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Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

Mudd’s Women

Star Trek ClassicStardate 1329.1: After stealing a freighter and pushing its engines to their limits in an effort to escape the pursuing Enterprise, Harry Mudd and his cargo – three seemingly irresistable women – are recovered. Although Mudd can’t help but be suspicious, the women follow his instructions to cripple the Enterprise without any questions from the male members of the crew. The dilithium crystals powering the ship are sabotaged, and Mudd intends to force Kirk to bargain for his crew’s life when the Enterprise arrives at a dilithium mining outpost.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Stephen Kandel
story by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Harvey Hart
music by Fred Steiner

Star TrekCast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd), Karen Steele (Eve), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Maggie Thrett (Ruth), Susan Denberg (Magda), James Doohan (Scott), George Takei (Sulu), Jim Goodwin (Farrell), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Gene Dynarski (Ben), Jon Kowal (Herm), Seamon Glass (Benton), Jerry Foxworth (Guard)

Notes: Guest star Gene Dynarski would rack up another Trek role (Krodak in The Mark Of Gideon) before the end of the original series, and later guest starred in Star Trek: The Next Generation as a Starbase commander overseeing repairs and upgrades to Picard’s Enterprise (11001001, 1988). He also had guest roles in the 1960s Batman series, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Land Of Giants, and The X-Files, as well as an appearance in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 02 Star Trek

I, Mudd

Star Trek ClassicStardate 4513.3: The Enterprise is taken over by Crewman Norman, who turns out to be an android in disguise. He sets the ship on a course back to his home world, a planet populated entirely by androids – and one Harry Mudd, trapped there after a crash-landing. The androids plan to move out beyond their own planet to populate the galaxy with more of their logical, efficient kind, and the Enterprise is their chosen means of transport. Kirk, although understandably suspicious of Harry, must now cooperate with the con-man if the android invasion is to be stopped. And the greatest weapon at the disposal of Kirk, his crew, and Harry is total illogic.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Stephen Kandel
directed by Marc Daniels
music by Samuel Matlovsky

Cast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd), Richard Tatro (Norman), Alice Andrece (Alice #1 through #250), Rhae Andrece (Alice #251 through #500), Kay Elliot (Stella Mudd), Mike Howden (Lt. Rowe), Michael Zaslow (Jordan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series (Animated) Season 01 Star Trek

Mudd’s Passion

Star Trek ClassicStardate 4978.5: Upon receiving word that interplanetary con man Harry Mudd is up to his old tricks, swindling settlers in the Arcadian star system, the Enterprise crew tracks down Mudd, and Kirk and Spock beam down to arrest him (exposing Mudd’s deceptions to the easily-angered natives in the process). Once again, Mudd is peddling an illegal drug, this time a substance which can supposedly make one irresistible to the opposite sex. Picking up on Nurse Chapel’s affection for Spock, Mudd gives her a sample of his drug and suggests she use it to analyze its properties. Using this as a distraction, Mudd also manages to escape from the brig. When the drug initially fails to work, Chapel hunts Mudd down, inadvertently becoming his hostage when he grabs her and steals a shuttle to escape from the Enterprise. To ensure his escape, Mudd has also added his drug to the ship’s air circulation system, leaving the crew in far too friendly a mood to worry about one criminal.

Order the DVDswritten by Stephen Kandel
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael

Cast: William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott / Lt. Arrex), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel / Lt. M’ress / Mudd’s decoy), Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

Choose Your Pain

Star Trek: DiscoveryWith the secret of navigation with the spore drive finally unlocked – the enormous tardigrade-like creature must be harnessed to perform the navigation – the Discovery has been busy in the war with the Klingons. Starfleet Command even advises Captain Lorca to be less visible for fear that the Discovery‘s experimental drive system could be discovered by the Klingons, a fear that seems to be borne out when Lorca’s shuttle flight back to Discovery is cut short as a Klingon ship appears, and Klingon warriors board the shuttle in short order. Lorca is taken prisoner and, in captivity, meets a shifty human named Harry Mudd, also a Klingon prisoner, and a Starfleet officer named Ash Tyler, a prisoner of war since the battle at the binary stars. As Lorca endures Klingon torture and tries to plan an escape, Saru finds himself in command of Discovery by default with a crisis on his hands: the continual use of the spore drive is draining the tardigrade’s energy and sapping its will to live. Soon, it will be unable to help the Discovery crew find their missing captain.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazontelelplay by Kemp Powers
story by Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts & Kemp Powers
directed by Lee Rose
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: DiscoveryCast: Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Jason Isaacs (Captain Gabriel Lorca), Jayne Brook (Admiral Cornwell), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Rainn Wilson (Harry Mudd), Conrad Coates (Terral), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Julianne Grossman (Discovery Computer), Patrick Kwok-Choon (Rhys), Sara Mitich (Airiam), Simon Northwood (Shuttle Pilot), Oyin Oladejo (Joann Owosekun), Christopher Russell (Milton Richter), Kirk Salesman (Shuttle Klingon 1), Tyler Evan Webb (Shuttle Klingon 2)

