A Health and Safety public announcement episode.
Underground - Troglyte - miners struggle for equality with the - Stratos-dwelling - ruling class.
The Enterprise discovers that the Troglytes are not inferior beings, with 'mental retardation', instead it is only the gas released in the mines that makes them that way. Gas masks will now be supplied as safety equipment to all workers. I hope they are a better quality than the one Kirk wears.
This theme of a harsh underground/ factory/ mine populated by the downtrodden, contrasted with a luxurious, art deco city of skyscapers populated by idle rich is a well worn scifi theme, most noteable 'Metropolis', but also 'The Time Machine' future. 'Star Trek: Voyager' returned to it in 'Workforce pts I & II' and 'Stargate SG-1' had 'Beneath the Surface'.
The future has some really bad plagues: In 'Let This Be Your Last Battlefield' the Enterprise had to make like a cropduster and spray an entire planet with an antidote to an infestation, now in this episode, it must quickly gather enough Zenite to prevent all the plant life on another planet dying.
Underground - Troglyte - miners struggle for equality with the - Stratos-dwelling - ruling class.
The Enterprise discovers that the Troglytes are not inferior beings, with 'mental retardation', instead it is only the gas released in the mines that makes them that way. Gas masks will now be supplied as safety equipment to all workers. I hope they are a better quality than the one Kirk wears.
This theme of a harsh underground/ factory/ mine populated by the downtrodden, contrasted with a luxurious, art deco city of skyscapers populated by idle rich is a well worn scifi theme, most noteable 'Metropolis', but also 'The Time Machine' future. 'Star Trek: Voyager' returned to it in 'Workforce pts I & II' and 'Stargate SG-1' had 'Beneath the Surface'.
The future has some really bad plagues: In 'Let This Be Your Last Battlefield' the Enterprise had to make like a cropduster and spray an entire planet with an antidote to an infestation, now in this episode, it must quickly gather enough Zenite to prevent all the plant life on another planet dying.