Star Trek: ToS 'PATTERNS OF FORCE ' (S2xE21 Reaction) - First Time Watching! 

Hello, @WarpReactor and friends. This episode is a difficult one for me to comment on without getting political...because it is inherently political. Zeon=Zion. Both of my parents were WWII veterans. My father re-enlisted after hitchiking home on Saturday while awaiting his discharge on Sunday when Pearl Harbor was attacked. That Sunday night he hitchicked 150 miles back to base to re-enlist. My mother served in support of the Pacific War as a WAVE. We, me being the 5th child, grew up knowing exactly what happened in WWII in both theaters. As a toddler I watched World At War. So, my parents, who did watch Star Trek in the late 60s, had a real appreciation of this episode. As the child of WWII Vets, after learning from them, not hidden from the reality, found this episode the most profound hour of fictional television ever. Yes, Shatner and Nimoy are both Jewish. They had very, understandably, mixed feelings about this episode. Nimoy refused have promotional photos taken of him in a Nazi uniform. Of all the earth-double planet episodes, this hit hardest. Yes, Patterns Of Force was considered a deeply profound episode and still hits me hard to this day. Overall, I rank this as a great episode, one of the most important of all of what we now refer to as TOS. Thank you, @WarpReactor, for a thoughtful review of this very important hour of Television, to this very day. Until next time, LLAP & Vulc'n'Roll, my friends 🖖🤘

Gill was quite a historian..not only the uniforms, but how to build MP40s, and H bombs too were rattling around in his head

This aired on February 16 of 1968. At that time, Hogan's Heroes -- a situation comedy set in a German prisoner-of-war camp -- had been on the air since September 17, 1965, two and a half years earlier.

One thing I feel important to mention is that the premise of choosing Nazi Germany as a model because of its efficiency was a popular theory when the episode was made in the 60’s but it has since been disproven by modern historians

I was 8 years old watching it live...my Dad is a WWII veteran (he's still alive and well), and 2 of my Mom's brothers served in WWII, one was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and sent to a Stalag (POW camp). Except for my Mom, they didn't watch Star Trek. I don't recall any specific reaction, personally or publicly. Maybe check TV guide around the time it aired? I know they all were happy when the war ended, and were in a rush to get on with their lives because of time lost in a crappy war. They didn't do much reminiscing about it. There are no good wars.

Shatner had a small but memorable role in Judgement at Nuremberg.

Take note that in the 1960s there was also Hogan’s Heroes, a comedy series set inside a WW2 German POW camp where the prisoners were actually running a secret underground resistance group and the Nazis were portrayed mostly as buffoons.

I live in Canada and I first saw “Patterns Of Force” in the very early 1970s and I don’t recall anything edited that I saw in later broadcasts.

During the time of this episode was beginning of the Vietnam era. I joined the Air Force in July 1970 and after Basic Training I was assigned to Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. I immediately went an volunteered for Vietnam. Unfortunately (or fortunately according to my family and friends) I was assigned to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska instead of to Vietnam. This was probably the best for me because I ended up doing 26 years in the Air Force and retired to a very happy life with my wife and kids.

You left out Spock’s m “You would have made an excellent Nazi” line with Kirk’s exasperated expression. Bear in mind, this episode aired only 23 years after Hitler was defeated so it wasn’t ancient history.

Among guest stars, remember Skip Homeier, who played Melakon. He'll be back in a truly "memorable" episode next season...

This episode is personal to me, specifically the part when the young Zeon says, "For so long I have hoped for this moment; and now I am truly sorry." When I saw STAR WARS in its initial release I was a kid and, naturally, I was rooting for Darth Vader to die but when RETURN OF THE JEDI was released six years later I was in my teens and was truly sorry to see him die.

_The Green Berets_ was John Wayne's treatise on what "important work" we were doing in Vietnam at the time.

