I'm not sure what that means.
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
- Start date
I'm not sure what that means.
I haven't a clue either, but maybe it'd make someone happy? A visual reboot existing in its own visual timeline. The Guardian of Forever would get it.
Funnily enough, that's the lens though which I watch the modern live-action Trek shows (well, DSC and SNW - PIC is another matter entirely!).
What the term visual reboot or aesthetic reboot means (to me anyway) is that the underlying "historic" events behind the stories are the same in both TOS and DSC/SNW but they just look different on a surface level. This analogy isn't perfect of course since visual changes lead to technical changes which lead to plot changes, but it works well enough for me to enjoy the modern shows.
FWIW the concept of "concrete facts" being visualised in two, apparently contradictory ways was something I picked up from a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel (possibly Pyramids). It has a scene where reality breaks down and suddenly ALL myths and legends which were ever believed start manifesting, even those which contradict each other. In the Discworld version of Egypt there's one myth which explains the movement of the sun as a fiery ball which is pushed across the sky by a giant dung beetle, and another myth which explains that the sun and moon are the eyes of a god which stares down at the earth. In the scene in question, you could see the dung beetle by squinting through one eye and the giant god-face by squinting through your other eye. Both myths were true and present, it just depended from which POV you looked at the events.
I know that this is all a little silly, but there you go
Episode 01x06* - Mudd’s Women
*Again, this episode is one involved in the production order/airing date discrepancy - this was the fourth Star Trek episode produced and the sixth to air. But as previously said, I’m going for production order on my rewatch.
I will first start off with my history lesson. This episode starts off on stardate 1329.8 so here is a list of unrelated historical events that took place on this year on the planet Earth - so you have a choice now; you can either carry on reading my review, taking the red pill, or you can learn a bit about history and take this blue pill that I also offer. Take your pick! Maybe take both pills? I don’t mind!
The USS Enteprise is in hot pursuit of a vessel, we are left with the hook of just why exactly the Enterprise is chasing it. Uhura is still in yellow, so we can tell that this episode was produced earlier in the production run before things like this costuming discrepancy had been ‘ironed out’. The fleeing vessel becomes trapped in a beautiful rendered asteroid field, I can almost imagine Michael Burnham flying through it in one of her space suits dodging asteroids. The vessel get’s in to difficulties and Kirk makes the decision to risk his ship and crew to rescue those onboard - he orders for the ships deflector shields to be extended around the fleeing ship. In doing so, which risks the possibility of overloading the engines, one of the ships ‘lithium’ crystals is actually blown. This will become an important plot point later in this weeks episode. Of course, it is obvious to us all that these ‘lithium’ crystals are the precursors to ‘Dilithium’ crystals. I remember back at school putting my hand up during a lesson and asking my physics teacher if dilithium crystals were real, he ridiculed me for asking “they only exist in Star Trek” he said as the whole class laughed at me. Anyway, lithium crystals *of sorts* are used to store electricity; lithium ion batteries, so it could have been one of the Enterprise’s lithium ion batteries which blew in this episode if they really wanted it to be lithium. The Enterprise could have had one of these powering it.
Despite the setback, the rescue mission is successful and a cowboy like figure is beamed on to the Enterprise transporter pad, he has a strong Irish accent. This cowboy wants his cargo… luckily for him - and others eventually - his precious cargo is beamed on board just as the vessel is pummelled by asteroids and destroyed. Three women who meet the 1960’s Hollywood ideal of ‘beauty’ are revealed as this man’s cargo. Funnily enough, I’m sure my phone is listening to me, the track ‘Casanova (Sexy Fantasy)’ plays for the first time on my first listen of the Star Trek Voyager Soundtrack Collection as I type my thoughts up about this scene. However, it fails to seduce me as intended as do the ladies on the screen. These ladies, undeniably beautiful, stand seductively and girate their hips paying particular attention to McCoy, Spock and Scotty. I can now only begin to describe this man as a human trafficker if these women are indeed his precious cargo of ‘perfect mates’. ‘The Perfect mate’ is also a Next Generation episode title with a storyline which deals with the topic of the transportation of a women as ‘cargo’ for marriage, maybe ‘Mudd’s Women’ is where the TNG writer of this episode got his or her inspiration? I will refer back to this one day when I do a TNG rewatch! There is also a Star Trek: Enterprise episode called ‘Precious Cargo’ which has Commander Trip Tucker falling in love with a lady who is also being transported as cargo. The women in this particular 1960’s episode however continue to pucker their lips at our crew, eyeing them up as potential… erm, I don’t know yet. The human trafficker looks at his women proudly, then he nods to our heroes suggesting to them that yes, they are *his* women. We had similar lip puckering instances between characters last week, it is curious that we are seeing such facial expressions again in this episode. Perhaps the producers were nervous that the characters last week could be perceived as being ‘homosexual’ so they wanted to make an episode this week which clarifies their sexuality, showing all of the Enterprise crew on heat for these women. One of the women ‘purrs’ at Scotty - the sexual tension in the room is above the scales. If they ever remade this episode, maybe they could change the three women to be more ‘ representatitive’ - one male, one female and one they. *All* of the crew could then still find them equally attractive, pushing gender boundaries and also showing that *anyone* can physically be attracted to anyone regardless of gender? Kirk and crew could equally fancy the male, the female and the gender fluid/trans character - this would show that Kirk in particular has no prejudice. Anyway, I’m giving too many spoilers away too early for parts of the episode which have not happened yet hehe!
I think that when I watched this episode as a child, scenes such as this would have been confusing to me, I would probably think with my child like mind that the enemy in this weeks episode is a harem of seductive women! I only wanted to watch spaceships, laser beams and aliens! Not this! I can see looking back how I might not have liked Harry Mudd episodes as a child.
“Bridge to transporter room… how many did you get off?” Kirk asks from the bridge. Scotty replies, nervously “oh… um… four in all sir!” This is creative genius from Stephen Kandel in the context of the scene.
It is also to be of note how scantly clad these ladies are, we are ‘treated’ to close ups of their gluteus maximus muscles, which are very well defined causing their garments to pull tight in these areas. The trafficker recognises that his women are having the desired effect on the Enterprise crew and notes that men will always be men no matter how marvellous starships are. I wonder if these women were having the same effect on the Enterprise female crew? This was never made clear on screen, but perhaps it can be clarified in a reboot one day.
We learn that this ‘trafficker’ is called Leo Walsh. We also begin to wonder that perhaps calling Leo a trafficker is a bit extreme as it appears that these women *want* to be with him and perhaps Leo is even helping them in some way? Perhaps he is more of their ‘pimp’ and they are contacted to him, rather than him forcing them to be his ‘cargo’?
Mr Walsh recognises that Spock is half ‘Vulconian’ as they travel in the turbo lift together, he tries to manipulate Spock in to being seduced by his women. Leo thinks that Spock *can* suppress his attraction to them… unless he chose *not* to suppress his urges and unleash his human emotions. At this point I think that the writers might be confusing sexual urges/attraction with emotions. Is sexual attraction an emotion or a chemical urge as a result of visual stimuli? Can you love someone romantically that you are not sexually urged/attracted to? I think so. I believe that they are two different things but that is just my opinion - feel free to express yours, I’m interested!
We next get confirmation that ‘Leo Walsh’ is indeed some form of slave master - one of the ladies confides in Spock and tells him that Leo is very used to buying and selling people.
We are now only 8 minutes in to the episode and a lot has happened! At 8 minutes 27 seconds we have a very funny scene where Spock speaks to Kirk like he is taking the Michael out of him “the commander of the ship would like to see you captain!” He says. Have a listen, it’s funny!
