The Cloud Minders

I just finished watching yet another Star Trek episode, The Cloud Minders. This episode features the Enterprise crew needing to pick up medical supplies from one planet to save another one’s bio-disaster, but they get caught up along the way. On Ardana, the planet where they were meant to pick up the supplies, Kirk and Spock are attacked and learn of the two classes on Ardana and the racism there is between them. Although this episode is heavy on action, the overarching theme is racism.
Some people on the planet live on Stratos, a city in the sky, and they are without violence and very enlightened. Others, the Troglytes, live in the mines, supplying Stratos with everything it needs to stay airborne. The people of Stratos say that the Troglytes are mentally inferior and that it is perfectly acceptable to treat them the way they do. However, gas released in the mines temporarily impair the Troglyte’s mental capacities, making them seem mentally inferior, even though they are just under the influence of the gas.
This episode makes me think of equal opportunity. The Troglytes are viewed as inferior because most have not been given a chance to be away form the gas. This is just the same as people in America during the Civil Rights Movement were viewed as inferior. They did not have the same opportunity, so they were not provided with the means to succeed. However, we see that Troglytes who grew up in Stratos turned out just the same as the people of Stratos because they are all from the same species.
Captain Kirk has a quote that sums up the theme of the episode. One of the Troglytes say to him, “It’s hard to believe that something which is neither seen nor felt can do so much harm.” To this Captain Kirk says, "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."

Matthew