Skip Homeier (Melakon) started as a child actor. He retired from acting when he was 50 and dropped out of sight, passing away in 2017. You'll see him again in season 3 in a very different role. Patrick Horgan (Eneg) appeared in a number of soap operas in the 70s and 80s, both as a good guy and a villain. There's an old soap called "The Doctors" which is currently airing on Retro TV where he is prominently featured as a villainous doctor in the episodes currently airing. Coincidentally, he and Richard Evans (Isak) died within days of each other in 2021. This one was easy to miss and I didn't know it until recently but Ralph Maurer/Lev Mailer, who was Bilar in "Return of the Archons" (the first one on Landru's planet to chat with the crew), is here as the first SS guard who approaches Kirk and Spock. Valora Noland (Daras) hadn't known ahead of time that she was to wear the Nazi swastika and was quite disturbed by it. She quit acting right after this and it's been said/speculated that this was a factor.

The actress who played Darras was so upset about having to wear a Nazi arm ban that she quit acting.

ww2 Germany was as taboo in 1975 - when I first watched this episode in syndication as a 10 yr old - as it was in 1965 - as it was in 1985 - as it is today. The difference is we didn't not have paper thin skins nor cried about microaggressions, or navel gazed over our self centered egotistical hypersensitivity to any concieved/perceived insult to us. We were adults back then, and learned of history without bias - and faced the evil of some of it without censur. We didn't have infinate levels of Virtue Signaling back then either. Outrage without proposed solution, nor willingness to work for one, just a willingness to look moral and bitch about things instead. 2 cents.

Thanks for a good look at a great episode. The irony is that Gill was wrong from the very start: Nazi Germany was NOT all that efficient. They talked a great game, and they swept through a power vacuum in several countries because everyone else in Europe was sick of war, but when they met their first real resistance, in Crete, let alone Russia, they stalled out. Their impressive public works were made possible by stealing resources from internal enemies and conquered nations, not by any special genius in planning or execution. And of course, in their arrogance and corruption, they ended up bringing their country far lower than it had started out. Not efficient at all

By the way, the Iron Cross is specifically the medal. The symbol used on military equipment is the Balkenkreuz (bar-cross).

Subcutaneous transponders should have been required.

36:10 In the UK _Star Trek_ was regarded as a show "for children", and thus the more intense violence would be edited out.

I can tell you what the pulse of the UK was when this episode aired. The British produced a lot of cultural material that was WW2 related. From movies, TV shows, books and even comic books (Commando, War Stories for Boys being a prime example) and the whole Finest Hour moment became very much part of the cultural fabric of the nation. Back in the early 70s when this episode was shown the British viewers weren't shocked as they were used to seeing depictions of Nazis, WW2, the resistance etc on their screens. In the same year this was broadcast in the UK (1970) there were two British produced WW2 shows on prime time TV: Manhunt, a show about the French resistance and The Roads To Freedom, a series about the Nazi occupation of France. By 1973 British TV would produce the definitive WW2 documentary, "The World At War". So Patterns of Force wouldn't have shocked or triggered British audiences; using Nazi Germany as a storytelling device wasn't new to them.

I have no memory of watching any TOS episode for the first time. My memories are about watching reruns many times and trying to remember which episode it was from the cold open.

I remember seeing this episode during its' first primetime airing. I was in high school by then, and had several friends who also watched Star Trek. Most of our Dads served in the U.S. Military during World War 2, although MY Dad was a U.S. Marine who fought the Japanese in the South Pacific, as did many other of our Dads. However, I can tell you with absolute assurance, that there was no outrage nor controversy, as a result of this episode. As a matter of fact, you could barely walk into any movie theatre in the 60s, without running headlong into a movie about Nazi Germany, both dramatic & comedic, as such movies sold alot of tickets, and made lots of money, as did similar TV series. The general sense in MY household, and those of my friends' families, was that the war was over, and that we had completely moved on with our lives, without grudges, guilt, nor PTSD. The only thing on my Dad's mind, after taking off his uniform and returning home from the war, was getting his old job back, getting married, starting a family, and making some money.

You asked about reception. At the same time Trek was airing, the show Hogan's Heroes was in production. Started a year before Trek and ran till 1971. If you haven't seen it, its about a German POW camp where the nazis are buffoons and the prisoners are secretly running heroic sabotage missions. The actually filmed that show on the same lot they filmed this episode. Wouldn't be surprised if Trek rented the uniform and props from that show, or the same rental company. BTW, the main nazis on Hogan's Heroes were all played by jews. Shultz, Col Klink, Gen Burkhalter. They wanted the nazis to be as stupid as they could make them.

