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Mudd Incident

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Prelude [ ]

In 2239 of the Kelvin timeline , the USS Enterprise under Captain Robert April did a routine survey of Phaedus IV and it's inhabitants . There, April saw a genocidal civil war being fought by a group that called itself the "Shadow" against non-shadow. In that moment, April decided to help the non-shadow. He then worked with XO , Alex Marcus to fake his death. ( TOS - Countdown to Darkness comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 ")

April took many weapons and technology with him to help the non-shadow fight back despite him violating the Prime Directive . Marcus ensured that supplies arrived from Section 31 through the trader Mudd . For over two decades, April and the non-shadow fought the Shadow. During this time, April then discovered that the Klingon Empire was supplying and backing the Shadow. During this time, Marcus had become the Commanding Officer of Starfleet Command and leading member of Section 31 . He ensure that his control program built into the new USS Enterprise . Marcus then arranged for the Enterprise to do a survey at Phaedus. Marcus also awakened former augment dictator, Khan Noonien Singh (under the alias "John Harrison") to build ships and weapons for him. Marcus knew that April would able to distract the Klingons by giving the Enterprise . ( TOS - Countdown to Darkness comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 "; TOS movie & novelization : Into Darkness ; TOS - After Darkness comic : " Part 1 ")

The Enterprise 's arrival [ ]

In 2259 , the Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk arrived at Phaedus under orders from Admiral Christopher Pike to do a survey. However, Kirk and his crew detected a energy fluctuation coming from the surface. ( TOS - Countdown to Darkness comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 ")

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Published Sep 28, 2023

Of Mudd and Men

The classic Star Trek villain Harry Mudd left his mark on the franchise for years to come.

StarTrek.com

In Star Trek : The Original Series , Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise faced numerous threats over the course of three seasons. But their first recurring adversary on the show wasn’t a conqueror like Khan Noonien Singh or an all-powerful alien child like Trelane. Instead, it was Harry Mudd. Or Harcourt Fenton Mudd, if you prefer.

Mudd may not have been able to match Kirk’s physicality or Spock’s intellect, but he nearly brought the crew to its knees in two episodes of the original series, and in his singular appearance in Star Trek: The Animated Series . How could one seemingly unremarkable man cause so much harm? Because he was a human unlike the rest of his kind in the 23rd Century. While humanity had largely moved past the desire for wealth, Mudd embraced his baser instincts. Mudd’s gift for duplicity gave him power and it allowed him to become one of the galaxy’s most prominent con artists.

"Mudd's Women"

In the first season's “ Mudd’s Women ,” Mudd was already established as a criminal in Starfleet’s logs. That’s why he introduced himself as Leo Walsh when he finally met Kirk on the Enterprise . But first, Mudd led the Enterprise on a dangerous chase inside of an asteroid field that ultimately destroyed Mudd’s ship and nearly completely depowered the Enterprise .

Mudd’s illicit “cargo” was three unimaginably beautiful women — Eve, Magda, and Ruth. Mudd said that the women were bound for the settlement on Ophiucus III in order to get married. That may have been the truth, but Mudd conveniently neglected to mention that the trio had been augmented by illegal Venus drugs to become even more stunning. Their physical appearance mesmerized the men of the Enterprise , which led Mudd to say—

Men will always be men no matter where they are. You'll never take that out of them.

Harry Mudd, "Mudd's Women"

That line betrays Mudd’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Federation and its values. He truly believes that all men and women are like him, even if they don’t want to admit it. Mudd’s not entirely wrong either, as the three women were able to get almost anything they needed from the crew. Even the miners on Rigel XII turned their backs on the Enterprise ’s hour of need in favor of a deal they made with Mudd. In exchange for Mudd’s freedom and badly needed lithium crystals for the Enterprise , the miners wanted to marry Mudd’s women.

Earlier in the episode, Eve apologized to Spock for Mudd’s conduct, saying, "He's so used to buying and selling people.” That implies that Mudd ran this scam several times before. During Mudd’s hearing, his previous infractions against the Federation were revealed to include smuggling, transport of stolen goods, and purchase of a space vessel with counterfeit currency. But those were far from his only crimes.

