written by Stephen Kandel
Story by Gene Roddenberry
FINAL DRAFT, dated May 26, 1966
report & analysis by David Eversole

This is one of the longest scripts at 73 pages, but is relatively the same as aired, just pruned of much excessive dialogue and some fairly lame attempts at banter between Kirk and Spock (KIRK: If Vulcans never make mistakes, Spock, why do Vulcan pencils have erasers? SPOCK: For the benefit of visiting Earthmen.) (or words to that effect). This was a candidate for the second pilot, so the draft probably still retains much of what was written a year earlier.

We do learn that Harry Mudd is 47 years of age, and was born on Antares Pi Four. The nice little "They'll throw away the key!" bit is not in this script.

Spock pointed a handheld device at Mudd which was tied into the computer, and it determined his identity from that "scan."

At one point there must have been a fourth woman, as one scene leaves in a mention of one named "Trina" (in addition to the other three).

Sulu calls Farrell "James-O," instead of "Johnny-O."

Act III is much longer, and structured differently than the aired episode. Childress and Gossett come aboard, then we cut to the women and Mudd looking for the Venus Drug, then we cut to the surface of Rigel 12, and Kirk, Mudd, Spock and the women beam directly into the miners' headquarters, and Childress has the "welcome, ladies," line, then the act ends.

In the aired version, the women meet Childress and Gossett on the Enterprise, and the frantic hunt for the drug comes at a different time.

STEPHEN KANDEL (1927 - ): A renowned television writer, story editor and producer, who wrote for television and film from 1956 to 1988, in a broad range of genres. Some of the programs he wrote for included Burke's Law, The Wild Wild West, Wonder Woman, Hart To Hart and MacGuyver. In 1988, he produced the short-lived Mission: Impossible television revival.

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