THE PLOT
A Federation planet is suffering from another space plague, and the Enterprise has been dispatched to the only planet in the galaxy that has the cure. And no, the cure is not more cowbell. The planet Ardana is the only source of a rare mineral known as zenite. Ardana is ruled from Stratos, a city in the clouds, while the Troglyte miners toil to produce the mineral that maintains the lifestyle of the planet's elders.
No sooner have Kirk and Spock beamed down than they are attacked by Troglyte disruptors, who are rebelling against this harsh system. They are saved by the intervention of Plasus (Jeff Corey), the High Advisor of Ardana. He informs them that the disruptors have stolen the shipment of zenite, holding it hostage against their own "completely unreasonable" demands.
As Kirk and Spock observe more of the inequities between the privileged who live on Stratos and the downtrodden Troglytes, they become convinced that Plasus is protecting his own standard of living by enforcing a system of near-slavery. Kirk decides to deal with the Troglytes directly, offering protective masks to act against the zenite gas. But he may find the Troglytes just as untrustworthy as Plasus!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: "I find this rather enjoyable," Capt. Horndog leers when Vanna attacks him in his bed. Thankfully, that and a few appreciative looks are the sum total of his romantic entanglements in this episode. Kirk is entirely devoted to getting the mineral needed to stop the plague. The main concern he voices about Plasus' handling of the situation is that it's unlikely to be effective, and his justification for dealing with the rebels directly is that it is more likely to actually get them the zenite in time to be of use. That isn't to say he isn't genuinely concerned about helping the Troglytes, particularly when McCoy reveals the source of the mental inequality between the two castes. But he does regard it as less of a priority than accomplishing his mission, and that doesn't explicitly change at any point.
Spock: He's come a long way in overcoming his shyness about the more ritualistic elements of Vulcan society. In early Season One, he had to undergo significant mental preparation to do a simple mind-meld. In Amok Time, he was very reticent to share details about the Vulcan ritual of pon farr, even with Kirk. Now, he openly discusses it as a way of flirting with the local blonde! Beyond heavy flirting with Droxine (a far less interesting object of Spock's affections than Jill Ireland's character in This Side of Paradise), there's relatively little for Spock to do in this episode, though he does provide a hilarious Ed Wood-like voice over at one point, hammering home the inequities of Ardana just in case our brains are too tiny to grasp them.
Hot Space Babes of the Week: Charlene Polite is Vanna, the leader of the Troglytes. It's refreshing the Vanna isn't simply a "noble savage," instead betraying Kirk to her people when he offers his solution. Polite is very appealing, and has sufficient acting skills to do a decent job in the role. I far preferred her to Diana Ewing as Droxine, who comes across as completely empty-headed. I can't believe that Spock would spare her more than second's thought. In all three areas of interest, she falls short as the week's "Space Babe." Vanna is better-scripted, is better-acted and - to my tastes at least - more attractive.
Villain of the Week: Jeff Corey is Plasus, the Tsar... ah, High Advisor of Ardana. Corey was a splendid character actor, and his sheer presence does a lot to lift up a badly flawed episode. His Plasus is stubborn and prejudiced, but he never comes across as either weak or stupid. He is convinced that he is in the right, and he realizes that his entire way of life depends on that conviction - which means he won't tolerate criticism from outsiders who "don't understand." As a side note, having watched the superb Babylon 5 episode, Z'ha'dum, in which he guest starred as the human voice of The Shadows, it is very difficult to watch him playing an administrator who is calmly convinced of the rightness of his very wrong actions without thinking of that character and performance... which is certainly not to this episode's advantage.
THOUGHTS
The Cloud Minders is, at the very least, an improvement over The Lights of Zetar. Director Jud Taylor uses some intriguing camera angles and effective mattes (even in the original version) to good effect. It's still cheap-looking, but in this episode the director is stretching his thin resources to make it as polished as possible, rather than just pointing the camera and shooting.
Unfortunately, it still isn't very good. From the moment we see Jeff Corey booming, "Troglytes, surrender!" it's pretty clear where this episode is going. The first 15 minutes, on Stratos, is slow and talky, and passes up no opportunity to hammer home that Plasus and his daughter (we see no other representatives of their society) are massively prejudiced against the Troglytes. Just in case we fail to get the point, a Spock voice-over is tossed in there to make sure we understand that This Is Wrong.
Things do improve in the second half, when Kirk attempts to make an alliance with Vanna and ends up being forced to work in the mines for his trouble. I also like that Plasus remains bitter toward both Kirk and the Troglytes at the end. It is left clear that this situation is far from over ("These are just the beginning of our demands"). But having read writer David Gerrold's summary of his own draft, it is clear that this is a heavily watered-down version of what might have been a much stronger episode.
Not particularly bad, but not particularly good, either. This is one of the handful of episodes I have no previous memories of. Nothing came back to me while watching, either. This was an episode where not a single thing stuck in my memory. And having watched it now, I'm not particularly surprised by that.
Rating: 4/10.
