Tis the month of cozy late winter love, and the galaxy’s most notorious con-man has the perfect product. Harry Mudd makes another appearance in black market sales, this time peddling crystals that supposedly act as a ‘love potion’. The user simply eats a crystal and touches their intended target to induce irresistible feelings of love if they are opposite sex, and friendship if it is same sex. No homo. Ethical issues aside, even Mudd doesn’t believe they work. When he offered Nurse Chapel a chance to try one out, with the promise that dear old Spock may finally love her, she reluctantly goes along with it. Although it had a delayed effect, the snake oil crystals proved to not be snake oil after all, and a newly infatuated Mr. Spock comes to Nurse Chapel’s rescue when she is stranded on the hostile planet below.
Love potions are nothing new in the realm of storytelling, with versions dating back to Greek myths and most likely earlier than that. Harry Mudd’s version put a new twist on an old idea by concocting a duel-action love and friendship effect. This reaction to the crystals also wore off rapidly and turned to disdain instead, much like a magical hangover. The whole phenomenon begs the question as to how these things work. How does a substance induce love or friendship in a target organism, and then evoke bitterness when the effects wear off? To answer such a question, we must first ask what love is. Is it familiarity over time? Is it a genuine affinity toward another person’s uniqueness and individuality which evokes a sense of kinship and affection that cannot be transferred to someone else? Probably yes to all of that, but this is unlikely the mechanism of a love potion working in a science fiction setting.
A drug that aims to artificially induce an emotion is most likely trying to replicate the hormonal effect of such a feeling. For example, the idea of fear is emotional, based on past experiences or aversion to potential harm. The hormonal effect of fear is an increase in adrenaline. One could inject adrenaline and ‘feel’ fearful when there is nothing to be fearful about. If it is possible to hormonally induce the feeling of love or affection, then how does one link this effect to an intended target? For Mudd’s crystals to work, one must touch their intended target. This might induce a nervous system response and connect it with the person who consumed the crystals…or Star Trek magic, one of the two. Once the effect wears off, the inner resentment could be one of embarrassment at the realization of what happened. Love is best when it is slow and natural. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hopeless Trekkie 