No violence on this planet, huh? Let's see. They were planning to torture a Troglyte, and made no reaction when he hurled himself to his death. They tortured Vanna, then Plasus declared that if Kirk returned, he was to be killed. No violence.

Ardana is a member of the Federation? Don't the Feds thoroughly investigate a planet before permitting them entry into the Federation? Or were they so greedy for Zenite that they covered up the use of slavery on this planet?

That Troglyte who suicided must have been back in the mines for a while. Droxine was standing right near to him, yet he passed up a chance to grab her and use her as a hostage.

Despite the changes to Gerrold's script, I think it would have been great if they had written Uhura into the action. Her point of view would have been interesting.

Spock seems to imply that Vulcans are only capable of sex every 7 years. It seems to be that they would have a very small population if this were true. (And I can't see Amanda waiting 7 years....)

All the Troglytes seem to be sensitive to sunlight, and affected by the gas, but they mention that Troglytes till the soil. That would keep them out in the sun, and away from the gas. Or do the Troglytes alternate shifts frequently?

Plasus implyed that the sentinels were also Troglytes. Yet none of them ever seemed to rebel, and they were perfectly willing to capture, hurt, and kill their fellow Troglytes.

When Kirk knocked the phaser from Vanna's hands, it sure flew an awfully long way.

Why didn't Spock call Kirk to warn him that the transfer of Plasus would be delayed? For that matter, if their sensors are so sensitive that they can identify one single individual on the planet below, I don't see why they had a problem. If they just assumed that the life forms in the hall had to be Plasus and Droxine, they could have just beamed both to the ship, then beamed Plasus on down. I'm sure Droxine wouldn't have minded seeing Spock again.

Vanna had ordered her henchmen to put the mask on the transporter pad, so that Plasus would know that they had a hostage. Wasn't the mask ever sent?

Was that one chamber the only part of the cavern sealed, or did they leave all other Troglytes in the vicinity to suffocate?

I can see why Vanna was chosen to be sent to Stratos. She's far too delicate to work in the mines. During the fight in the transporter room, she gets pushed aside and promptly collapses, unconcious.

Back down on Stratos, they were standing around the transporter platform. (At least I assume that that's where they would stand, since they were in such a hurry to get away.) The Zenite was delivered TO the transporter platform? Wasn't it supposed to be beamed up from the surface? Or had Vanna cleverly hidden it within Stratos City itself?

There's no real indication that any real changes are going to be made. All of the Troglytes will get masks, so that all of them will be intelligent, and therefore realize their injustices. But Plasus' attitude indicated that he wanted to leave things just as they were. Kirk should have told him that he was going to send out a Federation investigation team to ensure that the changes would be made.

The population of the "superior" race must be very tiny to be confined to one single city. Why didn't they imply that Stratos was one city of many?

Maybe Kirk should have purchased a vowel from Vanna.

GUEST STAR PATROL (The Nit Minders)

Jeff Corey (Plasus) was Leonard Nimoy's acting coach.

Fred Williamson (Anka) was a NFL all-star running back.

Actually a free safety. He played for the Chiefs in the first-ever Super Bowl game.

McCoy shows up halfway through this episode and makes a couple of really incredible statements. First, he says that he's run a test on the Troglytes mental capabilities and has determined that they are inferior. Just where exactly did he get a Troglyte specimen to run tests on? He didn't even go down to the planet with Kirk and Spock, and hasn't even seen the Troglytes from what we've seen! Even more dumbfounding, he states that he had a sample of zeinite beamed up to him from the surface! Really? From whom?

When Kirk and the others are talking with Plasus over the comm screen in the transporter room, we get a brief shot of Plasus' POV. This is a really cool angle of the transporter room that is not seen anywhere else.

When Vanna is made prisoner in Stratos, she is given a brief shift as a prison uniform. This uniform has some strange caliographic symbols around the collar. Is this supposed to be the Stratos version of prisoner numbering? It looks like the four symbols of Led Zeppelin.

Droxine in this episode is "babe-a-licious"!

Actually I preferred Vanna.

