Captain's Blog pt. 89: The Cloud Minders

February 28, 1969.

"It's hard to believe something which is neither seen nor felt can do so much harm."
"That's true. But an idea can't be seen or felt. That's what's kept the Troglytes in the mines all these centuries, a mistaken idea." 

Script / Theme: (6 / 9) Let's start with the theme. David Gerrold came up with the original idea and was upset at the changes made. Here's what he has to say about the story that didn't get made, reproduced (mostly) in full from The World of Star Trek:

"It was intended as a parable between the haves and have-nots, the haves being the elite who are removed from the realities of everyday life - they live in their floating sky cities. The have-not were called "Mannies" (for Manual Laborers) and were forced to live on the surface of the planet where the air was denser, pressure was high, and noxious gases made the conditions generally unlivable."

Stratos from the re-mastered ep.

"The Mannies torn between two leaders, one a militant, and one a Martin Luther King Jr. figure. (Mind you, this was in 1968, shortly after King was assassinated, and just before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.) In my original version, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Uhura were captured by the Mannies when their shuttlecraft was shot down by a missile. The Enterprise desperately needed dilithium crystals. This planet was one of the Federation's biggest suppliers, and Kirk's concern was to restore the flow of crystals. He didn't care who worked the mines, just that the supply was not interrupted."

"In the process of the story, Kirk realizes that unless living conditions for the Mannies are improved, the situation can never be stabilized. Because Uhura has been injured in the shuttlecraft crash, McCoy starts treating her in a Mannie hospital. But he is so appalled at the condition of the other patients there, especially the children suffering from high-pressure disease, that he begins treating them as well."

"The story focused primarily on the lack of communication between the skymen and the Mannies. Kirk's resolution of the problem was to force the two sides into negotiation. He opened the channels of communication with a phaser in his hand. You - sit there! You - sit there! Now, talk! And that's all he does. He doesn't solve the problem himself; he merely provides the tools whereby the combatants can seek their own solutions, a far more moral procedure."

...

"BOTH WILL KILL."

"In the end, as the Enterprise breaks orbit, Kirk remarks on this, as if inaugrating the problem-solving procedure is the same as solving the problem. He pats himself on the back and says, We've got them talking. It's just a matter of time until they find the right direction. And McCoy who is standing right next to him, looks at him and says Yes, but how many more children will die in the meantime?"

"This answer was not a facile one; the viewer was meant to be left as uneasy as Kirk. But in the telecast version, the whole problem was caused by Zenite gas in the mines, and If we can just them troglytes to all wear gas masks, then they'll be happy little darkies and they'll pick all the cotton we need..."

"Somehow, I think it lost something in translation."

My thoughts:

a) I think it's incredibly more applicable to third world energy resources than to "darkies" and cotton production, but he's essentially correct. That being said:

b) I personally was never unclear on how to read the end of the episode and never once assumed the band-aid solution to ensure the continued export of Zenite off the planet was  a happy ending. Maybe it's just me, but even the truncated version gets across the uneasy ending Gerrold describes. It's there, at any rate, just (quite) muddied up.

c) It's interesting to see what was cut from the episode and what remains. He structured things as a very Marxist exploration of the means of production. Which jumps out at me, as there is an extremely-Soviet-style montage (with Spock providing the detached voiceover the Party would provide in the Soviet version) about fifteen minutes in:

This chapter tag (difficult to read in that first screencap) is fantastic.

and d) Keeping it as dilithium would have avoided the yet-another-unobtainium trope. I'd love to watch the Ur-Kindle version of Gerrold's original story ("Castles in the Sky") and compare and contrast the two. Or perhaps he'll resurrect it for Phase II now that he's showrunning over there. (Fingers crossed.)

(And while we're talking titles, I prefer "The Cloud Minders" immensely. Evocative, to-the-point, and poetic. Points awarded: 3.)

As for the script, it's not bad. There are some good lines. The story hums along well enough. But it's undermined by some fairly contrived plot points/ conflicts and the inexplicable Spock/ Droxine romance. (Although there's nothing illogical about their flirting.)

I guess the paragraph is Internal Logistics; might as well do that while we're here. (1)

I'm sympathetic to budget restrictions and all, but you can't blame Vanna for not believing this flimsy looking thing would filter out the gas. (Incidentally, "You thought you would fool me with talk of your filter." always cracks me up. I hope someone memes that up .)

Speaking of the mines, Droxine's stated intention to go and work in them is ridiculous, of course. But it's completely the sort of thing someone like Droxine would say in the situation, so I'll allow it.

She'd only smudge that Season 3 eye make-up.

You too, Vanna. "DIG!"

