The Cloud Minders

I am a most fervent fan of Star Trek TOS and still watch it on cable most nights a week. Many episodes have 'stayed' with me over the years, and this episode - with all its shortcomings - is one of them. I think it is because it's Spock, not Kirk, who has the romantic interest. I like the story and the feisty rebellious woman. I like the matte painting of the 'city in the sky', cheesy as it is. I like the gorgeous, ethereal 'Droxine' (and her name!)....there's something about City In the Sky that fascinates me. (maybe it's the spacey, other-worldly music? It fits so well with the city-in-the-sky and clueless aristos.)

Anyone who has seen Matt Damon's fine film Elysium will immediately recognize the parallels with his Star Trek episode. I wouldn't be surprised if the creators of Elysium were influenced by this story.

The mission of the Enterprise is to get to this planet for a shipment of an ore called Zenite which will help with a biological plague on a nearby federation world. This planet has a social structure similar to the one on Earth that has developed in Elysium. The vast majority live on the surface and work in the mines taking out the Zenite. They also for the most part are not much above the evolutionary scale than Cro-Magnon Man.

In the meantime an elite has built a city in the clouds called Stratos where they live at their leisure. Looks very much like Elysium and they rule and live off the other's toil.

So the mission of William Shatner and others is to get that Zenite and sad to say they have to violate the Prime Directive and institute the beginnings of social change to do it. Some medical research into Zenite and its effects by DeForest Kelley certainly helps.

Jeff Corey plays the first adviser of Stratos and an implacable defender of the established order. He and Shatner really can't stand each other.

Think Elysium and you'll realize how far ahead of its times this particular Star Trek episode was.

This is a pretty good episode that nearly merits a score of 8. The Enterprise arrives at a strange planet in search of dilithium crystals. The rulers of the planet live in a lovely city sitting in the clouds and they spend most of their days relaxing and thinking noble thoughts. The rest of the planet must live in the caves and work as miners and their lives totally suck. The dichotomy and basic unfairness of this isn't an issue to the people in the clouds (no big surprise) but the miners are sick of their lot in life. Plus, although no one knows it, inside the mines is Zenite gas, that makes the miners more angry and hostile. But, mediating the rebellion that erupts is something that seems impossible for the crew--especially since the cloud people are major jerks and the miners behave, when around the gas, like they are crazy. So, the Kirk-Meister, who is desperately in need of the crystals, creates an effective solution that isn't exactly in sync with the prime directive!!! All in all, an interesting episode that is quite thought-provoking.

By the way, it really was pretty cool for once to see the "hot babe" go for Spock and not Kirk!! For once, there's a woman who wants a smart and not a studly man!

Season 3, episode 21. The Enterprise is on a mission to the planet Ardana to retrieve the mineral zenite, it is in need to help stop a plague on Merak II. Kirk wants to speed things up so he and Spock beam directly to the zenite mines entrance, ignoring the High Adviser Plasus's request for them to beam to the floating city of Stratos. Kirk and Spock are the lassoed (captured) by the angry miners, a fight breaks out and Plasus shows up with some men and the miners easily back off. Kirk explains that they just wanted to pick up the zenite shipment that was suppose to be ready and Plasus explains that the Troglytes, miners, used a trick in order to get hostages to force the counsel to meet their demands. Kirk and Spock quickly learned then there are 2 classes: the cave-dwelling Troglytes that are the workers/miners who are very poor and the rich Elite cloud-living city dwellers that profit off the poor workers. Plasus requests Kirk and Spock to go to the city of Stratos and they agree. The logical Spock sees how illogical it is for the hard workers to be the poor ones while the rich ones do nothing at all but collect fine art and the profits. Kirk deals with the poor female miner that attacked while Spock deals with the young rich but naive daughter of Plasus. Kirk and Spock finds themselves in the middle of their private war and all they needed was the zenite for Merak II but now the must end the war before they can obtain the much needed zenite. The botanical plague is quickly spreading on Merak II, time is running out.

I find an interest in this episode due to class separation (areas they can live), profiteers vs hard-workers and rich vs poor scenario. Another important point is the rich (Plasus) refusing simple health measures - the masks to protect the Troglytes from the gas that is emitted when mining the zenite.

8.5/10

The Enterprise arrives at the planet Ardana to obtain zenite, a rare mineral which they need to combat a botanical plague on another world. Kirk & Spock beam down but find themselves caught in the middle of a class struggle between the intellectual rulers dwelling in a city in the clouds, sustained by some anti-gravity technology, and Troglytes, the miners who mostly dwell in the caves on the surface of the planet, where such items like zenite are obtained. This is essentially a reworking of the elite class vs. the worker class story penned by H.G.Wells in his famous novel "The Time Machine" (filmed in 1960 and later versions). Extrapolating from such a premise of basic inequality, where-in the elites get all the benefits through the sweat of the workers, it proposes that, some time in the past, one race experienced an extreme branching off separation into two, though, scientifically, they are still all the same race. Kirk & Spock see them as the same, simply a division of the rich vs. the poor, but the egotistical intellectuals of Stratos, the hovering city, have come to see themselves, over the centuries, as a different, superior race.

All of this is sort of summed up by Spock's voice-over as he sits in meditation in his guest room on Stratos, as images of various characters from both sides of the issue are transposed over his form. This sequence also kind of reminded me of scenes and voice-overs from the film "Dune"(84) - another variation on depicting royalty vs. poverty in a futuristic setting. It's a fairly exciting episode from the 3rd season, especially when I saw this as a kid, with several hand-to-hand struggles, and perhaps with even an increase to the usually-lackluster budget for 3rd season episodes. The episode also does a good job of contrasting the desperate stance and attitudes of the Troglytes (variation of 'troglodyte') when compared to the superior attitudes of the elites on Stratos. On the downside, this episode would have rated at least a couple of stars higher had it adhered to the complex social problems presented. Instead, it's revealed that a gas, released when digging for zenite, causes a retardation to the brains of the Troglytes. This problem is solved with the introduction of gas masks by Kirk, which will, in turn, the conclusion suggests, eradicate the inequality on Ardana. This plot turn devolves the episode to simple escapist sf fare, away from the potentially insightful commentary on cultural inequality.