The name Droxine sounds like something you'd find on a pain reliever or acne cream.

Take 2 Droxines and call me in the morning.

2 Droxines...aaahhhh! I feel MUCH better now!
I think I'll take 2 Droxines tomorrow night, too!

Fred Williamson was a major star of the "blaxploitation" cult films of the '70's; however, this episode was his acting debut.

Droxine (also Levothyroxine Sodium) is the name of a drug which supplements or substitutes for a hormone produced by the thyroid gland. It is sometimes used by people whose thyroids aren't working up to par. When Spock said that "The name Droxine is appropriate for her", do you suppose by that he meant that she made his hormones more active?

Spock does behave very oddly in this episode...

Maybe Droxine has a sister named Dramamine to make people's hormones less active (?)

It's been a while since I saw it, so I hope I'm right. Kirk comes to this planet because yet another awful plague is terrifying the galaxy, and Kirk can find the cure here. Time is of the essence. Not a moment to lose, am I right? So what happens when Kirk and Spock beam down? Do they immediately investigate the procurement of this vital vaccine? No, they spend several minutes (from my point of view, anyway) discussing the finer points of Stratos architechture.
"A floating city, isn't that cool, Spock?" "Fascinating."
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
"Equally fascinating, sir."
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. OK, now let's go get that vaccine."

It's a good thing Charlie Brown's teacher wasn't there!

It would've gone like this.....

Kirk: A floating city, isn't it cool?
Spock: Fascinating.
Teacher: Wak wak wak wak wak!
Kirk: Yes, Ma'am?

Diana Ewing (Droxine) was in "The Way We Were." I have spared myself no effort to avoid this 1973 chick flick.
A city in the clouds would have a high wind, right? So how come Kirk's toupee does not go flying?

Super-glue?

Funny thought....

Even Kirk has trouble with minors.
(Get it? Miners?)

What Kirk does on his own time, is his business;
miner your own business!

Is it just me or does anybody else think that Vanna resembles Shania Twain, at times?

HELP ME! I'M MELTING!

Droxine! WOW! Whatta hot looking dame!

The NBC censors musta been paid off REAL GOOD to "allow" that much bod to be showing!
(Either that, or they were napping or too mesmerized by this voluptuous woman!)

(NBC Censor "Huh? What?" }

Another great shot of the Enterprise at the start of the show.

The footage of the man falling to the planet surface after jumping isn't too bad.

BEST LINE: Kirk: "I find this rather enjoyable" after grabbing Vanna while IN BED with her.

The platform Kirk & Spock beam onto is very simular to the platform used in "Mirror, Mirror"

The shot of the mine entrance is from "Spock's Brain"

The fight scene is interesting...Spock uses a lot of karate chops, punches, etc...but NO NERVE PINCH!

One of the decorations on Stratos resembles a "branch" on Gamma Trianguli VI ("The Apple")

TPTB bypassed Kirk beaming down one time.

God Bless Bill Theiss on the women's wardrobe in this episode! "A living work of art" indeed!

BIG QUESTION:

WHY is Kirk so worried about Plasus reporting him to Starfleet for his interference?
I mean..it's not like he hasn't violated the Prime Directive before.
Why is Kirk so suddenly petrified about the whole idea?

A city in the clouds would have a high wind, right? So how come Kirk's toupee does not go flying?

Come to that, howcum everything that's not tied down isn't blowing around? Also, what are the Stratosians doing for atmosphere in general? (Not that they indulge in a whole lot of heavy labour, but still...)

Droxine's dress is very pretty. Droxine herself is highly annoying. There is literally no indication whatsoever that Spock would want to bother with her. Enjoy...erm...the Vulcan equivalent of 'enjoy'...discussion with her, sure. But be so powerfully attracted he's discussing pon farr....for that you'd need someone who looks like she opens a book every once in awhile.

The atmosphere is very thin in a city in the clouds. So how come Plasus, who is always p.o.'ed about something, isn't eternally gasping for breath?
Jeff Corey (Plasus) played a salesman in an episode of "Roseanne" in which the character drops dead at her kitchen table. The black comedy in this show comes from the characters making tasteless (but funny) comments about a stiff in the house.

