Harcourt Fenton Mudd: Prime Time TV’s first Space Pimp! (Unless you count that one episode of “Leave It To Beaver.”) “Mudd’s Women” is a classic even if the ending is a total cheesy cop-out. (Don’t worry, Princess. . .your ability to perfectly appeal to this boorish miner’s Madonna/Whore complex is totally within YOU!) Hardly a great leap forward for feminism, “Mudd’s Women” nevertheless appeals to those of us who wonder what the real world would be like in the Star Trek Universe. If I were still an undergraduate I would argue that the “Venus Pills” that Mudd’s women take were some sort of signifier for orthotricyclen (this show did first air in 1966) but I’ll leave that to someone else to blog about. Geeks note: Lithium (not Dilithium) Crystals, Spock is called a Vulcanian (not a Vulcan) and Uhura’s uniform is gold (not red.) Harry Mudd will appear again next season and again (so my research tells me) in the animated series. Huzzah!
