Alexya Griffol

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Alexya Griffol


“All Access: Review Of ‘Strange New Worlds’ 109 “All Those Who Wander””



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| October 30, 2017 |
By: Anthony Pascale
170 comments so far

Star Trek: Discovery Season 1, Episode 7 – Debuted Sunday October 29th
Written by Aron Eli Coleite & Jess Alexander
Directed by David M. Barrett

Things get crazy when Harry Mudd pays an unwelcome visit to the USS Discovery in what was certainly the most fun episode yet for the series. Rainn Wilson has truly made the role of Mudd his own, finding ways to go dark and add more humor along the way. Shazad Latif also stands out in this episode, adding more dimension to the recently introduced Lt. Tyler. “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” feels like a classic Trek story in many ways and works as a great stand alone episode, which is unusual for this highly serialized show.  
Skipping the usual teaser, episode 7 of Discovery jumps right into familiar territory with a personal log from our focal character Michael Burnham. This is actually the first time the show has used the traditional Trek trope of a log as narrative device, setting the stage for an episode that feels very familiar in many good ways. This point is emphasized with how Burnham tells and shows us how she has fallen into a comfortable routine onboard the Discovery as a science specialist, but also sets up her dilemma arc for the episode. 
Burnham still struggles with making personal connections, beyond the ever-effusive Tilly, of course. Michael confronts this dilemma when she enters a raging party complete with the surprisingly contemporary touches of beer pong and 1990s hip-hop. Sonequa Martin-Green effectively portrays herself as “the other” while talking of redundant starship power systems as a hammered Tilly (believably played by Mary Wiseman) confronts the real space elephant in the room, what is up between Lt. Tyler and Burnham?
Some may balk at such a raucous event on board a starship but these nerds turned into front-line warriors need a way to let off some steam and Star Trek history has plenty of examples of parties and alcohol imbibing . Plus, the party works as a good touch point for the plot after Mudd comes on board and starts playing with time like Wyclef Jean sampling a disco classic .
In a classic Star Trek move, the Discovery encounters a space creature called a Gormagander. However, it isn’t the creature driving the plot, but what was hidden inside, as Harry Mudd emerges wearing a deliciously ridiculous bug-eyed-monster helmet, possibly intended for use by Andorians. Harcourt is out for revenge on Capt. Lorca who left him on the Klingon prison ship at the end of “Choose Your Pain.”
Rainn Wilson carries the episode as he chews up the scenery as Mudd setting off a series of repeating time loops so he can learn the secrets of the USS Discovery, and deliver it to the Klingons. Somehow this act of high treason filled with psychopathic levels of murder and destruction still makes this the lightest and most fun episode of Star Trek: Discovery . Jason Isaacs perfectly plays straight man captain to Wilson who hearkens the camp of Roger C. Carmel’s original Mudd, but takes it to a darker level as he relishes in killing Lorca over, and over…and over.
Would you buy a starship from this man?
Of course, repeating time loop episodes are nothing new to Trek, but the way it was handled in this episode with the introduction of the cat-and-mouse game never felt like this was a repeat, of those “repeat” episodes. And while Mudd was introduced to Discovery in “Choose Your Pain,” writers Coleite and Alexander chose this episode to nicely evoke “Mudd’s Women” and “I, Mudd” with all the classic elements of humor, crazy technology, a nefarious scheme and Mudd being undone by his own hubris.
The episode also was a showcase for Anthony Rapp, who gets groovier and groovier every week. Often the point of view character for these types of episodes is the one who figures out that something is wrong, but in this case it was the tardigrade DNA-fueled Stamets who was time loop aware, leaving him to approach Burnham after each loop to find out more about her to eventually work together to defeat Mudd. This was a clever way to introduce some character development into the mostly stand alone episode, as we learned more about Stamets, Burham and their emotions.
While the resolution of defeating Mudd by using non-essential systems was clever, how his final fate was handled was not. The writers seemed to want to fit with TOS Mudd episodes which ended on a lighter note, but this just felt off. His final run through time may not have involved any murdering, but Mudd clearly racked up a number of high crimes. It defies logic – and seems somewhat sexist – that his punishment was to reunite him with his wife. The revelation of the real Stella had an interesting twist with her being younger, sweeter and cuter than we would expect. Perhaps the old battleaxe android version of Stella Mudd creates a decade later is a twisted version of this true Stella.