Star Trek: DiscoveryNotes: Lorca’s previous command, the U.S.S. Buran, was named after the ultimately aborted Soviet-era Russian attempt to duplicate or improve upon the design of the American Space Shuttle. Faced with allowing his crew to fall into Klingon hands and endure torture or worse, Lorca blew up the Buran with all hands…as he escaped. Harry Mudd is seen here ten years before the events chronicled in the original Star Trek episode Mudd’s Women, and at this point is married to Stella (I, Mudd). The tactical plot seen very briefly on Discovery‘s bridge shows Rura Penthe (Star Trek VI, Enterprise: Judgment) and Khitomer (Star Trek VI, TNG: Sins Of The Father) in relation to the current outlines of Klingon and Federation space; Deep Space K-7 (TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles, Star Trek: DiscoveryTAS: More Tribbles, More Trouble, DS9: Trials And Tribble-ations) is perilously close to that boundary. Choose Your Pain has the dubious distinction of dropping Star Trek’s first F-bomb (thank you, Cadet Tilly), which drew a mixed reaction from some segments of the audience.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate 2136.8: Burnham is relieved when duty calls her away from an increasingly awkward party to investigate something a bit more worthy of her attention, a spacefaring creature in ill health. Since it is an endangered species, the Discovery crew is bound by law to beam it aboard and transport it to a safe facility, but once it’s aboard, it disgorges something that would make any creature ill: Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Enraged that Captain Lorca left him stranded in a Klingon prison, Mudd is back for revenge, and has an illegal (and unstable) device to create a time loop. He can kill Lorca as many times as he likes, and is willing to do the same to the rest of the crew, until he extracts the secret of Discovery’s drive system to sell to the Klingons.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Aron Eli Coleite & Jesse Alexander
directed by David M. Barrett
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: DiscoveryCast: Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Jason Isaacs (Captain Gabriel Lorca), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Katherine Barrell (Stella), Peter MacNeill (Baron Grimes), Rainn Wilson (Harry Mudd), Milton Barnes (Deck Crew #1), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Jason Deline (Medical Officer), Hamza Fouad (Deck Crew #2), Julianne Grossman (Disocvery Computer), Patrick Kwok-Choon (Rhys), Sara Mitich (Airiam), Oyin Oladejo (Joann Owosekun), Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Comm Officer 2), Izaak Smith (Jogger #1)

Star Trek: DiscoveryNotes: Betazed (future home of Counselor Deanna Troi) is already known to, or may already be a member of, the Federation in the 23rd century, as Mudd has been involved in criminal activity in Betazoid territory. Actor Peter MacNeill, though he appears only very briefly here, was a regular in Captain Power And The Soldiers Of The Future (as “Hawk”) and on the ’90s series Psi Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal. He also voiced numerous characters in the 1980s animated series Star Wars: Droids, and guest starred in two episodes of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Short Treks Star Trek

The Escape Artist

Star Trek: Short TreksStardate not given: A Tellarite bounty hunter buys wanted man Harry Mudd from a fellow bounty hunter, partly to settle a personal score, and partly to hand Mudd over to the Federation for a fat reward. But Mudd’s fast-talking ways aren’t slowed by this setback, and he’s already plotting his next escape…assuming he needs to escape at all.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Mike McMahan
directed by Rainn Wilson
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Rainn Wilson (Harry Mudd), Dan Abramovici (Guard), Harry Judge (Tellarite), Barbara Mamabolo (Bounty Hunter), Myrthin Stagg (New Guard), Jonathan Watton (Federation Officer)

Short TreksNotes: Writer Mike McMahan’s popular parody Twitter account detailing unlikely (but funny) scenarios for a never-made eighth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation led to an officially published book, Warped: An Engaging Guide to the Never-Aired 8th Season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and his influence on the Star Trek franchise would continue from here to the first comedy-focused spinoff in the franchise, Star Trek: Lower Decks, also produced for CBS All Access. He has also been a production assistant on such animated shows as Drawn Together, South Park, and Rick & Morty, the latter of which he has also served as a writer.

Short TreksLatinum is already the currency of choice for those 23rd century soldiers of fortune who need it, long before it became a favorite of Deep Space Nine‘s Quark. Though Tellarites appeared in the Star Trek: Discovery episode The Wolf Inside, this is the first time a Tellarite has been the focus of a Star Trek episode since the Enterprise episode United in 2005. Careful examination of the extra Mudds reveals that Harry is already wearing fashions for which he will become famous, or at least infamous, in the future, echoing costume designs from the Star Trek episodes Mudd’s Women and I, Mudd.

LogBook entry by Earl Green