Mudd's Women (Star Trek TOS - S1E07)

[Hailing Frequencies Open]

Harry Mudd: A man of fake chest hair, many fashions, and even more accents. A fantastic villain is introduced to Star Trek, but unfortunately under the umbrella of a problematic episode. 

[End Transmission]

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap
• 1:39 Initial Impressions
• 9:13 Treking Through the Episode
• 1:10:50 Final Thoughts
• 1:13:24 Tribble Tidbits
• 1:15:54 Episode Ranking
• 1:20:37 Turbolift Tease
• 1:22:41 Socials
• 1:23:58 Outro

Transcript

0:00

[Music] Haleym Freakensy's open and welcome aboard Trex and Tangerines. I'm your co-host Brian. And I'm your co-host, Jackie. I'm the Star Trek Newbie who sets off on Tangerine. And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the Tangerines back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode. And this week we watched Star Trek, the original series season one episode six muds women. And jumping right into the episode this week will start by revisiting the turbo lift tease from last episode. That's where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode. And without any other information Jackie tried to guess the plot. And I happen to have it here in front of me. Jackie's guess last week was and I quote, "I am going to say that mud is a dude and he has a harem of ladies and they need help." Boom. Jackie, how accurate do you think you are? A+ star. But is it yes but it's super obvious. The title is muds women. It's obvious that mud is a person. I've been studying my psychic abilities. I think this was just an incredibly easy title to guess. Well you didn't tell me how to spell mud. So it could have been my actual mud, like mud women. Yeah, actually don't remember if I did give you the title of or the spelling of the character's name. But in any case what did you think of this episode? I know I'm gonna ruin the word but let's talk about misogyny all over. So congratulations you have honed in on pretty much how modern Star Trek fans view this episode. It is an episode that is not aged well in any sense of the definition. Like the last five minutes is like, "Oh we better like make a package here and make it age well in your words." Well and I really I really want to like the episode. I can't but there's so much in the beginning of the episode that is extremely intriguing that has a lot of hallmarks of Star Trek. You have the mysterious ship. You have the last minute beam out. You have the character Harry mud who if you fantastic. Absolutely. If you take his character qualities and just look at him as a character and you remove him from some of the aspects of this episode the fantastic character. He returns multiple times in the original series. Oh the same. Absolutely. Yeah. But like he devote his life like he says he's going to. No he continues to be a criminal in a scumbag. But it's I think Harry mud is one of the iconic villains in Star Trek that unfortunately doesn't get explored as as much as some of the other iconic villains like Q later on in the series. But I know you do love that dude Q like. Yeah. It's like the eighth time you mentioned it. Oh Q is so Q is so iconic you have him in you have him across the next generation. You have him in deep space nine. Yeah I think you have him in deep space nine. You have him in Voyager. You have him in Picard. You have him in the post credits of Picard. Wow. So so when does he get his own spin on? That would be an interesting Star Trek series the adventures of Q. I would absolutely watch that. Yeah. But when you move past those initial parts of the episode this does come down to an episode that is a plot revolved around drug addiction as you said misogyny sexism human trafficking and pimping definitely the baddies are added. Yeah so and and there's and if you even if you take those themes out and you just look at some of the plot breakdowns character motivations and the final aha moment at the end of the episode that we'll get to it falls apart and it just doesn't make sense. So I want to like the episode it really could have been a better episode but I think this becomes the victim of 1960s attitudes and quote unquote societal norms and it just doesn't turn into a good episode certainly not for a rewatch in today's time. Well I mean I find it weird how everybody succumbs to all of this but Kirk is the leader magically can fight off whatever it is that is taking hold of our crew and my man's spot he just you know turns off his emotions we don't care but only two out of the thousands that live on there. Yeah hundreds hundreds on the Enterprise. Definitely definitely spot completely immune to the they don't even I'm just I'm just I'm just pausing because they don't even really explain what the quote unquote drug the drug that the women take to become beautiful they not gotta gotta bleep that. How do I bleep in our recording studio anyway I'll figure it out post at it. We it never explains why when they take this drug they suddenly have this ability to hypnotize members of the opposite sex it's not just their looks it is totally do explain at the end. Confidence? There's the power within no that's a that's an absolute cop out. No but which is the which is the problem I have with the ending. I can see that but they are taking the drug which not only makes them feel more feminine more so Harry himself said it the drug gives women everybody more of what they are women beauty looks whatever men masculine anger he even said that but like basically steroids I guess but our girl Eve here ironically Eve is also you know main girl of the Bible which is weird but like there go off checkin like she was hold and then take the placebo and then magically returns to however she was and she was quote unquote hypnotizing and then only the audience knows what's happening because of the fantastic music because they have a yeah but so you're saying that the drug did not give the women any special powers it just made them beautiful and the reaction that we see from the other male crew members of the enterprise Scotty McCoy Kirk to some level in his quarters with Eve you're saying the only reason they do that is because they are just so physically attractive well obviously something has to change I get I get that and they don't explain it and that's my point because I mean we see the bleep in our McCoy in the sick bay but I mean if they don't explain the physical change like whatever it is that they're taking then the audience only has to go on what Kirk says in a very non-tolant way about even how she did it herself and she's like I did yeah she and that's and again that's my problem because when Eve transforms from plain Eve to hypnotic Eve it is a super physical change in all of them but Eve is now sudden her hair changes she has eyeshadow too they don't have a needle makeup package with them yeah so I don't know I'll I'll address it again when we get to the ending but again I have ideas on how this could have been written and redone at the ending to have it make more sense but maybe I'm just shilling for a job as a writer on the next Star Trek series well I think also tire banks was not born yet but I'm pretty sure these gals nailed the smile America's next top model which will be our next podcast where we watch and break down episodes of America's next top model stay tuned on our patreon but anyway I think we've gone off on enough of a tangent here let's get back on track Jackie why don't you walk us through the episode all right so of course we start with our beautiful galaxy and my man Kirk talks about his captain's log and it is star date 1329.8 I still have no idea what these numbers mean but sounds good and so we learned that the enterprise is in pursuit of an unidentified vessel and I'll point out that this is another example where they don't have the can they don't quite have it down what the uniform colors mean and what they are because we see a hurrah in command gold yellow and not in her usual red uniform this again was one of the episodes that they pitched as a redo of the pilot the network decided not to go with it as the pilot but it was one of the earlier episodes filmed so even six episodes in we're still working our way through these repitched pilot episodes I think this is the