STAR TREK
I, Mudd

From Wikipedia:

"I, Mudd" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series first broadcast November 3, 1967 and repeated April 5, 1968. It is episode #37, production #41, and was written by Stephen Kandel, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry and directed by Marc Daniels. David Gerrold performed an uncredited rewrite, but little of his material was used.

Overview: Captain Kirk has a second run-in with the conman, Harry Mudd. Harry is now the supreme ruler of a planet of androids who cater to his every whim.

More here.

Okay, back to some second season greatness.

"I, Mudd" is straight up Star Trek comedy, and it is extraordinarily well executed. It is also the only original Star Trek episode, to the best of my knowledge, that sees the return of a character who is not in the regular cast. Harcourt Fenton Mudd was interesting and amusingly weird when he originally appeared in the first season's "Mudd's Women," mostly due to the fabulous character work of 1960s TV stalwart Roger C. Carmel, but in this one it is as though the writing team tailored the role specifically for his comedic talent. That is, Harry Mudd is unleashed to be, well, Harry Mudd. And that's one of the better moves in Trek history.

As usual, a good teaser means a good episode, and this one is no different. Indeed, we get a nice and light hearted installment of the ongoing Spock and McCoy argument about logic and humanity, this time focusing on the new crewman Norman, who is soon to be revealed as an android--Spock, of course, likes Norman's rational no-nonsense approach to his work on the Enterprise; McCoy is vaguely disturbed by the same thing. Soon enough, however, the Doctor's human intuition wins the argument when Norman takes over the ship. And it's a good take-over. We get a pretty fun moment when the android takes out six or seven guys, including Scotty, in engineering. We get a pretty cool shot of Kirk and Sulu, standing behind the navigator's tactical computer, realizing that the Enterprise is changing course*.

Even though this is a fairly serious moment, an intruder running around making unauthorized course changes, the dialogue just keeps getting funnier:

(Spock enters bridge.)

Kirk: Mr. Spock, we appear to be taking an unscheduled ride.

Spock: (very dryly as he passes by) Interesting.

Norman then enters and informs them that he has taken over the ship. And all this before the opening credits. The opening sequence may not establish the breakneck speed set up by the teasers for other great Trek episodes, but it does move along at a nice clip, more timed for comedy than for drama, and it packs a lot of expository info, kind of long for what it is, but you don't notice at all. That is, you're hooked and smiling before you hear "Space, the final frontier..."

The Enterprise travels for "four solar days" before they reach their destination; in the meantime, Norman just goes to sleep, standing up, in the middle of the bridge. In a bit of weirdness, Chekov and Uhura are still checking out the sleeping interloper while the Enterprise arrives at Mudd's world, even though, one assumes, they've been walking past him for four days. I don't think this was intentional comedy, but it's still pretty funny. Indeed, there aren't too many of these clunky moments in "I, Mudd," but when they appear, they work well--I mean, it is comedy, after all.

And then we finally see Mudd, sitting on a throne, flanked by twin babes, decked out like a fun house mirror version of Paul Robeson playing The Emperor Jones. A little more menacing talk to help set up the plot, and then the episode finally gets down to the serious business of being funny without having to worry about dramatics. Indeed, the drama is now played for humor, as Harry declares at the end of the first act:

You're all going to be here for the rest of your lives!

He then belts out a long and evil Batman villain laugh, which is appropriate enough because Carmel also played Colonel Gumm on the Batman TV comedy series running at the same time as Trek. I mean, Carmel is just fucking great. He goes on and on about how he's the emperor, the lord, Mudd the First, all that shit. And he just looks like a total Bozo all the while. He even arranges an impromptu fashion show of his favorite babe androids, while he sits in the middle of it all admiring their 1960s sexuality. We also see an android shrine to his estranged battle axe wife, Stella, who could have come directly from The Flintstones or The Honeymooners.

By the time the landing party is alone and considering its fate, an Abbott and Costello style routine anchored by Chekov signals that the gloves are off, and we are now bombarded with Vaudeville and 1950s Vegas comedy sketches for the rest of the episode. Scotty takes a moment to become as much of a Scottish stereotype as Willy on The Simpsons:

Harry Mudd, ah, ya borgas frat, ya!!!

I have no fucking idea what that means, but it's pretty damned funny. There's a running sight gag about Harry's throne--both Chekov and Kirk manage to find moments in the chair, not as cool as Kirk's throne on the Enterprise, but good enough for the funny. Bones gets in another gleeful hypo-knockout. Kirk plays proud acting coach to Uhura, perhaps, in a moment of meta-comedy, parodying Nichelle Nichols' successful Broadway career. McCoy and Spock have another one of those friction moments when the science officer reveals his knowledge of the androids' plans:

McCoy: How do you know so much?

Spock: I asked them.

And then, the crowning achievement of "I, Mudd." Kirk and crew "take the Alices on a trip through Wonderland." That is, for the third time in Trek, the Captain destroys a computer-like being by using flourishes of paradox and illogic. But this one is the absolute best. I mean, it's a show, theater of the absurd, both elaborate and flamboyant. McCoy mimes playing a violin while Scotty plays the flute. Chekov and Uhura dance a waltz to the imaginary music. Chekov engages in Russian folk dance, while the others pretend they're at a hoedown. Spock irrationally applies the Vulcan neck pinch to an android it could not possibly affect. (This moment is reprised for even more comedy nearly a decade later when Chevy Chase playing Spock in that classic SNL skit attempts the same thing on Elliot Gould as the NBC executive cancelling the show.) Kirk laments Scotty's death-by-happiness. Spock pitches an imaginary explosive baseball to Harry.

Predictably, but oh-so-worth-it, Norman's brain fries.

This is one damned fine episode of Star Trek. Go see.


Harry begs Kirk for mercy.



*I have a continuity problem here. In "Friday's Child," we see the tactical computer emerging from Sulu's helm console, suggesting that it is usually used only in battle. But in this episode, they are not in battle, and the tactical computer seems to be always in its up-mode. Am I right in assuming that this device is some sort of battle computer thingy? Or is it just some ambiguous tech? I don't know. Maybe they're doing a battle simulation, which is why the thing is up and being used. On the other hand, it's not really that big of a deal, and I'm a big nerd for worrying about it.

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