No additional nits?

Maybe all that feminine pulchritude fogged up everyone's nitting.

That having been said, probably everyone will jump on this episode and nitpick it to death just to prove me wrong.

Go get 'em!

Here's a possible nit in the episode. Checkov mentions someting about Leningrad. A few years ago, Leningrad became St. Petersburg.

(Note: This may not be a nit because Leningrad was mentioned in other eps. including "I, Mudd", "The Trouble with Tribbles", Star Trek IV, and possibly "Trials and Tribble-ations.")

This is a pretty common mistake, not just at NitCentral, but his name`s CHEKOV, not CHECKOV.

Just how did Norman leave the planet Mudd to get to the Enterprise anyway? Were there spaceships left over from the days of the creators? Did they repair Mudd's vessel? Why did Mudd tell them to hijack a Starship instead of some other less attention grabbing vessel?

Just because the crew can't do anything about navigation, why don't they send a message to Starfleet?

Was it just me or did Kirk seem overly familiar with Mudd? They almost acted like friends instead of two people who only met once before.

Mudd never did explain how he got out of prison for the events of Mudd's Women. He explained the Technology Exchange which got him in trouble on Deneb V, but I don't see how that could get him out of prison.
(Or was the explanation lost when the show was edited for syndication?)

Mudd is flying away from Deneb V, his ship is damaged and flies into unmapped space. Does this mean that Mudd has been farther than the crew of the Enterprise D, since they only went as far as Deneb IV?
(Farther under their own power anyway.)

Boy that Andromeda Galaxy is nothing but trouble. The androids' creators came from there and later the Kelvins will come from there.

Whenever the androids don't want to or can't answer a question they say, "We are programmed not to respond in that area." However, isn't that statement a response?

How would immobilizing the androids get the ship back? Earlier Kirk was upset that there was no one aboard the Enterprise because then there would be no way to get back. (Sounds like a design flaw to me. The engineers should have created some kind of remote control for the shuttle bay doors and possibly the transporter.) However, when Kirk and company succeed in deactivating the androids, wouldn't they have the same problem? The androids on the ship should be just as disabled as the rest of the androids on the planet. If Kirk and company couldn't find a way of reactivating the androids under their control, then Kirk and company would be stuck on that planet.

Keith, some anti-nits for you.

Kirk's familiarity with Mudd--Harry Mudd is one of those people you're instantly familiar with, like Sir John Falstaff. He has a larger than life personality.

"Not to respond"--semantically, yes, it is a response. Just not a very useful one.

Immobilization--as you can see in the last scene, the androids have been reactivated and the crew is leaving. Therefore, the androids must now be following the crew's orders. I would assume that the crew asked the androids to beam them back up to the ship.

Yes, but they didn't know for certain that they could reactivate the androids when they decided to do it.

Look, they had Scotty with them. I sure he could, McGyver-like, build them a transporter remote control out of some parts laying around the planet. Also, Mudd had a ship at one point. They could just fly it up to the Enterprise and board from there.

In other words, getting back to the ship was the crew's last worry. Getting the androids under control was job one. Without stopping the androids, they never leave the planet. Once the androids are stopped, they can worry about Step Two, getting back to the ship.

Fine... whatever... I no longer care

Have you noticed that when underlined the title looks like !, Mudd?

So they say they can`t respond, but that`s a response, which they shouldn`t be able to make because they say they can`t respond, by saying that, which means.... Illogical! Illogical! Norman- coordinate!

All 500 'Johnny Veitch's are down and ready to be reprogrammed, Captain.

No need! Never liked Harry Mudd anyway. Don`t program me to serve Kirk!!!!!

Boy, Kirk really likes to make himself, judge, jury, and executioner. As in "Space Seed", Kirk seems to demonstrate that starfleet captains are permitted to maroon whoever they like wherever they like.

In Ss McCoy pointed out that Kirk had the authority. Besides, he really was giving Khan a choice. Here, I got the impression he'd already been in touch with Starfleet b the end.

By the way, when I said I didn`t like Harry Mudd I didn`t mean I hated his character. I just wouldn`t like to spend all his lifetime on a planet with him!

When Kirk calls Engineering, Scott is thrown aside by Norman, and he runs round a console and holds on. Then we have a closeup showing him hunched over the console. Then we have another wide shot and he`s back to the position he was in the first place.

