I hear what a lot of fans are saying, but this isn't supposed to be modern day star trek, this is a time when the federation was just formed and people are still trying to unify their morals with the ideals of the species as a whole. This is a time of desperation, and desperation has always led to starfleet officers to having battles of morality. I think it's a great launching point to the modern idealistic universe that the federation turns into, and find it super interesting that it came through not so moralistic means. At the end of this arc with the klingons we know that they sign the Khitomer accords, and the federation and Empire usher in a new era of peace. I find it awesome how they're going about it, each plot is dynamic and I cannot call what will happen from episode to episode, and the fact that the federations launching point is based in moral ambiguity leaves very deep interpretations that you can consider, such as Cpt. Picard's moral virtousness being grounded on the actions of less moral men, because the federation made it to the point where it was established and unified. I dunno, i'm enjoying the series and am looking forward to each new episode!
Now, this is classic Star Trek! Despite a few problems, this is a delight to watch from start to finish and is Discovery's first foray into the tried-and-tested 'bottle show'. These episodes often end up being my favourites, we are given a situation and really get to dive into it. They often reveal a lot about our characters and usually have fun doing it. Great examples of this include 'Civil Defense' (DS9), 'Disaster' (TNG), 'Explorers' (DS9) and of course the other classic Trek time-loop show, 'Cause and Effect' (TNG).
If I had any doubts about Rainn Wilson's portrayal of Harry Mudd, this episode easily washed them away. He's a lot of fun and full of energy, as well as managing to come off as a fairly complex person. It was interesting the way he was quite cruel to the crew of the Discovery, and then shrivels up at the sight of Stella and her father. I think there was a missed opportunity to make her a bit more like the shrew seen in The Original Series, but it's important to remember that what we saw there was Mudd's own vision of her rather than the actual person. The various deaths were quite mean spirited, despite being somewhat offset due to the fact that they weren't permanent A couple were also pretty funny, although I never quite got the impression that those little purple balls caused an "agonising" death.
Mostly, I think I enjoyed that this episode showed us the characters in more relaxed and natural states. Captain Lorca's apathy at finding a space whale is quite funny and even endearing, as he tells his crew to just get on with it (loved that he's finally sitting in the chair, too). Tilly continues to just delight me, and drunk Tilly is even better. It seems to me that she's hiding a lot of confidence under a socially awkward front. Stamets possibly emerged as the best part for me, this new happy version of him is charming and fun to spend time with (again, PLEASE let us get back to that mirror image thing from a couple of episodes ago).
The Burnham/Tyler pairing is maybe not my favourite thing. I don't feel a huge amount of chemistry between them, but then again Michael's standoffish nature means that she doesn't really have chemistry with anybody. I think it's more down to me not really clicking with the character of Tyler, as I talked about in my review for the previous episode. He feels like he's fit in too easily and his personality is a bare minimum.
Where the episode could have done a slightly better job is with the various time loop escapades. The movement through them became a bit too quick, and we are supposed to understand that Stamets explains things to Burnham who explains things to Tyler who explains things to Lorca, etc. every time, and everyone just accepts what they're being told and gets to action? That took me out of things a bit, and I would have been perfectly happy to have longer scenes that established things better. It's also hard to ignore the fact that the episode should have been all from Stamet's point-of-view, as he's the one dealing with it all.
Overall though, damn this was fantastic. The use of the introductory log and mostly self-contained nature of the episode made this feel so much like it was a part of the franchise I love. Mostly, though, it let us get a grip on these new characters and let them just get on with things as opposed to being dragged along by plot mechanics.
Intro Voice Over-Diary entry to show passage of time, routine, and also lead's personal thoughts.
Stanets personality shift after the Spore-Tartegrade DNA injection is both hilarious when seen on a superficial level and worrying when looked at closely and a side effect of the DNA melding. Interesting where it will lead.
Potential romance between Michael and Tyler is interesting since it is assumed that Michael has never had romantic relationships and is unsure of what to do.
The Discovery is attacked (using a Trojan Horse) by Lorca and Tyler's cellmate Mudd from the Klingon ship, intent on destroying them for abandoning him to Kilngons as they escape. He alludes killing Lorca as many times as needed to achieve his goal of taking everything from Lorca. He bombs the ship, destroying Discovery and everyone on it. But here is the twist, he has a time jump device. Okay, time loop episode.... interesting.
We jump back in time and everyone is living it for the first time, except Stanets, which seems to retain memory of the time jump, side effect of the DNA meld. In his frustration and hurry, he goes to Michael and Tyler to warn them. To warm of the danger or at least the trap coming their way. Michael and Tyler being the soldiers that they are see the warning for what it is. Except Mudd is two steps ahead. He reaches the spore drive beforeTh anyone knows he's on the ship. The trap is different this time. It's different everytime.
With the effects of the DNA meld Stanets keeps the memories of the timeloop, a 30 minute time loop. He's running against time and Mudd...he can't do it all himself, he needs Michael and Tyler. But how does he get them to trust him, even under uncertainty. He uses Michael and Tyler's attraction to each other to trust him. To reach what they need to win over Mudd. As the loops continue the loop shortens to only the relevant moments in the loops. With enough loops to forge a quickly but strong bond with Michael, the devise a plan to jump two steps ahead of Mudd, making him believe he has won, taken over Discovery and defeated Lorca, while forcing Mudd and the crew to rejoin the timestream. It is hear that they show their hand. The find the real reason Mudd has been running (got engaged, stole the dowry, and has been on the run from an arms dealer and his love struck daughter). The crew forces Mudd to meet his fate.
Surprisingly it's not the time loop that is the best part of this episode, though it is entertaining the resolution to Mudd. The strenght of this episode is getting to know Michael as a person, not a Star Fleet member, not as a Vulcan transplant, but just a Michael. We learn how little she knows or can handle social and romantic interactions because she's never had them. She's been outside of human society that she has no idea how to let go of logic and just feel. How to let go and just fall... or fall in love. All those emotions which are to be felt are so foreign to her she doesn't know what to do with them. From simple things like small talk to a quick dance. Michael is lost when it comes to romance and love.
It's endearing watching Michael dance toward Tyler as she opens up about being romantically interested in him. And from a story perspective have her not experience her own personal growth and understand of this as it's all lost to the time loop, with only Stanet as witness. As Tyler mentions at the end of the episode while Michael confesses she like likes him, his response is "I'm sorry I missed our first kiss."
Outside of the two part pilot, this has been my fav episode.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-10-31T22:41:17Z
[9.4/10] There it is, the moment that Discovery truly became a Star Trek show. I’m mostly being facetious with that comment, but “Magic to Make The Sanest Man Go Mad” is at least the point where Discovery feels the most like a Star Trek show. It encompasses so many hallmarks of the series: the wacky sci-fi obstacle, the colorful interloper, the creative problem-solving, and the attendant character development from whatever the weekly incident is. It’s as creative an hour of Trek storytelling as we’ve had in a long, long time, and that’s something to celebrate.
And then let’s repeat that celebration some 58 times or so. The premise of the episode is surprisingly straightforward given how topsy turvy things quickly get. Harry Mudd is trying to commandeer the Discovery and sell it to the Klingons using a time travel device that allows him to go all Groundhog Day on the ship. Stamets, thanks to his injection with tardigrade DNA and adventures with the spore drive, is the only one who remembers anything from jump-to-jump, and he has to convince Burnham to help him thwart Mudd.
From there, the episode goes wild but never loses the plot. As much as the episode is a story about the latest bit timey-wimey insanity to effect a Federation vessel (we see you, TNG and “Cause and Effect”), it’s also a story about Burnham learning to break out of her own routines and repetitive reflexes. The way the episode ties the repeating nature of the time loop with Burnham’s own personal growth is signposted pretty hard at the beginning and end of the episode, but for the most part, the two are blended together nigh-perfectly, without skimping on one element or the other.
To the point, I’m not sure we’ve had any scene quite like Stamets teaching Burnham how to dance in Discovery before. It’s the sort of human story in a fantastical setting that Star Trek does well, and in an episode that reminded me a lot of a gussied up take on The Next Generation (which isn’t a knock), that scene in particular, and the episode as a whole, reminded me of a big reason why TNG was such a cultural touchstone for so many of us: the characters and their meaningful interactions with one another, both on and off the clock.
It’s nice to see Burnham and Tilly paling around at a party together (where, apparently, people are still listening to remixed versions of “Stayin’ Alive” in the 23rd century). It’s nice to see the romantic sparks between Burnham and Ash play out naturally (albeit kind of insanely given the circumstances). And it’s nice to see Burnham and Stamets have those few minutes they won’t get back to stop and teach and muse a bit about what it is to be with someone. It’s those sorts of human moments that ground the show, and make it as much about the people floating around in that tin can as it is about the crazy premise of the week.
But what a premise! As I referenced above, it’s not the first time Star Trek has pulled this trick, but it’s done with alacrity here. The episode does a nice job at establishing the basic setup and stakes of the situation before diving back in and resetting things each time, and finding new directions to take the story. The iterative progress that Stamets and Burnham make is nigh-perfect, and while the show cheats a little bit (Burnham seems to remember things, or at least the show glosses over some necessary but repetitive infodumps), everything absolutely works in the moment.
That includes the sense of fun and whimsy at play here, and that starts with Rainn Wilson as Mudd. Holy cow is he a boon to this one, bringing that same scruffy, outsized energy as his predecessor and making himself a colorful character to liven up the staid confines of Starfleet. It’s a time-honored tradition in Star Trek (as his calling Lorca “mon capitan” alludes), and having Mudd ham it up ‘round the ship and unleash his scheme with alternating glee and exhaustion with the whole thing is an utter treat.
At the same time, the episode has fun with its rewind-based premise. The montage of different ways that Mudd kills Lorca is darkly comic. The different twists on small talk at the party are plenty amusing. And even Stamets hippie-dippie euphoria and then resigned perturbation at trying to fix all of this turns out pretty darn fun.
The ultimate solution is clever as well. It involves some of that classic Trek lateral thinking, with Burnham realize she’d be the only thing more valuable for Mudd to turn over to the Klingons than the ship, and some crew-wide bluffing to make the whole thing work. There’s an Oceans 11 quality to the whole thing. Sure, the episode doesn’t really sell that the crew of the Discovery may be giving up and giving in to Mudd, but it holds the question of what precisely they’re up to close to the vest, and the reveal is both a nice resolution and an amusing beat for Mudd that ties into the theme of the episode.
That theme is, again, heavily-underlined, with a strong focus on telling people how you really feel. As aesop’s go, it’s not bad, if oversimplified, but it leads to some strong character interactions between Burnham and Stamets and ultimately between Burnham and Ash.
There were a myriad of things that made Star Trek such an indelible part of pop culture over the years. Some of it was the wild scenarios our heroes would get into on a weekly basis. Some of it was the distinctive personalities they’d run into just as often. And much of it was the audience investing in the characters, caring about their personal trials and tribulations as much as the latest technobabble device or universe-wide threat. “Magic” manages to take all those elements and roll them together into one, entertaining hour that sets the high water mark for Discovery so far.