STD: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

[Darth Wedgius]

First, I've enjoyed all of Chuck's STD reviews, but I enjoyed this one particularly. Not a lot makes me laugh out loud, but this one did.

I've only seen the episode as presented in this review, so I only know what's in there, and grains of salt as appropriate. The time loop thing, well, it's been done, but SG-1's "Window of Opportunity" came out long after TNG's "Cause and Effect," but SG-1 was able to do things to make it work, like the humor. It was nice seeing it from the POV of someone who had to be brought up to speed. And Michael's swallowing of the Ball of Doom was pretty badass.

Mudd... Gah. It's like they knew "Harry Mudd = bad guy" and stopped there. This is like making Michael the adopted sister of Luke Skywalker. Did they know what they were getting themselves into? This is a fan base that can probably not only tell you how many toilets there were on the Enterprise, but whether the paper was flap-over or flap-under. Plain and simple, IMO, they messed up, and badly. Well, they can put Harry through something that'll turn him into the character we know and love, and that can be an interesting story. I like redemption arcs, even for writers of redemption arcs.

And I'll forgive if we never see this time looping used again, like, well, before every battle they have from now on. Trek's almost always lost the keys to the MacGuffin of the week.

[TK99]

I'm cool with epo., I am disappointed with pulling this kinda tech out there butt.

But I hold out hope, that Disco will just use the ideas and concepts behind the 'Slavers Box', to make the time crystal come from a stasis box and maybe have the big bad or least the back drop for next season around the Cat's or some other mention but never seen/fleshed out race.

I also admit I am probably deluding myself and Disco will muddle along (no pun intended), giving us lact luster stories until it is canceled after 3 seasons.

So I will return to my fantasy world where Trek deals in interesting stories, with interesting/complex (complex doesn't always mean dark) characters, while fleshing out the Star Trek universe.

[Worffan101]

First, I've enjoyed all of Chuck's STD reviews, but I enjoyed this one particularly. Not a lot makes me laugh out loud, but this one did.

I've only seen the episode as presented in this review, so I only know what's in there, and grains of salt as appropriate. The time loop thing, well, it's been done, but SG-1's "Window of Opportunity" came out long after TNG's "Cause and Effect," but SG-1 was able to do things to make it work, like the humor. It was nice seeing it from the POV of someone who had to be brought up to speed. And Michael's swallowing of the Ball of Doom was pretty badass.

Mudd... Gah. It's like they knew "Harry Mudd = bad guy" and stopped there. This is like making Michael the adopted sister of Luke Skywalker. Did they know what they were getting themselves into? This is a fan base that can probably not only tell you how many toilets there were on the Enterprise, but whether the paper was flap-over or flap-under. Plain and simple, IMO, they messed up, and badly. Well, they can put Harry through something that'll turn him into the character we know and love, and that can be an interesting story. I like redemption arcs, even for writers of redemption arcs.

And I'll forgive if we never see this time looping used again, like, well, before every battle they have from now on. Trek's almost always lost the keys to the MacGuffin of the week.

There are 47 toilets, and the paper is always flap-over because that's the logical way to have it.

The time loop was executed alright, but the Voq/Burnham scenes were incredibly bland, and Tilly...her character makes no sense. How can she be simultaneously the Realistic Wesley Crusher type AND a vivacious confident party girl? And I know they said she has some neurological disorder, but speaking as someone with ADHD, OCD, Tourette's, and probably mild autism, that's not a neurological disorder, that's having multiple personalities. (and by that I mean literally multiple people in the same body and not DID)

Agreed that this was hilarious, Chuck's in top form with these reviews and this one's no exception.

[Zoinksberg]

It is reasonable because in real life that sort of dissonance happens all the time.

I have to disagree. I am thinking the vast majority of the people we know that we assume aren't murders are, in fact, not murders. Just because many mass murders pass for normal everyday people (thus allowing them to continue long enough to get the "mass" added to their crime) does not mean mass murdering is common.

Regarding his crime, unless I missed something, having not watched the episode in a long time, wasn't he going to either kill everyone on the ship or hand them over with it? Yes, we can say that in the end nobody died despite the many times he gleefully murdered them, but everything he did he did with the intent to sell the ship to the Klingons. Even discounting the fact he was almost certainly going to kill or turn over the entire crew, he was planning to sell technology that would have allowed to Klingons to spore directly to Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, Tellar, every single Federation stronghold and destroy it. I'm pretty sure even in the Federation that in a time of war that is a capital offense and Lorca might well have been authorized to execute him on the spot for it.

No, the only thing I can consider reasonable in this episode is that Mudd was willing to kill Lorca so gleefully after he left him to rot. But that is only within the shows own canon, which fits in to the rest of Trek like a square peg.

[jadenova]

First, I've enjoyed all of Chuck's STD reviews, but I enjoyed this one particularly. Not a lot makes me laugh out loud, but this one did.

I've only seen the episode as presented in this review, so I only know what's in there, and grains of salt as appropriate. The time loop thing, well, it's been done, but SG-1's "Window of Opportunity" came out long after TNG's "Cause and Effect," but SG-1 was able to do things to make it work, like the humor. It was nice seeing it from the POV of someone who had to be brought up to speed. And Michael's swallowing of the Ball of Doom was pretty badass.

