Only four episodes left of this to go. I'll likely move to a whole season review system for the other Trek shows once this is done - a paragraph for each episode, basically.
There has been some comments on science fiction being "woke" recently, with counterpoints that it has always been "woke", especially Star Trek. This is true, but sometimes the political element is more obvious than in other episodes. This one is a particular example.
Heading to a planet to obtain a rare ore needed to cure a plaque on a nearby world, Kirk and Spock encounter a world separated between those who live on the Stratos cloud city and the Trogyte miners below, the latter heavily restricted in what they can do, deemed too stupid to cope with civilisation by the people above them. It's very much a comment on colonialism and apartheid in particular (which was getting some serious attention by this point). However, one does wonder why Kirk and Spock don't seem to be aware of the situation beforehand... it doesn't seem to be a new case. Also, does the Federation not enforce sapient rights standards on its members?
(The writer of the original concept pointed out that his story rather lost something in translation to screen as well.)
The guest cast are not that great. We've got a rather stagey delivery from them. William Ware Theiss also was clearly enjoying himself, with the two female leads (who only had short careers) wearing outfits that are very much "red-carpet".
Kirk does mostly well... he does a good scheme to force peace, but doesn't quite think through all the implications and the thing arguably goes close to going rather wrong.
Also, Kirk Fu does seem to involving an awful lot of rolling around.
Conclusion
One of those stories that could have been better with some slight changes and some less stilted acting.
6/10
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