STD: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

[Nevix]

Ironically, this episode is the first of Star Trek Discovery that actually felt like a Trek episode, and not some other science fiction series with Trek Spackle layered on the outside.

This looked like the fun sci fi that Star Trek was for so long.

It's a pity that it had to be Harry Mudd they used for the villain. That really shoots the episode in the foot by using a classic character for the wrong reasons.

So... the ONLY enjoyable episode of Discovery so far, and the writer's had ONE JOB... but they messed it up.

[Jonathan101]

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.

Never said mass murdering is common. I said that it was common for mass murderers and psychopaths to pass off as nicer than they really are.

My ultimate point is that Mudd is a character we were never really exposed to all that much, so it is unreasonable to think that he is acting out of character when a) we were barely exposed to his character to begin with, and b) he's come through a pretty traumatic situation already.

Admittedly this is a pet peeve of mine- holding fictional characters to standards of consistency that don't even hold up in the real world let alone fiction. It is not at all impossible for TOS Harry Mudd and Dis Harry Mudd to be the same person- it just means that we never really knew TOS Mudd as well as we thought we did, and since we barely knew him at all (and what we DID know what that he was a con-man, a liar, a sell-out, and a thief) it isn't really all THAT shocking that there is a ruthless asshole underneath that charming asshole. Heck, one of the only reasons he was nicer to the TOS crew was that they carried a big stick AND he was counting on them to get him out of sticky situations.

As I said, obviously this is a retcon, but the fact remains that it isn't as inconsistent with the original character as it may first appear, if only because the original character wasn't explored all that much.

[BunBun299]

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).

To be fair, that would have been Stella 11 years later. Plenty of time for her to age noticeably.

The more I think about it, all of the pieces were in place to make this a really great classic Harry Mudd episode. Maybe a little darker, but no need to go trigger happy. Have him show up, faking distress. He's happy to be rescued, maybe not so happy to see Lorca, but hey, bygones. Follow the engineer from this point, and let him hear an alarm go off. It's Harry Mudd, trying to get into a critical system. Or maybe the engineer doesn't even see who it is the first time, and then time resets, and he wonders why no one cares about an alarm. He tries to lead people to where ever Harry is trying to break into, nothing happens, and the crew just thinks he's going crazy. And let the engineer, and perhaps the audience, wonder the same thing, is that genetic alteration he underwent perhaps effecting his mind, and he's just being paranoid and hallucinating? Harry starts to notice that the engineer is remembering, ambushes him with a phaser, but set on stun, and tries to throw him in a closet somewhere. Time resets again, Harry tries that again, but this time the engineer is ready for him. Make this whole thing a battle of wits between the two, as they both must learn the rules of this time loop, trying to one up each other. Harry will not be trying to kill anyone, but he is planning to sell the ship to the Klingons. And maybe the senior staff for questioning, but most he's just going to maroon. Still a dark place to go, but he's just a thief, he's not actually killing them.

But the writers of this series can't write a good battle of wits. Because they just don't have the wits themselves. So they can only write action, which does not fit the character they want to use for this nostalgia trip, even as they are trampling all over nostalgia.

[CharlesPhipps]

Well, Harry didn't kill anyone.

That's an important thing to note.

I also note Harry's opinion of his wife will inform how he views her.

[Madner Kami]

Well, Harry didn't kill anyone.

That's an important thing to note.

He's a mass-murderer. Just because you somehow manage to revive somebody you killed, does not negate the fact, that you killed the person in the first place, with intent no less.

[AlucardNoir]

Well, Harry didn't kill anyone.

That's an important thing to note.

I also note Harry's opinion of his wife will inform how he views her.

Are we talking about Ensign Kim or about the mass murderer Mudd, who killed more then his fair share during this monstrosity of an episode?

[Riedquat]

As I said, obviously this is a retcon, but the fact remains that it isn't as inconsistent with the original character as it may first appear, if only because the original character wasn't explored all that much.

It is inconsistent with the little we know. Whilst it's possible that's not the same as likely, and relying on "well, it could happen" to write a story is bad writing as far as I'm concerned. Truth can be stranger than fiction, or at least well-written fiction, because of the oddities that crop up in the real world, but most of us never face directly. The world is a big enough place, and we can hear enough these days, for them to happen and us find out about them. As an example - have your plot rely on a character winning the lottery part way through to get them out of a mess. That would rightly be dismissed as far too convenient, yet people win the lottery every week. Just not the vast majority of them.

[CharlesPhipps]

Are we talking about Ensign Kim or about the mass murderer Mudd, who killed more then his fair share during this monstrosity of an episode?

No he didn't. They're all alive at the end.

[Riedquat]

Are we talking about Ensign Kim or about the mass murderer Mudd, who killed more then his fair share during this monstrosity of an episode?

No he didn't. They're all alive at the end.

Was that his plan, or just how it turned out? ( I've not seen the episode and it's not clear from the review).

[AlucardNoir]

Are we talking about Ensign Kim or about the mass murderer Mudd, who killed more then his fair share during this monstrosity of an episode?

No he didn't. They're all alive at the end.

Was that his plan, or just how it turned out? ( I've not seen the episode and it's not clear from the review).

It's just how it turned out.