To gain entrance, they pretend to be a film crew that is shooting propaganda footage. John Gill is eventually seen sitting in a chair in a broadcasting booth surrounded by guards and giving a speech that is a barely-coherent string of almost random statements, as if they were pieced together. Isak insists that Kirk and Spock kill Gill as soon as possible, but Kirk refuses.
Spock finally makes contact with the Enterprise and explains their situation while Kirk orders Dr. McCoy to beam down and examine Gill. McCoy materializes in a cloakroom, disguised as a military doctor, but the party is discovered by a security team who have detected Spock’s communications in the building. Although the search leader is Eneg, the same officer overseeing Kirk’s and Spock’s earlier imprisonment, he surprisingly does not seem to recognize them, and accepts their hasty excuses. Kirk then explains that McCoy was intoxicated, and ducked inside rather than embarrassing the Führer with his condition. After he leaves, Isak explains that Eneg has been on their side all this time.
Sneaking into the broadcast booth, McCoy examines Gill and confirms he is heavily drugged, and prepares a serum to counteract the effects. McCoy administers the stimulant to Gill, but it fails to revive him. Spock uses a mind meld on Gill, which brings him to a state of semi-consciousness that allows him to respond to questions. But Spock does confirm one fact — Melakon was responsible for Gill’s condition.
Gill is barely coherent, but explains that he never meant for any of this to get out of control. He instituted a theoretical form of Hitler’s National Socialism (obviously minus the ethno-religious scapegoats) upon the lawless Ekosians, because he honestly believed that it was the most efficient system of government ever devised. Spock does agree that this small nation rose from being beaten and bankrupt to near world domination in only a few years but Kirk points out it was a horrible system that had to be destroyed at terrible cost. Gill explains he only wanted to bring order to the people of Ekos, and it worked — until Melakon gained control, and took it further, twisting it into a racist policy to rid the planet of Zeons as Hitler tried to annihilate the Jews. Kirk makes Gill aware of the extent to which Ekos has progressed toward resembling Nazi Germany, and Gill, now lucid enough to speak his own mind, decrees that the invasion fleet headed to Zeon must be recalled and stopped. However, Melakon has already started the broadcast, announcing the planet’s version of Hitler’s Final Solution — a genocidal war with Zeon that Gill is to endorse in his speech. Through the help of Spock’s mind meld, combined with medical stimulants, Gill renounces the invasion and declares that Melakon is a traitor. Melakon grabs a machine gun and opens fire on the broadcast booth, fatally wounding Gill. Isak shoots and kills Melakon in retaliation.
Before he dies, Gill tells Kirk he is sorry for violating the Prime Directive, and hopes the Ekosians and Zeons can work together and fix the damage he caused. Isak thanks Kirk for his aid, saying it is up to the two planets to rebuild themselves. As they leave, Kirk wonders if the two societies working together can join the Federation one day. Back on the Enterprise, Spock expresses confusion as to how a man as logical as Gill could make such a mistake emulating the Nazis. Kirk says the problem was not just the Nazi system but having one man possessing so much power. McCoy agrees that absolute power corrupts absolutely, Spock dryly pointing out all the examples from Earth history of that mentality and Kirk tells them “we just went through one civil war, let’s not start another.”
John Gill was mentioned in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “In a Mirror, Darkly (Part II)”, listed in computer records of the USS Defiant in which Gill referred to Jonathan Archer as “the greatest explorer of the 22nd century.”
Guest Stars
- Richard Evans … Isak
- Valora Noland … Daras
- Skip Homeier … Melakon
- David Brian … John Gill
- Patrick Horgan … Eneg
- Gilbert Green … S.S. Major
- Lev Mailer … S.S. Lieutenant (as Ralph Maurer)
- Ed McCready … S.S. Trooper
- Peter Canon … Gestapo Lieutenant
- Paul Baxley … First Trooper
- Chuck Courtney … Davod
- Bart La Rue … Newscaster
- Bill Blackburn … Lt. Hadley / S.S. Trooper (uncredited)
- Frank da Vinci … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
- Eddie Paskey … Trooper (uncredited)
Trivia
- The character Eneg (Patrick Horgan) is Gene Roddenberry’s first name, spelled backwards.
- Episode filmed on the 25th anniversary of the Holocaust. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, both being of Jewish backgrounds, felt compelled that Kirk (disguised as an S.S. Kommadatur) and Spock (disguised as a Gestapo) should defeat the Nazi Reich on planets Ekos and Zeon.
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