I enjoyed the short...felt very Mudd-like to me throughout. Loved the twist at the end!
Spoilers Star Trek: Short Treks 1x04 - "The Escape Artist"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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This was an ok short, but for me the biggest take away was that THE ORIONS WERE ACTUALLY GREEN! Holy crap, I never thought I'd see the day where Discovery would make Orion's visibly green, since season 1 had every orion be pale vomit green (the all looked like corpses to me, like they were Orions who had become zombies or something). But, while not as green as they could have been, I could identify the orions in this episode immediately.
Of course, to compensate for this they introduced a tellarite design that is the second worst design in the franchise (after the STD "klingons"), but who cares. An alien race besides the vulcans looks mostly like they should. So, a decent story and actual Orions? This is easily the best short (and the only good short in my opinion, and that is impressive since I disliked this magical psychopath version of Mudd in the actual show).
Of course, to compensate for this they introduced a tellarite design that is the second worst design in the franchise (after the STD "klingons"), but who cares. An alien race besides the vulcans looks mostly like they should. So, a decent story and actual Orions? This is easily the best short (and the only good short in my opinion, and that is impressive since I disliked this magical psychopath version of Mudd in the actual show).
Thought it was the best Tellarite design I've ever seen. Every other time they've looked like a guy with a rubber pig snout glued on. They actually put some time and effort into this one.
I never really liked Harry Mudd on the original series. Both of his episodes bore me to tears. Rainn Wilson really makes the character shine. This was just a fun little episode.
Oh, dunno about that - the three miners plus the mail order wife seemed to be the entire population of the place, and busy with what they were doing. At the end of "Mudd's Women", Mudd wants to remain on Rigel XII, and Kirk flat out refuses.
Kirk also directly refers to an upcoming trial. UFP authorities would appear to have gotten hold of Mudd at that juncture, then. And Kirk cannot figure out how Mudd dodged that by "I, Mudd".
I don't really get that impression from either "Little Girls" or "I, Mudd". To the contrary, "Return to Tomorrow" has Mulhall prefer her own folks building the androids for Sargon over letting the noncorporeal superentity do it, as if android building were fairly mundane in the UFP.
This takes place in around the same time frame as ST: D season 2. (Hell, I hope we see Mudd run into the Discovery under Pike this season.).
Agreed and seconded!
More accurately, it went the way of the dinosaur. So, birds now.
All the more fun for characters like Mudd to try and catch...
Timo Saloniemi
Yeah, "The Brightest Star" was good, this was some kind of ... meh.
The first 14 minutes results boring to me, the last minute was pure gold. But that not compensate the first others.
This is -to me- like a Superman thing: only Christopher Reeves could play the real Superman. In this case, only Roger C Carmel could play to Harry Mudd.
But this was a good episode.
Cmmdr Data looks like a Lego bricks construction, after the Mudd's androids.
I hope better things come over the time.
It is bad, really bad not to have international distribuition, again
The first 14 minutes results boring to me, the last minute was pure gold. But that not compensate the first others.
This is -to me- like a Superman thing: only Christopher Reeves could play the real Superman. In this case, only Roger C Carmel could play to Harry Mudd.
But this was a good episode.
Cmmdr Data looks like a Lego bricks construction, after the Mudd's androids.
I hope better things come over the time.
It is bad, really bad not to have international distribuition, again
I agree with the assessment (it was @eschaton 's IIRC) of:
1) Calypso
2) The Escape Artist (and BTW artist, de Milo, get it?)
3) The Brightest Star
4) Runaway
The latter 2 had rushed endings which is why I rank them as I do, whereas the top 2 had great, neat closure.
I think this was after Magic but my husband (and sorry, I've forgotten who also said this) said there might have been one, er, gormagander violation. 20 attempted murder charges could have all been the various Lorca abuses, plus the communications guy (he's played by Rodney Rowe, jr. but I'm blanking on the character's name) and Tyler.
Given that we now have established that Mudd sends androids out to do his dirty work, maybe it was an android in the Klingon prison and not the real guy?
1) Calypso
2) The Escape Artist (and BTW artist, de Milo, get it?)
3) The Brightest Star
4) Runaway
The latter 2 had rushed endings which is why I rank them as I do, whereas the top 2 had great, neat closure.
