Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 4: Mudd's Women [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Even in the far reaches of space, one must be careful not to be victimized by the con-man. And since the Ferengi would not make their presence known for another century in the Star Trek universe, Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) gladly took advantage of any profitable venture that presented itself. If there still were snake oil men in the 23rd century, Mudd was their poster boy.

The U.S.S. Enterprise saves the crew of an unknown ship from destruction. The doomed ship's survivors beam aboard and are revealed to be Harry Mudd and three beautiful women: Ruth Bonaventure (Maggie Thrett), Eve McHuron (Karen Steele) and Magda Kovacs (Susan Denberg). Mudd tells Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) that he was taking the women to Ophiuchus VI to be brides for the settlers there. However, the Enterprise heads to Rigel XII instead to replace their burned-out lithium crystals. Once there, Mudd's women are exposed as frauds - their outward beauty was the result of an illegal drug.

Well, Star Trek hit a bump in the road with "Mudd's Women." The only redeeming aspect of this episode is its biting commentary on manufactured beauty. Aside from that, it is boring, slow, and tedious. The character of Harry Mudd would fare better when he returned later in the series but his initial outing is nothing memorable. He is fondly remembered today only because of his subsequent appearance in "I, Mudd." If "Mudd's Women" was Mudd's sole appearance in the series then he would now only be an answer to a second-tier Star Trek trivia question.

The U.S.S Enterprise NCC 1701 pursues a Class J cargo ship which is not responding to hails. After the cargo ship pushes her engines to far and breaks down in an asteroid field, Captain Krik rescues Harry Mudd, a space trader who specialises in wives. But in capturing Harry Mudd the Enterprise is crippled and on auxilary power must get new dilithium crystals from mining planet Rigel 12. However after Harry Mudd is arrested by Captain James T Kirk, for various criminal charges, Harry has other plans for the crew of the Enterprise. A very good episode by Gene Roddenberry which gives us plenty of humour from the cast of Star Trek and some classical moments of the original series. We also see Harry Mudd again in another episode later in the series.

This was my 3rd Star Trek I ever saw and I loved it.The U.S.S. Enterprise computers reveal that Mudd has been charged with a number of infractions of the law. In pursuit of Mudd's ship, the U.S.S. Enterprise has burned out it's dilithium crystals, which power the starship's engines, and Kirk orders them to proceed as quickly as possible to the nearest dilithium mining planet. That planet is Rigel XII, which is inhabited by only three miners.

Mudd manages to contact Ben Childress, the head miner, and make a deal with him. Mudd promises to deliver the three beautiful women to the lonely miners in exchange for dilithium crystals and their help in escaping Kirk.

Upon reaching the planet, Eve tries to escape, having fallen for Kirk and not wanting to marry one of the miners, but Ben Childress brings her back. They discover that the women are using an extremely illegal Venus drug to make them beautiful and without they become quite plain. By the time the fraud is discovered, Magda and Ruth are already married to the miners, to the satisfaction of all parties involved. Eve, who realizes that Kirk is married to his career and to his starship, settles for marrying Ben. Kirk gets the crystals he needs for the U.S.S. Enterprise and Harry Mudd, on whom he has filed criminal charges.

Past reviewers have labeled this episode as too slow or touchy-feely. In truth, "Mudd's Women," along with other first-season episodes, reveals the extraordinary flexibility of the Star Trek format. It uses a sci-fi element -- that of the Venus drug -- but is at heart a very human story.

It is also wickedly funny. The Enterprise chases a thief and con man into an asteroid field, in the process damaging Enterprise shields and depleting its fuel (called "lithium" crystals rather than "di-lithium" crystals as in later episodes). The con man is Harry Mudd (the late, great Roger Carmel), the most colorful liar and cheater this side of Andromeda.

Mudd has valuable cargo: three sirens, who make McCoy's scanners go "bleep" and who make every male Enterprise crew member salivate (except for Spock, who views the proceedings with decidely un-Vulcanlike amusement). Mudd uses the women as bargaining chips with three lonely lithium miners, who hold the Enterprise hostage until Kirk drops charges against Harry Mudd.

Admittedly, the episode is less action-packed than some, having no fist-fights or monsters in a rubber suit. This is Star Trek for adults. Though there is an attraction between Kirk and one of the women, named Eve, he acts like a responsible leader rather than going into seduction mode as he would in later seasons.

In the end, he turns psychologist, revealing the episode's message: the women never needed the Venus drug if they had belief in themselves. There is also a subplot involving Eve and one of the miners, showing her to be not a sex object but a three-dimensional person. This episode begins with an adolescent approach to sexuality and ends with an adult one. As I stated, Star Trek for adults.

The Enterprise encounters space pirate Harry Mudd for the first time, and his "cargo" is a bevvy of beautiful women. Harry's always looking for a good deal, and if he can marry off his ladies to the lonely miners of Rigel 12, he figures he'll make a good haul. But, as Kirk discovers, the ladies looks are deceiving, and the artful Roger (the great Roger C. Carmel as Mudd) will have a lot of 'splainin to do about Mudd's Women.

