Bran: I can never be Lord of Winterfell, I can never be Lord of anything, I'm the Three-eyed Raven.
Also Bran: I'm the King.
Funny that the returning word in the episode titles is "Woe", which is the common abbreviation of "Woensdag", the dutch word for "Wednesday".
I honestly have no idea how they're pulling off a season that's this consistently good, episode after episode. Hulu/Disney better renew this show!
Shaun played the shit out of his roommate and left her standing there with the salty face. Haha.
Then he ask the doctor from pathology out a date without giving her the flowers or candy. LMAO.
What kind of idiot voted 1 point before the episode is aired?
[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.
Holy shit that was a waste of time. And i even skipped a bit
Her father is a asshole
Aw, I would've liked to see more of the Bozeman crew adjusting to the present time.
I don't think this episode had much impact on me as a kid, but watching it now I realised what a wonderful piece of work it is. I've often had a problem with the Borg, in that they just aren't very interesting. Certainly they've managed to give them a cold sort of sense of dread, but mostly they are incredibly bland. 'I, Borg' finally gives them a new angle and it was much needed.
It's also surprising just how little they featured in the show, with this only being their third appearance. We get a brilliant character piece here for Picard, but also for Guinan and even Geordi. It's especially unnerving to Guinan, usually the poster child for serenity and good sense, to clearly be angry and unwilling to let go of her hate. Picard's responses are more expected and the episode allows us to go on a wonderful journey with him. I was particularly impressed by his mental transition back to being Locutus.
The real reason the episode works as a whole though is because the great performance by the young actor playing Hugh. He presents vulnerability and confusion well, without breaking into anything overly emotional or melodramatic.
It does seem that this episode would be completely ignored by the time of the First Contact movie, notably in regard to Picard's state of mind, and there are inconsistencies which aren't really addressed. I think at this point the idea was that Borg were still born and grown instead of being made up of all the species that they had assimilated.
I love pretty much all of the Doctor centered episodes.
Surprisingly good, taking a very overused TNG set up (a crew member among a collection of primitive alien townsfolk) and placing an intriguing and well structured story around it. Brent Spiner's performance is absolutely wonderful and I liked the way that Data's natural way of doing things began to emerge more as the episode went on. I was also a fan of the people in the village, especially the local scientist/teacher woman who managed to balance her performance between being interested in and sceptical of Data. A good actress in the role of the young girl, Gia, too.
On top of that, the b-story involving Troi's attempt to become a commander was also just as interesting (plus a nice rare reference to the events of a previous episode having an impact on her character). The conversation between her and Beverly at the start is nice and natural, Riker is honest with her and the solution to the test is a pretty tough one. I only noticed that Captain Picard was barely in this when he suddenly turned up at the end.
I did find it hard not to think of Top Gun whenever anybody called Data "Ice Man".
While I can't say for sure, 'Cause and Effect' has the distinction of being my earliest memory of watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. And what an introduction, this remains one of the most fun, exciting and well put together episodes of the series. Pre-dating Groundhog Day by a couple of years, it's an incredibly daring and inventive episode about being caught in a time loop. Nothing like it had been done before, certainly not on television, and it's creative use of narrative structure was utterly new. And how often do we get to see the Enterprise destroyed?
I like the fact that every scene was filmed multiple times instead of just reusing the footage. I also think that Gates McFadden is able to carry the episode very well, much like she did in 'Remember Me'. Seeing Kelsey Grammar pop up at the end is a joy, I'd love it if we'd had a follow up episode letting us know what became of him and his crew.
It's hard to reconcile in my head the fact that one of my favourite episodes ever was written by one of my most hated writers and one of the people I hold responsible for driving the franchise into the ground.
Only just entertaining, locations were the highlights. Overall the GT series has lost it's grass routes of being a "Car show".
This is one that just feels like a whole lot of nothing much, stretched out to fill a two-parter. The only really interesting parts are the explorations of Data's apparent emotional experience, and the quite excellent scene between him and the Borg in the brig (although it feels very silly when you realise that the security guard is sitting there the whole time and not paying any attention to what's going on), but Data's coercion just feels unnatural. And the reveal of Lore is always a nice little thrill.
Admiral Nechayev continues to be unpleasant, too.
The episode does contain what has to be one of the worst lines of writing in the series: "You have killed Torsus! I will make you suffer for this!"
Dear God, if you write like that you should not be employed.
Finally got to see this Classic American Holiday movie. It's said enough about this one, but what caught my attention is how much people smoke basically everywhere, in literally all public places. Some guys were smoking right in the bus while travelling between the cities, during a winter time with windows shut.
I guess a lot of things did get better since 1987.
I have not yet written a comment in response to a particular episode, yet here I am. The Orville Season 3 Episode 9: Domino was absolute magic. I texted a best friend, just before the conclusion, these words: "The Orville is out Star-Trekking Star Trek."
This episode was a glorious fulfillment of the innumerous emotions to which the show has brought us. We have so far, to name only a few, dealt with drama, conquest, and power struggle, only at the end to be given an indescribably beautiful revelation of the arc of this story.
Given, in my opinion, the first season of The Orville was supremely mediocre, I never once anticipated a future episode would draw me to tears... and...
This.
Did.
Please watch
That text chain is genius; stick around for the end credits. :laughing:
-Hello random murderous ai I've just met in space, off course I'll eat some random things you just offered, how kind of you.
So Boring!!! No attempt to be funny at all!!! Worst yet!!!
“Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration.” - Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration
