Harry Mudd

Harcourt "Harry" Fenton Mudd was a human criminal and con artist in the 23rd century. He was the thorn in the side of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) on a number of occasions.

By the 2250s, Harry Mudd had started to perform his illegal activities, in 2256, Mudd worked with the Arronians to distribute their distilled liquor to the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. 

In 2260, Harry Mudd married Stella, his one true love, on Antares Pi IV. After two months of wedded bliss, Harry stowed away aboard a freighter to escape his wife. The two finally divorced in 2263. 

In 2266, Harry Mudd assumed the identity of freighter captain Leo Walsh after losing his own master's license. He acquired a Class J freighter and set out in the trade of wiving settlers. Realizing that he couldn't persuade beautiful women to become wives to settlers they've never met, Mudd managed to acquire a supply of the illegal Venus drug to persuade women that they could look beautiful and become happily married. In his first voyage he was joined by Eve McHuron, Magda Kovacs, and Ruth Bonaventure, who were due to marry settlers on Ophiucus VII.

However, on the voyage to Ophiucus, the freighter was intercepted by the USS Enterprise and forced into an asteroid belt where it was destroyed. Fortunately, Mudd and his "cargo" were transported aboard the Enterprise. Soon enough all of Mudd's lies and deceit were revealed by Captain Kirk, and he was he was institutionalized. Although he did, in fact, experience dementia (temporarily) brought on by unknown alien technology, Spock subdued him with a Vulcan meld. Afterwards, his so-called "sanity" was resolved, as were the problems stirred up between Enterprise and the Elasi. 

Mudd was sentenced to a one-year sentence in a rehabilitation colony; however, he only served six months of his sentence due to good behavior, and was released in early 2267. Shortly afterwards, Mudd resumed his old tricks, and set up an information service on Deneb V. He attempted to sell the rights of a Vulcan fuel synthesizer to the Denebians, but he was found guilty of patent fraud and sentenced to death. Ever resourceful, Mudd escaped imprisonment and stole a shuttlecraft to depart Deneb V. The shuttle took heavy fire from Denebian pursuers, and he was forced to crashland on a Class K planet. 

Mudd survived the crash and found the planet to be inhabited by androids. Mudd jumped at the chance to exploit the androids and was soon treated like a god, and renamed the planet "Mudd". The life of luxury soon became boring for Harry and he dispatched the chief android, Norman, to find a starship to allow Mudd to leave the planet. Norman arrived shortly after with the USS Enterprise, but Mudd's plan backfired when the androids revealed they intended to use the Enterprise to spread their influence across the galaxy. Mudd then worked with the crew of the Enterprise to stop them, but was marooned on the planet with 500 android versions of Stella. 

After a few months, Mudd convinced the androids that he had reformed, and they allowed him to leave with the provision that he travel with a single Stella android to watch him. After acquiring a ship he traveled to the Nevis system in 2268.

On arrival, he encountered the two worlds of Prastor and Distrel, which had been at war for centuries. He set himself up as the chief exporter of palko, thus bringing peace to the two worlds, and they declared him their peacemaker.

The situation unraveled when the Enterprise arrived in orbit - war suddenly broke out between the two planets, with Mudd and the Enterprise crew caught in the middle. When it was revealed that when the inhabitants died they were recreated and allowed to carry on, the situation became less urgent, but when the Stella android was destroyed and recreated, this seriously damaged the system. The error was resolved when the Enterprise brought the real Stella Mudd to the planet to reconcile the system. With the android Stella tied up, Harry took the opportunity to escape to the planet Arnhall. 

Later that year, Mudd posed as "The Grand Qaal" of Eulus to convince the Klingons living there to arrange dilithium mining rights with him. The dilithium Mudd sold the Klingons turned out to be synthetic, unstable and explosive. This was discovered by Kirk and the Enterprise crew. Mudd took this so badly that he kidnapped Leonard McCoy, but his ship was tractored back and Mudd was once again arrested. 

Still a general ne'er-do-well and nuisance, Mudd (shortly after events on stardate 2831.3) became caught in the middle of a Neutral Zone dispute on planet Shroud IV. He was detained after swindling a Romulan commander with forged Starfleet encryption codes he obtained from Orion pirates, but received aid from Kirk by using Dr. McCoy's communicator, which he had pickpocketed after a brief encounter at a bar that didn't allow "Federation types". He was rescued and departed in true fashion, but not without leaving a small stash of (real) dilithium crystals. Ironically, this allowed the Enterprise to not only fight the Bird of Prey in orbit, but cross the Neutral Zone back to Federation space. In yet another twist, McCoy's other communicator drew the crew back to Sigma Iota, the cause of their entire displacement into uncharted Beta Quadrant space. 

Mudd later arrived on planet Ilyria VI and reopened the Mudd Free Information Exchange. One of his biggest achievements on Ilyria was in selling Starfleet Academy to the natives and using the credits to travel to Sirius IX. While on Sirius, Mudd developed a love potion which he sold to the Sirians, resulting in violent allergic reactions, and all of Mudd's funds were impounded in the Bank of Sirius, forcing Mudd to leave Federation space and travel to Motherlode in 2269.

At Motherlode, Mudd attempted to sell his love potion to the native miners, but this didn't go down well, and he was apprehended by the crew of the Enterprise. He attempted to escape after persuading Nurse Christine Chapel to allow him access to a shuttlecraft. He was returned to the Enterprise and faced charges for his actions. 

Mudd turned up again in 2285, and later in 2287, to irritate Kirk and his crew. 

By 2288, his notoriety had reached every known sector to such extent that his escapades were required study material in Starfleet Academy. One of the sophomore-junior year simulations was that of a mock rescue attempt which cadets were required to pass. In the simulation, the classroom/bridge was to protect his small freighter, the Stella, while also negotiate with a hostile Romulan warbird.