[Toast and Kent love time loop stories. With this "Loopty Loo" series, T&K explore just what's happening in a film or TV show loop, and maybe over time, they will deconstruct what it is that makes for a good time loop]
Star Trek: Discovery, Season 1, Episode 7, "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"
[Toast] I have been in need of a happy place of late, and since the new TV (as in new physical TV replacing the one that died) has proven itself to be lit with the oh-so-bright-pretty colours, I started re-watching Star Trek: Discovery. But I didn't recall that they Harry Mudd return episode was so early in the series, as it feels like a later episode, maybe something Season 2 or end of Season 1. Either way...
[Kent] Same! When you mentioned that we were doing this episode I went looking for it on my on-demand service, and where did I start? Season 2, then, yeah, backtracking to the end of season 1, perplexed that I couldn't find it. I then thought, was this a Short Trek mini-episode? But no, episode 7 of season 1.
[Toast] Harcourt Fenton Mudd ! Harry.
Mudd was introduced in an earlier episode when Lorca and Tyler escape from a Klingon jail. Ever opportunistic Mudd gets left behind, to pay for his sins against fellow inmates. Lorca never expected him to survive let alone escape, and here he comes bearing quite the grudge, but also finding another way to regain his wealth -- capture and sell the Discovery to the Klingons.
The episode begins as a character exploration episode, Burnham finding herself at a ship party, a social occasion where she is forced to consider her feelings for Ash Tyler. But before they can get beyond awkward, alarm bells save the day and they are called to the bridge. A "space whale" is blocking their path, but instead of going around it, Star Fleet regulations require them to beam the thing onboard and take it to a preserve. Gormenghast Gormaganders are endangered because they don't have much interest in procreation. You would think species dying out because of their own nature would be covered under the "do not interfere" aspects of Directive One, but no matter -- lonely space whale!
They don't get far before Mudd steps out and begins blasting. He is trying to figure out why the Discovery is so powerful a weapon against the Klingons, but doesn't get very far before things blow up. Everyone dies.
Bloop. Party time again. Awkward Burnham time again. Drunk Tilly again. Tilly's very confident when she's drunk. I <3 Tilly.
Mudd has a time crystal. He is using it to learn as much about the ship as he can, so he can take control and sell it to the Klingons. Its been going on for a while. Buuuuut, Lt Commander Paul Stamets (LOL I did not know they lifted the name from an actual American mycologist) has been a bit spacey since he injected himself with the DNA of the giant space tardigrade. He's outside the time loop, and the only one aware. He uses the time given to him to educate Burnham and the crew on how to eventually foil Mudd and set things right.
[Kent] I have complicated feelings about Discovery (Season 1 and Season 3 recaps, season 2 happened in the dark year of this blog). I love it but I also get very frustrated with a lot of the story and character decisions it makes. Seeing the "previously on" before this episode brought back a lot of warm fuzzies. I need to do a rewatch, too.
Michael Burnham has become a key point of frustration over the second and third seasons, and I'd forgotten how, despite being human she was very Vulcan-like and dispassionate in the first season. I kind of miss that Burnham. Also, I'm very glad I watched Discovery before I watched Toast of London, because I could never have taken Ash seriously otherwise ("Yes, I can hear you Clem Fandango!").
How did the Loop Begin?
[Toast] Mudd probably kicks off the loop just before he gets picked up by the Discovery, while still in the belly of the whale. That is why we always start back during the party, just before Discovery bumps into the whale. Not quite sure how long the loop should last, but he has to manually initiate a loop by blowing the ship up.
[Kent] The party scene is both great, and a smidge off putting. I find it difficult to believe that 2000's-era party music is still a thing in this Trek era (100 years later and do we still listen and party to 1920's era flapper big band?). In a later loop Ash and Michael dance to some 70's soul...that I buy a little more for some reason (maybe because it's already aged well?).
[Toast] That is one of the annoying tropes of scifi. Either people listen to OLD music (Kirk in the first Kelvin Timeline movie listening to the Beastie Boys) or they fabricate something that is supposed to be the Future Version of Current Music. I think its best done when they set the scene, and then choose a music style that is entirely dischordant with the setting. What is popular party music in the Federation of the time? How about Finnish Death Metal? No, that's probably too Klingon.
What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
[Toast] Well that's the fun thing about this episode. The main character, Burnham, is not aware of the loop. She's a supporting element in her own show. Stamets is the aware one, and it takes him quite a few loops before he thinks to engage Burnham. We never see that period of loopy time, just the first (next?) time he engages her and tries to enlist her assistance.
[Kent] I had forgotten the particulars of this episode but it's rather deftly handled at telling a great time loop while also advancing Burnham without including her as the constant in the loop. It is a great differentiator from other loop stories.
WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
[Toast] Stamets is outside of space and time due to the giant space tardigrade DNA in his system. And no, nobody can be brought into the loop. But he does learn to use the standard trope of time loops, where you learn key interactors to reduce the re-education time for people you enlist in assisting you. Stamets begins each new loop informing Burnham, and assuring her compliance via the secret -- Burnham has never been in love. Space Loopy Stamets is also very empathetic, moreso than his cranky self before the tardigrade DNA injection.
[Kent] I like the very mealy, Trekian way that Burnham exposits how the time loop is happening.
- Ash recounts from his time imprisoned with Mudd that he pulled off a particularly daring heist: "something about a non-equilibrial matter-state".
- Burnham thinks for roughly 3.2 seconds and comes up with "A time crystal. We learned about these at the Vulcan Academy. But the decay rate of the lattice is too unpredictable, no Federation aligned species has ever been able to stabilize them.... A four-dimensional race must have perfected the technology, and now Mudd has it."
