I, Mudd by: Stephen Kandel and directed by: Marc Daniels

 

“I, Mudd” is written by Stephen Kandel and is directed by Marc Daniels.  It was filmed under production code 41, was the 8^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 37^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on November 3, 1967.

 

“Mudd’s Women” was one of the few genuinely bad episodes of the first season of Star Trek, but Roger C. Carmel as Harry Mudd was camp enough that it was at least a fun trainwreck to watch.  It’s honestly not a surprise that Stephen Kandel wrote a sequel episode which sees Star Trek try to do a twist on I, Robot with “I, Mudd”, at least in the episode’s title.  This episode is certainly a time, a very fun time that plays very heavily into 1960s tropes, though it’s at the very least an improvement over “Mudd’s Women” in the fact that it doesn’t attempt to justify sex trafficking and has genuinely impressive direction on some very limited sets from Marc Daniels.  The big issue with this episode perhaps stems from the opening sequence being played incredibly straight.  Harry Mudd has become the emperor of a society of androids which he is going to use to steal the Enterprise stranding the crew so the androids can observe the humans.  The episode is essentially a play on being trapped in a gilded cage, Mudd and the crew of the Enterprise being provided for in any way they wish (and that means anything).  The ideas present in “I, Mudd” are nothing new for Star Trek, riffing on “The Menagerie” and “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” equally, but the opening sequence attempts to set the episode up as if it were to be more of a thriller.  One of Mudd’s androids, Norman played by Richard Tatro, has infiltrated the Enterprise and forces it off course through subterfuge and violence against the crew and with Daniels’ direction it’s played as thrilling and dangerous, but then once Mudd is revealed you immediately get the sense that that’s not anywhere near where the episode is going to be.

 

The second act of the episode then comes to an almost complete stop before Kirk and company are able to formulate an exit strategy, mainly held down by quite a bit of exposition and Kandel playing into some outdated tropes.  Roger C. Carmel is an absolute joy to watch as Harry Mudd, once again turning in a completely over the top performance where he has utilized several female android models.  The androids are treated as robots throughout the episode, though with elevated intelligence, and the issue with one of them is that it’s a replica of Mudd’s nagging wife Stella, played by Kay Elliot, who is fun but quite outdated.  She’s there so Mudd can get a comeuppance in the close of the episode which sees him left on the planet with 500 Stella androids.  The androids eventually realize they’re being used so Mudd has to work with the Enterprise crew to return them to their original programming, which is where the episode snowballs into a beautiful farce.  You already have Carmel camping it up from his first scene, but Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Nichols, and Koenig all join him in camping it up, crewmembers shooting Scotty with finger guns, playing false musical instruments, and using logical paradoxes to short their programming.  It’s an act of television that is genuinely wonderful to watch and everyone is just having such a good time you just have to go along with it.  It’s also slightly bolstered by the gilded aspect of the gilded cage isn’t just sexual, only Chekov is tempted by sex while everyone else has something to tempt them based on their role on the Enterprise or personal life (except Uhura who is just tempted with immortality).

 

Overall, “I, Mudd” is definitely the stronger of the two appearances of Harcourt Fenton Mudd in Star Trek, owed mainly to everyone else trying to one up the camp factor of Roger C. Carmel and the third act of the episode going balls to the wall crazy in the best ways that it must be seen to be believed.  It’s not amazing by any means, and the early sequence of the episode plays it serious and slow, but once you have Harry Mudd sitting on a throne bringing out beautiful female androids you just kind of go into the insanity of it.  6/10.