The Stratos transporter beam is very similar to the Klingon transporter beam in "Day of the Dove"

This episode bears a striking resemblence to the Laputa/Balnibari episode of Gulliver's Travels. Laputa is a floating island over the sparsely-populated continent of Balnibari. Everyone in Laputa lives in comfortable isolation, but they rely on the people of Balnibari for supplies. They enforce this ruthlessly; if a surface city should stop providing them with their tithe, they'll hover over top of them, blocking out sun and rain, and failing all else, just drop Laputa itself directly onto them, crushing them utterly.

Droxine resembles a woman in an anecdote Gulliver hears. She was tired of the sterile world of Laputa, so she slipped away from her husband and shacked up with a man on the surface, who beat and abused her. Her husband recovered her and brought her back home, but she escaped again, and hasn't been seen since.

DELETED LINE: Kirk: (To Vanna) "Can I buy a vowel?"

They don't suffer winds and low air pressure because they use force fields to control air flow and pressure.

Several sources list Roger Holloway as Mr.Lemli in this episode, I don't see him anywhere.

I watched this ep this morning, and I didn't see Lemli in it either.
Was the Transporter platform a re-use of the platform Kirk and company met with the Halkans on in "Mirror Mirror?"
The last four or five episodes of Trek all had the same intro music cue.
No comment here about how Kirk speaks his first lines after the titles without moving his lips. Amazing, that man.

See my posting from 11/28/01 for your answer

Gotcha, John.
There is a bit of a cheat in this ep. Scotty exclaimed that he wanted to see Plasus' face upon being beamed onto the Enterprise. However, we the audience, never see his face; in fact, we never see Plasus fully transported in. Why not? Jeff Corey was already on the set, to shoot the climatic scene when Plasus, Vanna and Kirk are beamed in. So, I'm sure a double was not used in the beam-in shot. Would it have busted the budget to get a close-up of a fuming Plasus being beamed in and out?
The shot of Scotty at the Transporter console was taken from "Mark Of Gideon."
IMHO, except for her last scene, I think Vanna's eye makeup was a bit overdone.
I checked both Diana Ewing (Droxine) and Charlene Polite (Vanna) on IMDB. Ms. Ewing has no film or TV credits since 1977. Ms. Polite has relatively few entries, and her last acting job was in 1974.

Going back to the "no violence" claim, I suspect that Stratos, like most repressive regimes, makes claims of peace that they don't actually meet.

I wonder if Spocks very strange behaviour in this episode can be accounted to the fact that he is somehow influenced by the gas, too? But because he is vulcan-human hybrid, it affects him differently, it does suppress his logical functions, but instead of making him aggressive, it makes him lovesick.

Alternativly, maybe Droxine is emitting some strange pheromone / perfume, which works only that strong on Spock, causing him to fall in love with her?

About the Stratosians considering themselves above violence, its like a certain big country (don't want to name names, otherwise I'll get bashed ) thinks its the only true civilization and true democracy, when in fact, there are lot of areas were other countries are more civilzed. (do I need to get into more detail? I'd rather avoid it, because then it would be more like a PM topic). So yes, its not nice or logical, but realistical.

Nah...it was Droxine's outfit that causes Spock's awkward behaviour.

When was Spock really exposed to the gas? He was on the planet surface for a brief while, IIRC. Not long enough to affect him, surely.

Live long and prosper.

During the teaser, if you look quickly enough, you can see the destruct sequence 1-2-3 display on the library computer.

When Vanna is brought her "refreshment," the tray and plate cover used is the same one used on the Enterprise. Maybe the Federation only uses one catering service...

Droxine must be related to Mr. Leslie.

At one point, she is talking with Kirk and Spock, the following second, she's with her father Plasius in the Torture Chamber!

Maybe that's another reason Spock is enamoured by Droxine....she's a fast woman!

So Droxine is a Teenager From Outer Space (with TORTURE!)

this episode has TOS's biggest mistake of all time. Kirk says "who are you what is the meaning of this attack" and his mouth doesnt move !!!

