Star date: 4513.3
Summary: A new addition to the Enterprise crew breaks into unauthorized areas, and with little difficulty reroutes the ship to an uncharted planet. After he has set the route and booby-trapped the ship so that his work cannot be undone without the risk of the ship self-destructing, he proceeds to the bridge to inform Kirk of his actions, and to reveal himself as an android. He insists that he and the others like him do not wish to harm the Enterprise crew, or humanoid life forms in general, but they need the ship. The android --- who we learn is named "Norman" --- then shuts down for the 4-day trip to his planet.
Upon arrival, Norman insists that Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura and Chekhov beam down to the planet's surface with him. There the crew finds a planet hosting more than 200,000 androids, and a single human: Harry Mudd. Kirk has met with Mudd before, and knows him to be a non-violent and personable crook and swindler. Mudd explains how he escaped from captivity and stumbled upon this planet populated with androids which were created by an earlier humanoid race. He further explains that these androids were built to serve humans; thus as the planet's sole human resident, he became their king, and they will do whatever he says. However, the androids also desire more humans to serve, and would not let Mudd leave the planet until he provided them with more humans. Thus he helped them to hijack the Enterprirse, and it is his plan to take the ship with several of his custom-made female androids and leave the whole Enterprise crew on the surface. Mudd also reveals that for fun, he made a single android modeled on his wife Stella, a shrewish woman constantly nagging at him and pointing out his bad habits. Her made her so he could shut her up and get the last word whenever he likes.
The Enterprise crew are taken to their quarters, where they find that the androids are true to their word, and aim to serve them all and provide them with as pleasant a life as possible, ready and able to provide anything they could wish for: for Uhura, eternal life by transplanting her brain into a female android body; for Chekhov, companionship with as many attractive female androids as he wishes; for Spock and Scotty, access to their extensive libraries and knowledge of technology.
However, when Mudd tries to say his goodbyes, the androids suddenly stop serving him, informing him that they cannot let him go. When their humanoid creators made them, the androids freed their creators to develop a utopian society. Somehow the androids have learned about how badly humanoids are running our galaxy (presumably this refers to hate, war and so on), and so they plan to go out into the galaxy themselves and make it a peaceful place by serving humanoids. They therefore require Mudd to remain on the planet along with the Enterprise crew.
At this point, Kirk hatches a plan of escape. Kirk earlier noticed that the "Alice" series of androids are confused by human behavior, and telepathically call out to Norman for understanding when confused. Spock has also learned that although there are many copies of Alice and other androids, there is only one Norman. They therefore conclude that if they can shut down Norman, they can shut down all androids, and furthermore, they conclude they can get to Norman through the Alices.
They know the androids will expect an escape attempt, so they stage one. Uhura intentionally foils this attempt, telling an Alice that she wants to stay so she can get an android body. Having made a show of trying to escape, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Chekhov and Mudd proceed to shut the Alices down with random acts of nonsense, including dancing without music, pretending to kill Scotty with imaginary guns and a pretend explosion. After all the Alices have shut down, Kirk and Mudd together deliver the coup de gras to Norman, with Kirk telling him: "Everything Mudd tells you is a lie," and Mudd following up with "I am lying". This paradox is too much for Norman, who shuts down and allows the Enterprise crew to regain control of their ship.
In the end, Kirk sentences Mudd to remain behind on the android planet until he can "stop being an irritant," and leaves him with 500 android copies of his wife, nagging him forever.
So we have yet another entry in the "escape from an invincible computer foe by overloading its logic circuits" series of episodes. However, I forgive the writers for re-hashing this plot yet again for two reasons. First, they brought back Harry Mudd, who was one of the more entertaining characters from the first season. Second, this episode is intentionally farcical and humorous (in contrast to the many episodes which are unintentionally farcical and humorous; see for example "What Are Little Girls Made Of?").
This Star Trek episode is extremely silly!
I was critical of "A Taste of Armageddon" because its premise was pythonesque (two planets fighting a proxy war by computer, and sending the designated number of "casualties" off to be killed in disintegration chambers), but this time, the comparison is favorable because they're trying to be absurd. And while much of the absurdity is on the level of a high-school improv group, some of it is truly entertaining. For example, there's this bit with Chekhov talking to two of the "Alice" androids:
Of course, the rare occasions when Spock abandons his strict logic demeanor are amusing too, such as this line, delivered to Norman in complete deadpan:Alice 118: You desire something else, Lord?
Chekhov: What a shame you're not real.
Alice 322: We are real, my Lord.
Chekhov: Oh, I mean, real girls.
Alice 118: We are programmed to function as human females, Lord.
Chekhov: You are?
Both Alices: Yes, my Lord.
Chekhov: Harry Mudd programmed you?
Both Alices: Yes, my Lord.
Chekhov: That unprincipled, evil-minded lecherous Kulak Harry Mudd programmed you?
Both Alices: Yes, my Lord.
Chekhov: This place is even better than Leningrad!
Spock: Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad.And finally, at the end of the show, we get another good exchange between Spock and McCoy, where this time McCoy has the last laugh:
McCoy: Well, you must be very unhappy, Mr. Spock.I've said it before, and I have no doubt I'll say it again: the idea of shutting down a computer or androids by TALKING to it is absurd. But at least this time it wasn't just Jim Kirk's amazing brain beating the androids; it was a team effort. And the Star Trek writers weren't taking it or themselves seriously, so just lean back, relax, and have a few laughs.
Spock: That is a human emotion, Doctor, with which I'm totally unfamiliar. How could I be unhappy?
McCoy: Well, we found a whole world of minds that work just like yours: logical, unemotional, completely pragmatic. And we poor, irrational humans whipped them in a fair fight.
Other observations about this episode . . .
There are over 200,000 androids on the planet. What a stroke of luck for the Enterprise crew that it apparently takes them forever to get on the Enterprise and fly away.
It sure is convenient that all the androids wear numbered necklaces that light up when they wirelessly communicate with Norman --- that was sure a helpful clue to Kirk and the rest.
The actor playing Norman was pretty good, but when Kirk and Mudd shut him down, it would have been awesome if he did a face-first dead fall like that Jackson guy in "Catspaw".
The Moral of the Story: Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad.
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