*Darth Ultron in Asterisks.
*The Party-This is the perfect example of what is wrong with this show. They have a party on the Discovery..and is it a typical mature adult party with drinks and conversation? Nope. It is your typical stupid idiotic cool collage kidz party, Woo hoo! So just who are they trying to appeal the show too? The Cool Hipster Party Crowd is never going to watch Star Trek..
Actually, as 'hipster' is the term for things like being insufferably rich, intellectual, organic-loving, liberal, and into alternative lifestyles....what makes you think people that embody that concept wouldn't like Star Trek
*Harry Mudd- Well, we knew he would be back...sigh.
Well you think the dark matter grenades are cool and the andorian spacesuit is hilarious so I guess you are giving a pretty positive review overall on this one.
Still it seems you can't stand what Discovery does with the elements Star Trek it takes and how it adapts them. I would agree Murder Mudd is a bit jarring but your outrage is a bit over the top.
By now, we should know what we are going to get.
Things That Actually Make Sense
*Um, so the USS Discovery is now the most awesome and all powerful ship in the universe and is turning the tide of the war?
Too bad they can't show us any of that.
I think you are just saying you dislike the choice of episodes. It makes perfect sense the Discovery is the most powerful ship in Starfleet with its ability to move instantly anywhere. I suppose we could have gotten an episode or two about their missions against the Klingons or helping the Federation, but the question should be, "how does that advance the story." A trend in good storytelling is that each scene, each episode at least, helps advance the overall story. Showing the Discovery in random missions does neither.
*And exactly how much can one dinky little science ship really do in a war anyway?
We know the Discovery is able to jump anywhere in an instant, and leave in an instant. We have every indication it is also powerful ship, and prior Star Trek federation ships have long been used for science but powerfully armed, and, by implication, Discovery is potentially capable of taking out a Klingon starship head-to-head.
*So Specialist Michael Burnham is acting all like a Fish out of Water...but....she had a human step mom, Amanda Grayson, so is there some reason her step mom did not tell her about the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees and the Moon up above and that thing called Love?
So...the premise of this question is that one can learn how to interact at a party even
you think seems out of place for staid Starfleet members and to form romantic attachments with your peers just by talking to your mom. Just no.
*And more so, Specialist Michael Burnham has been among humans for many years, so how can she have never been to a party or had any contact with people at all? Sure, she (aka the writer) makes some stupid comment that she was of a higher rank, but she was not born with that rank. She moved up the ranks like any other member of the crew....so, again, how did she not have any social contact?
See Tu'vok or T'Pol in the early episodes of their respective series. Its easy to envision how a Vulcan-raised human would treat casual social interactions (as essentially meaningless distractions).
*So Lieutenant Paul Stamets is all ''different'' after the spore stuff, but everyone is just like ''oh whatever''?
His partner mentions worrying about him. Michael seems a little taken aback by how nice Stamets is, and both make comments. Those are the only ones interacting with him in the episode.
*Burnham and Ash sure chit chat a lot, like a stupid WB show, in the hallway when they should say ''sorry, can't talk we are on our way to the bridge".
The chit chat you speak of tells you exactly what's on both minds as they walk to the bridge, and the background is that its been on their minds for awhile.
*The Gormagander, is just another perfect example that this show was written by a person who has never watched Star Trek, or simply ''hates that stupid Trek show''. In Star Trek, space whales are not a common thing, unlike lots of other coolz sci-fi. The couple times we have seen such creatures it has always been an amazing thing. But, of course, for Discovery it is just ''oh, yea, a coolz space whale, that is so yesterday, whatever'. Sigh.
They actually absolutely say that the space whales are incredibly rare! That's why there's this whole protocol about why its so important.
*Um, the Gormagander Doom Rule is about the dumbest rule in the universe. If a ship encounters one they must stop everything, capture it and take it to a sanctuary? And it is a Court Marshal Offense to not do so? And does the crew get keel hulled too?
Presumably, the captain could have explained his way out of this sort of court marshal offense. I think you are making out court marshal offenses to be of the highest severity, but they are used for lesser punishments as well. If Starfleet wants to drive home that they want their ships to stop their current mission and save the whales take priority, making not doing so an offense is a logical way to do that.
*Is the sad, weepy WB unhappy emoji ''I have never been in love'' really the best secret Burnham can come up with?
*So, sigh, the ship...and the whole Federation is in danger....and Burnham takes time to do some WB-like dancing and flirting to get information out of Ash?
*As Ash is a Starfleet Officer, and not an idiot, is there some reason they don't just say to him ''the ship is in danger, trust me...tell me all about Mudd."?
*Why does Lieutenant Stamets tell the two lovebirds all about the other(s) timelines? It's a bit pointless to say ''well in a timeline and never happened...this happened''. Why not just play real ''non time lord'' match maker? You know like a cool made for kidz WB show
The content of what you are saying is that "it makes no sense to do that here" but in the context of saving the ship. Michael needed to give Stamets something to shock herself into believing him, and needed to dance with Ash to get the opportunity to talk him into the whole time loop thing. And yes, timeloops is sufficiently weird that no one would believe that sort of thing, as Stamets explains to Michael.
I see a lot of subtext of "I really hate the romantic subplot."
*Betazed? Wow, this would be way before they joined the Federation....and they have a Bank?
This piece of Mudd history is straight out of a TOS episode.
*So Burnham is all like ''oh, yea, a Time Crystal...everyone knows all about them...but the Federation can't use them''. Sigh. And she knows how big a crystal needs to be to travel time?
Burnham is smart, she was on Vulcan, she knows things.