Norman's stunt double during the engineering scenes doesn't look much like him. In fact, he looks more like Matthews from "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". (They are both Vince Deadrick.)

Does anyone know the cause of death for Roger C. Carmel? I had heard he overdosed on cocaine. Please tell me this is not true!

According to the Internet Movie Database amd What-a-Character!, Carmel took an intentional overdose of asprin to kill himself in 1986. I have heard other stories, however.

I've seen him credited for a DuckTales episode from 1987. Very strange...

Maybe it`s a different one? Was he doing a voice? If so, of whom?

It was dubbed in Swedish, so I couldn't hear his voice. But I'm pretty sure he did the voice of a genie in a bottle. The genie kind of looked like Carmel too.

Who knows, I may have the episode somewhere or other... but I don`t remember a genie in a bottle in any although it has been a few years...

Christer: For animated projects studios usually record the voices first, then do the animation afterwards. So actor's voices can 'appear' in an animated project years after they died.

GREAT MOMENT: One of the female androids crush Kirk's communicator with her bare hand! (one hand, mind you)

FUNNY INNOTATION: Mudd refers to the "Free Enterprise System"....after he just got the Starship in planetary orbit.

Chekov is the only person to get the whole thing right...he sits on a throne, drinks wine, and has 2 beautiful female androids standing on both sides.

Chekov's Russian dance looks genuine. KUDOS!

NOTE: This is the only episode in which Spock's nerve pinch doesn't work!

This episode was cute. It looks like the cast had a blast filming it.

I believe Spock's nerve pinch didn't work in "Assignment Earth" either.

RUMINATION: This episode marks Uhura's infatuation with her vanity & wanting to be 'forever young'...it is revisited in "And The Children Shall Lead"

John, in this ep, it may not be a real vanity, it was part of the anti-Norman plan.

True, but that was later in the episode...however Uhura seemed to be really interested after the android told her how long the android body lasts earlier in the episode.

Harry Mudd is missing the earring he had in "Mudd's Women"

There is someone standing just outside the big door when the landing party materializes...you can see their feet sticking out behind the jamb.

Uhura & Chekov are missing in two scenes...when McCoy drugs Mudd & the fake explosive sequence.

ANTI-NIT: In his book, Phil mentioned that the end credits listed Alice #1-250 & Alice #251-500 but near the end of the show #'s 3 & 11 are standing side by side.....I believe what the end credits MEANT was this: Alice # 1 THROUGH 250 & Alice 251 THROUGH 500 played by Alyce & Rhae Andrece...which explains why Alice 3 & 11 were standing side by side at the end...the actresses portraying the different Alice androids just kept changing badges throughout the entire show.

After thinking it over, the Chief was right...Alyce Andrece played 1 thru 250 while Rhae played 251-500...so having 3 & 11 standing side by side was a nit after all. D'oh!

It really looks like Kirk is having a good time on Harry's "throne"...he pushes the button and beautiful babes show up.

The opticals for the multiple Alices was done perfectly...KUDOS!

I must note that Stella is ambidextrous...one time she points at Harry with her left hand, the other time with her right.

NIT: At one point, Spock says to an Alice droid, "I love you" and to the other, "But I hate you"...ummmmmm...aren't "LOVE" and "Hate" emotions, Mr. Spock?

He didn't really love/hate them. He was merely trying to confuse them.

But he has confused John.

Uh, oh.

It looks like smoke is coming out of John's ears.

Maybe John should ask Norman to help him coordinate? (Just kidding John)

Thanks for the laughs ...however, a better way to confuse the droids is keep the love/hate message and have an android say, "Aren't you a Vulcan, Mr. Spock? How can you love/hate us?" Then the lights start flashing then they conk out.

Apparently Spock wasn't listening too well to Norman on the Bridge...Norman stated that "I cannot be overcome by physical means"...so what does Spock do? He tries the Vulcan Nerve Pinch ™ on one of the Alices later in the show.

Were there any opticals used to duplicate the androids, or was it all done with the twins and the doubles-seen-only-from-the-back trick?

Absolutely.....look carefully at the scene in which Harry is sitting on the throne and summoning the beauties from his left and then from his right...the opticals of the babes on the right is the same footage from when the babes that showed up on the left. It's beautiful! KUDOS!

Another example of this is "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" when the android Kirk is sitting next to the real Kirk.

