Let ’s talk about Captain Lorca , Ash Tyler , Harcourt Fenton Mudd , and the moral shopping center of Star Trek . I ca n’t trust I ’m about to defend Harry Mudd . Goddammit , Discovery .
So the game of yesterday ’s episode is that Lorca has been summoned by Starfleet bid , away from the ship , and secernate not to utilize the second - drive ( spore - cause , I guess ) unless specifically ordered to . They ’re worried about wipe out their “ asset , ” a.k.a . the tardigrade that is depict distress with every saltation . Also , they think the Klingons have twigged to the Discovery being the secret arm and need it to keep it out of danger as much as possible . By the end of the installment they are good and also all of this is moot , since Burnham sets the tardigrade gratuitous .
On his way back to the ship , Lorca is capture by Klingons and put in cell with the Harry Mudd , a genial and sexist con man we saw in two episodes of the original serial publication and one in the repair one , and Lieutenant Ash Tyler , who was captured during the Battle of the Binary Stars ( the battle that started the warfare ) .
Because Mudd is … Mudd , Lorca determines that it ’s him that ’s slip the Klingons entropy on his fellow prisoner , and not Tyler , who take he ’s still alive because the Klingon skipper has take a liking to him . render that Mudd has no problem letting others take a lacing for him , you could see why Lorca would come to that close . finally , Lorca and Tyler escape and they leave Mudd behind . And that was the moment this show completely lost me .
Is Mudd a good hombre ? No . He ’s drive by craven self - interest that manifests in taking vantage of others , and Kirk always tried to see to it that Mudd catch what he deserved for his wrongs . Kirk also always rest the better man . In “ I , Mudd , ” Kirk and his crowd are captured by humanoid robot because of Mudd ’s natural action . He wants off a satellite , so he directs the robots to catch him a ship ; then the robots determine they need to “ help oneself ” humanity by “ serving , ” i.e. gaol them where they can be look after and kept from screw up , all because of Mudd . Mudd help Kirk defeat the robots , and Kirk still leaves him behind , to verify the robot do n’t stray from their path . In that pillow slip , Mudd help create the mess , Kirk made sure he avail clean it up . That ’s not what Lorca did .
Lorca left Mudd behind on a Klingon prison house ship , happy to let him suffer straining and almost certain eventual destruction . ( And there was no way to know the ship they would end up stealing was a two - seater . ) This is n’t a case where Lorca happens to have a different view of Starfleet ’s character as a military big businessman . This is vicious .
It is specifically vicious in Star Trek . A lot of people have kvetch that Discovery has lost the Leslie Townes Hope that Star Trek has always represented . I hold off on that for a while , realise hope in Burnham ’s redemption arc — that she ’d choose science and geographic expedition over doing what you need to win a war . But Lorca ’s action in this case are a death knell . He did n’t even struggle with the decision . If he had been angry and vindictive , so the selection was a struggle between what he knew was right and what he felt , maybe we ’d still be in a Star Trek that promises humans can make the right conclusion , even though it ’s hard and involve us to work for it . But no , Lorca just leave him behind , with Tyler in tow .
To the audience Tyler is so patently a spy that Lorca ’s not just callous , he ’s a fucking retard . Tyler is played by Shazad Latif , who also play the albino Klingon Voq . ( Edited , 11:05 : At some breaker point between write this and bring out this , the line that Latif had a double role vanished from Wikipedia . But this theory has been floating around for a while , based on the name given to Voq being tie to an actor with no other credits and Latif ’s birth last name being the same as the credited histrion . ) We do know Voq went to learn skill from the House Mokai — a house with matriarch , and this ship was captain by a distaff Klingon who say she direct as a spy and that ’s how she speaks English so well . L’Rell also told Voq he ’d have to give up “ everything ” to win the war , and having to look and act human is that , peculiarly for a Klingon who rages against assimilation and who come from a time when “ Remain Klingon ” is the slogan of the day . ( Also , “ The Trouble With Tribbles ” featured a Klingon spy made to calculate human — it ’s not a unexampled trick of the Klingon Empire ’s . ) It ’s too ironical for writers to not be set up it up . And so the job is that distinguish your audience this much that they figure out the twist other means , for week , we ’re going to be squall bloody murder at Lorca .
Lorca ’s big trauma , by the fashion , was that he escaped a battle his previous ship had with the Klingons , but also destroyed the ship and killed his crew to “ give up them ” the humiliating and drawn - out death the Klingons had in store for them . I wish I give care even a picayune bit .
