Star Trek Thoughts: Patterns of Force
Jul. 12th, 2014 01:08 pmEven after getting Blu-Ray sets of the entire "Original Series," I still intended to be picky about what Star Trek episodes I watched. There were a few episodes on which I seemed sort of divided about whether to watch or not, though. I've somehow formed the impression "Patterns of Force" has become one of the "controversial" episodes through being "the Nazi planet episode." When I decided I'd watch it anyway and form my own opinions, I could suppose one thought about it way back in production was that it was another chance to "film on the back lot," draw the costumes from wardrobe, and save money. With that, though, I could wonder whether the series was "playing with fire" in invoking historical realities too big and troubling for the usual game of Kirk and Spock solving everything in an hour's time, whether the setup of "a well-meaning historian supposed fascism could be kept benign to motivate a troubled planet," in permitting the "good" kind of interference (once again), somehow allowed for a misleadingly safe "one of a kind" distancing, whether the iconography on display was once more being employed to catch eyes but have full consequences missed. It might also just be that Kirk bluffing his way around in a black uniform with red armband troubles in a way that, say, The Guns of Navarone might not (although there I'm going by hearsay...) I did, though, happen to think the gulf of time implied between World War II and Star Trek's future could have meant something "within" the story, although I'm not quite sure what's said in the episode allows for that interpretation.
( 'You look quite well for a man who's been utterly destroyed, Mister Spock.' )
( 'You look quite well for a man who's been utterly destroyed, Mister Spock.' )