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

Rate the episode...


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a bad episode. This is not the 60´s.
I don t understand how someone can write something like this. The worst episode so far.

It had a bit of good content, but overall, I agree. When I binge re-watch the series after season one concludes, I might skip watching this episode. As for the other episodes, well, I can imagine watching them 53+ times.
 
So Cadet Tilly, seemingly socially awkward, turns out to be a party animal! I found that funny, unexpected, refreshing, and it made her somewhat neurotic persona much more bearable, and her character more interestingly filled out. Also, in spite of her "flaws" - and we all have flaws - she has now substantially helped Burnham on multiple occasions in significant ways. We might have thought Burnham had it pretty much together, Vulcan logic and training and all, but Tilly is really helping her to be more complete. Tilly helped Burnham overcome her trepidation about opening the case and viewing the message Captain Georgiou left her, she helped in the shuttle rescuing Sarek, helped Burnham socially integrate and deal with her feelings, and more. Burnham, initially respectfully tolerant of her snoring cabin mate, has really made Tilly her confidant, to great purpose. I was initially somewhat repulsed by her, and I think she was designed to have that effect, though I admit I was highly judgmental. But then as her character developed, I was reminded that everyone can have profound contributions, and life experiences that are important to share by way of empowering others, and I think the writers also intended to impart that lesson. We are also reminded that people of lower rank (though for the time being, Tilly outranks no-rank Burnham) may have wisdom to impart to those of higher rank, so we should always remain receptive to ideas and reflections of others, no matter the source. So I have a new regard and appreciation for Tilly, and feel a little embarrassed by my initial limited judgmental assessment of her. I think she CAN make captain one day, presuming that she avoids some horrific sacrificial fate beforehand, and given her sense of service and dedication, that is not an impossible fate. But I hope she sticks around.
 
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I can't help but wonder if Mudd was so effortlessly able to use his tech to get the upper hand against an elite starfleet crew on a war footing, killing them all again and again so casually, wouldn't he have been better off using it to kill his debtors?
 
So, where did Harry Mudd get a Time Agent's vortex manipulator anyway? And I'm sure I've seen this episode a few times since TNG's second season, or thereabouts...

Also, Mudd is great in this show, but I can't relate this Mudd to the original Mudd (I mean, I can't see the original being a victim of long-term torture, or murdering Kirk over 50 times...)

Stamets is great, and still tripping - it must be the space mushrooms...
 
In
I like maps

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Indeed. My rule for now is that the non-legible or almost non-legible stuff isn't really canon, though obviously that could change if we get a more focused view.

Still, this tells us that a fairly large portion of the border is indeed in the Beta Quadrant, and that Kronos is fairly close to the border as well. It also shows that Kronos and Praxis (I'd say that was actually legible enough) were actually quite far away from the AQ, which sort of complicates STVI, but that's alright.
 
I can't help but wonder if Mudd was so effortlessly able to use his tech to get the upper hand against an elite starfleet crew on a war footing, killing them all again and again so casually, wouldn't he have been better off using it to kill his debtors?

No revenge against Lorca in that one.

He isn't a rational person with rational motivations,
 
No revenge against Lorca in that one.

He isn't a rational person with rational motivations,

I wasn't sure about this, was it really about revenge or was that just a bonus? He certainly seemed motivated by the extra profit he would get for Burnham and it's been a recurring theme that his story is defined by extravagant debts.
 
I wasn't sure about this, was it really about revenge or was that just a bonus? He certainly seemed motivated by the extra profit he would get for Burnham and it's been a recurring theme that his story is defined by extravagant debts.

I mean, someone rational like myself wouldn't get into those debts in the first place, and If I did i would assume to take care of those as opposed to do something crazy.\

So I may not be capable of rendering a real judgment but I try to remind myself that batshit people do batshit things in batshit ways.

You're probably right, and i'm probably just trying to justify my fanboy love.
 
I would just have liked a line of dialogue addressing the reason for playing ancient dance music at their party.
Then assume it, if it makes you feel better. The absence of such a statement has zero impact upon the story and its presence would have none either. By leaving it to the viewer to speculate, there is room for multiple explanations without limitation. Explicitly stated reasons, where unnecessary, simply impoverish possibilities and almost always annoy those for whom the specificity does not match their expectations.

I will never understand the desire To. Have. Everything. Spelled. Out. in entertainment.
 
I wasn't sure about this, was it really about revenge or was that just a bonus? He certainly seemed motivated by the extra profit he would get for Burnham and it's been a recurring theme that his story is defined by extravagant debts.
The problem here is those [magic[ time crystals make the spore drive look quaint and would be significantly more valuable.
 