Kirk is next seen frantically scribbling in a book as Spock brings slave master Leo Walsh and his entourage of women to the ready room. We are treated to many more soft focus scenes of the beautiful ladies, accompanied with even more lip puckering, pursing and suggestive gesturing.
“Is this your crew?” Kirk asks with a slight quiver to his voice. “No it is me cargo!” Walsh replies. Kirk gulps… he does not know where to start.
Kirk notes in his log that that three unusual females are having an unusual effect on his crew, in particular the male members. I guess this confirms that these women could not seduce the females of the Enteprrise. Kirk is somewhat surprised that even he is affected. We are not surprised though….
I notice that Leo Walsh has a Bajoran style earring? Maybe he had visited this planet at some point? Perhaps he was trafficking Bajoran females for the Cardassians and he kept the earring as a trophy?
It is now time to put this Leo Walsh through a hearing so that he can answer for his crimes. However, his crimes might not be what we are expecting them to be. Surely he should be under arrest for people smuggling? Let’s wait and see!
Back on the bridge we find out that the lithium crystals are continuing to splinter, all power will eventually be lost if Mr Scott and the engineering department do not come up with a plan pronto. It is confirmed that lithium is not a power store for the Enteprise, it is a substance that energy is filtered through. I can see why they changed this substance to dilithium, it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Luckily there is a mining planet nearby, Rigel 12, so if they set a course to this planet they should be able to procure some more crystals and restore ships functions.
Back in the ready room, alone with his troupe of women, we find out something is definitely not as it seems with Leo Walsh. One of his women accidentally calls him… ‘Harry’. This slave master may not be called ‘Leo Walsh’ after all… I wonder what he is hiding?
Leo is out on trial via ‘AI’ artificial intelligence. The ships computer will decide if ‘Leo’ is telling the truth or not. The first truth that the ships AI uncovers is that Leo Walsh is actually non other than ‘Harcourt Fenton Mudd’, otherwise known as Harry Mudd. I knew it!
“Blast that tin plated pot!” Mudd angrily retorts after his secret identity is uncovered.
Smuggling, purchasing items with counterfeit currency… no mention of human trafficking or slave trading as of yet though. Mudd is eventually charged with travelling without a flight plan or identification beam, failure to answer a ‘starship signal’ and being a menace to navigation operations without a masters license. In other words not having a driving license and evading the authorities.
As Kirk and Mudd continue to discuss each other’s point of views in regards to the crimes that he may or may not have committed, the women continue to give Scotty and McCoy a hard time in particular, being quite predatory. They even take their suggestive facial expressions one step further and begin to narrow their eyes at our heroes. Mudd does however admit that he ‘recruits’ wives for the settlers of a planet called Ophicucus 3. The ships AI becomes further involved in the situation as it detects nothing suspicious about the three women that Mudd has recruited, though it does detect that the Enterprise men are showing signs of sexual attraction to them. Kirk order Spock to wipe this observation from Starfleet records.
Mr Mudd gives his sales pitch…
“Do you see gentlemen, just as I told you… three lovely ladies destined for frontier planets to be the companions of lonely men…”
So, is Mudd more a a ‘dating app’ rather than an actual human trafficker? Surely subspace dating apps were available by the time of 23rd century to prevent this type of ‘recruiting’ from being necessary? Does Tinder still exist in the 23rd century and beyond?
Further in Mudd’s defence, we learn that all of these women come from planets with no men, one for example lived with her brothers and only had ‘automated machines’ for company. This particular women *wants* to be given away by Mudd for a better life. She is even angry at Kirk and his crew for staring at her and her consorts like they are objects of desire, like they were something to ‘objectify’ and achieve sexual gratification from as if they were ‘Saturnius Harem Girls’. But why was she herself and also her friends behaving in such seductive ways if they did not want to be perceived in such a way? The ladies could quite easily have dressed more casually and down played their makeup and posturing etc.
It is decided that Mudd will be handed to the authorities. Mudd’s women are worried what they will do without him to support them, unsure what they will do with themselves once he is gone. Perhaps ‘ownership’ of them will transfer over to Kirk and the Enterprise?
At this point, one of the ladies, Miss McHuron, realises that Kirk must be lonely due to his responsibilities to his ship and crew getting in the way of him getting close to anyone on a romantic level. She tries to seduce Kirk but finds that she can not go through with it. Is this because she truly does not have feeling for him, or because she knows she does genuinely love him and doesn’t want to hurt him in the long term. Perhaps he simply is not ‘rich’ enough for her?
I mentioned in last weeks episode that Kirk maybe didn’t need a women in his life as he is ‘married to his ship’. Coincidentally, These scenes confirm this very theory but expand on this more generally as being that *all* Starfleet Captains are married to their ships, not just Kirk. I think that it is really sad that Starfleet Captain’s can possibly never find the time to settle down properly and have a family in such a way. Though we have the exceptions of Janeway and Sisko, but even those situations were ‘complicated’.
We see a lot of Mr Farrell on the bridge this week, just as much as any other member of the crew. I wonder why they did not make him part of the larger ensemble as the seasons progress?
Instead of being separated from his possibly elicit cargo of women, Mudd is allowed to congregate with them in his quarters. Something even more sinister is revealed about Harry as we find that he is also dealing with a drug like substance, a substance that he is providing to his women. Perhaps this is how he is controlling and manipulating them? It becomes clear that the women need these pills, without them ‘an Instagram filter is lifted’ and they are not quite as perceivably physically desirable or attractive. But again, is this episode about the emotion of ‘love’ or the chemistry of sexual and physical attraction? Are they separate entities or do they always *have* to go hand in hand? Surely these women would be able to find love and start a family either with the pill or without it? It is a choice for them to take this pill but maybe Harry Mudd has got them all addicted to this drug as it also has pleasurable effects on them? It could be his way of controlling his entourage and keeping them his ‘property’. The women proceed to take the pills and get really high, they start to look a bit ‘out of it’, again dancing and gesturing but it a way which seems to show them shedding even more inhibitions, perhaps as a result of the drug. This drug definitely gives Mudd some level of influence and control over the women that he provides it to, supplying it to them for free I guess too - he can recoup costs when the sales go through…
The Enterprise arrives at Rigel 12 and the miners beam onboard to commence trade negotiations, however they are not sure if the crystals are actually for sale though they could potentially be open to suggestion. Perhaps they will swap the crystals… for Mudd’s women. This opens up my next question, do the miners believe that love is more valuable then precious minerals, money and other physical items? If the women end up with these men, would they truly be able to love the miners in return or be attracted to them? Or would the women just settle for a happy life, becoming domestic servants to the miners, being looked after (hopefully) none the less. If Captain Kirk agrees to exchange these women for lithium crystals, is he putting a material value on to their lives in much the same way that Mudd has done? Would it make Kirk just as ‘bad’ as Harrry Mudd, becoming an accessory to or even a perpetrator of human trafficking? Part of the bargain would also include the release of Harry Mudd from Enterprise custody. Could this be Captain Kirk’s ‘In the Pale Moonlight’ moment? This is very reminiscent to some extent of the conflicted decisions that Captain Sisko had to make, though obviously in a very different set of circumstances. Does Kirk save the ship with batteries failing, or does he allow the human trade to complete? After the landing party beams down to the planet, Kirk agrees to the exchange.
Kirk and Mudd take the women to a party on the mining colony, the men of the outpost have not seen any women in a very long time and they start to fight over them. Mudd comes up with an even more dastardly plan at this point, with much guffawing he is going to try to make as much money as possible by selling the women for cash to these rich miners instead of lithium crystals for the Enterprise. He will then take command of the USS Enterprise, seasing it from Captain Kirk and his crew.