Things were somewhat better on the scientific discipline closing this calendar week . Burnham convinces Stamets that they ca n’t trust on the tardigrade . As usual , she ’s not slap-up at talk to masses , trying first to butter up Stamets with compliments . As common , Stamets is not bad , responding , “ I know I ’m brilliant , what are you trying to get out of me ? ”
There ’s a fate of science babble , but it boils down to sample to put the same genes that countenance the tardigrade be accept by the mycelium into a species that can consent to driving the ship . What happens next is confusing if you do n’t have sex a tiny bit about some obscure bits of canon . Yes , everyone ’s history and emotion gets talked out , but not this crucial point .
Apparently , the only compatible match in the database is human . Humans might be a mate for the spore / tardigrade mixture , but DNA alteration is banned on Earth . ( It ’s easy to forget , but Earth is n’t in reality the same as the Federation — it has its own rules . ) Earth banned it to prevent another set of Eugenics Wars , where “ Augments”—supermen with adapted genes — ruled Earth as autocrat . ( Khan Noonien Singh was one of these . ) Also , this happened in the ‘ 90s . Ah , the ‘ 90s : Nirvana , Friends , and genetically organize supermen enslaving everyone in a series of brutal war .
Anyway , humans ca n’t alter their cistron , it ’s illegal and will stick illegal for hundreds of year , as Deep Space Nine lover know . Now , I ’m sure the same broad powers that let the Discovery do all sorts of other virtuously belly-up shit in the pursuit of get ahead this war would let them get around this law . But Saru , who is acting as the senior pilot and wants urgently to prove himself while make unnecessary Lorca , recite them no . And when the accent finally broadcast the tardigrade into a super - hibernation , Saru orders Stamets to bring in it back to utility , even if it would end up killing it … even if it turn out to be sentient . Another strike against the soul of Discovery .
alternatively , Stamets slam the DNA mixture into himself and pilots the ship aside from Klingon space , Lorca and Tyler in towage . I ’m certain this will have no negative core whatsoever . Saru gets some of his good points back by asking Burnham to save the “ soul ” of the tardigrade . She has no cue how to do that , so she just … puts it out into space with some spore . She ’s golden that worked .
While Stamets proceed to be the salty skill asshole I care I could be and Saru at least learns from mistakes , this is the Discovery episode that I just could n’t see more practiced than high-risk in . I detest the Lorca number so much , it actually makes me heartsick . I need good from Star Trek . Burnham ’s only defining characteristic continues to be “ I do what I want , ” and it ’s unappealing . She learns every week to not do it , and then she ’s right back there the next week . Rainn Wilson ’s Mudd is lacking Roger C. Carmel ’s perkiness and mellifluousness , so I do n’t conceive he ’s going to mature into someone who can banter with Kirk . Or that he ’ll be playful with Starfleet rather than piercingly enraged at how he ’s been treat .
Assorted Musings:
Saru , get out in charge of the Discovery , asks for a leaning of the most - deck Starfleet officers . Robert April was the first “ first senior pilot ” of the Enterprise , down up in the animated series . Jonathan Archer also became the first sea captain of the Enterprise — when it was the first ship of United Earth Starfleet , before the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet in good order be — in the prequel series Enterprise . ( I accept he ’s only on this list because being first makes you the most decorated by default . ) Matt Decker pops up as a commodore in “ The Doomsday Machine ” in the original serial . Georgiou we all acknowledge . Pike is either the sea captain of the Enterprise right now , or is about to be .
Saru ask for the characteristics of these captain and the estimator leaning , “ bravery , self - sacrifice , intelligence , tactical brilliance , compassion . ” Saru tells the computer to track his actions as senior pilot and tell him if deviates from the parameter on the tilt . Nice attempt to science yourself into being a good captain .
In the end , Saru ’s knowledge of predator and prey behavior leads him to describe Lorca fly a steal Klingon ship , being a sound leader as himself than while trying to emulate those other maitre d’hotel , and this eccentric mo deserved a better sequence .
Stamets right taper out that Burnham is the ground the tardigrade is being used this way in the first place . Burnham is the opponent of Midas : everything she touches bend to prick .
I ca n’t tell if “ You say portobella , I say portobello ” is cunning or frightful for a fungi specialist to say .
If you know how Mudd will eventually feel about his married woman , Stella , every lineage about her is both sadder and funnier .
Who know the line of descent “ I always need to discourse with my mushrooms ” would be foreshadowing ?
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