I'd heard that it was never aired in Germany for at least 30 years from its original air date. everybody saw it here in Canada and US.

The first Nazi that detains Kirk and Spock was played by the same actor who first greeted the landing party in ‘Return of the Archons’. “Your daddy can put them up can’t he?” Valora Baum aka Valora Noland (Daras) changed her name to Valora Tree and became an author. She died in 2022.

Yes, the actor playing the double agent/party chairman was compelling. As a kid I saw him on a cough drop commercial and he was equally compelling!

5:14 I talked to that guy that also played BILAR in RETURN OF THE ARCHONS. Asked him about the weird dialect.

To answer your question, a good cold open that hooks you is in "Return of the Archons."

As for a "sign of the times" for when it was originally aired, one of the factors in favor of making it was relatively low cost. Due to earlier movies and tv shows set during WW2 in the mid-1960s, it was easy to get ahold of Nazi props and costumes, to use existing outdoor sets, and not have to make all sorts of new stuff from scratch.

Before returning to Star Trek, our man McEveety had just finished his first theatrical film, a very underrated western called "Firecreek". It's for rental or sale at the moment, but I 100% recommend for viewing. I make have you appreciate an upcoming ST episode that much more.

10th Special Forces Group (Green Berets) formed in 1952

Actually, far from taboo there was a concerted effort on the part of Jewish people in Hollywood, who made up a large part of the production end of the entertainment industry, to keep the memory of the Holocaust constantly alive. One of the cleverer ways they did this was through comedy with movies like THE PRODUCERS (which was originally titled SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER) and TV shows like HOGAN'S HEROES. I believe Gene Roddenberry was Jewish on his father's side.

Stuff they hoped nobody would notice: the cuffs on Kirk’s and McCoy’s uniforms reading “Adolf Hitler”, who was not a thing on Ekos, nor was the SS panzer unit they designated, Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.

Yeah, this one. Wears its philosophical colours on its sleeve.

As memory serves, this episode was banned from being broadcast in Germany even in future syndication. I don't know if that ban has been lifted or not.

Patrick Horgan / Chairman Eneg would have made a killer Romulan! Really cool how much you enjoyed this one.

not surprisingly, the best naz-i movies are done by Germans: Final Days of Sophie Skoll Downfall - and the modern take via East Germany: - The Lives of Others (maybe the best movie of all time - certainly a top5)

There was no problem with showing swastikas or Nazis on television in the U.S. at the time. I grew up in the U.S. in the 60's and 70s and there were many T.V. shows and Movies that celebrated America's victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. There was even a comedy T.V. series at this time (Hogan's Heros) that depicted Nazis and swastikas all the time. American's were generally proud of their role in defeating the Germans and wanted their children to grow up understanding the struggles they went through and the nature of the evil they overcame. So, as long as it was depicted in this way, as this Star Trek episode does, most people had no problem with it being shown. I would think this episode would not be shocking to modern viewers either since it obviously isn't glorifying the Nazis but portraying them as the villains. Not saying the reactor here was particular shocked either but the level of surprise seems odd to me. It's not that people who grew up in my time are insensitive to the feelings and experiences of others but Americans of younger generations so often seem overly-sensitive.

I'm curious, although expect an answer. Why did you have to shelve the Q character? Did someone complain? Not sure what the rules are around that.

LOL. "edited down" = redacted until it's a Care Bears episode when they have a picnic. 😂😂

My memory, as a child of the war generation, is that there was a lot of WWII content on TV. So, your line, "interesting episode... Star Trek with Nazis" seems right to me

Hey Warp Reactor! Funny reactions. I'll leave the political aspects of this episodes for others to comment on. But the nerve pinch combined with bowel releasing? Lol! That would be a NICE addition. Keep an eye on "Melakon" the way he took that bullet in the end was classic. Also the way he insulted Spock about being a low forehead..even McCoy was like good one!! But c'mon dude.

