"Mudd's Women"...

THE STORY: As a cargo ship drifts into the asteroid belt, the Enterprise is forced to extend its shields around the ship, and this extreme power expenditure destroys three of the ship's crucial lithium crystal circuits in short order. Montgomery Scott manages to beam the ship's master and three women off just before an asteroid destroys the vessel with a dead-center hit. The ship's master, speaking with a broad Irish brogue, identifies himself as Leo Francis Walsh upon materializing on the transporter platform. He claims he avoided the Enterprise out of fear that it was a hostile vessel. In the transporter room, Scott and McCoy are immediately transfixed by the three women, which Spock finds curious. Spock asks Walsh if he was certain that the four of them were all that comprised the crew of his ship. Walsh confirms that they are, and begins to explain to Spock that they are not his crew when he interrupts, telling him that he will explain everything to Captain Kirk. >>> Many of the male Enterprise crew members find their attention diverted, as the women saunter through the ship's corridors. Walsh, who comes off as charismatic but does not successfully conceal the fact that he is a con man, plays up the women's effect in a manner suggestive of a pimp, but notes that Spock, being half-Vulcan, is immune to their charms. Walsh and his women are led by Spock to Captain Kirk's quarters after the captain demands that Walsh be there whether he can walk or not. Kirk is enraged by the irresponsible actions of Walsh, who explains that the women, the gorgeous Eve McHuron, Magda Kovacs, and Ruth Bonaventure, are not so much crew as they are cargo. >>> Still insisting his name is Walsh, the cargo ship captain tries to blame Kirk for the accident. Kirk has him confined to quarters pending a formal hearing. Meanwhile, all ship's power is being channeled through a single lithium crystal circuit and the crystal has a hairline fracture at its base. The bypass circuits were also burned out in the rescue attempt. Repairs are needed, and that means a visit to the nearest source of crystals, the mining colony on Rigel XII. >>> Before the ship's hearing, Walsh meets with the women and coaches them on their testimony, advising them not to lie, but mysteriously ordering them not to submit to a medical exam. At the inquiry, Kirk learns that the women are to be wives for settlers on Ophiucus III; each voluntarily left a situation in which her marriage prospects were slim or non-existent. Leo Walsh is revealed to be intergalactic criminal Harcourt Fenton Mudd, and his Irish brogue promptly disappears. Mudd has a long history of convictions for smuggling, transport of stolen goods, and purchasing of a space vessel with counterfeit currency, and has been sentenced to psychiatric treatment, the effectiveness of which is in dispute. His ship's master's license has also been revoked. Kirk decides to hand Mudd over to legal authorities as soon as possible. Toward the end of the hearing, the final lithium crystal fails and when Mudd overhears Kirk's orders to contact the miners on Rigel XII, he begins to plan how the situation can work to his advantage: the women can work their charms on the "lonely, isolated, overworked, rich lithium miners," and get a much better deal for themselves. Mudd himself dreams of taking over the Enterprise with all his new fortune and loudly announces that the next orders Kirk will be taking will be from Mudd himself. Strangely, he delivers this whole speech in front of Vinci and another security guard. >>> Using their allure, the women learn about the miners; there are three of them, one for each woman. The mystery of the women deepens when Ruth sets off an alert on McCoy's medical scanner in sickbay. McCoy wonders whether they're actually as beautiful as they seem, or whether there's something else responsible for their allure. Eve visits Kirk's quarters, whom Kirk views lying on his bed. Eve claims she's feeling harassed by the men on board, but is unable to go through with her flirtation, blurting out that Mudd put her up to it. She flees to Mudd's quarters and tells him she's feeling ill, saying "It's time." Magda manages to obtain a communicator from Lieutenant Farrell; Mudd uses it to contact the miners before Kirk, and hammers out a deal. But back in Mudd's quarters, the women begin physically breaking down, turning plain and haggard. Just in time, Mudd finds a pillbox he had hidden in his mattress, and gives one pill to each of them, immediately restoring their radiant beauty. As Eve is turning the crystalline "Venus pill" over in her hand, Spock is examining a burned out lithium crystal. The miners come on board the Enterprise, but when Kirk offers them an equitable price he learns they really want to barter. They want to look at Mudd's women, and maybe trade for them. On top of which, they want Mudd released and the charges dropped. Shocked and annoyed, Kirk refuses the offer, but Mudd figures Kirk will have no choice soon enough, as the ship's functions are starting to shut down without the crystals and the Enterprise will begin to spiral down toward Rigel XII. As Mudd notes to Kirk, he has no choice; he must acquiesce to the miners' demands. >>> Kirk, Spock, and Mudd beam down to the forbidding surface of Rigel XII, where the women are now living it up with Ben Childress and the other miners, Herm Gossett and Benton. Childress keeps Kirk waiting for the crystals, and the miners start fighting over Ruth and Magda. Eve, already conscience-stricken about the deception, runs out into a storm. Childress goes out to find her, and the two go missing as the Enterprise, still without the crystals, begins to run out of energy. Back aboard ship, Kirk snaps at Scotty, but apologizes, and Scotty tells him the ship has approximately five hours of power left. >>> Childress finds Eve and brings her back to his quarters, and the Enterprise locates them through the heat of a cook stove in his hut; Eve is cooking for Childress. Kirk and Mudd prepare to beam down. Childress and Eve begin to warm up to each other as Eve proves more resourceful than Childress expected. But soon Eve's looks begin to fade again and Childress comments on this. As they start fighting, Kirk and Mudd arrive, and explain about the Venus drug, which Childress had heard of but thought was only a legend. He and the other miners are dismayed to learn that Mudd has sold them a bill of goods: the women's natural beauty and allure has been enhanced by the Venus drug. Two of the miners have already married Mudd's women, the ceremonies having been performed through subspace radio. The chief miner is angry, and Eve berates him for being more interested in the pill than in a real woman. She takes the pill and turns beautiful again. Childress isn't happy because her beauty is a fake, but Kirk reveals that he switched the pill with a placebo, colored gelatin. Eve's beauty is the result of her own self-confidence. Childress is happy about this, and asks her to stay and talk. Childress also humbly agrees to give Kirk the crystals needed for the Enterprise. Mudd asks to be left behind on Rigel XII but Kirk turns this down, offering instead to appear as a character witness at Mudd's trial. Mudd ironically comments, "They'll throw away the key!".