The Escape Artist

The final installment of Short Treks (for now, at least) was "The Escape Artist," a mini-episode centered around the roguish Harry Mudd.

Harry Mudd has been captured and delivered to a Tellarite looking to collect on the Federation's bounty. As Mudd tries different angles to persuade the Tellarite to be merciful, we flash back to moments from his past where he's been in similarly hot water.

This episode may not have been truly exceptional, but I do feel it was the best example of the four Short Treks as to what a Short Trek can be. Harry Mudd isn't a main character of Star Trek: Discovery, so an episode never could or should be centered on him. But he is an established element of the Trek universe, and a mini-episode -- especially one that doesn't require the presence of any main characters -- is a perfect venue to give us another story about him.

A Harry Mudd mini-episode is also a great chance for Star Trek to lighten up a bit. I don't mind that Discovery as a series has opted for a darker tone than other Trek series, but it is almost unrelentingly dark. Humor comes rarely, and the idea of a purely comedic episode -- a "The Trouble With Tribbles," "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," or a "Bride of Chaotica" -- is unthinkable. Short Treks to the rescue, to give us an installment that aspires simply for laughs.

This agenda was declared from the opening title, as the orchestra gave way to a jaunty disco tune. (Get it? Disco?) Each flashback was sillier than the last, populated with characters both playfully fun and delightfully stupid. Some of the scenarios were almost too fleshed out, teasing stories I'd want to see more fully, in addition to the framing Tellarite story. But they always played light, and Rainn Wilson seemed to be having tons of fun playing Mudd again (which he's now done as much as the original actor, Roger C. Carmel).

There was tons of uncommented-upon fan service. We got to see a Tellarite and some Orions, plus a bounty hunter that may have been a Breen (from Deep Space Nine). The ultimate revelation of Mudd's scheme here has fun parallels with his original series episode "I, Mudd" (set later in the timeline than this story). They even included a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of Mudd's costume from that episode to drive the connection home.

We'll see if Short Treks continue to be a thing after the current season of Discovery. Perhaps they'll expand to include tales from the other Star Trek series coming to CBS All Access. But if the experiment ends here, it ends with one of the better efforts. I give "The Escape Artist" a B.