I just don't believe Mudd was ever such a dick. Or so competent, for that matter. And the time-loop thing is pretty tired by now too. Although they did give it some interesting twists.

And even all those decades - or centuries - later, we still haven't gotten rid of rap-crap? I am SO depressed.

Oh, and why in hell wouldn't they have sent Mudd to a federation prison or rehab colony? Letting Stella and her father have him was maybe the single dumbest thing in the episode. He could have been locked up one way or another for almost 10 years, and still been able to make it to "Mudd's Women." I sure hope they aren't planning to have him back again...

From his reaction to Stella and her father, I immediately felt like their marriage was going to be a life sentence for him because they (evidently) have sufficient power and status to keep him subservient. He looked like the mean, swaggering dog who was going to live a long life - always cowering - with his tail eventually growing into his belly: no more strutting bully dog! TOS Mudd was shown more as the extravagant bumbler, annoyance, and fool, rather than this dark and malevolent person in our current version.

At the time of TOS series in the mid-sixties, I was a young woman completely captivated by the idea (though, not all of the action) that women ought to be respected equally to men, that we needed to be out from under that insidious male domination of that time. It was one of the ways in which Star Trek was so liberating and why Harry Mudd was not so welcome an addition to the Trek World by some of us. Gene Roddenberry was hitting all the marks of our society at that time with plot points on most of his episodes. The opening statement about "where no man has ever gone before" was always an irritation to hear, so it was a great pleasure when Patrick Stewart finally could say "where no one has ever gone . . . ." and that last point of sexist vanished from the series.

You didn't think the almost-not-there skirts in TOS were a bit sexist? Or that when Roddenberry was told by the studio that he couldn't have a half-female crew, he figured 1/3rd would be sufficient, after all ,that many women could take care of a larger number of men?

@HistoryLover said:

From his reaction to Stella and her father, I immediately felt like their marriage was going to be a life sentence for him because they (evidently) have sufficient power and status to keep him subservient. He looked like the mean, swaggering dog who was going to live a long life - always cowering - with his tail eventually growing into his belly: no more strutting bully dog! TOS Mudd was shown more as the extravagant bumbler, annoyance, and fool, rather than this dark and malevolent person in our current version.

Ah yes, marriage into a powerful family "takes the edge off" the Ferengi-style "Harcourt Fenton Mudd.";) I wonder where/how Capt. Lorca got that "Dark Matter" disassembler and why Starfleet isn't using it against the Klingons? Is it as "common as the Space Tardigrade" in this time line as the use of Aluminum strips of "Window" against radar systems in World War II?

Is "Cyrano Jones" skulking out there, trying oi find a ship load of Tribbles with a "forbidden zone" map? And, where are the Romulans? Have the Klingons exchanged technology, or are they still puttering along at Impulse thruster speed, dreaming of an Empire?

Oh well, just one more episode before the series "goes into the deep freeze" until next year. (Will any CBS subscriber remember/care about "Star Trek: Discovery" in 2018?) After all, doesn't "Star Wars VIII: Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" sweep everything except "The Orville" into the Memory Dump?

Aren't there going to be 9 episodes for "season 1?" That would mean 2 more, since yesterday was #7. But I for one welcome the respite, it can't come soon enough.

Knixon,

The Discovery season has been broken into two parts and the second half returns after a winter break. I am hoping that means that we might be able to see half of the second season in 2018. It is an interesting division, yet I could get used to it and hopefully, with the actors having a break for the holiday (if that actually occurs) it might keep them interested and rested.

Just a thought out of the blue ponderings that can occur when a person hasn't had enough sleep and her mind contains far too much trivia and unnecessary minutia.

Just watched this - another pretty, pretty good episode...

I find it quite entertaining to watch the growth in many of the crew members as they are becoming more familiar with the new additions: Michael and Ash, plus the recent changes in Stamets.

I agree with this. After the first couple of episodes I was pretty annoyed that they seemed to be way behind The Orville in terms of character development, and that wasn't even supposed to be a serious show. However I am enjoying this more nuanced approach of "unveiling" the crew, more or less, through Burnham's eyes...

Hi, Count!

After I watched The Orville trailer and read about it and wasn’t attracted. However, I am finding the writers and creators of this Star Trek incarnation very much in sync with Gene Roddenberry's view of his world's creation. It has been extremely enjoyable to watch Tilly go from the shy, backward intern to a woman who has gradually gone from gawking her way through an explanation into possessing a sense of security in speaking clearly and then with assurance. It has been such a delight to watch, especially as Stamets and Ash have been included in her comfort group.

This has been enabled with the severe role reversal in Michael's role from the superior First Officer to a more-than-fallen comrade following the Binary Stars battle. Michael loss that sense of self as being worthy of life, let alone the full positive attention of anyone.

And it has been fascinating to watch the very hard-boiled Lorca become a redeemer in her fledgling growth into authentic humanity that is being built upon Amanda's and Captain Georgiou's years of loving effort. It is also extremely ironic since he is so self-absorbed in his goals that I don't yet see him doing it for her good; just for his greater benefit. I am finding Lorca to be one of the most single-minded and original characters in the ST universe: the personification of right and might.

For individuals who simply want to have "the old original series style and ethos" and aren't finding it with Discovery, it may be because they never got to listen to Gene Roddenberry in person. While he never meant for TOS to become a religion for some folks, he certainly believed and hoped that it could open some minds to thinking about our world in ways that could influence positive change. I'm finding that Discovery - while not all that I might enjoy in term of being the past 'known Star Trek' - is very much of the kind of thinking in extrapolation to what Gene might have enjoyed (given our current world situation).

Cheers!