While Mudd couldn’t understand the morality that Starfleet strived to live up to, the Federation also failed to realize that Mudd could never become a productive citizen. His punishment for his crimes was psychiatric treatment, as if he could simply be treated for the diseases of greed and vice. Conversion therapy doesn’t work in any century, and it certainly didn’t work here.

Mudd returned in the second season episode, “ I, Mudd ,” having once again managed to get away from Federation custody. Shortly after his escape, Mudd returned to his con artist ways, and he nearly got himself killed when his ruse was discovered. He fled to an uncharted world ruled by androids, and he even renamed their world “Mudd” after himself.

"I, Mudd"

However, the androids wouldn’t let Mudd leave because they wanted to learn more about humanity. As a measure of revenge against Kirk and his crew, Mudd arranged for the Enterprise to be forcibly brought to planet Mudd, and its crew imprisoned in luxury at the hands of the androids.

Mudd viewed this as a suitable punishment for Kirk, but he stopped short of seeking physical harm for anyone. Unfortunately for Mudd, he failed to realize that the androids had no intention of letting him leave either. The crew subsequently escaped, and Kirk “generously” allowed Mudd to remain behind with android copies of his wife Stella, whom he could no longer control.

"Mudd's Passion"

Harry’s lone animated appearance came in “Mudd's Passion,” when the Enterprise caught up with Mudd during another one of his signature scams. This time, Mudd was peddling a love potion that ultimately wreaked havoc on the ship and its crew. There was a side effect of the short-acting love potion that Mudd had neglected to mention — it turned love to hate as it wore off. For his crimes, Mudd was once again sentenced to rehabilitation therapy, which only demonstrates that Starfleet didn’t know how to handle Mudd beyond simply incarcerating him.

Surprisingly, Mudd’s appearances in Star Trek: Discovery revealed even darker shades to his character. In "Choose Your Pain”, Mudd endured Klingon captivity by informing on his fellow prisoners and by encouraging them to be beaten if it meant sparing himself physical harm. That’s why Captain Gabriel Lorca and Ash Tyler left Mudd behind on the Klingon ship. Mudd proved that he couldn’t be trusted, and Lorca wasn’t very forgiving.

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"

Mudd’s subsequent return in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” was even more horrifying than his turns in the original and animated series. Thanks to a Klingon Time Crystal, Mudd is able to trap Discovery in a time loop in order to learn about the ship’s secrets before selling it to the Klingons. Mudd also took the opportunity to murder Captain Lorca on several of the time loops, as well as any members of the crew who got in his way. While the time loop was eventually broken with Lorca and the crew still alive, that doesn’t diminish what Mudd tried to do. He’s still a murderer, even if all of his victims survived.

It’s possible that the decision to classify the existence of Discovery in the Season 2 finale had the inadvertent effect of hiding Mudd’s track record. If the full extent of Mudd’s crimes had been known a decade later, then perhaps Kirk and his crew would have been more cautious around Mudd. His genial demeanor hid the monster within, which may also be why Mudd kept getting light sentences from Starfleet.

Star Trek - Mudd and Kirk Meet Again

In the 24th Century, the Ferengi displayed a level of greed that was on par with Mudd’s. But unlike Mudd, the Ferengi had the Rules of Acquisition to live by. Mudd had no code of his own, and no honor to live by. That’s because Mudd represents modern day greed and amorality. He is the dark reflection of humanity’s worst impulses. Mudd could be considered a throwback to mankind’s present. That’s why he proved to be a dangerous threat to both the Discovery and the Enterprise . Neither crew was fully prepared for a man who would do anything to get rich while staying ahead of the authorities one con at a time.

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This article was originally published on November 2, 2020.

Blair Marnell is a freelance writer for several different sites, including Superhero Hype, Marvel.com, Fandom, Digital Trends, and more!

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

One Lower Decks Easter Egg Tells Us What Happened To An Old School Star Trek Villain

This post may contain spoilers for "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 4.

The character of Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd, as played by actor Roger C. Carmel, appeared in two episodes of the original "Star Trek" and one episode of "Star Trek: The Animated Series." In 1966's "Mudd's Women," he served as a seller and transporter of mail-order brides. The women he transports (they all hitch a ride on the Enterprise) happen to be the most attractive women imaginable and are decked out on the finest diaphanous parkas that 1960s sci-fi fashion had to offer. It's later revealed that Mudd is a notorious swindler and smuggler and is wanted for various criminal endeavors throughout the quadrant. It's also revealed that the women he is transporting are made artificially more attractive through the regular ingestion of a miracle pill that temporarily transforms them into models. In an additional, even stupider twist, the pills are revealed to be placebos. The beauty was inside of you all along. Roll eyes. Roll credits. 

