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S01.E07: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad


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"At first I thought the catwalk was spinning.  As it turns out, it was me.  It's a good thing Ensign Fletcher was there to grab me; it's a long way down to the bottom of the warp core..."

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Oh, wow. I am so looking forward to this! It looks like a redo of TNG's 'Cause and Effect' (AKA my very favorite episode ever as a kid). But with shooting and kissing and explosions and Mudd (I guess this is Mudd's revenge?) instead of poker games, Captain Frasier and Dr. Crusher's glass forever smashing.

 

I can't wait.

Edited by Lebanna
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Oh geez... looks like Stamets pissed off a really fat Guild Navigator and its black leather clad Harkonen pal.

They wantz all dah spice!

I mean spores.

:D 

EDIT: Ok, putting being a goof aside, that one particular clip looks very intriguing.

It looks as if some violent alien pilot is actually making use of a huge.. umm...worm?..slug? (Necro creature from the game DEAD SPACE?) as a living space craft!??... and was inside it's innards as the "cabin"!??

I assume this is another variation of spore travel??... but in this case the dude has tagged along for the ride??

Wow!!

Oh wait... is Mudd the "slug rider"?? 

Can't wait for Sunday. This episode looks like it's off the charts. :D

Further EDIT... Wait.... wait... wait... Is the flying Space Slug actually Mudd's  lil prison critter?... all grown up!??

hahahahaha.

I better stop now.

Edited by CanadaPhil
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I'm a little disappointed that they are copying an old episode so early in the game. It seems to me it's a remake of Cause and Effect, only crazier. I've watched that episode more times than I can count, so I hope they get really crazy and make me forget the original. Don't let me down, Discovery!!!

Edited by maddie965
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6 hours ago, Ely said:

I love time loops, eep!

They have to get at least 1 time loop episode on the books.

Then after they check that one off they will have to do at least one of the following plots  (though all equally inexplicable).....

- coming across a planet that has an old timey western gunslinger town.

- stereotypical 1940's gangsters 

- and Nazis... lots 'n lots of Nazis.

Gene Rodenberry must have written all that into his will... that NO future incarnations of any Trek could leave those out.

:D

PS: and bonus points if you can get any combinations of any of the above in the SAME episode!... but that might be cheating!.. Nudge... Wink... looking at you, ENTERPRISE!  

They managed 3 out 'a 4 in 1!!

Very impressive!

Edited by CanadaPhil
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When I saw this title, I thought two things: (1) It's a shout-out to Lorca's past as a dark wizard :-) and (2) Do we actually have any sane men on board to test this out on? Well, I guess there's Dr. Culber -- he seems mentally OK. But the others? Stametts is permanently stoned; Tyler may have a klingon alter-ego lurking inside him; the PTSD might be only the tip of Lorca's iceberg of dysfunction. If Saru was human, he might be considered a bit neurotic. I wonder if he's considered reckless among his own species, for being willing to explore alongside us predators.

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44 minutes ago, tpel said:

When I saw this title, I thought two things: (1) It's a shout-out to Lorca's past as a dark wizard :-) and (2) Do we actually have any sane men on board to test this out on? Well, I guess there's Dr. Culber -- he seems mentally OK. But the others? Stametts is permanently stoned; Tyler may have a klingon alter-ego lurking inside him; the PTSD might be only the tip of Lorca's iceberg of dysfunction. If Saru was human, he might be considered a bit neurotic. I wonder if he's considered reckless among his own species, for being willing to explore alongside us predators.

Well, if we count the women as part of the sanest 'men'... Yeah, no, I've got nothing there either.

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Random thoughts:

I love Mudd. He’s such a great Foil for Lorca and crew.

I find time loops tedious but this one was ok.

The actress who plays Tilley looked gorgeous with her hair loose and her party outfit.

I really like how Michael and Tyler’s relationship is developing.

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The episode began and progressed with so much promise and it was just pure fun and yet still edgy....

But in the end it just seemed to implode in on itself. The ending felt completely nonsensical and was unsatisfying.

However..... the moment between Michael and Ash slowly taking each other's hand and Ash putting his at the small of her back followed by them looking into each others eyes is hands down the sexiest moment that has ever occurred in Trek history!!

Don't try denying it!... It was and you all know it.

