Mudd's Women

DVD, Star Trek S1 (Mudd's Women)

Harry Mudd, the most notorious, and if not famous, the most infamous of the original Trek villains, helped by the fact that he was the only one to appear in more than one episode, even making it to 'The Animated Series' (although that doesn't matter since it's not canon). He made his debut here, taking on the Irish accent and the name of the former Captain of his ship, Leo Walsh, to show exactly what sort of a rogue and charlatan he was. He was also a little bit dangerous, not above risking others' lives if it meant saving his own, although I'm not sure if we can take it that he killed the Captain to take control, or whether Walsh died for other reasons - it's never explored and he seems to be purely accepted as a con artist, his bubble of joie de vivre only punctured by the unremitting truth laser of Majel Barrett's computer voice, cutting through his lies like a knife through butter - technology is shown to be even more advanced in this future than we expected: they don't need fancy lie detector tests, the computer can read Mudd's emotions and probably any other number of signs to detect his untruthfulness, as well as having access to a host of background information, including his criminal record, which, interestingly, also points to how criminality is dealt with in this time (further explored in 'Dagger of The Mind' later in the season), as the computer states that his sentence for petty crimes was psychiatric treatment, though the effectiveness of such was disputed, something you can easily imagine the bluster of Mudd would talk himself out of!

It's good to hear Majel Barrett's first foray into representing the computer voice of starships, something she would do until her death, the final time of which was the eleventh 'Star Trek' film of 2009, released after her death. It's telling that she was the girlfriend or wife of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, that even after she'd been ousted from the series with her character, Number One, being struck from the crew after 'The Cage,' he still managed to find a surreptitious role for her, even before Nurse Chapel gracefully swanned onto the scene, something that she or Roddenberry could have had no idea would last for over forty years, and, along with Nimoy as Spock, would be a hallmark of the franchise spanning that time like no other character's appearances - she has the distinction of being one of, if not the only actor to have a role in every incarnation of Trek up to the present day, and they really need to use recordings of her voice for the ships in 'Discovery' if they want to get the maximum acceptance from long-time viewers like me. She became the voice of Starfleet, even putting aside her important recurring roles of Chapel and Deanna Troi's Mother, Lwaxana on 'TNG,' and to multiple generations she'll always be the First Lady of, and Mrs., Star Trek.

Lie detection without any physical interface isn't the only detail that makes the technology stand out, even with today's eyes: I can't help recalling Jadzia Dax' comments about mid-23rd Century style, all matte black finish and chrome highlights, because, despite not yet having Tricorders, the interfaces we do see are very stylish. The Tri-screen was the first to catch my eye - it had been used before, but as the camera panned across the Briefing Room table the sheen of its screens made it look real, as did the glass over Kirk's personal computer screen in his quarters, and the 'typewriter' computer on the Briefing Room table, with its impenetrable black screen, and the occasional bright lights that flittered across its surface. It was a simple effect, but very effective. The other time technology's aesthetic impressed me was the panel in McCoy's Sickbay - we'd seen the medical readouts with their horizontal gauges to represent various biological feeds before, but when Ruth, one of Mudd's titular women, goes near it, the display goes blank, a black screen, only broken by the warning lights of sensors picking up something unusual. Most people would probably consider 'TNG' to be responsible for interchangeable touchscreen interfaces, and while this isn't necessarily touch activated, it demonstrates that the screen can be rearranged or used for different purposes depending on the context, something quite revolutionary in itself. I'm probably reading too much into it, just as when I speculated Spock was controlling the main Viewscreen via gestures, but it's fun to place more contemporary ideas of technology upon the sixties production base.

One thing that is clear is that money remains a force in this period. Mudd is all about making money, whether it's wiving off his women to settlers, as in his original plan, or setting them up for the miners of Rigel XII in his Ferengi-like ability to use any eventuality to his advantage (well, perhaps not any - he didn't look like he had any way out of facing justice when Kirk promises to appear at his trial as a character witness!), but the failing 'lithium' crystal circuits that keep the Enterprise functioning are said to be expensive, Mudd equating them to the value of hundreds or thousands of times diamonds or gold, and the miners want payment. So what happened to the economy between the 23rd and 24th Centuries when people stopped doing things for gain, and instead did things based on what was best suited to their skills and abilities for the greater good and personal satisfaction? Perhaps we'll never know, but this insight into Roddenberry's world gives us a glimpse of how his thinking changed in the two decades between his two versions of Trek.

