Time Warping Character Development
Star Trek: Discovery is making some great strides in its first season and its crazy to think that we’re already up to episode seven! Discovery has been on for over two months now and for the first time, we have an episode that is similar to other shows. The only difference for Discovery is that this is one of the best episodes of the show and it really shows off why Discovery is doing so well at the moment.
This weeks episode follows the Discovery as they find a space whale in front of their ship. As the crew throws a party to let loose an unannounced passenger finds his way on board and puts Discovery and it’s crew in a 30-minute time loop until he gets what he wants. That unannounced guest is the return of Harry Mudd, a quick turn around in character appearance which is a little unusual for a show to do it that quickly but also a relief as the episode is filled with some quality character development.
This one episode does one thing that other episodes haven’t really managed to do yet and that is show off the great production design of the USS Discovery itself. The whole episode takes place on the ship and in different sections which really shows the ins and outs of the layout of the ship and the ship’s technological features, things like all the buttons and lights on the walls. The cast gets to work closely together as their characters are put through a strange emotional development loop which is revealing to themselves and us. Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd does a fantastic job and you never really feel like the Discovery crew is going to get away, you feel like Mudd will always be one step ahead or have a trick up his sleeve in the very end.
The episode is great to watch as you feel more confident in the cast of the show which is mainly made up of actors you may have never seen before and they should be applauded for doing well in an episode that shines as much as the rest of the season so far. Despite not advancing the story very far and showing Klingons, which I hope they do next week, this weeks episode was fresh and shows that even when its downtime on the Discovery there can still be very interesting episodes.