Then assume it, if it makes you feel better. The absence of such a statement has zero impact upon the story and its presence would have none either. By leaving it to the viewer to speculate, there is room for multiple explanations without limitation. Explicitly stated reasons, where unnecessary, simply impoverish possibilities and almost always annoy those for whom the specificity does not match their expectations.

I will never understand the desire To. Have. Everything. Spelled. Out. in entertainment
Generally speaking, I agree. That's why I didn't ask for everything to be spelled out. And if you're telling me that you've never had that one thing you wanted a line of dialogue to explain...then I'm happy for you. And if you're telling me that the issue of the music didn't need an explanation, then obviously we disagree. :)
 
it was beyond stupid that Michael was the only person the gay dude could convince of the loop considering he comes up with the brilliant idea of "tell me something you've never told anyone so next time you'll know what i'm saying is the truth" - that logic wouldn't work on the captain (the very person who decides to beam the whale onto the ship)?

The writing is terrible. If they hadn't forced themselves into the narrative that the black chick is central to everyone else, the story and characters could develop more naturally. That 1 woman who was like "nah, fuck you' towards Burnham got mauled to death minutes later.
 
Generally speaking, I agree. That's why I didn't ask for everything to be spelled out. And if you're telling me that you've never had that one thing you wanted a line of dialogue to explain...then I'm happy for you.
It happens, but I drop it as soon as I can determine it has no bearing on the story. If I can’t determine that, then I’m disappointed in the lack of explanation. It’s usually pretty rare that it’s necessary, though.

And if you're telling me that the issue of the music didn't need an explanation, then obviously we disagree. :)
I guess so. It never occurred to me to even question it as I watched—no more than when Mozart or bebop is part of the background. I have hosted house parties, with booze and dancing, where Mozart, Miles Davis, AND Al Green were on the playlist. No one was confused or wanting to leave early.
 
it was beyond stupid that Michael was the only person the gay dude could convince of the loop considering he comes up with the brilliant idea of "tell me something you've never told anyone so next time you'll know what i'm saying is the truth" - that logic wouldn't work on the captain (the very person who decides to beam the whale onto the ship)?

The writing is terrible. If they hadn't forced themselves into the narrative that the black chick is central to everyone else, the story and characters could develop more naturally. That 1 woman who was like "nah, fuck you' towards Burnham got mauled to death minutes later.

So, what are you really saying?
 
Regarding the party music, I'm an obsessive Top 40 buff, and music buff generally, and I want to clear something up, not that it matters much. That wasn't "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees. It was another song that sampled from it. Why do I bring that up? Because suggesting that it's anachronistic is silly. The song "Shiny Happy People" by REM samples from "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" by Mozart. "Bonny Portmore" by Loreena McKennitt is a remake of a song from (at least) the 1840s. There are countless examples of artists remaking songs that go back even thousands of years. Thousands of examples of an artist sampling from another artist, even decades apart. None of this seems likely to change any time soon, and recorded and digital music just makes it more likely.

Quit nitpicking the music. It's not as glaring as "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star playing in the Wing Commander movie - and even that was okay, really, because there's no reason it couldn't be played in the future - it was just unfortunately VERY contemporary when the movie came out.
 
Bit rot can exist on HDD platters, flash/SSD drives, DVDs and Blu-Rays (even more so with DIY burnable discs than pressed ones)... flash/SSDs are theorized to have up to 10 year data retention, in ideal conditions. An EMP wipes out anything magnetic so if NK launches a shiny happy nuke say "toodles" to the radius where the bomb goes splodey over... there's a reason why countries around NK have more concerns than California...

So the probability is, in 300 years, all the cat videos will be safe. Due only to redundancy and only if major cat-astrophe doesn't happen.

And there's no way humanity can go back to the 1000s, one way or the other.
See... That's the nice thing about the Google datacenters. There are multiple locations with multiple data redundancies (not even including the fact that datacenters employ storage systems with hot-swappable RAID setups where if one drive in the array starts to get funky the admin gets a warning, replaces the drive with a blank spare, and the array rebuilds itself). You could literally blow half of Google's datacenters off the face of the planet and nobody would even notice a single hiccup. Google's DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) has multiple routing entries for their datacenters and propagates that data to other DNS providers.

With the proliferation of everybody storing everybody in "the cloud" (or what we IT professionals call "somebody else's computer on the Internet") no data will ever die.
 
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