Harry Mudd And The Time Turner: "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad"

The Good: The acting is fine
The Bad: Humor falls flat, Neglect of organic character traits, Forced character problems, Recycled plot, Particularly lame macguffin to justify the plot
The Basics: Star Trek: Discovery seems to use up its budget on the long title when Harry Mudd returns in the "Cause And Effect" rewrite "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad."


One of the real issues with making a prequel series in a well-established franchise is there is an immense potential to undermine the works that were previously-created, but come after within the canon of the franchise. Doing a prequel right means that the creators have to come up with entirely new material that is not even tangential to what has come before. The reason behind this is simple; if the ship in the prequel survives whatever phenomenon it encounters and manages to survive the series without its entire run being undone, the logical questions fans would have for any repeated phenomenon later on in the series would be "Why didn't the computer [or Data or another character who studied StarFleet history] recognize the phenomenon they were encountering as identical or similar to the one experienced by [insert name of prequel ship/crew]?" With the Star Trek franchise in the hands of people who have no apparent care for continuity, Star Trek: Discovery continues to do whatever its creators want without any reasonable expectation that it will satisfactorily address fan concerns about how the show relates to all that comes after it. So, with the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad," it is hard for fans of the franchise not to see it as a half-assed rewrite of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause And Effect" (reviewed here!).

"Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" follows up on both "Lethe"(reviewed here!) and "Choose Your Pain" (reviewed here!). The most instant connection between the prior episodes is that Burnham has a relationship with Ash Tyler now and Harry Mudd returns.

Specialist Michael Burnham begins to bond with Tilly and Ash Tyler in advance of a party. Burnham feels like an outsider at the party and she is rescued from the awkward interaction when she and Tyler are called to the Bridge. En route, she runs into Stamets, who has become weird as a result of his interfacing with the Spore Displacement Drive. On the bridge, Saru recognizes an alien life form outside the ship as an endangered species. Burnham convinces Lorca to take the giant life form aboard and Harry Mudd comes out of the creature and kills a number of people before he contacts the Bridge. Mudd then destroys the Discovery, before creating a time loop.

When Tyler and Burnham are called away from the party again, the Discovery encounters the Gormegander after Stamets mentions one in the hallway. Mudd beams into Engineering where he tries to take control of the Spore Drive to sell Discovery to the Klingons. While Stamets is able to kill Mudd, the time loop reboots. The next time through the loop, Mudd captures Lorca and reveals that he has killed Lorca 53 times before. Stamets continues to reach out to Burnham to try to stop Harry Mudd from learning how to access the Spore Drive.

"Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" is what happens when Star Trek attempts to chase after the frat boy demographic. The party on the Discovery is very drunk college guy style and the lowbrow nature of it is embodied (surprisingly well) by Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly acting like a drunk sorority girl.

The macguffin in "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" is a Time Crystal, which is a ridiculous new magic crystal, which allows Mudd to create time loops. Burnham has heard of these magic crystals from the Vulcan Science Academy . . . which in the continuity of Star Trek: Enterprise did not believe in time travel. For sure, in Star Trek: Enterprise, the Vulcans were given irrefutable proof of time travel, but the viewer of "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" is expected to believe that Vulcan scientists not only accepted that time travel was real, but they managed to discover artifacts of immense power, like the Time Crystal.

Fans of Star Trek are less likely to be upset by the plot of "Cause And Effect" being reused as a malicious device for the episode than the fact that Harry Mudd in this incarnation is characterized as malicious and murderous as opposed to the low-grade buffoon he was in the original Star Trek. Rainn Wilson does fine with the material he is given, but the character is written entirely differently from the one established in Star Trek. But, just as fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation might wonder how the crew of the Enterprise-D did not do a thorough search for a Time Crystal, they are likely to wonder why the hell Harry Mudd would have ever done another caper without acquiring another Time Crystal first.

As for the original aspects of Star Trek: Discovery, Lt. Saru is once again completely undermined in "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad." For an alien race that is entirely geared around sensing death and personal menace, the fact that Saru's "threat ganglion" are not going berserk in the episode makes no rational sense.

But, sensibility is not the hallmark of "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" or Star Trek: Discovery. "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" continues to characterize Michael Burnham as a forced outsider; a human who acts like a Vulcan for no clear reason (she was raised by a liberal Vulcan and a human after being rescued when her human parents were killed . . . but has been around humans for at least seven and a half years - more if she actually attended StarFleet Academy). Her rediscovery of human emotions is almost as problematic as Saru's threat ganglion not making an appearance even when Harry Mudd walks onto the bridge and kills Lorca in front of him.

The humor in "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" falls universally flat and the attempts at the humor continue the episode's tone like the show is chasing after an audience nowhere near as smart as the Star Trek demographic.

