Discovery 1x07 – "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" [** SPOILERS **]

Sad Professor

Warning: This thread will contain spoilers for the episode "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad". Spoiler tags will not be used, so if you don't want to be spoiled read no further.

corkie

Normally I don't like "Groundhog Day" episodes, but this was OK. If a bit stupid at times.

Loved it, loved it, loved it. Very much Trek. Very funny.

Slydice

That was decent time loop episode. It has me thinking I don't remember enough from the original series. I wonder if we'll learn more about Mudds. fourth dimensional species.

Slydice

The preview for the 8th episode looks ominous for the Admiral. It's just the shot between the 15 and 16 seconds mark but a Klingon blade being lifted and an apprehensive look on the face...

Fenster

Stupid and fun, loved it.

_Kaiser_

OK, credit where credit is due.. that was very enjoyable.

hal9550

It was decent for sure.. but i would actually say that it wasnt the best of the new episodes.. I still reckon episode 3 was best.. for me anyway

i definitely enjoyed it but.. for comparison.. TNG's 'Cause and Effect' was way better.. IMHO

That said i did enjoy it, it was well executed.. i would require more information though about a 'fourth Dimensional ' species.. and how Mudd acquired such a device.. I was hopeful for something that would give us viewers a clue RE the various theories on Lorca and Ash.. although the fact Lorca had a 'Dark Matter' weapon in his 'Man-Cave' was very interesting

MIRROR UNIVERSE/SPORES
I also think the SPORES allowing Stamets to exist outside linear time is a MASSIVE pointer toward how they will encounter the MIRROR UNIVERSE.. I think its VERY CLEAR that he is the one who will introduce it as a plot device

Id be interested in seeing if anyone has anything to say on this

Overall good episode although again not quite up to the standard of previous Trek/Time-travel episodes

Iseedeadpixels

Hopefully thats the last we see of Rainn Wilson, his acting for Mudd is bad and annoying, reminds me of his character in Transformers.

The_Valeyard

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Hopefully thats the last we see of Rainn Wilson, his acting for Mudd is bad and annoying, reminds me of his character in Transformers.

i really like him.

BrookieD

`Very much a classic trek built episode that on whole moved away from the season arc - good addition to the season so far, still loving Tilly, have a thing for red heads...lol

PhiloCypher

BrookieD wrote: »

`Very much a classic trek built episode that on whole whole moved away fromthe season arc - good addition to the season so far, still loving Tilly, have a thing for red heads...lol

I think it did great job of serving many mistresses, we found out with Discovery's help the tide has turned in the war, Stamets pointedly remarks that Ash is remarkably well adjusted considering he was tortured for 7 months(a nod to the Voq theory that I hope never comes to pass), we get further integration of Burnham into the crew , and through necessity she is forced out of her emotional comfort zone with Tyler in order to break the time loop cycle. All good stuff .

It was slow going to begin with but this crew are really beginning to come together and feel like a team in a way that feels earned rather then the forced banter we got on the Shenzou in Episodes 1 & 2.

PhiloCypher

PhiloCypher wrote: »

I think it did great job of serving many mistresses, we found out with Discovery's help the tide has turned in the war, Stamets pointedly remarks that Ash is remarkably well adjusted considering he was tortured for 7 months(a nod to the Voq theory that I hope never comes to pass), we get further integration of Burnham into the crew , and through necessity she is forced out of her emotional comfort zone with Tyler in order to break the time loop cycle. All good stuff .

It was slow going to begin with but this crew are really beginning to come together and feel like a team in a way that feels earned rather then the forced banter we got on the Shenzou in Episodes 1 & 2.

Slow going? We're on episode 7. Seven. Other Trek franchises took full seasons of 20-something episodes before it would get to the level Discovery is on now.

Mitch Connor

thought the ending resolution was very poor. Up to then I really enjoyed the episode.

Goodshape

Yup, really good episode. Bit silly in places but in a classic Star Trek style. Great to see everyone settling in and that they can handle a more traditional (or at least the most yet) 45 minute adventure, while still teasing the larger story arcs.

Rainn Wilson is very good as Mudd, although I can't fathom how they would let him essentially walk away with just a caretaker promise from the father in-law. If they had locked him in the brig and shipped him back to Starfleet it'd give the writers some leeway for another guest spot, too.

ezra_

Goodshape wrote: »

Yup, really good episode. Bit silly in places but in a classic Star Trek style. Great to see everyone settling in and that they can handle a more traditional (or at least the most yet) 45 minute adventure, while still teasing the larger story arcs.

Rainn Wilson is very good as Mudd, although I can't fathom how they would let him essentially walk away with just a caretaker promise from the father in-law. If they had locked him in the brig and shipped him back to Starfleet it'd give the writers some leeway for another guest spot, too.

Might be something to do with leaving him in the Klingon prison in the first place.

Liked the episode, not at all what I was expecting.

PhiloCypher

Deleted User wrote: »

Slow going? We're on episode 7. Seven. Other Trek franchises took full seasons of 20-something episodes before it would get to the level Discovery is on now.

I meant in terms of the crew loosening up not in terms of quality.

