Like The Enemy Within, Mudd's Women
reflects the mores of the era in which it was written. In this case,
the mores in question deal with the characteristics of the ideal
wife; apparently, back in the 1960's, the ideal wife was someone who
looked as if they could have been cast from the same mold as Marilyn Monroe or
Mamie Van Doren with the ability to cook and sew being desirable perks.
I'm not making this up!
Besides the rather quaint image of the
perfect wife presented by this episode, it seems that not only have
values come full circle (or come many circles) from the 1960's to the
23rd century, but the business of providing of mail order brides to
wealthy and desperately lonely men seems to be alive and well in the
world of Star Trek. Women are bought and sold or, in this case,
traded for dilithium crystals, and no one seems to bat an eye. Kirk
seems more upset that the owners of the dilithium crystals are
striking a hard bargain rather than the fact that what they're
bargaining for is the right to marry the eponymous Mudd's women.
"Harry" Mudd,
23rd century matchmaker...or 23rd century human
trafficker
As with many of the earlier episodes,
Spock, displays a scandalous (for a Vulcan) amount of emotion,
smirking mischievously as he observes the effect that Mudd's women
have on the Enterprise's crew; because of the Venus Drug that the
women have ingested, every male member of the Enterprise crew ends up
being so hypnotized by their ass-ets that they practically need to be
hosed down with cold water to break the spell the women have on them.
Mudd's women showing
off their assets