Glad you liked this. I guess for a first view it was quite interesting. But after you go through the whole series of episodes you get a little cynical towards the series when you get this “ oh here we go again with another civilization” mimicking earth type people and events and the crew has to fix or violate the prime directive etc. You tend to see it more and more towards the end of their TV run. That said the episodes are well done. “Bread and Circuses” and especially “Omega Glory” are well casted.

How was this received in the 60s? About the same way you just did. No one I heard was offended that they did it.

People were less sensitive about movies and TV parodying this stuff in the past. Watch Hogan's Heroes.

I'm not sure I'm the best person to comment on how this episode was received as I was a child when the episode aired. I do believe it was important for episodes like this to air for educational purposes delivered through entertainment. My guess is most people appreciated that. It is amazing though when considering how close this episode was to WWII. Imagine today a TV show doing something similar around the events of 9/11? The separation in time is similar. This episode was about 22 years after the end of WWII. As I write this, 9/11 was 23 years ago. We are further from 9/11 time wise than Star Trek was from WWII. Anyone in their 30s and older would have viewed it as current events. A step further was doing a comedy series called Hogan's Heroes, which debuted exactly 20 years after the end of WWII. Could we today, in our fractured society, be allowed to make a comedy series that featured the villains of 9/11, but shown comedically? I think not, which suggests as a society we have perhaps taken a step backwards.

Kudos to all involved with this episode both in-front of and behind the camera. P.S. as a teen in the late 70s early 80s I had the same movie camera Kirk was carrying around and used one for my 'amateur' 2 minute epics. It was a NIZO super-8 film camera. 😊😊😊😊 How'd Gill know how to build an exact copy😉😉😉

I guess everyone forgot your initial question about cold opens that grab your attention. Probably because this episode deals with such a weighty topic. My answer would be anytime they go to Red alert or go to battle. Errand Of Mercy comes to mind as does The Doomsday Machine. This isn't a favorite of mine but still pretty good. Kirk with Spock on his back really shows of how good William Shatner understands pain. And Spock continuing to ask questions rather than just getting on with the job is a humorous moment in an altogether dark episode.

Gill's comments before dying are tragic and sad. Mostly echoing 'Those who forget the past, are condemned to repeat it.'

Tonight, on a VERY special episode of Star Trek...

This episode didn't air in Germany for like 15 years.😮😮😮okay correction. It didn't air until 2007?!?! but I believe it was available on tape and dvd in Germany also by 'sailing the high seas😉😉' It just wasn't shown On-the-air.

What movie set can we rent cheap this week boys? WWII Germany? We can do that!

Thanks for your fresh take on a first viewing of this episode. I don't recall how I felt the first time I saw it, I was only 10. And I've seen it so many times in reruns I've lost perspective. I've gotten a little tired of it. Not over the premise or the content per se. I've fallen into categorizing it, fairly or unfairly, as another parallel-earth type story. And I think there are too many of those. So your ability to see it uncynically without that baggage was surprising and refreshing. Thanks!

Gill was a great Historian. He must of had a computer somewhere. I doubt he could have come up with such accurate iconography just from memory😉😉😉 I know the truth was Paramount had all those uniforms and props left over from WW2 movies.😂😂😂 Just like in A piece of the Action they had left over stuff from The Untouchables TV show.😊😊😊😊

I was under the impression the most controversial episode was not this, but the interracial kiss. That was unacceptable to many viewers and networks.

Movies and shows about WWII Germany without censoring the symbols were not taboo in the U.S. at the time. Instead of being a taboo subject in the U.S. at the time, the thinking was that the subject should be explored to bring to light as much as possible all the evil atrocities committed by Germany during WWII and to never hide them so that we will never forget them and we will never let something similar happen again. The 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg was a serious treatment of the war crimes trial against German officials after WWII in which William Shatner had a role.

How about cold opens that make us roll our eyes (not this one)?

22:03 Remember Lee Kwan.

I'm guessing everyone forgot your initial question about cold opens that grab your attention. Is have to say

The young Zeon reminds me of Jeff Go!dblum. Shatner and Nimoy are both Jewish. This episode was banned in Germany until 1994.

