I'm Convinced This Underrated Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode Is Secretly One Of The Show's Best

A lot has been said about Star Trek: Discovery, both its dramatic 2024 finale and Discovery's five-season run that ushered in a new era of Star Trek. For its first two seasons, Discovery told the story of the USS Discovery in the decade leading up to Star Trek: The Original Series, whereas all subsequent seasons were set in the 32nd century. As a result of this time jump, a lot of the plots and characters I loved from earlier seasons got left in the 23rd century, and some of the most interesting Discovery details were jettisoned for the future.

Star Trek: Discovery seasons 1 and 2 introduced some of the most popular characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Both Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike and Ethan Peck's Lieutenant Spock appeared on Discovery before Strange New Worlds. Even now, as I wait for Strange New Worlds season 3, my understanding of those characters would be incomplete without Discovery. Discovery also brought on Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd, Star Trek's most prominent guest star in years. But beyond Discovery's early iconic characters, the first two seasons of Discovery had some of the best plots in the series.

"Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" Is An Underrated Star Trek: Discovery Episode

Harry Mudd Is An Absolutely Iconic Antagonist

Star Trek: Discovery season 1, episode 7, "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad," is one of the series' best episodes, even if it doesn't always get the recognition it deserves. It was one of two episodes in Discovery season 1 to feature Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd, the notorious smuggler from Star Trek: The Original Series. As with the rest of Discovery, this version of Mudd was much darker than his TOS counterpart, played by Roger C. Carmel, and in this episode that darkness totally works and pays off. Harry Mudd is a gritty, challenging antagonist, and he makes the episode pop in every scene.

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" is one of Star Trek's rare time loop episodes, and it is excellent. This was a key episode of Star Trek: Discovery season 1 wherein Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Ensign Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), and Lt. Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) had to trust each other and use their wits and smarts to turn the tables on Harry Mudd. It culminates in one of Burnham's best lines, "Turns out you can con a con man."

Where "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad" Ranks Among Star Trek: Discovery's Best Episodes

It's Great In Discovery And In Star Trek As A Whole

Star Trek: Discovery as a whole is underrated, and the series has a lot of hidden gems. Episodes like Discovery season 3's "People of Earth" or season 5's "Whistlespeak" are personal favorites. But looking back, seasons 1 and 2 of Discovery are some of its best, and "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" stands out as a highlight of those early seasons. The consequence-free-zone of the time loop in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" feels just plain fun. While I might not go so far as to call it the best episode of Discovery, it’s certainly up there.

But, whereas most time loop plots in Star Trek are scientific anomalies, like Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Cause and Effect" or Star Trek: Voyager's "Coda," the time loop in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" is the result of direct antagonism from Harry Mudd. This heightens the stakes of the episode, making it stand out as not only one of Star Trek: Discovery's best episodes, but also one of the best episodes in all of Star Trek.