Star Trek: 0006: "Mudd's Women"

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0006

The Original Series (1966)
Season 1: Episode 6: “Mudd's Women"

Stardate: 1329.1 (2264/04/29 - 10:48:51)

Story by: Gene Roddenberry
Teleplay by: Stephen Kandel
Directed by: Leo Penn

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PLOT INTRODUCTION

Rescuing the crew of a ship from an asteroid belt, the Enterprise plays host to con man extraordinaire , the cunning Harry Mudd and his cargo: three beautiful women looking for suitors.

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REVIEW

"Oh that sound of male ego!"

Let’s just get this out in the open here; ‘Mudd’s women’ is an ugly episode. It may feature beautiful direction, costumes and the ladies themselves but when you get down to its morals and proposals, it’s nothing of the sort. You see, the episode in itself isn’t a bad episode in that it has technical aspects correct. What lets it down is the plot and how disrespectfully it treks on the backs of the gender it degrades. Now I’m sure Gene didn’t make for ‘Mudd’s Women’ to be this way and things were different in the 60’s, but 40 years down the line, it just doesn’t work.

Throughout the episode the women –two of them particularly- are pranced around the set using nothing but their looks to get them places. Even the senior officers are drooling over them like dogs, and to be honest seeing McCoy staring at them in the manner that he does, really makes me feel weird. It’s perverse to say the least, and not something I had come to expect from the advanced race of 2200 humankind. However I do feel it necessary to go over the fact that it was more than likely the writers intent to portray such a view of the women to get across the wider theme of the episode which comes into play later, even if it is a little degrading in itself.

The plot itself revolves around Harry Mudd transporting such women (who have been stranded on barren planets devoid of any possible husbands) to planets full of lonely men for trade or money. Yes, it is essentially prostitution with a little more involved than sex and a little less involved with the women’s financial needs. The idea itself isn’t too bad on the surface… if Harry wasn’t using it to his own advantage. Oh yea and there’s also the fact that the women are actually old and ‘ugly’ until they take a special pill of sorts that makes them beautiful again. It’s these aspects of the business that one of the women eventually ‘can’t stand anymore’ and decides to sabotage it, a little. You know; the best a woman can do. Or; the best the script thinks a woman can do.

So eventually the women are used (as manipulated by Mudd) as a trade off for lithium crystal replacements for the ship’s engines. The men come aboard and ask to ‘see them first, of course!’. Why of course! You wouldn’t want an ugly girl now would you? After all, you are paying good money! Ahhhh, how horribly wrong in every sense. When I watch on, it feels like we are in the year 1565, not 2265. I mean, do the women have a choice here at all? After all, Mudd seems only to be serving their need for a good husband right? Yet it appears that they’ll take what they get because that’s a woman’s place in the matter. ‘Oh but they are rich’ Harry explains. The women rejoice and episode continues to employ its stereotypes in the far reaches of space.

Now before you go and accuse me of being oversensitive or a little too close to a feminist viewpoint, I would also like to argue my point of the men in ‘Mudd’s Women’ too. Not only do we see a professional doctor ogling the women as they walk by but near enough every man -with the slight exception of Kirk and Spock- starts falling over their tongues as if they had nothing better to do than be exploited by the women themselves. Throughout the episode, men are portrayed as bumbling fools who can’t control thoughts from the wrong end of their body and want nothing but sex from an attractive women/object. This was why I was glad Kirk seemed to restrain himself for the most part –surprising considering his record- and take control of the situation, teaming up with Spock to logically see through he situation.

‘Mudd’s Women’ features a couple of moments where redeemable dialogue is implemented but they are very far and few between. This is a shame because the cast seemed to do a decent job of what they had to work with. Among them was the conversation between Kirk and McCoy on the bridge regarding whether or not the women were ‘really beautiful’ or if they just acted beautiful. As far as the plot goes, it’s rather contrived and the possibility of the doctor concocting something up with his crotch is beyond me but nevertheless it makes for interesting thought and certainly becomes literal by the end of the episode. This is again, when McCoy steps in for another line that just about sums up his original theory; ‘You either believe in yourself or you don’t’ he says. In a way, it ties up the episode well and gives it a decent ray of light to shine through the musky air that it created with. However, the fact that it is centred around one of the stupidest twists and moral-tie-up-dialogue-at-the-end (where the women are somehow liberally set free because the men now realise they don’t need beauty if the women can at least do housework well) is kind of an anti-climax and leaves the episode hanging dry.

As I said earlier however, all is not lost and if it weren’t for the other qualities of the episode, it would more than likely be getting a lot less than 5/10. In its favour though is the strong direction in the episode specifically with the cameras which showed a lot of great close-ups of crew and group shots and centred in on the action. Furthermore, the normal cast all give a decent performance and the guests themselves, all portray their characters well even if they are quite shallow and stereotypical in all respects. As a whole ‘Mudd’s Women’ isn’t bad on the surface, it’s just what lurks underneath that’s dry and shows morals which are far too half-baked; An entertaining hour if you really try to suspend yourself, but will probably get under your skin if you have certain reservations.



Written by Jamie Robert Ward, 04/02/2007.