How would that have changed the episode for you? Would having him a recurring irritant add more continuity to the show, or would we have missed out on a wonderful Stanley Adams performance?
What if Harry Mudd was The Tribble dealer in TTWT?
- Thread starter Vaughn Falstaff
- Start date
As long as I, Mudd had never been made or Tribbles was a third season episode! That way we wouldn't have Harcourt's appearances be too repetitive! But I do prefer to see yet another rogue have a slice of the great big intergalactic pie!
JB
JB
There always was a sinister side to Harry Mudd. From the get-go, you couldn't be sure whether he was Leo Walsh; a loser who had taken over the stained mantle of Leo Walsh when the previous owner no longer had use for it; or a ruthless killer who had cut Leo's throat and taken over his ship and cargo, which he lorded over with an iron fist. And his rap sheet was so squeaky-clean that you had to suspect he had bribed, blackmailed or assassinated folks to keep it that way...
Replacing Cyrano Jones with a dark character would have totally altered the dynamics of that episode, making the Klingons just another set of suckers in the deadly game that Mudd was running (even if to his own detriment, too). This might have set the tone for further Mudd adventures, too. Although perhaps nothing would have changed there, save for us having to wait for Mudd's next return a bit longer.
Timo Saloniemi
Replacing Cyrano Jones with a dark character would have totally altered the dynamics of that episode, making the Klingons just another set of suckers in the deadly game that Mudd was running (even if to his own detriment, too). This might have set the tone for further Mudd adventures, too. Although perhaps nothing would have changed there, save for us having to wait for Mudd's next return a bit longer.
Timo Saloniemi
Cyrano Jones was great, but I would have liked to see Harry Mudd in his place.
Is that based on Mudd in Discovery? Because Mudd in Mudd's Women and I, Mudd didn't seem as bad as all that. Yes, he intended to maroon the Enterprise crew on "his" planet, but they would have been well cared for. The marriage customs in Mudd's Women don't appeal to me much, but neither do marriage customs of 19th century Earth - arranged marriages, dowries, produce "an heir and a spare" and then you can have as many affairs as you want as long as discretion is observed.
Hmm, if audiences had seen Mudd selling the furballs, and assuming they remembered him from the previous year, both they and Kirk would have been suspicious from the start, Mudd trying to convince the crew he has turned over a new leaf and nobody "buying it". I believe it worked better as was because Cyrano Jones was an unknown; nobody was sure of his true motivations...which turned out to be earnest, merely and foolishly shortsighted.
David Gerrold had at one point imagined Jones played by the venerable Boris Karloff (who was quite elderly but still alive and (I assume) working in 1967. In that "what if" bit of dream casting, Gerrold visualized Jones as a doting, elderly soul with truly honest intent, blindly not foreseeing the damage his "pets" could and did cause. He would have been mortified when finally shown the chaos. He merely wanted to spread a bit of love.
David Gerrold had at one point imagined Jones played by the venerable Boris Karloff (who was quite elderly but still alive and (I assume) working in 1967. In that "what if" bit of dream casting, Gerrold visualized Jones as a doting, elderly soul with truly honest intent, blindly not foreseeing the damage his "pets" could and did cause. He would have been mortified when finally shown the chaos. He merely wanted to spread a bit of love.
The story needed the Tribble dealer to be an unknown quantity. The whole point is that the Tribbles overrun the station and the ship while Kirk is preoccupied with the Klingons, Nilz Baris, and the quadrotriticale. If it'd been Harry Mudd in place of Cyrano Jones, Kirk would've been a LOT more suspicious a LOT more quickly.
If it had been Mudd, I should think that would be an immediate red flag to the Enterprise crew that something was up with the tribbles.
As a child, I forgot the name Cyrano Jones and misremembered Mudd as the tribble salesman.
I still remember Cyrano as a dragon’s name from a certain Florida outfit.
As others had said, the episode wouldn’t have worked with someone that Kirk knew already such as Mudd.
Now, a follow up with him and Jones teaming up would have had a lot of potential, yes!
Now, a follow up with him and Jones teaming up would have had a lot of potential, yes!
Harry Mudd never became interesting until "Discovery"
Nor was he edgy, dark or dangerous till then
He was a tiresome "comedy" baddy in TOS and the episodes he was in were cringefests
Nor was he edgy, dark or dangerous till then
He was a tiresome "comedy" baddy in TOS and the episodes he was in were cringefests
never liked him in discovery. The time loop episode was one of the best of the first season, but all considered he came out as way too dark for me.
never liked him in discovery. The time loop episode was one of the best of the first season, but all considered he came out as way too dark for me.
I much preferred him dark
TOS Mudd was just a piss take, I couldn't take to him at all
Yes, I was just about to mention Gerrold's idea about a Karloff Cyrano Jones. That twould have been a very different character from a TOS Harry Mudd, let alone a DISC Harry Mudd.
This. The plot doesn't work if it's Harry Mudd.
Similar threads