Kirk says "Who are you? What is the meaning of this attack?" and his mouth doesnt move!
That scene was cut from the version that TV Land airs. TV Land must edit the episodes digitally. They move music around, particularly to make new commercial breaks. And, they try to be subtle with their cuts. Meaning that if you've never seen the episode, you may not be able to tell where the cuts were made.

The remastered "The Cloudminders" airs this weekend. The primary new effect is a new 3D model of Stratos, which we'll get to see from various angles. TrekMovie.com has a sample. They also redid the shot of the falling Troglodyte, but used the same NASA photo as the backdrop.

The powers that be ran Scrubs for Enhanced Tos,
so i got the beginning of the Clouded Miners! ( at least
in my area)

-------------------------------------------

Next week Deforest Kelley gets to reinact the Gunfight at Ok Korral, enhanced!

(sorry. boards are still closed,)

The re-mastered version was pretty much as Alan described it. New shots of Stratos, including a few close-ups of the city. One allegedly had an appearance by Droxine on a balcony, but I couldn't find it. Stratos appeared to be in motion over the planet, something I didn't catch in the original. The montage over Spock's nattation was re-done. And, when Kirk said "Who are you..." it was re-cut over a shot of the Troglytes. Stratos still had a red hue, but there weren't a lot of clouds. Enough though, I guess. The planet looked more realistic and less like a beach ball. Great shot of the Enterprise leaving Ardana at the end, done in one continuous shot.
The shot of the falling Troglyte was more convincing; less cartoonish than the original.
Here's Trekmovie's review.

The remastered "The Cloud Minders" airs next weekend, followed by "The Way to Eden" the next weekend, Herbert.

Uh, Alan, this is old news.

Besides, since all the remastered episodes are out on DVD now, I think most of us would rather watch them that way. Because with DVD you get the WHOLE episode. In syndication, they are butchered for commercials.

I'm still holding out for the Blu-Ray editions, so I've only got season 1 on DVD.

That railing on that section of the cloud city
where the troglodyte jumped over it to his death
is SO unsafe! It is not high enough, AND there
aren't any horizontal bars underneath the top bar
to block a person from falling and sliding and/or
rolling off the edge! I hate those irresponsible
cloud dwellers!

That railing on that section of the cloud city
where the Troglyte** jumped over it to his death
is SO unsafe! It is not high enough, AND there
aren't any horizontal bars underneath the top bar to
block a person from falling and sliding and/or rolling off
the edge! I hate those irresponsible cloud dwellers!


** In the other post, I had the word "troglodyte" here,
which is something else.

Droxine was an elitist snob, very ugly inside, overrated in looks
(for instance, she was too thin), (and she was friends with the
"Star Trek" censors -- joke), and it was mystifying why Spock
wasn't repulsed by her attitude and behavior.

I'm on my way back to the Cloud City right this instant to throw her
and her father over that short railing.

it was mystifying why Spock
wasn't repulsed by her attitude and behavior

It was because Fred Frieberger was evil incarnate.

Droxine: "Father, is it true you were blacklisted once?"

Plasus: "No, my dear, it is not. There is an
actor who is playing me. His name is Jeff Corey, and back in
the early 1950's on Earth, he was summoned before the
House Committee on Un-American Activities. Corey refused to
give names and went so far as to ridicule the panel by offering
critiques of the testimony of the previous witnesses. This
behavior led to his being blacklisted for twelve years."

Droxine: "Oh! (She cries.) That is SO sad!
(She rests her head up against her father's shoulder and holds
his near arm tightly.)
You have been carrying around that burden for him almost all
of his life!"

Plasus: "I know. I know. Well, my dear, if any of the members
of that Earth panel make it up here to Stratos City, we can
have you torture them."

Droxine: "With my beauty?"

Plasus: "No, just immobilize them with the torture device as
you did Vanna, right? And keep them from getting to any of
their letters!"

Since I didn't comment the first time (missed it):

All new shots of Stratos using a 3D model which looks fabulous.

