38. I, MuddFORMULA: Mudd's Women + What Are Little Girls Made Of + The Return of the Archons
WHY WE LIKE IT: Good use of both twins and split screens, and the classic logic-puzzle ending.
WHY WE DON'T: It's basically a fluff piece.
REVIEW: It looked like the actors had a lot of fun doing this episode, possibly even improvising some of the weird shennanigans they have the androids witness, and that fun generally reaches us as well. It is kind of a weird idea to bring absurdist theater into Trek, but the basis for it makes sense within the context of the story (even if you have to suspend disbelief when the androids are stopped dead by a simple paradox). Some of it does veer into pantomime, but for the most part, it yields some memorable bits (Scotty's death, for example, I love those phaser sounds).
Harry Mudd is much more tolerable than I expected him to be, as this is not a character I would have chosen to one day return. Some over-acting still, but on the whole, he's more sympathetic because he shares the crew's dilemma. Kirk gets to show off a sense of humor and once again, his capacity to befuddle thinking machines. McCoy, Scotty and Spock are all up to par (it's always fun to see the Vulcan do illogical things). Uhura's bit is a nice feint, but Chekov is less interesting, basically relegated to dropping Russian references in.
The androids work well thanks to the judicious use of twins in addition to split screens. I quite admire the staging when it comes to keeping up that illusion. I do find their halting speech annoying however, especially Norman's. On that basis alone, he should have been detected aboard the Enterprise. It's not like the Stella robot had that problem.
Speaking of which, that final punishment for Mudd is a fun moment, but you see it coming as soon as he shows us Stella for a second time. That sort of padding is especially irritating when you consider that the episode ends pat with Kirk basically explaining that the androids are just gonna let them go. It's all too easy. Similarly, we'll never know how Norman ever got assigned to the Enterprise in the first place. Maybe a pantomime song and dance could have been sacrificed to bring us these scenes.
LESSON: No matter how cute she is, you can get tired of any girl. (For a female perspective, replace "girl" with "boy", and "cute" with "funny".)
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Kind of like a bag of chips - it tastes good, but it's not very nutritious.
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