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Harcourt Fenton Mudd, whats the point of this guy ?

Hmh? Mudd in his second episode wasn't a villain bent on hurting our heroes. He was a desperate guy trying to escape from the android hell; the plan to hijack the Enterprise was probably mostly Norman's doing anyway, even if Mudd brainstormed the basic idea in order to get his good buddy Kirk to help him out.

And the plan - whether it was Harry's idea, Norman's idea or a combination - wasn't to get revenge on Kirk.
"Any starship captain would have sufficed. I was just lucky enough to have gotten you."


You really buy that line from Mudd?:confused: Nah, I think he just said that to be facetious. I think he wanted to get back at Kirk for messing with his business.
 
Hmh? Mudd in his second episode wasn't a villain bent on hurting our heroes. He was a desperate guy trying to escape from the android hell; the plan to hijack the Enterprise was probably mostly Norman's doing anyway, even if Mudd brainstormed the basic idea in order to get his good buddy Kirk to help him out.

And the plan - whether it was Harry's idea, Norman's idea or a combination - wasn't to get revenge on Kirk.
"Any starship captain would have sufficed. I was just lucky enough to have gotten you."


You really buy that line from Mudd?:confused: Nah, I think he just said that to be facetious. I think he wanted to get back at Kirk for messing with his business.

If he believes he has Kirk trapped, why would he lie? Seems to me he'd be gloating about getting back at him. :shrug:
 
You know the "anti-hero"? Mudd is the anti-villain -- a very old filmic icon going back at least to W.C. Fields. We love him, we hate him, he's fun!

For my money, "I, Mudd" is the best comedy installment of all the multiple series. If you don't get the joke, explaining it just won't help.

Lighten up, people! Enjoy the ride!
 
And the plan - whether it was Harry's idea, Norman's idea or a combination - wasn't to get revenge on Kirk.


You really buy that line from Mudd?:confused: Nah, I think he just said that to be facetious. I think he wanted to get back at Kirk for messing with his business.

If he believes he has Kirk trapped, why would he lie? Seems to me he'd be gloating about getting back at him. :shrug:

I think that choosing the Enterprise was intentional. Remember, at the beginning of the episode, Spock says Mr. Norman has only been on the ship for 72 hours. Later we learn that after Norman has taken over the ship, goes into sleep mode, and later awakens to ask the crew to join him down on his planet, four more days have passed. That means that Norman left his planet and travelled to a position 7 days away so that he could be picked up at some point by a starship. That means, he had to have somehow known the flight plans for Federation starships. Is it a coincidence that he happened to choose the ship commanded by the very person who had arrested Mudd earlier?
 
If I remember correctly, Bob Greenberger reported in one on the DC Comics letter columns that the writers of TNG were working on an outline for an episode that would feature Mudd. But then they found out the actor had passed.

It coulda been great...

Guess research wasn't their strong suit. :rolleyes:
 
Roger Carmel died back in late 1986. He wasn't exactly high profile, just one of a bunch of tv actors that guest appear on many shows, some more memorably than others. Some get immortalized like Neil Hamilton of Batman. Carmel was Harry Mudd, Colonel Gumm, Cyclonus, and 1 of the Gummi Bears. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know he had died. But yes, the original intent of "The Neutral Zone" was to have Harry Mudd cryogenically frozen. The episode was rewritten obviously.
 
You know the "anti-hero"? Mudd is the anti-villain -- a very old filmic icon going back at least to W.C. Fields. We love him, we hate him, he's fun!

For my money, "I, Mudd" is the best comedy installment of all the multiple series. If you don't get the joke, explaining it just won't help.

Lighten up, people! Enjoy the ride!

It really is. I guess if you don't like it, you don't - but for God's sake, don't then turn around and start carping about how come Trek never have a little fun.
 
Roger Carmel died back in late 1986. He wasn't exactly high profile, just one of a bunch of tv actors that guest appear on many shows. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know he had died.


I read about his death a day or two after it happened in my local paper 3,000 miles from Hollywood. I guess it wasn't newsworthy enough for Variety.
 
I think a lot of Mudd's "plans" were made up as he went along. Something would start out one way, go pear shaped and he's just BS till he weaseled a way out the side door when the other wasn't looking. Hell he might even considered Kirk a friend of sorts. They certainly didn't seem to part on bad terms either time, just more like Kirk getting the last laugh.

It always intrigued me how a charlatan like Mudd could float around the universe untroubled in any small craft available yet our intrepid Enterprise crew couldnt go 10 minutes without attracting the nearest bad guys.
Simple: Mudd is a down on his luck grifter just surviving from con job to con job, always talking big but really is just a little fish. Nothing to draw attention, nothing worth shaking down.

Kirk and Co. - A big name Captain, a front line ship with a rep, constantly tossed into high tension situations and assignments. That's a magnet for people looking to make a name for beating "James T Kirk" or making enemies by being the authority on station to deal with a problem.
 
Roger Carmel died back in late 1986. He wasn't exactly high profile, just one of a bunch of tv actors that guest appear on many shows, some more memorably than others. Some get immortalized like Neil Hamilton of Batman. Carmel was Harry Mudd, Colonel Gumm, Cyclonus, and 1 of the Gummi Bears. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know he had died. But yes, the original intent of "The Neutral Zone" was to have Harry Mudd cryogenically frozen. The episode was rewritten obviously.



And IIRC, it was to have ended with Mudd sacrificing his life. Supposedly his final line would have been "This is for MY Enterprise!"
 
He's got a darker side and almost ends up destroying the E indirectly in his first ep. But that's not one of the "comedy" eps.
 
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