:P

Edited by CanadaPhil
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This show has been a bit of a slog to watch so far, but I actually really enjoyed this episode.  Doesn't hurt that the time loop plot emulated one of my favourite TNG episodes, or that it featured Harry Mudd. I gotta say, Rainn Wilson's shaping up to be my favourite part of the show so far. It's almost like he was born to be Mudd.

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So, Harry Mudd has contact with 4th dimensional beings that can manufacture time crystals (a species that apparently the Federation knows nothing about) ....... and ...... knew the whereabouts of a friendly neighborhood Gormagander so that he could stick his ship inside (did he transport it inside, or just ram his way in) .... and ...... knew the path of Discovery so that he could get the Gormagander nearby since he apparently knew the protocols when Federation ships encounter a Gormagander.

Stella and her pops the Baron were less than 30 minutes away via warp .... and ..... ready to leave on a moments notice.  The time loop is not the hardest part to believe of this episode.

Let's not forget that Lorca has dark matter marbles stashed away in his secret room -- I thought it was funny when Ash turned to .... ash.

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On 10/24/2017 at 3:06 PM, Lebanna said:

Oh, wow. I am so looking forward to this! It looks like a redo of TNG's 'Cause and Effect' (AKA my very favorite episode ever as a kid). But with shooting and kissing and explosions and Mudd (I guess this is Mudd's revenge?) instead of poker games, Captain Frasier and Dr. Crusher's glass forever smashing.

I remember listening to the commentary for Cause and Effect on Bluray. Seth MacFarlane and Brannon Braga remarked that it came out before Groundhog Day as that was a year later. They also commented on how that opening scene was one of the most memorable ever. I recall as a 12 year old freaking out how the Enterprise just blew up. Despite the fact it was 25 years ago, it's not something you forget. That's one of my favorites too. 

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Stella and her pops the Baron were less than 30 minutes away via warp .... and ..... ready to leave on a moments notice.  The time loop is not the hardest part to believe of this episode.

No kidding. How did Stella and her father's ship get there that fast? Young Stella seemed a lot more pleasant than the one from TOS too. 

Edited by DrScottie
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I miss the nag-gy Stella from TOS.  Mudd is the most interesting character on the show (so far).

A newer twist on Groundhog Day with a 30 minute timeloop.

The Gormagander was interesting - the space whale. I was going to Wrath of Khan with Moby Dick being on Khan's bookshelf. And Captain Kirk. Lorca just doesn't do anything for me right now. Did like Ash thoughl He has promise and a budding relationship with Michael.

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I loved this episode so much!

I read how many people think Michael is a Mary Sue, but she honestly isn't. There are many things she doesn't know and she doesn't have the answers for everything. It honestly seems like she led a sad, lonely life when it came to her own personal fulfillment, especially when it wasn't centered around pleasing others. 

I'm glad that Stamets was the one who relived the loop and had to get others to believe him. It's also interesting that he went to Ash first and not Michael because, again, the assumption is that she knows and can fix everything. The only reason Stamets went to her is because she was closer to Ash. Him needing Ash made sense since Ash served 7 months with Mudd. 

I wished Tilly had been utilized more not because I'm crazy about her, I like her okay, but I just do.

Time loops are my favorites, so I knew I'd love this episode. It's one of my favorite X-Files episodes and I love Groundhog Day. I've yet to see the time loop ep from TOS, but I'm doing a first series watch of it now, which I've been meaning to do for years.

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Star Trek continuity error.

Party/Funky dance music died around 2113 after the post atomic horror of 2054, along with most post-'50s Rock and Roll.

Only Classical music, with a Jazz music discovery/revival around the TNG era...

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23 hours ago, Unusual Suspect said:

And stoned Stamets is still really amusing.

Has it been established that the mushroom pathways have psilocybin? I'm glad Stamets isn't being physically hurt now that he has the forearm port, but I kind of miss the snarky, rude Stamets.

Good old Lorca does not give a single fuck about space whales: "Whatever. Don't bother me." His death montage was awesome, though. Fifty thousand ways to kill you captain.

Edited by 2727
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I thought this episode was pretty fun and some decent Star Trek overall. When this show first premiered, it was vastly out-Trekked by The Orville, which was Star Trek with balls... Big hairy balls that they wouldn't stop talking about episode after episode. The dick and fart jokes on the Orville are getting old while Discovery is finally finding its groove.

Of course, what would Trek be without some nitpicking?