second of three that we're gonna see there's one more I think coming up where some of the uniform colors and some of these are gonna be a little bit different okay so I was wondering because I was like wait she's actually wearing earrings I've never seen her wear earrings like noticeable ones and she was in a different color but her uniform still stays the same like all the ladies in the starship super super short and at least their arms are covered so I'm sure it's chilly but anyways so as they're chasing that unidentified vessel and Kirk is like asking Spock is that a earth vessel so I'm assuming he's thinking it's another human yeah yeah we don't really get a whole lot of alien ships this early into Star Trek it's definitely mentioned later on in the episode that some of the quote unquote crimes that are levied against Harry mud are that he was operating a ship without a transponder that he wasn't responding to the hails of the enterprise definitely flying under the radar so they don't really know if it's an earth ship they don't really know if it's human they're just making a broad assumption because at this point in Star Trek we don't have alien vessels we have human and earth ships oh that makes sense because the Sulu and the other command are talking about how if it really is some earth then their engines are gonna overheat they need to slow down they need to respond to us what's happening and then Spock is all well we're going to asteroid which has a chiller rating of 3.5 is that another made-up thing sure I didn't I could not remember when I was watching in a what that rating was I'm sure later on someone decided to create the rest of that scale in reference to this one episode I don't know what it is well we do find out that it is a J-class vessel that's cool and so since they changed course and they're going towards that asteroid belt Sulu's like what do we do and Pharaoh is instructed by Kirk to cover it with deflector screen the deflector shield shield see I these these terms until after they're shielded both vessels then Kirk also tells her a yeah but your name again one last time you better respond to us or you're gonna get blown up yeah it's important to point out that is they're discussing or is Kirk is making this order to extend the deflector shield from the enterprise to envelop this unknown ship that he's being warned by several crew members that in order to extend the deflector shield the strain that it puts on the power system of the enterprise is dangerously high that they themselves are going to run the risk of overloading their power systems overloading their engines and they themselves are going to be in the same predicament because again important to mention the ship is burned out its engines and that's part of the reason why they felt imperative to extend the deflector shield because this unidentified ship no longer can maneuver around the asteroids in the asteroid field right so they need to be safe and then here we go again having to save everybody and like what if it's a bad person but that is why we have the credit better fantastic and then we're back on our bridge and this is so all of this is happening at the same time though we have the bridge and in the transport room two is talking about the lithium crystals that I guess they run the enterprise how they're being overcharged like you just said but everything is draining everything is being overheated and then in a transport room it's like calm and Scotty McRoy McCoy thank you McCoy and it's like pops down there periodically like magic are calm and just waiting for whomever to pop over from the beam and we are introduced to this hairy mud dude who is introduced himself as Leo Walsh Captain Leo Walsh yeah a man of fake chest hair many fashions and even more accents but he totally reminds me of a Renaissance person he is definitely he's definitely a cross between a Renaissance fair cosplayer a swashbuckler a pirate definitely has swagger and ego to match again he's just such a fantastic character that saddled into a very terrible introductory episode because he always have that weird bag thing hanging off his hips that like changes colored every now and then it could just be costuming but it looked really bad at time I don't remember exactly what his costume is when we see him next and I'm just thinking because this is one of the repitched pilots and it's filmed in such a weird order I don't know if those costumes would have been preserved because this would have been recorded so far in advance before this the television series aired right yeah that makes sense so I don't know I don't remember well I mean I just an accessory so that's where all the magical makeup palette live yes so after we meet Harry then her realizes there are more people three more beans so they still don't know exactly what has come over Scotty starts to beam them over and then their vessel is destroyed by an asteroid and now everything is just taking a while like limp and limbo because the vessel is gone the bad the crystals are being used up on the enterprise for energy so the transport beam is just taking it's happy time well it's yeah it's struggling to rematerialize the three remaining passengers on the cargo ship because the point of origin has been destroyed but their pattern is in the transporter buffers and so they have the pattern and they're able to rematerialize none of that is explained in the episode because transport technology they don't go into that level of detail this is all known from watching later Star Trek it's wild I just imagine like making a dress but on the enterprise as humans so finally the three entities beam over which are our three lovely ladies yeah and they're all posed like their fashion models and they're posing for a photo shoot despite the fact that you have to imagine for the last several minutes before they beamed over they're on a ship with zero engines in the middle of an asteroid field they have likely have no idea what's going on their captain is beamed over to the enterprise and they're just sitting there going well hopefully they be must to let's take our positions and pose like they're on the price is right yeah or that America's next top model show that we're gonna dive into next week well we have two blonde ladies and one brunette lady okay so name them on it all right so we have Magda who is in lilac short dress at asymmetrical she has also a short hair like a little asymmetrical bob then we have Eve who is wearing that beautiful long pink gown long hair that's like French twist to the to the side and then we have Ruth who is wearing a like Paul and Eeson inspired green long dress and she has beautiful dark hair and light eyes and they're all wearing sandals and each of their gowns including mag that are so sequined I love it I'm sure everyone was like wearing sequins at the end of the day well that was very exciting that was very adept I think you got Eve right what color is magda's hair blonde it's blonde blonde brunette okay and Ruth is brunette wearing green wearing green okay you did get him right okay you did get him right boom so we have these I'm just so excited sorry gold star fine back on track we have these three women that have just beamed on board posing like their fashion models McCoy and Scotty are completely hypnotized by the women very very quickly like yeah like cartoon looney tunes you need like the hearts poppy out of their eyes yeah draw the their jaws hit the floor the tongue rolls out and spot is there just like I don't get it very I think annoyed yeah again Vulcan's aren't supposed to express emotions but you're definitely getting really good at annoyed he's getting definitely a vibe or an aura of being annoyed so anyway they report to Kirk that they've managed to beam the three women on board because Kirk is wondering if Kirk is still on the bridge so he wants to make sure that everyone has been beamed off of this cargo ship that has just been destroyed they tell Kirk that yes everyone's on board and so Kirk orders captain Leo I'll refer to him as Leo just because we haven't in the episode given his real name yet orders the captain to Kirk's quarters to interrogate him because Kirk is upset with how he was running the ship he was running away from