“Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” is episode seven of season one of Star Trek: Discovery.
Burnham is narrating her personal log. In the previous episode, “Lethe”, Captain Lorca made her a bridge specialist. She’s settling into routine, making friends – well, a friend, Tully. Discovery is the most important weapon in the Federation’s arsenal in the war against the Klingons, and they’re winning. Stamets’ ability to pilot the spore drive – he injected himself with Tardigrade DNA in “Choose Your Pain” has also revealed unseen parts of his personality. Burnham is finding some crewmembers – Ash Tyler – more interesting than others. Her personal history has left her with problems forging personal relationships. Tonight is one of her greatest challenges, though. The crew is having a party.
The lights flicker at the party and Tilly comes over to ask Burnham about Tyler. Burnham says they haven’t been on dates. Tilly thinks he’s interested. Tyler makes a coast and then comes over. And Tilly departs to leave them alone. Then both get summoned to the bridge. Burnham apologises on the way; she isn’t used to this. Her rank on the Shenzhou meant relationships were not appropriate. She collides with Stamets on the way, and he takes it oddly well. Culber apologises for him. Stamets now has a cybernetic implant to better interface with the spore drive.
Discovery has detected something which turns out to biological. A Gormagander. Lorca thought they’d been hunted to extinction. According to Burnham, the problem is their mating practices, or lack thereof. They have to spend so much time feeding that reproduction gets neglected. Lorca thinks that’s depressing. They are an endangered species, though, and Burnham says they need to transfer it to a xenological facility. The captain agrees.
The Gormagander is beamed into a shuttle bay. Abnormal readings are detected inside, then the creature’s mouth opens and someone walks out shooting. The individual is eventually cornered and Lorca tells him that it ends now. At which point the individual removes his helmet, revealing Harry Mudd. Mudd wants to find out what’s so special about the ship so he can sell it to the Klingons and stop the Federation from winning the war. If he doesn’t find out this time, he will find out next, saying he will see everyone later. Well, earlier. He activates a device and an explosion rips through the entire ship, destroying it.
Back to the party – it’s one of those kinds of episodes – and events are unfolding in a similar way. Only as Burnham and Tyler are heading to the bridge, Stamets interrupts. He says they need to listen. Yes, there’s time. Too much of it. He cannot be the only person who remembers. He tells her it starts with the Gormagander.
On the bridge, Saru is informing the captain about the Gormagander; Burnham and Tyler share a look. Saru says it’s ill and they need to check it out. Burnham wants to run point. Lorca doesn’t care. Tyler wants to run security oversight. Lorca still doesn’t care. On the way, they wonder how Stamets knew. Burnham says it’s statistically impossible. When the Gormagander is beamed in, there’s an energy pattern, like a transporter beam, then black alert sounds.
There’s no access to engineering and the door is locked from inside. The drive will suffer a critical overload in 3 minutes. When Burnham and Tyler get inside, Tyler recognises Mudd of course. Mudd wants to understand the drive; they need to hurry up and tell him because they are running out of time. Then Stamets shoots him, saying that, as days go, this is a weird one. Stamets explains they’ve been through all this before. Multiple times, but he’s yet to find a way where they win. Each time, Mudd knows more. He says he will see them again, just before the ship explodes.
And we’re back to the party. Stamets approaches Burnham and tells her they are stuck in a temporal loop. They repeat the same 30 minutes then starts over. Burnham starts suggesting what could be wrong and he speaks at the same time, word for word. Captain Lorca on the bridge is summoned to sickbay. Only that was Mudd again. Lorca wants to know what Mudd is doing on his ship. He’s asked that a lot.
Stamets tells Burnham that the Tardigrade is a multi-dimensional creature and with its DNA in him, he remembers everything. It’s getting really hard to keep straight. Sooner or later, Mudd is going to figure out that the missing piece is Stamets.
The episode involves a lot of repeating events, with changes as Stamets attempts to manipulate things. Harry Mudd has, once again – or perhaps the once again is the later times he appears? – got hold of some strangely advanced technology. Burnham has to step way outside her comfort zone in terms of personal relationships.