In Which I Ponder Star Trek + Nazis

[qahawthorne]

What is the appeal of Nazis in Star Trek? Off the top of my head, I can think of at least one for 3/5s of the Star Trek series. Were there Nazi/WWII episodes on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, or Star Trek: the Next Generation?

Star Trek (original series) - Patterns of Force (also, one might include The City on the Edge of Tomorrow for the oops

Comments

Wow, on preview, I wrote way too much

[karweenie]

During the Original Series, it was convenience. All that stuff was just laying around on the Paramount lot. Why not do it?

During Voyager, they were running out of ideas. I can't blame them - a show with budget problems and the limited scope of Voyager's purpose meant a "Nazis in a can" episode was inevitable. They also did a lot of present-day, time-travel, Holodeck fun episodes. Unlike TNG and DS9, these episodes were generally pretty bad. I can't watch them anymore.

I never watched Enterprise, so I have no idea what went wrong there.

I don't remember any Nazi episodes from TNG, but they did a LOT of period stuff: cowboys, 1930s gumshoe, Sherlock Holmes, 1890s San Francisco, medieval planet (not once, but several times), an alien race with a culture "just like present day!" etc. I still cry when I see Picard play that flute.

Deep Space Nine only ever had one reference to WWII. I think Bashir and O'Brien exit a Holodeck in their leather bomber jackets and briefly discuss pretending to fly in some WWII battle. They also did a few episodes just after WWII: the entire cast became writers at a SciFi magazine in the 1950s. Avery Brooks should've gotten an Emmy. "Little Green Men" (Quark and Ferengi friends slingshot through time and are mistaken for aliens at Roswell) was hilarious. They also had the James Bond-style episodes with Bashir on the Holodeck. I miss DS9. It was far and away the most interesting and well-written series of the bunch.

Re: Wow, on preview, I wrote way too much

[qahawthorne]

At least with the Voyager ones it wasn't just another holodeck malfunction or Q's meddling -- you had an alien race messing with the holodeck as hope for their species. And when you did have a malfunction, well, you can believe that on a ship with no downtime, spare parts, and serious lost-in-space psychological issues pushing the system up against end-of-life issues, it's not surprise!

Yeah, I could think of about a zillion TNG eps in interesting places. And the flute! I know!

I went to a cocktail party and mingled with Avery Brooks once, did I ever mention? I was too chicken to speak to him, alas.

Re: Wow, on preview, I wrote way too much

[karweenie]

YOU WERE NEXT TO SISKO AND DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING?!

:( :( Emoticons cannot accurately express my distress.

Anyways, that's true, Voyager did create some scenarios so that they didn't have to rely upon the tired holodeck meme. I always loved Q though - some of his appearances in Voyager were his best. He never fit in with the DS9 crowd.

Re: Wow, on preview, I wrote way too much

[qahawthorne]

I KNOW. I SUCK. siiiiiigh...

I have now seen two different Star Trek captains live; both were playing Othello at the same theatre (years and years apart)! Now I just need Kate Mulgrew to do a cross-gender version.