Mitch Connor wrote: »

thought the ending resolution was very poor. Up to then I really enjoyed the episode.

With them sending MUD back to a life of misery with his fiance and overbearing father in law ? That ending is straight up TOS and straight out of the Kirk playbook. People keep making the mistake of using TNG as their touchstone as to how things should be done , but Discovery is set around the TOS era and the tone and ending of this episode is textbook TOS

Goodshape wrote: »

Yup, really good episode. Bit silly in places but in a classic Star Trek style. Great to see everyone settling in and that they can handle a more traditional (or at least the most yet) 45 minute adventure, while still teasing the larger story arcs.

Rainn Wilson is very good as Mudd, although I can't fathom how they would let him essentially walk away with just a caretaker promise from the father in-law. If they had locked him in the brig and shipped him back to Starfleet it'd give the writers some leeway for another guest spot, too.

What precludes him from escaping the clutches of Stella and her dad and showing up again? He seems pretty resourceful.

Mitch Connor

PhiloCypher wrote: »

With them sending MUD back to a life of misery with his fiance and overbearing father in law ? That ending is straight up TOS and straight out of the Kirk playbook. People keep making the mistake of using TNG as their touchstone as to how things should be done , but Discovery is set around the TOS era and the tone and ending of this episode is textbook TOS

I'm not critiquing it against TNG or TOS - I'm personally not looking for it to ape any other series.

I simply think that having basically accomplished his plan in the previous timeline - having killed the crew many times over, having worked out the drive, having organised to sell it to the Klingons that the way they defeated him is simply to send him back to his fiance. It just felt a very weak ending to what had been a potentially huge disaster.

And sending him to his fiance really doesn't seem like it would be that big a blocker against him causing them big problems again in the future.

Not a very definitive solution imo - that is why I didn't like it.

Al Capwned

Coincidentally Cause and Effect was on Sci Fi this morning, and I watched this this afternoon.
This is infinitely better. I actually laughed at some of that TNG episode earlier.
Loving Discovery so far.

spookwoman

PhiloCypher wrote: »

What precludes him from escaping the clutches of Stella and her dad and showing up again? He seems pretty resourceful.

Would be interesting if he does a runner. Daddies an arms dealer and he said doesn't want to be in debt to federation.

pah

I like the way Stamits was secondary to the loop as it developed from the start. The standard fare here is to follow the person experiencing the timeloop and their reactions to realising what is happening and then their attempts to correct same - This was a refreshing take on that theme.

pixelburp

That was definitely the most demonstrably similar to a 'classic' Trek episode so far, and also the most .... frivolous, I guess? Self contained certainly, notwithstanding the thawing of Burnham's various relationships. While the scripts still nod towards _something_ about Tyler that we should be worried about - and I'm sure there will be some revelation - the idea of him being a Klingon in disguise feels more and more unwelcome / unlikely; he's just too socially capable & emotionally sophisticated to be an alien.

As for Mudd, I like Wilson's portrayal myself; adding just the right measure of menace to a character that was so demonstrably camp & silly in the Original Series. I was a little ... sceptical as to how someone like Mudd would fit into a version of Trek this intentionally humourless, but it worked.

So, Stamets then & his sudden happy eccentricity: I'm guessing this upward mood swing is going to play into the plot at some point? Maybe the integration with the tardigrade DNA is burning his candle at both ends & he's slowly degrading ... or something...

Edit: also, Wyonna Earp fans might have noticed Mudd's wife Stella was played by Katherine Barrell, aka, Officer Haught

BrookieD

Mitch Connor wrote: »

thought the ending resolution was very poor. Up to then I really enjoyed the episode.

Have to agree, it jarred to much from the crimes committed. Surely Lorca would have nailed Mudd

coffee_cake

Really enjoyed that one a lot, especially as someone else said, stamets was secondary to it so we didn't go through the usual personal discovery of it all. Wasn't convinced about him giving your man the spore drive near the end but sure

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

I loved the montage of the various Lorca deaths. Also the ending very much fit within the kind of endings you got in ToS and even in some of the TNG series.

pixelburp

The ending felt like an intentional concession towards Mudds status in the original series. We always knew he'd survive one way or the other and needed to end up back with Stella somehow; the writing could have been better but all told was fine, if a little flat compared against the otherwise high standard of the episode overall

pinkypinky

I really liked it. No Klingons. Classic Trek motif of time loops. Sure Cause & Effect is a better episode but it's a top 10, maybe 15 episode of TNG. I got my old Star Trek Encyclopedia out afterward to read about Mudd.

bajer101

Enjoyable enough, but Stamets could have easily solved it by simply advising the Captain not to beam it aboard.

server down

BrookieD wrote: »

Have to agree, it jarred to much from the crimes committed. Surely Lorca would have nailed Mudd

He didn’t kill anybody in that timeline.

The only issue I had with it is how they managed to convince everybody who needed convincing in the last 30 minute sequence. (Also the captains chair was a bit of a cop out)

Optimus Prime

Really enjoyed it. Loved muds space suit. Thought it really tied in with the look of the original series , the helmet he had when he first came out the the alien creature.