10 Essential Star Trek: The Animated Series Episodes You Must See
4. Mudd's Passion
As a recurring character, Harcourt Fenton 'Harry' Mudd is a bit like marmite, which is itself a bit like mud. Love him or hate him, this episode of The Animated Series is evidently all about him, with the inimitable Roger C. Carmel reprising the role for the last time.
It may not be one of the greatest Star Trek episodes ever made (far from it), and it certainly suffers from a few regrettable 'of their time' motifs, but Mudd's Passion remains a good romp, and is, at times, even laugh-out-loud funny. The episode marks Harcourt's last hurrah until Star Trek: Discovery's prequel prison plot, but it also explores the relationship between Nurse Chapel and Spock, (*spoiler alert*) now equally a key part of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
The nub of Mudd's Passion relies on the conceit of a 'love potion' as peddled by the galaxy's most shameless swindler. The planet Motherlode in the Arcadian system where Mudd is located may well be a warning against the nature of any such grandiose claims, but when Chapel does try out the formula on Spock, it works (albeit temporarily). The resident half-Vulcan begins to declare his undying love for "Christine" to anyone in earshot, and to fairly hilarious effect.
There is a tinge of sadness also if this is where the burgeoning coupling in Strange New Worlds, via the toing and froing in The Original Series, is set to end up — needing a bag of Mudd's magic tricks to reignite the romance.