Kirk mentions how the Federation Bureau of Industrialization will be happy to help Stratos and the Troglytes learn to work together and maximize Zenite exploitation. I actually don't like that. Having the obvious acronym like that draws attention to it, and then I'm forced to consider the parallel and it doesn't fit. The FBI is not the organization sent in for such a job. I like the set-up between Stratos, the mines, and the Federation; it, too, is on the nose but in a more acceptably broad way. (Since they went there, I have to say: a much better fit would be something like the Interplanetary Monetary Fund.) It mixes up the messages of the episode.

Anyway, one last thought on the script - Margaret Armen's involvement was news to me. I always assumed (mainly because of Spock's "let me just tell this one lady I just met about these things no offworlder may know" business) this was one of those Season 3 eps written by folks unfamiliar with Trek's characters/ concepts. But she certainly was... well, who knows. At any rate, the script has a definite problem with being too on-the-nose in spots, such as the screencaps below, a long zoom-out from the one immediately above to the wide shot, where city dwellers casually walk by someone being tortured:

"We have eliminated violence" is the voiceover accompanying this, to boot. Oh the irony.

and going for subtlety in others. Basically, any episode that has the Kirk/Zenite-gas sequence should just forget about subtlety. Which brings us to...

Kirk and the Gang: (40) To be clear, 35 of these points belong to Shatner. He is so wonderfully out of his mind in this episode. It's a delight to behold, each and every time.

"Completely..."

Spock carries himself well. Spock is often even more interesting in the episodes in which Nimoy's checked out mentally. He gives good autopilot.

Visual Design: (2.75) The set and costumes for this one are top notch.

In a world where the audience has no Pause button...

Guest: (3)

Droxine is probably the least of Spock's TOS love interests, but she plays the part of the innocently clueless ingenue clothed in lavish privilege perfectly well.

Her costume, while somewhat ridiculous, is undoubtedly awesome.

And Jeff Corey as Plasus. aka

Image from here, a pretty cool blog I just found randomly. Love when that happens.

Technically, I would not include Plasus on a list of "Genius Jew" tropes, but the physical resemblance cracks me up. No angry letters, please.

And then came Vanna, who gets more costume changes than anyone else.

This happens twice. Women try to stab Kirk a lot. Ergo, tackling.

Memorability: I'll go as high as 3.5 because that "I said DIG!" stuff is the proverbial cat's pajamas.

Total Points Awarded: 68.25 (Whoah! That seems too high. I stand by the DSO Points Awarded System, but this total puts it above "The Menagerie," which is definitely wrong. I'll find somewhere to deduct 10 points to fit it into the rankings better for when I make my report to the IMF.)

Captain's Blog pt. 88: Wolf in the Fold

December 22, 1967

Script and Theme: (6.5 / 8) In reviewing this episode for Trekmovie, Jeff Bond writes, "If you’re planning on introducing your feminist girlfriend to Star Trek, “Wolf in the Fold” might not be the best starter episode—it’s equivalent to a slasher film in the way women are presented almost exclusively as victims for a marauding monster because, as Spock helpfully points out, “Women are more easily and deeply terrified” than the male of the species."

"When a man feels guilty about something, something too terrible to remember, he blots it out of his conscious memory."

"I wonder what it is we're not supposed to be afraid of?"

"She said something else. Words that didn't make any sense."

There's no doubt that the story presents women primarily as murder victims, shore leave hook-ups, exotics or peripheral agents of action taken by the male protagonists. And certain assumptions are presented (Spock's line about female terror, above, as one example) with little self-reflection. Those among you who have read From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell have an idea how a more thorough exploration of the themes of this part of the episode might look, but even bringing this sort of thing up in 1967 was a pretty progressive move. (Airing against it? On Hondo: "The Apache Kid escapes prison and seeks revenge." On Gomer Pyle: Gomer is assigned to pick up a general but gets sidetracked.)

"Don't forget, the explosion that threw Scotty against the bulkhead was caused by a woman," says McCoy. "Considerable psychological damage could have been caused. For example, his total resentment towards women."

It's dressed up in 1960s clothes, sure, but beyond all these familiar sexist tropes is the idea that a particular type of violent misogyny attached to Western culture ("when man moved out into the galaxy, that thing moved with it." Isn't this another way of saying we bring our blankets of ideological smallpox with us wherever we go? That those violent impulses we bury re-surface in the systems we build?) is some alien force that has piggybacked (and subverted) man's progress. The usual suspects (Handlen/ Atkinson) approach it in the predictable missionary way; so it goes, again and again.

I have no idea what Bloch's overlap with Scientologists was, if there even was any, but it's worth mentioning that this sort of thing had begun to be advanced by L. Ron Hubbard around this time. Our true nature has been hindered by alien events long ago and unchecked threaten not just ours but many planets.

"The law of Argelius... is Love."It's twenty times more likely L Ron saw this episode and hastily added its ideas to the latest mission briefing.

