Spock Contemplates Privilege and Violence

It's been interesting watching the original Star Trek against the background of everything that's been going on in the past few months because so many episodes seem applicable to current events. (It was designed that way - for current events in the 1960s. But even though it was written in the 1960s, it's so often still applicable today.

I'm currently watching the episode The Cloud Minders - one I've thought of frequently lately since the plot hinges to some degree on face masks - and Spock, thinking about the way the planet's society is set up says, "This troubled planet is a place of the most violent contrasts. Those who receive the rewards are totally separated from those who shoulder the burdens. It is not a wise leadership."

He also uses a phrase that seems particularly apropos to this weekend: "...the violence of desperation."

Margaret Armen is the writer. Looks like she did a lot of writing for tv between 1960 and 1983, including three episodes of Star Trek and two of the animated series. I think she got one thing wrong in this episode, in that she writes Spock casually discussing pon farr with Droxine (who is just as repulsive as I remember), but overall the episode itself is better than I remember.