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UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TOS - The Cloud Minders S3E21

Kirk solves a labor dispute!

Here is our full uncut reaction to The Cloud Minders

A big thank you to everyone who joined us live yesterday on YouTube to rewatch episode 19! If you didn't catch it live, the stream is still available on our YouTube, the UNCUT reaction will get posted here soon, and the YouTube edit will be made as well.

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UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TOS - The Cloud Minders S3E21

Comments

TOS Sex Scoreboard Spock coulda-shoulda-I-woulda. But no. Kirk 11 Chekov 4 Spock 2 Bones 2 Scottie 1 Extras: If there had been just a few off screen moments between Spock and really hot blonde Droxine, and I would have counted the notch on the bedpost

Prof Moff

This episode I'd probably rate just below Let That be Your Last Battlefield. Like that episode, it's fairly overt in it's message, but still effective. I thought the main guest performers(Vanna, Droxine, and her father) all did well, but I think Bele and Lokai's actors were just more compelling which is why I rate that one higher. Droxine's character I think represents the fact that not everyone born into privilege is some douchebag trying to keep others down. She was ignorant of how good she had it, but not viciously protective of her position like her father. In the end she genuinely wanted the best for the troglytes. The gas could be an allegory to unsafe working conditions, but it could also be a commentary on how one's environment can shape them. Someone who grows up poor will have an entirely different outlook than someone who grows up in a world where they have near limitless opportunities. The actress who played Vanna unfortunately died of cancer fairly young at just 55. But overall, solid episode.

Timothy Nikiforovs

I think it may have been David Gerrold who said “if it’s happening to purple polka-dotted people, you can get away with it.”

James H

I love how you totally morphed Droxine into “Dioxide” 😂😂 Amazing message of the elites and the commoners. A recurring theme in society. Even the way the elites react when the prejudice is presented to them , the disdain for the commoners still doesn’t occur to them.

Charles Regazzi Jr

Great reaction! I loved this episode when I was a kid because I thought the cloud city was so cool (for me, this was just before Bespin was a thing). I still enjoy it a lot but I forgot how horrible that stupid mask looked - did they not have elastic in the 60's?! Also, some words just don't age well...like "retardation," it just sounds insensitive. Otherwise, solid episode with a great opening fight sequence.

Gary Leyh

There was just not enough plot per minute. That sequence with Scotty was a two minute time killer that did not further the story. That's the story of season 3. Your later discussion about not using real world stuff to discuss real world problems was the hallmark of sci-fi, but not any longer. They openly admitted once you set a problem in sci-fi you had all kinds of leeway whereas "lets do a story where kirk is in viet nam!" would just get you pulled from the air.

Ken R

In terms of storytelling the difference between classic Star Trek and modern stuff is also that Trek showed you a social or moral issue through the lense of SciFi and then left you to think about it, not necessarily taking sides. Modern stuff often simply decides what the right way of thinking is and forces that on the viewer. It doesn't inspire the viewer to think about the issue himself, instead it tells him "this is what you're supposed to think". And nobody likes to be patronized.

Andreas Schmitt

Full site-to-site transport was still a bit complicated in Kirk's time. In TNG they'll have that figured out :) But it's still a special operation and still a bit more complicated.

Andreas Schmitt

The word is "despoiling." Despoil is defined as "to strip of belongings, possessions, or value." It’s related to pillaging or “taking away the spoils.”

James H

After the title sequence and Kirk and Spock are restrained following the fight scene you can hear Kirk speak but his lips aren't moving. That first line was obviously added in the post edit as it is in both the original format and the remaster. When the tool/weapon was first seen lodged next to the wall art a word is used that isn't a real word. They said the Disruptors were "disspoiling" the city. The word spoiled or spoiling is the negative connotation in and of itself, by adding dis to it that cancels out it having been spoiled just as using irregardless isn't proper English but rather regardless is the word to use. They used this created word to make them sound more advanced and has been used in the V TV series as well where in that case the Visitors (aliens) added ill to two words, illconceived and illconsidered which also are not true words in the English language. The word that has since been cancelled beginning with the letter "R" describing mental illness or brain damage was highly used in the 60s and was at that time an acceptable use of the word for such mentally and physically challenged individuals. It since became a negative word when the general public used it towards anyone that made them angry or were ignorant and because of that and how those who actually had mental health issues didn't like being called it either is why it is no longer acceptable to use anymore.

Brad Barter

Alex and Josh, I appreciated your conversation at the end of this episode. Your points about message and storytelling were what was behind Gene Roddenberry wanting to do Star Trek in the first place: get some important issues discussed and messages across in an entertaining sci-fi format. Not having seen this episode in awhile, it is slightly better than I remember it, but I am still fairly unimpressed. B / B- from me. I was not all that impressed by the acting. Speaking of acting, trivia fact: Jeff Corey (Plasus) was an influential acting teacher of Leonard Nimoy's years before Star Trek came along. In fact, Corey basically gave Nimoy his school after Corey was able to start getting work in Hollywood again after having been blacklisted in the 1950's.

Collin Freeman

One criticism that people often bring up with this episode is the inconsistency with Spock's character, in that in "Amok Time" Spock has difficulty talking about Vulcan mating customs with his closest friend, but in this episode he has a casual conversation about it with Droxine and shows no embarrassment at all.

David Felgate

I believe both cloud cities, Stratos and Bespin, were inspired by the Sky City in Flash Gordon (1936). The 7-year Vulcan mating cycle is commonly thought of as originating from Amok Time, but actually no such thing was mentioned in that episode. Spock and T'Pring had a parentally-arranged ceremony at age 7 where their minds were joined so that at the agreed time they would both have to go to the marriage place or die... but there was nothing at age 14, 21, 28, etc. The Cloud Minders is where the whole 7-year cycle thing comes from. We may feel shocked by the term 'retardation' today, but in the Sixties that was the new socially-correct euphemism for intellectual disability. The older terms would have been things like 'imbecile' or 'feeble-minded.' Euphemisms tend to morph into insults over time.

James H

This episode storywise is similar to what you will see in TNG. I like it because it was a little more thought out. Commercials didn’t do much for pacing originally because it was only 4 minutes. One of the biggest issues with a lot of the episodes is the lack of a B plot to involve more characters. This one had the “romance” with Spock but it was clear they were stretching at times.

Jonathan

Thank you for going live yesterday 🖤

Dominic


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