Patterns of Force by: John Meredyth Lucas and directed by: Vincent McEveety

 

“Patterns of Force” is written by John Meredyth Lucas and is directed by Vincent McEveety.  It was filmed under production code 52, was the 21^st episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 50^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on February 16, 1968.

 

“Patterns of Force” is an uncomfortable watch.  This is an episode that in 1968 decides it wishes to deconstruct fascism and directly and openly uses fascist imagery of Nazi Germany in the costuming, the characters, and actual propaganda footage of Hitler.  The attempt is not one of making light of fascism nor playing up the camp factor of seeing our heroes dressed in the uniforms of Nazis.  John Meredyth Lucas was the adopted son of Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, making him part of a family who lost relatives to the Nazi regime.  The stinger of the episode directly quotes the idea of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” and even the joke from Kirk feels more subdued.  The camp of “Patterns of Force” is clearly unintentional, arising from seeing our heroes dressed as Nazis, amplified later in the episode by having the Enterprise replicate a Nazi uniform for McCoy and he struggles getting his boots on, an actual plot point this episode attempts to employ for drama.  This is also an episode that is not subtle, several of the characters are clearly future alterations of Jewish figures, the resistance includes Isak and Abrom (Isaac and Abram/Abraham), played by Richard Evans and William Wintersole respectively, and the oppressed group being the Zeons, a clear alteration of Zion.  These are all attempts to make the situation feel real and historic, despite the futuristic setting, as well as Lucas’ interest in examining the idea of the Prime Directive being broken.  As an episode it’s actually quite effective, the retroactive camp being there because some obvious moments of comic relief being there so the episode isn’t incredibly dark because of the subject matter, something that makes sense for television despite not playing well now.  The cast in particular using their natural American accents adds this added layer of sinister familiarity, there were American sympathizers in the war and Neo-Nazi groups have always existed in the aftermath of World War II.  Vincent McEveety is also a great, dynamic director for this one, really leaning into making it feel dark with levity in places.

 

The actual plot of the episode involves Kirk finding one of his Starfleet Academy professors, John Gill, in the role of Fuhrer for this fascist regime after he and Spock are captured and tortured by this particular regime.  The sequences in captivity are genuinely uncomfortable as is the general aghast nature of Kirk and Spock, Shatner and Nimoy selling the horror of seeing a regime revived in the future which is generally peaceful and anti-fascist.  The sequence of getting in contact with the resistance, including a test to prove the loyalty is well done as well, before the plan to infiltrate the regime at a speech from Gill is where the episode begins to really slow down.  This is where the philosophical aspects of the episode really begins to come to the forefront and somebody thought it was a good idea to mention weird sympathies as to the efficiency of fascism and the original Nazi regime.  It’s one line from Spock that feels entirely out of line with the rest of the episode, and it only begins to fall apart from there.  “Pattern of Force” uses this to imply that not only is fascism efficient, but it is also the responsibility of one man who will then be used as a figurehead by another, in this case Gill having mentally deteriorated and was taken over.  Obviously this is meant to be read about the inefficiency of authoritarianism and fascism in general, but it’s something that doesn’t play well.  This is also an episode that ends with calls for peace when the Nazi regime begins to fall, something that feels far too 1960s in a bad way.  These are Nazis, this is an episode that explicitly uses Nazi rhetoric to show the horrors of the regime; it should not be ending with an attempt to renounce cycles of violence because this is not an issue, the Prime Directive being explicitly stated to be necessary tot prevent fascism, this misunderstanding how fascism can come about.  Luckily it doesn’t imply a tolerance for fascism.

 

Overall, “Patterns of Force” is an episode that despite an outlandish premise, actually is largely successful at pulling it off with a nearly appropriate tone and plot.  It shines when it holds a dark mirror to the United States of the time with a cast using their American accents, despite the ridiculousness of seeing our heroes dressed in those costumes.  The attempt to explore how things fall apart is admirable, but the back half of the episode doesn’t work as well as the setup despite being blatant and unafraid of what it’s trying to do.  Though I don’t actually know if this is an episode that could have been pulled off better without massively overhauling the premise and imagery so it gets a very conflicted 6/10.