Back on the Enteprise in sickbay, McCoy has an encounter with one of Mudd’s women. She brushes past his console and plays the first encounters tune.
“would you walk past my panel again please?” McCoy says suggestively. “Are you wearing something unusual or something…. Radioactive maybe?”.
“No… I am just me…” she replies.
Kirk returns to his quarters and is confronted with the lady Mchuron, one of the ships new cargo. She went to Kirk quarters to hide from the rest of his crew who were “following her with their eyes…”. Reign your crew in Captain!!!! I’m not sure if anything happens between these two characters beyond a ‘chat’. It is not made clear. I think that she definitely ends up with one of the miners though.
Back on Rigel, it looks like the trade is going to go forward. A miner called Childless and one of Mudd’s women called Eve agree to make a try at a relationship. Regardless of the moralities of how these two characters meet, a new question is brought up:
Here are some hypothetical scenarios; would any man or woman for that matter want a loving wife/husband who voluntarily cooks for them and treats them well etc, or would he/she prefer a selfish and vain wife/husband who is ‘useless’ only being after a good life and a ‘free ride’… but only a free ride if they could get ‘other’ things out of their ‘other half’ as ‘gratification’? Would someone want their partner to be an equal in social expectations and employment arrangements? There is no marital structure that is set in stone as far as I can see though we all do have our customs and traditions which we should respect, if people don’t want to fulfill their stereotypical roles in a marriage then maybe they should marry someone who is more compatible, giving them more freedom to be who they truly want to be. If the marriage arrangement works, both partners are happy and it is a mutually beneficial agreement then who are we to question what makes this couple ‘work’ and become a family unit if they are *both* happy. It is when people are unhappy in a relationship or being treated unfairly that things might need to change. People need to be ‘compatible’ with each other in whatever combination and expectations of compatibility that they desire whether those needs be physical, emotional, economical or other. Does everybody *even* need to get married in the first place to be happy?
If these women are indeed traded to the miners, a whole new trade route has been opened up for the elicit substance which is maintaining the women. This is of course unless the miners are willing to truly accept the women for who they are *without* the drugs.
Anyway, the women are paired off and everything seems to work out for them so far. This could be the beginnings of the outpost becoming a ‘true’ colony with families.
Harry Mudd also wants to be left on the planet now… Kirk refuses, though he does offer to be a character witness at his trial. Sounds fair to me.
The Enterprise gets it’s lithium crystals and departs.
I grade Star Trek episode 01x06 Mudd’s Women 12/10. Next week… The Enemy Within.
Can’t be bothered reading back through this one for typos and auto correct mistakes.
*Again, this episode is one involved in the production order/airing date discrepancy - this was the fourth Star Trek episode produced and the sixth to air. But as previously said, I’m going for production order on my rewatch.
I will first start off with my history lesson. This episode starts off on stardate 1329.8 so here is a list of unrelated historical events that took place on this year on the planet Earth - so you have a choice now; you can either carry on reading my review, taking the red pill, or you can learn a bit about history and take this blue pill that I also offer. Take your pick! Maybe take both pills? I don’t mind!
The USS Enteprise is in hot pursuit of a vessel, we are left with the hook of just why exactly the Enterprise is chasing it. Uhura is still in yellow, so we can tell that this episode was produced earlier in the production run before things like this costuming discrepancy had been ‘ironed out’. The fleeing vessel becomes trapped in a beautiful rendered asteroid field, I can almost imagine Michael Burnham flying through it in one of her space suits dodging asteroids. The vessel get’s in to difficulties and Kirk makes the decision to risk his ship and crew to rescue those onboard - he orders for the ships deflector shields to be extended around the fleeing ship. In doing so, which risks the possibility of overloading the engines, one of the ships ‘lithium’ crystals is actually blown. This will become an important plot point later in this weeks episode. Of course, it is obvious to us all that these ‘lithium’ crystals are the precursors to ‘Dilithium’ crystals. I remember back at school putting my hand up during a lesson and asking my physics teacher if dilithium crystals were real, he ridiculed me for asking “they only exist in Star Trek” he said as the whole class laughed at me. Anyway, lithium crystals *of sorts* are used to store electricity; lithium ion batteries, so it could have been one of the Enterprise’s lithium ion batteries which blew in this episode if they really wanted it to be lithium. The Enterprise could have had one of these powering it.
Despite the setback, the rescue mission is successful and a cowboy like figure is beamed on to the Enterprise transporter pad, he has a strong Irish accent. This cowboy wants his cargo… luckily for him - and others eventually - his precious cargo is beamed on board just as the vessel is pummelled by asteroids and destroyed. Three women who meet the 1960’s Hollywood ideal of ‘beauty’ are revealed as this man’s cargo. Funnily enough, I’m sure my phone is listening to me, the track ‘Casanova (Sexy Fantasy)’ plays for the first time on my first listen of the Star Trek Voyager Soundtrack Collection as I type my thoughts up about this scene. However, it fails to seduce me as intended as do the ladies on the screen. These ladies, undeniably beautiful, stand seductively and girate their hips paying particular attention to McCoy, Spock and Scotty. I can now only begin to describe this man as a human trafficker if these women are indeed his precious cargo of ‘perfect mates’. ‘The Perfect mate’ is also a Next Generation episode title with a storyline which deals with the topic of the transportation of a women as ‘cargo’ for marriage, maybe ‘Mudd’s Women’ is where the TNG writer of this episode got his or her inspiration? I will refer back to this one day when I do a TNG rewatch! There is also a Star Trek: Enterprise episode called ‘Precious Cargo’ which has Commander Trip Tucker falling in love with a lady who is also being transported as cargo. The women in this particular 1960’s episode however continue to pucker their lips at our crew, eyeing them up as potential… erm, I don’t know yet. The human trafficker looks at his women proudly, then he nods to our heroes suggesting to them that yes, they are *his* women. We had similar lip puckering instances between characters last week, it is curious that we are seeing such facial expressions again in this episode. Perhaps the producers were nervous that the characters last week could be perceived as being ‘homosexual’ so they wanted to make an episode this week which clarifies their sexuality, showing all of the Enterprise crew on heat for these women. One of the women ‘purrs’ at Scotty - the sexual tension in the room is above the scales. If they ever remade this episode, maybe they could change the three women to be more ‘ representatitive’ - one male, one female and one they. *All* of the crew could then still find them equally attractive, pushing gender boundaries and also showing that *anyone* can physically be attracted to anyone regardless of gender? Kirk and crew could equally fancy the male, the female and the gender fluid/trans character - this would show that Kirk in particular has no prejudice. Anyway, I’m giving too many spoilers away too early for parts of the episode which have not happened yet hehe!
I think that when I watched this episode as a child, scenes such as this would have been confusing to me, I would probably think with my child like mind that the enemy in this weeks episode is a harem of seductive women! I only wanted to watch spaceships, laser beams and aliens! Not this! I can see looking back how I might not have liked Harry Mudd episodes as a child.
“Bridge to transporter room… how many did you get off?” Kirk asks from the bridge. Scotty replies, nervously “oh… um… four in all sir!” This is creative genius from Stephen Kandel in the context of the scene.
It is also to be of note how scantly clad these ladies are, we are ‘treated’ to close ups of their gluteus maximus muscles, which are very well defined causing their garments to pull tight in these areas. The trafficker recognises that his women are having the desired effect on the Enterprise crew and notes that men will always be men no matter how marvellous starships are. I wonder if these women were having the same effect on the Enterprise female crew? This was never made clear on screen, but perhaps it can be clarified in a reboot one day.
