February 28, 2024 • 24 mins
This week, Anthony and Ethan discuss episode 6 from Star Trek: The Original Series, "Mudd's Women". They explore the episode's theme of illusion vs. reality and give their thoughts on the antagonist, Harry Mudd, who will also appear in a later Star Trek episode. Tune in for another interesting science fiction discussion as the hosts continue their review of Star Trek: The Original Series.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ethan (00:18):
Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode
of Father and Son's Guide to theGalaxy.
I'm your host Ethan, and I'myour
Anthony (00:26):
co host Anthony, and this week we are back doing our
reviews of Star Trek theOriginal Series.
This week's episode is MudsWomen, episode six I believe
from the original series.
Ethan (00:41):
Yep, so we're just going to do a brief synopsis real
quick, and then we're going togo into our opinions on the
topics, things we noticed in theepisode, and stuff like that.
So we enter in with theEnterprise, chasing a smaller
ship, it looked like.
Like a cargo vessel orsomething.
(01:03):
Yeah.
And this vessel was notresponding to any hails.
And on the screen you kind ofsee it like flying around very
sporadically and it's, it'sgoing all over the place and
then it enters like thisasteroid field and its engines
get totally destroyed, stufflike that.
Anyway, they, if I'mremembering, remembering
correctly, they do get some kindof transmission from the ship,
(01:26):
right.
Or did they just beam some, beamhim aboard?
Anthony (01:30):
I think they just beamed
Ethan (01:32):
him aboard.
Yeah, I think they just managedto get a lock because the
shields were down or something.
Anthony (01:37):
Yeah, but it caused problems for the ship, for the
Enterprise.
Ethan (01:40):
It was quite straining on their, did they say it was their
dilithium crystals?
Yeah, their crystals.
Yeah, so then those end upcracking, which becomes a plot
point later.
So they beam the pilot of theship aboard, and it's this guy
named Harry Mudd, and then hetells them he has other people
(02:00):
aboard, and so then they beamthem aboard, and it turns out
the people that they beamedaboard were not his crewmates,
they were his cargo, and it wasthese three women that
everybody, every guy on theEnterprise was like in awe
whenever they saw them, and thenSince there is cargo, Harry Mudd
(02:22):
gets brought into court, andthere's this very funny scene
with a lie detector, and was hisreal name Harry Mudd?
I cannot remember.
Anthony (02:32):
The real name was Harry Mudd, initially he told them a
different name, but when he wasunder the lie detector, He wa
that's when they realized thathis name was Harry
Ethan (02:44):
Mud.
Yeah.
And then the lie detector calledout everybody like all the guys
in the room that wereperspirating and rising, like
blood pressure.
And the best part when was, waswhen Kirk was like, delete this
section from the log for the,for the trial.
That was pretty funny.
Anthony (03:02):
Yeah.
Well tell our listeners why thathappened though.
Ethan (03:07):
It's because during the trial, Mud's cargo, the three
women, were witnesses, and allthe guys sitting there were just
incredibly nervous the wholetime because of them just being
there.
Anthony (03:20):
Yeah, because they all thought the women were hot.
Ethan (03:25):
Yeah, pretty much.
And then, so, Mud gets sentencedFor at the moment at least to be
confined to quarters till theyget back to earth and they can
put them through a real trialAnd stuff like that.
And then so what happens is withthe crystals cracking earlier
the Enterprise had to go and getnew ones and so they managed to
(03:51):
find a mining planet nearby andcontacted the miners and they
were gonna go over and negotiatefor some crystals or whatever,
right?
Anthony (04:03):
Yeah, yeah, they were gonna try to get the crystals
that they needed so that theycould reestablish warp
capabilities.
They were basically running onauxiliary power to get there.
Ethan (04:13):
Yes, and so in the meantime, Harry Mudd is plotting
to take control of the ship withhis, with the women, just by
manipulating everybody else onthe ship.
But then one of the, one of thewomen, her name was Eve.
I think her job was to try andlike, seduce Captain Kirk.
(04:35):
But she ends up not goingthrough with it.
Cause like, she feels guilty,she can't do it.
And then she, she leaves like,partway through when she's
trying to do that.
And then, so, after that, wefigure out that these women are
actually, like, much olderlooking, their, their skin is a
(04:58):
bit more wrinkled, and theyaren't as beautiful in
comparison to, like, beautystandards of today and of the
time that this episode was out.
And so what Harry Mudd did is hegives them this drug that alters
their appearance in a way.
And I guess they have to take itevery 48 hours, I think is what
(05:20):
they said.
Anthony (05:20):
Yeah, something like that.
And he was basically in acontract with these women, where
he agreed to take them and helpthem find husbands and gave them
these Pills that would make themlook beautiful so that they
could get married or whatever Soit in a way They're they're kind
(05:45):
of almost like his propertywhich is of course kind of
gross, but that's That's whatwas going on.
