Lieutenant Uhura: 5 landing party adventures in orginal Star Trek

“I, Mudd” (season 2, episode 8)

Recurring guest characters have been part of Star Trek for a long time now. But in the original series, one of the few guest characters to make an encore appearance was Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd (Roger C. Carmel).

Mudd’s second episode, “I, Mudd,” has aged unevenly—its fascination with android harems (granted, of male and female robots); the stereotypical “shrewish” depiction of Mudd’s wife Stella (though Discovery suggested the real Stella wasn’t like the robotic counterpart Mudd created). But it still contains a slew of scenes in which cast members, Nichele Nichols among them, get to showcase a talent for side-splitting comedy.

As a member of the landing party held prisoner on “Planet Mudd,” Lieutenant Uhura plays a key role in the crew’s escape plan. She “exposes” Kirk’s plan to get back to the ship to the Alice android. “I want an android body,” she tells Kirk, in melodramatic fashion. “I’ll live forever, Captain. I’ll be young and beautiful!”

Of course, Uhura hasn’t really turned traitor. Her “warning” is just one cog in the crew’s comical scheme to utterly perplex Mudd’s androids. (You can watch more of the shenanigans in the video above.)

Kirk praises Uhura for her “beautiful” performance. She responds, “I half believed it myself!” It’s a shame we didn’t get to see Lieutenant Uhura use her dramatic gifts on more away missions. But we did during one other—and it was a beauty, too!