I, MUDD was about as wacky as TOS episodes can be. Thanks to the tactics Kirky and Company use to defeat the androids, there is a minimal sense of menace, if it exists at all.
The story starts out as being THE most intentionally camp (which IMHO is worse than unintentionally camp), with corny, character assassination dialogue (e.g. Spock's illogical insult of "beads and rattles" and so on), but it's amazing when the episode takes a serious turn - gotta admit there is a brilliance to that, even if the comedic elements were a mixed bag. And yet, some loved it all and some loathed it all. I like it, and the Stella scenes are fantastic. Plus, Norman has some good stuff... Just keep Chekov away from anything with a start button, based on what was implied thanks to 60s censorship standards (imagine the scene being directly overt, it'd probably not be as successful but it'd still have the accompanying music)...
If anything, that story needed a more pronounced sense of menace, especially for Mudd, as the story feels like cheap pie-in-face fifties cavalcade of comedy corn. (DSC's take on Mudd was rather well-realized, though it's been a few years since I saw the episode...)
THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES and A PIECE OF THE ACTION are also dramedies with microscopic drama.
For which "Tribbles" definitely wins it (IMHO) for balancing the comedy with seriousness, even if it's still leaning a tad too much on comedic elements. But it holds its own, introduces an iconic creation, and is an easy watch.
I want to like "Action", but it just doesn't really gel. For me, but others love it - they are able to grasp and enjoy what that episode wants to be. "Action" reminds me of the Doctor Who story "The Horns of Nimon", with a potentially interesting story let down by too much inconsequential comedy thrown in.
So, in the spirit of this why-so-seriousness, does anyone believe the remaining episodes can be resolved with tongue firmly in cheek? Which if any of the others are too serious for your liking? Can any be improved, or finished with a ridiculous conclusion? What I'm proposing may be seen as ridiculous. And there lies the challenge.
"The Empath" is too serious for my liking, as I never got into the reasoning for the violence put in. The reason feels superficial and empty. I'd tweak the reason for the machinations and lighten up some scenes, a la Margaret Armen's style for the IMHO underrated "Triskeleon", which manages to sell a both sense of threat and moments of comedy that don't send up the whole thing (esp. the Bones vs Spock scenes).
Can we have an all-comedic SHORE LEAVE with all that temporary bloodshed?
Comedy is inevitably subjective, but I might wager 75 Quatloos, if not 8675309 Quatloos, most fans of "Lower Decks" would likely not complain, plus the temporary bloodshed is part of the story narrative and wouldn't stand out badly.
Can Khan Singh be laughed out of town or end with Mudd-like egg on his face?
That might be too much; the episode and situation had little room for levity. If anything, the early scenes where Kirk is all snippy might have been the comedy gag, or at least gag considering the build-up to him mispronouncing her name deliberately as "Mick Givers".
Is CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER musical-worthy and could THAT somehow save humanity all over the universe?
If done right, maybe. They could go through the portal and end up watching The Rockettes or some other Vaudeville routine, perhaps. Maybe Bob Hope was running around the place, if someone wants a sweeps week extravaganza. Keep the musical number short from being too lengthy, not breaking the 4th wall or be too full of itself (even "The Way to Eden" didn't cross that line, and it's loaded with narrative missteps) and viola.
Can T'Pau short-circuit as Norman did, if overloaded with tons of illogic?
Unlike Norman, she has an system queue buffer to detect and work around any recursively looping functions thanks to errant input.
Be as outrageous as it suits you, but your ''yes''es or ''no''s by themselves aren't desirably pure answers. They're vague suppositions. I think Kirk said that once.
At the end of the day, TOS explored many venues - total seriousness, total comedy, or various mixtures. The most positive result is that many people can end up being fans and gravitate to what they enjoy the most. I dislike excessive comedy, but can also enjoy "Tribbles" and the ilk. Plus, the build-up of the joke of the Tribbles does have some wit applied.