Mudd returned in 1967's "I, Mudd," now seen in charge of a planet populated by androids. He used an android-replicating machine to surround himself with hot babes and to recreate his nagging ex-wife just so he had the pleasure of shutting her off. At the end of that episode, he's abandoned on the same planet with 500 clones of his ex-wife, all nagging at once. Mudd's episodes are the most sexist in a show that often orbited sexism a little too closely. 

By the events of the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "The Inner Fight," set a century later, Mudd's name seems to have lived on. At some point in the future, he will have opened a series of bars where seedy criminals hang out. Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) visits a Mudd's Bar.

An attempt to go straight

Carmel reprised the role of Mudd in the "Animated Series" episode "Mudd's Passion." In that episode, Mudd happened upon some pheromonal crystals that forced people to fall in love, and Spock becomes emotional and passionate with Nurse Chapel. However, when the love potion wears off, the users are afflicted by several hours of intense hatred. Mudd is eventually apprehended and forced to go through rehabilitation therapy. In terms of a straightforward "Trek" timeline, this was the last we saw of Mudd. 

Of course, Mudd was also a villain in "Star Trek: Discovery" several decades later. "Discovery," however, takes place about 10 years before the original "Star Trek," and the younger version of Mudd was played by Rainn Wilson . This version of Mudd was far more insidious and murderous, rather than just being a comedic criminal buffoon. This is a character who discovered he had a time-travel widget and used it to go back in time and murder people before the timeline resets, allowing him to kill the same people over and over. This was hardly the sexist goofball who dreamed of an ex-wife robot. The young Mudd appeared in two episodes of "Discovery" and one episode of "Star Trek: Short Treks." 

It seems that Mudd's Bar was once, long ago, Mudd's attempt to go straight. Presumably, he underwent the therapy suggested to him in "Mudd's Passion," and he exited determined to be a successful business owner. As far as we know, at least one of Mudd's bars survived ... as a seedy hangout for criminals. The character's illicit background caught up with him, even after death.

The Mudd Incident

Mudd was also mentioned in the 2012 film "Star Trek Into Darkness," which, of course, exists in its own continuity. Mudd was not seen on camera, but it seems that the Kelvin version of the USS Enterprise did meet Mudd in perhaps a parallel rendition of the "Mudd's Women" or "I, Mudd" events. In that film, Kirk (Chris Pine) requires a non-Federation ship in order to go on a rogue-like mission to the Klingon homeworld in order to pose as an arms trader. The film's screenwriters, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, however, couldn't think of an organic way for Kirk to get a non-Federation ship in a pinch. The writers revealed in a Buzzfeed interview that they thought up "the Mudd Incident" as a way of explaining the presence of a random vessel on the Enterprise. 

It seems, then, that Mudd exists in the Kelvin-verse, and is also a criminal there. At least, he's the kind of person who would have his starship confiscated by Starfleet. Sadly, there was no fun casting revealed for a young Mudd in 2012. 

Roger C. Carmel was only in his mid-thirties when he appeared on "Star Trek: The Animated Series." If we are to assume Mudd is the same age, then he had many years ahead of him following his arrest. Indeed, given the quality of medicine in "Star Trek," there's no reason to assume that Mudd didn't live into his 120s or 130s. If he truly was rehabilitated — as most diplomacy-minded Trekkies might assume — then he had a long time to become an honest businessman. 

Until "Lower Decks" gives us more information, we won't know if the Mudd's Bar on screen is the very first branch, or the very last. 

'Star Trek Into Darkness:' 8 Things You May Have Missed the First Time Around

WARNING: CRAZY SPOILERS HEREIN.

It's become a bit of a tradition in Hollywood for the creators of pop culture-friendly franchises to hide a few Easter eggs in the film for hardcore fans to find and get giggly over. "Iron Man 3" did it just this month while Marvel's other giant blockbuster, "The Avengers," perfected the art last year .

But while those movies were at least sometimes subtle about their references and in-jokes, "Star Trek Into Darkness" has taken a somewhat different approach: smacking you right in the face with them at every single opportunity.