Several plot holes underlie this one. Mudd must have had a ship to reach the planet.. did it crash? In which case, how did Norman get off the planet? And how did he then get posted by starfleet to the Enterprise... has Mudd waited the years it would take Norman to pass through the accademy? (He's wearing a striped sleeve, so he has rank too.) Or does he have some way of fooling the Starfleet database into believing he's a bona fide member of the personnel? And how did the rest of the androids cope for so long without him while he's on the Enterprise, if he's their central control?... couldn't Mudd have run amok in Norman's abscence? And finally, given the wonderful research lab and technical centre they have, couldn't the androids just have built themselves a ship?

And if this is their first contact with humans... what's in their library? The collected history and literature of the next galaxy.... I sure hope Kirk remembered to download a copy before he left!

One more thing, was I the only one who thought Spock sounded unusually bad tempered with McCoy in the teaser? - not so much affectionate banter as outright insult. Perhaps he needs to beat the living daylights out of Kirk again to restore his temper.

What happened to Sulu after "everyone" is beamed down? Why didn't TPTB show what Sulu's "desire" was?

Hey, I wouldn't have any problem with living in a galaxy ruled by these androids, as long as they gave me a couple of those "Alices" subject to my personal whims . . .

John, it probably involved swords and damsels in distress

BTW---I'm waiting for my order regarding Marina Sirtis models 1-500

And we know what they'll all be programmed to say.

I've been working on some fanfic to explain some of this.

How did Norman get off the planet?
They repaired Mudd's ship, and Norman went to the nearest starbase.

Why grab the Enterprise?
He was ordered to impersonate the first starship crewman he saw, who happened to be an Enterprise crewman on leave. Mudd's ship was too badly damaged and out of fuel, and the other androids wouldn't all fit into Mudd's ship anyway.

How'd the other androids get along without him?
Default settings on preprogrammed activities.
Moderate amounts of autonomy.

Regarding Deneb:
Ignore that nit. Lots of stars have similar names. And the scriptwriters don't know much astronomy.

Why'd Stella marry Harry?
She's something of a con artist herself, and they kept getting in each other's way and on each other's nerves.

What did the androids do for the million years before Harry came?
Cataloging that planet's biological and geologic features and resources, experimenting with organic and inorganic compounds, developing technical gadgets and gizmos in preparation for whoever made them, to come back and use the planet. But whoever made them didn't come back. They might have been contemporaries of the Iconians.

Why'd Chekov use the name Leningrad?
It was a different town with the same name, named after a different person who wasn't a communist. It was named after a local, popular hotel owner.

Any more questions?

Why grab the Enterprise?
He was ordered to impersonate the first starship crewman he saw, who happened to be an Enterprise crewman on leave.

Nice for Norman that the crewman in question happened to resemble him so closely! And what about the security scans that surely must be part of life on a starship - voice, retina, even thumbprint? Sure, Norman could have retrofitted himself...but where and how?

What did the androids do for the million years before Harry came?
Cataloging that planet's biological and geologic features and resources, experimenting with organic and inorganic compounds, developing technical gadgets and gizmos in preparation for whoever made them, to come back and use the planet.

Yeah, except that what we saw on-screen sure didn't look like a million years' worth of technology upgrades. I mean, these are a lot of very sophisticated machines - no need to eat, sleep, use the bathroom etc. Wouldn't they have run out of stuff to catalogue in the first 10 years or so?

How'd the other androids get along without him?
Default settings on preprogrammed activities.
Moderate amounts of autonomy.

That makes sense, but it sure isn't what we see onscreen.

I don't know why I didn't mention another theory I had; I just took it so much for granted... I've counted about 20 varieties of shapeshifters in the ST universe, so it seems plausible that Norman has that capability. The others might or might not.

That might be one of the developments of that million years of tech upgrades. The other tech upgrades might be things which aren't obvious, or things they didn't bother showing. They only showed off things which would have been easily understood and used by the Enterprise crew. The other stuff is in storage.

Also, it's not necessarily a million years of constant upgrades. Some of their efforts might go toward simply variants, rather than outright improvements.

And it might have taken a very long time to study every cubic kilometer of the planetary body. The planet is Marslike, and Mars does have a widely varying and fascinatingly complex terrain. There might have been complex systems of underground caverns with primitive and fossilized life forms which took a long time to study.
Satisfied?

Sort of. I still don't think it would've taken machines that long to study their surroundings (especially if you postulate concurrent jumps in technology). And I don't completely buy the shapeshifting-droid thing. But the technology-that-we-didn't-see part sounds OK.

