The Cloud Minders originally had a grittier ending

The third season of Star Trek: The Original Series had some episodes that were shaky at best and definitely didn’t live up to the solid execution of some of the first two seasons’ episodes like “Balance of Terror” and “Amok Time.” As the 21st episode of the third season “The Cloud Minders” has gotten its fair share of grief over the years. Back in 2011, the AV Club said the episode “chickened out in a way that’s highly unusual for the show.” And David Gerrold, the screenwriter who came up with the idea, had originally prepared a much different ending that wouldn’t have wrapped things up so neatly.

The aired episode of “The Cloud Minders” provided a resolution that eliminated the problem with the zenite gas which was the cause of the social class disparity as the gas diminished the mental capacity and heightened the emotions of the Troglytes, therefore, making them unequal to those living in Stratos. By the time the Enterprise breaks orbit, High Advisor Plasus has agreed to the distribution of the gas masks which will, essentially, put the Troglytes on a level playing field with the Stratos city-dwellers and hopefully, bring about equality on the planet.

But Gerrold’s idea didn’t have any zenite gas, and there was no tidy resolution to the social injustice happening on the planet Ardana. Instead, as Gerrold told Startrek.com, the original ending had Spock, Kirk, and McCoy acknowledging that what they had done on the planet was only the beginning.

"But my original ending was that, as they’re flying off, Kirk says, “Well, we solved another one.” Spock says, “Well, actually, it’ll take years and years and years for all of these changes to be put in place.” And McCoy says, “I wonder how many children are going to die in the meantime.” So the idea was, “Let’s get gritty. We’re not going to change things overnight, but we can put changes in place that will have long-term effects.” There was also more to the story that was about the social issue, and there was no magical zenite gas that was causing the problem."

Gerrold’s ending would have created more drama than the changed ending, taking away the weak cause for social inequality and reminding viewers that change takes time. And during that time, people will die and lives will be destroyed. There is no quick way to combat injustice, and that could have been a powerful moment for Star Trek, strengthening the episode into more than just a “we solved that” problem of the week.