{"id":3979,"date":"2013-06-27T06:12:54","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T06:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/16-Mudds-Women"},"modified":"2013-06-27T06:12:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T06:12:54","slug":"16-mudds-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2013\/06\/27\/16-mudds-women\/","title":{"rendered":"1.6 &#8212; \u201cMudd\u2019s Women\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        \n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>1.6 &#8212; \u201cMudd\u2019s Women\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best scene, I think, is the opening teaser, in which Kirk shows what kind of leader he is by making the hard choice, against the advice of his officers, to risk the ship to attempt the rescue of strangers. Then, because no good deed goes unpunished, we have to watch the rest of the episode.\u00a0Do you think the <em>Enterprise<\/em> should maybe pack some spare lithium crystals for the next time this happens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not that there isn\u2019t anything interesting going on. From a lawyer\u2019s perspective, the summary trial on board the ship is interesting. I\u2019m impressed that the Federation claims to have jurisdiction to prevent a person from flying a spaceship without a flight plan or master\u2019s license in the far reaches of space. Quite a few points make you think about how vulnerable not just the ship, but the mores of society are, on the frontiers of the galaxy. Normal rules necessarily bend to the exigencies of survival. I found myself wondering at what point Kirk&#8217;s negotiations with the miners on Rigel 12 would turn to violence. Surely refusing to provision a distressed starship bearing over 400 souls is a worse breach of conduct than anything Mudd is accused of doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trafficking willing women to provide wives for colonists is also understandable in light of population pressures, and certainly has ample historical precedent, as I&#8217;ve learned watching HBO&#8217;s <em>Deadwood<\/em> (although in the 23rd century it should be women and men).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, excited as I would be to see detailed recreations of the costumes of Mudd and his entourage at the next Norwescon, the character of Harry Mudd doesn&#8217;t do anything for me. His archetype is one we don\u2019t see much anymore, one that doesn&#8217;t really work in 21st century America, where vagabonds can be so easily tracked and we&#8217;ve lost our sense of humor about criminality. It is a lifestyle that could flourish again, however, in a frontier culture, the kind we might have again if humans spread out to the stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My favorite aspect of the episode is the focus on moral decision-making and Kirk&#8217;s resolution in the face of tough decisions and temptations. We see how important this to him, even at the risk of his ship. It is the <em>sine qua non<\/em> of his character. The weaknesses, there are many. No crew deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mudd%27s_Women\" class=\"embedly-card\" data-card-recommend=\"0\" data-card-width=\"100%\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mudd%27s_Women<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/platform.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n      ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>        1.6 &#8212; \u201cMudd\u2019s Women\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-3979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek-relive-the-majesty-tos-episode-threads","tag-kevin-black"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}