Why is half the crew at the party wearing their uniforms? Why was that one gal wearing an ankle-length dress over leather pants? Pick one already!

Why doesn't Starfleet have a protocol for an officer to be able to declare that they're stuck in a time loop? Instead Stamets almost gets institutionalized.

Why didn't Stamets call the bridge, tell them the space whale was a trap and they should blow it up and then go from there? I guess Mudd was already on board but they were clear that his power source was up the whale's ass.

Why doesn't a ship like Discovery have an intruder alert protocol?

The communication protocols of the captain's chair are a non-essential system? I guess this ship really was commissioned by Admiral Don Geevasheet at the Dafuq Fleet Yards!

The spore lab is main engineering now? I thought we had already seen engineering and that wasn't it.

Saru needs to get his threat ganglia checked out. Burnham sets them off by existing but Mudd doesn't even make them twitch after destroying the ship fifty times!

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Ah, a time loop episode!  I'm always a sucker for those, and I enjoyed all that came with it like Stamets frustrations over having to repeat the story over and over again, the montage of the various ways Mudd killed Lorca, and the way Michael and Tyler's relationship change after each reset.  Fun all around!  And they had decent explanation over why Stamets was the one who wasn't effected by it.

Holy shit, though!  I'm all for protecting endangered species, but Starfleet is hardcore about this!  If you don't save one, you can get a court martial?  I loved how even Mr. Shades of Grey Lorca was like "Yep, bring that damn space whale aboard, because I ain't going to fight Starfleet on this!"  Hopefully the Klingions never find out or they could just simply find random endangered species and use them as bait.

Good to know beer pong and 80s music is still around at this time.  But I guess that becomes obsolete during the Next Generation, where that... err, generation seems all about the jazz and pokers games.  Those damn TNG hipsters!

Only thing I wasn't a fan of was the comedic ending for Mudd.  I don't care if they reset things at the end, the dude straight-up killed numerous people in cold blood.  He's no mere rascal: he's a stone-cold killer.  But credit to Rainn Wilson, who I never would have predicted could pull this off.  He's making for a good antagonist.

While Michael is still closed off overall, her admitting that she considers Tilly a friend in her personal log is still a pretty big step for her.

As much as I'm enjoying stoned, happy Stamets, I'm worried this is setting things up for it to go south for him very soon.

Probably my favorite episode so far.

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WYCLEF TO THE FUTURE

I both enjoyed this episode and thought it didn't work at all.  I love Cause and Effect (and Clues for that matter), I love Groundhog Day except I've seen it too often, and I love Edge of Tomorrow which frankly seemed to be what this episode was ripping off much moreso than the other time loop stories.  But the thing about all of those is they have a consistent tone.  Groundhog Day gets serious sometimes, Edge of Tomorrow has funny parts, but basically, they have one basic tone and have bits of contrast, whereas this episode just swung wildly all over the goddam place like those drunk Starfleets at the party (do they have synthahol yet in this era?)  I don't know if Harry Mudd is supposed to be funny on this show like he was on TOS, but he isn't the slightest bit, he's super dark and unpleasant (the actor is great, but the character as written is no funny rogue but a scary, vicious psychopath.)  People keep dying in horrible ways, the scenario seems terrifying and awful.  Yet they keep sort of acting like it's a comedy episode?  Stamets can't get through to Michael!  Haha!  She doesn't know how to flirt!  Haha!  Tilly is letting loose!  Haha!  Like what am I supposed to make of Mudd murdering Lorca over and over, doing things like transporting him into space to die?  I want to think it's horrifying.  But they way they do it removes all the gravity from the scene, like it's Bill Murray learning the piano.  And then they dispose of him with a haha!  He's stuck with his (beautiful, friendly, rich) wife!  Haha, no consequences whatsoever!  Because he was just foolin' around, that Harry Mudd, what a character right!?

Actually the Stamets having to prove it thing really hurts my soul because my favorite, favorite thing about TNG is that they never doubt their crew members.  Long ago on the digital cable menu thing my brother and I saw the episode description for Parallels: "Only Worf can percieve that reality is changing."  We joked that you could use this description for like half the episodes on the show, just change the name of the crewmate who is the Only One.  But what's refreshing is they always believe the Only One Who Can See, and run tests and diagnostics until they've exhausted all possible angles to what might be happening.  But alas, in this episode they have to resort to some extremely complicated and bizarre rigamarole to make people believe Stamets....rigamarole that makes no sense to me, with events that seem to follow no logical sequence, in stark contrast to all those other time loop stories which have at least the appearance of a rigorous series of trial and error leading to eventual success.  Also, this show is addicted to parallels, Michael/Georgiou and Voq/T'Kuvma and so on ad nauseum, but sad space whale that's too busy to get laid is just too on-the-nose as a parallel for Michael's situation.