This woman is your punishment for starship hijacking? Oh, the humanity!
As has become the pattern, the true heart of the episode was Michael Burnham’s arc. In this case, it was learning how to connect, and possibly to love. We are reminded how much Burnham is still a fish out of water having grown up as part of Sarek’s family on Vulcan. Torturing the metaphor, the Gormagander (like the monster-turned-vital-friend Tardigrade) is another creature that represents Burnham, this time it is one that literally forgets to mate.
This episode is sneaky in how it delves into the issue of Burnham learning to understand her feelings for Lt. Tyler as a mechanism to move the plot forward. The one key to getting her to trust Stamets is her revealing she has never fallen in love. Apparently not even her human surrogate mother Amanda was able to teach her how to deal with the emotions regarding relationships, especially with romance. Lucky for Burnham, she has the shroomed-out Stamets available to play cupid. After she is confounded by the story of how he and Dr. Culber fell for each other, he breaks her Vulcan training by telling her “love is not logical.”
Of course being a time loop episode we have Burnham and Tyler’s first kiss now in an erased timeline, but we are obviously headed down a road with these two getting close and Latif and Martin-Green are showing promising chemistry. This will be a relationship to watch especially close for those who think there is more to Lt. Tyler than meets the eye .
This never happened, but will probably happen again
This episode (for the most part) took a break from the heavy Klingon War arc, but as Burnham notes in her personal log, which nicely bookends the end of the episode, it is good to “step out of the routine.” It is nice to see that Discovery can let its hair down and have a laugh or two. And it’s OK that we have to wait another week to learn the fate of Admiral Cornwell, taken hostage by the Klingons at the end of last week’s episode. While this episode stands alone, it didn’t feel like the kind of mid-season filler that plagued many previous Star Trek series. In the end, “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” is one of the most satisfying of all the Discovery episodes so far. 
Star Trek: Discovery is available on CBS All Access on in the US and airs in Canada on the Space Channel. It is available on Netflix outside the USA and Canada.
omg “random communications officer man”, I forgot about that, great line!
It was funny, a little “meta,” but funny. My top line for the ep was Tilly’s: “I think I’m back to soldiers now”
Tilly is really the best audience avatar there has been in Trek. They really nailed why that type of character works (and what her purpose is) and that actor is tremendous.
Can’t decide if it better that we’re continuously told that Discovery is starfleet’s most important ship with several victories under her belt. Or would it be better that we actually some of these battles?
I agree. For a season supposedly about a war with Klingons. Overall we have seen very little of the war first hand.
All the people who were stomping their feet about the big bad, non Trek-like, dark war should be thrilled then!
Nobody ever said that though, they are two different things.
From the preview we may actually see something like that next week. I hope.
Remember that Dominio War also wasn’t featured in every episode of DS9.
It wasn’t the “Domino War.” It was the “Dominion War.”
Agreed. Extremely annoying when they spend a whole arc setting up the chance to show some exciting epic starships and crews in action and then spend valuable time instead showing people playing beer pong or brushing each others hair. Christopher Pike and the Enterprise are out there!!!! Discovery wins another battle for Starfleet!!!! OMG, a great battle over XYZ Federation world!! Let’s not show ANY of it – but look at our cool updated map hinting at it. That made a lot more sense when CGI made such epicness expensive.. now it’s just TNG writer laziness (let’s show some simulated holodeck, that is not a holodeck action as opposed to some real nail biting action). It has been feeling like some TOS writer comes in and is like “Hey, did anyone remember Discovery was supposed to save this dilithium mine here??” or “Lorca needs to fly some fighters and fight some BOPs” and quickly writes something in the last 5 minutes.
@Cmd.Bremmon — I don’t agree. We’ve seen how Discovery works. They jump into a battle situation, drop some mines, and jump out. It’s fairly unexciting stuff. The ONLY reason it was interesting the first time we saw it was because they weren’t sure the technology was going to work properly or not, and Lorca wanted to make a big impression on the Klingons. It’s not like we’re going to linger around looking at the battles after Discovery jumps out.