Ethan (05:54):
Yeah, it was sort of like an indentured servitude type
thing right on So, then after wefigure out this, they end up
making their way to the, to theplanet.
But prior, Harry Mudd hadcontacted the miners working
there himself and had offeredthem the women as wives in
(06:15):
exchange for the crystals.
And so once the miners comeaboard the Enterprise, that's
what they think they're gettingand won't negotiate for anything
else.
Like, they, they don't want anykind of money or supplies or
anything.
They just want what Harry Muddoffered them.
So, Kirk, in desperation, has toaccept, or else his ship is
(06:38):
gonna get stuck in orbit, andthey won't be able to leave or
go to warp, and they'll prettymuch be stranded on that planet.
Yeah, well, and I
Anthony (06:45):
think they said that the ship could only remain in
orbit for a few days before itwould you know, enter the
atmosphere and crash.
Ethan (06:54):
And then so what happens after this is they go down and
they're like, all right, where'sour crystals?
And they're kind of very Iwouldn't say reluctant, but like
they're just straight upignoring them.
They're like I'll do it on myown time Like completely not
caring that the Enterprise isFalling out of orbit.
(07:14):
It's running out of energy.
Yeah, you're talking about theminers.
Yeah the miners because they'rejust so like single focused on
their newfound property, I guessyou could say, because they
basically got the, the, them aswives for the crystals, which
(07:35):
they ended up basicallyviolating the contract, but to
them that didn't matter.
Right.
And the woman I mentionedearlier, Eve, she had problems
with the drug, saying it didn'tfeel real, and she was very, she
was, She was very reluctant totake the pill when we saw it
earlier.
Like, saying that it was a cheatand stuff.
And, so I guess what happenedis, she got incredibly, like,
(07:59):
self conscious around the,around everybody and tried to
run away.
And this planet is like anincredibly horrible, barren
surface.
It's like, impossible to liveon.
There's a bunch of dust stormsand things.
And so immediately, Kirk andthis one minor guy runs after
her and tries to catch her, butKirk can't find her, so he
(08:22):
returns to the Enterprise, butthen eventually I believe that
miner then finds her and thencarries her back to his house,
but doesn't contact theEnterprise, which is a very key
point because the Enterprise waskept using energy to search for
her.
Yeah.
And so what happens after thatis the The miner kind of just
(08:45):
passes out afterwards and thenhe wakes up to Eve cooking and
he gets like very mad about thathe's like a man can do his own
cooking stuff like that and eventries to like play it off as if
the meal isn't as good as hethought it was but then Eve kind
(09:07):
of snaps back and is like thisis your cooking in the pan right
here I just heated it up Andthey kind of get mad at each
other, things like that.
And then, that guy then leaves,right?
I believe, and then he comesback later.
I think that's right, yeah.
Probably to go do some mining.
And so he comes back and Eve isplaying some game.
(09:28):
He thought it was Solitaire, butit wasn't.
I don't remember what card gameshe was playing.
But this, at this time, themedicine, the, the pill had worn
off, so she was Starting to havea more aged face, and he was all
like, What happened to yourface?
Like, that is the most, that islike the rudest way to bring it
(09:50):
up.
And then she kind of startstalking to him about it, like,
This is what I look likenormally.
And then, Kirk and Crap, I justforgot his name.
Harry Mudd?
Yeah, Harry Mudd, thank you.
Walk in, And then offer her thepill to kind of show as a
demonstration, and she takes it,and becomes a beautiful woman
(10:13):
again.
But then Kirk reveals that itwas a placebo, and all, all she
really needed was herconfidence.
I guess the effect of the drugkind of like Worked the way into
her chemistry or something towhere it could be controlled.
That's my guess but Not sure.
Anthony (10:34):
Well, I think I think the point was that the drugs
that Harry Mudd was giving themDidn't really do anything but
because they thought it wasdoing something to change their
appearance they gained theconfidence that they needed or
whatever so that They projectedthemselves as if they were
(10:57):
beautiful and other peopleperceived them that way.
Ethan (11:01):
Oh, well, I thought they changed it to a placebo just for
that time and that
Anthony (11:06):
it would normally work.
Right, they did, but I thinkwhat the episode was trying to
portray was that even thoughKurt gave Eve, a placebo, the
drugs that Harry Mudd was givingthem didn't really actually
(11:27):
alter their appearance.
Ethan (11:29):
I have a feeling in like the terms of science fiction and
things like that, they did, butenough of them taken over time
kind of accumulated in effect towhere you didn't need the pill
anymore to have that happen.
Maybe so.
And then it just turned into amatter of like Do you, like, can
you picture it happening?
Like, self confidence.
(11:50):
And I guess the miner guy kindof, like, got over his, like, I
don't know, his little tempertantrum he was throwing.
