The
starship Enterprise receives orders to arrest
Federation outlaw
Harry Mudd, who is accused of selling fake love-crystals. Intercepting Mudd on the mining colony of Motherlode, they bring him aboard the
Enterprise. Mudd explains that he escaped the custody of the android planet by stealing a ship. While on Ilyra VI, Mudd committed fraud by selling Starfleet Space Academy to its inhabitants. His sale earned him enough credits to get him to Sirius IX. [Motherlode] After convincing
Nurse Chapel to use a love-crystal to win the affection of the
Vulcan Science Officer, Mr.
Spock, Mudd abducts her, steals a
shuttlecraft, and escapes to a rocky planet. During the battle between Mudd and Chapel, some of his love-crystals are broken near an air-vent. The love-crystal affects Spock, making him insist on pursuing Mudd to the planet, accompanied by
Captain Kirk. The broken love-crystals affect the entire crew of the
Enterprise. As Mudd told them, the love-crystals are heterosexual in nature, inducing feelings of love in those of opposite sex and friendship in those of the same sex. Kirk and Spock find Chapel and Mudd, but the four of them are attacked by creatures made of rock which inhabit the planet. Moreover, a new phase of the love-crystals' influence causes them to bicker with each other, while the ship's crew are too intoxicated by the love-crystals to beam them back up. To buy time, Kirk throws the remaining love-crystals to the rock creatures. The four are beamed back to the
Enterprise, where Spock notes that the love-crystals' short duration and after-effect of enmity make them of little value, and Chapel records a confession of Mudd's misdeeds since his escape from the android planet so that he can be returned to rehabilitation. == Reception ==