The Adventures of Harry Mudd

[Spock's Barber]

Season 1 "Mudd's Women"
Season 2 "I, Mudd"

Put on your creative thinking caps. 2 part question:

(1) What scheme would Harry Mudd have concocted to irritate Kirk, if Mudd had actually made an appearance in Season 3?

(2) What atrocious Season 3 episode would you have replaced with a Mudd episode?

 

[Warped9]

Mudd was basically a one-note character with limited story potential. Even before seeing him reappear in TAS' "Mudd's Passion" I had zero interest in seeing him again.

We should also remember that Harry sent out Norman to bring back a starship and Norman happened to get hold of Kirk and the Enterprise when he might just as easily have gotten hold of somone else. Mudd said it himself that anyone would have done, but he was just lucky to have nabbed Kirk.

Of course all this underlines that obviously there was a ship available for Harry to get away, but the androids wouldn't let him go. It also begs the question: just how did Norman arrange to get himself aboard a Starfleet vessel and accepted as a transferred crewman? He couldn't just stowaway so he would have had to convincingly falsify orders (as well as a complete service record) assigning him to whatever ship was at hand.


There's also this: http://www.amazon.com/Mudds-Angels-...&qid=1414345663&sr=1-2&keywords=Mudd's+Angels
and this: http://www.amazon.com/Mudd-Your-Eye...tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1414345411&sr=1-2

 

[Spock's Barber]

How about "Harry's Brain" instead of "Spock's Brain"? It couldn't have been any worse of an episode. Or could it???

 

[Corylea]

Put Harry Mudd in "And the Children Shall Lead" instead of the Gorgon, and that episode might be more watchable ... and I say that as someone who doesn't see the supposed charm of Harry Mudd.

How about "Harry's Brain" instead of "Spock's Brain"? It couldn't have been any worse of an episode. Or could it???

I actually kinda like "Spock's Brain." Heaven knows it's not GOOD, but it has a certain goofy charm, which other bad episodes, like "The Alternative Factor" and "And the Children Shall Lead" don't have. I also just have a soft spot for it because it was the first Star Trek episode I ever saw. I was eleven at the time, so I didn't see the badness; instead I wondered what was so special about this Spock guy that someone would want his brain and who these people were who were so concerned about him.

And you know what, Spock's brain IS special. It's a wonder people weren't lined up to steal the damned thing every week.

 

[Warped9]

Roddenberry objected to the idea of Kirk and crew running into the same characters again because it made the galaxy seem so small. If the Enterprise is supposed to be going somewhere new all the time during its mission then it's highly unlikely that they would run into the same people they had already encountered.

Roddenberry was away when "I, Mudd" was put into production and when he got back he was apparently not pleased, partly because he didn't care for the over-the-top comedy aspects of the story. And while it's against the odds for the Enterprise crew to have encountered Harry Mudd once again it's not impossible. But lo run into Mudd yet again in Season 3 or as it actually happened in TAS is really pushing the limits of credibility.

 

[publiusr]

Well, if you are wanted on just about every planet there is--you might want to stick to the outskirts as well--so exploration vessels might be all you see.

I can see him and Cyrano Jones both in trouble with the Orion Syndicate, in a dispute with the Ferengi.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Roddenberry objected to the idea of Kirk and crew running into the same characters again because it made the galaxy seem so small.

I think he was right, and that was one reason I didn't like the mid 80's run of DC's Star Trek comics. They had gotten the green light to use characters and concepts from the original series, and as temptation would have it, the flood gates were opened: Vaal, Commodore Stocker, Bele (or Lokai)...you name it. It felt more like a high school reunion.

I sort of get the temptation....but it just seems too easy to overdo it. And boy, did they!

 

[Sir Rhosis]

To clarify just slightly -- from the memos I have read (not nearly as many as Harvey, but a good amount), it was Robert Justman who objected strenuously to Kirk running into old foes, not GR.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Warped9]

Roddenberry objected to the idea of Kirk and crew running into the same characters again because it made the galaxy seem so small.

I think he was right, and that was one reason I didn't like the mid 80's run of DC's Star Trek comics. They had gotten the green light to use characters and concepts from the original series, and as temptation would have it, the flood gates were opened: Vaal, Commodore Stocker, Bele (or Lokai)...you name it. It felt more like a high school reunion.

