While “Star Trek: Discovery” fans await new episodes to air sometime early next year, they will get more of one of the show’s most memorable characters — Harry Mudd.
Mudd is an eccentric space entrepreneur-slash-con man-slash-slaver from the original “Star Trek” series who was played by Rainn Wilson in “Star Trek: Discovery.” At the “Discovery” panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018, showrunner Alex Kurtzman announced that CBS is creating four short standalone “Star Trek” episodes called “Short Treks,” one of which will be all about Harry Mudd.
The four episodes will each run about 15 to 20 minutes long, and CBS plans to release them monthly starting sometime in the fall. Wilson returns as Mudd in one short, which he’s also directing, and Aldis Hodge (“Straight Outta Compton”) will appear in another story, in which he finds himself the only human on a deserted ship. A third short will dive into the backstory of the Discovery’s first officer, Seru (Doug Jones), who’s the first of his species to join Starfleet, and the last focuses on Discovery’s eager-to-please Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman), who was one of the lighter and funnier characters in “Discovery” Season 1.
A deeper look at Mudd might be the most interesting idea, though. The character first ran into James T. Kirk and his crew in “Star Trek: The Original Series” as a villain who tried to sell women to the Enterprise crew as wives, and later conned his way into becoming the leader of a planet of androids. He appeared a couple of times in “Star Trek: Discovery,” which takes place about 10 years before Kirk’s voyages, first as a Klingon prisoner, and later in a “Groundhog Day”-like episode in which he murdered the crew of the Discovery over and over again (it was funnier than it sounds). Mudd’s both a comic, eccentric character and a pretty evil one, so digging deeper into his story might mean there’s more of him to come in “Discovery” Season 2.
In fact, though the episodes are closed, stand-alone stories, they’ll apparently hint at what’s to come in “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 2. CBS quoted Kurtzman in its press release as saying the episodes will “also introduce audiences to new characters who may inhabit the larger world of ‘Star Trek.’ “
15 Time Travel TV Shows You Should Be Watching Right Now, From '12 Monkeys' to 'Dark' (Photos)
You're not imagining it -- there really is a mess of time travel shows available right now. Whether you're watching on TV, cable or streaming, there's no shortage of time-hopping shows that are messing up history.
Here are 14 time travel shows you should be watching right now.
"Frequency" (season 1 on Netflix) A police detective believes her father was killed 20 years earlier while undercover. When a HAM radio somehow connects her to her father in the past, the pair set out to change things — but a serial killer alters the past and their plans. The first season just ended, making this the perfect time to catch up.
"Dark" is a German, English-dubbed sci-fi show that's about a small town where local kids keep disappearing. Things get weird in a hurry as different time periods are introduced, but "Dark" is one of the best time travel shows out there at keeping everything straight and making sense, but with tons of nearly paradoxical twists and turns.
"Future Man" (season 1 on Hulu)
Even though it's a time travel comedy with the same goofball sense of humor as Executive Producer Seth Rogen's movies, "Future Man" is surprisingly in-the-know about time travel. It's also hilarious, particularly when it hits its stride toward the middle, jumping around to the 1950s, the 1980s, and the futuristic home of "The Terminator" Director James Cameron. Plus, it has one of the best, most intelligent "Back to the Future" parodies ever.
"The Flash" (season 1 on Netflix, new episodes on CW) DC Comics hero Barry Allen can run so fast, he can travel through time. Once he does, he realizes that time travel is central to what turned him into a hero, and to the plans of his nemesis.
"11.22.63" (series on Hulu) James Franco goes back in time to try to stop John F. Kennedy’s assassination in this adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. Trouble is, he’s stuck in the ’60s for years before the actual event, and the universe keeps trying to kill him. The complete miniseries is on Hulu.
"Outlander" (seasons 1-3 on STARZ) A woman is magically sucked through time from the 1940s to the 1740s in “Outlander.” She falls in love and tries to stop some historically awful events, but mostly spends her time trying to avoid getting raped. It comes up a lot, actually.
"Quantum Leap" (seasons 1-5 on Hulu) Thrown through time, Sam Beckett finds himself inhabiting the bodies of people throughout history. Each time he leaps, he has to figure out why he’s arrived when he has to try to fix a variety of situations for the better.
"Continuum" (seasons 1-4 on Netflix) Sixty years in the future, corporations have taken over the world. A group of terrorists travel back in time to start a class war to keep it from happening, along with a cop who tries to stop them.
"Travelers" (season 1-2 on Netlix) The future is bleak, so time travelers are trying to fix it by beaming themselves into the bodies of people in 2016 who are about to die. Taking over their lives, the travelers work like sleeper cells in an attempt to alter history. They have no idea if it’s working.
"Timeless" (season 1-2 on Hulu) There’s a bad guy time traveler who keeps trying to mess up American history, and good guy time travelers try to stop him. Every time they do, the present gets a little more messed up.
"12 Monkeys" (season 1-2 on Hulu) Based on the Terry Gilliam-directed, Bruce Willis-starring movie, "12 Monkeys" explores and expands on the original with Willis seeing his own death. There are a lot more time travel shenanigans here, especially for fans of the movie.
"FlashForward" (season 1 on Watch ABC) An unknown event gives everyone in the world a six-second look into their future. In the aftermath, the FBI tries to find out what caused the event, and everyone else tries to figure out if they can change their future.
"Primeval" (seasons 1-5 Hulu) Dinosaurs are turning up in the UK, thanks to strange time anomalies. A team of scientists tries to figure out what’s going on, and battle a few huge creatures along the way.
"Legends of Tomorrow" (new episodes on The CW) The world is headed toward disaster, so a rogue time traveler jumps back in time to gather super humans to stop it. They go on to fight to protect history from the supervillains who are trying to change it.
"Doctor Who" (BBC) More whimsical than scientific, the titular Doctor recruits companions from Earth to travel with him through time and space. Mostly, it’s to battle monsters, robots, cyborgs and aliens to save the planet.
1 of 16
Prehistoric monsters, dangerous meta-humans and confused scientists — these time travel shows have it all
You're not imagining it -- there really is a mess of time travel shows available right now. Whether you're watching on TV, cable or streaming, there's no shortage of time-hopping shows that are messing up history.
Here are 14 time travel shows you should be watching right now.
