Clear as Mudd

I'm challenging myself.

I must be because why the hell would I want to write something about one of the characters that infuriates me the most with Star Trek?

An individual that I hold with the same distain as Vedek Bareil, Lwaxana Troi and Voyager's character assassination of Q?

Because Harcourt Fenton Mudd is where it all started for me. Now I can stand a decent Star Trek comedy episode and who can't stomach The Trouble with Tribbles just once more? But there's a time and place in which Star Trek's more light-hearted moments work but in relation to Harry Mudd it couldn't be further from the truth.

Not content with him being inflicted on us the once with Mudd's Women, we were subjected to I, Mudd the following season and then again with the Animated Series' Mudd's Passion. Jesus H Christ could we not be spared from this?

I have no beef at all with the actor Roger C Carmel who took control of the character for all his live action and animated outings in the '60's and '70's but the stories were awful and are some of the most cringe-inducing works of Star Trek ever. People might complain about the Kelvin Timeline or how Discovery will kill Star Trek but they seem to forget the original take on the character and I for one still find them episodes I would willingly skip.

For some unknown reason when it comes to characters with some form of Irish connection as is hinted at with Mudd's accent, the writing staff seem to chuck all reason out of the nearest window and horribly dumb down our neighbours. I refer you to Up the Long Ladder and the even more disgraceful Fair Haven and all matters relating to them. 

So to Mudd and the idea behind him seems to be fairly sound however he comes across as a bumbling idiot that somehow has the mind of master criminal or a wheeler-dealer dependent on the scene and the situation. 

My problem with The Original Series is that aside from the magnificent The Trouble with Tribbles I find the comedy aspect of the show to be lost on me by a fair margin. It just ain’t - nor was it ever - funny. I find that in most respects Star Trek as a franchise falls flat when it comes to comedic scripting because the writers are so focused on a more serious and relevant story that stays true to their characters (I do reserve a special place for The Magnificent Ferengi).

Carmel's Mudd makes Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise look dumb. His methods are pantomime, his reasoning lax and his expectations high for such questionable actions. In Mudd's Women the use of the Venus drug (and later the placebo version) covers up a bad deal that he hoped would stay concealed until well after the deal is done. He also travels by an alias that the Enterprise computer repeatedly sees as false under questioning. It's all a bit bumbling but even then, the twist around the looks of Mudd's women is suitably dark even if the rest of the story is lighter-hearted. Hell, could it get any more obvious than beauty being only skin deep?

Now step forward to 2017 and we have a new Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Thing is, this one in no way pisses me off. In fact it's a new dawn for the character and one that makes him more realistic and believable than that of Carmel.

Appearing first in Choose Your Pain this is a younger, less Irish stereotype and seemingly more calculating Mudd. While the older Carmel Mudd involves himself in tomfoolery and frivolous activity this version, this earlier version, is more devious, more controlled in some respects although that mischievous air still exists. Watch for example his "relationship" withe the bug, Stuart or his blatant disregard for the welfare of anyone but himself when it comes to choosing his pain.

Harry in I, Mudd was equally selfish seeking to replace himself on the android planet with the crew of the Enterprise and make good his escape but his over confidence there as with later during the repeated timeloops of Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad is his downfall as the crews of the Enterprise and laterly (or earlier?!) use his own methods and tools against him to bring about his comeuppance. 

Rainn Wilson offers some of the ham that made up the bulk of Roger C Carmel's portrayal but makes his version that much more layered. While he's still not bothered about doing the right thing by anyone other than himself and his own skin, Wilson's Mudd seems to have more to lose and is striking deals anywhere to save his own skin. His older self however seems to play it a little closer to the edge with perhaps less certain results. 

