Star date: None given
Summary: The Enterprise approaches the solar system of the planets Ekos and Zeon, searching for Kirk's former instructor at the Academy John Gill, who has disappeared after going to Ekos as a Federation cultural observer. As they approach, a nuclear warhead targeting them is launched from Ekos. They destroy the missile easily, but are surprised because neither the warlike and primitive Ekosians nor the somewhat more advanced and peaceful Zeons should have the capability of building and launching such a device.
Since their efforts to establish communication with Gill fail, Kirk and Spock beam down to Ekos wearing local clothing which, like Ekos itself, closely resembles that of 1930's-era Earth. They are stunned to learn that Ekos society has modeled itself after Nazi Germany, and even more stunned to find that John Gill is their Fuhrer. They learn that Ekos arbitrarily arrests, tortures and executes Zeons. Before long they are arrested as Zeons and subjected to harsh interrogation. The Nazi party chairman, Eneg, orders them to be held in prison for one hour, after which they will be executed if they refuse to talk. They escape with a Zeon named Isak, who connects them with Zeon underground.
Shortly after meeting up with the underground, the Zeon hideout appears to be raided by Ekosians, including a woman named Daras, the Nazi party secretary and recently publicly decorated for her service to "the Fatherland". However, it turns out that Daras is a double-agent aligned with the Zeons, and the "raid" was simply a test to verify that Kirk and Spock are not Nazi sympathizers. With Daras' help, they hatch a plan to confront Gill that evening, when he will be making a nationally televised address.
Posing as party officials photographing Daras' appearance at the speech, Kirk, Spock, Isak and Daras enter the building where Gill is broadcasting. However, they can't speak to Gill, because the Deputy Fuhrer, Melakon, controls all access to him. Gill is being held in a closed and guarded broadcast booth, but Spock is able to get a brief glimpse of him and believes he may be in a drugged state. Kirk manages to get McCoy down to the surface dressed as a Nazi doctor, and they break into the booth immediately after Gill makes his address to the nation, an address in which he calls for the total annihilation of all Zeon people.
McCoy concludes that Gill is heavily drugged and that Melakon is really running the show, using Gill as his puppet. Kirk realizes that as Fuhrer, Gill can call a halt to the slaughter of the Zeons, but he must first counteract the drug in his system. A stimulant from McCoy isn't sufficient to the job, and they are about to be discovered by other Nazi guards. Kirk gives Spock up to the Nazis to buy time, and Spock is brought before Melakon, who comments on how Spock's Vulcan features clearly indicate his is an inferior race. Kirk manages to rouse Gill sufficiently to make another broadcast to the nation calling off the attack and denouncing Melakon as a traitor. Melakon grabs a gun and shoots Gill dead in the booth, and Isak shoots and kills Melakon.
It turns out that party chairman Eneg is also a Zeon sympathizer, and with Gill and Melakon dead, it falls to him and Daras to pick up the reins of power, heal the rift with the Zeons, and move their two planets forward together.
This was a good episode, and like most good episodes in the series, it's good because it doesn't rely on the outer space setting and creatures with "godlike powers". The script also had no obvious plot holes (though the way Kirk and Spock escape from prison strains credibility to the breaking point), and the dialog and pacing are good.
The script also has a decent amount of originality to it. The Federation "non-interference" directive is put to an extreme test: if you're ever going to interfere with another culture, interfering to halt Nazi atrocities would be the time to do it. Since Gill is the leader of this Nazi regime, Kirk and Spock's goals (finding out what happened to Gill) align with the goals of the Zeon underground (get to Gill to stop the atrocities), but for different reasons and with different motives. The underground wants to kill Gill, and Kirk can't allow it. And the scene with Daras pretending to be a true Nazi in order to test Kirk and Spock's motives is great.
This is the third episode in the past five (including "A Piece of the Action" and "A Private Little War") in which the Prime Directive plays a major role, and while it was not the most persuasive about the Prime Directive's merits --- the major takeaway here is that teaching primitive cultures to be Nazis is bad --- it is the most entertaining. Indeed, this episode and "A Piece of the Action" tell a similar story, but while "A Piece of the Action" is a farce, and one I didn't much care for, this episode treats its subject with the seriousness it deserves.
Other observations about this episode . . .
In the previously-aired episode, "Return to Tomorrow", Kirk made the prudent decision not to have himself and Spock both beam down to a planet at the same time. Here, one week later, Kirk (or really, the writers of the show) have forgotten that wise policy, as Kirk and Spock are the only crew members to beam down until late in the show.
There is a surprisingly large number of Zeons on Ekos, considering the way the Ekosians treat them.
It's remarkably fortunate for Kirk and Spock that so many high-ranking Ekosians (Eneg, Daras) are actually Zeon double-agents. Remarkably fortunate, too, that they happen to break into Gill's broadcast booth immediately after his broadcast ends. Just a few seconds sooner, and Melakon would have seen what was happening and killed them all.
The way Kirk and Spock break out of jail is completely ridiculous, of course. What great luck that this is the first time, ever, that a landing party has subcutaneous transponders implanted, and they just happen to need them to get out of jail. And what great luck that the support in the bed is exactly what they need to dig the crystals out of their arms and hold them the correct distance away from each other. And how amazing that Spock is able to focus the resulting laser exactly where he needs it, even as he is weaving back and forth on Kirk's back.
Considering the serious subject matter, there are still some funny lines in the script. The best is when Kirk and Spock knock out a Nazi officer, and Kirk starts to put on his uniform as a disguise. Spock remarks: "You should make a very convincing Nazi".
Also, Valora Noland is a smokin' hottie.
The Moral of the Story: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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