Last week, we learned that the keys to instantaneous space travel are
1) mushrooms
2) torturing a space hippopotamus
This week's episode opens with Specialist Burnham dreaming about an engineering deck in which she is both the one operating the instantaneous space drive and the one inside the drive being tortured. While Star Trek has never been subtle it has, at least, evinced its own belief that it was subtle in seasons past. I think that time is now over.
The plot of this episode kicks off when Captain Lorca, having been identified as the commanding officer of Starfleet's teleporting super-weapon, is kidnapped by the Klingons while returning from a meeting with Starfleet Command. Obviously, Discovery is the only ship that can effect a rescue since he is now being held in Klingon space (don't ask how the Klingons got so close to Starfleet Command). Unfortunately, the space hippopotamus is not doing so well on account of all the torture. In fact, as soon as Discovery teleports in close enough to have a shot at rescuing the Captain, space hippopotamus sheds all its water and curls up into a shriveled comatose mass. This provokes much sturm and drang amongst the crew. Specialist Burnham, Cadet Tilley, and Chief Engineer Lieutenant Stamets think torture is a bad idea and start working on a plan to engineer something else that can interface with the mushrooms and run the teleportation drive. Acting Captain Saru also thinks torture is a bad idea, but he is thinking more about his erstwhile captain getting tortured by the Klingons, and doesn't really care if the space hippopotamus has feelings. Eventually, the engineering team comes up with an injection that can engineer a human's DNA to be just close enough to space hippopotamus DNA to work, but there is apparently some blanket Federation law against "eugenics" the prevents them from using it. This, presumably, is supposed to make us feel warm and fuzzy because it obviously has its roots in World War 3 and the rise of Khan Noonien Singh.
Meanwhile, Captain Lorca is indeed being tortured (but not being asked any questions, as far as we can tell) on a Klingon prison ship where he is being held with a random Starfleet Lieutenant and.... drumroll please.... Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Yes, the delightfully campy human trafficker from the Original Series episodes "Mudd's Women" -- an episode about mail order brides that somehow fails to conclude that mail ordering people is wrong -- and "I, Mudd" -- a delightful tale about robots that is probably still okay to watch -- apparently has a backstory that we are going to learn. Shenanigans ensue, Mudd colludes with the Klingons; Lorca and the random Starfleet Lieutenant shoot their way out of prison, Discovery beams them aboard, and Lieutenant Stamets heroically injects himself with the illegal space hippopotamus DNA, letting Discovery teleport back to Federation space. The penultimate scene shows Specialist Burnham and Cadet Tilly setting the space hippopotamus free. The ultimate scene shows Lieutenant Stamets and his boyfriend doctor (whose name I guess I now have to learn) talking about the days' adventure and ends when they both leave the bathroom only to have Lieutenant Stamets' reflection linger behind them. Cue the creepy music.
I suppose this episode was fine. I may actually like one of the characters now: doctor boyfriend has done nothing morally objectionable, nor has he verbally abused anyone that I am aware of. Lieutenant Stamets is also almost an okay person, now. It was obviously too easy for Captain Lorca to shoot his way out of Klingon prison (there's a theory about that on the internet, I'm told), but I am going to ignore that for the moment to talk about the thing I really want to talk about: Harry Mudd.