I think this was after Magic but my husband (and sorry, I've forgotten who also said this) said there might have been one, er, gormagander violation. 20 attempted murder charges could have all been the various Lorca abuses, plus the communications guy (he's played by Rodney Rowe, jr. but I'm blanking on the character's name) and Tyler.
Given that we now have established that Mudd sends androids out to do his dirty work, maybe it was an android in the Klingon prison and not the real guy?
Twenty is an odd number.
I mean, Lorca should count either as just one, or then fifty-three. But Mudd also sorta-killed the entire crew of the ship on every loop but the final one - why would that differ from sorta-killing Lorca? So the ante ought to be 173 or whatever.
Does that mean that one Mudd (android or otherwise) is still happily married with Stella?
Timo Saloniemi
I mean, Lorca should count either as just one, or then fifty-three. But Mudd also sorta-killed the entire crew of the ship on every loop but the final one - why would that differ from sorta-killing Lorca? So the ante ought to be 173 or whatever.
Does that mean that one Mudd (android or otherwise) is still happily married with Stella?
Timo Saloniemi
No way was that an Android. Mudd hates Lorca. That hatred would not exist if it was an android that was left behind. Further if it were an android how would the Mudd in the loop episode even know about the prison?
If the Mudd from "Choose Your Pain" was an android, the Klingons would have found out.
Same here. I was dreading Mudd in Discovery but Wilson has done such a great job with the character that I’m starting to look forward to his episodes. Hope he comes back in season 2
The Androids in TOS were pretty good.
But not sentient. That's where Data is (was) unique.
And Data was supposed to be a prick. I mean a brick. That is, I mean a prick. It was in the design specs: an idiot brother to Lore, one that won't frighten the villagers quite so much (since the clown makeup didn't do the pacifying job on its own yet).
But yes, TOS was full of good androids. Flexible androids, capable of looking like humans but supposedly not limited to that. DSC is entitled to those as well. The only debate there is whether those can be of UFP manufacture or not - and nobody seems to think Data is intriguing because he's an android, only because he has positronic sentience. Although other sorts of sentience might be old news, because, to be frank, nobody seems to think that Data is intriguing, period. He's unceremoniously dumped on Starfleet, which pays zero attention to him or his origins for the first dozen years or so. It's only when it turns out he's a genuine Picasso, that is, Soong, that people start showing interest.
Timo Saloniemi
But yes, TOS was full of good androids. Flexible androids, capable of looking like humans but supposedly not limited to that. DSC is entitled to those as well. The only debate there is whether those can be of UFP manufacture or not - and nobody seems to think Data is intriguing because he's an android, only because he has positronic sentience. Although other sorts of sentience might be old news, because, to be frank, nobody seems to think that Data is intriguing, period. He's unceremoniously dumped on Starfleet, which pays zero attention to him or his origins for the first dozen years or so. It's only when it turns out he's a genuine Picasso, that is, Soong, that people start showing interest.
Timo Saloniemi
Yeah,after what was seen in TOS, Data comes across as a step backwards.
Well, he is fully functional.
What are little Datas made of?
What are little Datas made of?
Not sure what the various philosophical arguments are about. Starfleet certainly appears to be military, albeit with an exploratory function. It has military rank and structure, military discipline, military training, etc. it also seems highly unlikely that the Federation is totally without some form of compensation, though money as we know it is apparently not in use. Religion and belief in a god or gods is also clearly still in existence, though many characters believe in nothing and others are agnostic.
The reference to Mudd’s secret resistance makes me wonder if some such group/philosphy really exists. Maybe it is the beginnings of the later Maquis. For that matter, maybe Craft in the Calypso episode is a descendant of such a group. Humans or humanoids will generally desire freedom and something to test their abilities against and will rebel against far away power structures, no matter how well meaning. And every generation will probably produce its share of Mudds and a few wars.
The reference to Mudd’s secret resistance makes me wonder if some such group/philosphy really exists. Maybe it is the beginnings of the later Maquis. For that matter, maybe Craft in the Calypso episode is a descendant of such a group. Humans or humanoids will generally desire freedom and something to test their abilities against and will rebel against far away power structures, no matter how well meaning. And every generation will probably produce its share of Mudds and a few wars.
Sure they were. Kirk fell in love with one. Her sentience pretty much killed her.
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