Cause he saw that she was, like,telling the truth or whatever.
And then he finally agrees togive the Enterprise the
crystals.
And then they get the crystalsand the Enterprise leaves to
(12:11):
bring Harry Mudd to his trial.
Right.
And that's pretty much the fullepisode, unless you have
anything to add.
No,
Anthony (12:20):
I think that hits all the main plot points of the
episode.
So what did you think of theepisode?
I thought it
Ethan (12:29):
was fairly odd.
Yeah.
Anthony (12:32):
Let's talk about Harry Mudd first.
What did you think of hischaracter as kind of the
antagonist of the
Ethan (12:39):
episode?
He was very interesting.
He kinda I mean, like most ofthe costuming.
His costuming was very weird.
He had a very, like, fakelooking belt.
Yeah.
Just looked like a piece of feltwrapped around a shirt.
Anthony (12:53):
Yeah, and I think he was intended to be more of a
comical villain, right?
I mean, he wasn't anybody that,like, struck Fear into the
hearts of the Enterprise crew,right?
I mean, he, he was this kind of,he kind of had this goofy smile
on his face, and he had a weirdmustache,
Ethan (13:11):
and Right, the mustache, he had a very like curly
mustache.
Yeah, he
Anthony (13:14):
just, he just kind of looked like a weirdo, and I
think he was meant to besomewhat comical in in the way
that they, The actor portrayedhim.
Ethan (13:28):
When I first saw him I thought he was from like a
different time period.
Like this could be like a time
Anthony (13:32):
travel.
Yeah, I actually thought thattoo.
Cause he did look like maybe hewas coming from like the 1800s
United States or something likethat.
Yeah.
Yeah but yeah he wasinteresting.
And apparently he makes anotherappearance in a later episode I
read.
And also an appearance in StarTrek the Animated Series.
(13:54):
So, we might have to check thoseout, but, but yeah, it was kind
of a weird episode.
The three women kind of made methink of the sirens from Greek
mythology, you know, who luredthe sailors in because of their
beauty, because They had thisalmost magical effect on the
(14:15):
members of the crew because ofhow beautiful they were.
And it was kind of, it was kindof embarrassing, I think, for
the crew members, right?
Yeah.
The way that they were behaving.
Like the ship could notfunction.
Right, right.
The ship couldn't function.
(14:35):
They probably
Ethan (14:35):
had to, like, snap a guy at the helm.
do his job.
Anthony (14:39):
Right.
Yeah.
Nobody, nobody was able toconcentrate.
So I don't know.
I mean, I think the main kind oftheme from this episode was this
idea of illusion versus reality,right?
Right.
And Particularly when we'retalking about Looks and
(14:59):
appearance and and things likethat, you know, what what is it
that really makes somebodybeautiful or handsome?
Is it is it actually?
Their physical appearance, tosome degree, yes, right?
But that's that's not the mainthing that makes people
attractive.
(15:19):
And You know, we see the issuetoday more than ever, right?
I mean, you've got cosmeticsurgeries and all sorts of crazy
stuff people do to their bodiesto try to look good.
Perfect.
You've got social media, youknow, filters and AI generated
(15:41):
images of you know, of ourselvesthat, that look better than our
actual photos and it's all totry to project this idea that
we're these amazing lookingcreatures, but it's, None of
it's real,
Ethan (15:57):
right?
Right.
Yeah, I, when I watched theepisode, I really started
thinking about social media andhow much people try to be
someone they're not.
I mean, I'm not really on there,but I know from, like, my
friends telling me stuff aboutit, is people are very fake out
(16:17):
there, and honestly, they try toact the same in real life.
But it's not the same effect tohow they appear online.
So you can just tell like thatperson is very fake if you talk
Anthony (16:31):
to them.
Yeah.
And it's hard to get to.
the root of a person to, tofigure out who they really are
sometimes.
Because if you have an onlinepersona, a social media persona,
the way you act in otherenvironments, I mean, it's, it's
hard to really know whensometimes when people are being
authentic.
Right.
(16:51):
And that's I, I think that'skind of what the episode was
getting at.
This obsession with appearanceover substance the substance of
a person, and the values thatthey hold and the things that
really make, People trulyattractive you know, as opposed
to the superficial idea of, oflooks.
(17:13):
So, yeah, I mean, I thought itwas an interesting idea to
explore and, and ever morerelevant today.
I mean, they, there was nosocial media back when that
episode was made but.
Like you said, that's, that's ahuge part of our culture today.
So the, the theme of the episodeis still quite relevant.
(17:36):
I think to the things that we'redealing with in today's society
where we have advancements intechnology and advanced
advancements and Cosmetics andmedicine to make us look a
certain way you know, it's, andthen the wealth that our society
has, right, speaking in generalterms that, you know, that
(17:59):
people spend all this money ontrying to look a certain way and
portray themselves as a certainway and we're losing, we're
losing our authenticity in theprocess.