It has always offended me a little that, of all the guest stars in all of original Star Trek, Harry Mudd is the only one who shows up more than once. Even before I thought about "Mudd's Women" long enough to realize why it was totally unacceptable (and it took an embarrassingly long time), the episode was too campy to warrant a repeat appearance by it's equally campy villain. Yet there he was in "I, Mudd" and here he is now. This strikes me as problematic in two ways. Given that Captain Lorca did not bring Harry Mudd with him on his escape, it seems unlikely to me that, having been abandoned on a Klingon prison vessel, Harry Mudd will evolve into the comically problematic sixties archetype that Captain Kirk encounters eight story years from now. I have said similar things before on this blog. That is not even the heart of my complaint, though. The heart of my complaint is that this is naked fan service. There is no reason to make him Harry Mudd (just as there was no reason to make Specialist Burnham's foster father Sarek) except so that the writers can lean on our preconceptions of who Harry Mudd is. This feels lazy. It's an insurance policy in case the writers fail to properly characterize Harry Mudd this time around. "Just fill in the gaps with the things you learned about Harry Mudd in the Original Series." I also find it a little offensive. "You'll think this is cool because it's a thing you have history with." I'm sorry, but I'm not that stupid, and I wish you (the writers) would stop treating me as though I am. Benedict Cumberbatch saying "my name is Khan" in Abrams Trek 2 did not compensate for the fact that nothing anyone in that movie did made any sense. Rainn Wilson declaring that he is Harry Mudd evokes no emotion other than, on my part, confusion. It does disservice to me as a fan and it does disservice to the show. This Harry Mudd actually makes some good points. "[This war] is your fault for 'boldly going where no one has gone before.' What did you think would happen when you finally ran into people who didn't want you on their front lawn?" It's a question which Star Trek has never dealt with (except for passing mention in "Arena," I guess). I would like to see how they answer it. Given that I know how Harry Mudd ends up, though, the writers' options to explore the question through his character are already constrained at one end. Why tether yourself that way? Oh, right. Because I'll think it's cool because it's a thing I have history with. It's okay. This is Star Trek. We care enough to run with you while you try new things (case in point: I have referenced "mushroom-based propulsion" twice in this post alone).
While we're here and talking about fan service: when the engineering team is trying to figure out if any other lifeform can interface with the mushroom drive in space hippopotamus' place, Cadet Tilly asks if she should access "the top secret life form files at the Daystrom Institute." The Daystrom Institute is where Leah Brahms, the engineer who designed the Enterprise-D, will be employed 100 years from now. It was (I presume) named for Richard Daystrom, who created the M-5 computer featured in the Original Series episode "The Ultimate Computer." It's not clear to me that there would be an institute named for Dr. Daystrom while he is still alive, and possibly even before he is famous. If you're going to drop Easter eggs on the second most detail-obsessed fandom in all of geekery, do it right.
1) mushrooms
2) torturing a space hippopotamus
This week's episode opens with Specialist Burnham dreaming about an engineering deck in which she is both the one operating the instantaneous space drive and the one inside the drive being tortured. While Star Trek has never been subtle it has, at least, evinced its own belief that it was subtle in seasons past. I think that time is now over.
The plot of this episode kicks off when Captain Lorca, having been identified as the commanding officer of Starfleet's teleporting super-weapon, is kidnapped by the Klingons while returning from a meeting with Starfleet Command. Obviously, Discovery is the only ship that can effect a rescue since he is now being held in Klingon space (don't ask how the Klingons got so close to Starfleet Command). Unfortunately, the space hippopotamus is not doing so well on account of all the torture. In fact, as soon as Discovery teleports in close enough to have a shot at rescuing the Captain, space hippopotamus sheds all its water and curls up into a shriveled comatose mass. This provokes much sturm and drang amongst the crew. Specialist Burnham, Cadet Tilley, and Chief Engineer Lieutenant Stamets think torture is a bad idea and start working on a plan to engineer something else that can interface with the mushrooms and run the teleportation drive. Acting Captain Saru also thinks torture is a bad idea, but he is thinking more about his erstwhile captain getting tortured by the Klingons, and doesn't really care if the space hippopotamus has feelings. Eventually, the engineering team comes up with an injection that can engineer a human's DNA to be just close enough to space hippopotamus DNA to work, but there is apparently some blanket Federation law against "eugenics" the prevents them from using it. This, presumably, is supposed to make us feel warm and fuzzy because it obviously has its roots in World War 3 and the rise of Khan Noonien Singh.