We learn that this ‘trafficker’ is called Leo Walsh. We also begin to wonder that perhaps calling Leo a trafficker is a bit extreme as it appears that these women *want* to be with him and perhaps Leo is even helping them in some way? Perhaps he is more of their ‘pimp’ and they are contacted to him, rather than him forcing them to be his ‘cargo’?
Mr Walsh recognises that Spock is half ‘Vulconian’ as they travel in the turbo lift together, he tries to manipulate Spock in to being seduced by his women. Leo thinks that Spock *can* suppress his attraction to them… unless he chose *not* to suppress his urges and unleash his human emotions. At this point I think that the writers might be confusing sexual urges/attraction with emotions. Is sexual attraction an emotion or a chemical urge as a result of visual stimuli? Can you love someone romantically that you are not sexually urged/attracted to? I think so. I believe that they are two different things but that is just my opinion - feel free to express yours, I’m interested!
We next get confirmation that ‘Leo Walsh’ is indeed some form of slave master - one of the ladies confides in Spock and tells him that Leo is very used to buying and selling people.
We are now only 8 minutes in to the episode and a lot has happened! At 8 minutes 27 seconds we have a very funny scene where Spock speaks to Kirk like he is taking the Michael out of him “the commander of the ship would like to see you captain!” He says. Have a listen, it’s funny!
Kirk is next seen frantically scribbling in a book as Spock brings slave master Leo Walsh and his entourage of women to the ready room. We are treated to many more soft focus scenes of the beautiful ladies, accompanied with even more lip puckering, pursing and suggestive gesturing.
“Is this your crew?” Kirk asks with a slight quiver to his voice. “No it is me cargo!” Walsh replies. Kirk gulps… he does not know where to start.
Kirk notes in his log that that three unusual females are having an unusual effect on his crew, in particular the male members. I guess this confirms that these women could not seduce the females of the Enteprrise. Kirk is somewhat surprised that even he is affected. We are not surprised though….
I notice that Leo Walsh has a Bajoran style earring? Maybe he had visited this planet at some point? Perhaps he was trafficking Bajoran females for the Cardassians and he kept the earring as a trophy?
It is now time to put this Leo Walsh through a hearing so that he can answer for his crimes. However, his crimes might not be what we are expecting them to be. Surely he should be under arrest for people smuggling? Let’s wait and see!
Back on the bridge we find out that the lithium crystals are continuing to splinter, all power will eventually be lost if Mr Scott and the engineering department do not come up with a plan pronto. It is confirmed that lithium is not a power store for the Enteprise, it is a substance that energy is filtered through. I can see why they changed this substance to dilithium, it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Luckily there is a mining planet nearby, Rigel 12, so if they set a course to this planet they should be able to procure some more crystals and restore ships functions.
Back in the ready room, alone with his troupe of women, we find out something is definitely not as it seems with Leo Walsh. One of his women accidentally calls him… ‘Harry’. This slave master may not be called ‘Leo Walsh’ after all… I wonder what he is hiding?
Leo is out on trial via ‘AI’ artificial intelligence. The ships computer will decide if ‘Leo’ is telling the truth or not. The first truth that the ships AI uncovers is that Leo Walsh is actually non other than ‘Harcourt Fenton Mudd’, otherwise known as Harry Mudd. I knew it!
“Blast that tin plated pot!” Mudd angrily retorts after his secret identity is uncovered.
Smuggling, purchasing items with counterfeit currency… no mention of human trafficking or slave trading as of yet though. Mudd is eventually charged with travelling without a flight plan or identification beam, failure to answer a ‘starship signal’ and being a menace to navigation operations without a masters license. In other words not having a driving license and evading the authorities.
As Kirk and Mudd continue to discuss each other’s point of views in regards to the crimes that he may or may not have committed, the women continue to give Scotty and McCoy a hard time in particular, being quite predatory. They even take their suggestive facial expressions one step further and begin to narrow their eyes at our heroes. Mudd does however admit that he ‘recruits’ wives for the settlers of a planet called Ophicucus 3. The ships AI becomes further involved in the situation as it detects nothing suspicious about the three women that Mudd has recruited, though it does detect that the Enterprise men are showing signs of sexual attraction to them. Kirk order Spock to wipe this observation from Starfleet records.
Mr Mudd gives his sales pitch…
“Do you see gentlemen, just as I told you… three lovely ladies destined for frontier planets to be the companions of lonely men…”
So, is Mudd more a a ‘dating app’ rather than an actual human trafficker? Surely subspace dating apps were available by the time of 23rd century to prevent this type of ‘recruiting’ from being necessary? Does Tinder still exist in the 23rd century and beyond?
Further in Mudd’s defence, we learn that all of these women come from planets with no men, one for example lived with her brothers and only had ‘automated machines’ for company. This particular women *wants* to be given away by Mudd for a better life. She is even angry at Kirk and his crew for staring at her and her consorts like they are objects of desire, like they were something to ‘objectify’ and achieve sexual gratification from as if they were ‘Saturnius Harem Girls’. But why was she herself and also her friends behaving in such seductive ways if they did not want to be perceived in such a way? The ladies could quite easily have dressed more casually and down played their makeup and posturing etc.
It is decided that Mudd will be handed to the authorities. Mudd’s women are worried what they will do without him to support them, unsure what they will do with themselves once he is gone. Perhaps ‘ownership’ of them will transfer over to Kirk and the Enterprise?
At this point, one of the ladies, Miss McHuron, realises that Kirk must be lonely due to his responsibilities to his ship and crew getting in the way of him getting close to anyone on a romantic level. She tries to seduce Kirk but finds that she can not go through with it. Is this because she truly does not have feeling for him, or because she knows she does genuinely love him and doesn’t want to hurt him in the long term. Perhaps he simply is not ‘rich’ enough for her?
I mentioned in last weeks episode that Kirk maybe didn’t need a women in his life as he is ‘married to his ship’. Coincidentally, These scenes confirm this very theory but expand on this more generally as being that *all* Starfleet Captains are married to their ships, not just Kirk. I think that it is really sad that Starfleet Captain’s can possibly never find the time to settle down properly and have a family in such a way. Though we have the exceptions of Janeway and Sisko, but even those situations were ‘complicated’.
We see a lot of Mr Farrell on the bridge this week, just as much as any other member of the crew. I wonder why they did not make him part of the larger ensemble as the seasons progress?
Instead of being separated from his possibly elicit cargo of women, Mudd is allowed to congregate with them in his quarters. Something even more sinister is revealed about Harry as we find that he is also dealing with a drug like substance, a substance that he is providing to his women. Perhaps this is how he is controlling and manipulating them? It becomes clear that the women need these pills, without them ‘an Instagram filter is lifted’ and they are not quite as perceivably physically desirable or attractive. But again, is this episode about the emotion of ‘love’ or the chemistry of sexual and physical attraction? Are they separate entities or do they always *have* to go hand in hand? Surely these women would be able to find love and start a family either with the pill or without it? It is a choice for them to take this pill but maybe Harry Mudd has got them all addicted to this drug as it also has pleasurable effects on them? It could be his way of controlling his entourage and keeping them his ‘property’. The women proceed to take the pills and get really high, they start to look a bit ‘out of it’, again dancing and gesturing but it a way which seems to show them shedding even more inhibitions, perhaps as a result of the drug. This drug definitely gives Mudd some level of influence and control over the women that he provides it to, supplying it to them for free I guess too - he can recoup costs when the sales go through…
The Enterprise arrives at Rigel 12 and the miners beam onboard to commence trade negotiations, however they are not sure if the crystals are actually for sale though they could potentially be open to suggestion. Perhaps they will swap the crystals… for Mudd’s women. This opens up my next question, do the miners believe that love is more valuable then precious minerals, money and other physical items? If the women end up with these men, would they truly be able to love the miners in return or be attracted to them? Or would the women just settle for a happy life, becoming domestic servants to the miners, being looked after (hopefully) none the less. If Captain Kirk agrees to exchange these women for lithium crystals, is he putting a material value on to their lives in much the same way that Mudd has done? Would it make Kirk just as ‘bad’ as Harrry Mudd, becoming an accessory to or even a perpetrator of human trafficking? Part of the bargain would also include the release of Harry Mudd from Enterprise custody. Could this be Captain Kirk’s ‘In the Pale Moonlight’ moment? This is very reminiscent to some extent of the conflicted decisions that Captain Sisko had to make, though obviously in a very different set of circumstances. Does Kirk save the ship with batteries failing, or does he allow the human trade to complete? After the landing party beams down to the planet, Kirk agrees to the exchange.
