Shameless weasel Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel, "The Silencers") figures out a way to strand Kirk and other principal Enterprise crew members on a planet populated mostly by androids. These androids basically exist to serve others, as well as do research into species like humans. They're also very powerful, so Kirk has to figure out how to outwit them and render them powerless.
I'm not a particularly big fan of the comedy episodes myself, nor was I really eager to see an encore appearance by Mudd, but I would be lying if I said that 'I, Mudd' didn't give me some good laughs. It *does* have that interesting hook of out-thinking the androids, and what Kirk comes up with is pretty ingenious: behaving as irrationally and illogically (yes, Spock will act in this manner, too) as possible. To that end, the "celebration of captivity" really struck me as rich.
The character of Mudd may be an acquired taste for some viewers, but I did enjoy Carmels' hearty performance. What was fun was realizing that he was as much a prisoner on that planet as Kirk & crew, so he pretty much HAD to work with them to defeat the androids. And they DO make a good team.
'I, Mudd' *is* absurd overall, but I had a reasonably good time with it. It's an agreeably silly diversion as classic 'Star Trek' episodes go.
Six out of 10.
I'm not a particularly big fan of the comedy episodes myself, nor was I really eager to see an encore appearance by Mudd, but I would be lying if I said that 'I, Mudd' didn't give me some good laughs. It *does* have that interesting hook of out-thinking the androids, and what Kirk comes up with is pretty ingenious: behaving as irrationally and illogically (yes, Spock will act in this manner, too) as possible. To that end, the "celebration of captivity" really struck me as rich.
The character of Mudd may be an acquired taste for some viewers, but I did enjoy Carmels' hearty performance. What was fun was realizing that he was as much a prisoner on that planet as Kirk & crew, so he pretty much HAD to work with them to defeat the androids. And they DO make a good team.
'I, Mudd' *is* absurd overall, but I had a reasonably good time with it. It's an agreeably silly diversion as classic 'Star Trek' episodes go.
Six out of 10.