A Federation planet is suffering from another space plague, and the Enterprise has been dispatched to the only planet in the galaxy that has the cure. And no, the cure is not more cowbell. The planet Ardana is the only source of a rare mineral known as zenite. Ardana is ruled from Stratos, a city in the clouds, while the Troglyte miners toil to produce the mineral that maintains the lifestyle of the planet's elders.
No sooner have Kirk and Spock beamed down than they are attacked by Troglyte disruptors, who are rebelling against this harsh system. They are saved by the intervention of Plasus (Jeff Corey), the High Advisor of Ardana. He informs them that the disruptors have stolen the shipment of zenite, holding it hostage against their own "completely unreasonable" demands.
As Kirk and Spock observe more of the inequities between the privileged who live on Stratos and the downtrodden Troglytes, they become convinced that Plasus is protecting his own standard of living by enforcing a system of near-slavery. Kirk decides to deal with the Troglytes directly, offering protective masks to act against the zenite gas. But he may find the Troglytes just as untrustworthy as Plasus!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: "I find this rather enjoyable," Capt. Horndog leers when Vanna attacks him in his bed. Thankfully, that and a few appreciative looks are the sum total of his romantic entanglements in this episode. Kirk is entirely devoted to getting the mineral needed to stop the plague. The main concern he voices about Plasus' handling of the situation is that it's unlikely to be effective, and his justification for dealing with the rebels directly is that it is more likely to actually get them the zenite in time to be of use. That isn't to say he isn't genuinely concerned about helping the Troglytes, particularly when McCoy reveals the source of the mental inequality between the two castes. But he does regard it as less of a priority than accomplishing his mission, and that doesn't explicitly change at any point.
Spock: He's come a long way in overcoming his shyness about the more ritualistic elements of Vulcan society. In early Season One, he had to undergo significant mental preparation to do a simple mind-meld. In Amok Time, he was very reticent to share details about the Vulcan ritual of pon farr, even with Kirk. Now, he openly discusses it as a way of flirting with the local blonde! Beyond heavy flirting with Droxine (a far less interesting object of Spock's affections than Jill Ireland's character in This Side of Paradise), there's relatively little for Spock to do in this episode, though he does provide a hilarious Ed Wood-like voice over at one point, hammering home the inequities of Ardana just in case our brains are too tiny to grasp them.
Hot Space Babes of the Week: Charlene Polite is Vanna, the leader of the Troglytes. It's refreshing the Vanna isn't simply a "noble savage," instead betraying Kirk to her people when he offers his solution. Polite is very appealing, and has sufficient acting skills to do a decent job in the role. I far preferred her to Diana Ewing as Droxine, who comes across as completely empty-headed. I can't believe that Spock would spare her more than second's thought. In all three areas of interest, she falls short as the week's "Space Babe." Vanna is better-scripted, is better-acted and - to my tastes at least - more attractive.
Villain of the Week: Jeff Corey is Plasus, the Tsar... ah, High Advisor of Ardana. Corey was a splendid character actor, and his sheer presence does a lot to lift up a badly flawed episode. His Plasus is stubborn and prejudiced, but he never comes across as either weak or stupid. He is convinced that he is in the right, and he realizes that his entire way of life depends on that conviction - which means he won't tolerate criticism from outsiders who "don't understand." As a side note, having watched the superb Babylon 5 episode, Z'ha'dum, in which he guest starred as the human voice of The Shadows, it is very difficult to watch him playing an administrator who is calmly convinced of the rightness of his very wrong actions without thinking of that character and performance... which is certainly not to this episode's advantage.
THOUGHTS
The Cloud Minders is, at the very least, an improvement over The Lights of Zetar. Director Jud Taylor uses some intriguing camera angles and effective mattes (even in the original version) to good effect. It's still cheap-looking, but in this episode the director is stretching his thin resources to make it as polished as possible, rather than just pointing the camera and shooting.
Unfortunately, it still isn't very good. From the moment we see Jeff Corey booming, "Troglytes, surrender!" it's pretty clear where this episode is going. The first 15 minutes, on Stratos, is slow and talky, and passes up no opportunity to hammer home that Plasus and his daughter (we see no other representatives of their society) are massively prejudiced against the Troglytes. Just in case we fail to get the point, a Spock voice-over is tossed in there to make sure we understand that This Is Wrong.
Things do improve in the second half, when Kirk attempts to make an alliance with Vanna and ends up being forced to work in the mines for his trouble. I also like that Plasus remains bitter toward both Kirk and the Troglytes at the end. It is left clear that this situation is far from over ("These are just the beginning of our demands"). But having read writer David Gerrold's summary of his own draft, it is clear that this is a heavily watered-down version of what might have been a much stronger episode.
Not particularly bad, but not particularly good, either. This is one of the handful of episodes I have no previous memories of. Nothing came back to me while watching, either. This was an episode where not a single thing stuck in my memory. And having watched it now, I'm not particularly surprised by that.
Rating: 4/10.
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