Ethan (18:10):
Right.
There's also the end of theepisode touches on the.
concept of self confidence andyou could tell when when Eve
took the placebo how surprisedshe was and it was almost like
she had a different facialexpression yeah she had the rest
(18:30):
of the episode so it was kind ofthe shift from pretending to be
beautiful and acting fake toGetting to the core and
realizing, like, you don't haveto act like, like you are, or,
or like, be fake like that to beconsidered beautiful, cause you
(18:52):
just have to You just have tolook inward on yourself and have
a little bit more confidence inshowing it.
Yeah,
Anthony (19:01):
and it was at that point that the minor guy, who
had kind of been a jerk up untilthat point, I think realized
that she was a beautiful personinside and out, right?
Right.
And so he decided, you know,that he wanted to try to make
the relationship work and staywith her or whatever.
(19:22):
It all happened in a very shortperiod of time, so a little
unrealistic as far as storydevelopment, but, but that's how
they ended the episode.
They were
Ethan (19:31):
probably running out of time, and they needed to finish
filming.
Cause they, cause back then theyhad like specific time blocks
they needed to fill for TV,right?
There was no like, going longer,stuff like that, right?
Anthony (19:48):
Well, yeah, I mean, you had, I mean, that was live TV,
so, or not live TV, but it airedat a certain time, right, and
you had commercial breaks andall that, and it had to be over
by a certain time.
I mean, we still have TV showslike that today, it's just that
most of what we watch, it seems,is
Ethan (20:05):
streaming.
Yeah, they have a bit moreflexibility in how long their
content is
Anthony (20:09):
now.
Yeah, definitely the streamingshows do.
So yeah it was a good episodeoverall.
I, I don't know, like you said,it was a little bizarre, but I
think it had some good ideas init.
Did you Assign it a lettergrade, like we've been doing.
Ethan (20:24):
I'd say I'd give it a B ranking.
Oh, B okay.
Cause, it, entertaining concept,just some of the ways they like,
portrayed some of it was like,really weird.
Like, I found the way that theylike, portrayed the men acting.
Was, like, trying to take howmen act in real life and then
(20:45):
scaling it up 100 times, justway over dramatizing it.
Right,
Anthony (20:50):
right.
Which, I think there's a lot ofthat in the original series.
You know, the kind of overdramatic acting.
Sometimes it almost seems likethey're more of caricatures as
opposed to characters, but I, I,I'm hoping and I, and I think
from what I remember, you know,as the series goes along, it
(21:14):
becomes less and less like that.
Because certainly by the timethey got to the movies, it
didn't feel like that at
Ethan (21:19):
all.
And they also had the time todevelop it for their characters
properly.
Anthony (21:24):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I'd give it a B.
It was, it was okay.
Like I said, not my favoriteepisode.
But I did think there was someThoughtful ideas behind it I, I,
I didn't necessarily love HarryMudd as an antagonist.
It'll be interesting to see the,you know, when he comes back,
whatever episode that is.
(21:45):
I'm not sure if that's in thefirst season or a later season.
But it'll be interesting to seewhat they do with this character
then and if he has any,Character development or
revolves in any way that makeshim a little a little less one
dimensional of a character, so.
Ethan (22:02):
Yeah, because like we know he's probably gonna go to
like Federation Rehabilitationbecause they don't necessarily
have prisons.
It's more of kind of Yeah, it'slike
Anthony (22:12):
rehabilitation camps or whatever, but but done
Ethan (22:16):
humanely.
Yeah There's a very, like, funnyline at the end of the episode
where Kirk offers to go to hishearing, and Mud's like, No,
you'll just make it worst.
Yeah.
Like, ten times worse.
Right.
Anthony (22:28):
Yeah, so.
So anyway, decent episode.
I mean, check it out if youhaven't.
If you're watching Star Trek TheOriginal Series You know, I
don't think I don't think itwould be a big deal if you
skipped over this episode.
You're not going to missanything.
But, you know, if you want to bea completist and watch all of
(22:50):
them like we're trying to do,then, you know, you've got to
sit through it.
Ethan (22:54):
Yeah, so unless you've got anything else to add, I
think we can finish the episodehere.
Anthony (22:59):
Yeah, sounds good.
So thanks as always to ourlisteners.
We've got some faithfullisteners out there and we
really appreciate it.
And interesting to us as we lookat the data that we have.
Some listeners in differentparts of the world, right?
I think that we, we've gotlisteners in Germany and Canada
and some other places.
(23:20):
So that's kind of cool for us tosee.
So we really appreciate yoursupport and hope you'll keep
tuning in and we'll do our bestto keep creating interesting
content for you Talking aboutStar Trek and and at some point
we'll deviate from Star Trek andtalk about some other science
fiction shows or That, that areout there that, that we wanna
(23:43):
chime in on.