Kirk and Mudd take the women to a party on the mining colony, the men of the outpost have not seen any women in a very long time and they start to fight over them. Mudd comes up with an even more dastardly plan at this point, with much guffawing he is going to try to make as much money as possible by selling the women for cash to these rich miners instead of lithium crystals for the Enterprise. He will then take command of the USS Enterprise, seasing it from Captain Kirk and his crew.
Back on the Enteprise in sickbay, McCoy has an encounter with one of Mudd’s women. She brushes past his console and plays the first encounters tune.
“would you walk past my panel again please?” McCoy says suggestively. “Are you wearing something unusual or something…. Radioactive maybe?”.
“No… I am just me…” she replies.
Kirk returns to his quarters and is confronted with the lady Mchuron, one of the ships new cargo. She went to Kirk quarters to hide from the rest of his crew who were “following her with their eyes…”. Reign your crew in Captain!!!! I’m not sure if anything happens between these two characters beyond a ‘chat’. It is not made clear. I think that she definitely ends up with one of the miners though.
Back on Rigel, it looks like the trade is going to go forward. A miner called Childless and one of Mudd’s women called Eve agree to make a try at a relationship. Regardless of the moralities of how these two characters meet, a new question is brought up:
Here are some hypothetical scenarios; would any man or woman for that matter want a loving wife/husband who voluntarily cooks for them and treats them well etc, or would he/she prefer a selfish and vain wife/husband who is ‘useless’ only being after a good life and a ‘free ride’… but only a free ride if they could get ‘other’ things out of their ‘other half’ as ‘gratification’? Would someone want their partner to be an equal in social expectations and employment arrangements? There is no marital structure that is set in stone as far as I can see though we all do have our customs and traditions which we should respect, if people don’t want to fulfill their stereotypical roles in a marriage then maybe they should marry someone who is more compatible, giving them more freedom to be who they truly want to be. If the marriage arrangement works, both partners are happy and it is a mutually beneficial agreement then who are we to question what makes this couple ‘work’ and become a family unit if they are *both* happy. It is when people are unhappy in a relationship or being treated unfairly that things might need to change. People need to be ‘compatible’ with each other in whatever combination and expectations of compatibility that they desire whether those needs be physical, emotional, economical or other. Does everybody *even* need to get married in the first place to be happy?
If these women are indeed traded to the miners, a whole new trade route has been opened up for the elicit substance which is maintaining the women. This is of course unless the miners are willing to truly accept the women for who they are *without* the drugs.
Anyway, the women are paired off and everything seems to work out for them so far. This could be the beginnings of the outpost becoming a ‘true’ colony with families.
Harry Mudd also wants to be left on the planet now… Kirk refuses, though he does offer to be a character witness at his trial. Sounds fair to me.
The Enterprise gets it’s lithium crystals and departs.
I grade Star Trek episode 01x06 Mudd’s Women 12/10. Next week… The Enemy Within.
Can’t be bothered reading back through this one for typos and auto correct mistakes.
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My impression has always been that the women are participating voluntarily and hence no human trafficking or slavery is taking place.Episode 01x06* - Mudd’s Women
*Again, this episode is one involved in the production order/airing date discrepancy - this was the fourth Star Trek episode produced and the sixth to air. But as previously said, I’m going for production order on my rewatch.
I will first start off with my history lesson. This episode starts off on stardate 1329.8 so here is a list of unrelated historical events that took place on this year on the planet Earth - so you have a choice now; you can either carry on reading my review, taking the red pill, or you can learn a bit about history and take this blue pill that I also offer. Take your pick! Maybe take both pills? I don’t mind!
The USS Enteprise is in hot pursuit of a vessel, we are left with the hook of just why exactly the Enterprise is chasing it. Uhura is still in yellow, so we can tell that this episode was produced earlier in the production run before things like this costuming discrepancy had been ‘ironed out’. The fleeing vessel becomes trapped in a beautiful rendered asteroid field, I can almost imagine Michael Burnham flying through it in one of her space suits dodging asteroids. The vessel get’s in to difficulties and Kirk makes the decision to risk his ship and crew to rescue those onboard - he orders for the ships deflector shields to be extended around the fleeing ship. In doing so, which risks the possibility of overloading the engines, one of the ships ‘lithium’ crystals is actually blown. This will become an important plot point later in this weeks episode. Of course, it is obvious to us all that these ‘lithium’ crystals are the precursors to ‘Dilithium’ crystals. I remember back at school putting my hand up during a lesson and asking my physics teacher if dilithium crystals were real, he ridiculed me for asking “they only exist in Star Trek” he said as the whole class laughed at me. Anyway, lithium crystals *of sorts* are used to store electricity; lithium ion batteries, so it could have been one of the Enterprise’s lithium ion batteries which blew in this episode if they really wanted it to be lithium. The Enterprise could have had one of these powering it.
Despite the setback, the rescue mission is successful and a cowboy like figure is beamed on to the Enterprise transporter pad, he has a strong Irish accent. This cowboy wants his cargo… luckily for him - and others eventually - his precious cargo is beamed on board just as the vessel is pummelled by asteroids and destroyed. Three women who meet the 1960’s Hollywood ideal of ‘beauty’ are revealed as this man’s cargo. Funnily enough, I’m sure my phone is listening to me, the track ‘Casanova (Sexy Fantasy)’ plays for the first time on my first listen of the Star Trek Voyager Soundtrack Collection as I type my thoughts up about this scene. However, it fails to seduce me as intended as do the ladies on the screen. These ladies, undeniably beautiful, stand seductively and girate their hips paying particular attention to McCoy, Spock and Scotty. I can now only begin to describe this man as a human trafficker if these women are indeed his precious cargo of ‘perfect mates’. ‘The Perfect mate’ is also a Next Generation episode title with a storyline which deals with the topic of the transportation of a women as ‘cargo’ for marriage, maybe ‘Mudd’s Women’ is where the TNG writer of this episode got his or her inspiration? I will refer back to this one day when I do a TNG rewatch! There is also a Star Trek: Enterprise episode called ‘Precious Cargo’ which has Commander Trip Tucker falling in love with a lady who is also being transported as cargo. The women in this particular 1960’s episode however continue to pucker their lips at our crew, eyeing them up as potential… erm, I don’t know yet. The human trafficker looks at his women proudly, then he nods to our heroes suggesting to them that yes, they are *his* women. We had similar lip puckering instances between characters last week, it is curious that we are seeing such facial expressions again in this episode. Perhaps the producers were nervous that the characters last week could be perceived as being ‘homosexual’ so they wanted to make an episode this week which clarifies their sexuality, showing all of the Enterprise crew on heat for these women. One of the women ‘purrs’ at Scotty - the sexual tension in the room is above the scales. If they ever remade this episode, maybe they could change the three women to be more ‘ representatitive’ - one male, one female and one they. *All* of the crew could then still find them equally attractive, pushing gender boundaries and also showing that *anyone* can physically be attracted to anyone regardless of gender? Kirk and crew could equally fancy the male, the female and the gender fluid/trans character - this would show that Kirk in particular has no prejudice. Anyway, I’m giving too many spoilers away too early for parts of the episode which have not happened yet hehe!