Carmel was suitable for the time and just as Discovery has "grown up" for 2017 so has the character of Harcourt Fenton Mudd. I did think it was an odd choice to bring into the latest iteration of the franchise but bizarrely Kurtzman, Sullivan and co have made it work and work in the finest of ways because you can buy into the real tragedy of the character especially when you see the conclusion of his second Discovery appearance. Carmel offered a charismatic rogue but without the darkness and hint of malice that you can see in Wilson's take. The latter will give up anything for his own survival and preservation but perhaps 

In both cases from Choose Your Pain and Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad it feels that nothing can go wrong for the trader. How could he possibly come out as the loser when he has the apparent backing/ear of the Klingons either as his captors or as his potential buyer for the Discovery?

He is also a lot more driven and vengeful than in his later, The Original Series years with a desire to defeat and destroy Lorca for leaving him to rot in the Klingon jail cell. His encounters with Kirk may be less angered because of age and wisdom but it feels as though he underestimates Kirk while at the same time being portrayed as less intelligent than the revamped Discovery version who is able to deceive and take down a Crossfield Class starship by learning and re-learning more about the craft during multiple timeloops.

Wilson's Mudd is more calculating, devious and self-obsessed/dependant than his older self and unless there's some massive revelation coming in season 1.5 or 2 I can't see how these two can be reconciled as the same character.

The Wilson Mudd fits the darker tones of Discovery perfectly and I have to now admit that the ending of Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad and the reintroduction of Stella is a stroke of genius. In I, Mudd the character was verging on unbelievable even if it was an android recreation that Harry had most likely accentuated all of her character traits. Katherine Barrell is nothing like her older mechanical interpretation, besotted with the rogue trader but yet seeming to have a hold on him that frightens Harry to his very core. Is her demeanour here a show? Probably is and it also echoes a trait of Mudd's from his The Original Series in that his outward persona is about 95% bravado hiding a deeply insecure core once he is without control of a situation.

In fact, watch back on all four occasions we have encountered Mudd in live action Star Trek and once the situation is diffused he seems to lose the plot and become subservient or out of personal control. In this way it's nice that there are at least some parallels between the two interpretations of the character almost 50 years apart.

In Discovery, Mudd has become much less the one dimensional comic villain and more a fragment that contributes to the whole of the ongoing Klingon arc. His role will probably be explained more in the next half of the first season but already we have a character who does not seem to have been fully opened up. His skills in these "earlier" years are apparently much more impressive than those during his two head-to-heads with Kirk and the Enterprise and I think it suggests that Mudd is a certifiable genius who has just chosen the wrong path. After all he can communicate with bugs, has a clear photographic memory allowing him to continually absorb more information as he learns how to operate Discovery and is a clever negotiator since he managed to be freed from a Klingon prison; in no way do I think he escaped just because of the difficulty encountered by Lorca and Tyler when they made their attempt.

Will Discovery explore some of the elements listed on his file as shown (above) in Mudd's Women? Certainly that psychiatric treatment intrigues but was it before or after what we have seen in the latest series? 

Rainn Wilson is, for me, the stronger version of the Mudd character in Star Trek. It feels more developed and so it should. Back in the 1960's this was a one-off villain of the week but now in 2017/18 he's a fully fleshed out part of something bigger and those pink flannel shirts just won't cut it....

Star Trek Discovery returns in 2018 - read our full series of episode reviews right here to bring yourself up to date.

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Screen Shy: The Official Starships Collection Issues 78 and 79

Now here's a thing.   

For the first time in the collection we actually have two ships that never actually appeared (properly) in any Star Trek series. Why? Because technically we only ever saw the underbelly of the USS Voyager Aeroshuttle docked on the Intrepid Class starship and secondly because the Harry Mudd starship, the Stella, was one of those classic far-distant glowing blob ships that The Original Series excelled at including. 

