Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x07 - "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
As a classic time repeating Star Trek episode goes, this wasn't nearly as good as the others. But that aside, it was still a good episode, but IMO just above average.
My episode count so far; 3 good, 1 above average, 1 meh, 2 bad.
I enjoyed the character interactions in this one, but the time repeating stuff didn't work for me, and the ending was way to abrupt. I got lost in all the scientific mumbo jumbo, probably because I'm stoned, and can't even remember how they tricked Mudd. That ending just seemed too easy and convenient for some reason.
My episode count so far; 3 good, 1 above average, 1 meh, 2 bad.
I enjoyed the character interactions in this one, but the time repeating stuff didn't work for me, and the ending was way to abrupt. I got lost in all the scientific mumbo jumbo, probably because I'm stoned, and can't even remember how they tricked Mudd. That ending just seemed too easy and convenient for some reason.
A lot can happen to both Harry and Stella in more than 10 years. Harry was never an egalitarian hero in TOS and was willing to strand 430 Starfleet officers and crewmen on a planet full of androids so that he could steal the Enterprise. Even during "Mudd's Women" he boasted that the dilithium miners on Rigel XII would make he and his ladies so rich that he'd be running the Enterprise and unseat Kirk as Captain. Let's not mince words here: Harry was never a saint nor close to it. Whenever he does good it's to save his own hide and he has to be forced into cooperating with our heroes so as to avoid prison time or worse.
And Stella? In ten years she could easiily become an embittered middle aged woman who resents Harry for running out on her and his father-in-law.
And Stella? In ten years she could easiily become an embittered middle aged woman who resents Harry for running out on her and his father-in-law.
She didn't. They just eliminated the "telephone" sequences of her telling Stamets and his repeating her findings back to her over several time loops.
A time crystal!
Welcome to the TOS era, home of oh some much wierd shit.
I'm thinking Lorca just wanted to avoid Saru nagging him about it.
It was nice to see Khitomer and the Azure Nebula on the star map. I'm sure there were other planets on there. I could have sworn that I saw a planet named "Archer," perhaps the psychotropic spore planet visited in "Strange New World(ENT)" (and also "Yesterday's Enterprise(TNG)") or the second planet named after the Captain as was mentioned in "IaMD"?
I wonder if they are doing anything with Tyler as people speculate because it'd have to be one hell of a long con at this point.
EDIT: I guess if Burnham has never loved this could be some supreme revenge but oy...
EDIT: I guess if Burnham has never loved this could be some supreme revenge but oy...
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I noticed. But considering that TOS itself was inconsistent with its own stardates (and the fact that the new series isn't using Kelvin timeline stardates to mark time) I can swallow that.
I thought this one was OK, though it's my least favorite Discovery ep so far. Could have used another turn or two through the rewrite cycle to get all the way there.
I've never been that into TOS specifically, and it's been many years since I've seen either Mudd episode, so my recollection is not the freshest, but DIS seemed to trip itself up with canon concerns from both directions at once. Given the events we just saw, the comeuppance for Mudd was so unsatisfying -- real consequences, an actual punishment, was in order, and this wasn't it. It felt like the only reason we were getting this ending was to place Mudd in the right spot to connect with this TOS appearances. At the same time, Mudd here was so vastly powerful and gleefully homicidal, it's hard to connect this to his TOS portrayal at all, and I kept wondering why they didn't just use a new or different character. So, though I do like Rainn Wilson in the role, I was left with the frustrating paradoxical feeling of finding this simultaneously too beholden and not beholden enough to canon.
Setup-wise, it felt like this cried out to be a Stamets episode, and the reason they didn't go that route is because they're trying to hold back reveals about what the spore drive is doing to him. Maybe I'm off base with that, but it felt frustrating.
And the climactic defeat of Mudd in the last time cycle just felt a bit out-of-nowhere -- it didn't have the brilliant crescendo of our characters finally getting everything to click that I was hoping for. It held together well enough for me to go along with it, but I want more from this show than a merely passing grade.
All that being said, I still loved the character material along the way. Among Trek, only DS9 succeeded in enamoring me to it's characters so quickly. This is a really strong cast playing compelling characters, and that counts for a lot.
I've never been that into TOS specifically, and it's been many years since I've seen either Mudd episode, so my recollection is not the freshest, but DIS seemed to trip itself up with canon concerns from both directions at once. Given the events we just saw, the comeuppance for Mudd was so unsatisfying -- real consequences, an actual punishment, was in order, and this wasn't it. It felt like the only reason we were getting this ending was to place Mudd in the right spot to connect with this TOS appearances. At the same time, Mudd here was so vastly powerful and gleefully homicidal, it's hard to connect this to his TOS portrayal at all, and I kept wondering why they didn't just use a new or different character. So, though I do like Rainn Wilson in the role, I was left with the frustrating paradoxical feeling of finding this simultaneously too beholden and not beholden enough to canon.
Setup-wise, it felt like this cried out to be a Stamets episode, and the reason they didn't go that route is because they're trying to hold back reveals about what the spore drive is doing to him. Maybe I'm off base with that, but it felt frustrating.
And the climactic defeat of Mudd in the last time cycle just felt a bit out-of-nowhere -- it didn't have the brilliant crescendo of our characters finally getting everything to click that I was hoping for. It held together well enough for me to go along with it, but I want more from this show than a merely passing grade.
All that being said, I still loved the character material along the way. Among Trek, only DS9 succeeded in enamoring me to it's characters so quickly. This is a really strong cast playing compelling characters, and that counts for a lot.
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Tilly is the cutest thing to hit deep space since the Care Bear Supernova of 2215.
My editing sense is tingling and telling me there was a trimmed line in the scene where Tilly and Michael find the ship hidden in the Space Whale where Michael told Tilly to find Stamets and loop him in on the plan before she went to confront Mudd. It's the perfect intersection of "logically should be there" and "cut for pacing because we've already established the characters understand the rules and are, implicitly, going to do this because they're not stupid and the audience will figure out they did it because otherwise nothing makes sense." It's the last part that's tricky.
It's not out of line with the amount of time that's passed since the stardate in "The Vulcan Hello", though, assuming another month or two has passed during the montage of the opening entry. There's not really any system behind TOS dates to begin with, at least compared to the consistent 1000-per-season set in the TNG era.
Thought you were done with the series etc etc
Oh, yeah and the same guy gave a planet to a bunch of people who murdered one of his crew right in front of him!!! What's with that guy????
Thought Discovery was supposed to be 10 years prior to TOS...
And according to one of the printed Star Trek Compendiums from the 1980s and 1990s "Patterns of Force(TOS)" had a stardate of 2534.0 or thereabouts, one that while never mentioned in the episode itself may have been in the script and never recorded as a line of dialogue. The Enterprise's visit to Ekos happened in 2268, well into the 4000-5000 range in stardates.