Despite the obvious pre-feminist and somewhat sexist attitude toward the women in this episode from '66, it is still enjoyable and I love it when Eve dresses down Childress about the pots and pans ("Why don't you hang them outside and let the sand blast them clean?").

Well, you have to admit that once you see it, you get sort of used to Star Trek, even though there have only been four episodes. The best one of these four is Where No Man Has Gone Before, but if you're not satisfied with the way that episode goes, Mudd's Women probably substitutes a bit. Now, if you don't like the beginning, I don't blame you. I didn't really like it either. But please, don't forward it. Any second it's going to get good. I just can't remember when, except that it's like any other episode or movie, it gets better as time passes. If you think about this movie having that characteristic, you're sure to like it.

There are a couple of continuity points to mention about this episode. First, the power source of the Enterprise is introduced as lithium crystals (as opposed to the later technological breakthrough of dilithium crystals). Second, Spock is identified by Mudd as being "Vulcanian." This is the first time Spock's race is named, even if Mudd didn't get it exactly right.

This episode also begins to explore the idea that the only woman in Kirk's life will be the Enterprise.

"Mudd's Women" is a fun episode for its first half. Mudd befuddles Kirk and Kirk befuddles him right back and the exchanges are wonderfully amusing. The last half of the episode, however, takes a darker turn as the Enterprise is seriously threatened by Mudd's interference. Once Kirk gains the upper hand again at the very end, though, Mudd is back to being charming and we're reminded of the fun we had as the episode began. It's too bad we had to take that dark detour in what was otherwise a light-hearted adventure.

One other complaint: Mudd claims to develop a plan that will allow him to take over the Enterprise, but it's never revealed how he will accomplish this. The best he seems to do is to endanger the ship and the lives of everyone aboard in a scheme to extort his freedom from Kirk.

No matter where humans go and how sophisticated our technology becomes, affairs of the heart will remain. As humans become scattered on several planets and the time to pass from one settlement to another gets greater, an old problem will arise once more. Women and men, isolated on separate planets, will want to meet each other with the purpose being matrimony. Throughout the history of the human species, a great deal of the early development of new areas has been engineered by entrepreneurial rogues. There is no reason to believe that the human movement into space will be any different on both counts.
A small ship tries to evade the Enterprise and they give chase. The ship goes into an asteroid field and is destroyed, although the people on board are saved. However, the Enterprise burns out all of its dilithium crystals in the rescue and the crew is forced to rely on their limited battery reserves. The captain of the ship turns out to be a scoundrel called Harry Mudd, who seems incapable of telling the truth about anything and the other three people are wildly attractive women. Their very presence has a hypnotic quality on the men. They are in fact Mudd's cargo, as he is transporting them to other colonies so that they can find husbands. Bored and isolated on their home planets, they willingly left with Mudd so they could look for mates. Their sex appeal is artificial, generated by Venus drugs.
Damaged and with limited power, the Enterprise makes for a mining colony where they can replenish their crystals. However, Mudd contacts the miners first and they refuse to part with the crystals unless they can meet with Mudd's women. Of course, they fall for the women and a stand-off ensues, as Kirk refuses to trade the women for the crystals. One of the women (Eve) breaks down under the strain and after a further test of wills, the truth about the drugs comes out. In a ruse, Kirk demonstrates that the women always possessed their sex appeal, as Eve downs a placebo rather than the drug. Eve, thinking she had ingested the drug, turns the charm back on until told that she had that talent all along. The leader of the miners then gives Kirk the crystals and the Enterprise leaves with Mudd in custody.
On one level this is a fun episode, Harry Mudd is a character that appeared one other time in a guest- starring role and should have appeared more often. Had the producers done it right, they could have developed a character with recurrent fan appeal similar to that of `Q' on TNG. The one serious flaw in the episode is when the miners refuse to turn dilithium crystals over to the Enterprise. The ship is crippled and will spiral into the atmosphere without the crystals. This would have made their refusal to turn them over an act of mass murder and even the most testosterone-addled male brain would have known that. Nevertheless, the scene of the hearing where Mudd is being tried is a classic one. When the computer begins describing the physiological reactions in the male members of the review board it is one of the funniest, understated scenes in the entire series.

Well, you have to admit that once you see it, you get sort of used to Star Trek, even though there have only been four episodes. The best one of these four is Where No Man Has Gone Before, but if you're not satisfied with the way that episode goes, Mudd's Women probably substitutes a bit. Now, if you don't like the beginning, I don't blame you. I didn't really like it either. But please, don't forward it. Any second it's going to get good. I just can't remember when, except that it's like any other episode or movie, it gets better as time passes. If you think about this movie having that characteristic, you're sure to like it. And also, if you think this movie is about stuff like kissing, it's not. I hope that'll be a relief to you.

The crew of the Enterprise lose their composure as the wickedly funny slimeball weasel Harry Mudd introduces them to three irresistible women. The fun runs out about 2/3 of the way through the episode, but Harry Mudd's antics and scheming sustain the story. The other Harry Mudd episode is far superior to this one, though.