At the close of "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" Mudd is delivered into the adoring hands of Stella (who has supremely questionable taste in men) and her father, and a promise is elicited from Stella's father to keep him "out of Starfleet's way." That's all well and good in terms of a very entertaining way to wrap up this episode, and it was fun to see young Stella, and it works in maintaining canon re Mudd's continued freedom so that he can later become a major headache for Kirk a decade later. And of course it was fun to see Mudd's interaction with his dear Stella. But given the chaos Mudd caused Discovery's crew, and his multiple murders and other crimes while on board Discovery (though "erased" via time looping), and the general threat he represents, wouldn't it have made far more sense for him to have been taken into custody and charged with multiple crimes? Well that would certainly have been a far less entertaining way to end the episode, but far more logical. I guess we are just meant to sit back and enjoy the ride, and suspend critical thinking. We could either be hypercritical and pick apart every flaw, or just suspend belief and enjoy the show. What do you think? I like the new far more evil Mudd, but miss Roger C. Carmel's handlebar mustache, much more fitting for the villain that he is!
Harcourt Fenton Mudd
- Thread starter _Roger_
- Start date
Nice to see Stella. Never thought we would. I thought the show would just pay lip service to her the way Cheers did with Vera.
And yeah, I'm liking this version of Harry Mudd now that the episodes have aired. In the trailers he came across as as a little too stilted and sinister.
And yeah, I'm liking this version of Harry Mudd now that the episodes have aired. In the trailers he came across as as a little too stilted and sinister.
If they hadn't done it this way, we wouldn't have had the pleasure of hearing Stella say,
"Harcourt Fenton Mudd, where have you been?"
Critical thinking would dictate that, because of everything being reset by the time loop, the only thing he could technically be charged with is giving an endangered species a bad case of indigestion.
He did break and enter, hijacking the starship's systems before being welcomed to the bridge as her new captain. Or at least he thought he did, but arranging for him to fail there and not notice it is a bit more difficult and time-consuming than rewiring the Captain's Chair, I'd think. It's just that this time our heroes reversed the hijacking in time.
In the end, Mudd killed nobody. Had he had his way, he wouldn't have killed Lorca, either - but he would have killed Tyler. Perhaps a couple of weeks in the same cell does that to a man?
Interestingly, Mudd is the only character who can contradict the current belief that Tyler had been rotting in that cell for seven months. This timespan was suggested by Lorca, so we don't know if it's just a case of Tyler not knowing for sure how long he had been in, and accepting the false statement (false because L'Rell hasn't been on that ship for that long, this we know for a fact), or a case of Tyler being disingenuous.
Is this why he has to return?
Timo Saloniemi
In the end, Mudd killed nobody. Had he had his way, he wouldn't have killed Lorca, either - but he would have killed Tyler. Perhaps a couple of weeks in the same cell does that to a man?
Interestingly, Mudd is the only character who can contradict the current belief that Tyler had been rotting in that cell for seven months. This timespan was suggested by Lorca, so we don't know if it's just a case of Tyler not knowing for sure how long he had been in, and accepting the false statement (false because L'Rell hasn't been on that ship for that long, this we know for a fact), or a case of Tyler being disingenuous.
Is this why he has to return?
Timo Saloniemi
C
Captain pl1ngpl0ng
Guest
If one can trust Imdb, they got him listed with 4 episodes in 2017.
Even with a time loop reset, didn't the victims suffer, even if they forgot that they did? In a non-time-loop scenario, if someone is victim to an assault, and heals, and suffers amnesia about the event (like people sometimes don't remember a car crash) hasn't the perpetrator still commited a crime?
Good point, I didn't think of that. Technically he never killed anyone and never attempted to take the ship (that they have hard evidence of) - in the last loop they GAVE Mudd the ship.
(And that's all they'd have an actual physical record of.)
time loop means they never experienced it, there is nothing to forget.
What crimes?
Good luck finding a court that would prosecute someone for crimes done in another timeline.
Aside from that, the only way to do justice to Mudd, is to cancel STD, and start a new show with Mudd as a main character.
Like a Firefly-esque show where Mudd and a small crew of outlaws are the main characters. I’d pay to watch that!
(Heck, they could even bring Burnham aboard, for all I care, as long as she’s served up in limited portions. Perhaps Mudd can take her on as the ships cook?)
I mentioned on facebook that instead of the talk of a Khan mini-series I'd rather have a Mudd mini-series.
Working for the enemy. I said this from "Choose Your Pain", that one reason Lorca should not have left him there was for a full debriefing by starfleet command. The attempt to steal a Starfleet vessel to sell to the enemy would also still be valid reason to be tried - and it could have amounted to treason if he was officially classified as a Federation citizen.
Edit: just thinking about it, it really makes Burnham's sentencing even harder to swallow.
Last edited:
Maybe a prequel? Where he cuts his teeth selling paper?
No, that’s the whole point of the time loop reset, none of it actually took place. They kind of used some techno-babble sci-fi magic by allowing Mudd and Stammets to remember it, but when all is said and done, nothing really happened.
In the example you give, said abuse would actually have taken place and there was no magic reset button.
by the time Mudd was duped he had committed no murder or takeover of the ship.
One cannot. That number has changed numerous times since the beginning of the season.
No need to spam up the whole forum with this point.
Similar threads
