Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Kirk: Captain's Log Stardate 1329.1
The 'Enterprise' brings aboard the survivors of an ill-fated vessel.
Eve: Hello
Kirk: Hello, ladies. Is this your crew, Captain?
Walsh: This is me cargo.
Eve: I read once that a captain has to act like a paragon of virtue. I never met a paragon
Kirk: Neither have I.
Mr. Walsh, I'm convening a ship's hearing on your actions.
Mr. Spock will supply you with any legal information you may need.
Walsh: You're a hard nosed one, Captain.
Kirk: And you're a liar, Mr. Walsh.
If you go outside, you'll get killed.
Just have those crystals here when I get back.
Eve!
George Takei (1996) Our first episode
on this volume
is the hugely entertaining
"Mudd's Women."
The script was written by Stephen Kandel
from an outline of Gene's
and intended to be the second pilot.
Submission was delayed by the writer's illness
so it then became the second episode in the first series.
Shatner(1998): "Mudd's Women" was one of three scripts in contention to be the second pilot
that NBC would order before committing to the series.
But an episode that seemed to be all about drugs and prostitution?
It was finally decided that this story might not go over big with the network brass.
So, Mudd and his ladies sat on the shelf for a while.
"The Omega Glory" was the other script being considered while the winner [famous Shatner pause]
and second pilot was "Where No Man Has Gone Before. "
This episode and the character of fast-talking con-man Mudd
would eventually go on to become a favorite
[inexplicable Shatner pause] of the fans. It was funny and unusually racy for its time.
Reminiscent of American western stories of women who were brought
to the American frontier as wives or companions for lonely settlers
and miners. As for the drug angle,
well, heh, it's possible that the network executives weren't aware of what was going on.
That NBC allowed "Mudd's Women" to be produced at all
is still a minor miracle.
Nimoy (1999):... mythology tells the story of the sirens
the beautiful creatures whose irresistible songs
lead sailors to their deaths on the jagged rocks.
According to Homer, Odysseus had to lash himself
to the mast of his ship
in order to fight off their deadly attraction.
A similar fate befalls the crew of 'The Enterprise'
in this episode- "Mudd’s women. "
It's the tale of Harry Mudd
and his cargo of 3 "lovelies," he calls them-
and lovely they certainly are.
However, this instance,
beauty may be more than just skin deep.
By this time in the series,
we were beginning to settle
into our characters a bit better,
although I have to admit-
there are few scenes in this show
where Spock actually smiles.
Maybe even the stoic Vulcan himself
wasn't immune to Harry Mudd’s precious cargo.
Captain's log- Stardate 1329.8.
The U.S.S. Enterprise in pursuit
of an unidentified vessel.
Sulu: There he is, Sir. Center screen.
[intercom whistles]
intercom voice: this is the engine room.
Grace Lee Whitney: I get a lot of flack
from women's groups today
saying, "how come you didn't fight wearing that uniform,
"you know, with the shorts, with the miniskirt?
How come you didn't fight that?"
I said, "I didn't want to fight it. I liked the look. "
Kirk: Will you stop hovering over me, Yeoman?
Rand: Well, I'll change it if you don't like it, sir.
Kirk: Thank you, Yeoman.
Rand: You're welcome, sir.
Whitney: The better, the shorter-
and the uniform was velour, you know,
so it was very curvy,
and the zipper went across the front and down.
You know what I mean? Kind of different
and very difficult to get out of.
I mean, you had to have help. No. Ha ha!
Not as much help as you had to have in the full suits,
when you had the big, full suits, but...
and the hair and the uniform and the shorts
and the black stockings and the boots.
And we worked on this for a very long time,
and when we went into the office to show Gene,
I remember walking down, and Bill Theiss was so excited-
so excited because we'd worked very *** this,
and we went through the door,
and he set the stage that I was just coming down,
opened the door, and Gene was there, and I walked in,
and he went "wow!" And that's what happened.
That's how we got it, and it stayed.
Losing communications with the miners, Sir.
Magnetic storm seems worse.
I was perfectly all right with it.
You have to realize there were full-length hose, boots.
Uh, the miniskirt was the fashion of the day,
unlike the fashion of tod-
of that day-
unlike the fashion of today, which is the micro-mini,
which is up to your ear. Ha ha!
