'Star Trek: Discovery': Who Is Harry Mudd?
Tonight’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery, titled 'Choose Your Pain,' brings back a classic [...]
The Animated Series and The Mudd Incident
That was the last time that Harry Mudd appeared in live-action. He did also appear in an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series. The status of Star Trek: The Animated Series in canon is unclear, but Star Trek: Discovery referenced The Animated Series in last week's episode, so we'll assume the writers are treating the show as canon.
Mudd appeared in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Mudd's Passion." In this episode, Mudd had somehow escaped the android planet and was running a new scheme selling love potions. He sells one to the Enterprise's Nurse Chapel, who then uses it on Mr. Spock. Once everything was straightened out the Enterprise crew again took Mudd into custody.
That was the last anyone had heard of Mudd in the prime timeline, though the Kelvin timeline version of Mudd was at least referenced in the movie Star Trek Into Darkness. In the film, the Enterprise crew makes use of a K'normian trading ship which they say they procured during an event referred to as "The Mudd Incident."
The line was meant simply as an Easter egg for fans, and the Kelvin timeline version of Harry Mudd has never appeared in the films. The film's comic book prequel Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness revealed the ship did not belong to Harry Mudd, but to his half-Bajoran daughter simply called Mudd, who was supplying weapons to one side of a civil war taking place on a pre-warp world.
prevnextStar Trek: Discovery
In Star Trek: Discovery, Harry Mudd will be played by Rainn Wilson, best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on The Office. As Discovery takes place ten years prior to Star Trek: The Original Series, this is the youngest Mudd will ever have appeared in Star Trek. This Mudd is said to be a bit more sinister and a bit less fun than his older self.
What we know about Discovery's Mudd so far is simply that he is a prisoner of the Klingons and ends up on the same transport ship as the USS Discovery's Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) and another Starfleet prisoner of war, and another new Discovery cast member, Lt. Ash Tyler, played by Shazad Latif. We should find out more in "Choose Your Pain" and possibly in future episodes of Discovery, as Wilson is supposed to be a recurring guest star.
New Star Trek: Discovery episodes become available to stream Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access.
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