The Enterprise doesn't seem quite as high-powered as all that when it's almost drained through use of its 'deflectors' in the asteroid field when protecting Mudd's ship. The sequence worked quite well, the asteroids pinging towards the Viewscreen adequate to present the notion of an asteroid field, though it's a real shame the budget didn't stretch to the guest ship being shown as anything more than a yellow blob on the screen - at least with Balok's vessel in the previous episode they used inventive visuals to envision an alien craft, but they'd have needed to make something closer to the Enterprise in design for it to work as an Earth ship, and they didn't have the money for another big studio model. It might have been better not to show it at all rather than fob us off with a smudge! But I liked that the Enterprise could extend its deflectors around another ship, it shows, again, the technological ability of this advanced future starship - so far its come across very well, and there was only one tiny moment in the episode when the illusion of reality was broken a little - when Spock taps the helm console you hear a hollow wooden echo. So far, the sets still new and strong, we haven't had creaking floors or reverberation in general, but those things would come over the episodes as the wood settled. At the moment, though, it's nice to experience the full vision of this space-going marvel (including, apparently, uncredited dialogue spoken by Producer Robert Justman as the voice of an engineer!).

Not everything had completely settled down into the correct configuration of the series. Uhura remains in a gold uniform, somewhat out of place. She doesn't have that much to do, either. McCoy's sometimes seen in his medical tunic t-shirt, which he first wore in 'The Corbomite Maneuver,' and Kirk… well, he could do with a lock on his door, as people keep entering his quarters. Once when Spock brings Mudd and his women there (you actually hear a knock at the door, quite incongruous amidst all these computers and tech equipment!), and when Kirk's talking to the miners in private! But it's a good episode to show Kirk as Captain. He treats Mudd with a professional attitude - sat down at his desk noting down his details like an official, something we rarely see Captains on Trek do. Kirk's very much the serious Captain, against his historical reputation, he doesn't succumb to the exoticness of Eve when she tries it on in his quarters (again, he finds her lying on his bed, having wandered in - where's the security on this ship?). He resists her advances admirably and remains businesslike throughout his dealings with her, and even though Mudd had set her up for failure, saying Captains are married to their ships (in a repeat of the sentiment from 'The Corbomite Maneuver' where Kirk says he has a female to worry about: the Enterprise), she has a good go at ensnaring our resilient Captain. We even see Kirk losing his rag at Scotty with the stress of the situation with the miners holding them to ransom over lithium crystals, then quickly apologising. He's a real, emotional human being, disciplined, yet imperfect.

Spock, on the other hand has his alienness played up. He still has the hint of a smile on his lips occasionally, but he comes across somewhat cooler than we've yet seen - Mudd can somehow instantly tell that he's half-'Vulcanian' (the terminology still hadn't been perfected), and that his kind can turn off their emotions, preventing Spock from being susceptible to the Venus drug and its enhancing effects. I wished this aspect of him had been used more in the episode, as he isn't very important to the story, it's much more about Eve and Kirk, Mudd's manipulation of events, and McCoy's starstruck gooey-eyed doziness, him and Scotty both, and actually all the men on the ship - Ruth and Magda appear to enjoy all the attention and fit the role they're playing, but Eve is a bit deeper and hates the pretence they're under and that the men all eye her constantly. Even Sulu and guest navigator Farrell (who'd return in a couple of episodes), are affected. The message of the episode is a strong one, and forgives the blatant objectification of the female characters that would become a stereotypical staple of the series (this also being the first time soft lighting was used to 'enhance' the women's appearance on camera), because it's saying that it's about self-belief: you either believe in yourself, or not, and no amount of drugs will help you if you don't.

It also deals with the societal ideal that still exists even today in our 'enlightened' times, that people should look and dress a certain way, should be concerned with outward appearances at all costs, and that affection or acceptance can only happen if the outer shell is at its best. Eve sums it up well when she asks Ben Childress, the lead miner, whether he wants a fantasy woman as his wife: a vain, selfish, useless creature that cares only about her looks and maintaining them, her allure to the opposite sex, or whether he'd prefer the reality of a real woman who can cook, who will support his work and his life. It strikes him dumb at the time as he realises the truth of her words - after all, he's about as practical as they come, reacting quite strongly to her invading presence, such as when she cooks him a meal, showing that his independence is so important to him and trying to keep control of the situation of this stranger interfering in his routine. It's a very real exchange and delightful to watch. (Gene Dynarski, who was Childress, would go on to play another role in the third season, as well as returning many years later to play a character in the first season 'TNG' episode '11001001').

