The Cloud Minders: So Much Weird!

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by Joe_Atari, Aug 24, 2014.

  1. plynch

    plynch Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    As A kid in bed I heard that NBC movie theme from the living room a million times. I am hearing it now in my head. Thanks.
     
  2. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    I said out, dammit!
    I loved that peacock.
     
  3. Jeri

    Jeri Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I always like this ep; it's plenty fun, and it has a city in the clouds. Not many of those on TV when I was in high school in SoCal then. I'm always impressed when the troglodyte dives off the side. I like when my hero makes the two adversaries equals: "DIG!" It has an atmosphere about it that somehow reminds me of "Spectre of the Gun." This ep has a lot.
     
  4. drt

    drt Commodore Commodore

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    As a kid, I loved the first three, but I have zero recollection of "Ellery Queen".

    Also, wasn't Disney on ABC?

    I remember that they started showing "Space 1999" where I lived at 6pm on Sundays, so no hated stopwatch show for a little while.
     
  5. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    I have my own pet theory/rationalization about Spock's behavior in this ep. If you look at the order in which the episodes originally aired, "Cloud Minders" comes directly after "Requiem for Methuselah" and "The Way to Eden," both episodes in which Spock's aloof, reserved attitude is challenged to some degree. "Requiem" ends with McCoy giving Spock a hard time about his inability to understand love. And in "Eden" Spock seems distinctly intrigued by the space hippies and their groovy, less straight-laced ways.

    Maybe Spock was having second thoughts about completely repressing his emotions by the time they got to Stratos and was perhaps making an effort to loosen up a bit more, which made him more receptive to Droxine's advances than he might ordinarily be . . . even if this was just a temporary phase.

    Mind you, I don't believe for a moment that this was intentional; TOS didn't do multi-episode character arcs. But the timing is a happy accident. I like to think that Spock took McCoy's admonishment in "Requiem" to heart and was, however briefly, more open with Droxine as a result.
     
  6. Ssosmcin

    Ssosmcin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Eh, I just figure McCoy put Spock's brain back incorrectly in the season premiere. He hasn't really been the same since.
     
  7. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That's certainly the best explanation for Spock's behavior I'm aware of.

    The only issue I have with it is that it betrays what I always saw as a confidence held by the Vulcan people as a whole, with respect to a secret "that no out-worlder may know" as Spock put it in "Amok Time". It's one thing to be more open on a personal level, but it's another to say something about Vulcan mating that reflects on other Vulcans. It's the evident or apparent betrayal of confidence that I always found out of character, more so than simply being more emotionally available to Droxine than he might have been to previous women he'd met.

    On the other hand, maybe the cat was out of the bag so to speak after the events of "Amok Time", because someone blabbed about the truth of Vulcan mating, and word spread quickly throughout the Federation. I confess I'm not really knowledgeable enough to know whether that jibes with what people generally know about Vulcan mating in post-TOS Trek, though.
     
  8. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Let's also remember that the thing Spock (and supposedly all Vulcankind) was embarrassed about was the lack of logic in the mate-choosing business - the blood fever that makes animals of the otherwise stoic thinkers. Spock does not reveal this truth to Droxine, at least not in so many words.

    Sure, the use of the term "drive" is suggestive of the loss of control that actually occurs. But Spock does not spell it out, and Droxine supposedly wouldn't be in the know, so will get none the wiser by this.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  9. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    Well they come back from Kirk wrastlin with Vanna to:

    DROXINE: You only take a mate once every seven years?
    SPOCK: The seven-year cycle is biologically inherent in all Vulcans. At that time, the mating drive outweighs all other motivations.
    DROXINE: And is there nothing that can disturb that cycle, Mister Spock?
    SPOCK: Extreme feminine beauty is always disturbing, madam.

    So, Droxie may have known this and brought it up. And just before the cut away she says:

    DROXINE: Vulcan eyes are very discerning too. I hear that, intellectually, Vulcans are as highly evolved as Stratos city dwellers.

    I always thought that was very arrogant, although completely in character, a kind of ingnorant arrogance, rather than strictly just prideful.

    But she does seem to know things about Vulcans, and I doubt Mr. Spock brought up the subject. I think she was hitting on him, and wanted to know if little Spock was in season. No point in putting the moves on someone that wont be ready for a few more years. :)
     
  10. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^ Yeah, the conversation's in progress, so we don't necessarily know everything that was said.

    Actually, though, before the cut to Kirk and Vanna, Spock said, "We do pride ourselves on our logic." So it goes from logic to mating. Hmmm.
     
  11. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Ponn faar doesn't seem to be a deep, dark secret in the latter-day shows, so evidently it does become common knowledge at some point. Exactly when it became so, and how quickly and widely the info spread, is a question mark.
     
  12. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That's similar to the way I look at Kirk falling head over heels for Rayna in Requiem for Methuselah, in that the Dohlman's tears were still in his system from Elaan of Troyius.
     
  13. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's really good. Yes. :bolian:
     
  14. plynch

    plynch Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Is Spock in his right mind when he says no outworlder may know of it? It might be causing him to overstate b/c he is in its throes. I still don't have a problem with him being intrigued or interested in an interesting being. We know he subconsciously (or even consciously and suppressed) found Leyla Kalomi (sp?) attractive.
     
  15. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    He's incredibly embarrassed in "Amok Time." You could argue that it must have been more for himself than an expression of Vulcan's planetary mortification-- an iffy concept at best.

    What if Vulcan men living together get on the same ponn farr calendar, like women with their monthly cycles? The starship Intrepid with its all-Vulcan crew would have had no internal arguments about setting course for home. The navigator would be like, "I'm setting it, I'm setting it! Give me two seconds before you go all Tal Shaya on me!"


    I think Spock walked up to the line in "The Cloud Minders" but stayed within Vulcan bounds. Contrariwise, Z. Quinto's role in JJ-Trek is a whole different character, in that he's a total horndog who compliments Uhura on her highly skilled tongue. Ick.
     
  16. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Huh? It was Kirk, flirting with Uhura at the bar, who delivered that "highly-skilled tongue" line.

    Not Spock.
     
  17. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    What I'm remembering is that Saldana-Uhura wanted to get assigned to the Enterprise, and she hounded Quinto-Spock in the ground hangar, quoting his assessment of her "oral sensitivity," a report that was needlessly sexualized for its unfunny double-meaning. The point was that Uhura and Spock were sex buddies, and he couldn't even keep hints of this out of his official reports.

    And that's not my Spock.
     
  18. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Except it was "aural sensitivity."
     
  19. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Is that right? Meaning, have I been that wrong all this time?

    I'd love to be wrong about this, but it sure struck me as an ick scene.
     
  20. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Or perhaps the Intrepid had equal measures of male and female crew. Thus they could take care of pon farr "in house," as it were. This would especially help if the 430 crewmembers comprised 215 couples who were already bonded (which is unlikely, but possible).