The Enterprise is hijacked by Crewman Norman (Richard Tatro), a new member of the crew who turns out to be an android! Norman takes the ship to a planet ruled over by none other than Kirk's old enemy, Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel). The world is filled with androids, all but Norman modeled into beautiful young women. A paradise for Mudd... except he's gotten bored with it. The androids will only let him leave if he provides them with a replacement. With a score to settle with Kirk, the choice was obvious. So Mudd will leave in command of Kirk's ship, its crew replaced by androids, while Kirk and his crew will get to stay on the Android Paradise (I can think of several future redshirts, at the very least, who would find this to be a pretty good deal).
But Mudd hasn't counted on the androids having plans of their own. Soon, Kirk and Mudd will find themselves reluctant allies, working together to stop the androids from taking over the galaxy and smothering all life with happiness!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: On a planet of beautiful, subservient women who want only to please him in any way that does not involve actually leaving the planet, you would think Kirk would be happy to enjoy himself for a while. Perhaps he doesn't enjoy it as much when he doesn't actually have to do any seducing? In any case, Kirk's absolute devotion to his ship shows itself again. All of the other crew members are at least tempted by the pleasures of the planet. Kirk simply wants his ship back, and snaps the others out of their enchantment with the available diversions to focus on an escape.
Spock: Opens the episode suffering from a bout of idiot plotting. Spock enjoys sparring with McCoy as much as McCoy does with him. But when McCoy mentions that Crewman Norman has failed to show up for required medical exams, that should absolutely not be something that Spock dismisses. There's a time to bait McCoy. That time is not when McCoy is raising legitimate issues, and if Spock were being written as he is in almost any other episode, he would know that.
Chekov: He seems to rather enjoy himself on Android World. Surrounded by beautiful android models, who are entirely eager to please, he has a rather entertaining interrogation scene with them. Walter Koenig throws himself into the entire episode with enthusiasm, particularly at the episode's climax, and makes Chekov feel more central to this episode than he truly is through one funny scene and sheer acting enthusiasm.
Uhura: Gets a very good scene, in which she appears to betray Kirk's escape attempt in return for the promise of an android body that would allow her to remain young and beautiful forever. Nichelle Nichols sets up the scene well, in showing Uhura's interest in such an idea, and she sells the "betrayal" well enough that a viewer who had rarely seen the series before might actually be fooled for a second into thinking that the betrayal was genuine. As it stands, there is no chance of a regular viewer being fooled (for this one scene, perhaps an "anonymous yeoman" would have been better?), but it does give Nichols one of her stronger moments in the series.
Hot Android Space Babe(s) of the Week: Twins Alyce and Rhae Andrece portray the Alice series of robots, gorgeous androids who have been happily providing Mudd with "anything" he wants (shudders at the visual) - an offer that intrigues Chekov, at the very least. The Andrece twins are convincingly flat and unemotional for the robotic scenes, and are definitely beautiful enough to convince in their "robotic sex kitten" roles. There are a couple of other fetching android "series," though they don't get nearly as much to do as the Alices.
Villain of the Week: Roger C. Carmel returns as Harcourt Fenton Mudd, intergalactic space rogue and all-around bad guy. In his first appearance, he was a thoroughly nasty piece of work - abusive to the women he had duped into being his accomplices, and entirely willing to kill (or at least have deaths be a side effect of his profiteering) in the pursuit of his goals. Here, he's reinvented as a lovable rogue. The characterization works within the confines of this episode, and Carmel is obviously having a grand time with the vain, extravagant, and lascivious Mudd. It's an altogether more entertaining version of Mudd... though probably best watched as it was aired, quite some distance away from a viewing of Mudd's first, altogether nastier persona. Carmel and Shatner retain excellent screen rapport, and their scenes together are among the highlights of a highly entertaining fifty minutes.
THOUGHTS
Glorious nonsense, of a kind that probably could only have come from the 1960's. Season Two has been mostly lighter in tone than Season One. Neither season has exactly shied away from humor. The Naked Time and Shore Leave were both Season One episodes with substantial amounts of comedy. But I, Mudd is the first Star Trek episode that is intended almost entirely as comedy. Since it hasn't happened before at this point, and since most of the humor works, it's a refreshing change of pace.
Critically, the humor is sustained by a story that works. Later Trek series would often forget that it's at least as important for the plot of a comedy episode to hold together as it is for a serious episode. Mudd's plan makes sense to us. It's over-the-top, but it has internal logic. We know what he hopes to accomplish, and how. He even appears to have won, with Kirk only granted a reprieve thanks to the androids' double-cross - which also makes sense, both in motivation and in their plan.
Even Kirk's final plan, to defeat the androids through sheer absurdity, makes sense within the confines of the story. We understand why the Enterprise crew behave as they do, and we understand why it works. Other than Spock's brief bout with Idiot Plotting in the teaser, this is a well-plotted episode, and writer Stephen Kandel deserves credit.
Rating: 8/10. Not exactly deep stuff, but a lot of fun to watch.
Previous Episode: The Deadly Years
Next Episode: The Trouble with Tribbles
Search Amazon.com for Star Trek
Review Index
To receive new review updates, follow me:
On Twitter:
On Threads:
No comments:
Post a Comment