And the boots have never gone out,
so I think the costume stands in its own stead today.
Captain's log- Stardate 1330. 1.
Position- 14 hours out of Rigel-12.
Susan Denberg, who plays Magda, one of Mudd's women,
was a former playmate of the month
who curiously enough went on to star as the monster
in Frankenstein Created Women.
Harry Mudd,
a thoroughly likeable scoundrel, conman
and self-styled trader,
would return in a later episode, " I, Mudd."
Roger C. Carmel,
who brought Mudd so vividly to life,
was a popular actor and appeared in the series "Batman"
and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."
Nimoy(1999): Aside from Harry Mudd,
the late Roger C. Carmel's best known role
was probably playing opposite Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden
in the first season of "The Mothers-in-law. "
You may also remember him the villainous Colonel Gumm
from the "Batman" television series.
Roger brought such charisma and charm
to the role of Harry Mudd
that he has the distinction
of being the only Star Trek guest star
who was asked to reprise his role in a later episode.
Yes, it's true. You'll see more
of the mischievous Harcourt Fenton Mudd
in the late first season episode "I, Mudd. " [it is really a second season episode]
You'll have to.
Koenig (1998): When Star Trek was at its best the stories were very imaginative.
They were being written
by bona fide science fiction writers,
speculative fiction writers- people who really brought
a very personal approach to writing.
Kirk: Bridge to transporter room-
their vessel has been hit by an asteroid.
It's gone. Did you get the crew off?
Koenig: When Star Trek was at its best,
we were making sociopolitical statements
that were not so apparent
that we were initially aware that's what was happening.
Captain's log-
transporting down to surface of planet Rigel-12
give us the pills.
What if someone sees us like this?
You'll never find them, Harry.
And if you do find them...
you know what they are?
These stories addressed situations
that we could not easily deal with
on television in the sixties.
Go on, Eve. Take it.
It's not a cheat.
It's a miracle...
for some man who can appreciate it...
and who needs it.
Herb Solow (1998): We rarely got mail, rarely got phone calls
with fans or network people or sponsors saying,
"That's shocking. We don't want anything that shocks. "
Uh, people kind of accepted that it came from the future.
I have to believe that if we did some of the stories
that were done on 'Star Trek'-
if we did them in a contemporary series,
we'd have problems.
Michael Logan: The interesting thing about 'Star Trek'
is that it defied all boundaries-
all geographic boundaries, all racial boundaries.
It came in, you know, at a time
where it seemed like, you know,
we weren't really ready for this kind of stuff,
but quite interestingly we were.
I read once a commander has to act like a paragon of virtue.
I never met a paragon.
Ha ha ha!
Neither have I.
Logan: And I think there was a safety to being able to do this in the future.
You could not have done this in a contemporary setting.
You certainly could not historically have done it in a historical setting
such as "Gunsmoke," for example, "Wagon Train", "Bonanza"-
the kind of shows that were very, very popular.
It just wouldn't have flown.
Your Asian on "Bonanza" was the housekeeper.
So this show-
it's amazing to think how monumental it was
and what a damn difficult job it must have been
to have gotten it done in the way Roddenberry wanted to do it,
because he had so much opposition from the network.
Nimoy (1999): It's surprising that the NBC censors
didn't object to the story line of "Mudd's Women. "
in 1966, the counterculture was building momentum.
Mainstream America was in denial
about the growing popularity of drugs.
After all, it's a drug
that makes Mudd's Women beautiful,
and their addiction to it is quite obvious.
Perhaps the censors didn't object
because in the end Kirk proves
that you don't need drugs to get by.
In any case, the antidrug message in "Mudd's Women"
represents one of the many times
that 'Star Trek' was ahead of its time.
In a sense, Star Trek was the first to "just say no."
Bill Theiss was the costume designer for Star Trek
and Gene Roddenberry was his assistant.
Well, not quite.
But that's the way it seemed.
Bill was great at designing sexy costumes
for the women on the show
on a limited budget. But somehow, Gene always
always showed up for the fittings
to make his own design adjustments
He like to add his two cents
then subtract the amount of cloth
that was covering up our beautiful guest stars
A little less here, he'd ask Bill
A little shorter there.
Gene's two cents
added up to skimpier costumes
And skimpier costumes
kept Bill' s budget in check.
But gave the NBC censors
a lot more to worry about.