Harcourt Fenton Mudd - The name alone is some stroke of genius. And Roger C Carmel makes him come to life with a great performance.
Yes, there is sillyness and sexism. You can call Mudd a pimp and look at the women as prostitutes. It's not far reaching to see it like that. But there is also a seriousness to it all. It takes a stab at drug abuse and it shows that, ultimately, it's not a solution but part of the problem.
There sure are some holes in the story as it was with many episodes. Many of them because they wanted to conceal something from the audience like, in this case, Kirk knowing about the drug and replacing it with some placebo. Probably forcing Mudd to reveal the truth before beaming down to the miners. Otherwise it wouldn't have worked.
I like to read up on imdb after each episode as there are some really cool facts. Like this episode being one of three being considered for the second pilot. I wonder how that would've worked out. Or the, then NBC Program Manager, talking about Roddenberry's sexual phantasies coming to life in the scripts, calling them unaccebtable. So a lot of it was probably toned down and one can only wonder how the original script went.
I've also noticed that the close ups are often times not matching the scene. They are clearly shot later and then inserted in editing. Sometimes the background is different. In the transporter room scene McCoy even changes his tunic for a second. Might be I'm just noticing this due to the HD version I'm watching.
Review by FinFanBlockedParent2022-05-01T14:40:16Z
Harcourt Fenton Mudd - The name alone is some stroke of genius. And Roger C Carmel makes him come to life with a great performance.
Yes, there is sillyness and sexism. You can call Mudd a pimp and look at the women as prostitutes. It's not far reaching to see it like that. But there is also a seriousness to it all. It takes a stab at drug abuse and it shows that, ultimately, it's not a solution but part of the problem.
There sure are some holes in the story as it was with many episodes. Many of them because they wanted to conceal something from the audience like, in this case, Kirk knowing about the drug and replacing it with some placebo. Probably forcing Mudd to reveal the truth before beaming down to the miners. Otherwise it wouldn't have worked.
I like to read up on imdb after each episode as there are some really cool facts. Like this episode being one of three being considered for the second pilot. I wonder how that would've worked out. Or the, then NBC Program Manager, talking about Roddenberry's sexual phantasies coming to life in the scripts, calling them unaccebtable. So a lot of it was probably toned down and one can only wonder how the original script went.
I've also noticed that the close ups are often times not matching the scene. They are clearly shot later and then inserted in editing. Sometimes the background is different. In the transporter room scene McCoy even changes his tunic for a second. Might be I'm just noticing this due to the HD version I'm watching.