These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One

by Cushman, Marc

  Roger C. Carmel, at 33, was the obvious choice to play Harcourt Fenton Mudd. He had been successfully making the rounds on television, gaining more attention with each appearance, including multiple turns on The Naked City, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and I Spy.

  Karen Steele in Ride Lonesome (1959, Columbia Pictures)

  Susan Denberg in NBC publicity photo (Courtesy of Bob Olsen)

  Joe D’Agosta said of Carmel, “He was working all over town; he was a well-known flamboyant character. He was just one of those great interesting actors with a lovable, joyful kind of personality, a bigger than life kind of character. He was the right person for that role and, when you look at his contribution, maybe the only person for that role.” (43-4)

  Steven Kandel said, “I was immensely happy. I thought he was terrific. Roger Carmel was perfect.” (95-1)

  John D.F. Black said, “I liked Roger C. Carmel. He was a sweetheart. And I loved him in ‘Mudd’s Women.’ I thought he was charmingly large. He played the character so broadly, but he was good at it.” (17)

  Carmel said, “You [saw] how they dressed me in many of the roles I played at that time. Not the best fitting clothing. But this character was like a tailor made suit for me. The moment I read the script, I knew how to play him. And that was met by complete support when I stepped in front of the camera, by Harvey Hart and the cast. It was an absolute joy.” (29)

  Yeoman Rand was in the earlier drafts of the script, but was written out, more because of budget concerns than anything else. This actually helped the story by enabling Kirk to better interact with Mudd’s women and allowing the three alluring females to have little competition.

  Karen Steele, the sympathetic Eve, was 35. A former model and cover girl, she was prominently featured in 1955’s Academy Award winning Best Picture Marty, then had the female lead in numerous B-pictures, such as 1956’s The Sharkfighters (under Victor Mature), 1957’s Bailout at 43,000 (under John Payne) and 1959’s Ride Lonesome (under Randolph Scott). She also had the top female spot in the 1960’s mob-pic Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond.

  Susan Denberg, as Magda, the one with the short blonde Dippity-do hair-style, originated from Poland, moving to America to become a Las Vegas chorus girl. TV and film roles followed. Immediately after working here and prior to the first broadcast of “Mudd’s Women,” Denberg appeared in the August 1966 issue of Playboy.

  Doohan recalled, “Susan Denberg appeared as a centerfold playmate of the month. When they were shooting the sequences where we’re supposed to be ogling the women, I didn’t consider that an acting challenge. I looked at her and thought, Wooooeeee.” (52-1)

  Denberg had a co-starring role in 1967's Frankenstein Created Woman before fleeing the Hollywood fast life for the safe refuge of Poland and a non-show-business future.

  Maggie Thrett, the dark-haired Ruth, had appeared in an episode of The Wild, Wild West with future Star Trek guest star William Campbell (“The Squire of Gothos” and “The Trouble with Tribbles”). She also made her feature film debut this same year in Dimension 5, a sci-fi starring the Enterprise’s former captain, Jeffrey Hunter.

  Science fiction writer Harlan Ellison, working in the offices at this time on his script for the upcoming “The City on the Edge of Forever,” found Thrett to be the most alluring of Mudd’s women. Mary Black recalled, “Harlan came into John’s office after one of his many visits to the set and announced to John that he had ‘really hooked up’ with ‘Maggie Treat.’ And John started laughing and said, ‘Harlan, her name is not Maggie Treat; her name is Maggie Thrett.’ And Harlan says, ‘Well, it just goes to show you the difference between you and me. To you, she’s a threat; to me she’s a treat.’” (17a)

  Wardrobe designer William Theiss, who made sure these women’s dangerous curves were highly noticeable, had a theory about sexy clothing. He believed nothing could be more titillating than a dress that appears as if, at any moment, it might slip an inch out of place and reveal something the network censors would panic over. Ruth’s dress design in particular, with that diagonal slit traveling from shoulder to the underside of one breast and then to her waistline, is a very early and classic example of Theiss’ almost-too-hot-for-TV designs.