HOWEVER!  All that said!  What a lot of fun and great stuff in this episode!  Silly Stamets being nosy at Michael and Ash!  Tilly having fun and on the prowl!  Stamets and Hugh's first meeting story!  Michael's never been in love, which is not that strange or unexpected, but it's so believable and adorable that she's so self-conscious about it!  The reasoning is ridiculous but Stamets teaching her how to dance!  "I wish we hadn't missed our first kiss"!  Disabled crewmates partying, and girls slow dancing with girls!  Lorca's look when Saru corrects him about the fish!  So much to enjoy.  I can criticize, but I can't hate.

3 hours ago, Nanrad said:

I read how many people think Michael is a Mary Sue, but she honestly isn't.

I don't believe in the concept of Mary Sue but I think that at first there was just way too much Michael, Michael doing everything.  Like if they were making a World War I show and said to themselves, "What if our main character was both Gavrilo Princip and the Red Baron and Lawrence of Arabia, all in one!"  But now that the rest of the crew is coming into their own it's more balanced and Michael seems much more integrated into a world instead of the only person in it.  By deepening the other characters, they make Michael better as well.

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In true Trek fashion, time crystals are a real thing, but, they're not really the thing that Trek makes them out to be. Much like dilithium, deuterium, and lots of other cool-sounding stuff that isn't, actually, magic.

 

 

1 hour ago, dwmarch said:

 

Of course, what would Trek be without some nitpicking?

 

Why doesn't Starfleet have a protocol for an officer to be able to declare that they're stuck in a time loop? Instead Stamets almost gets institutionalized.

 

Why doesn't a ship like Discovery have an intruder alert protocol?

 

 

Heh. As for a time-loop protocol, presumably coming up with a signal beforehand could lead to abuse. "If any crewmember says 'Purple Monkey Dishwasher: we are in a time loop!', drop everything an listen to them" would lead to all sorts of issues whenever some rogue ensign wants to steal a ship when they're not actually in a time loop ;)

 

As far as the Intruder Alert, I wondered that too, wasn't it in Star Trek VI that we learned that firing a phaser inside the ship sets off all sorts of alarms everywhere?

Edited by Charlesman
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Although she may not strictly meet the definition of Mary Sue, most of the time the show is basically The Michael Burnham Show. This episode was nominally about other characters, but she was still the centre of the story. 

The Dutch angles were out of control in this episode. 

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1 hour ago, Kokapetl said:

Although she may not strictly meet the definition of Mary Sue, most of the time the show is basically The Michael Burnham Show. This episode was nominally about other characters, but she was still the centre of the story. 

The Dutch angles were out of control in this episode. 

Yeah, I kept thinking throughout that normally this episode woul be about Stamets which would've been so interesting as well. At the same time I've warmed to Michael so much that I enjoy learning more about her. Still, I see this as a missed chance to really learn about other crew members, in this case Stamets. The dancing scene was superb and sweet. 

And why could Michael remember details after each loop?

I'm officially in Lorca's corner after his almost eyeroll at helping space whale. I love whales and apparently adore space whales, but that was so refreshing to see.

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I really enjoyed this episode, despite it being a reboot plot from other ST iterations.  And  the idea that only classical and jazz survived was just nonsense, so I'm glad that's one of those "rules" that STD has decided to ignore.  What I liked most was that while Klingons were mentioned, they never hit the screen.  This episode benefited from that.  I do hope this means that Tyler's not going to turn out to be a Klingon under cover now.

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When are they going to let poor Keyla say something?

Seriously, I don't think she has uttered one single word onscreen since the pilot episode!??

Well, at least we have now learned she enjoys getting a little freaky at office parties. 

:D

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I think I just need to repeat what I put in the last episode thread: I agree with Tilly, and now my own solider-thing is back too.

But really, they're making Ash so wonderful so it'll hurt all the more when he's revealed as Voq. Every time I started to squee over those two, I just reminded myself that this is going to get messy. Like when Boomer shot Adama in the gut in BSG. This ain't gonna end well folks.