As with the Antares, it would only become a recognisable shape when it came to remastering those 1960's stories.  The Aeroshuttle is a biggie to be sure in the realms of the Starships Collection. Long rumoured to have existed and as rare as some of those damn Pokemon everyone is obsessed with finding at the moment, collectors have been clamouring for its inclusion in the series since the docking process was highlighted in issue six oh so many moons ago. Funnily I couldn't help but make a parallel that we've now had two "docking" vessels in very close succession with the Enterprise-E Captain's Yacht only three issues ago. Those in the UK might understand this as "London Bus Syndrome". You wait years for one to come along and then two do in a short period of time.

For something that was never used and was actually a side hobby project for Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz and Rob Bonchune, the result is quite eye catching. The only bit we've ever actually seen is that flat and very plain underbelly which here is just as flat and plain as you would expect. The only real features to note are the raised landing gear which sits proud of the hull and the mothership registry simply decalled at the rear and nose tip. While you might wish for something a bit more wow, there really isn't any reason for it and the underside merely presents the functionality required for when it's not locked into the primary hull of Voyager.   

Flipping her over there's a lot more to take in in the metal topside. Every surface has some form of raised or sunk panel right across the surface. She is incredibly slim from all angles with a distinct blocky and very recognisably Runabout-cloned central pod latched between the two angular wings. Your eye is immediately pulled towards the golden warp core at the centre with its dark grey surround contrasting to the Starfleet standard light grey that covers 90% of the hull. As with the smaller ships we've seen before the cockpit windows are blacked out and again, distinctly Runabout in their shape (because they could use the sets for the interiors and save some cash). To the rear there are also four windows which parallel the lounge windows on the once-seen rear section of the Deep Space Nine workhorses. 

Along both sides of the ship we have the Starfleet pennant streaking towards the rear bearing the USS Voyager moniker since the Aeroshuttles were never given individual registries or names unlike their Runabout cousins. The pennants also appear on the warp engine pods embedded into the atmospheric wings but here's one thing that bugs me and repeats all over the magazine too - the Starfleet delta symbol is, from the top, the wrong way round. I would understand if these were angled and mirrored left and right but they are both the same way round and it's annoying as hell. However, look at every other pic and you'll see they are all the same. Every. Single. One.  On the positive side though, the warp engines do have translucent red bussard collectors split centrally and blue vents again deep inside the housings. 

The overall grey tone does tend to wash out features on these Starfleet vessels and here is no exception. You can make them out but the paint job does seem heavy in a few patches. The alignment of the windows and the decals is perfect as is the colouring around that golden warp core. The orange thrusters and phaser ports do break up that monotone colouring and are well defined and precisely applied. Some of the smaller paint features such as those black triangles in the side pods attached to the hull by the war engines are missing but that's going to be a hard one to apply in such a tiny gap. Nor do we have the darker colouring around the very edge of the ship as per the magazine pictures but given that's the join line I guess it was another sacrifice needed to be taken.

Only the impulse engines to the rear of the warp engine pods have a teeny tiny misalignment on the painting but it's so minor it barely classes. However, after those annoying deltas, you start seeing all the "cracks" so to speak. As for the build quality though, it's a good clean slot together and clearly just two pieces with the metal top and plastic flat base.

Given the scale, Eaglemoss have done a splendid job of finishing the Aeroshuttle. The paint work is 99% perfect and it is a faithful reproduction of the CG imagining from Lebowitz and Bonchune even down to those damn deltas. I think fans will be very excited to get hold of this rarity even if, technically, she never actually appeared in the show.

To the pages of the accompanying tome now and we get a decent level of information for the Ship Profile section from its design history through testing, its abilities and a full breakdown of its expected lifetime and defences to boot. As we never saw it, all this is fascinating to read and makes this one of the most invaluable resources to date in the series because of how little this craft was actually seen.

The Designing and Building the Aeroshuttle section reveals how it was originally designed by Rick Sternbach before Adam Lebowitz and Rob Bonchune from Foundation Imaging had a pop at her in their spare time. A good read but you do find yourself questioning why this wasn't used instead of building not one but two Delta Flyer's...(but the final On Screen section in her does answer that to a degree!)

