There are some spoilers in our Star Trek Discovery: Choose Your Pain Review
So the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery just went to air and this episode sees us witness the story of when Captain Lorca got captured and had to spend time inside a Klingon ship with the legendary Harry Mudd. On the Discovery itself, they scramble to launch a rescue mission, Saru is in command and Michael’s animal starts to get sick.
As an episode in the show so far, this one does a lot to develop the character of Lorca. For the last few episodes, I hadn’t really known if he’s meant to be a sort of villain for the show, or if he’s just one of the good guys, I still don’t know. But we do get to learn a lot more about his background through his conversations with Mudd. While I had the impression that Lorca was possibly some type of legendary Captain, he apparently isn’t. We learn that on his previous ship, he was defeated by the Klingons and instead of letting his crew get captured, he blew them all up and escaped all on his own as the only survivor. When he watched the explosion from a distance, it seemed to have damaged his eyes. This explains why he doesn’t get it fixed, when his eyes get bad it’s a reminder for him of what happened. How Lorca got to command another ship after this, I don’t know. But he’s in charge of Discovery, so hopefully he doesn’t do anything dodgy there.
Michael has a rough time this episode. Her special animal that’s in her care is becoming sick from all the work they made it do. Remember last week when I mentioned that the crew on this ship have a few ethics issues in this area? Well, things got pretty bad and they didn’t listen to any of Michael’s warnings. The animal nearly died in the process and I’m not sure even after watching this that anyone cares there. Maybe some of the science team do now, since we did see Paul go in and take the meds so he can navigate himself. But he nearly died doing that as well. How Lorca will overcome this issue, I am not too sure, with the animal gone at the end of this episode, I don’t see what he can do but experiment with more of the meds Paul used. Again, it’s an ethics issue here too. But there’s a war on, so who cares I guess.
Saru also has a big episode, he’s got command of the ship. His inexperience does actually show quite a bit here, but in the end he does get the job done. We do learn a little about his character and his desire to do well with his work. My impression of this character is that he’s trying his best, but with so many elite personnel, he can second guess himself, especially when it comes to Michael’s comments. But his instincts are good and his decision with the raider ships chasing Lorca at the end was the right one. In the end, it was a good command, filled with tough decisions.
I think the big thing in this episode for Star Trek fans is the appearance of Harry Mudd who is played by Rainn Wilson. I thought actually that this character was done well and fans who have watched the Original Series would know this character was as a bit of a dodgy dealer. Rain Wilson did well in this role and actually, if I didn’t check IMDB to see who played Harry Mudd, I don’t think I would have recognised him. I’d be interested to see this character come back in later episodes, especially since now he has a history with Lorca.
Overall this was an interesting episode for the show. The crew seems to continue dealing with ethical issues to do with their navigation. But the big things in this episode were all about learning more about who exactly Captain Lorca is and also the return of Harry Mudd to Star Trek yet again. There’s a little in here for long time fans, but also a bit character development for fans of this series. I’d be interested to see what goes on next week, particularly in relation to if there’s any impact on Paul after his experience here in later episodes.
