Germany…the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, whose 43 year mission it is to finally have one of its episodes shown there.
It’s been 43 years, but the Star Trek episode, “The Patterns of Force” was finally broadcast on German television. When the episode first aired in 1968, it was not broadcast in Germany because the episode centers around a future culture that patterned itself after the Nazi regime. The episode showed the swastika throughout and Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock impersonate the Nazi SS officers at one point to infiltrate the regime.
And when it was recently shown in Germany, according to the U.K. Daily Mail, it was not broadcast until after 10 p.m. and it was preceded by a parental warning that no one under 16 years old should watch it. And this was 66 years after the fall of the Nazi regime.
The Daily Mail also points out that, ironically, both Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) and William Shatner (Captain Kirk) are both Jewish.
Now I know that Star Trek pushed some cultural boundaries of its times. Many of episodes seem dated when watched now because their themes are no longer relevant. Apparently, it can still push some cultural boundaries decades later.