the enterprise wasn't communicating with them so he orders him to his quarters and it's like Leo tries to explain to Spock what the deal is in Spock's I just talked to captain so Spock leads them to our turbo lift well they're a turbo lift and as they're walking down the hallway we have the same reaction with all the male crew members it's of course not as noticeable because it's we're seeing a scene but I mean come on guys be professional here now we're in the turbo lift because we have to go see Kirk and then we captain Leo's like oh you must be what was his term Vulcanite captain Leo in speaking to Spock says and points out that it looks like Spock is part quote Vulcan in there we go which was a very very very early term that characters would use to referring to someone being Vulcan his alien species it's not used very often it's quickly phased out but it does point out that captain Leo recognizes that Spock at least in part has the ability to control his emotions and is not affected by the quote unquote charms of the women and that makes sense because I mean the music is chiming and the girls are posing and we have no reaction from Spock finally we're at I don't know how many floors that we have but Kirk's floor and as they're leaving the turbo lift Eve we don't know her name yet but the one in the pink dress just starts apologizing for Leo and then Leo cuts her off and it's like get over here yeah Eve's exact words to Spock is as apologizing for captain Leo's behavior and abruptness and words Eve says to Spock he is so used to buying and selling people and then that's when Leo cuts her off I found that weird too well it's a we lost first hint of could he call them cargo yeah that would be the absolute first sign of problematic themes of this episode this would be another sign where Eve is literally apologizing for Leo's rude arrogant egotistical mannerisms by saying he doesn't know how to interact with people because he's so used to just viewing people as cargo in commodities than human beings he lacks social skills literally apologizing for him being a pimp in a human trafficker true and again no emotion and then we arrive at Kirk's quarters and they all go on in and we get a we get several shots of their faces their bodies it's also important to point out is they're walking down the hallway originally from the transport room to the turbo lift to get the Kirk's quarters we get a very provocative camera angle shot of what I will just describe as the three women's back sides yes it was very and these ladies had to be like perfect and whatever the assumption of perfect lady body was at that time right but in Kirk's quarters Kirk is absolutely like all the other male crew members so far hypnotized by the three women spock less annoyed in this scene he looks entirely smug and amused at Kirk's reaction yes and this is where captain Leo does refer to them as cargo because Kirk is trying to swallow up this weird feeling he's having is like oh is this the rest of your crew these lovely ladies and Leo is like yes they're quite lovely but they're my cargo like oh creepy creepy yeah I mean as the kids call it cringe I yes we are going to appeal to the children and the kids and the hip teenagers listening to this podcast as we go into our new captain's log the scene is just Leo in the background looking so happy with himself and Kirk gobsmacked with whatever hypnotism they have and our new captain's log is star date 1329.1 we've taken a board from an unregistered transport vessel at captain and three unusual females they have an unusual magnetic effect on male crew members as well as myself they have without a unknown explanation so then I'm presuming that Kirk has a study or an office because we changed we're not in like his bedroom anymore because he has a desk it still would be his quarters but I presume is the captain all put it to you this way as the captain he would be afforded more luxurious and bigger quarters than a standard crew member a like a sweep B we're going to be reusing a lot of sets so it's going to be as an example many of the crew quarters are the same they just redress it with different furniture and different camera angles so we're still in his quarters but he definitely has a workstation or a little work desk in his quarters that makes sense so now also another example of how rude our Leo is as they're sitting down to chat about what happened Leo takes off this joint half of his and just throws it on the desk where Kirk has already sat down and is going to start writing yes annoying yeah examples of his egotistical personality again one of the better moments of showcasing who this character is again it's too bad that he has to be part of this terrible episode I also really like William Shatner's acting in this episode I know that's weird but his ability like the gentleman who plays the box his ability to stay straight face the entire time I know they probably have many takes but the acting I I like seeing the abilities of just the difference yeah so after he's thrown his hat and they have this disrespectful look from Kirk Leo washes pretty his case about how could he know that this giant ship was a starship and how it was gonna be safe and he has to take care of these ladies and blah blah blah blah he's back peddling he's trying to get out of being in trouble yeah because Kirk is like no dude all of these offenses that you have done so I'm going to be pressing charges on you basically I'm gonna have a hearing and mr. Spock can provide whatever legal information you need for your defense that's on you and then he tells the security Kirk has security take Leo to his own quarters he has to stay there but we don't really know where the gals are gonna stay but we find them in the conference room yeah it's important to to note that Kirk's orders to security are to confine Captain Leo in his quarters and there's no mention of confining the women to the quarters kind of weird but I guess maybe explainable that if they have this hypnotic effect on Kirk it's a justifiable oversight on Kirk's part not to confine the women to the quarters either but like it's completely out of his mind yeah they're just pretty ladies they're harmless yeah but imagine if imagine if the women work and find to their quarters or muds quarters at the same time how that would affect the plot they wouldn't have the opportunity to steal the communicator to radio down to Rachel 12 later in the episode and set up the whole trade and go behind Kirk's back and put Kirk in a corner about how to obtain the crystals that they need just just a random thought because they're spies but anyways we're back at the bridge now and mr. Spock is acting as Captain so is he like second and command is that why he's all I find him always when Kirk is not out there Spock is there yes he's interchangeable even though Spock's role is a science officer in this chain of command on the enterprise Spock would be second in command to Kirk it's also not uncommon for there to be different shifts on the bridge and for whoever the highest ranking officer is on the shift on the bridge at the time would be in command while Kirk as an example is on an away mission to a planet or even just off duty and sleeping in his quarters right okay that makes sense like when Scotty was in that couple episodes ago okay cool cool cool so Lulu and Ferrell are talking about this weird magnetism that these ladies have over them and they don't understand it but they really enjoy it and Scotty is telling Spock about their energy levels like what's the left of what happened before when they be in everybody over because we have the three lithium crystals that they have six they have six okay thank you so then now I'm more confused because they only talk about two being gone and a third have been a hairline fracture and then we never hear about the other three because there I think there are six I seem to remember well Kirk says he will buy six when they go to the planet yeah and they don't have any backups see it so weird because then we learn about batteries and all this beaming broke a bypass all these words that I don't understand so they only have like two days left or they're gonna be bad so it perhaps could be best explained like a car where the