Do we know when in the timeline this short takes place?
Spoilers Star Trek: Short Treks 1x04 - "The Escape Artist"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
No, only that it's sometime after the time loop episode.
But the flashbacks could be before that?
Or parallel to the "main" events of the short. Or they or some of them might take place after the "main" story of the short. The story itself sets no limits on when Mudd came up with this scheme; at most we can speculate that if he had this racket going for a long time, Lorca and the rest of Starfleet would have been warned about it - so it can't really have been before the major Mudd appearances in DSC.
Since Mudd himself is at large here, in a post-timeloop setting, we have to come up with ideas on how he escaped the grip of his father-in-law. We may speculate on the role of androids there. Perhaps Mudd had access to them before the timeloop events, but didn't use them for this particular gig yet.
Timo Saloniemi
Since Mudd himself is at large here, in a post-timeloop setting, we have to come up with ideas on how he escaped the grip of his father-in-law. We may speculate on the role of androids there. Perhaps Mudd had access to them before the timeloop events, but didn't use them for this particular gig yet.
Timo Saloniemi
It seemed like the Mudd-droid we were watching with the Tellarite "remembered" the previous encounter, which could mean it was programmed after that previous encounter. And as many copies as only the DaVinci had, it seems like it was going on for a while.
I'm so confused, but it was a really good short too.
Next they will be running a form of Windows mobile with Cortana??
"Where can I find a beach good for sipping Jippers?"
Priceline?
We should note the term "non-scarcity" appears nowhere in TOS. Instead we got a fair amount of episodes about hardscrabble miners trying to strike it rich, mail-order brides, con men and swindlers and merchants and traders and what-not, not to mention eps about struggling colonies who were running low on salt, medicine, etc. And then there's Mr. Flint, who was rich enough to buy an entire planet.
TOS was never a show about life in a "non-scarcity" economy. It was set on the Final Frontier, where people were often struggling to make a living.
Meanwhile, I thought that Mudd mini-episode was a lot of fun, although I confess I didn't realize his captor was a Tellarite until they said so late in the ep.
TOS was never a show about life in a "non-scarcity" economy. It was set on the Final Frontier, where people were often struggling to make a living.
Meanwhile, I thought that Mudd mini-episode was a lot of fun, although I confess I didn't realize his captor was a Tellarite until they said so late in the ep.
"The Escape Artist" was my favorite of the first four Short Treks, by a pretty wide margin. "Calypso" is runner-up, followed by "Runaway."
Now I've seem them all yesterday, but I'd rank them very different:
1. "The Escape Artist": Funny story, just to enjoy, with a very surprising and unexpected finish. In small doses, I would really like to see much more of this.
2.......... Not really anything. The rest was not bad, but nothing of it really interested me. They all just were there.
So maybe:
2a: "Runaway": Nice to see Tilly. But it all made almost no sense. There is a possible dangerous intruder on board. And Tilly not even thinks about reporting it? How stupid can she be? What about a Mudd-like turn? The creature IS evil and takes over the ship? But okay, there is this princess, running away from her duties, does A LOT for escaping home, and obviously has the power (invisibility and others) to run away. And then? Just talks to Tilly, everything is fine, beams home, and.... nothing
And no one aboard saw anything of it? Burnham not at home? No transporter protocols?2b: "Brightest Star": Okay, nice background on Saru (and his relationship to Georgiou). But didn't it contradict the earlier informations about the kelpiens? Weren't they prey to other species on their homeworld? Now they are just victims of some alien intruders, and they don't even have a problem with sacrificing themselves for the unknown aliens? And starfleet? It's okay to take someone from his pre-warp homeworld? Just because he's able to use alien communication? Data should have known that, when he talked with Sarjenka.
2c: "Calypso": Not bad. But no Discovery-Story. So the Discovery will be left for 1000 years somewhere in space and nobody ever found it? Hard to believe. No, NOT to believe. Why did it have to be 1000 years in the future? Why the Discovery? Couldn't they just set this story in the Discovery-aera? Craft could have been a Starfleet Officer from the klingon-war who is rescued by an alien ship (instead of Discovery in the far future). The same story could have happened: Human soldier on a strange starship with THIS intelligent and obviously emotional computer. The story itself was fascinating - but no Discovery-story. Seemed more like an episode of "Outer Limits".
I think, an anthology-series would be great for Star Trek, with episodes like this, bit not connected to Discovery, but the whole Star trek universe. Maybe in the future
Maybe because of this, the Prime Directive was appended to include people who can just communicate into the stars.
Could it even be during or after TOS? I'm wondering because of the Androids and the starfleet uniforms might not necessarily provide any clues, because we already saw officers wearing earlier types of uniforms during 24th century trek.
After the Episode "I, Mudd" would make sense - If he found a way to defeat the androids and gain control over them.
But I don't think so. The Discovery-aera uniforms contradict this.
Yes, in "I, Mudd", Harry claimed, he just found the android-planet AFTER his first encounter with Kirk.
But hey, he's Harry Mudd. Why shouldn't he lie in this point?
I think, this Short Trek Episode is set at the end of Discovery season 1 or early in season 2. Mudd found his android-planet already in the 2250's and used the androids for his plans (and when he later returned in 2268, the androids were able to control and capture him).
I agree with this order though I think I liked the Saru one a bit more than you.
The Mudd mini episode was a lot of fun, and really made good use of Trek's bumbling fool of a villain - the proto Quark, in a sense. Loads of good visual gags, funny use of flashback, and tied nicely into Mudd's activities on TOS. I preferred the more cerebral Calypso, but this was an excellent laugh.
I definitely didn't dislike the "Brightest Star..." I just think it was a story that could have used either 2-3 more minutes of exposition / explanation OR it could have used one more quick brush-up on the script. I thought the idea of "Kelpians as prey" was addressed very strangely here, if indeed the obelisk kidnappers were intended to be the "hunters." I also thought some of the plot elements were a bit bizarre (tech falling off the alien machine, Starfleet coming down to pick-up Saru because he seems like a cool guy, etc).
I had certainly imagined the hunter/prey dynamic more... literally. Especially given the obvious gazelle inspiration for the species. As portrayed, it was more like the Wraith from SG:A. I guess they were trying to avoid something graphic but it seemed more like sacrifice than hunting. I suppose this could be simply a modern, industrialised version of an older practice. Something akin to a gas chamber.
Well that's made that episode more depressing.
Similar threads
- Sticky
- Poll