Typical Sci-Fi science
*Um, as an arm chair xeno-biologist, would not beaming a space whale into a Earth normal gravity shuttle bay be harmful to it?
As a couch-logician, wouldn't a creator that could survive the vacuum of space most likely be EXTREMELY resilient to all sorts of hardship? As evidence, look at the Tardigrad, supposedly it was pretty indestructible (except for the spore drive was hurting it).
*So, for Harry's stupid plan to work...he had to find a lonely Gormagander and catch it or did he steal one from a sanctuary?
This is an easy thing to just let go, and anyway, we know the answer. This is Harry Mudd, he stole it.
*Is there some reason the USS Discovery does not detect Mudds ''Jona'' shuttle?
It was in the super-resiliant space whale (see above). It requires a more thorough scan taking place up close in the docking bay to reveal it.
*Even more so....to beam Harry and the ''Jona" shuttle on board the transporter does have to lock onto them with a transporter beam...right? That is how transporters work? So, how did they lock on to them, but not detect them?
Just because Harry could give the teleporter his co-ordinates and let him teleport, doesn't mean the crew had any idea.
*So the first time we see Mudd is his first time on the ship right? How does he take control of the computer in like ten seconds as he is walking about the ship slaughtering people like a murderhobo?
They explain that Mudd has some sort of way of doing so. Also, checkout his TOS appearances.
*So Mudd blows up the ship with some sort of Super Bomb? Like wow, is it powerfull...but where is it? It can't be on his Jona shuttle, right....because that is where the Time Crystal is...and he can't blow that up, right?
Why not? Maybe that's how the time crystal takes effect? Also, Mudd, if he controls the ship, might just make the ship self-destruct, cause we know ships do that and Discovery, by its nature, probably should be able to do that pretty fast.
*Lieutenant Paul Stamets is, um, outside of time now? Because of the silly spores? So can the spores travel in space and time?
*Aheem*...so science: space and time are not truly separate things but exist as sorts of extensions of each other. This is why space-time is relative.
*So the second jump we see...is more like Mudds 30th jump, right? Even though, he beams out of his Jona shuttle and turns on the drive to blow up the ship in like two seconds....
Sure.
*So Lieutenant Paul Stamets jumps like 50 times and proves that he is the most utterly useless waste of space of any Starfleet Officer ever.
*Why does not Lieutenant Paul Stamets, space idiot, go to the captain? Sure, he is the king of the idiots, but really ''ship in danger..tell captin'' is not a hard thought. And sure, the Captain will tell Paully that he is an idiot...but Paulyy can do that secret thing with the captain too...
Stamets did tell the captain, he was not believed. He tells that from Michael Burnham. He said he tried many times but couldn't get prevent anything. After 50 times he decided the key was Michael and Ash.
*And everyone in Starfeelt knows Time Travel is possible....right? We see people in Trek time travel all the time.
Pretty much
*Mudd turns on the Self Destruct with a single voice command? Odd...every other Trek show has lots of code words for this and you need more then one command too.
*So...how does Harry activate the transporter by just waving his hands? And why can't the crew of the Discovery do that?
He has total control over the ship somehow in ways that let him override all those pesky safeguards. He even has unique inputs put in just for himself. Its not an uncommon level of ability among the super-hacker crowd in shows of all types.
You Actually Have a Point
*Everyone says the Time Loop is 30 minutes, but oddly it seems more like six minutes. The loop is party..talk for a couple minutes..Mudd and over.....really like six minutes. And if it is 30 minutes...why does Lieutenant Stamets, who is granted an idiot, not run to Burnam at the star of the loop...explain things to her and then have like
25 minutes to stop Mudd. Oddly we see...he s-l-o-w-l-y walks over to her, and talks for a couple minutes and then he is like ''oh no the loop is over!".....so was he doing uttely nothing and wating to go talk to Burnam when the clock got to like ''only three minutes until the loop resets again?"
Actually, the loop you choose to attack is completely obvious. Stamets wanted to take his time and size up Michael as this was his first conversation with her about the loop.
However, the loop seemed to vary in length after awhile...
*Well...Dark Matter Grenades sound cool, if your an writer that know nothing about ''science'' and is just looking for a coolz word....but ''real'' Dark Matter...whatever it is does not seem to effect real matter at all in real life.
*The Dark Matter Grenade ''just'' distengates things....like, sigh, every other weapon...so why does Mudd think it is so ''new''?
*So Mudd hails the ''Klingon ship" and they warp over in like two seconds? Was the ship cloaked and right behind Discovery?
*So finally on time like ''60'' they tell the captain what is going on......why did they wait so long?
*Um, I doubt even the old ''real'' lovable Harry Mudd would ''spare the crew''...I mean he would not be all bloodthirsty murderhobo like the new cool hipster Mudd...but it would be more he did not care.
*And...um...ok, lets say Harry really was going to spare the crew.....how would he do that? He can't really stop the Klingon from doing anything, right? So if the Klingons just ''bark'' and say ''killz them all'', what would Harry do?
*Sure is amazing lucky that at the ''end'' of the Time Loop, Harry Mudds control bracer distengrates....
*The computer sure is suddenly vague right at the end, but...well, maybe it was programed that way...
*Does Discovery's archives really have information on every person in the galaxy? Did they do a keyword search for ''Stella''? And somehow only get the ''Stella and Harry Mudd'' hit?
*Um, the captain's chair is a non critical system? Odd....
*How and why does Harry ''suddenly'' loose control of the computer?
*Baron Grimes warps over to Discovery in like two seconds...or were they just like randomly one light second away to start with?