"Star Trek, Vol. 26: Return to Tomorrow/Patterns of Force (Full Screen)"

Tidbit: This episode must beat out Spectre of the Gun for the 'longest teaser' award. Doohan, as was so often the case, played the voice of Sargon here. Muldaur would reappear in the superior Is There in Truth No Beauty?, as well as on The Next Generation. (3 stars)

Patterns of Force: The Nazi episode has to rank near the bottom of Trek offerings, if only because it is in such poor taste. What were they thinking? I'm tempted to give the episode at least some support for the fact that it has plenty of action, but after being reminded by other reviewers just have off-base Kirk's speech was (the one that seems to equate the Nazis with other holders of absolute power), I can't give the episode any extra props. There could be no better example than this episode of the dangers inherent in drifting too far away from the tenets the show was founded upon. At times it worked, like in A Piece of the Action, but you can almost watch things getting out of hand as the second season progressed. Bread and Circuses flirted with the line; Patterns of Force crossed way over it. (1.5 stars)

RETURN TO TOMORROW © PRELIMINARY BRIEFS:

Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject(s) Driven Into The Ground: Coping with human frailties; taking risks

Milestone Moment: First appearance of Diana Muldaur on Star Trek, as Ann Mulhall. She would appear in a later episode of the original series ("Is There in Truth no Beauty?"), and spend the second season on NextGen as Dr. Crusher's replacement.

Expendable Enterprise Crewmember ('Red Shirt') Confirmed Casualty List: None

REVIEW/COMMENTARY:
The rehashing of the aliens-who-take-human-form-and-start-acting-human-but-cannot-handle-it story (also covered in 'By any Other Name' and 'Requiem for Methuselah') doesn't exactly make this particular outing a paragon of originality. Fortunately, Shatner's exaggerated gestures and pantomimes during the scene where Sargon's consciousness takes over Kirk's body helps lighten things up quite a bit. I also loved the piping up of the Star Trek love theme when Kirk grabs his first glance at Ms. Mulhall. Man, the guy just ain't got no self-control at all, does he! It's like he's the Bill Clinton of Starfleet- well, except he has far better taste in women!

Oh, and let's not forget his "risk is our business" spiel, which I consider to be THE most overdone bit of heavy-handed monologue in the whole series! Talk about driving your point home with a sledgehammer...

PATTERNS OF FORCE © PRELIMINARY BRIEFS:

Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject(s) Driven Into The Ground: Cultural contamination; the horrific result of a cause gone wrong; the folly of hatred

REVIEW/COMMENTARY:

All right my fellow Trekkies, let's go down our list:
A planet of 1930s-era mobsters (A Piece of the Action)- check. A planet populated by an American Indian tribe ('The Paradise Syndrome')- check. A world where Kirk and crew are forced to live-and perhaps die- in a western ('Spectre of the Gun')- check. A world where the Roman Empire survived and continued conquering all the way to the 20th century ('Bread and Circuses')- check.

All right, looks like all of Earth's most significant historical periods have been exploited to their fullest extent by our gallant Enterprise stalwarts, and- what's that, you say? Nazi Germany? Well, um... wouldn't that be kind of touchy? Oh, we're NOT gonna go with the parallel-planet evolution/history theory gimmick to explain this one? Well, that's new, but how- oh, some ET-studying professor's gonna ignore the Prime Directive (can't blame Jimmers on THIS one!), and come up with the bright idea to unite and guide an alien society using a form of government that led to earth's most horrific conflict? Wow, what a GREAT idea! Why didn't I think of that? Fortunately (or in this instance not-as-unfortunately), Jimmers and everbody's fave 'pointed-eared hobgoblin' manage to keep things from gettin' worse, as well as teach the TV audience a lesson in what results when you mess with another culture. Go team!

My favorite moments in this particular eppie are the ones where Kirk and Spock are disguised in their Nazi military uniforms. Every time I see them in their fascist garb, flashes of the bumbling Colonel Klink and his incompetent sidekick Sgt. Schultz from 'Hogan's Heroes' run through my mind! They just look so goofy in their getups, it's almost laughable (Kirk and Spock, that is). Adding to the hilarity, albeit unintentionally, is the ironic fact that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are Jewish!

'Late

RETURN TO TOMORROW has some wonderful acting performances by the cast which tends to overshadow the story. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Dr.Ann Mulhall (played by Diana Muldaur) discover a lost race of beings on a distant planet. The only surivivors left of this race are Sargon, his wife and Henoch (an old enemy of Sargon's). The aliens ask for the use of Kirk, Spock, and Mulhall's bodies to construct robot structures for themsleves to live in. In return the beings will give the Enterprise crew all the advanced knowledge they possess. Things work at first but Henoch decides he likes Spock's body and turns against Sargon in order to keep the vulcan's body. Now it's up to Kirk and Sargon to try and get Spock back into his own body! RETURN TO TOMORROW has some memorable performances particularily by Diana Muldaur whose character was excellent and I thought she should have been a regular on the show. With all do respect to Nichelle Nichols and Majel Baret but I don't know if they could have pulled this performance off. This episode really brought out the fact that Star Trek lacked a strong female role indeed, and perhaps Dr. Ann Mulhall was the character the series needed. Unfortunetly her character was never used again and Muldaur only returned in the third season as a different character. RETURN TO TOMORROW is a very good Star Trek episode and it's priceless to see Kirk's bonding with Sargon because we get to see Wiliam Shatner overreacting at his best.

PATTERNS OF FORCE is one of my favourite Star Trek episodes and I am amazed at how many reviewers have lamb-basted this episode. I always thought this episode was one of Star Trek's finest. It dealt with a real life Nazis and the fear of a Holocaust. It was well written and well acted and in my opinion it may be on of the best Star Trek episodes ever. The Enterprise crew arrives at Ekos where Federation cultural observer John Gill was working to find a planet run by a Nazi government and John Gill being The Furor. The Zeon people, from a neigbouring planet of the same name, are considered to be a plague to the Ekosians and the Nazi government will stop at nothing to wiped this race of people off the galaxy. Kirk and Spock beam down to find themselves sneaking around in Nazi uniforms trying to figure out what caused this madness and how to correct it. PATTERNS OF FORCE tackles the holocaust issue head on and that may be the reason why some reviewers were offended by this episode. However PATTERNS OF FORCE is an excellent episode of Star Trek. The hatred that Ekosians have for Zeons is simliar to that of the hatred the Nazis had for Jewish peope. Keep in mind that this was the 1960's and it's amazing that PATTERNS OF FORCE was even excepted passed first script reading, being as offensive as it was (especially to Shatner and Nimoy who are both Jewish and being asked to run around in Gestapo outifits). To this day it remains the only Trek episode banned in Germany but PATTERNS OF FORCE is still one of Star Trek's gutsiest scripts written. This episode's message comes on strong and clear and the story is quite compelling. This makes PATTERNS OF FORCE one of the finest Star Trek episodes ever in my opinion.

Overall Volume 26 is wonderful. Both episodes are some of the best and PATTERNS OF FORCE must definetly be seen. I found that episode fascinating and it brought out the sad truth of how absolute power corrupts even with the best intentions. A few sounds problems in the episode apparently but other than that this one is a keeper! Highly recommended!