One minor question still to be answered: If they are as technologically advanced as a million years would allow...howcum no interest in travelling to other worlds until they met Mudd? At the very least, they should have achieved warp drive and been visiting local star systems.

Not programed for curiousity beyond the one planet?

If they don't have space travel, then how did Norman get to the Starbase?

They either used Mudd's ship or somebody else crashed there and that ship was used. Or they used a ship used by the creators. They were programmed to wait on that one planet until their creators came back, but they never did. Something must have happened to make them disappear.
At the time Mudd landed on the planet, his ex-wife Stella was looking for him, and maybe she had Starfleet looking for him as well, so he didn't want to leave right away. So he had Norman go instead.
Maybe the androids did have remote robotic devices making thorough explorations of the other planets and asteroids of the system. But they themselves had to wait on the planet.

Harry sure is erudite. He has the line,
"the key word in your entire peroration, Mr. Spock..."
I always wondered what that word was until I read it somewhere else and I realized that was the word Harry was using.
Not Necessarily a Nit, though.
But here's a nit.
"To be absolutely accurate, you should refer to me as Mudd the First."
Why would he be referred to by his last name? Why not Harry the First or Harcourt the First?
Why didn't Spock inquire about that?
I guess Harry just likes to be different.
Happy holidays!

I know this has been mentioned before, but it really seems odd that Sulu isn't with the rest of the senior staff...especially when you remember he was there at the beginning of the episode AND the ENTIRE CREW was beamed down.

Maybe he got him some geisha-bot and was busy....

At one point, the androids tell Uhura that they'll put her brain into an android body. First of all, isn't that simular to what Roger Korby tried in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and FAILED? Also...wouldn't the brain eventually die without blood? (Korby failed because he forgot to take into account that without true emotions, you're nothing more than a machine)

Remember, John, Korby failed (and you're asking the question now) from a homo sapiens POV. The androids are, well, androids. They don't care about what'll happen to Uhura's feelings.

Yes, the brain would eventually die without blood (or more properly, the nutrients it carries), oxygen etc. I guess we'll have to postulate a built-in mechanical system for carrying these components. (In other words, Nurse Chapel, maybe androids DO eat.)

NANJAO: This is the last episode to feature Mr. Sulu...until Season 3, that is.

A POSSIBLE explanation as to why Sulu was not seen on the planet surface is that PERHAPS George Takei left the "Star Trek" sound stage for the "Green Berets" sound stage after his acting part was done for this episode.

That explains George Takei, the actor's absence...but it does nothing to explains Mr. Sulu, the character's absence.

"I, Mudd" the last episode of the second season to feature Sulu? No, he appears in several others (in original air date order): "Metamorphosis", "The Deadly Years", "Wolf in the Fold", "The Immunity Syndrome", "Return to Tomorrow", "The Omega Glory", "The Ultimate Computer", and "Assignment: Earth" which is the last show of the second season.

I need to get my eyes checked.

Better book an appointment for Todd while you're at it, John; Sulu is nowhere to be seen in 'The Immunity Syndrome', because Kyle is at the helm.

Funny you should mention "The Immunity Syndrome", that's the infamous episode in which Kirk calls Mr. Kyle: "Mr. Kowel"

Doh!

I agree with Spock. 500 of the same model seems redundant. I can understand creating 500 DIFFERENT style fantasy women, but of the same type, why would you need more than one? I would think that one of the same model would serve Mudd's . . . um . . . needs just as well as 500.

but of the same type, why would you need more than one?

Never had a twin fantasy, Todd?

Okay, point granted, but you still only need two or three, not five hundred.

You realized I was going to mention triplets next, didn't you? ;-)

I agree 500 of the same type is excessive, I was just pointing out that some people might want more than one of one model.

I guess Mudd is a love em and leave 'em kinda guy; once he's fooled around with a woman (human or not) he's loses interest, thus he gets to have his cake (the same beautiful woman) and eat it, too (uh, fool around, I mean!).

All I can say is, if Mudd could take on all 500 at one time, then he is THE MAN. I bow to him.

I just have to say that I don't believe Phil's explanation of "make a leg" one bit. :-)

Regarding the info Phil gave about "Showing a leg" (or is it "make a leg"?) which used to be popular in previous century(ies), and that guys not properly equipped could buy "fake" legs - well, everything comes around again. Right in time for the Oktoberfest, a local seller of Lederhosn (leather pants - the traditional costume ones) has invented and patented the "First royal bavarian leg" which skinny-legged males can put into these beautiful handknit stockings which are part of the bavarian costume. You can check it out here (german)

I would take one or two of those Alice droids! YUMMY!

