Mudd's Women

A rather bizarre and opaque space encounter, with a procurer who's a bit of a bounder, ferries ladies about, who hypnotically pout, causing men to distract and to flounder.

The Enterprise's crystals have cracked, Rigel XII is where they're going to extract, the lithium needed, to stop being impeded, and return to their previous track.

Captain Kirk demonstrates more restraint than most when a supplier of ladies causes the Enterprise to divert to acquire new Lithium crystals and the miners of said crystals don't play ball. Although it's never really clear what's in it for Paddy Mudd.

"Mudd's Women" (Oct. 13, 1966) Old TV Guide synopsis: 'Kirk encounters Harry Mudd, a convicted smuggler who is traveling through space with three stunning women.' Roger C. Carmel's Harry Mudd is one of the show's most renowned rogues (returning in the second season's "I, Mudd"), but this Gene Roddenberry original storyline generally focuses on his 'cargo,' three lovely young ladies who have an exaggerated effect on the male members of the Enterprise crew. Drug addiction also finds its way into the final script, as Mudd's steady supply keeps the girls presentable for prospective husbands. Karen Steele enjoyed a lengthy career on the small screen, while that of Maggie Thrett and Susan Denberg concluded by the mid 70s. Susan played five roles during the course of one year before vanishing from show business, best remembered for her starring opposite Peter Cushing in "Frankenstein Created Woman."

Mudd's Women is a very typical monster-of-the-week Star Trek episode, and as a sci-fi story it isn't that interesting. Why, then, do fans love it so much? Because even the most predictable of concepts can be forgiven when when a character such as Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) is on screen.

Mudd's appearance on the Enterprise is a lesson in comedy: his ship is located during a routine mission, with the man and his crew beamed up before the vessel is destroyed. Then, when Kirk asks him about the crew (three women), he candidly replies, with a Scotty-like accent: "Oh no, Captain, that's me cargo.". As it turns out, good old Harry, who travels under another name because of his criminal record, specializes in finding beautiful women and selling them to lonely men. He obviously knows what he's doing, since his "cargo" has a spell-like effect on every male crew member of the Enterprise, Spock not included. However, when the ship runs short of fuel and has to negotiate with workers on a nearby planet, the truth about Mudd's business starts to emerge, and it might as well mean the end of Kirk's five-year mission.

As said before, the story isn't very original, as anyone who knows his genre fiction should be able to figure out the "twist" about halfway through the episode. And yet the whole thing is quite enjoyable, largely thanks to Carmel, who plays Mudd exactly as he ought to be portrayed: weirdly charismatic, ambitious and unapologetically sleazy. To call him a villain isn't quite accurate: he's just one of those unreliable fellas it's hard to admire, but impossible not to laugh at.

Additionally, Mudd's women contains one of Spock's best responses to Dr. McCoy's "human" provocations: "The fact that my internal disposition differs from yours, Doctor, pleases me no end.". In short, classic Trek.

Season 1, episode 6. The Enterprise ends up picking up a madman known as Harry Mudd and three very beautiful, seductive women - Harry's "cargo". All of the men on board the ship are strangely amore for these ladies. Kirk and crew cross examine Mudd and the ladies with the help of the ship's computer they learn Mudd is a smuggler and has been under psychiatric treatment, the ladies the computer found nothing on. One of the women talks a bit too much and they learn the women are wanting husbands. While this is going on, the ship is in desperate need of lithium crystals and beam down to Rigel XII with the women to get the crystals and the women are wanting husbands. There are more to these strangely attractive women than meets the eye - but what? And what does Mudd have to do with them?

A very "attractive" episode. I find myself strangely liking the outlaw Harry Mudd yet wanting to slap him silly. LOL.

8/10

I can see what was risky about 'Mudd's Women' back in the '60s, but at the risk of betraying immaturity, it's the superficial aspects of this episode that grabbed me. For one, Harry Mudd's a fun character and I look forward to seeing him again (I hear good things about 'I, Mudd'). Also, the focus on three super fine actresses; the eye candy runneth over. Plenty of mileage is gotten out of crew members going to pieces at the sight of a beautiful woman (not to mention Spock smirking at all of this). It's the last act that's a bit off, and that believe in yourself bit feels forced.

But it's still an enjoyable episode, with a scoundrel for a (somewhat) foil and for the most part a suitably comic tone.

6/10