Star Trek: Short Treks -- Season 1 Episode 4 (The Escape Artist)

I was kind of wondering if Harry Mudd would be back.  We don’t get a full episode, but we do get a brief look at what he’s been up to.  He’s captured by a Tellarite bounty hunter named Krit.  Mudd tries to plead his way out of captivity to no avail.  When Mudd is turned over to the nearest Starship, the bounty hunter is denied his reward for a rather surprising reason.

You don’t really need a lot to time to tell the story.  In fact, if I said that a Short Trek was too long, it would be saying something.  There’s just enough time for a few flashbacks and a twist ending.  We also see that the Federation does use some sort of credit system.  Latinum is also a thing this early in Star Trek’s histry, but the important thing is that Krit is doing this for money.

Mudd is one of those characters that won’t change.  He’ll always be up to his old tricks.  This episode is no different.  In fact, he’s even slicker than ever.  One would assume, though, that the bounty was resolved by Kirk’s time.  I don’t recall it being mentioned during either of Roger C. Carmel’s episodes, although Mudd was taken into custody at the end of his first appearance.

This episode concludes the end of Star Trek: Short Trek’s first season.  It’s odd that they would only have four episodes, but I don’t think this was meant to be expansive.  It was meant to fill the gap between the two seasons for the viewers.  (Episodes were released a month apart.)  The second season is six episodes.  Hopefully, if there is a third season, it will be a little longer.

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Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 1 Episode 7 (Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad)

I suppose that it’s inevitable that every science-fiction show will do at least one time travel/time loop episode.  Star Trek had it with City on the Edge of Forever.  The Next Generation had at least one of each with Time’s Arrow and Cause and Effect.  The crew of Deep Space Nine even went back to visit The Enterprise with Trials and Tribble-ations.

Time travel isn’t so bad.  It’s usually the time-loop stories that get me.  You see, there can be, at most, one person, other than the perpetrator, that knows about  the time loop.  In case there isn’t anyone, everyone will have a sense of déjà vu. But there has to be a way for the characters to break the loop.

With the case of Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad, Harry Mudd is back.  Yes, he skipped an episode and he wants his revenge on Captain Lorca.  He’s going to do this by stealing the Discovery.  To do this, he’s gotten a time crystal to work, meaning he can make all the mistakes he wants before destroying the ship and jumping back 30 minutes to try again.  This effectively wipes the crew’s memories with the exception of Paul Stamets, who remembers everything.

Stamets enlists the help of Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler.  It’s not clear why he chooses these two people, as they are the two newest additions to the crew that we know about and most people still see Burnham as the mutineer.  (Even the captain, who wants her there, makes her a specialist.  If we are to assume that this means the naval rank, that’s about as far down the ladder as you can get.)

I have to say that this is pretty ambitious for Harry Mudd.  In The Original Star Trek, he was generally pretty petty.  Our first encounter had him trying to make a buck off of finding wives for lonely miners.  To actually steal a ship with the Klingons as the buyer is a pretty big con.  It’s actually worthy of the con that the crew pulls on him.  In fact, they bring him to his long-lost love, Stella, who I am to assume is the same Stella referenced in I, Mudd.

I do get that the writers are trying to nudge Tyler and Burnham together.  It would make more sense to have Staments go to the captain or to his partner.  Given the number of iterations the time loop had, it’s possible that he did.  The important thing for us, the viewers, is that we learn a thing or two about Burnham and Tyler and that they save the day.

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Star Trek: Discovery -- Season 1 Episode 5 (Choose Your Pain)

I’ve asked a few questions while watching Star Trek: Discovery.  Notably, I’ve wondered if ethical concerns would prohibit the ship’s spore drive from becoming useful in the long run.  “Choose Your Pain” is the first episode to really face that head on.  The ship’s spore drive requires a living navigator, but that comes at a steep price, especially for said navigator.  The creature that the Discovery is using, Ripper, is in pain and actually gives out during this episode.

Only one crew member, Michael Burnham, advocates for Ripper.  The problem is that when Ripper’s services aren’t needed, it’s not really an issue.  When Ripper is needed, it’s to save lives.  During this episode, the ship has to go into hostile territory and get out as soon as they have their captain.  This can’t be done without Ripper, which means it sucks when he curls up into a ball and can’t navigate the ship.

While in captivity, Captain Lorca has two cellmates.  One is Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd.  Fans of the original series might remember him as the guy who was peddling would-be brides to miners.  He’s not a nice guy.  I don’t know that he deserves to be in a Klingon holding cell, but he’s not the kind of guy I’d want as a friend, either.

The other cellmate is Ash Tyler.  He’s a Starfleet officer who had the misfortune to be captured by the Klingons at the Battle of the Binary Stars.  How he’s survived seven months in Klingon captivity escapes Captain Lorca, but he’s still a Starfleet officer.  The two escape and leave Mudd behind.

I do think that the series is picking up.  We get some plot development and some character development, notably with First Officer Saru, who is left in command.  It would appear that this is the first time that he’s gone an extended period without the captain present, being that he has to look up how to be a captain.  I would have thought that an executive officer would have learned something about that by now.  Still, it’s nice to know that his head is in the right place.  It also gives the show a chance to drop a few familiar names.

Speaking of familiar names, I realize that the part of Mudd has to be recast.  I’m not saying that Rainn Wilson is a bad actor, but I was expecting something closer to Roger C. Carmel.  Instead, I had this lingering image of John Lithgow by the end of the episode.  (Maybe it’s my imagination.)

I’m beginning to get the sense that the writers are playing the long game here.  I suspect that more of my issues will be resolved as time goes by.  I had hoped to watch at least half the season, which would be to the end of this disc.  I may have to go put a hold on the third disc before I’m done with this one.

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