What the hell is going on here?!" Just marvelous. Also, he's great when acting drunk, and salutes "Hail the Fuhrer" with the wrong arm.
The cars are definitely Mercedes-Benz. Note the Benz three-pointed star symbol on top of the grilles.

A contemporary historian (or historical writer): David Irving. Although he has extensivly researched historical sources (and has better access to them than somebody 300 years later - and after WWIII, which presumably would've caused some destruction), he's a holocaust denier.

So while it's certainly shocking and repulsive to see somebody who should know better to consider the Nazis and their ideology something that should or could be emulated, it's not impossible or unlikely.

Actually, given that Gills tried to teach Nazism light, he's already more conscientius then modern holocaust deniers and Neonazis. The more surprising thing to me is Gills sudden reversal at the end, but that was necessary for the happy ending and in accordance with the general law of the series.

HISTORICAL NOTE:

This episode has John Gill being drugged by the Ekosians.

Adolf Hitler was taking drugs during the last few years of his life for Parkinsons and other ailments.

Lost footage restored (?)

In the Enhanced Version:

When Kirk is attempting to revive John Gill, Kirk slaps Gill in the face.

I don't recall ever seeing that before and I've seen this episode at least five times in the last five years

GREAT ENHANCEMENTS

The nuclear missile looks like a V-2 rocket.

Much better!

The Phaser shot & the explosion is lots better too.

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When Kirk is attempting to revive John Gill, Kirk slaps Gill in the face.
I don't recall ever seeing that before and I've seen this episode at least five times in the last five years.

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Hey Adam, that was the first thing I ever noticed, and I was 12!

The scene was deleted in the 2001 DVD release as well.

(This was the collectors series that only had 2 episodes per DVD on it)

That scene was put back in the Season Two set. I should know; I watched the episode on DVD last night.
I was under the impression that the computer made a fresh Nazi uniform for Dr. McCoy. Including the boots. But - when we watched Bones struggle to put them on, the sole of one of the boots (the one I saw) had a bit of wear on it.

The remastered "Patterns of Force" airs next weekend, with "Elaan of Troyius" the following week.

Since I didn't comment on the original broadcast...

New orbital shots of Ekos, of course. There's a quick glimpse of ringed Zeon as the Enterprise flies into orbit around Ekos. The encounter with the Ekosian nuclear missile gives a glimpse of the missile itself.

Spock's improvised laser in the prison cell is also touched up.

The Enterprise seems surprisingly vulnerable to "crude nuclear weapons" in several episodes. Although they're not affected by it in this episode, they do appear worried. Given that it's a 300 year old technology, it's like a modern battleship being threatened by a 17th century cannon.

The lightbulb in the prison cell sure doesn't give off much light -- you can see shadows of Spock and the cell bars from another light source right under it.

The shot of the re-mastered Enterprise in the opening title was almost identical to that of the original.
The whip marks on Kirk's back seem redder in the re-mastered version. Maybe it's more due to the cleanup of the prints than to any CGI enhancements. The marks on Spock didn't seem any greener, however.
Syndication cuts - horrible!. Here's one - We see Kirk asking Isak where he can have a room with privacy. Next thing you know, McCoy's beaming in. The whole "Send him down naked" bit was cut.

The color in the remastered versions is much brighter than we're used to. For a long time, the syndicated copies were faded film prints, or video tapes made from faded film.

NBC wanted the show to be colorful to show off their all-color schedule. The remastered versions restore the color to the original levels.

Yeah...that's one of the reasons I like them

Spock says that he is "impressed" by Gill's treatment of history as "Causes and motivations, rather than names and dates." Well, gee, that's approach ANY decent history teacher tries to bring to their subject. What makes Gill so special in this regard?

MattS on Thursday, May 13, 1999 - 1:47 pm: After they pull the neat trick with the transponders to open the cell door, Spock discards them. Shouldn't they keep them so that Scotty can beam them up at the proper time?

The cell door trick may have rendered the transponders invisible to the sensors, making them useless.

Alan wrote, a while back:

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NBC wanted the show to be colorful to show off their all-color schedule.

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"Fascinating" read.

Todd wrote, in a previous century,

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However, the guardian and the announcer in this episode were performed by vocal actor Bart La Rue.

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Of course, it would make sense that the Nazis in this episode would have rockets that could reach space.

After all, Wernher von Braun, the guy who helped land the U.S. on the Moon, got his start in Nazi Germany. He developed the V-2 rockets that rained down on London later in the war.

After WWII ended, and the Cold War started up, the Americans and the Russians wanted to get as many as these guys as they could!

The cars are definitely Mercedes-Benz. Note the Benz three-pointed star symbol on top of the grilles.

I guess the Ekosians couldn't decide which side of the car they wanted the steering wheel on. One sedan is right hand drive; another, left.

Eneg has distinct British accent.

Of course, the actor who played him (Patrick Horgan) is British.

This episode showed that even the best of intentions could backfire badly.

John Gill actually believed that he was helping the people of Ekos by setting up a Nazi government, without the racism and such.

However, what he failed to realize that such a system would make it easy for someone with less than benign ideas, such as Melakon, to take over.

Clearly, Melakon always hated the Zeons and wanted them gone from Ekos, by any means possible. And when Gill set up the Nazi system, Melakon saw his chance to seize power, and like what happened on Earth centuries before, history repeated itself.

I have to wonder, what happened when Eneg and Daras took over at the end. Did they give the promised reparation to Zeon (Gill made that promise just before Melakon murdered him)? Were any high ranking Nazis brought to trial (like what happened on Earth)? Did the two planets eventually join the Federation (like Spock suggested they would)?

Perhaps a Trek author (yes, Greg Cox, I'm looking at you) could do a novel about this.

I think the final script messed up the names of the two races by mistake. Isak mentions 'Ekosians and younger Zeons' would be willing to kill the Fuhrer. Since the younger generation of Ekos could be the disillusioned ones, shouldn't it have been Zeons and YOUNGER Ekosians? After all, ALL Ekosians would want a crack at the mass murderer.

I really like Richard Evans' performance as 'Isak' in this episode. He shows such emotion and pain in his face and acting that you really feel for the guy, more than the average Trek episode-of-the-week character.

Now I understand why the brutal Nazi guy said he'd come back for Kirk and Spock in an hour-- they'd still be a good hour away from the Enterprise beaming up Kirk and Spock 'no matter their condition', as per Kirk's instructions.

I used to think that Gill gave the Ekosians the advanced spaceship tech, but Isak clearly says that the Ekosians are using the technology that they (the Zeons) gave them when they visited their planet.

Isak said that the Zeons had come to Ekos generations before, to try and civilize them.

Seems relations between the two races was going well, until Melakon came along.