Meet Mr. Harry Mudd...

by Thomas Schneider, European OP Coordinator

13th September 2010

Harcourt Fenton Mudd, or Harry as his friends call him, is not only what you would call a notorious con artist, but also the featured character of this year's Will of the Collective card. So it is time to get to know him a little bit better.

Transporting stolen goods, paying with counterfeit currency, smuggling, fencing and (last but not least) flying without license. You name it, Harry has very likely done it. And Harry was convicted and put into jail occasionally. Usually not often or for long, since he has the special talent (or let's call it the special skill) to escape from nearly all problems.

At some point of his life, he decided to become a "respectable" businessman. Well, as respectable as you can get when you are selling mail-order brides. And as every salesman would, he did his best to make sure his "goods" looked nice. One could argue that using illegal drugs to pretty-up his women was not a legal thing to do, but in the end, everything worked out well both for the women and their husbands. Nevertheless, Federation authorities had a different view on the story, and put Harry in jail -- again. As usual, his special skill triggered, and he was able to escape.

After some more fraud, his escape ended on an unknown planet inhabited by androids. Very curious androids one has to say, since they were eager to study humanity. And for the lack of a better example, they studied Harry, who was not allowed to leave again. And even if the planet (his planet, since he was promoted to the nominal ruler) was a rather nice prison, filled with female androids willing to tend to all his needs, it was still a prison. So Harry started to plan his escape, this time involving involuntary help from the Enterprise. And for the first time, his escape plans were thwarted. Thus, he was forced to stay longer on his planet. Again he was accompanied by a bunch of female androids, but sadly, this time modeled on his "lovely" wife Stella. And she was not at all willing to attend any of his needs...

His further whereabouts are unknown. There are some unreliable, animated reports about his future, but since their trustworthiness is questionable, we will stick to his documented appearances. So now it is your decision: Which persona of Harry Mudd should be featured on the card? The respectable salesman from Mudd's Women or the ruler of an android planet from I, Mudd?

Voting will stay open 'til Monday, September the 20th, 8AM EDT.

-djl-