lithium crystals are the alternator that because they're described as lithium circuits but they have to power and generate power in order to create the energy and the electricity or whatever the hell this thing runs on to power the ship the batteries are a backup so the batteries are constantly being charged but then when the lithium crystal power source doesn't work when the alternator blows up you fall into battery backup but the batteries don't get to recharge themselves they just run until they're out of power for those who are listening to date this episode my alternator died on my car literally yesterday as I was driving to work and I got to watch this theory in practice as my battery slowly drained and I watched all the systems in my car from my airbags to my brakes to my power steering all die as I was trying to pull over it was fun I'm glad that you're safe but I'm even more happy that I'm not I wouldn't not with you because I would have freaked out yeah so I tried looking up just now how many lithium crystals and I'm not doing a deep dive but here's here's what does here's where it doesn't make sense you are right Kirk decides later in the episode he wants to get six lithium crystals from the planet which let's just pretend that the enterprise runs on six lithium crystals okay the enterprise has no backup crystals in storage to use in case because if they did if the enterprise only ran on three and they had three in reserve why are the three in reserved damaged and why can't they just be swapped out and they continue on their way so it has to be that they run on six crystals and those six crystals were damaged in this previous incident where they were saving Captain Leo's ship well I mean you did say that this was like a pilot redo so maybe we just don't have the back back story yet and they're flying by the seat of their pants yeah or maybe at this point in Star Trek there is no safe way to store lithium crystal on a starship without it being just plugged into the actual system there's I mean they kill planes now so you know yeah but anyway back on Trek so Spock then calls Kirk to the bridge because he needs to know what's happening so Kirk heads on the ship to the bridge but we have our little sidebar with Leo and his quarters I don't think it's Leo's quarters I think for some reason that we don't get an explanation for I think that Leo gets to leave his quarters and he gets to go to the conference room to talk to the three women under security but again no idea why this quarantine or this confinement has been breached the only explanation I have is they're getting ready to start the trial and security brings him to the conference room where the trial takes place but again it's not explained and in a case they're in the conference room not quarters thank you and that makes a lot of sense then and again he's such a jerk face he's like look at my escort I'm going to see my lovely ladies yes he loves calling them his lovely ladies like a re-ineration he's Charlie and they're their angels that's a terrible joke I shouldn't have made it so the doors open and the gals have like forgotten what they're supposed to be doing as we learn because for some reason we hear the word the name Harry as they're all like excitedly happy to see him and yes I did watch with the host captioning and it says excited chatter so but I did hear Harry so now we have to know who is Harry but we'll get there and the entire time Leo is like you need to calm down gals we we're gonna answer all their questions so it does make more sense while they're there because they're hearing and he's talking about questions yeah no idea what I was watching at that point yeah that makes a lot of sense and he's like just you know you don't you don't lie about anything just tell the truth because uh-huh you're great and he keeps asking for privacy and for some reason the security guards are not hypnotized at this point and they keep saying no they're staying there yeah they don't seem to be very affected by the charms of the women the security guards definitely seem to be in control of their senses and following orders but the gals could also be distracted because they don't know what's happening and they need Leo to tell them what's happening so they're not sending out their charm who knows but so you know answer all their questions but do not submit to a medical exam but he's like having all of his words cut off as he's saying this because he doesn't want security to hear basically his plan because he's not who he really is so and I'm I'm still lost by what's happening but I'm like oh cool what's gonna happen because my girls they're basically just dumb and pretty at this point so that's all they've been at this point except for that one lady Eve saying I'm sorry hot take hot women are dumb well in this episode that's how they make it but we get a short little jump back to the bridge where Spock and Scotty explained to Kirk that they're down to their last lithium crystal circuit it's cracked they're desperately in need of more Kirk decides that the enterprise is going to divert to Rigel 12 because it has a mining outpost that mines lithium crystals and they can buy and acquire more crystals and get the enterprise out of its jam now we're back at this conference room and we started our hearing and it's pretty in depth because we have Leo the three gals McCoy Scotty Spock Kirk and then our security and Spock is manning a computer that is like a lie detector as well as like the internet it's fantastic yeah I'll point out it's not quite like the internet where it's accessing outside servers it's just accessing it's it's accessing its own internal records and nifty so it's starting and the first question is basically what is your name and he's all like Captain Leo Walsh and the computer goes incorrect yeah in a very very forced robotic female voice I love it and he repeats the question and then he adds Captain Leo Walsh goes he just makes it bigger again another incorrect so finally has to say his name is actually Harry mud another incorrect and then he has to give his actual legal name which is Harcourt Fenton mud with 2D and then it goes through and he just starts answering the question and everything is incorrect then they bring up his past offenses or he's asked about what he's done and we see that he is a smuggler he pays for things with fake currency and then I thought it interesting that his punishment slash treatment was like psychiatric treatment but the outcome was unknown undetermined yes yes undetermined but you should probably call the police department says you probably should no real reason but please call and then the computer like highlights each lady when Kirk says show the witnesses because he wants to get the background on them and the computer doesn't know anything but Leo who is now Harry does tell that's where I got all our fancy names in the background of our gals their name where their original planet is because the actual thing that Harry is doing is providing wives to lonely men on far away planet yeah so this is where the episode tries to justify the pimping and human trafficking alone by Harry muds trying to portray himself as a matchmaker where he tries to paint himself as I go to these far off planets that have women who will never get off of the family farm or out of their situation and I transport them and pair them up on settlements and this is the service that I provide as again trying to portray himself as a matchmaker it's also of importance to note that all the women at this point in this interview to varying degrees in in different ways but all of them are portraying themselves as willing participants in this eve goes the furthest I think by trying to explain that she came from a farming community with her two brothers and robots and robots and this service that Harry mud is providing is the only way that she would ever escape that situation find a husband become a housewife start a family it's still weird but in that time that's what it kind of was like the aspiration get married have babies they cook and I don't know basically what she ends up doing at the end of the episode yeah but then Kirk wants to know who is Leo and then we learn or go on this tangent again that Leo was