Talk:Patterns of Force (Star Trek: The Original Series)

Broadcast in Germany

In germany "Patterns of Force" was solely broadcasted on a pay-per-view-channel, in Austria it was aired as original edit with subtitles by a public station. Although some fans think of it as the worst episode (probably in terms of entertainment), it makes a very strong statement on fascism and totalitarian systems in general.

The reason this episode wasn't broadcast in Germany was that Nazism and the holocaust are not supposed to be used for entertainment purposes. (this has changed a bit in latter years) The handling is actually rather clumsy and might be seen as offensive by actual holocaust survivers. -- megA (talk) 20:21, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Any way to cite any of this? Alastairward (talk) 22:01, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Might be difficult. The German penal code (Sect. 86 and 86a) prohibits the depiction of the swastika and other symbols of counter-constutional parties or organisations except "to further civil education, to avert unconstitutional aims, to promote art or science, research or teaching, reporting about current historical events or similar purposes." Apart from that, couldn't find more than hearsay right now. Sorry. -- megA (talk) 22:50, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

If that was true, why didn't they ban the Indiana Jones movies? I rather think the German viewers weren't considered to be too receptive to this subject in the 1960.--84.150.215.129 (talk) 21:30, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

The first airing was after 1972, and only 39 episodes where shown, many were considered too violent and tasteless. After 1985 private TV started dubbing and showing the rest, except "Patterns of Force", and after seeing it myself I think it was just because it's really a far too stupid trivialization of holocaust.reference at wikipedia.de. Anyway it has already been shown on pay tv.--Popolfi (talk) 07:19, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Maybe you're right. It's somewhat strange though that no other country including Israel didn't show the episode.--84.150.195.13 (talk) 17:59, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

I know this conversation ended 2.5 years ago, but I think I have an answer as to why Germany did not show it. It was not just that the show displayed Nazis and their logos, which was bad enough. Also, they had Earth's most preeminent historian declare that Nazi Germany was the "most efficient state in history" and try to mold a society after it. This romanticizes the Nazi movement, which Germany could not afford to do. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Evergreena3 (talk • contribs) 04:27, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

It would be interesting if a cite could be found. Alastairward (talk) 21:18, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

IIRC the Germany ban was stated in The Star Trek Compendium under the section for Patterns of Force--BruceGrubb (talk) 06:14, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

To cut a long story short: this episode was not banned due to the depiction of a (fictious) Nazi society and insignia but just not being considered for airing as the simple reason was that the broadcaster (ZDF) feared negative reactions.

German laws did and do allow the depiction of Nazi symbols in art as stated in the conversation above, otherwise a ton of movies and TV series like "Tadellöser & Wolff" (1975) or "Holocaust" (Germany airing 1979) would have been immediately cases for the vaults. If "Patterns of Force" had glorified the Nazi dictatorship a ban would had been inevitable, but not even the infamous remark about being "the most efficient state in history" in a movie would had warranted a ban ("Freedom of Art").

Note that the synchronisation for "Patterns of Force" happened in the 1980s before the premier airing. 2A02:560:4286:B800:E828:B8A1:55B3:6E16 (talk) 23:41, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

The episode was never banned in Germany. It just wasn't shown by the TV stations which had the licence at the time. That's a major difference. Shows and films as pieces of art don't usually get banned in Germany when they show the swastika (See the linked section 86a of the german penal code, which specifically excludes art. That was true even in the 60s and 70s). The source for the Information on the episode being banned is a clickbait site. The sentece should be removed from the intro or a better source should be provided (i.e. a court descision on the alleged ban). The section under reception is much more appropriately worded. Also, all of this only applies to West Germany. There were 2 German states at the time. 83.223.76.140 (talk) 13:33, 16 March 2022 (UTC)

Patterns of Force explicitly does not depict Nazi Germany

This article erroneously is placed in the category “Nazi Germany in Fiction”. The storyline of Patterns of Force explicitly states that it contains neither a factual nor a fictionalized depiction of Nazi Germany, but is instead an alien society with Nazi-style parallels superimposed on it, such as Nazi uniforms, Nazi-fascist ideology, persecuted ethno-religious subcultures, etc. In fact, the term “Zéon” is obviously derived from “Zion”; the term “Zionism” both perjoratively and supportively (depending on the political ideologies of the labelling entity) describing pro-Semitic ideologies espoused by several cultures, religions and nations.

• • • Um, no -- the sad fact is that "Patterns of Force" does replicate almost down to the last detail, a Nazi Germany culture on another planet. Not a Nazi-like, culture, not an alien fascist culture, but an almost exact duplication. It is as if J. Gill took a photo book, gave it to the Ekos side, and said "here, do this!" Wait, that was also the plot-line for "A Piece of the Action" (with Chicago gangsters). The story could have been salvaged *if* the budget were available to create a really alien culture that had fascist overtones -- but instead, as was popular with 1960s TV, they simply used an exact historical duplicate. After all, you had Hogan's Heroes on the air and time travel to WW 2 storylines were popular in SF up through the 1980s on TV (i.e. see early episode of Galactica 1980). Chesspride 66.19.84.2 (talk) 04:24, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Reception

If Darren Mooney's criticism was voiced in 2014, nearly five decades after the episode aired, it's straining the term "reception" a little, I kinda feel. Captain Pedant (talk) 06:50, 1 October 2020 (UTC)