"I, Mudd" is the eighth episode of the
second season of the
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
television series ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
''. Written by
Stephen Kandel (based on a story by
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series ''Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and ''Sta ...
) and directed by
Marc Daniels
Marc Daniels (January 27, 1912 – April 23, 1989), born Danny Marcus, was an American television director. He directed on programs such as I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Hogan's Heroes, and more.
Life and career
Da ...
, it was first broadcast on November 3, 1967.
The crew of the ''Enterprise'' has a second encounter with the
conman
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...
Harry Mudd
Harry may refer to:
TV shows
* ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin
* ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons
* ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...
(
Roger C. Carmel), first seen in the
season one Season One may refer to:
Albums
* ''Season One'' (Suburban Legends album), 2004
* ''Season One'' (All Sons & Daughters album), 2012
* ''Season One'' (Saukrates album), 2012
See also
*
*
* Season 2 (disambiguation)
* Season 4 (disambiguat ...
episode "
Mudd's Women
"Mudd's Women" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by Stephen Kandel, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Harvey Hart, it first aired on October 13, ...
". Mudd is now the supreme ruler of a planet of
androids
An android is a humanoid robot or other artificial being often made from a flesh-like material. Historically, androids were completely within the domain of science fiction and frequently seen in film and television, but advances in robot techno ...
who cater to his every whim.
Although Kandel is the credited writer on the episode,
David Gerrold
David Gerrold (born Jerrold David Friedman; January 24, 1944)Reginald, R. (September 12, 2010)''Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Volume 2'' Borgo Press p. 911. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved June 23, 2013. is an American science fic ...
performed an uncredited rewrite. The final script was heavily revised by the staff, and Gerrold admits that only one original idea of his made it into the final episode. He also claims producer
Gene L. Coon offered to put the matter of credit up for Writers Guild arbitration but that he declined.
Plot
An alien android posing as a
Starfleet
Starfleet is a fictional organization in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Within this fictional universe, Starfleet is a uniformed space force maintained by the United Federation of Planets ("the Federation") as the principal means for conduc ...
lieutenant and identifying himself as Norman,
hijacks the
''Enterprise'' by sealing off engineering and setting a
booby trap
A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...
which would cause any attempt to restore control to destroy the ship.
Captain Kirk
James Tiberius Kirk is a fictional character in the '' Star Trek'' media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in '' Star Trek'' serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as captain. Kirk lea ...
finds his ship and crew taken to an unknown planet populated by androids, and meets an old nemesis, the outlaw
Harry Mudd
Harry may refer to:
TV shows
* ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin
* ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons
* ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...
. Calling himself "Mudd the First" and ostensibly ruling the androids. Mudd displays a darkened glass panel, which he calls a "
shrine
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
" to his wife Stella. It contains an android image of his wife which nags him as she did, but he is able to silence her instantly by ordering her to "shut up".
Mudd explains that he broke out of prison, stole a spaceship, crashed on this planet, and was taken in by the androids. He says they are accommodating, but refuse to let him go unless he provides them other humans to serve and study. Mudd informs Kirk that he and his crew are to serve this purpose and can expect to spend the rest of their lives there.
Kirk questions the androids and discovers they were built by travelers from the
Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy (IPA: ), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy with the diameter of about approximately from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The gala ...
whose planet was destroyed by a
supernova
A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
, leaving the androids to fend for themselves. First Officer
Spock
Spock is a Character (arts), fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), USS ''Enterprise ...
discovers the androids number over 200,000, and concludes that there must be some central control mechanism.
The ''Enterprise'' crew is
beamed to the surface and replaced with an android crew. They find much appealing about the androids' world:
Scotty is fascinated by their engineering knowledge;
Ensign Chekov likes the idea of living on a planet full of compliant female androids; and
Uhura
Nyota Uhura () is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. In the Star Trek: The Original Series, original television series, the character was portrayed by Nichelle Nichols, who reprised the role for the first six List of Star Trek ...
is tempted by the offer of immortality in an android body. Kirk will have none of this, however, and reminds them of their duty.
