- Looking for a missing Federation cultural observer, Kirk and Spock find themselves on a planet whose culture has been completely patterned after Nazi Germany.
- The Enterprise searches the reportedly primitive and warlike planet, Ekos, for the missing Federation cultural observer, Professor John Gill (David Brian). When Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) beam down, they find the Ekosians have turned into a Nazi society, with Gill as their Fuhrer, and are at war with the peaceful people of neighboring planet, Zeon. They steal uniforms to enter the headquarters; but when Spock is forced to remove his helmet, his ears betray them and they are led straight to the torture chamber. After a flogging as Zeon spies, they manage to escape with a Zeon prisoner (Richard Evans), who takes them to the Zeon resistance. The resistance tests them, and plots with an Ekosian defector (Valora Noland) just to reach Gill, posing as a Nazi propaganda film crew. Once they enter inside, they discover things are not quite as they appear.—KGF Vissers
- When Federation cultural observer Professor John Gill goes missing, the Enterprise heads for the primitive and warlike planet Ekos to learn his fate. There they discover that the Ekosian culture, previously in a state of anarchy, has unified into an exact replica of Earth's 1944 Nazi society, with John Gill as their Führer. This becomes a grievous breach of the Prime Directive. As Ekos rallies toward declaring war and exterminating planetary neighbor Zeon (a peaceful race capable of interplanetary travel), Kirk and Spock struggle to reach Gill and reverse the damage for the survival of both worlds.—statmanjeff
- The Enterprise travels to the planet Ekos to search for the missing Federation cultural observer Professor John Gill. When they arrive, they find that Ekosian society has been completely patterned after Nazi Germany - down to its uniforms and the hatred of everyone from their neighboring planet Zeon - and the Fuhrer of this neo-Nazi regime is John Gill! Kirk and Spock are soon taken prisoner, but they also learn that there is an underground movement that opposes the totalitarian and vicious regime. As they realize that Gill has been incapacitated, they focus their efforts on dethroning the real power - Melakon, the Deputy Fuhrer.—garykmcd
- John Gill (David Brian) was a Federation historian with good intentions. Finding himself on the planet Ekos, which was in disarray and collapsing, he used an earth model of recovery and stability to bring the Ekosians back to some semblance of prosperity. He picked an earth model which enabled a nation to recover its sense of national pride, instill discipline and work among its people and give the people a strong sense of focus.
John was Kirk's instructor at the Enterprise and later went to Ekos. But he has not been heard from since and so the Enterprise is assigned to investigate. The Federation has been trying to contact Gill for the last 6 months, without any response. As the Enterprise approaches Ekos, they are attacked by a thermonuclear device, eons ahead of their stated technological capability and according to their evolutionary time-line. Spock detects the oncoming missile in time for Kirk to order it to be fired upon by phasers and destroyed. Spock says that according to records Ekos is a primitive and warlike society, in a state of anarchy. Zeon is technologically more advanced, but peaceful.
Well, the problem is that Gill chose the model of Nazi Germany. And although that State, that Reich, had a sense of focus, it was based on barbarism and intolerance. In fact, murdering an entire race. Near Ekos is the gentle planet of Zeon, and Gill's actions have led to a complete intolerance and subjugation of Zeon, which is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany.
Kirk and Spock (who have installed subcutaneous transponders in case they cant communicate with the Enterprise) have beamed into a horrible spot. They disable 2 Nazi soldiers and take their uniforms in order to get close to Gill, whom they see from broadcasts, is the Fuhrer. They are discovered by a Nazi Major (who finds Spock 's color of skin very odd and orders him to remove his helmet, thereby revealing his Vulcan shaped ears) and then interrogated by Chairman Eneg (Patrick Horgan). Eneg knows that Spock and Kirk are not from Zeon. His labs cant figure out how to use their weapons.
Kirk and Spock escape captivity with the help of a captured Zeonian Isak (Richard Evans). Isak says that taking life is so repugnant to Zeon that once Ekos attacks, they will go down without a fight. Kirk knows Gill was gentle man. He cannot be the force behind the attacks on Zeon.
Isak takes them to their leader Abrom (William Wintersole). They also get their disassembled communicators back, but phasers are still in Nazi control. Daras (Valora Noland) works for Abrom. She infiltrated the Nazi party by betraying her own dad to the party. He was sentenced to death by Melakon, the deputy Fuhrer. Daras helps Kirk, Spock and Isak to infiltrate the chancellery.
Gill, who wanted to reverse the horrible series of events himself, has been drugged and used as a puppet leader by the second in command, Melakon (Skip Homeier). Eventually Kirk and Spock find their way into the headquarters of the Nazis, and with McCoy's (who Kirk asks to beam down from the Enterprise to help) help, revive Gill to the point where he can explain what his plan had been (Nazi Germany was an efficient state model to take a bankrupt state and to make it rise to a high level of prosperity), and how it had been subverted by Melakon. They enable Gill to make his confession on a national broadcast before Melakon shoots Gill dead, after which the Resistance terminates Melakon. The Resistance now feels that with the death of Melakon, things will return to normal. Gill's plan was nobly intended, but there is an old saying about learning from the mistakes of history. If you do not learn, you are condemned to repeat them.
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