Despite cringing in anticipation of what I think will happen later on, I really did like 99% of the episode. The ending with Stella and Daddy was stretching the bounds of credulity, and tonally off. If they had just ended with Mudd thinking he'd contacted the Klingons, but really he'd contacted no one, and so the crew thwarted his plan and threw him in the brig/on the next Starfleet prison ship, I'd have been satisfied with the ending. 

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2 hours ago, Ely said:

Yeah, I kept thinking throughout that normally this episode woul be about Stamets which would've been so interesting as well. At the same time I've warmed to Michael so much that I enjoy learning more about her. Still, I see this as a missed chance to really learn about other crew members, in this case Stamets. The dancing scene was superb and sweet. 

And why could Michael remember details after each loop?

I'm officially in Lorca's corner after his almost eyeroll at helping space whale. I love whales and apparently adore space whales, but that was so refreshing to see.

I didn’t think Michael remembered, but so much of the plot was glossed over by the writers to facilitate Stamets returning to her again and again. I also don’t think it was entirely coincidental that writers didn’t include dialogue for the most of the final temporal loop, just a muted montage. A proper and plausible explanation of the successful plan probably eluded them. 

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If it turns out that Ash is indeed Voq, the klingons behind his transformation have an amazing knowledge of human psychology. He hasn't bertrayed himself even once.  He reacts to everything like a Human would.

It may not be the most original plot ever, but I liked it a lot., it was fun. And I see Michael as the main character of the show, so I have no problem with her being in the middle of everything. Also, from my experience, every female protagonist in every adventure/action film or TV show has to deal with being called "Mary-Sue", a criticism I seldom see directed to male protagonists with the same skills.

Mudd has always been a weasel. And I agree that his punishment was too light, considering what he was trying to do.

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When Michael says she didn't fraternize on the Shenzhou because of her position, are we supposed to think she started as First Officer as soon as Sarek got her the job?  Because that doesn't make any sense. But if not, why didn't she go through some of these issues already?

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21 minutes ago, Helena Dax said:

.....

Mudd has always been a weasel. And I agree that his punishment was too light, considering what he was trying to do.

This is what nearly derails it for me. Up to that point, this episode is firing on all cylinders.

Still a good episode on the whole, but the final act keeps it from being GREAT imo. 

13 hours ago, starri said:

....

And I hear he's in a band!

I so LO-LOLL'd !!

Great line.

Edited by CanadaPhil
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4 hours ago, marinw said:

My take is that Stella becomes unpleasant and a nag after years of living with Harry’s drinking and sex robots.

Also, robot Stella on the original series is just based on Harry's perceptions of Stella and in his head she's probably worse than reality.

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Even tho Michael is basically the main character, I still don't see her as a Mary Sue. No one sees her as perfect or looks overhear flaw. But, canonically and for viewers there is disagreement about whether or not she was right in trying to give a Vulcan Hello. Michael has proven to be wrong and not to know all of the answers, which she admits herself. Hell, when she was sneaking around, Lorca let her know that he knew what she did. 

I think Michael is a fundamentally misunderstood character both canonically and by fans as well. I'm not saying everyone who criticizes her or don't care for her are wrong, but there are criticism that the show basically addressed about her character or that's heavily implied which explains her behavior. 

Her human counterparts see her as soooo Vulcan that she can't understand basic human emotions and Sarek sees her as too human to fully immerse herself in Vulcan lifestyle. At one point in time, Michael has had these criticisms directed at her in some capacity. Michael is stuck in between her upbringing and trying to please Sarek and fighting to suppress her human emotions and reactions. When she finally is able to express her human emotions she struggles after more or less 20 years of fighting her human instinct.

To be honest, I don't think Michael has not only ever been in love, but let alone been kissed or in a relationship, which is why she deflected when Tilly asked her abut previous relationships of hers and her reaction to Ash kissing her. Michael probably first got on the ship thinking she had to prove herself (to Sarek) and didn't indulge in human activities. Then when she go the first officer position, she saw those interactions as inappropriate. Ultimately, I think she stayed away from any indulgence or forms of enjoyment because of it's human-ness and that it was a distraction from her "goal", especially since she "disappointment" Sarek by not getting into the Vulcan academy. 