Now, that’s not to say they coudn’t write a fairly interesting story to go with it, just like they did the first time we saw them in action. However, I’m not aching for it either. It will likely come. I am actually far more interested to learn more about this crew, and how they work together. Moreover, they really need to strike a balance in a serial story. I don’t want to see battle after battle every week, either. So far we’re 7 episodes in (5 if you only count the Discovery), and I’m OK with the balance. When all 15 have aired, and they haven’t really delved deeply enough into one aspect or another, then there’s plenty of room for criticism. Right now, not so much, IMO.
I said you should expect to be disappointed months ago. And looks like I was right.
I on the other hand is fine in this direction. We all know they are saving the big war stuff at the end.
Personally this is the kind of Star Trek I want to see. More personal character stuff along with the crazy temporal science. The war stuff will come. But it’s not DS9 either.
Agreed as well. Is the war we’re hearing so much about, but not seeing, happening on another show? Many good points there, Cmd. Bremmon.
Considering that there was a fair amount of bitching about the Klingon war and this being another Trek shoot’em up, I’d of thought this balanced, smart storytelling would have been welcome. I guess not.
So let me get this straight. First people were complaining “we don’t want war in this Star Trek”. And now is “there is not enough war in this Star Trek”… mmmkey
I’m just complaining because it isn’t very good, compelling, engaging television. Period.
Great review! I loved this episode. My favorite of the season. How #Culmets met was super sweet. That kiss between BurnhamXAsh gave me all kinds of feels. Drunk Tilly is my new best friend. Nice to see lesbians getting their dance on aboard a Federation starship. Can’t wait for what looks like an amazing episode next week.
Yeah, next week’s looks like it could be a real powerhouse, much more my kind of thing.
great old school classic trek feeling episode…however i think they could have shown more of Stamets going to the Captain or to Tyler and trying and failing to get through to them….show not tell is much better in storytelling! regardless, great episode, just wish they were a bit longer, this is streaming after all!
While I was watching this I started to think “oh no, not another time loop!”. I’m not the biggest fan of those stories. But I think they handled this one fairly well. Maybe the writers used Edge of Tomorrow as a template as to how not to get bogged down repeating the same sequence over and over. It kept my interest. Not my favorite episode so far but far from a bum one either. MB also showed more character growth in this. I’m liking her more and more. Mudd was pretty hard core in this though. Will be tough seeing him develop into a semi likable character.
And I’m starting to rethink Ash being a Klingon spy as well for some reason. Really thought he could be.
I think he’s a Klingon, but I don’t think he knows he is a Klingon.
Yeah I didn’t think about that. A possibility for sure. And would be one hell of a thing for MB to discover since they seem to be forging a relationship.
Just considered that possibility recently myself. A Manchurian Candidate in space!
@Legate Damar — except it doesn’t make any sense. Arne Darvin was a Klingon who looked human, but had the internal organs of a Klingon. So Ash would fail that test, and he’s been scanned as he came aboard with an injury. So he’s genetically been converted to a human, 100%? And his memories have been replaced by Ash’s? So he’s a copy of Ash? But with Voq’s memories and personality isolated in a locked portion of his brain, waiting to be unlocked at some point? It makes more sense that they’ve just turned Ash into a Manchurian Candidate in that case. I suppose they could just transfer Voq’s mind into Ash, to be later activated, but then there’s no need to completely turn his body into Ash, since they obviously have the technology to transfer brains. That makes more sense as well.
What you’re suggesting is basically a Battlestar Galactica plotline. But that made a lot more sense because they were dealing with an unknown collection of Cylon models, one of whom turned out to be a Cylon. And this brings a new level of technology to Trek that we haven’t seen before in any time frame.
There was an Enterprise novel where Trip went undercover on Romulus for Section 31. In addition to giving him pointy ears and a new haircut, they also gave him green blood and the ability to fool Romulan bioscanners. I assume that something similar has been done to Voq.
Indeed, the scanner McCoy used to ultimately unmask Darvin hadn’t even been made or, in the case of the tribble’s properties to that end as well, been discovered yet.