originally the captain but he sadly passed away and you know this is like this trip is in his honor and blah blah blah blah and mud didn't want the opportunity for these three women to go away so even though mud doesn't have the license to operate the ship even though he's a smuggler in a criminal even though it is not on the up and up and above board again this is another man need you know a life this is another desperate attempt by Harry mud to justify his borderline illegal and oftentimes illegal activities as legitimate and Molly's telling this story if I could magnetism go on again because if they're being talked about these ladies and you again we see McCoy and Scotty doing that drilling thing and Kirk is at least fighting it off but it's insane they're that to basically pull themselves together when when they're needed elsewhere so at this point Kirk draws the hearing to a close he is ruling is that mud should be turned over to the authorities at the next opportunity the enterprise has everyone standing up everyone's getting ready to disperse but Eve gets desperate and hysterical and goes up to Kirk and wants to know and in fact demands of Kirk well if mud's being turned over to the authorities what's gonna happen to us because we were on our way to meet our future husbands and to be relocated and you're now traveling in the opposite direction and we learn that the last circuit has died and well we learn because the entire ship loses power for half a second and then boots back up and then yes it is announced that the last lithium crystal circuit has died and the enterprises now running on battery power only and Kirk tells Fox to contact the planet Rachel 12 I don't even know how they come up with these names that they are on their way ready or not and they need six crystals right away but mud doesn't really care he's just super happy that they're going to a planet that has rich miners that have been alone for three years and are somewhat young and I think he thinks he's taken over the enterprise yeah I don't really understand he does make the comment that as he's talking to the women he goes well it's all fine ladies we are going to a mining colony with rich miners and that's just as good which I understand that excitement because he is going to still make a profit on selling the women if you want to try to dress it up he's going to charge a matchmaking fee it's not really what it is he's selling them but he then also gets super excited because he yes makes the comment that he is going to become the captain of the enterprise and take over the enterprise how is he going to make so much money selling these three women to the miners that he's going to buy the enterprise makes no sense and he has this entire idea about the rest of the episode it's weird yeah but he is again confined to his quarters under guard and our ladies are free wandering around and again they have this magical power and we see them interacting with random men we don't know yet what's happening and finally we are popping into the stick bay and McCoy is fixing but thing who knows his scanning machine I don't know he called it but it was he actually had named this time other than just what the viola science are and Ruthie just kind of like drapes herself on his door frame is like are I kind of am I interrupting and he's like of course not so come on in and this is where I realize that she nailed that smize because I mean her eyes are gorgeous but anyways so as she's basically flirting with McCoy and draping herself on him she's stand she walks by his scanner just like you know touching things plain and it bleeps and it makes like a colon and he's like can you go back to my scanner yeah he's fascinated and it seems to break the hypnotic spell partially for half a second because it's it the stick bay equipment is obviously reacting to Ruth in a way that McCoy has never seen before but we don't really get a explanation to why this happens again it defeats and diminishes and throws into question the ending of the episode where Kirk tries to give the explanation of it's just your inner beauty it's your inner talents it's your inner confidence if that's the case why do they have the power to throw off the stick bay equipment that's true because he even asked if she's wearing a weird perfume or been around radioactive stuff yeah but now we pop over to Kirk's quarters and he's just wandering in and we see Eve draped over his bed yeah can we talk about the fact that it seems like none of the doors to the quarters have locks they go everyone just seems to be able to barge in to everyone's quarters when they're not invited and when they're not expected we had Yoman Janis in the last episode just waiting for Kirk there's been several instances in the past the salt vampire barging into McCoy's quarters without knocking none of these doors have locks that's really weird because we only until we have like the security guards and they're physically blocking it like an elevator door yeah is the enterprise the neighborhood where everyone is safe and everyone leaves their doors unlocked at night I have no idea seems like a terrible policy to have on a starship especially with the captain where you have you know secret stuff who knows but she Eve is waiting for him and they talk between like a lattice divider from his main room and his bedroom which I've never noticed before either but it was interesting it added depth to the scene and also like a physical barrier from whatever this magnet attraction they have at least my intertap what I took from the epic that scene and she also mentions how she just had to escape from the hallway because she was just walking and everybody just kept staring at her and this was the only place that she felt safe and you know have a respite and poor Kirk he's like yeah I need to have a talk with them yeah she's clearly putting on an act to seduce him so as he's leaving she like runs them and again that trying to seduce him she's touching him talking moving closer to him and they're almost too a kiss and he's like no no no he's trying to back off but then finally he was like whatever I'm no I can't do this and run away yeah so and he's like what instead of Kirk resisting Eve Eve gets right to the threshold of sealing the deal and seducing Kirk fully to achieve whatever sub-diffuge and lies that she wants to get away with but then she backs out and she utters the very strange phrase out loud not necessarily to Kirk but just out loud that she doesn't care what mud says she can't go through with it and hates the whole thing and then she runs out again just showing that Eve is not fully under mud's influence like Ruth and Magda are in mud's quarters Ruth and Magna are reporting back to mud that they're on the planet there are three men in good health they've been alone for three years and they should just be happy to have two girls one for each of them and he's very pleased then when Eve comes into the cabin she is not happy with herself and then she starts to feel ill and is like it's almost that time what time this we flash away back onto the bridge Kirk is angry that he has to ask Farrell two times to put in his orders yeah the enterprise is drifting off course it's not uncommon that the ship would need input from the navigator or at least the navigator making course corrections and so Kirk is upset because the enterprise is drifting off course Farrell is not paying attention because he's still distracted by the thought of the women thank you thank you and then Sky also tells them that with what they have left an energy they can't get to the planet and acquire the sticks crystals McQuoy is also on the bridge and he and Kirk have like a conversation about the women because I think McQuoy is still thinking about what happened with his screen and that's actually made him stop and think are these women actually more beautiful than others like he even uses the again again the word pound for pound like like again like stock you know as a match is this woman and this woman like how different are they or are we just then Kirk psych are we just tired but they don't really know so I but I am glad that they actually have this conversation which shows that they're not they're not the dumb ones either and