"Star Trek" Mudd's Women (1966)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Harvey Hart

Writers:

Stephen Kandel (teleplay)
Gene Roddenberry (story)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

13 October 1966 (Season 1, Episode 6)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Enterprise picks up untrustworthy entrepreneur Harry Mudd accompanied by three beautiful women who immediately put a spell on all the male crew members.

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title | Federation | Space | Starship | Computer

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
Roger C. Carmel	...	Harry Mudd
Karen Steele	...	Eve McHuron
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Maggie Thrett	...	Ruth
Susan Denberg	...	Magda
James Doohan	...	Scott
George Takei	...	Sulu
Jim Goodwin	...	Farrell
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Gene Dynarski	...	Ben
John Kowal	...	Herm (as Jon Kowal)
Seamon Glass	...	Benton
Jerry Foxworth	...	Guard

Runtime:

50 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Canada:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

Mudd's record notes under Sentences: Psychiatric Treatment... Effectiveness Disputed. His Future Police Record Code is X731248.

Goofs:

Continuity: When McCoy, Spock, and Scotty seem to be mesmerized by the women after they are beamed aboard, a close-up of McCoy shows him wearing his medical smock. All other shots of this scene show him without the smock.

Quotes:

Harcourt Fenton Mudd aka Leo Walsh: [to Spock] You're part Vulcanian, aren't you?
[Spock doesn't answer, just hums]
Harcourt Fenton Mudd aka Leo Walsh: Ah, well, then a pretty face doesn't affect you at all, unless you want it to. You can save it, girls. This type can turn himself off from any emotion.

His name is Mudd, up to his old tricks, for the first time

This is the first appearance of Harry Mudd, scoundrel of space, a con artist whose cargo are three lovely ladies. He next showed up in the episode "I,Mudd" and even a cartoon version popped up in the animated series in '73. I was never a big fan of the character like many other Trek fans; of all the characters to bring back, they chose this oaf with the huge belt buckle, a throwback to the era of stylish pirates with big earrings. Sure, he can be amusing, but in small doses; after 10 minutes, you want to throw him in the brig to shut him up. He sort of reminds me of the typical characters encountered on the more silly "Lost in Space" TV show. Carmel, a good actor, also tended to be something of a ham and couldn't resist some over-the-top scenery chewing.

This is one of the weaker episodes of the first season, slow going and uneventful. There's a bit of mystery surrounding the three women, who have an odd effect on all the male crew (except Spock, who looks on bemused), causing involuntary arousal. I was more interested in the early use of the transporter at the beginning of the episode, when Mudd's ship is destroyed, but the women had not yet transported to safety on the Enterprise and, for a few moments, there's a question as to whether they would be. For a few seconds, this means they were neither dead or alive, in some limbo, and it all depended on Scotty's and Spock's deft handling of the machinery. This would mirror similar scenes involving transporter use in later episodes. Towards the final act, our beloved starship is once again in danger of spiraling down to its destruction on the planet it orbits, similar to the much more effective "The Naked Time" episode made close to the same time.

But there's no sense of actual tension during this episode. Mostly, the captain and his crew are irritated by Mudd and perplexed by the women - that's pretty much it. The entire plot seems somewhat beneath Kirk and his ship to deal with, including the subplot about some possibly illegal drug. Interestingly, Kirk is all business in this episode, with no time for romance. There is one great exchange between Kirk & McCoy as they conjecture on the mysterious aura of the women and at least one fine performance from guest star Dynarski as one of the miners in the 2nd half of the show. He would later appear as a completely different character in a much later episode, "The Mark of Gideon."