Posted on 11/04/2011 11:29:36 AM PDT by Olog-hai
An episode of the original Star Trek series in which Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock dress up as Nazis to infiltrate a far-right alien regime is to be aired on public television in Germany for the first time ever Friday night.
State broadcaster ZDFneo has evidently decided that German viewers are now ready for the episode Patterns of Force, 43 years after it was first broadcast in the United States in 1968.
The episode, part of the second season of the immensely popular science fiction franchise, sees the Starship Enterprise visit the planet Ekos in the M34 Alpha System to investigate the disappearance of John Gill, Federation historian and one of Kirks erstwhile professors at Starfleet Academy.
The Ekosians, at war with the nearby planet Zeon, are intent on wiping out all the Zeons living on their planet and destroying Zeon itself in what they call a Final Solution. The Ekosians refer to the Zeons as Zeonist pigs.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...
And Bob Crane was murdered.
"Crane's life and murder were the subject of the 2002 film Auto Focus, directed by Paul Schrader and starring Greg Kinnear as Crane. The film, based on Graysmith's book Auto Focus: The Murder of Bob Crane, portrays Crane as a happily married, church-going family man and popular L.A. disc jockey who suddenly becomes a Hollywood celebrity, and subsequently declines into sex addiction. Crane's son, Scotty, bitterly attacked the film as being inaccurate. In an October 2002 piece he wrote on the movie, Scotty said that his father was not a regular church-goer and had only been to church three times in the last dozen years of his life, which included his own funeral. There is no evidence that Crane engaged in S&M and director Paul Schrader told Scotty that the S&M scene was based on his own personal experience. Scotty also claims that his father and John Carpenter did not become close friends who socialized together until 1975. Also, Crane was a sex addict long before he became a star, who started recording his sexual encounters at least as early as 1956.[9] Scotty and his mother had shopped a rival script for a Bob Crane movie biography. The script, alternately entitled "F-Stop" and "Take Off Your Clothes and Smile". The spec script was written up in Variety by venerable columnist Army Archerd, but after "Auto-Focus" was announced, interest in Scotty's script ceased.[10] At the time of the article denouncing Auto Focus, Scotty Crane was operating the Web site www.bobcrane.com, which included a paid section the featured outtakes from his father's pornographic films and videos. It also included the autopsy report, which Crane claimed proved his allegation that his father did not have a penile implant. The site now calling itself "Bob Crane The Official Web Site" is now far more sedate and does not include any controversial material."
Great epitaph by son ..."Scotty said that his father was not a regular church-goer and had only been to church three times in the last dozen years of his life, which included his own funeral.....and, his father did not have a penile implant."
Stargate Unwatchable killed it.
Not discussing TOS and movies but Star Trek.
Highly relevant.
The cultural impact started with TOS.
In terms of war production, bureaucratic and military command organization, and war strategy, it was anything but efficient.
You got that right. It was intrinsically corrupt. Like the Crony Capitalism of the Obama Administration on steroids. Everything the military needed to fight the war from tires to radio parts to ammo was coming from some version of Solyndra.
Soooo, in episode fuenfzig, venn you vore a Natzi uniform, was zat a zign off your Natzi sumpaties?
Fascinating TBS, but also one of the series’ more interesting episodes as well !
FWIW, “Star Trek” was very often “cutting edge” on social/historical issues, (At least when they could smuggle them by network/sponsor censors, that is.) After all a black female holding a commander’s rank and in the COC ? How did that happen ? !!! >PS
I didn't fall for any revisionism. I simply recognize there's a difference between fascism and socialism. omega4179 put his finger on the reason: it's the source of ideology, rather than the outcome. Fascism uses patriotism, while socialism uses class warfare.
Both are authoritarian. They have some things in common, that doesn't make them the same. And that's why a lot of conservatives protest, because the existence of authoritarianism on the right end of the political spectrum makes them uncomfortable.
The "left-right" spectrum is a totally inadequate way to categorize political ideologies.
Yup, that's exactly what I meant when I posted to WayneS that I don't consider the political spectrum to be bipolar.
In retrospect, it wasn't very good -- especially when we compare it to what has been produced since then.
But back then, it was ground-breaking. Star Trek broke a number of taboos in TV entertainment, especially regarding the roles of women and race.
But, I agree with you about the movies being the best part. However, don't forget that the Wrath of Khan was a sequel to one of the TOS episodes: Space Seed. The role of Khan was even played by the same actor: Ricardo Montalban.
Yes, NAZIs were “national socialists”, and patriotism (or more accurately racism) was their main unifying principle. Otherwise, they were socialists. They had extensive social programs. The main difference between NAZIs (on the economic front) was that the commies “socialized” the “means of production”, while the NAZIs and fascists left most of the private sector nominally private. They were content to bend industry to their will (crony capitalism), rather than attempt to micro-manage every aspect.
Let's also consider that one of the first things the NAZIs did was to drive out, or kill off many of the 1%ers of the day. (Those “greedy” Jewish bankers.) While they went on to kill many more, in the name of “racial purification”, they started off from a position very near to that of the OWS campers (who have been known to call for a purge of “rich Jew bankers”). The NAZIs did leave most of the 1%ers alone — as wholly-owned crony capitalists. They even had their “Government Motors” of the day (Volkswagen, Mercedes).
The NAZIs also went on to kill off millions of “useless eaters” — which was seen to be necessary to make their social programs affordable. A far-left government is much more likely, than a pro-life right wing government, to do that, in the name of “saving social security”, or “making free health care affordable”.
I missed your comment to WayneS about the bipolar political spectrum. We're agreed on that — it's down to a matter of choosing the axes, and placing the ideologies on the matrix.
My understanding is that those laws have been relaxed
Thanks Olog-hai. from early this month.
There is a huge difference between being a midshipman taking over a large ship in an hour, to Lt. winters moving up in the battlefield over two years.
And Lt Winters was real.
“Again, it depends on how you define fascism on the political spectrum. It’s generally considered them to be on the right end.”
Correct.
“Personally, I don’t consider the political spectrum to be bipolar. But, I’m in the minority.”
You are not alone ! I personaly think of the political spectrum as a circle. Some radical right wing ideas are very popular among radical left wingers and the other way around.
For example:
Neither one from the left or the right wing likes bailouts for companies. The Arguments are:
- right wing: Theft of taxpayers money for the employees
- left wing: Theft of taxpayers money for the share holders
The idea remains the same: No bailouts.
The other problem is that there is not a single political spectrum there are many depending on the discussed policy.
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