they can be smart men yeah they're starting to have some recognition that something is going on even though if they don't fully understand what that is but we pop back to muds quarters Ruth and Magda probably Magda gives over a communicator that they've somehow swiped from somewhere on the enterprises they were roaming around and mud uses that communicator to contact Rachel 12 makes absolutely zero sense huge problem with the plot hole there's no way that that communicator device a can reach Rachel 12 even though they're coming up on Rachel 12 doesn't have the range b there's absolutely no way that whoever is on the bridge monitoring communications or her is main job wouldn't have detected that communication being sent out toward the planet absolutely make zero sense but whatever they do arrive finally at Rachel 12 Kirk orders the reps to come up from the mining camp so that they can negotiate the purchase of these crystals we're back in muds quarters and our ladies are not so lovely anymore they are looking like their age I guess whatever their magnetism they have is gone and we learn that this beauty that they have is actually from a pill and but but they're freaking out because Harry put them away for safe keeping because they're gonna get searched and he forgot where he had them yeah so let's let's talk about this very quickly just for a moment they're they're actions of begging for the pills shows at least in my mind that these pills are addictive whether I don't I can't tell you if they're chemically addicted to these pills if they're just addicted to the properties that they get from these pills and becoming beautiful and they're addicted to that sensation I don't know it's also important to note that one of the girls makes the comment that are asked Harry if Harry hid the pills because they are not to be trusted with the pills again showing that they have these addictive qualities that Harry has to hide the pills from the women so that they don't just take the pills whenever they want also shows that Harry has control over these women because he is the one doling out these drugs also interesting side thought that we don't need an answer to when they revert to this quote unquote ugly state is that their natural state or has this drug made them ugly that we see with other drugs and having a negative physical effect on someone who is using an addicted to drugs I couldn't tell you if it's an interesting thought these women start as actually attractive women and taking these drugs have had this negative effect on their health or are they just reverting back to their natural state no idea it's an interesting thought I mean then that's when they go back to their super unattractive in society's view and Eve is still relatively pretty just older yeah but mud finds the pills in the mattress and the gauze are so happy to have it Ruth and Madda they're like gobble it down and Eve she's having like an internal struggle but she we don't see her take it even though it's like sparkly it has like a tick-tock filter on it pretty tick-tock yeah she refers to the pill as a cheat and mud is very much like well mud is very much like a bad person where he's pushing Eve to take the drug yes she takes a literal black piece from him and then in her hand it's red and glittery yeah interesting but now we're back in that conference room and Spock and Kirk are discussing how beautiful the broken crystals are even though they're no longer useful and I think I think that is like a little sub thing that we should think about about these ladies well I think in this particular scene if I remember correctly the actual transition between the scenes is we're on the shot of the beautiful Eve holding the pill and the camera fades out on her but fades in on Spock holding the crystal and it's the exact same angle it's the exact same shot so I don't know that there's a deeper meaning to it but it's it's definitely a clever or pretty transition between scenes I'm definitely seeing why the tricky culture is so big as I see more of these episodes it's just fantastic but our miners have arrived and we they explained they have exactly what the enterprise needs they and Kirk's like I could pay there's no need to like I got money and the miners are like we already made we're just gonna swap yeah the miners specifically at this point revealed a Kirk that they've already been in communication with Harry mud behind everyone's back mud has already given his sales pitch that he has these women for sale to be wives slaves companions and that in order for the enterprise and Kirk to get these crystals they will trade the crystals for the women but also they will part of the exchange has to be the immunity and dropping of all charges against Harry mud and he also tells Kirk you know if you don't agree to this you might as well not even try to go on to the planet because you're not gonna find a crystal anywhere yeah definitely playing hardball definitely not in any way shape or form willing to compromise on this deal but Kirk is like a fat we're going so everyone goes down to the planet to make the deal and boys at windy but the miners don't really care because they're in their quarters having a party everyone is dancing enjoying life yeah it was a little bit interesting in the order in which they all beam down because from a viewers point of view we see Kirk Spock and mud beam down to Rydjell 12 and they enter into this little house stone hut where the miners live and work and the women are already there the miners are already there the party is already underway I don't know it stood out my notes that this is a weird order to beam down in what the party even is looking out the window and sees how windy it is she's coughing and she's of course not feeling well because of all this wind and sand children's one of the miners I guess has claimed her as his and he explains that it's like this all the time it's gonna be really windy you can hear the sizzle in the in the in the sky that's the magnetic storm I thought it would have something to do with the women but it never ties in so that was interesting but you've I guess you decided she doesn't want to she just copy and then she's sick and she doesn't feel well and children is not into that and he's like let me go over here to Ruth yeah it's kind of weird how this scene is set up because Magda and Ruth are dancing and flirting and playing along with these other two miners and the third miner I'm gonna call them Ben that's his first name the Ben is very interested in Eve Eve my take on Eve's attitude is she's leaning up against this shelf and looking out the window she's ignoring the party she has no interest in participating even when Ben is expressing interest and talking to her and trying to strike up a conversation with her she is ignoring him and ignoring this ruse which I guess I can explain a way that Magda and Ruth are totally fine selling themselves to these two miners Eve I think really actually wanted to and got into this arrangement with Harry Mudd to find a husband and become a homemaker and she's seen that this is not gonna happen or she at least has the impression that this is not gonna happen on this mining colony with these three miners that they are not interested in making homes with these women they just want to use them as hello I was gonna say companions but that works too but anyway it it doesn't make sense because when Eve pays no attention to Ben Ben goes and steals one of the women it turns into a fight and as they're fighting in Kirk and Spock are breaking up the fight Eve runs out and she makes the the declaration why don't you have a raffle and the loser gets me my heart broke for her but again why does she care that no one is interested in her if she's already dismissed this arrangement because she's not gonna become a homemaker it made no sense well I think even when we're in a different situation that we didn't anticipate and that's kind of hurt your own ego when nobody pays attention to you I guess I don't know and your expectations have not been met I suppose I mean but I wouldn't want to be on a sandy windy planet with a grope dude yeah but she so she runs away yes she runs out into the storm and Kirk runs after her and Mudd runs after her yes and