Mudd's Women is a very typical monster-of-the-week Star Trek episode, and as a sci-fi story it isn't that interesting. Why, then, do fans love it so much? Because even the most predictable of concepts can be forgiven when when a character such as Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) is on screen.
Mudd's appearance on the Enterprise is a lesson in comedy: his ship is located during a routine mission, with the man and his crew beamed up before the vessel is destroyed. Then, when Kirk asks him about the crew (three women), he candidly replies, with a Scotty-like accent: "Oh no, Captain, that's me cargo.". As it turns out, good old Harry, who travels under another name because of his criminal record, specializes in finding beautiful women and selling them to lonely men. He obviously knows what he's doing, since his "cargo" has a spell-like effect on every male crew member of the Enterprise, Spock not included. However, when the ship runs short of fuel and has to negotiate with workers on a nearby planet, the truth about Mudd's business starts to emerge, and it might as well mean the end of Kirk's five-year mission.
As said before, the story isn't very original, as anyone who knows his genre fiction should be able to figure out the "twist" about halfway through the episode. And yet the whole thing is quite enjoyable, largely thanks to Carmel, who plays Mudd exactly as he ought to be portrayed: weirdly charismatic, ambitious and unapologetically sleazy. To call him a villain isn't quite accurate: he's just one of those unreliable fellas it's hard to admire, but impossible not to laugh at.
Additionally, Mudd's women contains one of Spock's best responses to Dr. McCoy's "human" provocations: "The fact that my internal disposition differs from yours, Doctor, pleases me no end.". In short, classic Trek.
Mudd's appearance on the Enterprise is a lesson in comedy: his ship is located during a routine mission, with the man and his crew beamed up before the vessel is destroyed. Then, when Kirk asks him about the crew (three women), he candidly replies, with a Scotty-like accent: "Oh no, Captain, that's me cargo.". As it turns out, good old Harry, who travels under another name because of his criminal record, specializes in finding beautiful women and selling them to lonely men. He obviously knows what he's doing, since his "cargo" has a spell-like effect on every male crew member of the Enterprise, Spock not included. However, when the ship runs short of fuel and has to negotiate with workers on a nearby planet, the truth about Mudd's business starts to emerge, and it might as well mean the end of Kirk's five-year mission.
As said before, the story isn't very original, as anyone who knows his genre fiction should be able to figure out the "twist" about halfway through the episode. And yet the whole thing is quite enjoyable, largely thanks to Carmel, who plays Mudd exactly as he ought to be portrayed: weirdly charismatic, ambitious and unapologetically sleazy. To call him a villain isn't quite accurate: he's just one of those unreliable fellas it's hard to admire, but impossible not to laugh at.
Additionally, Mudd's women contains one of Spock's best responses to Dr. McCoy's "human" provocations: "The fact that my internal disposition differs from yours, Doctor, pleases me no end.". In short, classic Trek.