"An entity which feeds on fear and terror would find a perfect hunting ground on Argelius, a planet without violence, where the inhabitants are as peaceful as sheep. The entity would be as a hungry wolf in that fold." (I guess here's as good a place as any to assign the Title its 2.25 points.)

Not all of misogyny can be blamed on the entity, of course, and I'm not saying that's what is asserted in this episode. Just a particular type of re-directed sexual anxiety. Argelius II is a pleasure planet. Whose pleasure? Men's, certainly. 

But women's too, just as certainly. Just because we see only what 3 hetero dudes on the prowl see doesn't mean that's how the whole planet is; we get every indication it is far more than that. It's an environment where the sexually uninhibited can fornicate to their heart's content, free from consequence or commitment, a planet-sized Plato's Retreat, the sort of sexually ambiguous "paradise" that's also explored in things like Looking For Mister Goodbar. (Which also explores the idea of a killer-of-women in a sexual-free-for-all zone; I guess that one's more palatable because it had Diane Keaton in it.)

Jealousy is the worst sin. That's interesting, and important. Enter our Enterprise snakes into that paradise, and it is from their (wounded, intrusive) point of view that we enter the story.

"Fear, anger, hatred... anger feeds the flame. Oh! Oh! There is evil here! Monstrous, terrible evil... consuming hunger. Hatred of all that lives. Hatred of women. A hunger that never dies."

Bond also writes "All of Bloch’s Star Trek scripts threw classic horror tropes into the unfamiliar territory of science fiction in clever ways—he references “the Old Ones” a la H.P. Lovecraft in the android dehumanization tale “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and the traditions of ghost stories and Halloween in “Catspaw.” “Wolf in the Fold” adapts Bloch’s own story “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,” and all three benefit from the creepy frisson of classic horror themes thrust into Trek’s sci fi setting. "

The locked-room murder mystery is set up pretty well, but it's completely undermined by the existence of the psycho-tricorder. Then again, as Bond notes, that was probably the intention, to wink at the conventions of such a thing and explode them with sci-fi. 

Ditto for the courtroom drama.

The drugged-out "Die! Die! Kill you all! hahahahaha" stuff is enjoyably demented.

Before moving on, it must be said that "You cannot reach me... your manual overrides are extremely limited in life" is a taunt that has never received its due. Just once I'd like to hear someone say that on Cops while being shoved into the back of the wagon.

Internal Logistics: (1.25) Beyond the psycho-tricorder stuff, the entity is a bit like Pennywise from Stephen King's It, lying low for long intervals, then awakens to feed in a mass killing spree. Another parallel is that it feeds not just on on death but the terror that accompanies it. So why can't there be a Stephen King's Space It? Or is that what The Tommyknockers is supposed to be?

Unless I'm misunderstanding, this Space It waits until Scotty is alone with a woman and then shoves him aside and kills her? Or possesses Scott and does the same? Yet also resides in Mr. Hengist? If it possesses the ability to flip between hosts as necessary, why doesn't it just leap into Kirk or Spock?

It doesn't matter, I know, I know. I know forever. But if it can even inhabit the computers... I mean, come on.

Visual Design: (2.25)

Redjac! Redjac!

Kirk and the Gang: (25) 

Shatner's pause in the doorway here, to strike this pose, is too funny.

"Freefall!" This is the perhaps the most pointless and quickly-disposed-of dangers Kirk and Spock face in TOS. Absolutely great, though.

Scotty kills a native woman and a co-worker while possessed by a monstrous alien terror of ancient evil origin. Not a bad one for the resume. He's anguished throughout, then drugged and happy at episode's end.

Guest: (4)

John Fiedler plays Mr. Hengist. He's been in loads of stuff, but he was all over my childhood. True Grit, The Odd Couple, and Winnie the Pooh were things I was pretty familiar with before I ever got to this episode.

Charles Dierkop as the Jealous Man. Fans of 80s slasher movies might remember him from Silent Night, Deadly Night.

Every line this guy delivers is fun. Especially when it keeps cutting to him for completely generic and unsolicited observations during the trial. "But all men die..." "A man couldn't survive all of these centuries?" etc. I was amused (though not at his expense or anything) to discover he opened a well-respected acting school in Las Vegas several years later.

And of course, Jaris is played by:

"For the good of the Body, obliteration... is necessary. It is a great sorrow." 

Memorability: (3) As mentioned here, "On the great list of things to watch while tripping your face off, you rarely see "Wolf in the Fold," which is a shame. If I was the director of a drug freakout clinic, I'd keep it (and "Metamorphosis") queued up at all times."

And beyond that, this was one episode I spent a considerable amount of time cutting up in the spring of 1998. Hovered over a 4-track in the last days of analog, with the laser disc player plugged into tracks one and two, looping it over suggestive 70s funk music (really just one particular instrumental from the Boogie Nights soundtrack.) I'm tempted to bump it up a point just for that. But I'll restrain myself.

Total Points Awarded: 52.25