1/10

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© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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“Divergence” Is Brought Down By Speed 3 Subplot!

The Good: Decent retcon plot for most of the episode, Special effects, Concept in the larger Star Trek continuity. Decent character development for Phlox.
The Bad: Opening plotline, Jolene Blalock’s performance, Questionable medical science
The Basics: What could have been great is constantly undermined in “Divergence” as Star Trek: Enterprise tries to reconcile the different appearances of Klingons in the franchise.


One of the enduring mysteries in the Star Trek franchise was how the Klingons went from being the Klingons as seen in Star Trek versus how they appeared in the rest of the Star Trek franchise. The jig was up for the writers writing their way out of the problem easily when “Blood Oath” (reviewed here!) aired on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That episode featured three Klingons from the original Star Trek appearing in modern Klingon make-up. That meant whatever happened to the Klingons, it had to be something that would change. The malleable nature of the Klingons was further suggested with the theorizing by the Defiant officers in “Trials And Tribble-ations” (reviewed here!). That the change in the Klingon appearance would be something the prequel series was forced to deal with came when “Broken Bow” (reviewed here!) started the series out with the modern Klingon make-up. “Divergence” is where the split in the Klingon race is finally made explicit.

“Divergence” is the follow-up to “Affliction” (reviewed here!). It is impossible to discuss “Divergence” without revealing aspects of “Affliction.” “Divergence” is brought down by an opening act that is troublingly dull and forced by a minute subplot introduced in the final moments of “Affliction.” Basically, the opening to “Divergence” is a ridiculous remake of Speed and it guts the momentum of the episode from the outset.

With the Enterprise forced to stay above Warp 5, lest it explode, the Columbia is sent to rescue it. Putting the Enterprise within its warp field, Columbia makes a tether to the Enterprise over which Tucker travels. Aboard the Enterprise, Tucker takes command of Engineering and works with T’Pol to disable the Klingon subroutine infecting their computer. With Reed exposed to Archer as a traitor, Archer works to discover what Reed’s alternative orders are. Reed begrudgingly agrees to put Archer in touch with Harris.

With the Klingon attack fleet headed to Koval Colony to destroy it in order to stop the plague Phlox was kidnapped to cure, Phlox is feeling pressure to perform. He and Antaak come up with a reasonable (if devious) plan. Lying to General K’Vagh, they develop a treatment for the Augment virus sweeping through the Klingon Empire. Having developed four potential treatments, Phlox reluctantly experiments on live Klingons until he finds the treatment that will work. When Archer tries to rescue Phlox as the colony falls under Klingon attack, he becomes the test subject needed for Phlox to create an accelerated treatment for the virus.

The concept of “Divergence” is one that is problematically executed. The Section 31 plotline makes less sense than one might hope. That Klingons were trying to make their own Augments is a good idea; that they would stop because of the setback in “Affliction” and “Divergence” is less believable. The explanation is an interesting one and the relationship between the Klingons and Augments is a cool idea.

On the character front, “Divergence” is most intensely focused on Reed. Over the course of the episode, Lieutenant Reed commits to Archer over Harris and while there is no compelling reason for that, it shows some growth. That Reed has only been contacted by Harris once since Reed joined the Enterprise makes little sense as well, considering the Enterprise has been involved in such things as saving the Earth from the Xindi and one might suspect Section 31 would have had a vested interest in, for example, stopping the Andorians from getting the Xindi prototype in “Proving Ground” (reviewed here!).

T’Pol is glossed over for having an emotional attachment to Tucker in “Divergence,” but that makes no real sense. T’Pol has, by this point, committed absolutely to Surak’s philosophies of unemotionalism and so she should be much more adept at hiding her emotions. Jolene Blalock’s performance is annoyingly conflicted and decidedly un-Vulcan. The other major character moment comes from Dr. Phlox. Phlox basically uses biological weapons on Klingons, with Archer’s aid and that seems like a huge character detraction. That “Divergence” offers no time to reflect upon it is even worse.

Ultimately “Divergence” is one of those episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise where the writers were given a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to overcome and they did the best they could to rectify one of the problems of the franchise.

The two biggest gaffes in “Divergence:”
2. If the Klingons were altered by Augment DNA, it makes no sense that Augments would not still be fresh in the minds of the Enterprise crew in “Space Seed” (reviewed here!) and that people like Dax would not know the truth in “Trials And Tribble-ations,”
1. How the hell does Section 31 ever develop if one of its early, powerful, operatives is an ineffective and untrustworthy operative like Harris, who is outed so easily?!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with John Schuck, please visit my reviews of:
“Muse” - Star Trek: Voyager
“The Maquis, Part 2” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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