I love that poster - I never thought of Harry as a literal moustache twirler before but yep - there he is! The episode itself; pretty shallow once they get off the ship, but I think that was supposed to be the intention. Not offensive or boring, but neither is it my favourite of the "season 2 comedy collection" (that prize goes to Space Gangsters)
A six for me with nudge higher. Lots of good I felt but overall not great IMO. Carmel is good and goodness whoever was Mudd's wife , scary indeed
Roger C. Carmel was great, as always, but this is the worst of the TOS "comedy" episodes, in my opinion. I gave it a five.
6, and that's probably being a more than a bit generous. Yes, Roger C. Carmel was very good in this, but frankly I never much cared for this episode... it was too cute by a half. The goofy music and slapstick antics in the second half of the episode lent a Three Stooges aura to the events. And as great a producer as Gene Coon was, when he was off Roddenberry's leash--like he was here--he often went way overboard on the comedy. This episode plays a bit like Hogan's Heroes in outer space to me... and I never cared much for Hogan's Heroes (outside of the great theme music played during the opening credits). But as we see in the blasphemous thread, "Doomsday Machine not best of TOS," it doesn't take that much to entertain some.... (sigh)... There, I said it. Like Korby told Andrea, "Deal with it!" JUST KIDDING. Well, maybe not. On a more serious note, one of the most disappointing things about TOS is how the series failed to sustain the great stories and the momentum they generated from the last 5-10 episodes of season one through the first 5-10 episodes of season two. By the time this episode was shot, TOS had started its slow downward trend in quality that would rapidly pick up steam in season three.
I wasn't kee on either Harry Mudd episodes to be honest but hey, you've got to have a few rocks in with the diamonds haven't you! Plus we got to look at the lovely Susan Denberg in Mudd's Women and awhole host of beauties for I Mudd! I was really embarassed by the crew's attempts to confuse the androids but that was made up for seeing Nichelle's lithe body but you can keep Stella coz I sure don't want her! JB
Interesting tidbit...I'd watched this episode many times before I "got" that when the characters were pointing their fingers like guns and whistling, they were imitating phasers as a 23rd-century child might while playing "Starfleet and Klingons". For the first several viewings, I just saw it as another random bit of nonsense in that sequence. Also, makes me wonder how a 24th-century child might do the same thing, given that damn dustbuster shape. The point is probably moot, as 24th-century children would be too evolved to blah blah blah.
One of the few episodes that I can't stand. I gave it a 2 only because of "And the Children Shall Lead" which is worse.