Space Nazis (and Hogan's Heroes)

Just because a show was made by the "right" people, that in and of itself doesn't somehow give it more weight. It can still fall flat as a pancake. As viewers, our experience on the receiving end matters too.

More precisely, the notion that people shouldn't question the merits of works of art simply because of the credentials of their creators, which in this context would include both historical proximity and what they went through personally, is a fallacy. It's a form of rhetoric whose evident purpose is to shut down discussion that might otherwise lead both to better appreciation of those works and to legitimate and fair criticism. If we let creators do all our thinking for us, we're failing on our end of the bargain.

I can do without the line that Kirk's going to make a convincing Nazi (these one-line attempts at levity, seemingly pervasive in TOS, generally aren't as funny as they're apparently meant to be), I think "Patterns of Force" was ham-fisted on many levels, if not poorly conceived, but I don't want the episode (or any part of it) deleted. It's a snapshot of the American experience in coping with Nazism. To others, the episode may resonate in a different way, a way that even though I disagree with, I still might recognize as equally legitimate and ultimately positive. Nevertheless, to me, "Patterns of Force" is a perfect example of something falling flat as a pancake. It doesn't get a pass because the 1960s were closer to the 1940s than the 2010s.

On the other hand, I find Hogan's Heroes to have been largely a brilliant effort that walked a very fine line. Its greatest contribution to my experience is probably simply that it made me think. It's highly nuanced and I never saw it as shortchanging the gravity of the material. Just itself from watching the show, I get the feeling that the parties involved were depicting experiences that were both monumental and profoundly moving to them personally. The sitcom format was largely just a prop that served that end.

 

It's a joke. Black comedy. Spock and Kirk did it all the time with each other in equally dire and serious circumstances.

Verrry interrvestink. (You see what I did there)

 

Let's envisage it.....

(in Klink's office)

KLINK: Kirk, you are not feeling well, are you?
KIRK: What... ah... makes you say.... that?
KLINK: You were outside walking around in those yellow pajamas again.
KIRK: Oh, this? Just... a little thing I threw on.
KLINK: Kirk, disssssmissssssssssed!

SCHULTZ: Herr Spock, you must remove your cap.
SPOCK: That would not be advisable.
SCHULTZ: Please, for Schultzie, take it off.
(Spock removes cap, exposing... them)
SCHULTZ: What?!!? What has happened to your.....
SPOCK: I call them 'ears.'
SCHULTZ: I SEE NOTHING! NOTHING!
SPOCK: Illogical.

 

I love the scene when Bones beams into the closet and can't get his boots on.

 

I've done a few crossovers in the caption contests.

 

A subtle violation of the prime directive, wouldn't you say?

Those lines from Gill, were immediately backed up by Spock. But Spock didn't alway appear to be overly knowledgeable about Earth's history

Maybe John Gill was a life long closet national socialist in his heart, believed in that form of government, something Kirk missed as a student in his class room.

Gill: "Most efficient state Earth ever knew."

Spock: "Quite true, Captain. That tiny country, beaten, bankrupt, defeated, rose in a few years to stand only one step away from global domination."

 

Gill probably believed in the idea of a benevolent dictatorship. There is a lot to be said of the "efficiency" of dictatorships and fascist governments with regards to getting things done, and the inefficiency of democracies. The problem is when that power is misused, and because changes CAN be implemented so much faster and efficiently, dictators can soon rule things their way, with no opposition. The point of Democracy on the other hand, in part, is to be intentionally inefficient, to help prevent complete take overs, like what can happen in dictatorships.

They explicitly state that Gill (who himself says as much) was taking Nazi Germany out of context and had a certain amount of hubris, thinking he could control the development of Ekos. The thing he didn't count on was that once the Nazi regime was set up on Ekos and his office was supreme, that there also might exist a "Hitler" (Melakon) that would seize power and supplant him, similar to how the real Hitler did with Hindenburg.