I think that when I watched this episode as a child, scenes such as this would have been confusing to me, I would probably think with my child like mind that the enemy in this weeks episode is a harem of seductive women! I only wanted to watch spaceships, laser beams and aliens! Not this! I can see looking back how I might not have liked Harry Mudd episodes as a child.
“Bridge to transporter room… how many did you get off?” Kirk asks from the bridge. Scotty replies, nervously “oh… um… four in all sir!” This is creative genius from Stephen Kandel in the context of the scene.
It is also to be of note how scantly clad these ladies are, we are ‘treated’ to close ups of their gluteus maximus muscles, which are very well defined causing their garments to pull tight in these areas. The trafficker recognises that his women are having the desired effect on the Enterprise crew and notes that men will always be men no matter how marvellous starships are. I wonder if these women were having the same effect on the Enterprise female crew? This was never made clear on screen, but perhaps it can be clarified in a reboot one day.
We learn that this ‘trafficker’ is called Leo Walsh. We also begin to wonder that perhaps calling Leo a trafficker is a bit extreme as it appears that these women *want* to be with him and perhaps Leo is even helping them in some way? Perhaps he is more of their ‘pimp’ and they are contacted to him, rather than him forcing them to be his ‘cargo’?
Mr Walsh recognises that Spock is half ‘Vulconian’ as they travel in the turbo lift together, he tries to manipulate Spock in to being seduced by his women. Leo thinks that Spock *can* suppress his attraction to them… unless he chose *not* to suppress his urges and unleash his human emotions. At this point I think that the writers might be confusing sexual urges/attraction with emotions. Is sexual attraction an emotion or a chemical urge as a result of visual stimuli? Can you love someone romantically that you are not sexually urged/attracted to? I think so. I believe that they are two different things but that is just my opinion - feel free to express yours, I’m interested!
We next get confirmation that ‘Leo Walsh’ is indeed some form of slave master - one of the ladies confides in Spock and tells him that Leo is very used to buying and selling people.
We are now only 8 minutes in to the episode and a lot has happened! At 8 minutes 27 seconds we have a very funny scene where Spock speaks to Kirk like he is taking the Michael out of him “the commander of the ship would like to see you captain!” He says. Have a listen, it’s funny!
Kirk is next seen frantically scribbling in a book as Spock brings slave master Leo Walsh and his entourage of women to the ready room. We are treated to many more soft focus scenes of the beautiful ladies, accompanied with even more lip puckering, pursing and suggestive gesturing.
“Is this your crew?” Kirk asks with a slight quiver to his voice. “No it is me cargo!” Walsh replies. Kirk gulps… he does not know where to start.
Kirk notes in his log that that three unusual females are having an unusual effect on his crew, in particular the male members. I guess this confirms that these women could not seduce the females of the Enteprrise. Kirk is somewhat surprised that even he is affected. We are not surprised though….
I notice that Leo Walsh has a Bajoran style earring? Maybe he had visited this planet at some point? Perhaps he was trafficking Bajoran females for the Cardassians and he kept the earring as a trophy?
It is now time to put this Leo Walsh through a hearing so that he can answer for his crimes. However, his crimes might not be what we are expecting them to be. Surely he should be under arrest for people smuggling? Let’s wait and see!
Back on the bridge we find out that the lithium crystals are continuing to splinter, all power will eventually be lost if Mr Scott and the engineering department do not come up with a plan pronto. It is confirmed that lithium is not a power store for the Enteprise, it is a substance that energy is filtered through. I can see why they changed this substance to dilithium, it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Luckily there is a mining planet nearby, Rigel 12, so if they set a course to this planet they should be able to procure some more crystals and restore ships functions.
Back in the ready room, alone with his troupe of women, we find out something is definitely not as it seems with Leo Walsh. One of his women accidentally calls him… ‘Harry’. This slave master may not be called ‘Leo Walsh’ after all… I wonder what he is hiding?
Leo is out on trial via ‘AI’ artificial intelligence. The ships computer will decide if ‘Leo’ is telling the truth or not. The first truth that the ships AI uncovers is that Leo Walsh is actually non other than ‘Harcourt Fenton Mudd’, otherwise known as Harry Mudd. I knew it!
“Blast that tin plated pot!” Mudd angrily retorts after his secret identity is uncovered.
Smuggling, purchasing items with counterfeit currency… no mention of human trafficking or slave trading as of yet though. Mudd is eventually charged with travelling without a flight plan or identification beam, failure to answer a ‘starship signal’ and being a menace to navigation operations without a masters license. In other words not having a driving license and evading the authorities.
As Kirk and Mudd continue to discuss each other’s point of views in regards to the crimes that he may or may not have committed, the women continue to give Scotty and McCoy a hard time in particular, being quite predatory. They even take their suggestive facial expressions one step further and begin to narrow their eyes at our heroes. Mudd does however admit that he ‘recruits’ wives for the settlers of a planet called Ophicucus 3. The ships AI becomes further involved in the situation as it detects nothing suspicious about the three women that Mudd has recruited, though it does detect that the Enterprise men are showing signs of sexual attraction to them. Kirk order Spock to wipe this observation from Starfleet records.
Mr Mudd gives his sales pitch…
“Do you see gentlemen, just as I told you… three lovely ladies destined for frontier planets to be the companions of lonely men…”
So, is Mudd more a a ‘dating app’ rather than an actual human trafficker? Surely subspace dating apps were available by the time of 23rd century to prevent this type of ‘recruiting’ from being necessary? Does Tinder still exist in the 23rd century and beyond?
Further in Mudd’s defence, we learn that all of these women come from planets with no men, one for example lived with her brothers and only had ‘automated machines’ for company. This particular women *wants* to be given away by Mudd for a better life. She is even angry at Kirk and his crew for staring at her and her consorts like they are objects of desire, like they were something to ‘objectify’ and achieve sexual gratification from as if they were ‘Saturnius Harem Girls’. But why was she herself and also her friends behaving in such seductive ways if they did not want to be perceived in such a way? The ladies could quite easily have dressed more casually and down played their makeup and posturing etc.
It is decided that Mudd will be handed to the authorities. Mudd’s women are worried what they will do without him to support them, unsure what they will do with themselves once he is gone. Perhaps ‘ownership’ of them will transfer over to Kirk and the Enterprise?
At this point, one of the ladies, Miss McHuron, realises that Kirk must be lonely due to his responsibilities to his ship and crew getting in the way of him getting close to anyone on a romantic level. She tries to seduce Kirk but finds that she can not go through with it. Is this because she truly does not have feeling for him, or because she knows she does genuinely love him and doesn’t want to hurt him in the long term. Perhaps he simply is not ‘rich’ enough for her?
I mentioned in last weeks episode that Kirk maybe didn’t need a women in his life as he is ‘married to his ship’. Coincidentally, These scenes confirm this very theory but expand on this more generally as being that *all* Starfleet Captains are married to their ships, not just Kirk. I think that it is really sad that Starfleet Captain’s can possibly never find the time to settle down properly and have a family in such a way. Though we have the exceptions of Janeway and Sisko, but even those situations were ‘complicated’.
We see a lot of Mr Farrell on the bridge this week, just as much as any other member of the crew. I wonder why they did not make him part of the larger ensemble as the seasons progress?
