Stencils of violence
| Episode of the series Spaceship Enterprise | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| title | Stencils of violence | ||
| Original title | Patterns of Force | ||
 | |||
| Country of production | United States | ||
| original language | English | ||
| length | 50 minutes | ||
| Age rating | FSK 16 | ||
| classification | Season 2 , episode 21 50th episode overall ( list ) |
||
| First broadcast | Feb 16, 1968 on NBC | ||
| German-language first broadcast |
July 25, 1999 on DF1 | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Vincent McEveety | ||
| script | John Meredyth Lucas | ||
| production | John Meredyth Lucas | ||
| music | George Duning | ||
| camera | Jerry Finnerman | ||
| cut | Fabien Tordjmann | ||
| chronology | |||
| |||
Stencils of violence (original title: Patterns of Force ) is an episode from the second season of the American science fiction television series Spaceship Enterprise , which was first broadcast in 1968 . In the plot, Kirk and Spock, in search of a missing historian, infiltrate an alien planet on which a regime modeled on Nazi Germany has been built. Because of the delicate subject matter and apparently positive statements about the Third Reich, the episode was initially skipped during the German dubbing and first broadcast. It was first broadcast in German over 30 years after it was first broadcast in the US.
action
The Enterprise crew wants to investigate the disappearance of the Federation historian and cultural observer Professor John Gill on the planet Ekos. Ekos is known to the Federation as a planet with rather primitive, war-like conditions, the neighboring planet Zeon as a comparatively more peaceful, more advanced planet.
Kirk and Spock beam down on Ekos, disguised as locals and equipped with transponders transplanted under the skin, to look for Gill. To both of them, conditions prevail in Ekos as in the Third Reich, the Ekosians are National Socialists . However, here John Gill is the " leader " and the goal of the movement is to destroy Zeon and the Zeonists, as they are an inferior race. In order to approach Gill, Kirk and Spock pretend to be Nazi officers in uniform. Since Spock quickly attracts attention because of his pointy ears, both are suspected and tortured by the SS as Zeonists and arrested on the instructions of party chairman Eneg.
Using their transponders, Kirk and Spock break out of prison. They take the captured Zeonist Isak with them and again pretend to be Nazi officers. Isak leads them to his resistance group, which operates underground and first subjects the two strangers to an examination of whether they are on their side. The Ekosian and Nazi party functionary Daras also belongs to the resistance group.
With the help of Daras and the resistance group, Kirk and Spock, who pretend to be SS officers and photographers, go to the Reich Chancellery, where a meeting takes place that day on the occasion of a speech by the Führer on the “ final solution ”. In the meantime, Spock has made it possible to establish radio telephone contact with the Enterprise. So they can beam down McCoy, who pretends to be a major and is supposed to examine Gill.
While giving his speech, Gill can only be seen on a screen with his mouth covered by an object. As the speech ends and Gill's supporters pay homage to the guide, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Daras and Isak enter the room where Gill is tied up, unconscious and obviously drugged. Apparently, Gill was only used as a figurehead . Before he passed out again, Kirk asks him why he interfered in the development of the planet. Gill says that the planet was deeply divided and he wanted to save it. When Kirk asked, which is why he took Nazi Germany as a model, Gill said that it was the most effective state in world history. Kirk is astonished, after all, it was an inhuman system. Spock, on the other hand, can understand the thought behind it and reminds us that a small, defeated and bankrupt country like Germany managed to rise again in a short time and almost brought it to world domination. He therefore suspects that Gill thought that such a system could be recreated, but that it could be run kindly. However, Gill's deputy Melakon then took power and drugged him.
Meanwhile, the Ekosians with spaceships are starting to implement the Final Solution and all Zeonists are to be destroyed within an hour. In order to buy time, the resisters have Spock arrested as an unusual Zeonist. Meanwhile, Kirk manages to get Gill to a televised address in which Gill exposes Melakon as a traitor and orders the attack on Zeon to be stopped. Melakon then shoots Gill before he is shot himself. As he dies, Gill admits to Kirk that he has the Supreme Directive; H. the requirement of not interfering in foreign cultures should have observed.
Finally, Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam back to the Enterprise.
German-language publication
From 1972 to 1974, the ZDF broadcast some of the episodes of Raumschiff Enterprise for the first time synchronized in German, in 1987/88 Sat.1 broadcast the remaining episodes in German for the first time. Both broadcasters, however, left out the episode templates of violence and did not commission a German dubbed version. Patterns of Force was translated into German for video publication in 1995 and was first released in 1996 as a German dubbed version on VHS by Paramount . The original version with German subtitles was broadcast for the first time in the German-speaking area on November 19, 1996 as part of the late evening series kunst-pieces on ORF 2 . It was first broadcast in German on July 25, 1999 on the pay-TV channel DF1 . The German-language free TV premiere was on November 4, 2011 on ZDFneo . In addition, the dubbed version became part of the German DVD and Blu-ray releases by Raumschiff Enterprise . For the ZDFneo broadcast as well as for the home videos, she received the FSK age rating from 16 years.
criticism
The theme of National Socialism in the episode was criticized as simplifying and belittling. The journalist Joachim Huber said in 2011 in the Tagesspiegel : “This inexperienced presentation is light years away from even remotely critical reappraisal.” The authors Mike Hillenbrand and Thomas Höhl criticized in their book Star Trek in Germany (2008) that the result suggests Gill's plan from a National Socialist state would have worked if Melakon had not usurped power.
literature
- Mike Hillenbrand , Thomas Höhl : Star Trek in Germany . Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2008, ISBN 978-3-86852-006-4 , pp. 184-191
- Joachim Huber: Mr. Spock: "You make a convincing Nazi" , in: Der Tagesspiegel from Nov. 3, 2011
Web links
- Patterns of Force in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Stencils of violence in the Star Trek Wiki Memory Alpha
- Stencils of violence at Fernsehserien.de