Episode Title: The Cloud Minders
Air Date: 2/28/1969
Written by Margaret
Armen, David Gerrold, and Oliver Crawford
Directed by Jud
Taylor
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” James
Doohan as Lieutenant Commander
Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”
George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota
Uhura Bill Blackburn as
Lieutenant Hadley Jeff Corey as Plasus Diana Ewing as Droxine Charlene Polite as Vanna
Kirk Raymond as Cloud Guard #1 Jimmy Fields as Cloud Guard #2 Ed Long as Midro Fred Williamson as Anka Garth
Pillsbury as Prisoner Harv Selsby as Guard Louie Elias as Troglyte #1 Dick Geary as Cloud City Sentinel #1 Jay D. Jones as Prisoner #2 Bob Miles as Cloud City Sentinel #2 Marvin Walters as Troglyte #2
Ships: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Ardana
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The episode
begins with the Enterprise on a desperate mission. The planet Merak II has been infested with a
botanical plague. The lives of millions
are at stake. Fortunately, there is a
substance called zenite that can save them and wipe out the plague. The Federation world Ardana, is zenite rich
and regularly produces it. The Enterprise
is heading there in order to pick up a shipment and bring it to Merak II.Kirk and Spock looking up at Stratos
The leaders of Ardana want to welcome Kirk, but the Captain instructs Lt. Uhura to apologize for he will be going down to personally oversee the delivery. Kirk beams down with Mr. Spock only to find no shipment or any people who would normally be there. Then the two officers are jumped by a group of miners being led by a woman. The would-be-kidnapers start to learn that Captain Kirk is the greatest fighter in the known universe and Mr. Spock isn’t so bad either. They successfully fight them off but don’t need to finish, because men from Stratos beam down and use weapons to make the attackers retreat.
Their leader identifies himself as Plasus, the High Adviser of the
Council, and he goes on to explain that these were a group of individuals known
as the “Distributors.” With that Plasus
takes his two guests to the cloud city of Stratos. When they get there, they are introduced to
Plasus’s daughter Droxine. Plasus
describes his daughter as a work of art.
Spock and Droxine seem to hit it off really well. However, after having a good time with the
nice work of art Spock reflects on the conditions of the planet. There are two classes of people on Ardana. The Troglytes who perform all the labor of
society but get little to no benefit.
Then there are the Stratos city dwellers who do none of the work but
receive all of societies benefits and sit around making art all day. When this is pointed out to them, they
explain how the Troglytes are mentally inferior to themselves and our only good
for manual labor.These people will try to kidnap Kirk and Spock! They will fail!
The Disruptors, a group of Troglytes upset with the situation, are behind
the lost shipment. They are in revolt
against the society imposed by Stratos.
One of them, a woman named Vanna, led the group that tried to kidnap
Kirk and Spock at the beginning. She
returns to Stratos in an attempt to kidnap Kirk again. This fails just like the last time, except
this time she herself is captured by Kirk.
Plasus recognizes her as one of his former servants and has her
tortured. Just when it seems the episode
is going the way of bondage torture porn, Kirk shows up and demands that such
treatment stop. Plasus responds by
kicking Kirk out of Stratos, forcing him to wait on his ship. If Kirk doesn’t like it, he will complain to
Starfleet about Kirk’s internal interference.Spock was excited to meet this work of art!
Back on the Enterprise,
McCoy has some news. It turns out that
it is true that the Stratos city dwellers are mentally superior to the
Troglytes in every measurable sense, however it is artificially induced. In the caves the Troglytes are exposed to an
odorless gas that dulls their mental capacity.
The reason household servants like Vanna rise to become leaders of the
Disruptors is they are removed from the gas’s influence and regain all of their
abilities. McCoy has already come up
with a mask to be used as safety equipment to protect against the gas’s
effects. Spock in a spot normally reserved for Captain Kirk
When attempts to get Plasus to do the right thing fail due to the Advisor’s long-held prejudice, Kirk decides to go down in violation of Plasus’s wishes and break Vanna out. Kirk does this and explains to Vanna about the mines and the gas. He shows her the mask McCoy designed. This turns out to be for nothing as she betrays him the moment they are amongst her people. They take away his mask and force him to work. This lasts only for a brief period of time before Kirk shows off his supreme fighting skills and gets the upper hand once more. He contacts the Enterprise and has them kidnap-by-transporter Plasus. Kirk orders him beamed straight there. Once he has both of the two under his control, he forces both of them to work. As Kirk and Plasus start to be affected by the gas, Vanna realizes the truth and takes Kirk’s communicator and pleas for the Enterprise to beam them out. Spock orders follows through and once on the ship Kirk starts to recover.