I think the real lesson is that no matter what the intent in the beginning, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and those with absolute power, end up misusing that power, sometimes in twisted ways.

So it can be said that Gill learned this lesson the hard way. What I find odd is how someone who is a professor of history didn't realize this, and had to learn the hard way, in the first place!

 

I took from Spock's review of Gill's approach to history was that Gill had some radical theories about history, and how it unfolds.

I'd like to have seen the **** hit the fan on the Enterprise when they saw this fleet of ships rise up and head towards Zeon.

 

Not all professors are wise, nor do they always agree on things. Indeed, sometimes historians make their names by challenging conventional doctrines, offering radical reinterpretations and revisionist theories. Sometimes those revisionist ideas hold up to analysis and supplant the mainstream view, but sometimes they don't.

 

I have heard there were plans for a "Hogan's Heroes" reunion movie. It would have been revealed that "Papa Bear" was actually Sgt. Schultz.

 

"Papa Bear" was Hogan and London at various times in the show.

 

Actually, not at all. In the plot a diplomatic ship crashed on the planet years earlier, and the locals (the "Rikes") were able to review the historical memory banks only into 1942ish, and began copying the Nazis. The crazy scientist (the only survivor) decided to encourage it for her own "research" purposes, and the Rikes made copies of the crashed ship which they planned to use to invade neighboring planets. As such, the PD had already been violated to the Nth degree, and Kirk was stopping it from spreading to neighboring planets via Rike interference. Scott destroyed all the ships on their launchpads in a matter of seconds when the order came down (as reported over the communicator).

 

It has been said before, and fits in this context: Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.

 

I would say this is because the context of this situation is entirely different. In "Space Seed", the Enterprise crew confronts living history in the form of Khan, a fugitive war criminal from Earth. Once discovered, he is seen as a serious threat. (Prior to that, McGivers calls Khan "Magnificent".)

In "Patterns of Force" the Enterprise crew encounters an alien, but human-like, culture that is repeating "ancient" Earth's mistakes. It is obvious by the landing party's attitudes that they regard these primitive, early-spaceflight Zeons and Ekosians and their conflict as dangerous, but quaint. Consider that the Ekosians get away with whipping Kirk and Spock, and all Kirk cares to comment is... "Oh, Mister Spock, the guard did a professional job on my back. I'd appreciate it if you'd hurry." This attitude seems consistent with "A Private Little War" , "A Piece of the Action" and "Bread and Circuses", none of which are seen as a direct threat to the Federation, but are instead quaint alien cultures that the crew romanticizes about.

 

Goes back to the prime directive and what would our heroes would do, kill the troops on the invasion fleet, or stand aside?

 

Damage them and beam the crews to the planet?

 

Actually the idea that Nazi Germany was a super efficient state was just a myth. The Nazis were overly bureaucratic, with Hitler promoting infighting by giving two officials overlapping duties and Hitler was a fairly lazy dictator, the Nazis could not launch a massive counter attack on the D-day invasion, until Hitler gave his permission and he was sleeping in that day.

http://coffeecuphistory.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/the-myth-of-nazi-efficiency/

 

Yep. And Il Duce didn't make the trains run on time, either (link).

 

For anyone who really wants to know what life in Nazi Germany was between 1933-1945, I heartily recommend the superb books of historian Richard J. Evans:

- The Coming of the Third Reich
- The Third Reich in Power
- The Third Reich at War

All are available in paperback.

 

Yes, all good reads. Also, Geoffrey Megargee's 'Inside Hitler's High Command' is another good read which highlights Hitler's tendency to over complicate things so he could be the decision maker, tendency to promote and sustain people for reasons of loyalty over ability as well as how in synch the high command and he were as well as being committed to their own theories over facts and reality.

One thing I do like about the episode, though not intended by the producers no doubt, it highlights the dangers of revisionist histories which seek to down play or ignore facts of history in order to promote dubious ideology which folks like Holocaust deniers and Confederate apologists are perpetually doing.