Meanwhile, Captain Lorca is indeed being tortured (but not being asked any questions, as far as we can tell) on a Klingon prison ship where he is being held with a random Starfleet Lieutenant and.... drumroll please.... Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Yes, the delightfully campy human trafficker from the Original Series episodes "Mudd's Women" -- an episode about mail order brides that somehow fails to conclude that mail ordering people is wrong -- and "I, Mudd" -- a delightful tale about robots that is probably still okay to watch -- apparently has a backstory that we are going to learn. Shenanigans ensue, Mudd colludes with the Klingons; Lorca and the random Starfleet Lieutenant shoot their way out of prison, Discovery beams them aboard, and Lieutenant Stamets heroically injects himself with the illegal space hippopotamus DNA, letting Discovery teleport back to Federation space. The penultimate scene shows Specialist Burnham and Cadet Tilly setting the space hippopotamus free. The ultimate scene shows Lieutenant Stamets and his boyfriend doctor (whose name I guess I now have to learn) talking about the days' adventure and ends when they both leave the bathroom only to have Lieutenant Stamets' reflection linger behind them. Cue the creepy music.
I suppose this episode was fine. I may actually like one of the characters now: doctor boyfriend has done nothing morally objectionable, nor has he verbally abused anyone that I am aware of. Lieutenant Stamets is also almost an okay person, now. It was obviously too easy for Captain Lorca to shoot his way out of Klingon prison (there's a theory about that on the internet, I'm told), but I am going to ignore that for the moment to talk about the thing I really want to talk about: Harry Mudd.
It has always offended me a little that, of all the guest stars in all of original Star Trek, Harry Mudd is the only one who shows up more than once. Even before I thought about "Mudd's Women" long enough to realize why it was totally unacceptable (and it took an embarrassingly long time), the episode was too campy to warrant a repeat appearance by it's equally campy villain. Yet there he was in "I, Mudd" and here he is now. This strikes me as problematic in two ways. Given that Captain Lorca did not bring Harry Mudd with him on his escape, it seems unlikely to me that, having been abandoned on a Klingon prison vessel, Harry Mudd will evolve into the comically problematic sixties archetype that Captain Kirk encounters eight story years from now. I have said similar things before on this blog. That is not even the heart of my complaint, though. The heart of my complaint is that this is naked fan service. There is no reason to make him Harry Mudd (just as there was no reason to make Specialist Burnham's foster father Sarek) except so that the writers can lean on our preconceptions of who Harry Mudd is. This feels lazy. It's an insurance policy in case the writers fail to properly characterize Harry Mudd this time around. "Just fill in the gaps with the things you learned about Harry Mudd in the Original Series." I also find it a little offensive. "You'll think this is cool because it's a thing you have history with." I'm sorry, but I'm not that stupid, and I wish you (the writers) would stop treating me as though I am. Benedict Cumberbatch saying "my name is Khan" in Abrams Trek 2 did not compensate for the fact that nothing anyone in that movie did made any sense. Rainn Wilson declaring that he is Harry Mudd evokes no emotion other than, on my part, confusion. It does disservice to me as a fan and it does disservice to the show. This Harry Mudd actually makes some good points. "[This war] is your fault for 'boldly going where no one has gone before.' What did you think would happen when you finally ran into people who didn't want you on their front lawn?" It's a question which Star Trek has never dealt with (except for passing mention in "Arena," I guess). I would like to see how they answer it. Given that I know how Harry Mudd ends up, though, the writers' options to explore the question through his character are already constrained at one end. Why tether yourself that way? Oh, right. Because I'll think it's cool because it's a thing I have history with. It's okay. This is Star Trek. We care enough to run with you while you try new things (case in point: I have referenced "mushroom-based propulsion" twice in this post alone).
While we're here and talking about fan service: when the engineering team is trying to figure out if any other lifeform can interface with the mushroom drive in space hippopotamus' place, Cadet Tilly asks if she should access "the top secret life form files at the Daystrom Institute." The Daystrom Institute is where Leah Brahms, the engineer who designed the Enterprise-D, will be employed 100 years from now. It was (I presume) named for Richard Daystrom, who created the M-5 computer featured in the Original Series episode "The Ultimate Computer." It's not clear to me that there would be an institute named for Dr. Daystrom while he is still alive, and possibly even before he is famous. If you're going to drop Easter eggs on the second most detail-obsessed fandom in all of geekery, do it right.
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