I remember the doomsday machine hooked me from the opening

1. This was interesting. It had me in my middle school history class. 2. Kirk's bloody marks weren't all that convincing. 🙄 3. Suspension of belief with the homemade laser (even for a kid)🙄 4. Many of the players had an issue with this episode, including Leonard Nimoy and Shatner, who was/is Jewish.

Something you don't seem to have realized this super close parallel: Children of Zaon (Star Trek) || Children of Zion (Jewish People)

James Doohan was a WW2 Canadian war vet. Most of the cast and crew are Jewish. Nazis were the 1960s go-to bad guys of the era.

TOS had the best openings. TNG fans dismiss it as cheesy, but TOS always tried to be entertaining. Bombastic music, dramatic lighting, bold colors, perpetually high stakes, TOS made sure you got your money's worth.

Ah yes, the most infamous "episode based on whatever costumes the studio still had lying around". For some reason I remembered it being in season 3.

I think Hogans Heroes was running at the time. Watch 5 minutes of it and you'll see how many impressionable young people (including me) wouldn't have been repulsed by nazi symbols.

Chairman Eneg. Spell his name backwards.

Like many TOS episodes “Patterns Of Force” still resonatescstrongly today particularly given things going on throughout the world now. There are always those intent on whitewashing; rewriting or reinterpreting the past to suit their own agendas.

If I had a Top 15-20 overall list this would be pretty high. If a season 2 only top 10 list....maybe. Top 15 definitely. In a top 15 list I'd place this 7 or 8.😊😊😊 This is another episode that confused me is as a(non-jewish)kid but grew on me as I got older.😮😮😊 Way too many episodes 'played it safe'. You can't say that about Patterns of Force.👍👍👍

Guessing the Q costume got messed up in the wash or you just like playing Trelane

We will be under this type of regime within a couple of months.

Paradox: While you were unconscious you seem to have soiled yourself. Wade: I wasn't unconscious.

@WarpReactor Today's makers of the shows have been cowed by snowflakes & shrieking Karens in the audience. Back then there was zero hesitation in reminding people who the bad guys were. Aa the son of a W.W. II vet, I have always had interest in the time period. When I took two friends to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and they were shaken by the time we left, I insensitively adminished them with "why are you surprised to learn this? Did your fathers teach you nothing?!?" Upon reflection, I shouldn't have been so harsh with them. I realized later that many families stuck their collective heads in the sand and pretended those things never happened. My reaction was admittedly colored by the fact that I have familial connections with people who helped jews escape and/or hid them during the occupation of Poland.

This has always been a favorite episode as it was fearless to lay bare the ugliness of anti Jewish ideology. Everything you said about the episode I agree with. I often wonder why it doesn't get higher on best of lists as it often gets ignored. I don't like to get political but after the events of October 7th there is no way to ignore that this episode is still very relevent. It was shown in syndication in Canada in the 70's with no problem. I do think it was banned in the UK and Germany for many years.

In the sixties it was my impression that the theme of this episode did not feel so threatening... But I was only 13 years old and 1945 felt like forever ago... Perhaps for the writers and producers of Star Trek, WWII might have still felt like 9-11 feels for me only 24 years later... I remember the mention of Nazi's in television episodes (including cartoons) of all sorts were mostly the end of a punchline... Now if Spock had included "TRUMP" in that closing line I WOULD HAVE SHIT! 😆

🎉

I grew up Jewish in Canada and I never much liked this episode, PF. It's my understanding PF was done to save money on standing sets and existing costumes from previous shows (e.g. Hogan's Heroes). The Nazi HQ for example, was a redress of the Paramount building, decorated with Nazi flags. Nimoy, Shatner and also Walter Koenig are Jewish. Grace Lee Whitney converted to Judaism as a young person and kept the faith her whole life.

One of the "world" episodes. This of course. "Nazi" world, and then Roman world and Greek world.

Need to go more 'overboard' with Trylene. Make like a stage actor. Sweeping hand gestures. Speak more pompas. Act like you're 'above it all' and superior to everybody else. At the end as you rant your mothers voice calls you in for supper. Then get all quiet,"Mother, why do you do this to me every time.....its.. embarrassing.... Trylene fades away. Remember he's still only a 'kid'.

Trelane is a Q also isn't he? so you're still a Q