Finally and keeping with the Voyager theme we get to walk the set designs with Richard James including a load of pics I've personally never seen and give impressions of the series that could have been. Some great notes in here how bits of other starships made their way into the production, some of the changes that were made and how sets were made to mirror the exterior of Voyager because of its much smaller size than the Galaxy Class Enterprise-D. Together this magazine and model make a good solid package and definitely one I would recommend for all collectors. The unusual and not-often seen nature of the ship will probably be enough for most to head to their local newsagents!

Aaaaaand to Stella. Hmmm.

Ok so this was an addition to the remastered Mudd's Women and by that fact alone it places it at a disadvantage with myself. It's one of those episodes that I could happily not watch again and wouldn't miss it and in some ways, this design carries my feelings towards that story more than adequately.

Plain and simple, it's a lump, an 18 metre long blob. There's nothing flashy here, it's a grey slug-like lump with warp engines. I could just end the review there but I do owe it to anyone reading to give you some more information. Old even by the time of The Original Series, the Class-J ship is an oddment in every possible way.

The surface is in keeping with the classic style of the 60's but given a bit of life with a distinctive metallic two tone aztec paint job that covers every surface from the nose to the rear of the nacelles (but not the inside edge of the lower pylon sections). It needs this finish purely because of the basic nature of the craft with only a slim amount of features breaking up the monotony. There's a distinct lip around the centre edge of the hull marked in blue which co-ordinates against the translucent sensor dome on the top and the blue domes to the front and rear of the stubby warp engines. 

A nice feature are the twin deflector dishes lodged at the corners of the angled pylons. A dulled bronze, they do up the "classic" nature of the ship. To the rear there's one heck of a big, blocky impulse engine that looks like it has some serious kick with all those exhaust ports. On the underside there appears to be a cargo hatch or landing ramp of some form but that's it. 

OK, I'm being a little over-harsh with the Stella - which does have its name emblazoned on the sides of the hull - because the pictures we saw in preview are not as good as the finished article. That was a much darker colour scheme while this model has a much clearer and sketchy metal coating. Do I like it? It's unusual, 100% unique and never to be repeated but I think there will only be a fraction of the collector audience who will be heading out to the shops to snap this one up.

Issue 79 recounts the opening third of Mudd's Women plus it provides some details on the specs of the Class-J starship as seen in the remastered version of the episode. The new CG images of the Stella are really good and while it is one of the most simplistic craft yet, you have to admire the look that has been achieved here. The magazine also covers further references to the Class-J in The Menagerie plus Operation: Annihilate! and The Way to Eden. Note as well that the ship in the episode - the screen-used CG - was not actually labelled as the Stella because it was so small on the Enterprise viewer.

The Designing Mudd's Starship two-pager does explain a lot more about the craft. It actually makes it more understandable as to why the ship looks like it does and the homage it pays to not only the original "screen blob" but also to the legendary Matt Jefferies and his unused shuttle sketches.

The third section in the issue covers Women of Star Trek and takes a different take on the usual magazine article. Blocked by episode, we are given brief background information on both the female guest characters from 17 classic episodes as well as some details on their activites outside Star Trek since their appearances. Fans won't be surprised that Andrea from What Are Little Girls Made of?, Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas from Who Mourns for Adonais? and Vina from The Cage are among those featured in this section. It's something a bit out of the ordinary for the collection and makes for a very interesting read and does cover material that many fans may not know outside of the franchise bubble.

The On Screen moment is fairly obviously Mudd's Women to end the magazine and we also get the preview of next time's Federation Scout Ship from Insurrection.

The Aeroshuttle is the unquestionable "winner" this month, offering the greater detail and aesthetic however the Class-J starship is not without its merits. It is a simple design, a plain craft but it is one that effectively homages a past era and keeps in line with what was originally seen in the episode back in 1966. Sometimes going back to basics can work very well although I'm not certain if this makes that cut.

How did the new ships go down with you? Is the Class-J growing on you?

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