So in the meantime have a agreat week and we'll see you
next time.
Ethan (23:49):
See ya.
Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode
of Father and Son's Guide to theGalaxy.
I'm your host Ethan, and I'myour
Anthony (00:26):
co host Anthony, and this week we are back doing our
reviews of Star Trek theOriginal Series.
This week's episode is MudsWomen, episode six I believe
from the original series.
Ethan (00:41):
Yep, so we're just going to do a brief synopsis real
quick, and then we're going togo into our opinions on the
topics, things we noticed in theepisode, and stuff like that.
So we enter in with theEnterprise, chasing a smaller
ship, it looked like.
Like a cargo vessel orsomething.
(01:03):
Yeah.
And this vessel was notresponding to any hails.
And on the screen you kind ofsee it like flying around very
sporadically and it's, it'sgoing all over the place and
then it enters like thisasteroid field and its engines
get totally destroyed, stufflike that.
Anyway, they, if I'mremembering, remembering
correctly, they do get some kindof transmission from the ship,
(01:26):
right.
Or did they just beam some, beamhim aboard?
Anthony (01:30):
I think they just beamed
Ethan (01:32):
him aboard.
Yeah, I think they just managedto get a lock because the
shields were down or something.
Anthony (01:37):
Yeah, but it caused problems for the ship, for the
Enterprise.
Ethan (01:40):
It was quite straining on their, did they say it was their
dilithium crystals?
Yeah, their crystals.
Yeah, so then those end upcracking, which becomes a plot
point later.
So they beam the pilot of theship aboard, and it's this guy
named Harry Mudd, and then hetells them he has other people
(02:00):
aboard, and so then they beamthem aboard, and it turns out
the people that they beamedaboard were not his crewmates,
they were his cargo, and it wasthese three women that
everybody, every guy on theEnterprise was like in awe
whenever they saw them, and thenSince there is cargo, Harry Mudd
(02:22):
gets brought into court, andthere's this very funny scene
with a lie detector, and was hisreal name Harry Mudd?
I cannot remember.
Anthony (02:32):
The real name was Harry Mudd, initially he told them a
different name, but when he wasunder the lie detector, He wa
that's when they realized thathis name was Harry
Ethan (02:44):
Mud.
Yeah.
And then the lie detector calledout everybody like all the guys
in the room that wereperspirating and rising, like
blood pressure.
And the best part when was, waswhen Kirk was like, delete this
section from the log for the,for the trial.
That was pretty funny.
Anthony (03:02):
Yeah.
Well tell our listeners why thathappened though.
Ethan (03:07):
It's because during the trial, Mud's cargo, the three
women, were witnesses, and allthe guys sitting there were just
incredibly nervous the wholetime because of them just being
there.
Anthony (03:20):
Yeah, because they all thought the women were hot.
Ethan (03:25):
Yeah, pretty much.
And then, so, Mud gets sentencedFor at the moment at least to be
confined to quarters till theyget back to earth and they can
put them through a real trialAnd stuff like that.
And then so what happens is withthe crystals cracking earlier
the Enterprise had to go and getnew ones and so they managed to
(03:51):
find a mining planet nearby andcontacted the miners and they
were gonna go over and negotiatefor some crystals or whatever,
right?
Anthony (04:03):
Yeah, yeah, they were gonna try to get the crystals
that they needed so that theycould reestablish warp
capabilities.
They were basically running onauxiliary power to get there.
Ethan (04:13):
Yes, and so in the meantime, Harry Mudd is plotting
to take control of the ship withhis, with the women, just by
manipulating everybody else onthe ship.
But then one of the, one of thewomen, her name was Eve.
I think her job was to try andlike, seduce Captain Kirk.
(04:35):
But she ends up not goingthrough with it.
Cause like, she feels guilty,she can't do it.
And then she, she leaves like,partway through when she's
trying to do that.
And then, so, after that, wefigure out that these women are
actually, like, much olderlooking, their, their skin is a
(04:58):
bit more wrinkled, and theyaren't as beautiful in
comparison to, like, beautystandards of today and of the
time that this episode was out.
And so what Harry Mudd did is hegives them this drug that alters
their appearance in a way.
And I guess they have to take itevery 48 hours, I think is what
(05:20):
they said.
Anthony (05:20):
Yeah, something like that.
And he was basically in acontract with these women, where
he agreed to take them and helpthem find husbands and gave them
these Pills that would make themlook beautiful so that they
could get married or whatever Soit in a way They're they're kind
(05:45):
of almost like his propertywhich is of course kind of
gross, but that's That's whatwas going on.
Ethan (05:54):
Yeah, it was sort of like an indentured servitude type
thing right on So, then after wefigure out this, they end up
making their way to the, to theplanet.
