The villains of Star Trek have almost always come from strange and alien worlds; brutal and warlike Klingons, militaristic Cardassians, crafty and cunning Romulans, the relentless Borg — all of them sprang from the fertile imaginations of the Star Trek creative team. But when it comes to creating a sinister menace that originated on Earth, adversaries taken from the pages of actual human history, it's hard to imagine anything worse than the most easily recognizable symbols of militant fascism — the Nazis.

In "Storm Front," the episode that kicks off Season 4 of Star Trek: Enterprise, the Captain and crew of Enterprise NX-01 find themselves tossed backwards in time, fighting to alter a twisted alternative past where the Nazis have invaded North America. When Archer and company take on the Nazis, it won't be the first time the heroes of Star Trek have confronted Nazis, German or otherwise.

The first time Star Trek had a brush with fascism came indirectly, in "The City on the Edge of Forever." When Kirk and Spock cross time and space to set history right, they learn that the event they must not prevent is the death of Edith Keeler, whose well-intentioned peace efforts would have set into motion a chain of event which ultimately would have led to a Nazi victory in World War II.

In the second season episode "Patterns of Force," the Enterprise finds a culture shaped by noted historian John Gill who believed — wrongly of course — that he could create a functioning fascist society, only without the horrors that accompanied the 20th-century version.

Years later, in the two-part Star Trek: Voyager "The Killing Game," Hirogen hunters find an affinity with the Nazis and choose to play a deadly game with Voyager's crew using a World War II holodeck program.

A true cynic could attribute the multiple appearances of Nazis in Star Trek to an abundance of extra Nazi uniforms filling studio costume vaults. Or, perhaps more realistically, the fact that the ghastly and disturbing acts of the Nazis have made an indelible imprint on our collective cultural mindsets make the Nazis a good place to start if you want to convey the very worst aspects of humanity.

But the use of Nazis on Star Trek goes a bit deeper, since the thematic and philosophical precepts of Trek are in direct opposition to what the Aryan Nazis stood for. The term Nazi comes from a shortening of National Socialism, the movement which took hold in Germany after the First World War left the nation in tatters. The Nazis rallied Germans together under one ideal, proclaiming the German people as a superior race, whereas the future of mankind in the Gene Roddenberry vision is one of tolerance and mutual respect for all races across the galaxy.

"Patterns of Force" served to demonstrate the contrast between Federation ideals and Nazi rhetoric. When Earth historian John Gill attempts to help the planet Ekos by introducing Nazi culture, he does so hoping that he can accomplish the positive outcomes of a fascist society without the negatives that ultimately led to Germany's defeat. On the one hand, the Nazis in Germany managed to turn around, economically, the destitute and downward-spiraling nation, but only at a terrible cost.

What the failures of Nazi Germany and John Gill's Ekosian effort demonstrate is that when beings of any kind fall into the mindset of their own superiority, it always means they must find someone to be superior to. In Germany, the Jewish people (among others) became scapegoats. On the planet Ekos, beings from the neighboring planet Zeon assumed that role.

Even in the optimistic future of Star Trek, "Patterns of Force" warns us that the price of maintaining a tolerant and peaceful balance between races, groups and nations is to stay vigilant against dangerous ways of thinking. Whenever any one group or race begins to consider itself right regardless of the circumstances, catastrophe is lurking nearby.