Although I'm not sure the conclusion would have finished as neatly (two leaders are killed and all of a sudden those behind them decide to invest in peace after behaving so hostilely), I think the concept was indeed compelling: the Enterprise are searching for historian/scholar, John Gill (David Brian), who went to a world occupied by warlike Ekosians and peaceful Zeons to observe their cultures, with no intent to interfere with how they ran their lives. But Gill brings the Nazi "efficiency" to the Ekosians, hoping to perhaps stabilize them, but soon the power of his position as this outside influence and intellect corrupts him, with a second in command, Melakon (Skip Homeier), taking advantage, slipping him a drug until he's a puppet to use in order to further the cause of this "Nazi regime". The Zeons are to be exterminated by the Melakon-led Ekosian regime, not what Gill envisioned before being drugged into a stupor. It takes major McCoy hypo-injecting and the Kirk face slap(s) to sort of awaken Gill enough to spirit the Ekosians out of their kill-mode and focus on how Melakon muddied the waters of the real intentions. Seeing Spock and Kirk in Nazi garb is surreal, but the laser prison escape by Spock was neat, even if having to stand on the whipped back of Kirk (who, like Spock, had to take some whips to the back from one of Melakon's Nazi interrogators). Richard Evans as Zeon underground prisoner of war, Isak, and Valora Noland as Zeon spy, Daras, really contributes to the episode, bringing the integrity and dignity that exists in those who defy sadistic ideology, resistant towards those who attempt to use "patterns of force" in order to gain power and rule a world. The script pushes as close as it can on a television show, with machine gun fire assassinating one leader, and a pistol eliminating another. A haunting final words for Gill speak about "non-interference" in the Prime Directive, how this situation proves that point. It all got out of hand. Good parting comments from Kirk when Bones and Spock debate about Earth and its history of evil rulers and corrupt power corrupting absolutely
one civil war was averted, no need for another on the Enterprise!
Review of Patterns of Force
