(bu Collin R. Skocik)
While investigating the disappearance of cultural observer John Gill on the planet Ekos, Kirk and Spock discover that Gill has transformed the planet into a new Nazi Germany, with himself as fuhrer, and the people of the neighboring planet, Zeon, as the scapegoats.
This is not the episode I needed to see last night, considering the political climate in the United States at the moment. I have always wondered the same thing Spock does: “How could a man as brilliant, a mind as logical as John Gill’s, have made such a fatal error?” How could a historian be dumb enough to think that Nazi Germany was a good example to pattern an entire civilization after? Yet I see the United States walking down the same frightening path. The nationalism, the scapegoating of certain groups, the lies, the divine veneration of the leader, “alternative facts,” “we can disagree with the facts.” We do not yet have a state-run media, but the discrediting of the news media and the encouragement by the Administration to believe not the free press, but the President—despite blatant, demonstrable lies—and the apparent inability of his very vocal supporters to see what’s happening, is terrifying. We’re not there yet, but we’re walking down a very familiar path. It will be interesting to see what the new President does the first time he runs up against Congress.
This episode acts as a very timely warning that an oppressive dictatorship like Nazi Germany can happen again. Thomas Jefferson said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. In the 1980s the sci-fi television series V told the story of an alien invasion of the Earth; in this case the alien Visitors did not ravage our planet, but ruled it. The hero, Mike Donovan, asks one of the aliens, “How did someone like that get to be your Leader?” “Charisma,” the alien answers, “circumstances, promises, not enough of us spoke out against him until it was too late. It happens on your planet, doesn’t it?” That’s really all it takes. Charisma, circumstances, promises, and good people doing nothing. And that’s exactly the climate John Gill found when he arrived on Ekos.
Gill says the planet was “fragmented, divided.” Just as the United States is today. But Gill learns the hard way that an autocratic system never works; it does not unify a people, it turns the hateful and the violent against others and leads to carnage and violence.
Gill’s intentions were benevolent, if staggeringly stupid. When Kirk asks him why Nazi Germany, Gill replies, “Most efficient state Earth ever knew.” Spock says, “True, Captain. A tiny nation, beaten, bankrupt, defeated, rose in a few years to stand one step away from global domination. …Perhaps Gill felt such a state, run benignly, could accomplish its efficiency without sadism.” Gill draws a bizarre conclusion from history—evidently he missed the fact that the Nazis achieved their efficiency because of hatred and blind nationalism. The outcome of his experiment is totally predictable.
Oddly, the name written on the sleeves of the Nazi uniforms is not “John Gill,” but “Adolf Hitler.” When Kirk tells the Resistance he has come for John Gill, their leader, Abrom, asks, “Who?” Pretty strange for a Resistance fighter not to know the name of the enemy he’s fighting. Does Gill call himself Adolf Hitler?
It’s a little unclear how long Gill has been on Ekos. McCoy says Starfleet has been trying to contact him for six months. Isak tells Kirk and Spock that the Nazi movement began “only a few years ago.” Daras later says about Gill, “I grew up to admire him, later to hate and despise everything he stands for.” This comes together to indicate he has been on Ekos for many, many years, but only got the ball rolling on the Nazi thing a few years ago—but apparently continued to communicate with Starfleet for some time (conveniently not mentioning his outrageous violation of the Prime Directive) until losing contact six months ago—apparently when Melakon began drugging him.
The names in this episode are not exactly subtle—Zeon, Isak, Abrom.
As disturbing as it is to see the rise of fascism, this episode ends on a reassuring note—in the end, fascism is defeated. People love their freedom and they’ll fight for it. Unfortunately, that freedom doesn’t come easily—it’s almost always preceded by war.
Sigh. Star Trek is usually my escape from the real world into a better one that lies ahead. Can someone just put me into suspended animation for three hundred years?
(Collin R. Skocik is a fan of the Star Trek franchise and has written synopses of all 79 episodes of Star Trek’s original series and the first six Star Trek films.)
Principled Thoughts 