TOS: Patterns of Force

[Dragon Ball Fan]

again, I still don't think Gill really was playing God, I always assumed that all the bad parts of Nazism was introduced to Ekos' society SOLELY by Melekon.

[CharlesPhipps]

A key point to remember is Starfleet has only been out of contact with Gill for six months but what we see should have taken years to achieve so how long has he been mucking around with this planet?

Either he was lying to Starfleet about what he was doing or they knew he was turning the Ekosians into space Nazis and waited until now to do something about it.

I think it seems like the former rather than the latter.

[MightyDavidson]

A key point to remember is Starfleet has only been out of contact with Gill for six months but what we see should have taken years to achieve so how long has he been mucking around with this planet?

Either he was lying to Starfleet about what he was doing or they knew he was turning the Ekosians into space Nazis and waited until now to do something about it.

The former obviously. If it was the latter, they'd have informed Kirk going in.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

More interesting though, why would it ever be the latter?

[Fianna]

Presumably he was sending back false reports as he was setting up his pseudo-Nazi regime. Him falling out of contact is presumably when his second-banana took over and turned him into a drugged out puppet leader.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

But that's not historically accurate...

again, I still don't think Gill really was playing God, I always assumed that all the bad parts of Nazism was introduced to Ekos' society SOLELY by Melekon.

If he wasn't playing God, then whom was he?

jk I think it was all within the framework of Section 31's prerogative to amalgamate a differential ordinance among expedited orientations.

[CharlesPhipps]

But he did something no historian EVER DID before and focused on the personalities of leaders!

[FaxModem1]

All these crazies in the Federation might have an interesting cause of what happens when you have so much distance between those who decide things and those who are out there. If the Federation is becoming more civilized, then all the ones who are wilder are moving to the frontier. Most of those just live normal lives as colonists, working their day, yadda yadda yadda. What Kirk and company deal with are those who feel self-important, and take advantage of the long distance between the frontier and the 'core' Federation. This is, by nature, a good thing, as if you're not happy with your life, you have other choices in how you can live. Want to work as a farmer, an architect, a frontier doctor, etc., you can get the opportunity via the Federation funding your colony and Starfleet helping you with setup and in case of something going wrong.

Sometimes this leads to good things, other times it leads to:

Gill is a respected professor of history? Sure, send him to document this planet, what do you mean he turned it into the Fourth Reich?

Daystrom is a brilliant computer programmer who paved the way for all of our computers, and wants to further automate our ships? Sure, let's try it out. What do you mean he modeled it after himself and both went psychotic?

Adams is the guy who built up our healthcare system that was falling behind? Oh, he wants his own hospital on a planet in the middle of nowhere? Sure, why not? What do you mean he's running a torture facility to act create zombies?

There's a couple ways to explain this. Either A) the Federation is so overly expanded and unregulated that all these people keep on slipping through due to lack of oversight, or B) these people run away from areas where their off-kilter plans would be noticed and went to the frontier, where they go could go hog wild.

Considering we see similar things in the TNG era(DS9's Paradise, as an example), I'm betting it's the latter. Wherein a lot people want to build something like a colony, a hospital, or a research station, etc, and the Federation doesn't mind rubber stamping these applications, because they believe in live and let live, or it didn't appear bad on the paperwork.'

The thing to remember is that we also see lots of colonies who are fine, leadership wise, and are just suffering some other disaster(space amoeba, Jack the Ripper, some disease, Cardassian occupation, etc). What we're probably seeing are the exceptions who, without authority, run amuck because they get to play god, as opposed to those who prefer to just get the harvest done and enjoy the fact that they accomplished something.

Also, keep in mind from what we see, it also seems to pan out. Consider Caldos, the 'Scottish' colony from TNG. A bunch of people want to set up a proper Scottish colony and live the Scottish lifestyle, complete with architecture, clothing, and furniture? Uh, sure, why not? We'll set this up and see what comes out. And what do you know, an entire planet terraformed and thriving, and their biggest problem is outdated terraforming technology and a ghost haunting a family.

Same with entire Native American tribes claiming planets, it seemed to work out until the Cardassian wars made that territory no longer a factor in the Federation's dealings.

What might seem like a crazy idea to the people in charge who grew up in the melting pot of the Federation, but it might work out, so they let it go ahead, and only check in occasionally if they go silent or there's something wrong.

[Jonathan101]

I like to think that Gill is a legitimate historian, but that his area was something like Ancient Egypt or whatever.

So, he modelled his society after a culture he only knew tangentially and had the wrong ideas about. About the only thing that makes sense other than him either being grossly incompetent or secretly evil.

[Nealithi]

Let's assume Gil really thought what the Nazis did got people up and running and efficient again and the out comes.
The party came into its own by putting forward two views. National pride and hatred of others viewed as 'weakening' that nation. The Zeons are 'civilizing' the Ekosians. So he sets up his party. Gets people to want to stand on their own feet and not need the 'handouts' of the zeon overseers. He is walking a fine line. The Daras said her father and the fuhrer used to be friends and the party was not always the way it was when Kirk and company showed up. Now Gil knows this is a knife edge so he is being careful. So what goes wrong? Melakon found his shuttle. Found out he is an alien. So he studies what he can. Begins to drug Gil. To allay the foreign power that sent Gil he sends false reports back till he thinks he does not need to keep up pretenses. And Melakon tips the scales on the knife toward the evil we know of historically. It explains how Gil could be a good but foolish man and accidentally gave people atomic weapons and space capable rockets.