Of course, that's bound to happen when your whole film is taken part and parcel from the most beloved "Star Trek" installment of all time, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." But since not everyone going to see "Star Trek Into Darkness" has a Ph.D. in Trekkery ("Wrath of Khan" did come out over 30 years ago, after all), we thought we'd go ahead and break things down for the rest of you.

So check out our handy guide to 8 Things You May Have Missed the First Time Around. And who knows? Even if you're a hardcore "Star Trek" fan, there might be something in here you somehow missed as well. Enjoy!

1. The Needs of the Many

During the high-octane opening sequence of the film, Spock (Zachary Quinto) finds himself seemingly abandoned to certain death inside an active volcano. But does he want to be saved? No he does not, in part because trying to rescue him would endanger to0 many other people. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one," he explains calmly — using the same phrase that Leonard Nimoy's original Spock used during his infamous death scene at the end of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

2. KHAAAAAAAAAN!

So just how legendary is Spock's death scene in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"? So legendary that they reused the entire sequence in "Star Trek Into Darkness," only with the roles of Spock and Kirk reversed! Yeah, that whole thing where Kirk went into the radiation chamber to save the ship and then died heroically while his best friend helplessly groped at the glass between them? All of it was taken right from "The Wrath of Khan." As was the epic scream "KHAAAAAAAAN!!!," which was originally delivered by William Shatner's Captain Kirk in arguably the most famous moment in "Star Trek" history. Behold the wonder:

3. The Mudd Incident

When Captain Kirk (Chris Pine, naturally) heads down to the Klingon homeworld to capture Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch), he disguises the expedition by using a non-Federation shuttle they confiscated during "the Mudd incident." That's actually a double Easter egg: Harry Mudd was a fan favorite recurring villain during the original "Star Trek" TV series, but publishing company IDW also recently put out a special "Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness" tie-in comic book setting up ... well, that one scene. Cool either way.

4. Nurse Chapel

During Kirk's initial flirtation with new hottie Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), she mentions that he has a reputation. How bad is it? So bad that her good friend, Christine Chapel, transferred off planet to get away from him and become a nurse. Which is a reference to original "Star Trek" crew member Nurse Chapel, who was played by "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett. There was also a brief reference to Nurse Chapel in the 2009 "Star Trek" film, so maybe at some point she'll actually, you know, appear on screen or something.

5. Dr. Carol Marcus

Speaking of science officer Carol Marcus and her flirtation with Kirk, hopefully you liked her, because chances are you're going to see a lot more of her ... and not just because Eve has already signed on to appear in "Star Trek 3." Dr. Carol Marcus, you see, was a major character in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," where it was revealed that she secretly had a son with Kirk when they were both younger, i.e. the age they are in the reboot. So that line she delivers at the end of the movie where she says to Kirk that "It's good to have a family?" Yeah, those googly bedroom eyes were totally foreshadowing.

6. The Trouble With Tribbles

If you were wondering about that undead ball of fur that Karl Urban's Dr. McCoy performs medical experiments on in his attempts to revive Kirk, then you clearly aren't a fan of the '60s TV show ... because "The Trouble with Tribbles," where that cute monster came from, is arguably the most popular episode of the entire series. In the show, the Tribbles seem harmless — and are harmless, except for the fact that they multiply at such an ungodly rate that they endanger every other species around by eating them out of house and home like a plague of Furbies. Maybe McCoy should have left that one dead.

7. Kobayashi Maru

Referenced both in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and in the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot, the Kobayashi Maru is a simulation that cadets at Starfleet Academy have to attempt as part of their training. One problem: it's a no-win situation, with Kirk only beating it thanks to some ingenious cheating. So what does it have to do with "Star Trek: Into Darkness"? Well, the Kobayashi Maru scenario involves being stranded on the edge of Klingon space due to a warp core malfunction — which is exactly what happens to the actual Enterprise in "Into Darkness." Well played.

8. The Undiscovered Country

Finally, we have to also give props to J.J. Abrams and company for branching out a little with their references beyond just "The Wrath of Khan," which they did with the entire non-Khan half of the plot. You know that whole thing where Starfleet Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) tries to stage an incident in order to create a war with the Klingon Empire, going so far as to attack and kill Starfleet officers as part of his plan? Yeah, that's the plot of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," which many critics consider the second-best of the original "Star Trek" movies — right behind "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." Hey, if you're going to steal, steal from the best.