The Enterprise gets their shipment of zenite to bring to Merak II and Troglytes get their masks to protect them from the gas. There are negotiations between the Troglytes
and the city-dwellers. From the body
language of Vanna and Plasus this looks to be more of a good time for the Troglytes
than the city dwellers. Droxine says her good-byes to Mr. Spock.Bondage photos this episode moved in odd direction
Additional thoughts: I really enjoy this more than I thought I
would. When I was younger, I found this
episode boring. To be fair there is not a lot of action in this one, it is one
of their cerebral episodes. I felt that
this was a great analogy to real-life oppression and bigotry. In fact, I think it is far superior to “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.” Why the
previous episode has a more visual hook, it gets lost in the confusion and
direction of that episode. Where this
episode’s message is far clearer. point clear execution not so much!
In
this episode you have the elite dwellers of the cloud city who live in a
paradise where they get to make art all day and the Troglytes who work hard
labor getting nothing but basic food and shelter. By every measurable test the city dwellers
are intellectually superior to the Troglytes and in their minds this justifies
the social relationship. The Troglytes
do the labor because that is what their mental skills are good for while the
citizens of the cloud city peruse their natural talents in intellectual
purists. However, Dr. McCoy pulls the
plug on that idea by proving it is the environment this society created that creates
the disparity. Kirk forced to work the mines
This is reflective of some many real-life situations in our own
society. Such as the rich/poor
divide. When someone grows up in a
secure home with a good education complete with tutors if necessary, of course
they will seem intellectually ahead of someone whose parents had to work three jobs
to keep barely afloat. The second kid’s
parents can’t find the time to make sure they are hitting their bench marks
before their first day of school. The
school funded by local property taxes has a lot less resources than one from a
more influent community. Another example
is the situation between White and Black people in the United States. When one group is segregated and deprived of
equal opportunity to resources and education it should come as no surprise when
they don’t perform as well on standardized test as the other. In both cases the beneficiaries of society
then see the difference not in terms of their own privilege but instead they
are given confirmation of their prejudice.Kirk showing of his supreme fighting skills
The thing that has me the most concerned is the Federation. If the Ardana has such an apartheid society
then why in the galaxy were they invited to join the Federation? When Kirk, a Federation official, confronts
Plasus about what he is doing, Plasus shoots back by declaring he will report
Kirk for interfering with intra-planetary affairs. He says that with the firmness of a Southern
slave-holder or segregationist arguing about his “states’ rights.” Granted the
government of the Federation is poorly developed throughout the Star Trek
franchise but this is a galling case.
Well, this episode became the answer to the—at this point—year long question that Star Trek fans have had after “Amok Time.” The question was, “are Vulcans restricted to mating during the pon farr or can they engage in sexual activity at any time?” Now you might have said we already answered that because of Spock’s actions during “This Side of Paradise.” However, Spock may have broken off his relationship with Leila because of that issue and who knows how the spores were really affecting him. Spock has no problem getting to know Droxine really well and telling her that he can “always appreciate art.”
Spock can always appreciate a work of art |
Speaking of Spock, what was up with the internal monologue bit? I didn't like it in "The Paradise Syndrome" and I don't like it now. It makes less sense now, before Kirk was marooned with no memory, there is no reason for Spock not to just be making a log entry.
If I lived on Ardana I don’t know where I would want to live. I mean I don’t want to work in mines exposed
to gas that makes you stupid, but I really hate heights. I didn’t like the views from over the edge,
and I don’t know why anyone would. I
felt bad for the guy who jumped. Cities
do not belong on clouds.
FINAL GRADE 4 of 5
Thank you for so smartly connecting this to the neverending problem of inequality of opportunity here in America. Those who benefit are sadly so reluctant to change the system which gives them so many (mostly unearned) advantages. Star Trek will *always* be relevant. ����������
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome it is my pleasure.
DeleteI liked the episode's theme of inequality, but I thought Spock was a bit OOC calling Droxine "art".
ReplyDeleteWell to be fair it was her father who called her that. Spock was making a Vulcan-like snarky remark about it.
Delete