Podcast Enterprise: S2E21 Patterns of Force

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:  In the beginning, you have the USS Enterprise heading for the planet Ekos, where Kirk wants to look for Professor John Gill, who was actually his instructor at the academy, and Kirk admires this man very much.

Professor John Gill went to the planet Ekos, he disappeared there, and there’s something seriously wrong with this planet, because as the Enterprise approaches, they are accosted by old style rocket with a thermonuclear warhead and this planet is not supposed to have that kind of technology.

So it’s very odd for them and Kirk wants to find out what happened to John Gill. He wants to find out what’s going on in this planet. He and Spock down to this planet, and immediately they find that something is really, really off because it looks like they stepped into the 1930s and 1940s Nazi Germany.

There are the Ecosians here are wearing SS uniforms and they are also hunting down the denizens of the neighboring planet, which is conveniently called Zeon. And they are hunting them, persecuting them, killing them. They also have technologies that they shouldn’t have like guns and jeeps and stuff like that.

So it is a very dangerous situation to be in. Kirk and Spock are almost immediately captured. They also see propaganda videos by a woman called Daras. She’s talking about the Führer, and the Führer ultimately turns out to be John Gill.

Well, now Kirk and Spock are arrested, Kirk is whipped, Spock is whipped there are some issues.There are so many issues, they’re thrown into jail along with a Zeon called, Isak. They use with some ingenuity using their transponders they managed to get out of jail and they also find an underground group of Zeons who are trying to overthrow this government that is very similar to Nazi Germany.

They want to get rid of the Führer also because he started all of this and they also find that the woman who was part of the propaganda video, Daras, is also part of the underground. So she’s working for the Zeons and not for the pseudo Nazi party.

And eventually they managed to, with a lot of ingenuity, come to the so called Nazi headquarters, they want to meet the Führer and confront him.But when they get there, they find that this Government is actually being headed by Melakon, who is the second in command.

And John Gill has been drugged. He’s been forced to say things against his will. And Kirk, using his creativity somehow manages to get access to a broadcasting booth where John Gill is kept drugged and forced to say things.

He convinces him to come out of that stupor and somehow make a proper announcement, denouncing what he has done so far.

And towards the end, you find that John Gill, despite violating the prime directive, despite creating a mess on this planet, what he wanted to do was actually bring about some sort of order and structure. For some reason, he decided to model the government based on the Nazi party, because he thought that if the leadership is benevolent, the planet would be able to function in a good way.

That’s how the episode ends with order restored a new leader in place and the Ekosians attempting to create peace with Zeon and as Kirk says towards the end, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Acknowledgements

1. Intro music: Music from anchor.fm
2. Shotcut for editing the podcast
3. References: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/