In this YouTube review, the creator reflects on their initial uncertainty about Star Trek Discovery season 2 episode 7, "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad," before watching and finding it cleverly executed. The episode revisits a time‑loop premise reminiscent of TNG and Groundhog Day, but distinguishes itself through the return of a darker, grittier Harry Mudd (played by Ryan Wilson). Mudd repeatedly kills Captain Lorca across 51 loop iterations and attempts to sell the Discovery to the Klingons using alien fourth‑dimension tech. Commander Burnham ultimately sacrifices herself by destroying the Klingon Messiah T'Kunfma, forcing Mudd to reset the timeline. Lieutenant Stamets, operating outside the loop via spore‑drive technology, feeds critical information to the crew. The reviewer notes the episode feels episodic, akin to classic Star Trek stand‑alone stories, yet still advances the season’s overarching plot. They also discuss speculation around Lieutenant Ash’s identity—whether he is a Klingon, a clone, or a human‑like double agent—and suggest a more grounded explanation would serve the narrative better. Overall, the reviewer enjoyed the episode, praised its humor and tension, and invites viewers to share their thoughts while reminding them to like and subscribe.
Chapters
Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. And guys, today we're gonna review Star Trek Discovery episode 7, Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad. And guys, um, didn't really know if I would like this episode or not. Uh, I was looking at the preview and I just kind of felt like I don't know if I'm gonna be interested in this week's episode as much as the other ones. I was surprised to find out that this episode I thought was cleverly done. And although it's been done before in the Star Trek series, we had a similar time loop situation back with Star Trek: The Next Generation, reminiscent of what many TV shows have done and movies like Groundhog Day. So I wasn't really sure if I'd be interested, you know, so much in a story like that. But I like how it was used with the return of Harry Mudd. Ryan Wilson, I think, has done an excellent job as Harry Mudd. In earlier interviews about the series, he talked about how he wanted to bring a much darker, grittier Harry Mudd. I think he pulled that off, and he's been very good at, you know, this role. I just found it very funny that Throughout the episode, you know, of course, when Captain Lorca left him on the Klingon ship, he's always wanted revenge on Captain Lorca for leaving him in the prison. And so what he does is he's going over all these ways through the temporal loops that he actually killed Captain Lorca. It was like 51 times. And, uh, he was explaining to Captain Lorca that he's just pretty much tired of doing it and, uh, at this point just wanted to sell out the Discovery to the Klingons. But we get Commander Burnham able to figure out, stop the plans, because we get to find Lieutenant Stamets through using the spore drive technology. He's outside the temporal loop, he can see what's going on, and he's feeding bits of information to all the crew members in a very limited space of time. Try to stop Hairy Mud. And Commander Burnham, of course, we got to see do that by offering herself up, you know, as being the person who killed the Klingon Messiah T'Kunfma, I believe his name is. And she kills herself with these vaporizing objects that they take. The Hairy Mud, you know, it's part of his stolen technology he's using And because she kills herself, now of course we got, you know, Harry Mudd has to reset the timeline again. He's basically using this fourth dimension technology from some advanced alien race, and that's what's allowing him to be able to do that. So I found out that very interesting, and Harry Mudd, you know, has to reset it, but they're a step ahead of them. And they've, you know, they've basically shut off certain communications to the captain's chair, to areas of the, of the ship that he just wasn't able to cover because it was just too much, uh, things going on. But guys, I like this week's episode. Um, I thought it was well done. I was entertained by it. Uh, and although to me it felt very episodical, you know, we had kind of been over decided that it'd just be this one continuous story on throughout the 17 episodes. Uh, how they did this episode, it does— it did feel very episodical. It did feel like the old Star Treks where it's a whole different episode per, uh, you know, uh, season. But, uh, this worked quite well. It kind of still moved the story along. Um, not sure what's going on with Lieutenant Ash. A lot of people are saying that Ash is a Klingon online. I'm not sure if Ash is a Klingon. If he is, he's very quickly culturally observed a lot of the human tendencies, culture, and he's just giving speeches. He's the life of the party. He's good at romance. He's just good at too many things, and I think it would be a lot more feasible if they present Lieutenant Ash as more or less maybe a human being. Maybe the Klingons have something on him. He has to play double agent, maybe save the life of some of the people. I think that would work a lot better than trying to say he's some type of clone human from a Klingon species and various things like that. But guys, I like this week's episode. Let me know what you thought about it, if you like it, if it's getting better. Guys, if you like content like this, don't forget to like, subscribe, and until next time, take care.