But prior, Harry Mudd hadcontacted the miners working
there himself and had offeredthem the women as wives in
(06:15):
exchange for the crystals.
And so once the miners comeaboard the Enterprise, that's
what they think they're gettingand won't negotiate for anything
else.
Like, they, they don't want anykind of money or supplies or
anything.
They just want what Harry Muddoffered them.
So, Kirk, in desperation, has toaccept, or else his ship is
(06:38):
gonna get stuck in orbit, andthey won't be able to leave or
go to warp, and they'll prettymuch be stranded on that planet.
Yeah, well, and I
Anthony (06:45):
think they said that the ship could only remain in
orbit for a few days before itwould you know, enter the
atmosphere and crash.
Ethan (06:54):
And then so what happens after this is they go down and
they're like, all right, where'sour crystals?
And they're kind of very Iwouldn't say reluctant, but like
they're just straight upignoring them.
They're like I'll do it on myown time Like completely not
caring that the Enterprise isFalling out of orbit.
(07:14):
It's running out of energy.
Yeah, you're talking about theminers.
Yeah the miners because they'rejust so like single focused on
their newfound property, I guessyou could say, because they
basically got the, the, them aswives for the crystals, which
(07:35):
they ended up basicallyviolating the contract, but to
them that didn't matter.
Right.
And the woman I mentionedearlier, Eve, she had problems
with the drug, saying it didn'tfeel real, and she was very, she
was, She was very reluctant totake the pill when we saw it
earlier.
Like, saying that it was a cheatand stuff.
And, so I guess what happenedis, she got incredibly, like,
(07:59):
self conscious around the,around everybody and tried to
run away.
And this planet is like anincredibly horrible, barren
surface.
It's like, impossible to liveon.
There's a bunch of dust stormsand things.
And so immediately, Kirk andthis one minor guy runs after
her and tries to catch her, butKirk can't find her, so he
(08:22):
returns to the Enterprise, butthen eventually I believe that
miner then finds her and thencarries her back to his house,
but doesn't contact theEnterprise, which is a very key
point because the Enterprise waskept using energy to search for
her.
Yeah.
And so what happens after thatis the The miner kind of just
(08:45):
passes out afterwards and thenhe wakes up to Eve cooking and
he gets like very mad about thathe's like a man can do his own
cooking stuff like that and eventries to like play it off as if
the meal isn't as good as hethought it was but then Eve kind
(09:07):
of snaps back and is like thisis your cooking in the pan right
here I just heated it up Andthey kind of get mad at each
other, things like that.
And then, that guy then leaves,right?
I believe, and then he comesback later.
I think that's right, yeah.
Probably to go do some mining.
And so he comes back and Eve isplaying some game.
(09:28):
He thought it was Solitaire, butit wasn't.
I don't remember what card gameshe was playing.
But this, at this time, themedicine, the, the pill had worn
off, so she was Starting to havea more aged face, and he was all
like, What happened to yourface?
Like, that is the most, that islike the rudest way to bring it
(09:50):
up.
And then she kind of startstalking to him about it, like,
This is what I look likenormally.
And then, Kirk and Crap, I justforgot his name.
Harry Mudd?
Yeah, Harry Mudd, thank you.
Walk in, And then offer her thepill to kind of show as a
demonstration, and she takes it,and becomes a beautiful woman
(10:13):
again.
But then Kirk reveals that itwas a placebo, and all, all she
really needed was herconfidence.
I guess the effect of the drugkind of like Worked the way into
her chemistry or something towhere it could be controlled.
That's my guess but Not sure.
Anthony (10:34):
Well, I think I think the point was that the drugs
that Harry Mudd was giving themDidn't really do anything but
because they thought it wasdoing something to change their
appearance they gained theconfidence that they needed or
whatever so that They projectedthemselves as if they were
(10:57):
beautiful and other peopleperceived them that way.
Ethan (11:01):
Oh, well, I thought they changed it to a placebo just for
that time and that
Anthony (11:06):
it would normally work.
Right, they did, but I thinkwhat the episode was trying to
portray was that even thoughKurt gave Eve, a placebo, the
drugs that Harry Mudd was givingthem didn't really actually
(11:27):
alter their appearance.
Ethan (11:29):
I have a feeling in like the terms of science fiction and
things like that, they did, butenough of them taken over time
kind of accumulated in effect towhere you didn't need the pill
anymore to have that happen.
Maybe so.
And then it just turned into amatter of like Do you, like, can
you picture it happening?
Like, self confidence.
(11:50):
And I guess the miner guy kindof, like, got over his, like, I
don't know, his little tempertantrum he was throwing.
Cause he saw that she was, like,telling the truth or whatever.
And then he finally agrees togive the Enterprise the
crystals.
And then they get the crystalsand the Enterprise leaves to
(12:11):
bring Harry Mudd to his trial.
