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Star Trek - The Cloud Minders
episode 3.21
Raumschiff Enterprise - Die Wolkenstadt
USA 1969
produced by Fred Freiberger, Gene Roddenberry (executive) for Norway Corporation, Paramount/NBC
directed by Jud Taylor
starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Jeff Corey, Diana Ewing, Charlene Polite, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Kirk Raymond, Jimmy Fields, Ed Long, Fred Williamson, Garth Pillsbury, Harv Selsby
story by David Gerrold, Oliver Crawford, screenplay by Margaret Armen, created by Gene Roddenberry, music by Fred Steiner
TV series Star Trek, Classic Star Trek, Star Trek (original crew)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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To avoid a medical disaster on a Federation planet, the Enterprise is
to fetch zenite from a planet that's known for its cities in the clouds -
but when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) beam
down to the planet's surface, they're almost immediately attacked. but the
attackers are quickly driven back by the planet's security forces and
they're invited up to one of the cities in the clouds where they're
informed by the planet's high advisor Plasus (Jeff Corey) that the
planet's population is divided into two classes, the cloud dwellers, all
intellectuals and artists, and the Troglytes, a more primitive strain of
the population, who are forced to stay on the surface and work in the
mines - all but a few servants the cloud dwellers need for their most
comfortable life. But of late, the Troglytes have started to rebel. A
Troglyte rebel, Vanna (Charlene Polite), attacks Kirk, seeing him and the
Federation as such on the side of her oppressors, but he quickly
overpowers her. She is imprisoned and tortured, something Kirk protests
against, but only with the effect that he and Spock are sent back to their
ship to never return. It now occurs to Kirk that Plasus has probably never
intended to hand over the zenite but has used the Enterprise as pawn in
the planet's political game. The ship's doctor Bones (DeForest Kelley)
informs Kirk that the Troglytes' intellectual faculties are probably
impaired by gases they inhale when mining zenite, but a gas mask would
revert that effect. As a peace offering (and also to get his hands on the
zenite), Kirk offers Plasus a shipment of gas masks for the Troglytes, but
Plasus outright refuses, seeing this only as unwanted foreign intervention
- so Kirk frees Vanna from her holding cell, tells her about the effects
of the gas and takes her to the surface ... where two other Troglytes
overcome him and he's forced to work at the mines at gunpoint by Vanna. He
overcomes her, but then a cave-in cuts them off from everybody else. So
Kirk has the idea to radio up to the Enterprise and tell them to teleport
Plasus to his location, and then forces both Plasus and Vanna to dig for
zenite - and it's very obvious that all three are almost immediately
affected by the zenite gases, so much so that Kirk and Plasus get into a
fistfight in no time, and ultimately Vanna radios to the Enterprise for
help.
As an outcome of this, Plasus rather grudgingly accepts an consignment
of gas masks to be distributed among the Troglytes, while Spock manages to
plant a seed of understanding for the Troglytes in Plasus' pretty daughter
Droxine (Diana Ewing) - who has fallen for him rather than Kirk for a
change -, and the Enterprise get their zenite pretty much in the nick of
time.
To a degree, The Cloud Minders works as socio-political
commentary a bit in the vein of H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine,
but somehow falls short of pushing things all the way through, ultimately
choosing action over making a point. And the city in the clouds is a great
concept for sure, but not really supported by its execution. It does leave
an impression, as does the episode as a whole, even if it's by no means
perfect.
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