Mudd's Women
- Episode aired Oct 13, 1966
- TV-PG
- 50m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
4.8K
YOUR RATING
The Enterprise picks up untrustworthy entrepreneur Harry Mudd accompanied by three beautiful women who immediately put a spell on all the male crew members.The Enterprise picks up untrustworthy entrepreneur Harry Mudd accompanied by three beautiful women who immediately put a spell on all the male crew members.The Enterprise picks up untrustworthy entrepreneur Harry Mudd accompanied by three beautiful women who immediately put a spell on all the male crew members.
Majel Barrett
- Enterprise Computer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci
- Vinci
- (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey
- Connors
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaGerald Perry Finnerman was encouraged to be creative in choosing dramatic lighting and camera angles. Robert H. Justman recalled that he said to Finnerman, "We're all in outer space, Jerry, and we're in color. NBC claims to be the first full-color network, so let's prove it for them. When you light the sets, throw wild colors in - magenta, red, green, any color you can find - especially behind the actors when they're in a close shot. Be dramatic. In fact, go overboard. Backlight the women and make them more beautiful. Take some chances. Nobody can tell you that's not the way the future will look. How can they? They ain't been there yet." Bob Justman was very pleased with the final results in this episode. He stated, "Guest stars Karen Steele, Maggie Thrett, and Susan Denberg, good-looking in real life, looked even more radiantly lovely and ravishing as they worked their magic upon Captain Kirk and crew - after Jerry worked his magic upon the three actresses."
- GoofsWhen 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
Eve McHuron: Oh, the sound of male ego. You travel half way across the galaxy and it's still the same song.
- Alternate versionsSpecial Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
- ConnectionsFeatured in William Shatner's Star Trek Memories (1995)
- SoundtracksTheme From Star Trek
Written by and credited to Alexander Courage
Featured review
"Blast that tin-plated pot!"
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.
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.
helpful•2911
- MaxBorg89
- Apr 1, 2009
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