Instead of being separated from his possibly elicit cargo of women, Mudd is allowed to congregate with them in his quarters. Something even more sinister is revealed about Harry as we find that he is also dealing with a drug like substance, a substance that he is providing to his women. Perhaps this is how he is controlling and manipulating them? It becomes clear that the women need these pills, without them ‘an Instagram filter is lifted’ and they are not quite as perceivably physically desirable or attractive. But again, is this episode about the emotion of ‘love’ or the chemistry of sexual and physical attraction? Are they separate entities or do they always *have* to go hand in hand? Surely these women would be able to find love and start a family either with the pill or without it? It is a choice for them to take this pill but maybe Harry Mudd has got them all addicted to this drug as it also has pleasurable effects on them? It could be his way of controlling his entourage and keeping them his ‘property’. The women proceed to take the pills and get really high, they start to look a bit ‘out of it’, again dancing and gesturing but it a way which seems to show them shedding even more inhibitions, perhaps as a result of the drug. This drug definitely gives Mudd some level of influence and control over the women that he provides it to, supplying it to them for free I guess too - he can recoup costs when the sales go through…
The Enterprise arrives at Rigel 12 and the miners beam onboard to commence trade negotiations, however they are not sure if the crystals are actually for sale though they could potentially be open to suggestion. Perhaps they will swap the crystals… for Mudd’s women. This opens up my next question, do the miners believe that love is more valuable then precious minerals, money and other physical items? If the women end up with these men, would they truly be able to love the miners in return or be attracted to them? Or would the women just settle for a happy life, becoming domestic servants to the miners, being looked after (hopefully) none the less. If Captain Kirk agrees to exchange these women for lithium crystals, is he putting a material value on to their lives in much the same way that Mudd has done? Would it make Kirk just as ‘bad’ as Harrry Mudd, becoming an accessory to or even a perpetrator of human trafficking? Part of the bargain would also include the release of Harry Mudd from Enterprise custody. Could this be Captain Kirk’s ‘In the Pale Moonlight’ moment? This is very reminiscent to some extent of the conflicted decisions that Captain Sisko had to make, though obviously in a very different set of circumstances. Does Kirk save the ship with batteries failing, or does he allow the human trade to complete? After the landing party beams down to the planet, Kirk agrees to the exchange.
Kirk and Mudd take the women to a party on the mining colony, the men of the outpost have not seen any women in a very long time and they start to fight over them. Mudd comes up with an even more dastardly plan at this point, with much guffawing he is going to try to make as much money as possible by selling the women for cash to these rich miners instead of lithium crystals for the Enterprise. He will then take command of the USS Enterprise, seasing it from Captain Kirk and his crew.
Back on the Enteprise in sickbay, McCoy has an encounter with one of Mudd’s women. She brushes past his console and plays the first encounters tune.
“would you walk past my panel again please?” McCoy says suggestively. “Are you wearing something unusual or something…. Radioactive maybe?”.
“No… I am just me…” she replies.
Kirk returns to his quarters and is confronted with the lady Mchuron, one of the ships new cargo. She went to Kirk quarters to hide from the rest of his crew who were “following her with their eyes…”. Reign your crew in Captain!!!! I’m not sure if anything happens between these two characters beyond a ‘chat’. It is not made clear. I think that she definitely ends up with one of the miners though.
Back on Rigel, it looks like the trade is going to go forward. A miner called Childless and one of Mudd’s women called Eve agree to make a try at a relationship. Regardless of the moralities of how these two characters meet, a new question is brought up:
Here are some hypothetical scenarios; would any man or woman for that matter want a loving wife/husband who voluntarily cooks for them and treats them well etc, or would he/she prefer a selfish and vain wife/husband who is ‘useless’ only being after a good life and a ‘free ride’… but only a free ride if they could get ‘other’ things out of their ‘other half’ as ‘gratification’? Would someone want their partner to be an equal in social expectations and employment arrangements? There is no marital structure that is set in stone as far as I can see though we all do have our customs and traditions which we should respect, if people don’t want to fulfill their stereotypical roles in a marriage then maybe they should marry someone who is more compatible, giving them more freedom to be who they truly want to be. If the marriage arrangement works, both partners are happy and it is a mutually beneficial agreement then who are we to question what makes this couple ‘work’ and become a family unit if they are *both* happy. It is when people are unhappy in a relationship or being treated unfairly that things might need to change. People need to be ‘compatible’ with each other in whatever combination and expectations of compatibility that they desire whether those needs be physical, emotional, economical or other. Does everybody *even* need to get married in the first place to be happy?
If these women are indeed traded to the miners, a whole new trade route has been opened up for the elicit substance which is maintaining the women. This is of course unless the miners are willing to truly accept the women for who they are *without* the drugs.
Anyway, the women are paired off and everything seems to work out for them so far. This could be the beginnings of the outpost becoming a ‘true’ colony with families.
Harry Mudd also wants to be left on the planet now… Kirk refuses, though he does offer to be a character witness at his trial. Sounds fair to me.
The Enterprise gets it’s lithium crystals and departs.
I grade Star Trek episode 01x06 Mudd’s Women 12/10. Next week… The Enemy Within.
Can’t be bothered reading back through this one for typos and auto correct mistakes.
I see no signs of any such homosexual lip puckers in last week's episode.
I have no idea where you are coming from with this "let the trio be a man, a woman, and a they and then the entire crew could be attracted to all of them" thing. I mean unless you are bi, then you are either attracted to men or women. Are you suggesting the entire crew should be written as bisexual so that they all can be attracted to any character? That seems...unlikely.
Maybe we can review some of the differences:
1) The Klingons in Discovery. I see no way they can be reconciled to the Klingons of TOS or TNG. Am I to believe there is yet a THIRD type of Klingon out there?
2) Raise your hand if you believe Majel Barrett's Number One was Illyrian. My hand is not up.
3) In the Cage, Pike famously cannot get used to women on his bridge. In SNW, there are women all over Pike's bridge, and he doesn't bat an eye.
4) Nurse Chapel. How would one explain Nurse Chapel's personality going from the free spirit we see in SNW to the much more reserved version we see in TOS?
5) SNW's Transporter Chief Kyle is Asian. He is a white British guy in TOS. I mean I suppose he could have had plastic surgery and practiced speaking with a British accent in between, but I highly doubt it.
6) While it's not impossible canonically, I highly doubt Uhura and M'Benga were on the Enterprise before Kirk.
7) Spock and T'Pring's relationship. How do we go from the loving relationship they share in SNW to the passionless if not hostile version we see in Amok Time to the degree that T'Pring wants to divorce Spock?
8) Strange that Michael Burnham's name never came up in any TOS episode or movie. Especially Star Trek V when we were talking about a sibling of Spock's.
2) Raise your hand if you believe Majel Barrett's Number One was Illyrian. My hand is not up.
3) In the Cage, Pike famously cannot get used to women on his bridge. In SNW, there are women all over Pike's bridge, and he doesn't bat an eye.
4) Nurse Chapel. How would one explain Nurse Chapel's personality going from the free spirit we see in SNW to the much more reserved version we see in TOS?
5) SNW's Transporter Chief Kyle is Asian. He is a white British guy in TOS. I mean I suppose he could have had plastic surgery and practiced speaking with a British accent in between, but I highly doubt it.
6) While it's not impossible canonically, I highly doubt Uhura and M'Benga were on the Enterprise before Kirk.
7) Spock and T'Pring's relationship. How do we go from the loving relationship they share in SNW to the passionless if not hostile version we see in Amok Time to the degree that T'Pring wants to divorce Spock?
8) Strange that Michael Burnham's name never came up in any TOS episode or movie. Especially Star Trek V when we were talking about a sibling of Spock's.