  William Shatner said, “Somehow Gene always showed up for the fittings to make his own design adjustments. He’d like to add his two cents. ‘A little less here,’ he’d ask Bill [Theiss], ‘A little shorter there.’ Gene’s two cents added up to skimpier costumes, and skimpier costumes kept Bill’s budget in check.” (156-2)

  Gene Dynarski as Ben Childress (Unaired film trim courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  John D.F. Black said, “The basic problem we had with ‘Mudd’s Women’ was not the script so much as the wardrobe, as designed, and getting it past the censors. It was a very overtly sex-oriented piece.” (17-4)

  In all, 20 actresses tried out for the roles of Mudd’s women, nearly all of which already had or would have successful careers in front of the camera. Among them, Phyllis Davis, who went on to appear as Beatrice Travis in 69 episodes of Vegas, Gayle Hunnicutt, who played the recurring character of Vanessa Beaumont in Dallas, and Donna Michelle, the May 1964 cover girl for Playboy magazine.

  Gene Dynarski, playing Ben Childress, was 33. His credits included Ben Casey and The Big Valley. A reliable character performer, Dynarski would work steadily in television and return to the various Star Trek series more than once.

  Jim Goodwin, on TV from 1961 to 1979, and having small roles prior to this on series such as Surfside 6 and Combat!, made his first of three visits to Star Trek as Lt. John Farrell, courtesy of his friend, John D.F. Black.

  Majel Barrett was an excellent choice for the mechanically dispassionate voice of the Enterprise’s computer. Bitter over her losing the plum role of the ship’s first officer, “Number One,” Roddenberry kept his promise to Barrett and found a way to bring her back on board. It was to Star Trek’s benefit.

  Nichelle Nichols almost didn’t make the cut. Regarding her being hired for this episode, Roddenberry wrote to Joe D’Agosta:

  In this episode we actually need a Communications Officer for only two or three lines. Eventually, we must discuss the whole Nichelle Nichols deal -- the present “one-shot thousand dollars” being clearly double our budget. In the meantime, after first getting an estimate of days from the A.D., we must decide whether to use Nichelle in “Mudd’s Women” or get a cheaper alternate. All things being equal, of course it would pay us to use her and have familiar faces in these early shows. (GR3-2)

  And they did.

  Production Diary

  Filmed June 2 (1/2 day), 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 13, 1966

  (Planned as 7 day production; finishing 1/2 day behind; total cost: $198,534).

  Holding to the approved per-episode budget can be a life-or-death matter for a series. The associate producer typically shoulders the lion’s share of this burden, although the producer, executive producer, episode director, network and studio execs also play key roles. The key driver is the number of days budgeted for production, which will factor in the cost of cast, crew, equipment and locations, etc.. In some instances, the post-production costs -especially, in this case, optical effects -- can tilt the balance between making or breaking the budget.

  “Mudd’s Women” was given a seven-day filming schedule instead of the usual six. Cast and crew were still learning their way around and this script required the company’s first visit to Stage 10 for the planet sets.

  Thursday, June 2, 1966. What Now My Love by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass was the top selling record album in America. “When a Man Loves a Woman,” by Percy Sledge, was gaining the most radio play for the second week, keeping “A Groovy Kind of Love” by the Mindbenders out of the top spot. The previous night, ABC was the most watched network from 7:30 with Batman before the younger viewers switched over to CBS at 8 p.m. for the last half of Lost in Space, followed by The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Gomer Pyle, U. S.M.C. The adults took over after that and made I Spy
on NBC the ratings winner from 10 to 11 p.m. The new day brought news that Surveyor 1 was Earth’s first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon. And Star Trek clapped slate for “Mudd’s Women.”

  Production started at noon, four hours late due to delays finishing “The Corbomite Maneuver.” On this day, filming took place only on the bridge set until 7 p.m., 40 minutes into overtime.