Regarding Sulu: He did appear in the teaser and the ship board scenes of Act 1, but he didn't beam down with Kirks landing party, and he was never seen on the planet. Then again, neither were the other 430 crewmen that were beamed down.

Trekkies or not, we have to admit that the SF is just a layer on top of conventional story telling. TOS has had some horror, suspense, police, love episodes, a (rather bad) courtmartial drama and one of those horrible 't-is-that-time-of-the-year-again episodes (Catspaw). Lucky nobody came with the idea of making a Xmas ep where a pregnant Myriam runs away with her husband Jesoph in order to give birth on the Enterprise (Spock would have been an excellent wise man though). The problem with an ep like Mudd is that the humour clashes with the 'serieux' of SF, humour doesn't need to be logical, and the story may contain loose ends as long as the laughs are there. I could make harsh remarks about the death penalty on Rigel V, but the death penalty isn't used here for political purposes, but in order to make a joke about Spock's accurateness. The end with the 500 Xantippe-robots is, anno 2006, very sexist, but being gender-correct (or whatever the term should be) was not an issue, getting a laugh was the point. We all laugh when Laurel and Hardy throw pies at each other, that is humour, try to do it in the real world, and you'll see the difference...

Revised effects:
The space shots are of the new E model, of course. For the most part, they're a restaging of the original effects. The android planet now has rings, and at the end, there's a fabulous shot of the Enterprise flying over the planet's rings and out into space.

The credits have the new recording of the theme, and the closing credits has the original version. The clarity in the new recording over the old low-fi mono recording is very noticable.

When Norman shows off his stomach, he has new guts. They've also hidden the seam for the door.

Phooey. And the one week my recorder had to go on the fritz...

Phooey again. The one week I didn't bother to tape it. I hoped I would be awake to see it, but no dice; I only caught a minute or so at the end.

Zarm, Adam, they ain't showing Enhanced on the West Coast at all.I hear Tv land is going to show Tos in November, the originals.

Here's a listing of the enhanced episodes, and the stations running them.
TV Land is supposed to start running the original versions in November. But why wait? G4 currently runs them every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (ET). Then, they run three episodes of Trek 2.0. Whether G4 will lose Trek when TV Land starts to run it remains to be seen.

"Zarm, Adam, they ain't showing Enhanced on the West Coast at all.I hear Tv land is going to show Tos in November, the originals."-Hes dead Jim

Ummm... if they aren't showing it, what have I been watching the last few weeks? I missed the opening (presumeably with Norman's new guts) but I came in soon enough to see Stella's intro, among other things. To the best of my knowledge, the only thing we haven't had here in Washington state is the additional Miri episode the first week. But here (an hour's drive from the Pacific, which I assume still counts as the West Coast :-) ) it's on CW... umm... whatever UPN used to be... at 6 p.m. on Saturdays. (I am without cable, so I don't know about other stations...)

Gee I don't have your station, I guess.

"West coast" is a big area. It's airing in San Diego, LA, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Eureka, Eugene, Portland, and Seattle. Where are you?

Where they keep the whales, Alan.(I saw Mr. Nimoy in '81, signing autographs at the Monterey Aquariam, one day)

Off topic question and reply moved to the appropriate board. Butch the Moderator

I forgot where I heard this from, but...Harry Mudd was pencilled in for a Next Gen appearance, where Picard and crew would have found him cryogenically frozen, and brought him back. (Why they would have even bothered, given the hard time he gave Kirk and co., is a mystery we'll never know the answer to.) Mr. Carmel's unfortunate death tabled that story.

Something completely different:

If memory serves, Paramount Pictures (somewhere back in the 40's-50's) had made some miniseries-type films by the names of the Maize series and Annabelle series. For all I know, there was a Trudy series as well. Hmm...coincidence..?

Yes coincidence. The writers for Star Trek worked for the creatiors of this show, not Paramount Pictures. I doubt that Roddenberry and Co. cared about paying tribute to some past series that no one's ever heard of anymore.

Harry Mudd first visited Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise in the first season TOS episode "Mudd's Women".

Here's more on the career and death of Roger C. Carmel. It seems what I first believed about his death is probably true; it was a bit seamy and unsavory.

