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Synopsis
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
The U.S.S. Enterprise is sent to planet Ekos to investigate the
disappearance of an old Academy professor of Kirk's — historian John
Gill. The Enterprise is attacked by an armed probe with a
thermonuclear warhead, technology that is too advanced to be from Ekos
or the nearby Zeon. Captain Kirk destroys the probe before it can do any
damage, then takes the ship into orbit around Ekos out of range of the
planet's detection devices. Spock tells him that, according to their
records, the Ekosians are primitive, warlike people in a state of
anarchy; Zeon has a relatively high level of technology, and its people
are peaceful.
Kirk decides to beam down to Ekos with Spock; and Dr. McCoy fits them
both with subcutaneous transponders. Scotty is ordered to use the
transponders to locate and beam them back if they fail to make contact
in three hours. When Kirk and Spock arrive on the planet's surface, a
Zeon man urges them to hide. They watch as the man is arrested by
officers wearing swastika armbands. Spock reminds Kirk that the Prime
Directive prohibits them from interfering.
A viewscreen in the street plays news footage revealing that Ekos has
adopted a military regime similar to that of Nazi Germany, and is now at
war with Zeon. Kirk is puzzled that another planet could independently
develop a culture identical to one that once existed on Earth. They
watch a female Nazi officer called Daras receive a medal of honor, and
learn that the planet is committed to the death of Zeon. The broadcast
ends with a salute to the Fuhrer — John Gill.
Kirk and Spock steal uniforms and assume the identities of Nazi officers
in order to infiltrate government headquarters, but they are arrested
before they can find Gill. Their phasers and communicators are
confiscated, and they are tortured and interrogated. In jail they meet
Isak, the man they saw being arrested earlier. Isak tells them that the
Nazi movement on Ekos began when Gill arrived a few years earlier, and
it is only a matter of time before Ekos invades Zeon.
Spock uses his subcutaneous transponder to make a crude laser that cuts
open the cell door. They find their communicators in pieces, but Spock
takes one and they escape. Isak takes Kirk and Spock to an underground
resistance group led by his brother Abrom. Kirk explains to Abrom that
he needs to find John Gill in order to end the war. But then the
resistance cell is infiltrated by Daras, the high-ranking Nazi woman
seen in the newsreel, who shoots Abrom. Kirk and Spock overpower and
disarm her, but then they learn Daras is really a member of the
underground, and the shooting was a ruse to test their loyalty. Isak and
Daras explain that Deputy Fuhrer Melakon is
the one in command. Gill sees no one, but he is making a speech from the
Chancellery. Daras agrees to help Kirk, Spock and Isak get past the
guards. They dress as members of a Gestapo film crew and make their way
into the headquarters. Isak wants Kirk and Spock to kill Gill as soon as
possible, but Kirk refuses.
They find Gill in a booth surrounded by guards. Spock observes that he
seems to be ill, or perhaps drugged. When Spock contacts the Enterprise
with a repaired communicator, Kirk tells McCoy to put on a Nazi uniform
and beam down. Watching Gill make his speech, McCoy confirms that he has
been heavily drugged. Kirk, Spock and Isak overpower the guards so that
McCoy can administer a stimulant to Gill, but he fails to revive him.
Spock performs a mind probe on Gill, which brings him to consciousness.
Gill tells them he used the example of Nazi Germany to bring order to
Ekos. It worked at first, but then Melakon seized control, drugged Gill
to use him as a figurehead, and started the war with Zeon. With another,
potentially fatal dose of stimulant, Kirk keeps Gill conscious so he can
make another broadcast from the booth. Gill announces that he has
recalled the fleet and that the war must stop; he also tells the people
that Melakon is a traitor. Melakon opens fire on the booth, and Isak
shoots him. Gill is fatally wounded, but before he dies, he tells Kirk
he was wrong to break the Prime Directive. But now he hopes the damage
has been undone, and the Ekosians and Zeons will now work together.
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