It's delightful.
How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
[Toast] The loop seems just over 30 minutes. It is reset by an explosion, which most likely destroys the time crystal and/or its control mechanism.
[Kent] I like the symmetry of this time loop and our previous Trek time loop, in that the ship keeps blowing up.
How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
[Toast] I think Mudd goes through more than 50 loops before he knows enough about the ship to take her over easily, and finally finds out Stamets is the key to its navigation system. While Mudd does have time on his side, and lots of stolen tech at his disposal, he must be a very bright guy in order to re-code a Star Fleet vessel's computer and bring it under his control.
Mudd enjoys himself immensely during the loops, finding many ways to kill Lorca (shoot, shoot, shoot, disintegrate, disintegrate, beam into space, etc.) and gloating each time. But near the end, even he admits he is getting tired of gloating. He also seems to kill less random crew as he gets into the groove of navigating the loop. Maybe its just because he doesn't want to waste time, and he knows who is going to be around every corner.
[Kent] Just as Mudd gets kind of bored of his superiority trip that he pulls on Lorca, Stamets seems to get out of the weird post-tardigrade-DNA-injection blissful stupor that he was in. Clearly between the first loop we see and the second loop we see, a few loops have already happened because Stamets acts radically different, a little more frantic as he obviously has spent a few loops trying to figure out who is the key person he needs to help him solve the loop.
Via Stamets, Burnham learns to be more emotionally honest, with herself, and with Ash. The key Stamets needs to figuring out the loop is Ash Tyler, and Burnham's reciprocated attraction to him is needed in order to get his participation. Ash, having been imprisoned with Mudd for months, knows him better than anyone else on the ship.
In becoming more in tune with her emotions, Burnham has a swell of emotion when Ash is killed by Mudd and Burnham offers herself up as even more valuable a target for Mudd to sell to the Klingons but then kills herself, forcing the greedy Mudd to reset the loop, thus restoring Ash.
Obviously each loop, Burnham resets, but Stamets is key to Michael's rapid emotional development with each reset, and it bonds them as well.
What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware? Does anything happen if they become aware?
[Toast] Nope, nobody but Mudd and Stamets. No, they cannot be made aware, but being Star Fleet officers, once Stamets gets Burnham onboard, the rest fall into line. They trust each other. They work well together. They foil Mudd together.
[Kent] At one point, even though I'd seen this before, Stamets holds Burnham's
hand when the ship explodes and I thought that, somehow his holding her
hand would allow her to remember in the next loop. It's illogical and
doesn't happen, thankfully, but it easily could have if the writers
wanted to short hand a way to get her more involved and to advance her emotionally faster in the series.
What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
[Toast] Stamets is very very empathetic, but considering this is Star Fleet, strange time anomalies are probably happening all the time. He even has a name for it that Burnham understands immediately. I am sure he doesn't like seeing people die but he knows its only temporary.
[Kent] It's funny, this question, because as you noted before, Michael Burnham is the main character, but Mudd and Stamets are the loopers. I don't think Mudd ever really thinks beyond himself and his objectives. Since he's ostensibly in control of the loop, he doesn't really give a crap about anyone (except maybe humiliating Lorca for a time, as well as aware of Stamet's intervening).
Stamets, for his part, never gets comfortable with the deaths of his fellow crew members. It's painful for him to watch and at a certain point he says he's had enough of seeing them killed, kind of the opposite of becoming numb to it all.
Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?
[Toast] Mudd interacting with Lorca are the best parts. He finds Lorca's "man cave" including all the nasty weapons and dissected creatures, and he recognizes these things are not quite Federation approved. I think, at that time, he finds a certain amount of common ground with Lorca. Little does he know how opposite that actually is, considering Lorca's facade as a resident of this universe.
[Kent] Yeah, it's funny how probably the first time we watched it, seeing Lorca get killed over and over was somewhat upsetting, but armed with knowledge of who he actually is, it's kind of like, "Please proceed, Mr. Mudd".
[Toast] The most surprising event was Burnham killing herself to move the loop to the next one. Once she convinces Mudd that she is as valuable, or even more, to the Klingons than Discovery, she has to reset the loop because he just killed Tyler. But he will remember, and she knows he cannot give up the money she could get him.
[Kent] Agreed, those anti-matter globs are nasty business.
[Toast] Why is it that extremely painful, incredibly nasty instant-death weapons also clean up after themselves? If the point is killing someone in an extremely horrific manner, you would think they might have it last longer, if not for the killed, but for the viewers they need to convince of something.
How does this stack up in the subgenre?
[Toast] I like that it used the trope, but wasn't a typical example. The main character is not the aware one. Its not so much about loop itself, but how the Discovery crew can end up working together to end the loop, with no loss of life. We still get to see some of the most fun aspects of the sub-genre (rapid montage scenes, the sense of glee of playing with the loops) but it uses the plot to move forward other themes in the show. Solid.
[Kent] Total solid. It's only partially approachable as a stand-alone story, but there are enough references and context clues that it's easy enough to pick up on everyone's personality and what the role they play is. I think the hardest character to grasp, if you were coming in fresh, would be Stamets, because when you first meet him, he's all loosey goosey lovey dovey, but the second time you meet him he's kind of manic, and he's kind of a little different each time we see him.
But yeah, the inversion of the show's main character to an outsider of the loop is a good shake-up to the trope. Rainn Wilson plays a really fun nasty person, plus there's even a good smidge of a rom-com laid underneath it all and Discovery is a great looking show, so this was really entertaining to revisit.
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| cheers, Mudd, cheers |
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