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Opinion of The Cloud Minders?

Gorn Captain

Gorn Captain

Commander
Red Shirt
An odd episode. Spock's internal monologue flashback, his apparent acceptance of an apprenticeship in the James T. Kirk School of Interplanetary Womanizing, the Captain struggling to win a fight against a 135 pound senior citizen....

I don't know how I feel about this one. It's certainly not a classic, at least in my opinion. Apparently it was influential on George Lucas!
 
I think Spock is very much out of character during this episode. He discusses Pon Farr with Droxine - whatever happened to 'it is a thing no outworlder may know'?

The idea of the episode - the cloud-dwelling upper class and the cavebound working class, and the struggle of the latter - is interesting, though. There's potential for a good episode, but unfortunately it's not well written enough.
 
This is a case of an interesting idea (class schism) in a mediocre episode that cries for some finessing and rewriting. An example of a story if produced in 1st or 2nd season likely would have been much better. It isn't horrible, but it's roughly executed.
 
Heavy-handed even by third season standards. Vanna played by depressingly, distractingly bad actress. Not an episode I revisit often.
 
I just saw Cloud Minders this week; and I was struck by what a good episode it is. Vanna is a good character. Remastered effects are nice.
 
Much prefer Vanna to the simpering Droxine. I could have happily tipped her over the balcony.

The city in the sky was an interesting concept and did deserve a better storyline.

Interesting editing goof when the party firsts lands outside the cave and Kirk speaks without opening his mouth. :)
 
Willieck said:
Much prefer Vanna to the simpering Droxine. I could have happily tipped her over the balcony.

The city in the sky was an interesting concept and did deserve a better storyline.
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Agreed on both counts. I couldn't stand Droxine.

Willieck said:
Interesting editing goof when the party firsts lands outside the cave and Kirk speaks without opening his mouth. :)
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And like "The Savage Curtain" I believe there's a shot or two after Kirk and Spock beam down where Kirk's image is reversed.
 
Gorn Captain said:
An odd episode. Spock's internal monologue flashback . . .
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It's what's known as “clumsy script padding.”
Myko said:
This episode begins and ends with Droxine's dress.
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More like her undress.
droxine2.jpg


“The Cloud Minders” was based on a story by David Gerrold (“The Trouble With Tribbles”). According to IMDb:
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.”
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Frankly, had the finished script stuck closer to Gerrold's story, I think it would still have been a pretty heavy-handed polemic. But we'll never know, will we?
 
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Spock says "The name Droxine is somewhat appropriate for her." I've always been puzzled by what he meant. Droxine is the name of a drug which is supposed to stimulate activity in the thyroid gland. Does Spock mean that she makes his glands more active?
 
Warped9 said:
Nerys Myk said:
My thought: “Droxine, eat a sandwich or two.”
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Did they have Big Macs yet in '68/'69? Hmm...she could use a few of those.
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McDonald's introduced the Big Mac in 1968.

Aw, c'mon. Diana Ewing, the actress who played Droxine, was slim but hardly anorexic. And she had nice tight abs.

BTW, not much is know about her. She stopped acting and disappeared from public life after the mid-1970s.
 
This individual made an interesting post about Diana Ewing's possible whereabouts. In that thread there is a link to an email address to their ecotourism business in Costa Rica (for some truly curious fan). The woman in the picture looks to be Diana's body type and age, although she is referred to as Diane Ewing.
 
There's one thing that really hurts the episode... There's no explanation who is this guy who looks like Spock, where did he come from, and what did he do to the real Spock? :shifty:

Spock/Droxine wins least believable Trek pairing of all time... beating Chakotay/Seven, Kes/Neelix and whatever else Trek has come up with. Spock flirting so easily with her, paying her compliments and talking comfortably about Pon Farr is not just OOC (didn't the writer of this episode ever see "This Side of Paradise", "The Man Trap", "The Naked Time", "Amok Time"...?) it's also additionally ridiculous because Droxine comes off as such a silly, air-headed pampered daddy's little girl. I could as well try to imagine Spock falling for Paris Hilton. :vulcan:
 
Gorn Captain said:
the Captain struggling to win a fight against a 135 pound senior citizen....
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High Advisor Plasus is depicted as a tough guy. While not muscular, he does come off as as someone with a "knife fighter" personality. In the case of Kirk's fighting ability, Kirk isn't a brawler, he used to thinking his way through a fight, both with his ship and with his fist. With the zenite in his system, he seem a little lost and uncoordinated.

ToddPence said:
Spock says "The name Droxine is somewhat appropriate for her." I've always been puzzled by what he meant. Droxine is the name of a drug which is supposed to stimulate activity in the thyroid gland. Does Spock mean that she makes his glands more active?
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That's exactly what Spock means, he might just have a somewhat strange poetic vocabulary. Apparently Droxine is the kind of woman that he is attracted to.

Sky said:
I think Spock is very much out of character during this episode. He discusses Pon Farr with Droxine - whatever happened to 'it is a thing no outworlder may know'?
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We rarely see Spock in this kind of situation, in a off-duty, private setting with a female who isn't Starfleet. Also, it's sometimes easier to discuss personal matter with a stranger that with people who are close to you.

The idea of the episode - the cloud-dwelling upper class and the cavebound working class, and the struggle of the latter - is interesting, though.
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Droxine: The Troglytes are workers, Captain. They [snip] till the soil.
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Troglodyte doesn't just mean someone who lives in cave. It can also mean reactionary, out of date, or brutish. The disruptors are definitely reactionary. And easily the upper class of Stratos saw the Troglytes as out of date for not quietly working for the Stratos elites version of a progressive society.

:)
 
I could see Droxine as being one of the cool-blonde types that Hitchcock favored; she is serene. He would have liked Betty Draper.
 
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