"Star Trek" The Cloud Minders (1969)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Jud Taylor

Writers:

Margaret Armen (teleplay)
David Gerrold (story) ...

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

28 February 1969 (Season 3, Episode 21)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Kirk and Spock are caught up in a revolution on a planet where intellectuals and artists live on a utopian city in the sky while the rest of the population toils in mines on the barren surface below.

Plot Keywords:

Federation | Space | Starship | Computer | Vulcan

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Jeff Corey	...	Plasus
Diana Ewing	...	Droxine
Charlene Polite	...	Vanna
James Doohan	...	Scott
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Kirk Raymond	...	Cloud Guard #1 (as Kirk Raymone)
Jimmy Fields	...	Cloud Guard #2
Ed Long	...	Midro
Fred Williamson	...	Anka
Garth Pillsbury	...	Prisoner
Harv Selsby	...	Guard

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Television

Trivia:

David Gerrold conceived the original story on which this episode was based, an outline called "Castle in the Sky". He was deeply disappointed with the final script. His original concept dealt with a three-way conflict between the elite of the planet's sky city and two groups of the cave-dwelling miners -- one adhering to the tenets of a pacifist, Martin Luther King-like leader, the other followers of a more militant Malcolm X-like figure. Gerrold's story ended on a deliberately ambiguous note, with the only "triumph" being that Kirk finally managed to establish a dialogue between the groups. Gerrold later characterized the final script -- in which the miners' violent actions are blamed entirely on a toxic "zenite" gas in the mines -- with the scathing line, "And if we can just get them troglytes to wear gas masks, then they'll be happy little darkies and they'll pick all the cotton we need."

Goofs:

Continuity: During the shot of Plasus being forcibly beamed directly to Kirk's location in the mines, the bottom of the curtains behind him change position as he transports.

Quotes:

Captain James T. Kirk: [Vanna attacks Kirk with a knife while he is resting] You again...
[Takes a moment to gather this unusual, however pleasant situation]
Vanna: [Disgusted] You sleep lightly, captain!
Captain James T. Kirk: Yes. Duty is a good teacher.
[Softly, yet pointed]
Captain James T. Kirk: I see you've changed your dressmaker.
Vanna: [unmoved] Release me!
Captain James T. Kirk: [Surprised at first, at her coldness] So you can attack me again?
[Attempting to be affectionate]
Captain James T. Kirk: That would be foolish...
[...]

Dig, Captain! Dig as the Troglytes Do!

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.