Right.
And that's pretty much the fullepisode, unless you have
anything to add.
No,
Anthony (12:20):
I think that hits all the main plot points of the
episode.
So what did you think of theepisode?
I thought it
Ethan (12:29):
was fairly odd.
Yeah.
Anthony (12:32):
Let's talk about Harry Mudd first.
What did you think of hischaracter as kind of the
antagonist of the
Ethan (12:39):
episode?
He was very interesting.
He kinda I mean, like most ofthe costuming.
His costuming was very weird.
He had a very, like, fakelooking belt.
Yeah.
Just looked like a piece of feltwrapped around a shirt.
Anthony (12:53):
Yeah, and I think he was intended to be more of a
comical villain, right?
I mean, he wasn't anybody that,like, struck Fear into the
hearts of the Enterprise crew,right?
I mean, he, he was this kind of,he kind of had this goofy smile
on his face, and he had a weirdmustache,
Ethan (13:11):
and Right, the mustache, he had a very like curly
mustache.
Yeah, he
Anthony (13:14):
just, he just kind of looked like a weirdo, and I
think he was meant to besomewhat comical in in the way
that they, The actor portrayedhim.
Ethan (13:28):
When I first saw him I thought he was from like a
different time period.
Like this could be like a time
Anthony (13:32):
travel.
Yeah, I actually thought thattoo.
Cause he did look like maybe hewas coming from like the 1800s
United States or something likethat.
Yeah.
Yeah but yeah he wasinteresting.
And apparently he makes anotherappearance in a later episode I
read.
And also an appearance in StarTrek the Animated Series.
(13:54):
So, we might have to check thoseout, but, but yeah, it was kind
of a weird episode.
The three women kind of made methink of the sirens from Greek
mythology, you know, who luredthe sailors in because of their
beauty, because They had thisalmost magical effect on the
(14:15):
members of the crew because ofhow beautiful they were.
And it was kind of, it was kindof embarrassing, I think, for
the crew members, right?
Yeah.
The way that they were behaving.
Like the ship could notfunction.
Right, right.
The ship couldn't function.
(14:35):
They probably
Ethan (14:35):
had to, like, snap a guy at the helm.
do his job.
Anthony (14:39):
Right.
Yeah.
Nobody, nobody was able toconcentrate.
So I don't know.
I mean, I think the main kind oftheme from this episode was this
idea of illusion versus reality,right?
Right.
And Particularly when we'retalking about Looks and
(14:59):
appearance and and things likethat, you know, what what is it
that really makes somebodybeautiful or handsome?
Is it is it actually?
Their physical appearance, tosome degree, yes, right?
But that's that's not the mainthing that makes people
attractive.
(15:19):
And You know, we see the issuetoday more than ever, right?
I mean, you've got cosmeticsurgeries and all sorts of crazy
stuff people do to their bodiesto try to look good.
Perfect.
You've got social media, youknow, filters and AI generated
(15:41):
images of you know, of ourselvesthat, that look better than our
actual photos and it's all totry to project this idea that
we're these amazing lookingcreatures, but it's, None of
it's real,
Ethan (15:57):
right?
Right.
Yeah, I, when I watched theepisode, I really started
thinking about social media andhow much people try to be
someone they're not.
I mean, I'm not really on there,but I know from, like, my
friends telling me stuff aboutit, is people are very fake out
(16:17):
there, and honestly, they try toact the same in real life.
But it's not the same effect tohow they appear online.
So you can just tell like thatperson is very fake if you talk
Anthony (16:31):
to them.
Yeah.
And it's hard to get to.
the root of a person to, tofigure out who they really are
sometimes.
Because if you have an onlinepersona, a social media persona,
the way you act in otherenvironments, I mean, it's, it's
hard to really know whensometimes when people are being
authentic.
Right.
(16:51):
And that's I, I think that'skind of what the episode was
getting at.
This obsession with appearanceover substance the substance of
a person, and the values thatthey hold and the things that
really make, People trulyattractive you know, as opposed
to the superficial idea of, oflooks.
(17:13):
So, yeah, I mean, I thought itwas an interesting idea to
explore and, and ever morerelevant today.
I mean, they, there was nosocial media back when that
episode was made but.
Like you said, that's, that's ahuge part of our culture today.
So the, the theme of the episodeis still quite relevant.
(17:36):
I think to the things that we'redealing with in today's society
where we have advancements intechnology and advanced
advancements and Cosmetics andmedicine to make us look a
certain way you know, it's, andthen the wealth that our society
has, right, speaking in generalterms that, you know, that
(17:59):
people spend all this money ontrying to look a certain way and
portray themselves as a certainway and we're losing, we're
losing our authenticity in theprocess.
Ethan (18:10):
Right.