I sort of get the temptation....but it just seems too easy to overdo it. And boy, did they!

And this is something folks talk about in regard to fanfic including fan films. Some fans want to revisit certain characters while others want to maintain that tradition of seeing something and someone new.

I've touched on it. I wrote a fanfic story that featured Finnegan. My rationalization was that the Finnegan seen in "Shore Leave" wasn't the real Finnegan, but a replica who looked like Kirk remembered him from fifteen years earlier. In my story we meet the real and older Finnegan as he exists in the present. And, yes, he did retain some aspects of his younger self.

We could also say that the replica Kirk encountered was his mind's idea of Finnegan as opposed to what the real one was really like. The roguish aspects could have been exaggerated in Kirk's imagination.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Put Harry Mudd in "And the Children Shall Lead" instead of the Gorgon, and that episode might be more watchable ... and I say that as someone who doesn't see the supposed charm of Harry Mudd.

That sounds interesting. At least the late Roger C. Carmel had more charisma and acting ability than Melvin Belli. I remember reading that Belli got the part because he was friends with Fred Freiberger, or something like that.

 

[Corylea]

At least the late Roger C. Carmel had more charisma and acting ability than Melvin Belli.

For sure! It's the character Harry Mudd that I dislike; I think the actor did a marvelous job.

I remember reading that Belli got the part because he was friends with Fred Freiberger, or something like that.

Stunt casting was a thing during that era; Star Trek wasn't the only show that was casting people like Belli. Of course, he could have been Freiberger's friend, too; the two things aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Spock's Barber]

At least the late Roger C. Carmel had more charisma and acting ability than Melvin Belli.

For sure! It's the character Harry Mudd that I dislike; I think the actor did a marvelous job.

I remember reading that Belli got the part because he was friends with Fred Freiberger, or something like that.

Stunt casting was a thing during that era; Star Trek wasn't the only show that was casting people like Belli. Of course, he could have been Freiberger's friend, too; the two things aren't mutually exclusive.

....and that puffy dress-like costume that Belli wore didn't help the episode any. Not one of my favorite Bill Theiss designs.

 

[Melakon]

Harry could have found Flint's planet first, Flint could have had an "unfortunate accident", and Rayna could have been Harry's current companion.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Harry could have found Flint's planet first, Flint could have had an "unfortunate accident", and Rayna could have been Harry's current companion.

If I was Kirk, I would make a special trip to pick up Stella and reunite her with Mudd.

 

[plynch]

I HATE when the Gorgon turns physically ugly at the end. So cheap. Bad things have to be ugly. Bla bla bla.

I like Harry Mudd better in S1 when he is more sinister, but can turn on the charm. (Though I think it unlikely I'll ever watch that boring and sexist episode again.)

 

[Spock's Barber]

I like Harry Mudd better in S1 when he is more sinister, but can turn on the charm. (Though I think it unlikely I'll ever watch that boring and sexist episode again.)

I remember that during pre-production, the NBC censors were very concerned about the not-so-subtle overtones of drug use and prostitution in the episode.

 

[Redfern]

Yup, Harry Mudd was a straight up pimp in that episode. About the only thing missing from his ensemble was a cape with a fur collar and a cane with a garish bauble mounted upon it.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Marsden]

Ok, maybe not exactly in the spirit of the op, but...


Harry Mud and Cyrano Jones form a business partnership providing pet tribbles to lonely miners on isolated colonies but run afowl of the Enterprise crew when they sell false tribble patents to Spock's mother, all this in the backdrop of Jim and Bones ongoing relationship problems after Jim marries Bones's daughter Johanna,....

Next time on, "I'm not your doctor, I'm your Father in Law!"

 

[Spock's Barber]

Ok, maybe not exactly in the spirit of the op, but...


Harry Mud and Cyrano Jones form a business partnership providing pet tribbles to lonely miners on isolated colonies but run afowl of the Enterprise crew when they sell false tribble patents to Spock's mother, all this in the backdrop of Jim and Bones ongoing relationship problems after Jim marries Bones's daughter Johanna,....

Next time on, "I'm not your doctor, I'm your Father in Law!"

That sounds good to me. I was actually thinking of how Harry Mudd would pair up with Cyrano Jones. As Spock would say, "Interesting."

 

[Warped9]