"I forgot where I heard this from, but...Harry Mudd was pencilled in for a Next Gen appearance, where Picard and crew would have found him cryogenically frozen, and brought him back. (Why they would have even bothered, given the hard time he gave Kirk and co., is a mystery we'll never know the answer to.) Mr. Carmel's unfortunate death tabled that story." - Adam Bomb

I believe it'sthe story that eventually became The Neutral Zone in season 1 of TNG- possibly why the story is so dull, it was originally written as a livelier comic tale with Mudd and without him, it just kinda fell flat.


Update from October 15, 2006: 2 years plus change after the fact, I finally saw that opening I missed after buying the season set. :-)

I believe this episode should have been called "Mudd's Planet". That just sounds better to me. And it was consistent with "Mudd's Women", and it would be followed by the animated "Mudd's Passion."

The late Roger C. Carmel, who died of a drug overdose in 1986, also voiced a character in the Transformers animated movie and the post-movie TV series. He voiced Cyclonus, the second-in-command to the Decepticon leader Galvatron, who had previously been Megatron, before the Chaos-Bringer Unicron re-formatted him into his new, more powerful form. Also, Cyclonus himself had previously been another character, but who that was was not entirely clear.

Apparently Carmel did the voice-over recordings at some point before his death and before the third season of the Transformers cartoon aired in 86/87. I don't know the circumstances surrounding his death, but I was a fan of his Harry Mudd character, that's for sure.

Also, in the 1991 PC game 25th Anniversary, there is a mission involving Mudd. The actor providing his voice did a real good job recreating the character, I thought.

Anyway, this episode was pretty funny. Too bad Sulu was not present at the end with the other six cast members. I do not remember if he was even in this episode or if he was filming "The Green Berets" at this point.

And did anyone here ever read the TOS novel "Mudd In Your Eye"? I wonder if it was any good!

I'm reading 'Star Trek FAQ' these days, which is a history of the early days of producing the original Trek, and came across an interesting fact.
It seems there was a plan in the works for an episode to have a frozen Harry Mudd revived from suspended animation to once again plague the captain of the Enterprise.
Jean-Luc Picard, that is!
According to this book, had Roger C. Carmel not passed away in 1986, his last performance might have been a first season episode of 'Star Trek-The Next Generation'!

Steve, I wonder if that idea is what morphed into "The Amazing Okona"?

Seems closer to The Neutral Zone, in that it deals with someone in suspended animation.

Oops. *Outrageous*, not Amazing.

I wish I knew. The author stated this fact but didn't elaborate to much.

The upcoming prequel series Star Trek Discovery has cast Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd. More here.
Carmel would be a hard act to follow as our favorite interplanetary con man. Even though Mudd was written as a thief, rogue and general pain in the ass, as played by Carmel, you couldn't really hate him. Heck, I even felt sorry for Mudd at the end of this episode.

The tube where the Alices are being shown off seems to be a re-use of the disintegration chamber from "A Taste of Armageddon".

When Norman goes into Engineering, all the staff jumps on him to no avail.

Granted, it wouldn't have worked, but did NOBODY think of using a phaser?

I don't think they keep phasers in engineering, and who says it wouldn't have worked?

Because they'd have used "stun", and I doubt that would have affected an android.

Maybe not (although such an energy discharge is probably not too good for those android circuits), but I'm sure they would have realized that quickly and switched to "kill"

NNAJAO On the Enterprise's bridge, when asked who and what he is, Norman opens a little door on his belly to reveal the complex circuitry of an android. I wonder, what is the actual purpose of that door in the android's normal operations?

When Scotty is brought down to the planet's surface, Mudd informs Kirk that the androids have been beaming down the Enterprise's crew for the past couple of hours. How come this is the first indication Kirk has about this? The androids do not restrain the movements of their "guests". Either the beamed down crew members should have sought Kirk and reported what was happening or someone from Kirk's original group, busy looking around for info, should have spotted the new arrivals.

Upon learning that the androids have beamed down the entire crew, a furious Kirk grabs Mudd by the neck and shoves him hard against a wall. There is an Alice android right there in the room, why didn't she intervene to defend Mudd against that obvious assault?

Did the crew even put up a fight while being beamed down. Surely some phasers would take out the androids.

The creators of the androids came from Andromeda. Were they fleeing the Kelvin Empire?

