The episode I am choosing for my ARP is The Cloud Minders, an episode of the original Star Trek series. In my first blog, I talked about how this episode is directly symbolic of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. This episode was filmed in November 1968, shortly after Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. It is a basic story of the haves against the have nots, and since the haves can only see their side of the story, they do not recognize what an injustice they are doing to the Troglytes of their planet. There are two classes on the planet Ardana, the people of Stratos and the Troglytes. The people of Stratos live in a city in the sky, above the rest of the world just as they view themselves as higher than the rest of their world’s people.
Just like the Civil Rights Movement, some people on both sides of the story were complacent with their situation, but there were a few key figures on either side that paved the way to a new understanding. The people of Stratos are scared as they realize the Troglytes may not be as evil a they thought, and they react with violence because they are afraid that the society that they have built is in jeopardy. Spock says “Those who receive the reward are completely separated from the people who shoulder the burden.” The Troglytes are the people who keep their society working with all the grunt work, and they are completely unappreciated by the upper class. Unequal opportunity to succeed is one of the key factors leading to the class separation, but also the fear held by the people of Stratos that their society will fall to pieces without the work of the Troglytes. I think this is a good episode to choose, and the real world connection will be quite easy to research.
Matthew
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