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Star Trek Into Darkness: 10 Things You Might Have Missed

1. the mudd incident.

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.

One iconic Star Trek villain could return for Strange New Worlds

Rainn Wilson wants more Harry Mudd. But does that even work?

The busiest of the Star Trek baddies twirls his mustache.

We’re not talking about wrathful Khan or the mischievous Q . Appearing twice in The Original Series , once in The Animated Series , and twice in Discovery , as well as having a Short Treks episode dedicated entirely to multiple versions of him, the Trek villain to beat is not-so-secretly that swindling con-man, Harry Mudd. Played by the late Roger C. Carmel in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the intergalactic criminal is more recently portrayed by the iconic Rainn Wilson .

Recently, Wilson publicly pushed for Mudd to appear in the TOS prequel series Strange New World s . Can it happen? Will Mudd need to erase Spock’s memory? Mild spoilers ahead for Short Treks “The Escape Artist” and Discovery Season 1. Wild speculation follows.

Wilson is ready to return to the final frontier.

Rainn Wilson wants more Mudd

Speaking at the 55 Year Mission Star Trek convention in Las Vegas earlier this month (as reported by TrekMovie ), Wilson told his audience, “I’ve written the producers and said, ‘Bring Harry Mudd back.’”

So far, the response from co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman has been, as per Wilson, “I don’t know, I would need to think about that.” Wilson also insinuated that if the fans “write in to producers saying they want more Harry Mudd, they will listen to that,” as per reporting out of the event.

Considering Strange New Worlds itself was partially born out of fan demand, Wilson is probably right. If enough Trek fans made noise, his take on Harry Mudd might show up on Strange New Worlds . But how would this work? Can Harry Mudd exist in the pre- TOS but post- DISCO Season 2 era? Short answer: Yes. But there’s a catch.

Harry Mudd will return. Or will he?

Harry Mudd’s timeline, explained

In Star Trek: The Original Seris , Harry Mudd appears in the episodes “Mudd’s Women” and “I, Mudd,” which occur, canonically, in 2266 and 2267. He then showed up in The Animated Series episode “Mudd’s Passion,” set in 2270. In Star Trek: Discovery Season 1, the crew encounters Mudd twice, in the episodes “Choose Your Pain,” and “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” both of which are set in 2257, about 10 years before Mudd appears in TOS . So far, so good.

Then, in the Short Treks episode “The Escape Artist,” Mudd is seen running around the galaxy, along with several android duplicates, presumably sometime in the late 2250s but before TOS .

So, in terms of the timeline, here’s how it shakes out:

• 2257-2258-ish: Mudd in Discovery and Short Treks
• 2258- 2264-ish: The events of Strange New Worlds
• 2265-2270: Mudd in The Original Series and The Animated Series

Essentially, yes, Mudd can appear in Strange New Worlds according to the timeline. The only issue is simple: If Spock hypothetically meets Harry Mudd in Strange New Worlds , this would recontextualize Spock’s familiarity with Mudd in TOS . But that’s where the fun begins.

Mudd and Burnham in Discovery Season 1

How Mudd can crash Strange New Worlds

So, how can Harry Mudd appear on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 without totally wrecking TOS canon? Well, the easy answer is that Spock is pretty good at keeping secrets. Michael Burnham was never mentioned in TOS , and she’s Spock’s human step-sister! If fans can accept that, they might be able to accept the fact that Spock kept an earlier meeting with Harry Mudd to himself.

But there are more fun ways to make this work, too. In Discovery , Mudd had some time crystals, which allowed him to put the DISCO crew into a time loop. So, if Mudd appears on Strange New Worlds , it’s possible he could again use some time travel shenanigans to make everyone forget he was there. In essence, Mudd could use time travel to erase Spock’s memory — because he did the exact same thing to most of the Discovery crew already.

So many Harry Mudd androids.