The creators of the androids came from Andromeda. Were they fleeing the Kelvin Empire?

According to Norman, the planet they were on was an exploration outpost, they weren't fleeing anyone. It was their home planet's sun going nova that destroyed most of them, with the few survivors on the outposts dying out in time.

An exploration outpost in a galaxy two million light years away!?

How long did it take them to get here? Even with their souped up engines, it took the Kelvins 300 years to make it here from Andromeda.

Did this lot have similar technology?

They apparently had quite advanced technology, everyone appeared very impressed by the labs and other facilities.

If their technology was so advanced, perhaps they also have transporters, themselves. That would explain the apparent ease they had in bringing down the entire Enterprise crew. And they would, logically, hold them in separate areas from Kirk and company.
What's surprising, is that it's completely up to Kirk and four others to save the day. The other 423 crewmembers just sat back, didn't attack, or try to contact the Captain, and probably said, "Kirk will save us. Relax."

Of course, due to 1960's TV show policy, all this was forgotten about the following week (TV shows were more stand alone back then).

In his book, Phil wondered if Data ever visited this planet. Yes, their were different androids from a different culture, but he would be among those like himself.

Or perhaps a young Noonien Soong paid a visit to this world.

We were still a year away from TV's first inter-racial kiss, so I wonder what the racists back then felt about that inter-racial dance between Chekov and Uhura?
Or is it okay because he's 'Russian'?

It took the Kelvins 300 years to cross the void between Andromeda and here.

How long did it take for this lot?

Maybe the same, but with different technology. After all, as androids, they wouldn't need life support systems. Less room using up ship-space for that, and more for fuel and engines could make a difference.
Then again, the Kelvins were desperate to save their race, while the androids were just scouts, so a fast trip lasting a couple centuries wouldn't be a priority to them.
The androids said their estimated life-span was 500,000 years, so I think the last thing they'd be is impatient!

I guess, to them, it would by a very long road trip.

Odd that, in TNG, Data often acts like no other androids exist. What about this lot? Or was the whole thing classified top secret and Data didn't have the necessary clearance.

I always personally thought Doctor Soong had a 'little' help by visiting Mudd's planet, and at least getting a few ideas from the internal schematics of Mudd's androids. No proof, but one guy sure seemed way, way more intelligent than anybody else in the TNG Trekverse, since nobody else seemed interested in building androids other than Soong.

Yeah, rumour has it that the episode would be the one that became The Neutral Zone (the production of which would be affected by the Writer's Guild strike in 1988

When the security officer arrives in auxiliary control he tells Kirk that 'he', meaning the saboteur, is gone. How does he know it was a 'he' and not a 'she' that performed the sabotage?

When Norman grabs Kirk's arm on the bridge, the Captain tells Uhura to inform security that they've found 'the intruder'. However, Norman is not really an intruder, he's THE saboteur. They already knew Norman was aboard the ship, supposedly through proper channels (transferred from a starbase, perhaps).

Actually, how DID Norman get aboard the Enterprise? McCoy knew about him from 2 days previously, since Norman was required for a physical, but did he leave Mudd's planet, go to a starbase, get a phony uniform and passes, and somehow get transferred to the next starship that arrived? None of that is explained.

Actually, how DID Norman get aboard the Enterprise? McCoy knew about him from 2 days previously, since Norman was required for a physical, but did he leave Mudd's planet, go to a starbase, get a phony uniform and passes, and somehow get transferred to the next starship that arrived? None of that is explained.

Phil brought that up in his book.

Yes, some credentials could have been faked, but all of them (where was Norman's last posting, when did he graduate from the Academy, etc.)

How did he pull all that off?

He's an android, and a very advanced one at that. He just hacked into starfleet's computers and manufactured all the credentials he needed.

And carried out his plan before anyone could find out (McCoy mentioned that Norman had been dodging getting a physical).

Or he found a Starfleet guy being transferred to the Enterprise, coincidentally named Norman, killed him and took his place?

I don't think Norman is programmed to murder.

While he beat up a bunch of crewmen when he took over the Enterprise, he didn't kill anyone (and he easily could have).

Just had a thought about this episode's title. I've always assumed that the "I" in "I, Mudd", was supposed to be the personal pronun "I" (as in I, CLAUDIUS. However, since Mudd refers to himself as "Mudd the First" in the episode, maybe the "I" in the title is meant to be the Roman number one?

In that case, it would be written Mudd I