After the truth came forth, Michael is free to live her life as she pleased, but it's a process. 

---

Mudd's "punishment" was too light, but I don't know the appropriate punishment for him because in the last time line, everyone was alive. Can he be punished for killing people who are living? Also, he still knows how the spore drive works. 

I think Lorca's deaths were being played for laughs based off of Mudd's pettiness. 

3 hours ago, Kokapetl said:

I didn’t think Michael remembered, but so much of the plot was glossed over by the writers to facilitate Stamets returning to her again and again. I also don’t think it was entirely coincidental that writers didn’t include dialogue for the most of the final temporal loop, just a muted montage. A proper and plausible explanation of the successful plan probably eluded them. 

I think the resolution was sloppy because Mud deserved a harsher punishment, but I don't think a plausible and successful plan eluded them. I believe that Michael told Stamets the final plan or they came up with it together, and then they executed it, which as mentioned, the how was poor. I'm not sure if they thought he was going to be let off like that since he was wanted, but say if it ended with him being in a prison ship instead, it would've been a better ending. I think they were just trying to get Stella involved in the story line, but played too much with the dark angle and then through this really light and comedic resolution that it felt off.

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Lorca => Killer Whale....

If Ash is a Klingon, then he is the worst operative....Mudd is going to sell the Discovery to the Klingons and end the war.... and he kills the deal.....

Edited by paigow
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47 minutes ago, Nanrad said:

I think the resolution was sloppy because Mud deserved a harsher punishment, but I don't think a plausible and successful plan eluded them. I believe that Michael told Stamets the final plan or they came up with it together, and then they executed it, which as mentioned, the how was poor.

I think @Kokapetl meant that it eluded the writers, not the characters.  The plan as it actually happened was not remotely plausible.

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I enjoyed this episode immensely. The Lorca Death Montage was hilarious, and we got confirmation that he keeps some seriously dangerous shit in his office ("Does it melt your brain?"). Stametts was wonderful -- loopy enough at the beginning that you can see why people might not immediately believe him about the time loop, then earnest and insightful as he tries to figure out a way to solve the problem. One missed opportunity: we never see Stammetts trying to convince or work with his partner, Dr. Culber. At first, that seems like a glaring omission, or a convenient oversight so the writers can concentrate on Michael. A quick line would have fixed that poignantly: "I can't watch him die any more."

Kind of hoping Tyler turns out to be Voq, because I'm finding him a bit dull as himself. The hot guy with the (literally) tortured past, whom everyone seems to admire . . . meh. Oh, it's sweet how Tilly is trying to set Michael up with him, and I like Michael enough to want her to be happy. And he's not actively annoying. He's just . . . there.

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I thought Anthony Rapp was the star of that episode. He gave an amazing performance. I liked everything about Stamets, beginning with his loopiness. I never imagined the humourless scientist from the early episodes would require his husband apologize for his inappropriateness. I don’t normally enjoy time loop stories but Stamets sold this one. He never lost his composure as he won Michael to his side over and over. He kept his sanity despite dealing with a whole crew in the dark. And he was gleeful about tricking Mudd.

Tilley was a lot of fun in her party persona but showed she was competent and reliable when Michael needed her. She’s becoming one of my favourite characters. Lorca didn’t have much to do, but did it well. His absolute disinterest in endangered species was funny. Did what he had to, but no more. 

I liked Ash and Michael, with Stamets doing his bit to push them together.  I enjoyed the episode, even though I think Mudd got away too lightly. I hope Stella makes him absolutely miserable.

Edited by Irishmaple
Autocorrect is evil.
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Quote

Actually the Stamets having to prove it thing really hurts my soul because my favorite, favorite thing about TNG is that they never doubt their crew members.  We joked that you could use this description for like half the episodes on the show, just change the name of the crewmate who is the Only One.  But what's refreshing is they always believe the Only One Who Can See, and run tests and diagnostics until they've exhausted all possible angles to what might be happening.  But alas, in this episode they have to resort to some extremely complicated and bizarre rigamarole to make people believe Stamets....rigamarole that makes no sense to me, with events that seem to follow no logical sequence, in stark contrast to all those other time loop stories which have at least the appearance of a rigorous series of trial and error leading to eventual success. 

I'm going to go under the belief that such things hadn't been widely understood or documented at that point in time, so the testing and protocols seen in the TNG era haven't been implemented.

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