‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘Patterns of Force’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​There are some old sayings that stick with you on a consistent basis, simply because their words ring true more often than not and one that always hangs around in my mind is; ‘those who do not learn history, are doomed to repeat it’. And this particular saying carries weight simply because it applies to so much in life. For our experiences provide us with important lessons as we grow throughout the years, the kind we need to heed to avoid pain and suffering a second time around and when we don’t heed them, we pay the price. But this is a saying that has always held more weight and more gravity when it comes overall society and there’s good reason for that, since we do see humanity tend to work in cycles and do the dumb thing, we did ages ago, all over again.
 
If anything, this whole notion and our inability to escape past mistakes is on my mind today, simply because it served as the central focal point for a downright powerful and fascinating episode of Star Trek. For ‘Patterns of Force’ took the time to ponder upon what might happen if we took the worst parts of humanity and injected them into a society on another world, and wouldn’t you know it? Such a concept turned out to be disastrous in nature. Because the crew of the Enterprise came to discover that a brilliant Federation historian, one who took the time to teach at Starfleet Academy, had done the unthinkable and transformed a world that already embraced war and violence, into a recreation of Nazi Germany and well, while the details of how and why this happened are important, I think what this episode had to say about humanity matters more and that’s going to be our focus today.
 
Because in many ways, Professor John Gill’s decision to use the structure of Nazi Germany to try and save this society speaks to mankind’s arrogance and how we tend to believe we can improve upon something that was bad to begin with. For while Gill’s intentions were noble in nature since he genuinely believed that the supposed efficient structure of the Reich would provide these people with guidance and direction, he failed to recall in the slightest what the Reich really stood for. Because while its early days helped to save a woefully poor and broken nation, it was always about power and control and shaping the world into a twisted and racist image and that’s not something that can be removed or altered from a state when it is founded on twisted principles and that’s why Gill’s plan failed. Because eventually others came to see the true meaning and power of this notion and took full advantage of it.
 
Yet what truly surprised me about this particular tale, was that it inadvertently featured some commentary on our modern world and well, the parallels present here were quite striking and sobering for certain. Because it was more or less immigrants from another world that managed to stoke the hateful fires on the planet Ekos and it was just chilling to see this reformed Nazi Reich preach how visitors from another place were the cause of Ekos’ ailments and honestly, the only way this could have been more relevant to the times was to have a ‘Make Ekos Great Again’ banner flying high in the capital city. But alas, the show hadn’t a clue that modern America would see a resurgence of hate under the Trump Administration, but the cautionary narrative here speaks volumes as to how we’ve come to this point.
 
For in essence, fear and hate and a belief that they’ve been marginalized bring bad people to power and motivates them to do awful things. And that is perhaps the only lesson we need to learn from this tale, in that, we need to be the better than that, and embrace a more peaceful and inclusive path forward like the neighborly Zeons, and truly when all is said and done, this was quite the powerful episode. Because it really did hit home and even if we weren’t living in some turbulent times, seeing a future society embracing this kind of lifestyle and these horrible beliefs would still be jarring. If anything, it’s just another fine example of this series outright hitting its storytelling stride, since this one captivated me and stuck with me for some time and in the end, this incredible tale has me beyond energized to power through these final five episodes in season two. So, if you’ll excuse me, now seems like the perfect time to settle in and close out, year two of the five-year mission. Until next time. 

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