• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x07 - "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"

Rate the episode...


  • Total voters
    335
Also, all of this was totally Lorca's fault. If he had taken Mudd with him from the Klingon ship like a proper Starfleet officer and sent him to the Federation authorities none of this would have happened.
 
I think someone commented Tilly is the functioning autistic girl who is exuberant and effervesant rather than withdrawn. The kind who asks if you want to have sex after five minutes and shares inappropriate observations and details about her life as well as crewmates.

I'm more confused why Stella is meant to be a punishment. She seems a sweet and supportive girl.

I feel bad for her, not Mudd.
How awesome would it be if her skin was green as well. :luvlove:

I read your post and instantly had a mental image of Orion Tilly with the same red hair.
 
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
By all rights he should have been killed for his actions and knowledge of the Discovery, alas we know he survives to meet Kirk so they had to deal with him in another way.
And that, to me, is more evidence that Starfleet will jettison this whole Displaced Advanced Spore Hub Drive idea by the time we see him again in "Mudd's Women".

I can imagine him at one point trying to sell his knowledge of the Spore Drive's existence, and being proven to be false because it no longer exists and was Starfleet's secret anyway.
 
Oh man, only skimmed through the first dozen or so pages of this thread, but I think everything that I liked about this episode has been thoroughly pointed out and also equally bashed. It's amazing to see how polarizing the show can be. Good or bad, it definitely develops a strong conversation.
And THAT is what makes for good TV. The haters don't even realize it, their vociferous negativity only reinforces that the show is worth talking about, even if the majority of their shitposts are contextually irrelevant. I don't think the show itself is polarizing, per se, but the audience watching most certainly is. A symptom of the times in which we live, sadly. Plus, there is also the tangential "Disco vs. Orville" nonsense going on. I personally love both of them.
 
I enjoyed the episode. I liked that Stamets got some development, and the beginnings of a Burnham/Stamets friendship.

My only issue is that Mudd's actions were far too brutal for him to get off with being handed over to his Haught fiancee. He should have gone to a Starfleet prison. Besides, he knows too much about the spore drive and Staments role in it.
 
So my thoughts...

This was a risky choice as a first standalone. Timeloop episodes in sci-fi shows are a slightly dubious proposition at the best of times and we are dealing with the franchise that produced what I consider the pinnacle of the art - Cause and Effect.

Discovery chose to do an action/comedy version of the plot which was probably wise - it avoids comparison with TNG and takes a different spin. Of course, it does attract comparison with the other giant of the genre, SG-1's Window of Opportunity.

So. Did what we get work? Mostly, yes. It was fast paced, punchy, and with an irreverent sense of dark humour which I enjoyed. There were some true laugh out loud moments, and once again Lorca shone through and stole the show. "I don't care", "still don't care".

@matthunter said that Burnham was Seven of Nine this week and this is bang on. The writers can't quite seem to nail down where along the Vulcan<-->Human spectrum Burnham actually is, and it seems to change subtly each week. This wasn't her strongest episode, and while I was sold on her arc, I'm conscious that without the voiceover bookends I may not have been.

Stamets did a good job of holding the story this week, and I enjoyed Rapp's take on someone going steadily mad with frustration. I would have liked a little more of Hugh in the episode, but it was pretty jam packed as it was.

Mudd was very good. I still think he's a bit of fanwank and the you're mad/no I'm Mudd thing got all the eyerolls. But I liked how they made him unapologetically nasty, without seeming overly comic booky. He's a real twat, and it was played well. I'm not entirely sold on the resolution (they had every opportunity to arrest him), but it was mandated by the need to set up the TOS character. Which only plays into the fanwank thing - this could have been an original character.

I loved the tone this week, and demonstrated that Discovery isn't the dour and joyless war series people claim it is. It did a good job with the premise overall. Enjoyed it. Just keep an eye on the fanwank.

Overall, 6/10
 
I just enjoyed this one...as well!
It is developing quite nicely....nothing is perfect but this show has a nice thing of its own going on!
And I friggin' love the ship now....such a place of wonders!
 
Exactly! I doubt Stella ever really acted that way. Harry was (by that time) so pissed off at her that he intentionally programmed the android to be the worst it could be. Not necessarily anything like the real Stella.

Well, I got the impression that Stella is a crazy (ex-)girlfriend type.
 
I voted six. By the end, i was back on board, but lost interest a bit in the middle. What I don't get is why they let the cunt go free? He'd attempted piracy for goodness sakes.
 
This was so bad. A few things I picked out:

-The 32 year old actress who plays Tilly acting like a 18 year old cadet "gone wild"
-Tilly looking to pork everything that moved. Cringe.
-The crappy Bee Gees hiphop mashup playing with the shot of the Discovery windows on every time reset instance. Is this the boomer writers' idea of contemporary music? Or just a play on "ST: Disco"?
-Burnham and the guy from the Klingon prison (forget his name) dancing
-I felt they could have come up with a much better plot device to use with Mudd's shenanigans
 
Mudd was very good. I still think he's a bit of fanwank and the you're mad/no I'm Mudd thing got all the eyerolls. But I liked how they made him unapologetically nasty, without seeming overly comic booky. He's a real twat, and it was played well. I'm not entirely sold on the resolution (they had every opportunity to arrest him), but it was mandated by the need to set up the TOS character. Which only plays into the fanwank thing - this could have been an original character.

Actually, they could have arrested and incarcerated him and it would still have set up the TOS Roger C. Carmel version of Mudd:
From TOS - Mudd's Women:
COMPUTER: Full data coming on screen.
RUTH: If it can read our minds, too.
MUDD: It can't, darling. It can't. Just what's on the record.
COMPUTER: Offense record. Smuggling. Sentence suspended. Transport of stolen goods. Purchase of space vessel with counterfeit currency. Sentences, psychiatric treatment, effectiveness disputed.

Now, if I were the Federation, and I didn't want knowledge of an ultimately failed piece of dangerous and experimental tech, I'd leave that off Mudd's record too. The writers left it this way, so that Mudd's able to return either later this season or in a future season.
I believe it was stated Mudd was in three episodes - so we still have another coming if that's the case.
 
Hearing 20th century style club music in the 23rd century Trek world made me cringe. I may sound like an old fogie saying that but whatever.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top