Barring time travel, though, Mudd could also return as one of his android duplicates. At the end of “The Escape Artist,” we saw a Starfleet ship burdened with a gaggle of Harry Mudd robot duplicates, each one believing he was the real Harry Mudd. In fact, the end of the episode (written by Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan ) really made you wonder which Mudd we’d encountered thus far. The “real” one? Or an android duplicate? In 2019, Rainn Wilson told Syfy :

“I think we’ve been seeing the real Harry Mudd throughout. We certainly see him at the end of this episode. [“The Escape Artist.”] But I think it would be fun to have future episodes where you don’t know if you’re seeing Mudd or a duplicate Mudd running around the universe. That would be really interesting.”

So, back in 2019, Rainn Wilson already came up with the perfect way for Mudd to return. If he does come back around to hassle Captain Pike and Spock, he might be a duplicate. And, if Harry Mudd androids are “running around the universe,” then Wilson’s hypothetical return wouldn’t need to be limited just to the SNW era. If Mudd has robot clones, whose to say some of them didn’t survive into the 24th century? Or the 32nd!

Sure, Mudd on Strange New Worlds would probably fit with the vibe of that show. But the place you’d least expect him would be in Picard Season 3 or Discovery Season 5! Nobody expects Mudd!

Who knows: maybe a Harry Mudd robot duplicate could end up working for Michelle Yeoh in Section 31 . When it comes to android duplicates and the Star Trek canon, the sky really is the limit.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is expected sometime in 2022.

This article was originally published on Aug. 24, 2021

• Science Fiction

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery - harry mudd's plan explained.

Star Trek: Discovery brings back Harry Mudd for a twisty, Groundhog Day-like episode. We explain the mad machinations of Harry Mudd.

Warning: contains SPOILERS for Episode 7 of Star Trek: Discovery !

Ain't no party like a Star Trek: Discovery party 'cause a Star Trek: Discovery party has time loops. It also has an uninvited guest: Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Rainn Wilson), the rouge charlatan who was last seen left behind in a Klingon prison ship in episode 5 'Choose Your Pain'. Harry Mudd didn't forget this slight by Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs), who left him for dead, and not only does he not forgive Lorca, Mudd concocted an ingenious scheme to exact his revenge. With Episode 7 'Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad', Star Trek: Discovery  succeeds in tackling the classic Trek trope of time travel.

Like the Enterprise has many times before (or rather, will many times to come), the Discovery finds itself caught in a causality time loop engineered by Mudd. Well-aware that the Discovery is the greatest weapon Starfleet has against the Klingons and is turning the tide of the war in the Federation's favor, Mudd cut a deal with the Klingons to steal the Discovery - and its revolutionary spore displacement drive - and sell it to the enemy empire. How he goes about his plot could make a man go mad, so we'll explain Mudd's machinations.

Related: Who Is Harry Mudd?

What started out with the crew of the Discovery having an epic party turned into an epic nightmare. The ship crossed paths with an injured gormagander, which is a kind of space whale that feeds on solar winds. After beaming it on board and detecting strange energy readings, an armored Harry Mudd marched out of the gormagander's mouth and began opening fire, killing several crew members. He then unmasked himself to a shocked Captain Lorca before the ship exploded. Then, like in Groundhog Day , everything reset back to the same party when everything strange began happening 30 minutes before. Soon, Lieutenant Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) reached Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and dropped his discovery on her: Harry Mudd had pulled the Discovery out of the time stream and trapped it in a time loop.

Stamets was able to figure out what was happening because he somehow exists outside of the time loop and is able to retain all of his memories after each reset. Since injecting himself with Tardigrade DNA - Tardigrades are multi-dimensional creatures - and continually interfacing with the Mycelial spore network, Stamets has tapped into unknown levels of space-time. Stamets' more upbeat personality is just one side effect; being immune to Mudd's time displacement is another. Stamets is able to convince Burnham of what's happening and she is subsequently able to enlist Lieutenant Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) after convincing him. Still, it took multiple tries to stop Mudd, just as Mudd took even more do-overs to get his scheme underway.

Related: Is Lieutenant Stamets From The Mirror Universe?

As Mudd tells it to Lorca in one of the time loops, he invaded Discovery over 53 times to learn how to take over the ship's many functions. However, Mudd couldn't figure out the missing component that makes the spore displacement drive work - which is Stamets himself. Mudd's ire was reserved for Lorca, however, whom he despises for leaving him behind on that Klingon bird-of-prey. In an amusing montage, Mudd revealed he murdered Lorca multiple times in various ways. Mudd also accessed Lorca's private arsenal of weapons, finding dark matter spheres he used as weapons to kill Tyler (and Burnham later used to kill herself at one point to force time to reset).