then children was like I guess I should follow I think though they had like bird feathers in the wind from the sand effects yes it looks funny okay so they're looking for Eve they can't find her we get several minutes probably not even minutes it's probably less than a minute but we get several shots of Eve in the sandstorm Kirk in the in the sand storm they can't find her the enterprise crew returns to the enterprise to use the ship scanners to more effectively locate Eve and I guess Ben at this point because he's out wandering the storm but as they're searching they can't find her initially because the storm is interfering with the scanners we get a cut to the we get a cut to Ben finding Eve and carrying her to his Stone Hut his home not the original Stone Hut any laser down and she's asleep he's exhausted he falls asleep they don't bother to call the enterprise to say hey we're safe don't worry about it they're still looking and the reason why the enterprise finds them is because they find a heat source at Ben's house and they beam down to the house and we find that the heat source is in fact Eve cooking breakfast for Ben and she has I mean she looks beautiful and but she has a new outfit on like a robe and Ben acts like a child it's important to point out that Eve is in her form her most beautiful form her hypnotic form yes yes and Ben though is upset that she actually did what what a housewife would do she cleaned up she makes the point of saying I ate your food so I repaid it in choice and he's like a toddler and throws a temper tantrum like I want it this way and he talks about how he cooks better than her or he does everything better and she has to stroke his ego and go well I'm just trying to help and but then she gets frustrated with it and she throws it back at him when he comments on how his food is better she has scrub her the pot clean or whatever and she comments well just put it outside in the sand and let it clean it for you there's no need to have this argument and the next thing we see is he's like what a good idea yeah hanging the pot out yeah he's outside hanging up these pots so that the sandstorms can scrub his dishes clean but he comes back inside to Eve playing she calls it double jack which is a form of solitaire but she is now in her original form she hurt her not medicated on the pills appearance she calls it she's lumped yeah and Ben has an interesting reaction where he he does get annoyed that she now looks homely he does not refer to her as ugly but he is definitely commenting on it as if she is let herself go that she's no longer appearing to be beautiful that that appearance was all a ruse and a lie but it's only after he has a brief conversation about the cards and what card to play and it's the wrong game it's not his first reaction to her appearance I don't think he realizes that she changed in her looks because he's busy pointing out everything she's not doing yeah but then Kirk and Harry arrive and the whole episode goes off the rails jumps the shark absolutely makes no sense because of course Ben wants to know if the other two ladies are changing their looks if they're going homely and he's finally told that the it's called a Venus drug and that's why they are beautiful and then if they don't take it they're quote-quote homely but she leave like as like a way of like pointing out that's a drug she grabs three of them from the pill bottle that they're holding out the no she only grabs one it just the the way that they put it together the the prop department put it together it is one pill but it looks like it's three gummy candies put together oh okay that makes more sense because I know don't OD yeah but she takes the pill and then it's like a moment and she and Harry is explaining what we talked about beginning how it's more of what you already are or desire ladies feminine beauty etc men muscles aggressiveness etc etc and Eve turned around and she's gorgeous again but extra gorgeous it seems and so she's like is this what you wanted Ben as she sits on his lap and like just someone to be selfish and beautiful and just do nothing and he's caught off guard yeah definitely throws him for a loop and then he's like but wait they have to take this is again where it you mentioned earlier they're like it's firm with and Mike she did it all herself yeah captain Kirk reveals that the pill that she took was in fact a placebo a fake it was not Harry's drugs Harry confirms it by saying yes my supply of this drug was confiscated this is a placebo this was Kirk's idea this was Kirk's ruse so they're giving this terrible explanation that no you completely transformed your physical appearance just by your own inner will will power and confidence again what yeah I can see your point but it is like a Disney movie now because now they're gonna he choose it they both choose to stay there happily ever after Harry's like I'll just stay here too with them you know just I'll just hang out and Kirk like no you are going to jail dude but I'll be a character in this for you yeah and they laugh about locking him up the way the keys so they return to the enterprise also Ben says that he will give Kirk the crystals again did he give him the crystals did he did Kirk buy the crystals in the end who know are they treat are they in fact trading the crystals for the women who knows we never really see of unbroken crystal we're back on the bridge and we have Kirk and McCoy joking about how you know Kirk could participate in Pat's and medicine he's like nah that's your your place and Spock interrupts them and is like I'm just that all this is over and McCoy I just adore him like ah knife to the heart and then he makes the joke how Spock has different anatomy and he's like oh well your heart's over here yes and we in the episode just kind of they just go away just fizzles out and they just start resuming their course and roll credits so Jackie what did you think about season one episode six muds women I mean our plot I didn't really like but as I was saying I mean it's beautiful I love the music I'm actually listening to the soundtrack all day long but I could just be a weird emotional romantic person yeah I don't really like I said in the beginning I really want to like this episode because it has the introduction of Harry mud I think Harry mud is an interesting character I think he portrays a fantastic villain compared to some of the other problems and villains that the Enterprise will encounter he's a great character but when you overlay that with all of the other problems of the episode not just the plot points not just the throwaway ending episode we didn't know how else to tie up loose ends the misogyny the sexism the pimping and human trafficking the drug addiction and controlling these women with those drugs it's it's just not a good episode in my opinion in the end the only way that this episode could have been saved is rewriting it so that the women came from a planet that had this drug and they were already taking it and this is what the women already did independent of Harry mud Harry mud just sees it as an opportunity and provides transportation and he's promised a cut for the transportation which eliminates the power he's no longer the drug pusher he's no longer the pimp and in the end when Eve takes the placebo and she transforms wouldn't it been just a better explanation instead of her transforming into her full hypnotic appearance that we just get a different appearance a in between appearance so that we could explain the fact that this is her inner self-confidence that's portraying her to be beautiful it's still not a great moral to the story but at least it would make sense so that makes that makes sense to me just put some eyeliner on girl yeah well the magical appearing makeup but I have a few fun triple tidbits or fun facts about this episode first aired October 13th 1966 it is only one of two times that the crystals that power the starship is referred to as lithium crystals at all other times it is die lithium crystals gene roddenberry as I mentioned wanted mud to make a return in the next generation he makes some returns in the original series but when the next generation was in its planning stages and pre-production it was roddenberry's intent to bring