As noted above, they located and reused the same NASA photo for views looking down. For the first look down, they added the balcony railing into the foreground to ground (no pun intended) the shot.

They fixed Kirk's ventriloquism at the beginning of act one by having it as a voice-over of a shot of the Troglytes (reused from the teaser).

The Stratos phaser, transporter, and torture effects are unchanged.

Is this only the second time a character does a non-captain's log narration? (Kirk talking about Finney in "Court Martial" the previous one?)

The Eymorg council table ("Spock's Brain") and Gem's bed ("The Empath") is reused again as Kirk's bed in the rest chamber.

As I said above, it's not really a nit that they claim to be peaceful yet torture -- lots of societies in real life do that, unfortunately. They even do it as a Description Cut. Right after Droxine says "Here in Stratos we have completely eliminated violence," it cuts to Vanna tied to the torture machine.

Everybody talks about Droxine's outfit, but Vanna gets some nice outfits too -- the blue outfit he attacks Kirk in, and the very stylish miniskirted prison outfit. That has some symbols around the collar -- I wonder if that's supposed to be the Stratos written language.

"Is this only the second time a character does a non-captain's log narration?" - Alan

The specifics escape me, Alan, but didn't Kirk do this a few times? Paradise Syndrome and Mark of Gideon, perhaps?

He had a personal log, Obsession and This side
of Spock,Spock had one or two in Enemy Within, Scotty
said one or two in Metamorphisis (I havent seen these in years though)

Alan Hamilton typed:
-----------------------------------------------------------
"...but Vanna gets some nice outfits too -- the blue outfit
>> he << attacks Kirk in, and the very stylish miniskirted
prison outfit."
-----------------------------------------------------------

I don't think you intended Vanna to be masculine,
although she likely had more male hormones than
some other females.

Heh -- whoops. Yeah, it'd be pretty hard to mistake her for a man.

I wasn't counting various "logs", but strict narration. I do remember Kirk's narration in "The Mark of Gideon". I think you're right about "The Paradise Syndrome" too.

So why is Kirk going directly to the mine to get the zenite? Does he assume it's mined when needed? Presumably zenite mining is this planet's main business, because it's the constant exposure to the gas that dumbs down the troglytes (otherwise there'd be no story). And most mines usually mine all they can get, not wait till an order. We find out later in the show that zenite must be refined (& I know of no ore refineries that are based in any mine on Earth), so the ore must be shipped to a refinery & the surplus would probably be stored in a warehouse of some kind waiting to be shipped or picked up. There is no reason whatsoever for Kirk to even see the mine if all he's doing is picking up some refined zenite.

That troglyte seemed to fall faster than he should have.

In the Guide, Phil wonders why Kirk didn't just have the Enterprise beam Vanna & himself out of her cell.
While I did wonder that myself, however, at this point Kirk doesn't want the Federation implicated. He thinks Vanna believes him about the mask & zenite gas & will give him the refined zenite. It's only after he learns Vanna has lied that he involves the ship.

Earlier it was stated that the troglytes grow the food for Stratos.
So why the heck the fuss over the mines? Just stop growing food for the Stratos people. Can you imagine those arrogant dilettantes on Stratos getting their hands dirty growing food?

At the end the Enterprise suffers from USS Voyagershuffle-itis. With 3 hours to go until Merak II's plant life dies out completely, the starship Enterprise...crawls away from Ardana, just shuffles along, just...takes...their...time, instead of warping away.
Hopefully Merak II is really, really, really close, because just getting there is only part of the mission-- they have to use the zenite on the plant-life, too.

How did Kirk know where Vanna was locked up so he could beam down to her? Stratos is a big city, with hundreds, maybe thousands of rooms in all those buoildings, and yet they know exactly where she is, without the aid of a communicator.

I've seen many cool photos of cityscapes at night-- Stratos floating in the sky at night or early evening would look pretty interesting.

Jeff Corey's early credentials also include being in the very first episode (pilot) for The Adventures Of Superman in 1951, playing the angry townsman that leads the mob to confront Superman and kill the dwarf-like Mole Man. Back then, he only had a moustache, and actually looks taller as Luke Benson than he did as Plasus.