How Mudd was able to perform his time travel magic was revealed when Burnham realized Mudd wore a time crystal on his wrist and hid a larger time crystal inside his ship, which he then hid inside the gormagander. (It's unknown whether Mudd's time crystal is similar to the Bajoran Orb of Time seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .) Tyler later offered the intel that Mudd once shared when they were cell mates in the Klingon prison: Mudd bragged about once using similar technology to break into a Betazoid bank. With his time loop crystal, Mudd was able to remove Discovery from the time stream, but only for 30 minutes at a time. After 30 minutes, Discovery would explode, but the time loop would reset, allowing Mudd (who retains all his memories) to start all over again and keep trying new things until he learned everything he needed to learn - which included taking over all of Discovery's computer functions and installing himself as Captain Harry Mudd.

Related: Discovery's Klingon Connection to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Mudd, however, couldn't have known that Stamets could also retain his memories and confided in Burnham. Burnham's plan to stop Mudd involved adding herself to Mudd's deal with the Klingons; as the person who killed T'Kuvma, the Klingon Messiah, the empire would want her head and would pay as much if not more for her than they would for the Discovery. Unable to say no to doubling his profits, Mudd agreed, but Burnham killed herself. This forced Mudd to continue with rather than end the time loops after he'd captured all of the Discovery, including the secret that Stamets was the missing component of the spore drive. But Burnham was simply buying time, not just to clue in Lorca and the rest of the crew on Mudd's plan, but to access the computer's records and learn vital information about Mudd.

It turns out Mudd has been on the run from his "beloved" wife Stella Grimes and her billionaire robber-baron father after skipping out on their marriage. Once they turned the tables on Mudd, they revealed they made contact with the Grimes and that they, not the Klingons, were the comes coming to meet Discovery once Mudd restored the ship back to the normal timeline. Burnham and the crew captured Mudd and turned him over to his in-laws, which seems like a slap on the wrist compared to the murder and mayhem Mudd achieved, even if it turned out not to be permanent.

While an engaging, mind-bending time travel adventure very much in keeping with classic Star Trek , the episode's biggest flaw lies in its depiction of the Klingons themselves. Though the Klingons remained entirely off-screen, Discovery 's conceit that this proud and deadly warrior race would be open to - and have the financial means for - a wild scheme with a human con man to buy Starfleet's most advanced starship and the technology it contains is a tough pill to swallow for Star Trek fans. This plot is more like something the Ferengi would attempt rather than the Klingons. However, Rainn Wilson's malevolent version of Harry Mudd successfully elevated himself from a humorous antagonist to a first-rate Star Trek villain, with a lust for vengeance against a Starfleet Captain would rival even Khan (Ricardo Montalban) himself. Here's hoping Mudd's next return to Discovery  is just as rollicking a good time.

NEXT: STAR TREK: DISCOVERY: IS LIEUTENANT TYLER A KLINGON SPY?

Star Trek: Discovery streams Sundays @ 8:30pm on CBS All Access, on Space in Canada, and on Netflix internationally.

Giant Freakin Robot

Star Trek's Most Underrated Show Almost Lost Its Best Character

Posted: April 24, 2024 | Last updated: April 24, 2024

Star Trek’s Most Underrated Show Almost Lost Its Best Character

Captain Kirk’s fight against the Gorn in The Original Series episode “Arena” transformed that alien into Star Trek’s most recognizable creature, which is why it’s so surprising we didn’t get any other major Gorn storylines until Strange New Worlds. As it turns out, there were plans among the Enterprise writers to make the Gorn more of a going concern by making them the villains in the episode that became “The Andorian Incident.” That might sound cool, but here’s the thing: if the writers had gone with this idea, we would likely have never gotten the fan-favorite Andorian character Shran.

The Andorian Incident Almost Looked Very Different

To help you understand why it would have been so bad if Enterprise replaced the Andorians with the Gorn in this episode, we need to revisit what “The Andorian Incident” was all about. The ep (which was directed by Star Trek: Voyager legend Roxann Dawson) featured the Enterprise crew visiting a Vulcan monastery, but Andorians led by Commander Shran quickly captured an away team. The Andorians are suspicious that the Vulcans are using this monastery to spy on their interstellar neighbor, and in an incredible plot twist, it turns out the Vulcans really are spying on the Andorians with a high-tech sensor array.