I am in the process of watching Babylon 5 and there is a a similar story that happens once in the plot and later in season 2. Agents can be programmed to have a “cover” which is usually a nice easygoing persona that collects information. This “cover” is all the person knows they are until the subconscious “agent” is unlocked with a secret code – and the agent remembers everything.
That’s what I think, a sleeper Klingon.
We would have to see how he reacts to the captain’s tribble (which I did not see in this episode).
But note how Stamets remarks on Tyler’s tall frame. Might be another reaaaally really subtle hint.
I think Tyler might be the real Tyler, but carrying Voqs conscience in sleeper mode as well as fabricated memories of the time since the battle of binary stars. Voq might take over Tyler periodically, while Voqs body remains in stasis somewhere else. That would allow for nice drama when responsible war hero Tyler realises that he is a threat to the crew. It might lead to some battles of consciousness or mind-meld saves involving Vulcan Burnham. Or Voq becoming conflicted about his own mission, there’s lots of possibilities…
Anyway, if Tyler is a Klingon spy, I don’t think he realises at the moment.
Heard the whale calls from “The Voyage Home” when the gormagander was beamed aboard?
It’s more like TNG’s Galaxy’s Child episode
I did – so did my wife. We guessed that maybe the Gormagander civilization send the probe form ST4-TVH.
I loved this episode. The new Mudd was great, and time loops are always a cool premise. I just wish that this episode was a bit longer, so that we could have seen more of Stamets figuring out what was going on.
I was surprised at how much I liked Wilson’s Mudd! A more sinister Mudd now, but still recognizably Mudd. As noted above, he can’t help but be tripped up by his own hubris.
Isaacs was indeed a great straight man. The multiple death scenes must have been fun to shoot. Pardon the pun.
This episode marked a first concerning my Discovery viewing experiences: It was the first episode that really just left me with a broad smile. The ending was funny, optimistic, peaceful… and hence felt very much like the Star Trek I’ve known and loved for so long.
Yes, of course some plot details left me with a couple of questions and concerns (they just let Mudd go after he acquired expert-level knowledge on the Discovery? Quite a gamble…) but right now I can’t see my hair turning grey over them. Only goes to show that, at least to me, the overall tone of an episode is of paramount importance.
PS: Oh and how could anyone not LOVE the “new” Paul Stamets?
Stamets was a … a trip in this episode! I’ve liked Anthony Rapp since his first appearance in the show, because his character could be kind of a d*ck but he knew his stuff. And he was egotistical, and so on.
But once he experienced space from a mycological point of view, wow. I really loved his reaction to his first “trip.” A truly enthusiastic scientist! Now with added fun!
@JAGT — yes, it seems rather implausible, though poetic justice — the type Mudd somehow keeps getting in Trek. There’s precedent considering how Kirk just left him on the Android planet in I Mudd. Something about Captains of this era just leaving potential dangerous criminals unwatched on planets, and other unilateral acts …
But we see in the last time loop how the security protocols are changed unrecognized by Mudd.
I really liked that Starfleet officers were having more of a party then I have ever seen on trek, besides Dax’s bachelorette party.
DS9 crew ALWAYS knew how to have fun. No quiet concerts, how about a game of baseball or the better of the holo-suite(deck) programs? Gotta love them.
I really enjoyed this episode. Small scale story, confined to the ship, largely character driven. I really liked Michael’s issues with being a human (robot feels feelings…) it was nice to see a softer side to her character again. And the time loop story, although it’s been done before, felt like it was being approached in a new way. This felt more like the Trek I’m familiar with moreso than previous episodes. I’m slowly getting used to the new feel and direction of DSC but it’s nice to have a very Trek-y touchstone like this. I think the only things that I didn’t wholly buy into were (i) the “time crystals” – although they weren’t that far removed from something like the orb of time (which, incidentally, was the setup for one of the best episodes of DS9 ever, if not all of Trek), but for my sins I wanted more of an explanation of how the things worked (I like a bit of technobabble every now and then – do they warp space time or create a chroniton field or a wormhole or simulate a slingshot around the sun etc. How could Mudd control time itself dagnabbit!) and (ii) I wasn’t entirely on board with the fact that Mudd was portrayed as a violent murderous psychopath. Never got that vibe from him in TOS, although I thought Wilson did a great job at portraying a violent murderous psychopath in this episode, and i
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