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

I'm really surprised how many "filler"/character-driven eps we're getting in this short season. I do appreciate that a lot! That said: I'm burned out on sci-fi shows doing Groundhog Day stuff. I've seen so many I now feel I'm kind of trapped in one of my own, so it's not STD's fault that this was never going to be my favourite episode.

However, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would! The idea of lensing it through Stamets and his timey-wimey issues was a neat take on it, and the other characters all showed some interesting sides, too— even Tilly was more tolerable this episode. (Mostly.) Stamets' evolving personality is fun, though I wonder what's coming next for him— that mirror reflection from the earlier ep can't mean anything good. As for Burnham, I'm getting more and more fond of her as the show progresses. Her stunt with the antimatter (I think it was that) was AMAZING. Huge respect for her now; I think she's really progressing as a character and learning as a person.

Tyler, though, I trust about as far as I can throw him. Maybe I'll regret this terribly later, but currently my own threat ganglia are tingling every time I see him, so I can't bring myself to care too much about him, and I would rather have spent more time with Lorca and Saru than on Tyler's burgeoning romance with Burnham. I'm not much of a fan of Mudd, either (heresy, I know). He was mildly entertaining here, though I was irritated by the knowledge that he wouldn't get his comeuppance in the confines of the episode (or the series), which is something that's going to come up time and again owing to the past-era setting of the show.

I had the same issue with not really being worried that Sarek would die in the previous episode, because we already know he doesn't. There's not really anything the show can do about that, though: if they don't ever use known characters, people will complain, but when they do, the sense of peril and urgency is gone. An unfortunate state of affairs that really can't be helped. I do find it interesting how humans outside of the Fed umbrella live and thrive, though— I'd like to see more of that, people like Stella and her dad. A focus on that would be interesting to me, and I think the writers would have a lot more freedom there, too.

There were a couple of plot holes regarding the abilities of Mudd's crystal device, but I assume they were worked out in the loops we didn't see: he said he'd killed Lorca over fifty times, and we only saw a fraction of those with Burnham, so I presume he tortured/stole/bribed his way into systems he shouldn't over time, but being able to initiate site-to-site transports with just a wave of his hand etc. was a bit annoying.

Not a bad episode overall, but probably not a stand-out for me, either.