Star Trek: Short Treks -- Season 1 Episode 4 (The Escape Artist)

I was kind of wondering if Harry Mudd would be back.  We don’t get a full episode, but we do get a brief look at what he’s been up to.  He’s captured by a Tellarite bounty hunter named Krit.  Mudd tries to plead his way out of captivity to no avail.  When Mudd is turned over to the nearest Starship, the bounty hunter is denied his reward for a rather surprising reason.

You don’t really need a lot to time to tell the story.  In fact, if I said that a Short Trek was too long, it would be saying something.  There’s just enough time for a few flashbacks and a twist ending.  We also see that the Federation does use some sort of credit system.  Latinum is also a thing this early in Star Trek’s histry, but the important thing is that Krit is doing this for money.

Mudd is one of those characters that won’t change.  He’ll always be up to his old tricks.  This episode is no different.  In fact, he’s even slicker than ever.  One would assume, though, that the bounty was resolved by Kirk’s time.  I don’t recall it being mentioned during either of Roger C. Carmel’s episodes, although Mudd was taken into custody at the end of his first appearance.

This episode concludes the end of Star Trek: Short Trek’s first season.  It’s odd that they would only have four episodes, but I don’t think this was meant to be expansive.  It was meant to fill the gap between the two seasons for the viewers.  (Episodes were released a month apart.)  The second season is six episodes.  Hopefully, if there is a third season, it will be a little longer.

IMDb page