this character back the actor back but unfortunately the actor died at the age of 54 long before tng even started to film its pilot and enter production so didn't have the opportunity I also mentioned this is one of the three redone pilot pitches that they did to get the show back off the ground the other two being we've already covered where no man has gone before and the third pilot that they pitched what that we have not seen yet is the omega glory we'll get to that despite this episode not aging well this episode was very well received at the time which just shows the difference in time periods Harry mud's characters name was inspired by when roddenberry drove past Harvey mud college spelled the same way M U D D just outside of Los Angeles he drove past it saw the name thought it was funny and used it as the inspiration for Harry mud the character name and my final tidbit we've already mentioned Ruth and Magda have extensive makeup rubber cement they go through painstaking transformations for their quote unquote normal ugly non-pill-induced looks eve just doesn't have any superficial makeup and her hairs a little bit disheveled whenever she's portrayed in that in that view but those are your triple tidbits that's really interesting and more I think about it I mean Ruth is I think that's why they said this is why what planets are from because the roots does kind of resemble a sea creature Magda resembles whatever kind of planet she's from and eve is like a homely arm girl yeah that's kind of cool well to me and this is the part of our show where we rank the episode we pretend that the episode is a member of our fictitious crew and we assign a starfleet rank to that episode the rank is given not only on how much we enjoyed the episode but as a way to determine how strong of an episode it is and how important of a crew member it is on our fictitious ship a higher rank means we enjoyed the episode more when we watched it and consider the episode a more important member of our crew a lower rank means we think the episode was less entertaining and the episode is more of a disposable crew member that wears a red shirt for the ranking systems we also limit the higher ranks so an admiral or twelve fifteen twenty out of ten the absolute cornerstone of the series of the season only gets to be one we then have captain a perfect ten out of ten commander eight or nine out of ten lieutenant commander lieutenant lieutenant junior grade all the way down to an ensign which would be a zero or one out of ten Jackie last week you ranked the enemy within as a lieutenant commander which is the highest ranking you've given so far to any episode how would you rank this episode on your fictitious ship the USS galactic glitter b I am torn I want to give it so much higher than I am because it just I can't get over livestock as women as livestock so I will just keep it in the middle and as a lieutenant commander because again I mean the acting the for lack about a term choreography of everything I think it balances out I I yeah lieutenant commander with extra glitter so lieutenant commander that's still going to be the highest rank you've given an episode six or seven out of ten this will be the third episode you've given that rank to you can have a maximum of ten lieutenant commanders on your crew also as a reminder to the listeners at any time during the season we can do field promotions we can do field demotions if we deem it necessary but good that's good to know I'm also extremely torn on what to rank this episode it is an extremely problematic episode with the overall themes of human trafficking using a drug to basically control other humans it also just a terrible plot points the ending makes absolutely zero sense it's it's almost like the writers tried to redeem all of the sexes and misogyny in the episode by making it about inner confidence women empowerment and it just falls so flat and I would absolutely not hesitate to give this a rank of Ensign if it was just based on that but we do have Harry mud a fantastic villain in the Star Trek universe he's very entertaining overall I'm gonna google the actor yeah and I just really hate the fact that we're introduced to this character in this episode which forces him to have these traits of being a pimp a human trafficker someone who controls women with drugs and someone who just views women as cargo so on my starship the USS cosmic shark as much as I would love to give this episode a higher rank and give it a better chance it can't be an incident can't be the bottom of the barrel because only because of Harry mud this is gonna be a lieutenant junior grade second to the bottom two or three out of ten for the ranking I've also ranked Charlie X at the same level so those are our rankings compared to IMDB at the time of recording I think this rating is absolutely influenced by the fact that this episode did not age well these are modern rankings of course but it is a 6.7 out of 10 I win as a reminder we'll post an updated graphic showing our rankings to our patreon a day after we publish this episode so this episode will come out on a Tuesday and this will be posted to our patreon on Wednesday fund us at patreon.com/treksentanjans we'll be back next week to trek through another episode but first we have to give our turbo lift tease or elevator pitch to next week's episode this is where I give Jackie the title of the next episode and Jackie with no other information and having not watched the episode before she will give her best attempt to guess the plot of that episode I mean more or less that sound can for those who are listening that is Jackie rubbing her hands together anxiously it is not picked up on the microphone but Jackie next week's episode is entitled oh no what are little girls made of everything nice um but I'm sorry what was the title again please remember we're trying not to get canceled what are little girls made of why would they name it this especially after this episode before um yeah i'm just gonna go on a limb and say sugar plum and cinnamon because I don't want to guess cancel well let's tune in next week and find out if we've guessed right even though we've managed not right no it's not it's it's not bad i'll say that for those who are going to tune in next week it's it's a very out of context unrelated title it's hard to guess well then why why do i have to do that then because that's the whole premise of the show can i have the hint can you have a hint i have to transcribe this okay i will give you the how do i give this a hint i will give you this hint it is it is centered around a relationship with nurse chappel i don't even know who nurse chappel is she was the nurse in the sick bay for the naked time that had the terrible wig that professed her love to spark oh i don't know i well obviously we're gonna learn more about nurse chappel i don't know after all those hints ladies and gentlemen we're gonna leave it at that if you want more show information you can find us and directly support our podcast stop laughing you're ruining the benchmark on patreon at patreon.com/treksintangins you can also follow us on x at treks_tangents we're also on instagram and blue sky at treksintangins jackie this is run so long where can people find you and what are you up to i am mainly on instagram as jibboum and i also have started up my beadwork and jewelry and whatnot at glitter pity but i e at the end and i love la booboo's so you could see all of my little necklaces i've been making for them as well of dogs and i'm gonna be figuring out how to do take that all right you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv/pyretpoundtown on youtube i post video games and other random content on our main channel at pyretpoundtown coin collecting and other hobby content also on youtube at pyret treasure hunting i post socially on blue sky at pyretpoundtown and i can be found on instagram under pineapple cannibal because instagram has banned pyretpoundtown for unjust reasons but i'm still proud of it links to all social media mention can be found in the episode description thank you for everyone for tuning in to this episode we hope you had fun like we did and we will see you all next week. 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