This is not to say I don't like the new shows. Well, DISC is kind of "meh" for me, but I really like SNW. I think they are showing a great deal of respect for TOS by modelling the show after TOS. The plots of SNW could easily be TOS plots. I think they are making Pike out to be another Kirk, and the episodes are good TOS-like fun. I am quite enjoying it.
I am not saying I think DISC and SNW are a different continuity due to aesthetics. I don't care about the aesthetics. There are just some differences that cannot be reconciled.
As for the producer's opinions, I often read and post on a comic book battle board, a board on which we debate which comic book characters would beat up others in a fight. According to the rules of evidence on that board, what shows up on the printed page is the ultimate evidence, even over the opinions given by the writers themselves. A writer can say whatever he wants in an interview about what his intentions are for a given comic, but if what is on the printed page is different, then what is on the printed page trumps even the writers' statements. The producers of DISC and SNW can state until they are blue in the face that these shows are in continuity with TOS, but if what I see on screen shows they are not, then they are not.
But the women were dependent on a drug which was provided to them by Mudd. They would also be reliant on this drug once married off in order to maintain their appearance for their new husbands. We have seen that this drug also makes them ‘feel good’.
It may appear voluntary, but perhaps their addiction was being used as a method of control by the person supplying them to ‘husbands’?
I always saw his outfit as a cross between pirate and trader, with a dash of swashbuckler thrown in.
But re-rewatch the scene 29 minutes and 50 seconds in to the episode. These women appear to be like ‘drug addicts’ to me. They just can not live without Mudd’s drug which *he* is supplying to them. These women’s very need or ‘want’ for this drug might be why they can not live without Harry Mudd and why they state that they “wouldn’t know what to do without him”. We need to ascertain a few facts to conclude the true role of Mudd in this story:
- Is the drug that he supplies addictive?
- Is the drug illegal in the Federation?
- Did Harry Mudd introduce the women to this drug?
- Would the women need a continued supply chain of the drug once settled on a planet with a man? If so, was Harry planning to oversee this supply?
- Did Harry select vulnerable women that could easily be manipulated in to being ‘recruited’ or ‘trafficked’?
I think that there are too many unanswered questions about Harry and this scheme to make a judgment on what he actually is to these women.
Honestly, I have seen every episode in reruns over a dozen times. Having seen newer Trek (including old 'new' Trek, like TNG), I would rather remember what was fondly, my rose-tinted glasses firmly in-place.
Because every time I even catch a small piece of it these days, I wince. Not the writing - that was mostly awesome. But everything else is just SO dated.
EDIT: I just read the last post, so I will respond to that as well, not just the OP. I think it was more of an emotional (crutch) addiction, similar to alcohol, rather than anything physical. As a person who lived through the 60's and watched the episode when it came out, that fits the perception (with actual evidence) of the times. Read-up on how nefarious the Avon Corp was, and how it operated in 3rd world countries. Those poor women living in huts would spend what tiny bit of money they had (rather than buy food for their children), just to "look like the women in the pictures". Those pictures? Beautiful white models. They were actually convinced the products would do that for them. And the women back here in the U.S. really weren't much better... not back then. You see, in the 60's, "good looking" = success/money. Anything less and you were 'worthless'. As disgusting as that take is, that was the period that show was written in. Those poor women were desperate for the drug because they thought they were less than nothing without it.
Because every time I even catch a small piece of it these days, I wince. Not the writing - that was mostly awesome. But everything else is just SO dated.
EDIT: I just read the last post, so I will respond to that as well, not just the OP. I think it was more of an emotional (crutch) addiction, similar to alcohol, rather than anything physical. As a person who lived through the 60's and watched the episode when it came out, that fits the perception (with actual evidence) of the times. Read-up on how nefarious the Avon Corp was, and how it operated in 3rd world countries. Those poor women living in huts would spend what tiny bit of money they had (rather than buy food for their children), just to "look like the women in the pictures". Those pictures? Beautiful white models. They were actually convinced the products would do that for them. And the women back here in the U.S. really weren't much better... not back then. You see, in the 60's, "good looking" = success/money. Anything less and you were 'worthless'. As disgusting as that take is, that was the period that show was written in. Those poor women were desperate for the drug because they thought they were less than nothing without it.
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This is a perfect example of how storylines could be ‘lost’ in time and interpreted differently depending on the context of current affairs and social narratives which obviously differ now from what they were in the 1960’s. Times change and so do our general societal ideologies and cultural views as a ‘collective’ which can influence our individual interpretations of these things such as Star Trek. ‘Times change’ as they say, as do we also. I never lived in the 60’s so I can not view Star Trek on my rewatch through that particular lense.
**EDIT**
It is actually confirmed in the episode that Mudd is a human trafficker. I refer back to my preliminary episode review and I *hate* to quote myself but:
We next get confirmation that ‘Leo Walsh’ is indeed some form of slave master - one of the ladies confides in Spock and tells him that Leo is very used to buying and selling people.
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"Buying and selling people" is vague and a figure of speech. A loan shark can have you in his grip over a debt and force you do things for him and he "bought" you. That doesn't make him a trafficker. Also human traffickers don't take volunteers. He saw a way to make money off of providing mail order brides. Once he dropped them off and got his money, off he went. There was a euphoric feeling when the drug is first taken, but other than their appearances reverting, there's no mention of addiction. They were more worried about being hideous. Eve didn't look like she was begging for a fix.
Harry Mudd was a pimp - at worst. Really, he was just their business manager, the guy who made the deal and dropped off the merch. He was a con man and a thief but they made sure we saw he was a decent person at heart.
You're not gonna find that in your average human trafficker.
Harry Mudd was a pimp - at worst. Really, he was just their business manager, the guy who made the deal and dropped off the merch. He was a con man and a thief but they made sure we saw he was a decent person at heart.
You're not gonna find that in your average human trafficker.
I have a clouded judgment of Mudd, I didn’t like episodes that he was in when I was younger… I know that he is in another episode titled “I, Mudd” but I don’t remember much about it as I probably turned it off. I think that he was in an animated episode too? When I eventually get to this episode in my rewatch perhaps it will shed some more light on to his character for me.
I'm not sure Mudd is a decent person the way he was willing to leverage the Enterprise's destruction against Kirk.
Harry was intended to be a Falstaff sort of character, "dishonest and cowardly, boastful and narcissistic. At the same time, he is intelligent and insightful."
Well, he was gambling that Kirk wouldn't let it happen. He saw his opportunity and he took it. I'm sure at no point did he feel Kirk was gonna let the Enterprise "spiral in." The thing with Harry is that there's something about him that's likeable. There's a little bit of decency in him that comes out at times. He seems to really care for the women: he runs out into the storm to help find Eve when he could have just sat there. He got his payment. Then later, "thank heaven you found her." The concern in his voice was evident.
Harry Mudd wasn't a human trafficker, nor was he a cold hearted bastard. He was a con man who pressed the advantage. He was a rogue and a thief, but not irredeemable.
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Why did Harry Mudd run away from the Enteprise when hailed? Possibly because he wasn't planning to take the womentowhere he said he was taking them. Instead Mudd might have been planning to take them to some place more profitable for him and less pleasant for them.
If Mudd's ship was stopped by the Enteprise there would awkward why it wasn't headed from the planet the women remembered leaving to the planet Harry said they were going to, but in a totally different direction. That is why Harry was so desperate to escape that he almost killed himself and the women.
That is my theory.
If Mudd's ship was stopped by the Enteprise there would awkward why it wasn't headed from the planet the women remembered leaving to the planet Harry said they were going to, but in a totally different direction. That is why Harry was so desperate to escape that he almost killed himself and the women.
That is my theory.
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