Original air date: February 16, 1968
SYNOPSIS
Looking for a missing Federation cultural observer, Kirk and Spock find themselves on a planet whose culture has been completely patterned after Nazi Germany.
CANON CONTEXT
This episode was banned on German television from 1968 until 1995 due to the depiction of Nazi uniforms and presence of several different Nazi insignia.
RECAP
Okay, new rule I’m mentioning here though it has nothing to do with my review: I won’t watch an episode of Star Trek unless I intend to write the review on the same day! I say this because, unfortunately, I watched this episode weeks ago but did not have the time to write the review due to unforeseen life stuff I had to tend to. Does that mean I rewatched it? Oh, definitely not! It is burned in my memory, believe me!
To do a quick recap cause this episode has all the usual suspects of things required at this point to make it an original series; smoldering Kirk, shirtless Kirk, femme fatale, disguised Spock, political topic. This one checks ALL the boxes and then some.
Let’s start at the top with the mission: The Enterprise must check up on some scientist they left on a planet purely for observation purposes. You’d think they learned their lesson after the last several times they used this storyline before. But alas, it wasn’t the case.
What do you suppose they found when they got there? No, not an old gangster book, complete with all the rules to being a gangster. Instead, they found Nazis. Swastikas as far as the eye can see.
Something is rotten in the state of…wherever this is…and it’s up to Kirk and Spock to fix it. But first, they must “blend in.” Cue Kirk looking dapper and dashing as ever in his Nazi uniform.
I’m sure all the ladies were swooning to see him wearing the Nazi insignia and saluting the leader. Sure, he wasn’t saluting Hitler but that’s just semantics here, right? Right?!
So they have their uniforms. Now they must find this scientist guy who seems to be the leader everyone keeps saluting but no one can actually go near. Strange goings on indeed. They must use a cover to get as close to the action as possible. Did someone call for a femme fatale?
I’m sure with her good looks we can all breath a sigh of relief to know she’s actually a mole within the Nazi organization. Phew! I’d hate to think Kirk has gone ahead and fallen in love with a Nazi! Can you imagine?!
But wait, we missed something in the usual script for a classic Star Trek. If Spock is in disguise surely be must be uncovered for the pointy-eared Vulcan that he is, right?
And this must also require him to be shirtless as well. If you ask me, I think he was upset that Kirk was getting to show off his pecks and he wasn’t. I saw no logical reasoning for not having a shirt on. Sure, I know the punishment was lashings but I think they would have been no more or less severe with a shirt on! Sheesh
I include this photo not because I enjoy seeing a sweaty Kirk with no shirt on, but because of his face. As you can see, he’s clearly given one of his sarcastic answers to a higher ranking official of which he does not acknowledge their authority. And as always, that authority is not amused in the slightest. But as luck would have it, he’s not executed just yet.
Instead, it’s lights, camera, action?
The idea is to get into the building where their scientist friend is rumored to be staying and they are going to do so by pretending to be the femme fatale’s very own camera crew…
I gotta say I wasn’t expecting it but when they are trying to drive home a point they really make sure to hit all the major points. In this case? Paparazzi and propaganda?
I’d like to say this was a happy ending. The Nazis were defeated (obviously) and order was restored. Well…yes and no…as with all of history we learn from our mistakes but at the expense of other mistakes being made.
In this case, the scientist fellow they were there to rescue and check up on? Well, he doesn’t make it. Turns out he was kept in a comatose state for so long he could not be revived. Damn!
Also, undoing something like Nazi brainwashing on an entire planet isn’t exactly going to be easy. You don’t just wake up one morning and decide, okay, we’ll stop killing now.
It’s all rather strange how this planet is left. To be honest, it’s not the first and I’m sure it won’t be the last that one could argue is left in just as bad a shape as it was when they found it. Sure, they got rid of a rather oppressive regime but what exactly did they replace it with? That’s not important, so stop asking!
Let us boldly go to the next episode!
DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?
Capt. Kirk: Gill. Gill, why did you abandon your mission? Why did you interfere with this culture?
John Gill: Planet… fragmented… divided. Took lesson from… Earth history.
Capt. Kirk: But why Nazi Germany? You studied history. You knew what the Nazis were.
John Gill: Most efficient state… Earth ever knew.
Spock: Quite true, Captain. That tiny country, beaten, bankrupt, defeated; rose in a few years to stand only one step away from global domination.
Capt. Kirk: But it was brutal, perverted; had to be destroyed at a terrible cost. Why that example?
Spock: Perhaps Gill felt that such a state, run benignly, could accomplish its efficiency without sadism.