When Kirk said "Who are you..." it was re-cut over a shot of the Troglytes.
Not in the version that BBC America ran yesterday. It was back to the original.

Vanna's bed on Stratos is the same bed that Kirk, Spock and Bones found Gem lying on in "The Empath".
Music cues from "The Empath" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before", among others, were recycled here. The music was better served in their original episodes.

Would you live in Stratos? Seems like a nice place, but what if that anti-gravity thing malfunctioned. Would they have time to fix it?

There are probably multiple redundant systems to prevent disaster. Gravity generators also appear to be VERY reliable. I mean, when was the last time you saw them fail? They were still working on the Constellation even after the planet killer nearly destroyed it.

Yeah, I guess that's the case. I mean when your city is thousands of feet up, they BETTER have MANY back-ups.

When Kirk beams into Vanna's holding area, the mask he's holding just fades in, without a transporter effect.

Vanna and Droxine must have the same makeup person as Losira from 'That Which Survives'. The heavy blue eye shadow looks the same in colors and application.

I think Kirk gets quite the work-out in this episode. He wrestles with 2 or 3 Troglytes,, THREE times with Vanna, and once with Plasus.

Plasus shouts that he sees no changes in any of them, when Kirk has trapped himself, Plasus, and Vanna in the caves with the gas. This is actually true, at least as far as Plasus goes, since the guy is ALWAYS angry and shouting!

Kirk throws his phaser away to fight hand-to-hand wiuth Plasus. I wonder if anyone ever retrieved it?

Vanna hands over just 5 containers of zenite. I wonder if five is enough for a planet-wide botanical plague?

Plasus accuses Kirk of just 'abduction' in the end of the episode, but Kirk's crimes are worse.
He's also assaulted Plasus and a Stratos guard, he's uttered death threats against Plasus, had him forcibly confined, guilty of trespassing in Stratos to rescue Vanna, and aiding and abetting a known criminal/Disruptor (Vanna).
He might want to loom up Samuel Cogley's subspace radio number!

Vanna and Droxine must have the same makeup person as Losira from 'That Which Survives'. The heavy blue eye shadow looks the same in colors and application.

I guess those make up people were put out of work when Losira's people died off


He's also assaulted Plasus and a Stratos guard, he's uttered death threats against Plasus, had him forcibly confined, guilty of trespassing in Stratos to rescue Vanna, and aiding and abetting a known criminal/Disruptor (Vanna).
He might want to loom up Samuel Cogley's subspace radio number!

Yes, but as Kirk pointed out, Plasus was also guilty of crimes, including conspiring to murder Kirk. Ardana is a member of the Federation, and plotting to murder a Starfleet captain, essentially like plotting to murder a police officer, might not go over so well.

And the Federation might want to talk to Plasus about that torture device he used on Vanna. If this is normal for Ardana, then perhaps the Romulan or Cardassian Empires might be more suited for them.

At one time I used to think that looking down from Stratos, the sandy, orangey surface portion was water, and the grey-green areas land, but now I'm not so sure. With the remastered SFX, the orange part now has texture, as if it's the sandy portion of the surface that Kirk and Spock walked on, and the grey-green sections are the rocky walls they walked past. Perhaps it's a dry riverbed?
The actor that jumps off the balcony nearly hits actress Diana Ewing's (Droxine) head with his feet!
And speaking of that, he dashed up there so quickly he could have grabbed her and pulled her off the balcony, too, or used her as a hostage if he'd been smart. But there's that low IQ because of the gas.
In the original effects, the falling man was just a couple seconds of a black man-shaped effect. Now, with the remastered SFX if you zoom in to him and freeze frame it you can see that he's now red-clothed man for just a second, mimicking his red overalls before receding.
Also in the new effects, if you zoom in on the small jutting-out balcony of one building, you can just make out a tiny faint light blue dot. That's Drxine in her blue dress, just before Plasus shows up and tells her not to speak of Captain Kirk again.