  Day 2, Friday. Another full day on the bridge set, and another late night with Hart capturing his last camera shot at 7:50 p.m., then releasing the cast for makeup removal and the crew to wrap the set. It had been an especially long day for William Shatner, who had been running a temperature.

  Day 3, Monday, June 6, began where Day 2 was supposed to end, in the transporter room for the introduction of Mudd’s women. Here, cinematographer Jerry Finnerman started the use of soft-focus photography on Star Trek. This technique became standard practice for many of the female guest stars. If an alluring look was called for, the soft focus lens was used.

  Next came the scenes in Kirk’s quarters, followed by the turbolift and ship’s corridors. Harvey Hart’s determination to use elaborate camera setups throughout the production resulted in delay on these sets and work had to be carried over into the following morning. Hart surrendered the camera to the studio “time keeper” at 7:24 p.m., more than an hour into overtime.

  “That was quite a thing, being so early in the history of that show,” Roger C. Carmel said. “That was one of the first episodes they made. But all of them seemed well aware of who their characters were. Leonard may still have been trying to find himself, although you would never know it from watching. But Bill Shatner and the others had no hesitation in the way they approached the scenes. Now, Leonard tried to remain in character throughout, but Bill had no problem in stepping back and forth from portraying Kirk as the lonely, somewhat stern leader and then, once the camera stopped, being the life of the party. And I don’t remember many wasted takes. He’d have us laughing one minute, then the director would call ‘Action,’ and there he was, the grim-faced Captain. Remarkable discipline to do that.” (29)

  Day 4, Tuesday. Hart’s shots were striking and the performances were finely tuned -but striking and fine tuning require extra care and time, something a television shooting schedule does not typically allow for. Filming in Kirk’s quarters, followed by the ship’s corridors and ending with the turbolift elevator, kept the camera rolling one hour into overtime at 7:15 p.m.

  Day 6. Karen Steele, as Eve, going through Venus drug withdrawal (Unaired film trim courtesy Gerald Gurian)

  Day 5, Wednesday. The company filmed all the sickbay and briefing room sequences. With the camera rolling until 7:18, the union crew happily earned another full hour’s worth of time-and-a-half. The actors, working for a flat rate, were just getting tired.

  Day 6, Thursday, was supposed to begin on Stage 10 for planet scenes but the crew remained on the Enterprise, finishing up scenes in Mudd’s quarters before making the move out of Stage 9 at 3:50 p.m. The first work on Stage 10 was the dwelling used by Ben Childress. There was a reason it was so cave-like, despite the modern looking exterior (to be filmed the next day). This design idea can be traced back to a Bob Justman memo, reading:

  Due to the climatic conditions which prevail on the surface of this planet, perhaps we would be wise in establishing that any living quarters that the prospectors use are below ground.... I know if I were one of those prospectors I would attempt to do something of this sort to get out of the way of the wind. (RJ3-1)

  Nimoy and Shatner posing for a visitor on Stage 10 during production Day 7 (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  It seemed a good idea, but when Matt Jefferies added a window into the underground lair, and director Hart asked that sand be blown into the living quarters whenever the insulated door opened, the illusion went straight to hell.

  Hart took his last shot at 7 p.m.

  Friday, June 10. It was now Day 7 and the end was not yet in sight. Filming included the final shots in Ben’s dwelling, followed by a move to the inhospitable planet surface. Both took place on Stage 10, where the innovative look of Star Trek planets was born.

  Day 8, Stage 10 (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  Jerry Finnerman recalled, “I talked to [Bob Justman] and Gene Roddenberry and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice for each planet to have a different atmosphere? Who’s to say that Planet 17 isn’t purple or orange or magenta?’ And they really liked that idea. So we would cut gels for these huge 10k lights on the sets and each week we would have a different color.... We were doing each episode in only six days [and] I found I could change the sets literally by changing colors. So I asked them to keep all the sets neutral. Then I would go in and, if I wanted the sets red or green or blue, I would just do it with the lights on the walls.” (63-1)

  It was a big time-saver and one of the series’ many visual signatures. But, contrary to Finnerman’s recollections, some episodes took longer than six days. This was into its eighth.

