It sounds like they want name recognition. “Mudd was a recurring villain of the week? Bring him in!” They have to make things exciting though so he’s going to be a mass murderer.
Yeah, TOS was boring, so let’s hypercharge everything for the ‘modern audiences.’
Geez, even Harry Mudd has to be dark and edgy now? Screw them. Next thing you know a Tribble is going to rip someone’s throat out like the killer rabbit in Holy Grail.
And how will they explain all of this not being on Harry’s criminal record in TOS?
He promised never to do that again. And he was very sorry.
This is an issue if you’re thinking of slotting DSC into the timeline, sure, but the ultimate problem of this series as a whole is the botched execution of every single sliver of a promising idea. I could buy Mudd going completely nuts, but you need to build to that, otherwise it’s all just a gimmick. Yeah, it’ll probably get retconned soon and it won’t matter. Arguably, that’s another issue to have with DSC - nothing can or will matter if they indeed aim to fit the series into the Prime continuity.
Basically, the batallion of producers in the credits is not there by accident…
The mid-season finale was easily one of the better episodes, but that only serves as testament to how low the first season set that bar. Yeah, TNG had a wonky start, DS9 took some time to find its legs, but at the end of the day it was never a chore to watch those shows evolve, and even the bad episodes had a sense of ambition/exploration to them. Here, everything just seems like it’s a failure followed by a desperate salvage attempt. Episode 8 feels like a complete disaster with vital footage never shot that was just barely saved in post. I tip my hat to the editor, but this show did not deserve his time or effort.
Basically, I’m sick of Discovery any way I look at the show. And it’s not the Klingon mammaries that broke me. It’s bad sf, it’s terrible Star Trek, it’s deplorable drama. I think I’m done.