Mudd... Gah. It's like they knew "Harry Mudd = bad guy" and stopped there. This is like making Michael the adopted sister of Luke Skywalker. Did they know what they were getting themselves into? This is a fan base that can probably not only tell you how many toilets there were on the Enterprise, but whether the paper was flap-over or flap-under. Plain and simple, IMO, they messed up, and badly. Well, they can put Harry through something that'll turn him into the character we know and love, and that can be an interesting story. I like redemption arcs, even for writers of redemption arcs.

And I'll forgive if we never see this time looping used again, like, well, before every battle they have from now on. Trek's almost always lost the keys to the MacGuffin of the week.

There is only one toilet and that is for the men to use. The women use Kirk.

[Darmani]

Welp, this did it. This episode destroyed any lingering hope I had that this series might somehow be good in spite my misgivings about them shoehorning in the main character as Spock's foster sister.

Harry Mudd was never a good man. He was always trying to take advantage of someone, somehow. But in spite this, there was a certain depth and likability to the character. You'd never trust him for an instant, but you enjoyed watching scheme. This episode, turned him into Bill from Rampage (not the recent video game movie starring The Rock) with magic time powers. I cannot reconcile the likable rogue from TOS with this serial mass murderer. I could potentially see Harry Mudd of old trying to steal Discovery and sell it to the Klingons. But he'd do something like dump the crew on some primitive class M world before flying off with it. Not repeatedly, gleefully gun them down, and relish repeatedly shooting Lorca in particular.

The time travel stuff I don't mind. The crew having to battle a foe with Time Loop powers sounds like a really interesting premise for an episode. But the outright character assassination, that kills it for me.

Between this and the really "hot new but not too out there" minorities/weird people promo in Trek AND Wars. . . followed by the nigh character assasination with fanpandering (as if to say you asked for it well HERE)

Makes me wonder if the artists/creators feel like they are being held back by nostalgia but ALSO wish to mine it constantly.

I mean this is a thing. Autism, queerness, females who are ostensibly from a female oriented work or style of writing and "look your hero is really really bad"

Some of this I understand. Looking back some of these works worlds seems...white washed, as if gay people couldn't exist in them
And so on.
Other times it just feels so ... artificial even compared to say BBC scifi works and similar.

I know. Fans getting paranoid about diversity and social justice and change and all that. Must be evil

But seriously its like you can FEEL this sense of tryhard or disdain. At least with Orville its out of love or self satisfaction, if not self importance/condemnation.

[Draco Dracul]

Welp, this did it. This episode destroyed any lingering hope I had that this series might somehow be good in spite my misgivings about them shoehorning in the main character as Spock's foster sister.

Harry Mudd was never a good man. He was always trying to take advantage of someone, somehow. But in spite this, there was a certain depth and likability to the character. You'd never trust him for an instant, but you enjoyed watching scheme. This episode, turned him into Bill from Rampage (not the recent video game movie starring The Rock) with magic time powers. I cannot reconcile the likable rogue from TOS with this serial mass murderer. I could potentially see Harry Mudd of old trying to steal Discovery and sell it to the Klingons. But he'd do something like dump the crew on some primitive class M world before flying off with it. Not repeatedly, gleefully gun them down, and relish repeatedly shooting Lorca in particular.

The time travel stuff I don't mind. The crew having to battle a foe with Time Loop powers sounds like a really interesting premise for an episode. But the outright character assassination, that kills it for me.

What really annoys me is that Rainn Wilson is most famous for playing a bad person who's schemes people loved to watch. I mean Dwight and Harry Mudd are different, but they fill a similar niche.

[Revolverman]

But seriously its like you can FEEL this sense of tryhard or disdain. At least with Orville its out of love or self satisfaction, if not self importance/condemnation.

Its because its written by committee, and produced by focus group. Social Justice is big, so we need alot of PoC and Women, and so is Game of Thrones so we need lots of sex and dark characters, and nostalgia is ALWAYS sells so tie it into TOS.

Not that someone wanted to tell a story about a Black woman set in the future to inspire people today, or forge a dark world with strong erotic themes, or even build on the old canon to make something even better then the past while honoring it.

Thats what Discovery is, pure marketing cynicism on display, and CBS is fucking BAFFLED it didn't sell All Access. Must have been Piracy, that damn piracy.

[Shuboy07]

One thing I found a bit off is that Stella Mudd is played by a young (28 at this time) and attractive actress. I was honestly expecting someone more like the original actress in I, Mudd (and that was an android).

[Durandal_1707]

Even discounting the fact he was almost certainly going to kill or turn over the entire crew, he was planning to sell technology that would have allowed to Klingons to spore directly to Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, Tellar, every single Federation stronghold and destroy it. I'm pretty sure even in the Federation that in a time of war that is a capital offense and Lorca might well have been authorized to execute him on the spot for it.

For crying out loud, in one of his two appearances on the original series he literally tried to give technology to ultra-powerful androids that wanted to dominate Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, Tellar, and every other world in the galaxy that had "undisciplined" carbon-based lifeforms on it. Sure, Mudd didn't kill anyone directly in that one, but that's pretty much the only difference.

There are 47 toilets, and the paper is always flap-over because that's the logical way to have it.

Everybody knows there are no toilets on the Enterprise.

One thing I found a bit off is that Stella Mudd is played by a young (28 at this time) and attractive actress. I was honestly expecting someone more like the original actress in I, Mudd (and that was an android).

You expected Mudd's android caricature of her to be honest?