The Cloud Minders

Behold Bespin…er, Stratos.

 

77)  “The Cloud Minders”  Original Airdate: (02/28/69)  Remaster Airdate: (07/12/08)

 

Evaluation:

Long before Bespin, the Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back, there was Stratos, the cloud city on Ardana in TOS’s “Minders.”  The original FX on Stratos were decent when considering the constraints of late 60s technology and the concept of a city in the clouds was, obviously, way ahead of its time.  The first (low angle) shot of Stratos has received a minor alteration, but the second (close-up) shot reveals much more structural detail than the original model.  A new CG matte of Stratos, as seen from an aerial perspective, reveals a similar aesthetic to Bespin, but the shot is so quick that (save for hitting the pause button) discerning specific architectural elements is extremely difficult (a longer take of this shot appears during Spock’s mental log, but details are obscured by the white haze of the Vulcan’s musings).  So here we have a cosmic curiosity…even though “Minders” predates Empire by eleven years, the RM version of this episode takes visual cues from Empire, which precedes it by twenty-eight years.  It’s a temporal paradox that would give John Connor a headache.  Shots of Stratos aside, there are some subtle changes that make a big difference in the episode, such as: the addition of a handrail to one of the shots where characters look down at the surface from Stratos, better animation on the silhouette of the falling Troglyte and cleaned up cloud formations in certain instances.  While on the subject of moving clouds, why wasn’t this effect employed in other episodes where the sky was obviously a set wall (refer to my comments in “The Apple” and “The Way to Eden”)?  The Ardanan answer to the Mirror Universe’s agony booth (simply dubbed “the rays”) hasn’t been updated from its original multicolor grooviness, and both Ardanan (amber with red starburst) and Starfleet (green stun field or blue beam) energy beams could’ve used a touch-up.  The Starfleet standard filter mask is an utterly ludicrous apparatus and hardly instills confidence (in viewer or Troglyte) that it can protect against a noxious, odorless gas.  Admittedly, there’s very little the RM team could’ve done to salvage this hokey prop even if they’d tried—but they didn’t even make an attempt, so the eyesore endures.

 

Money Shot:  The new matte of Stratos as seen from a higher vantage.

 

Wish List:  Better FX on the Ardanan torture chamber, disruptor/phaser FX and a more realistic filter mask.

 

Remaster Grade:  A

 

Screencaps:

 

Original                                                                             Remastered