Since he is a man of honor, Archer (after getting dramatically rescued by his crew) lets Shran go with firm evidence of the Vulcan espionage. Shran, also a man of honor, tells Archer that he is now in the Starfleet captain’s debt. He soon pays that debt back in “The Shadows of P’Jem” by rescuing Archer, kicking off a bromance between the two characters that would last through the very end of the show.

Jeffrey Combs Greatest Star Trek Character

Had the Enterprise writers made the Gorn the villains of “The Andorian Incident” instead of the titular blue meanies, we might never have been introduced to Commander Shran. That would have done more than robbed us of a few cool stories; it would also have kept us from getting a Jeffrey Combs performance that many fans believe is his very best in the franchise. Fortunately, the Enterprise writers quickly gave up on the idea of using the Gorn for a hilariously simple reason.

Going back to their first appearance, the Gorn didn’t speak, at least not in any way that Starfleet could understand. That’s part of why Kirk had to go toe-to-claw with a Gorn captain so viciously in “Arena:” he really did try some Picard-style diplomacy with the creature, and they only began fighting because there was no real way to communicate. 

Considering how much the plot of the Enterprise episode “The Andorian Incident” relied on communication between Archer and Shran, the writers of the episode ditched the idea of using the Gorn because there was no canonical way for Archer (who had much less knowledge and much more primitive technology than Kirk) to talk to this alien creature. Another compelling reason they didn’t use the Gorn is because “Arena” makes it clear Kirk is the first officer to encounter one of these reptilian villains. Strange New Worlds would retcon this in a big way in “Memento Mori” while also revealing the Gorn do communicate, at least ship-to-ship, via light signals.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Use The Gorn Correctly

As a fan of both Enterprise and Strange New Worlds, I have mixed feelings about the abandoned idea of replacing the Gorn with the Andorians. Part of me wouldn’t trade Jeffrey Combs’ Shran character for the world, but part of me would love to have seen Captain Archer and crew fighting off some SNW-style Gorn. Still, these scaly scumbags eventually got their day in the sun by becoming the Big Bads of Strange New Worlds. 

It ultimately took over two decades since “The Andorian Incident” for the franchise to really focus on the Gorn again. As Enterprise fans might say, it’s been a long road, getting from there to here, for Star Trek’s most iconic alien.

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The Stella was a small 23rd century Federation Class J cargo ship that was in the possession of Harcourt Fenton Mudd in 2266 . Although officially designated as a cargo ship , Mudd was using it as a personnel transport .

On stardate 1329.1, Mudd was attempting to use this ship to transport three women who planned to become settlers' wives on Ophiucus III when it was detected by the USS Enterprise .

As it was "unregistered" and "unidentified", Mudd's ship was hotly pursued by the Starfleet vessel . While attempting to escape the Enterprise , Mudd burned his ship's engines out, leaving the vessel powerless and adrift in an asteroid belt . Although Mudd and his " cargo " of three women were transported to safety by the Enterprise , his ship was destroyed after it impacted with an asteroid moments later.

According to Mudd, the former commander of this vessel was Leo Francis Walsh , who died prior to the mission , necessitating Mudd's assumption of command. ( TOS : " Mudd's Women ")

Background information [ ]

The ship as it originally appeared

In the final draft script of "Mudd's Women", this ship was referred to as " Earth vessel composition. About the size of the old Class 'J' cargo ships, " rather than actually being a class J cargo ship itself.

In the original version of "Mudd's Women", a simple gold-colored ovoid shape was used to represent Mudd's ship until it pulsated and exploded. More indistinct optical elements were used for the final shots of the ship. During the 2008 remastering of the episode, Visual Effects Producer Michael Okuda made use of the opportunity to retcon a new CG ship into the episode. He took great care to keep its on-screen appearance barely discernible and distant in order to maintain the "feel" of the original visual effects.

Michael Okuda named the ship " Stella ", an ironic and humorous echo of Harry Mudd's caustic comments about his estranged wife in " I, Mudd ". Had the ship been seen more clearly on screen, Okuda would have labeled the production-used CG model with this name. [1]

For further information on the model, see class J starship studio model .