I remember reading an interview with Manny Coto in which he said that, had Enterprise gotten a fifth season, a visit to Stratos was on the books.

I guess this would have been the first contact story between Earth and Ardana.

Would it have busted the budget to get a close-up of a fuming Plasus being beamed in and out?

I guess so, as the shot of Scotty in the transporter room seems to have been recycled from "The Way To Eden".

And Moderator - Please delete my 8/8/21 post above (and this paragraph. Thanks.) It seems I've repeated myself. Specifically from 8/19/17.

NBC severely gutted the budget in S3, they were bound to kill this show, one way or another.

The only justice was this show coming back to laugh in NBC's face, in the 1970's.

Would Stratos be safe during a thunderstorm?

I assume that the city was engineered to always have a cloud around its base. If you can elevate a city, surely generating a cloud would be easy. But what about when real storm clouds come through? Would the buildings be enclosed in clouds with electric charges in them?

Well, I guess the Ardanans also engineered some kind of a shield to protect the city from such weather.

I'm going to assume that the Ardanans are human stock, possibly seeded by the Preservers, or even a late 21st or early 22nd century human colonization along the lines of Terra Nova (Enterprise episode), but going somewhat further into space.

If they have the tech to elevate a city into the sky, then it's safe to assume that they have taken storms into account.

Not an Earth colony. Plasus said that his ancestors once lived in the caves themselves. Can't rule out the Preservers though.

Geoff - Would Stratos be safe during a thunderstorm?

Especially since we now know that lightning doesn't always go down. Satellites and space stations have discovered that lightning can go upward, even to the edge of space. Scientists have called these electrical phenomena blue jets, sprites, elves, trolls, ogres, pixies, etc. (Be interesting to hear those terms in a Sci-Fi show.)

Whoops, I misremembered, Ogres is not a term for upper atmospheric lightning, but Ghosts and Gnomes are.

Sorry for the mistake.

As I said, I'm sure they took precautions.

It was lucky for Vanna that that fleeing Troglyte ran right behind her and got zapped by the Sentries, because it looks like he blocked a shot that could have hit her.
And you know what? That guy is never heard from again! We never see him questioned and find out if he's even alive! He's just...gone!

How did Spock and Droxine even get to the point of their conversation that they were discussing Vulcan mating rituals and Pon Far influences? She even asks him if anything can disrupt the 7-year cycle, which tells me that she's looking for a compliment or a chance to 'disrupt' it. Spock even sits down next to her to reveal that he finds her distracting, almost as if he was lining himself up to kiss her. Who do you think you are, Spock? Jim Kirk?!

The idea that the Troglytes even live in caves and not homes on the surface is crazy. The Stratos city dwellers's ancestors didn't just go from the caves to the floating city-- there must have been cities and villages on the surface as they designed and built Staatos, so what happened to them? And why aren't the Troglytes living in homes, even shoddy ones? To explain away the constant exposure to the Zenite gas, but logically it makes no sense. Unless the gas made them too dumb to think of building houses out in the sun and the warmth, but even Vanna is smart enough to think, "I hate the caves-- I want a she-shed!"

A couple Stratos city dwellers pass by Plasus and Druscilla, with Vanna tied to the torture device. Huh? The Rostrum is even set up in the Council Art Chamber or whatever it is, and mere citizens can just walk past a criminal interrogation?

Druscilla!?

Who's that?

Droxine! Oh, yea, that's her name! Must have been somekinda Pre-New Year confusion.
Druscillia must be her older sister. Droxine is 'a work of art', while Druscillia is 'a real piece of work' best not seen!

Or you were thinking of Debra Winger's character on Wonder Woman or Juliette Landau's on Buffy.

Nope, actually thought her name was 'Druscillia', even after seeing the episode about 2 dozen times in 40 years.

Droxine sounds more like a medicine than a person's name.

"Side effects of using Droxine include..."

Yeah, it does.

Droxine sounds more like a medicine than a person's name.

Specifically, an anaesthetic. Maybe it could take the place of propofol (which I was given for at least three separate procedures.)

Maybe.