After a final farewell to Stella, Mudd plans to depart aboard ''Enterprise'', but the androids refuse his order to beam him aboard. They have their own agenda: to leave the planet and offer their "services" to humanity, with the goal of bringing the greedy and aggressive human race under their control.
As the ''Enterprise'' crew discuss their predicament, Spock notes that all of the androids belong to various named series, except for the one named Norman. Kirk recalls that an android called on Norman to "coordinate" the analysis of an "illogical" statement. Spock concludes that Norman is the central locus of the composite android mind, and Kirk suggests that "wild, irrational illogic aimed right at Norman" could be a potent weapon against that mind.
The crew then attempt to confuse the androids by means of contradictory statements and a series of bizarre theatrics, culminating with Mudd and Kirk posing the
liar paradox
In philosophy and logic, the classical liar paradox or liar's paradox or antinomy of the liar is the statement of a liar that they are lying: for instance, declaring that "I am lying". If the liar is indeed lying, then the liar is telling the truth ...
to Norman: Kirk claims everything Mudd says is a lie; and Mudd says to Norman, "I am lying." Unable to resolve the contradiction, Norman's mind burns out, which immediately causes the other androids to shut down.
Spock and Scotty reprogram the androids to return to their original tasks of making the planet productive. Kirk informs Mudd that he has been paroled to the android population as an example of a human failure, and that a special android has been programmed to see to his needs as an incentive to work with the androids and not exploit them. Mudd is grateful until he discovers that this android is Stella, and there are now at least 500 copies of her – none of whom responds to his command to "shut up".
Production and reception
The producers liked the script resulting from Gerrold's work on
The Trouble with Tribbles
"The Trouble with Tribbles" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by David Gerrold and directed by Joseph Pevney, it was first broadcast on December 29, 1967. In ...
so much that Gerrold was later tasked with re-writing the script for this episode.
[ Gerrold (1973): p. 269]
In 2009, th
AV Clubcalled it "goofy, but charmingly surreal", "infectiously silly" and "a treat," giving it an A− grade.
In 2014,
Charlie Jane Anders
Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, t ...
at
io9
''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...
ranked "I, Mudd" as the 79th best episode of ''Star Trek'' in a list of the top 100 ''Star Trek'' episodes.
In 2016,
Syfy
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...
noted this episode for actress Nichelle Nichols presentation of Uhura, as having her fifth best scene in ''Star Trek''.
See also
* Other encounters with Harcourt Fenton Mudd:
**"Choose Your Pain" — first encounter (chronologically), a ''
Star Trek: Discovery'' episode
**"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" — the second encounter in ''Star Trek: Discovery''
**"The Escape Artist" — a ''
Short Treks'' episode
** "
Mudd's Women
"Mudd's Women" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by Stephen Kandel, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Harvey Hart, it first aired on October 13, ...
" — first encounter in the original series
** "
Mudd's Passion
"Mudd's Passion" is the tenth episode of the first season of the American animated science fiction television series '' Star Trek: The Animated Series''. It first aired in the NBC Saturday morning lineup on November 10, 1973, and was written ...
" — another encounter, in the
animated ''Star Trek'' series
** ''
The Humanoids
"With Folded Hands ..." is a 1947 science fiction novelette by American writer Jack Williamson. Willamson's influence for this story was the aftermath of World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his concern that "some o ...
'' — A
non-canon
In fiction, canon is the material accepted as officially part of the story in an individual universe of that story by its fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction. The alternative terms mythology, tim ...
novel by
Jack Williamson
John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006), who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American list of science fiction authors, science fiction writer, often called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of t ...
** "Another Fine Mess" - An episode from the
adventure video game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
, ''
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary''.
References
External links
*
"I, Mudd"Side-by-side comparisons at
TrekMovie.com
{{Star Trek: The Original Series episodes, 2
Star Trek: The Original Series (season 2) episodes
1967 American television episodes
Television episodes about androids
Television episodes directed by Marc Daniels
Television episodes written by Stephen Kandel