  Later in the day, Kirk, Spock and Mudd beam down to the inhospitable surface of Rigel VII and the approach to the exterior of Ben Childress’ hut was filmed. In this scene, they do not go into the modern pre-fab hut but appear to go down a ramp or stairway leading below the small building -- exploring the cave-like interior. Unfortunately, this action is only seen -- almost undetectably -- in the distance. Jefferies had gone to the trouble to build a ramp to the sub-chamber door but Hart didn’t show it.

  Filming stopped at 6:50 p.m., Hart’s best day yet, only 30 minutes into overtime. However, while screening dailies, the producers discovered Hart had been doing a little trick called “camera cutting” -- he was calling for unusual camera angles while shooting sequences of dialogue and leaving out the “singles,” those much needed close-ups of each actor which later could be used to reshape or shorten the scenes.

  John Black said, “That was his technique – cutting in the camera. He did the same thing on an episode of Laredo I’d written, and I’d had problems with him there. He camera cut everything!” (17)

  To Hart’s credit, the staging of his shots and blocking of the performers was quite intriguing, more in line with a feature film than an assembly line TV episode. But, television being television, the producers could not risk encountering problems assembling one or more of the scenes after a production wrapped. Therefore, the company resumed work on “Mudd’s Women” the following day.

  Day 8, Monday, June 13, 1966. Filming continued in Ben’s dwelling for additional “camera coverage,” then the company moved back to the stormy surface of Rigel and, with a 3:45 p.m. move to Stage 9, returned to Mudd’s guest quarters on the Enterprise. Bob Justman’s production notes documented how Hart, despite his excellent work, sabotaged his own chances of returning to Star Trek. The associate producer wrote:

  One day over -- too much rehearsal -- elaborate setups -- camera cutting -difficult to trim.

  In television, good work does not always ensure more work. Hart would not return.

  Post-Production

  June 14 through October 31, 1966. Music score recorded on September 7, 1966.

  Bruce Schoengarth, 47, was hired to run the second editing team, alternating with Robert Swanson and his staff, and a third team yet to be assembled. Described as “quiet and accomplished” by Justman, Schoengarth had been a “lead cutter” for Lassie and Ben Casey.

  Fred Steiner, who set “The Corbomite Maneuver” to music, continued to define the sound of Star Trek with his score for “Mudd’s Women.” One week before Steiner recorded his tracks, composer Alexander Courage helped out by providing the music for this episode’s preview trailer. Star Trek was backed up on its delivery of episodes, with many arriving at NBC just days before broadcast. Courage was asked to score the trailer quickly, since it was scheduled to air one week before the actual episode. His sultry trombone music, reminiscent of David Rose’s early 1960's No. 1 hit “The Stripper,” worked so well that it was also used in the actual episode as Mudd’s women
parade down the ship’s corridor.

  The Westheimer Company, the second of five optical houses to work on Star Trek, was rushed in at the last minute to cover for Howard and Darrell Anderson who were completely over their heads with “The Corbomite Maneuver.”

  Owner Joseph Westheimer had studied optical effects under Byron Haskin, Roddenberry’s right-hand-man for “The Cage.” Westheimer set up his own shop in 1958, with his first client being The Twilight Zone. The results of Westheimer’s work, especially the meteor storm, are impressive.

  All shots of the Enterprise, however, are lifted from the first two pilots and what the Andersons had finished so far for “Corbomite.” Those asteroids Westheimer created, along with the flare-up of Mudd’s ship, the transporter effects, and a glowing Venus drug in the palm of Eve’s hand, cost Desilu $10,530, a considerably smaller bill than the one being tallied by the Andersons for “The Corbomite Maneuver.”

  Even with this savings, “Mudd’s Women” came in over budget. Due to overtime -82 crew and stage hours instead of the allotted 72 -- this episode topped out at $198,534, more than $6,000 over. Adjust for inflation and we can better appreciate the hit to Desilu: total cost of $1.4 million, going $43,000 over budget.