Mudd's Women

The Enterprise is playing space traffic cop when they stop a ship being driven by one Harry Mudd, an outrageous man in an outrageous pirate like costume. Roger C. Carmel plays Mudd in the first of two Star Trek appearances.

Basically Mudd is charged with some space traffic violations. But it's his cargo that has the crew buzzing. Three gorgeous women who look like they stepped off a Las Vegas chorus line.

But these women take an aphrodisiac concoction that makes them appear as they do and get the men thinking from below decks.

The Enterprise also is in sad need of dilithium crystals to make it go and they've got them on a nearby mining planet. They also have some very antsy minors who haven't had feminine companionship either.

I think you can see where this is going. This episode is highlighted by Roger C. Carmel as the great Harcourt Fenton Mudd.

I am thrilled that they made this average episode because without it they probably never would have made the wonderful follow-up episode, I, MUDD--one of the very best Star Trek episodes ever made.

Harry Mudd is the commander of a craft that is ordered to stop and be boarded. Instead, he over-taxes the engines and he and his "cargo" are nearly killed. The cargo turns out to be three very ordinary-looking women who are supposed to be über-sexy (you can tell because of the sexy jazz riffs that follow them as they slink about the ship).

The episode is pretty good because Roger Carmel was wonderful as Harry Mudd--he was funny and sleazy and just a lot of fun to watch. Aside from his performance, though, the rest of it all just seemed ordinary. No magic--just an ordinary show with nothing to especially recommend it.

By the way, for Star Trek purists, they keep referring to Lithium Crystals. Later, they changed it to Dilithium Crystals that powered the ship.

FYI--The first few episodes were shown in a completely convoluted manner. This is why Uhuru is wearing yellow instead of the familiar ref (which she wore in the first episode aired). This one was filmed BEFORE the first aired episode ("The Man Trap").

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.

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

"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."