There's also the end of theepisode touches on the.
concept of self confidence andyou could tell when when Eve
took the placebo how surprisedshe was and it was almost like
she had a different facialexpression yeah she had the rest
(18:30):
of the episode so it was kind ofthe shift from pretending to be
beautiful and acting fake toGetting to the core and
realizing, like, you don't haveto act like, like you are, or,
or like, be fake like that to beconsidered beautiful, cause you
(18:52):
just have to You just have tolook inward on yourself and have
a little bit more confidence inshowing it.
Yeah,
Anthony (19:01):
and it was at that point that the minor guy, who
had kind of been a jerk up untilthat point, I think realized
that she was a beautiful personinside and out, right?
Right.
And so he decided, you know,that he wanted to try to make
the relationship work and staywith her or whatever.
(19:22):
It all happened in a very shortperiod of time, so a little
unrealistic as far as storydevelopment, but, but that's how
they ended the episode.
They were
Ethan (19:31):
probably running out of time, and they needed to finish
filming.
Cause they, cause back then theyhad like specific time blocks
they needed to fill for TV,right?
There was no like, going longer,stuff like that, right?
Anthony (19:48):
Well, yeah, I mean, you had, I mean, that was live TV,
so, or not live TV, but it airedat a certain time, right, and
you had commercial breaks andall that, and it had to be over
by a certain time.
I mean, we still have TV showslike that today, it's just that
most of what we watch, it seems,is
Ethan (20:05):
streaming.
Yeah, they have a bit moreflexibility in how long their
content is
Anthony (20:09):
now.
Yeah, definitely the streamingshows do.
So yeah it was a good episodeoverall.
I, I don't know, like you said,it was a little bizarre, but I
think it had some good ideas init.
Did you Assign it a lettergrade, like we've been doing.
Ethan (20:24):
I'd say I'd give it a B ranking.
Oh, B okay.
Cause, it, entertaining concept,just some of the ways they like,
portrayed some of it was like,really weird.
Like, I found the way that theylike, portrayed the men acting.
Was, like, trying to take howmen act in real life and then
(20:45):
scaling it up 100 times, justway over dramatizing it.
Right,
Anthony (20:50):
right.
Which, I think there's a lot ofthat in the original series.
You know, the kind of overdramatic acting.
Sometimes it almost seems likethey're more of caricatures as
opposed to characters, but I, I,I'm hoping and I, and I think
from what I remember, you know,as the series goes along, it
(21:14):
becomes less and less like that.
Because certainly by the timethey got to the movies, it
didn't feel like that at
Ethan (21:19):
all.
And they also had the time todevelop it for their characters
properly.
Anthony (21:24):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I'd give it a B.
It was, it was okay.
Like I said, not my favoriteepisode.
But I did think there was someThoughtful ideas behind it I, I,
I didn't necessarily love HarryMudd as an antagonist.
It'll be interesting to see the,you know, when he comes back,
whatever episode that is.
(21:45):
I'm not sure if that's in thefirst season or a later season.
But it'll be interesting to seewhat they do with this character
then and if he has any,Character development or
revolves in any way that makeshim a little a little less one
dimensional of a character, so.
Ethan (22:02):
Yeah, because like we know he's probably gonna go to
like Federation Rehabilitationbecause they don't necessarily
have prisons.
It's more of kind of Yeah, it'slike
Anthony (22:12):
rehabilitation camps or whatever, but but done
Ethan (22:16):
humanely.
Yeah There's a very, like, funnyline at the end of the episode
where Kirk offers to go to hishearing, and Mud's like, No,
you'll just make it worst.
Yeah.
Like, ten times worse.
Right.
Anthony (22:28):
Yeah, so.
So anyway, decent episode.
I mean, check it out if youhaven't.
If you're watching Star Trek TheOriginal Series You know, I
don't think I don't think itwould be a big deal if you
skipped over this episode.
You're not going to missanything.
But, you know, if you want to bea completist and watch all of
(22:50):
them like we're trying to do,then, you know, you've got to
sit through it.
Ethan (22:54):
Yeah, so unless you've got anything else to add, I
think we can finish the episodehere.
Anthony (22:59):
Yeah, sounds good.
So thanks as always to ourlisteners.
We've got some faithfullisteners out there and we
really appreciate it.
And interesting to us as we lookat the data that we have.
Some listeners in differentparts of the world, right?
I think that we, we've gotlisteners in Germany and Canada
and some other places.
(23:20):
So that's kind of cool for us tosee.
So we really appreciate yoursupport and hope you'll keep
tuning in and we'll do our bestto keep creating interesting
content for you Talking aboutStar Trek and and at some point
we'll deviate from Star Trek andtalk about some other science
fiction shows or That, that areout there that, that we wanna
(23:43):
chime in on.
So in the meantime have a agreat week and we'll see you
next time.
Ethan (23:49):
See ya.
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