It could be viewed as hypocritical of Trek to say all this stuff about real beauty through Eve's mouth, since the series became famed for its revealing female costumes (as displayed here - not for the first time, as Vina in 'The Cage' was definitely in that vein, but the first time chronologically in the production of the main series), but that hadn't become a trope yet, so it's a shame the message wasn't taken to heart by those behind the production, generally preferring to exploit the physical beauty of guest stars for ratings rather than 'living up to their high-sounding words' as Kirk said in the last episode! But as a single episode with a message on fantasy versus reality, and expectations (something that can be adjusted to all walks of life - as Nicholas Meyer was saying about 'Discovery,' lower your expectations to avoid disappointment!), and not having them met in the way you've been led to believe is what should be coming to you by society, it's a good one. Mudd, in his fake accent and fake, dandy clothes, full of himself, lights up the screen as an adversary of a different kind to that which Kirk and crew would usually come up against, and it's satisfying to know he'll be facing the authorities for his actions. The ideas of enslavement to drugs or to an idealised vision of what you have to live up to, not to mention a warning about the love of makeup and fine clothes, could have gone further, but it's fun, and even ends with a little banter between the big three for the first time, so it was well done as an episode in total.

You can see where episodes such as 'The Perfect Mate' on 'TNG' (about a female on a mission to be transported to become mated), or 'Bound,' perhaps even 'Rajiin' on 'Enterprise' were inspired by this one - 'Bound' is all about three women coming aboard the ship and using their charms to try and take over, and while these women don't exactly do that, they are being used by Mudd to get the best deal he can. In a way they are his slaves, except through their own will, wanting to leave the dead-end worlds they came from (which actually sound interesting - maybe not the farm planet, which would have been ironic if it had turned out to be the same one as 'This Side of Paradise,' not to mention the farm world of Galt that Worf grew up on, but a pelagic planet of sea ranchers, if only we could have seen that, or the experimental station that's also mentioned), in order to get husbands, and thinking they're tied to Harry because of the Venus drugs he has.

I like little details of the world that we hear, such as the Enterprise unable to get a 'registration beam' from Mudd's ship, or that she's reduced to battery power when all the lithium crystals fail (must have been some asteroid field to take up so much power - either that or they had to project their deflectors a long way away!), or that Ruth and Magda get married via subspace radio to their respective miners! There's also what must be the earliest example of the crew running through possible scenarios that could account for the women: are they alien? Could they be an illusion? So many examples and possibilities would be experienced through Trek that the audience would be right behind in future on all those reasons for why what we're seeing is real or fake, and in what way, so the origins of that is interesting to see. The ubiquitous Mr. Leslie returns again, though he goes by the name of Connors this time, in Sickbay - either he likes to be referred to by his middle name (it would make sense if he has lots of brothers that they'd be known other than by their shared surname!), or McCoy had got muddled up in his delight at being visited by Ruth.

The women were fast movers, I must say: when we see them posing on the Transporter pads they're all standing on separate pads (for some reason I found it funny that Ruth beams in facing the wall, while the other two face front, like an inverse blonde joke), then we cut to another shot of them in a line, then back to their individual pads again! I wondered why Mudd allowed himself to be beamed over first - he claims it was to see that all was safe, but he's not that kind of man. It was also the first time a Transporter pattern had been the only rescue solution - their ship having blown up, the patterns are all that remains, so if they hadn't materialised, they'd have been dead. When Kirk asks Scotty how many he got aboard it reminded me of a similar scene in 'Generations.' And finally, when Kirk and Spock beam down to the desolate Rigel XII I assumed the flakes blasting through the air were snow, and I was wondering why they came without jackets (as seen in 'The Cage'), but when Eve suggests Childress cleans his pans by leaving them out in the sand blasts I realised it was the dust and sand of this unforgiving planet that was the environment. It makes the women seem all the braver for agreeing to stay on this forsaken rock with their chosen men, away from society and with little social interaction, and it makes you think more of them for having done it.

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