Really? If anything I'd say they've been pushing that too quickly, especially considering that although there have been 7 episodes so far, there have only been 5 with Tilly. But even 7 episodes would have been too quick.

'Really?' . . . back at you!

Seven episodes for us. However, in 'Magic', it appears they have now been in space for several months: we see Lorca looking examining a sky chart that has many stops along a marked star field with a travel path and Klingon ships noted. This is between 2.45 and 2.54ish into the episode. How would even half the battles be too short a time for them to have progressed this far in knowing and relating to others? Even with the speedy, faster-than-instantaneous starship, we don't know if there were issues at some locations such as medical visits or rescues, or more senior administrative team visits to the ship bringing additional micromanagement by Admiral Cornwell. Does she only have one ship in her command? Is she the first woman Admiral? Were there none before her who might have taught her to select the best people for the jobs and then let them do it?

From personal experience, I have worked in long-term and very intense settings being dynamic in building teams quickly with a variety of people. Relationships and trust develop much faster and deeper due to the intense crisis and close quarters. This is very common in all emergency services. War would definitely build strong bridges at lightspeed.

So, people are working, fighting, repairing damage, eating, walking to assignments, and getting to know each other. Normally, increased familiarity results in ease of feelings and emotional comfort. I'll agree that the length of time it has taken Michael to attend a party is not meant to show this is the first party she could have attended. I didn't make that assumption and immediately wondered how many times she had avoided it. My reasoning is that if she said 'yes' to the first one, Tilly would have been glued to her side to 'help' her feel comfortable, which might have been a definite fail.

We also have no idea how long it has taken Harcourt to find the Discovery. The Discovery has a one-of-a-kind instant travel speed so I imagine there is no evidence of where in hyperspace it would have gone. Perhaps there might be some technologies for tracking current vessels, but this is a ship too far for my imaging that he used some exotic A-Zed dial-up or hitching rides with old friends, no matter what he told Lorca.

So, yes, it really seems quite easy to me. Cheers!

Well, that's aside from the idea of Mudd finding Discovery to start with, and then arranging to be "captured" within the alien creature, etc., the chances of which seem basically zero. They just wanted Mudd to show up again, and be totally unlike his TOS character, and be essentially invincible even right after escaping from a Klingon prison and then getting a portable time machine (both which are also highly unlikely) and any kind of logic and reason behind it went out the window. I figure since they didn't know earlier that they'd be getting more episodes, they jammed in too much stuff in too few episodes, and it shows.

@tmdb62586060 said:

I have always hated Harcourt Fenton Mudd, yet loved Q in equal measure. There are numerous reasons, such as there was always a boneheaded goal behind Q's machinations, but Mudd just seemed like a flamboyant, yet occasionally, dense jerk. Even then, Roger Carmel was a fine choice for that role and more amusing as 'the jerk' than the ultra-serious Harry we have now.

So, I loved the many incarnations and complexities of trouble in tonight's seventh episode, but still can't stand Harry, albeit that Rainn is doing a fantastic job with the character. I find it quite entertaining to watch the growth in many of the crew members as they are becoming more familiar with the new additions: Michael and Ash, plus the recent changes in Stamets. Painful - though - to watch the many ways to kill people in the episode.

*The Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad is....LOVE. *Yes, folks this entire episode is about LOVE, not about Mudd, not about time loops, not about destroying DSC and her crew, not about war! The writers were so deft and clever most of the REAL message of the episode sailed completely over the heads of those 'fans' determined to hate the show.

From the Space Whale; to Ash and Burnham; to Mudd and his wife; to Tilly's misadventures at the party, we see the full panoply of LOVE in its many manifestations. The Whale has no time to reproduce and lives a lonely existence; Burnham and Ash are in the first awkward stages of human love. Hoepfully we can all relate. Tilly is also experiencing another type of human love ritual: choosing and being chosen and Mudd represents a rather bleak picture of the imprisoned spouse in a sort of gilded cage.

All of this is brilliantly encapsulated in an orgy of destruction, death and sacrifice over and over again and if you aren't paying attention...you will miss it all! We really get to feel and understand Burnham's unfamiliarity with human rituals and her discomfort with admitting love. This is mainly through the exasperated words of Stamets whom, it appears, has gone through the whole thing many, many times. We also get to see more of this vessel than we ever saw of the original Enterprise in one episode. We also got to feel and sense the youthful exuberant atmosphere of the DSC crew, all the more poignant as they get destroyed over and over again. And yes, it is wonderful for the producers to acknowledge the place of some iconic songs in human history: Disco and Rap will long remain a factor in human existence....no matter how muchSOME folks might hate it.

Yes, the time loop is truly an ingenuous if well worn cinematic gimmick . However this time it is interesting because like, Mudd, we get progressively smarter about what's going on with each successive replaying. It is almost miraculous that Burnham and Co are able to defeat the adversary. Was it the most realistic or interesting story? No, but that was not the point now was it? The point of the episode was to make it clear that despite whatever other craziness is going on around us, OUR BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE is to seek a mate and procreate....end of. THAT is why LOVE is the Magic that makes any man (or woman) go mad. Brilliant!

I just wished more people could see that!

Another, excellent episode to watch is the penultimate episode in season 2. That episode sets up the finale by giving us the background of all the characters before the end. We see SPOCK, BURNHAM,STAMETS and the DOCTOR. wrestle with the idea of reconciliation. While Spock can see the obvious disconnect between Stamets and his partner, he is blind to the same disconnect between him and his sister. In a series of brilliant scenes each couple point the other to a successful resolution to their problems! In addition we see each crew member tell their heartily goodbyes to their families bringing home the oft forgotten point that these are people with families, something which was often thought of as an afterthought in the other ST series!