In a Mirror, Darkly

"In a Mirror, Darkly"
Star Trek: Enterprise episode
Episode no.	Episode 94 & 95
Directed by	James L. Conway Marvin V. Rush
Written by	Michael Sussman
Production code	418 & 419
Original air date	April 22, 2005 & April 29, 2005
Guest stars
Vaughn Armstrong Franc Ross David Anderson James Cromwell Gary Graham
Episode chronology
← Previous "Bound" Next → "Demons"
List of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes

"In a Mirror, Darkly" is a two-part episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. "In a Mirror, Darkly (Part I)" was the 700th live-action Star Trek episode broadcast. With this episode, actress Majel Barrett, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, became the only actor to participate in every Star Trek series, including the Animated Series, as well as both the Original Series-based and Next Generation-based film series. In this episode, she provided the voice of the Defiant computer.

The episode's title is derived from 1 Corinthians 13:12 (American Standard Version). The same verse (from the King James Bible, which reads, "For now we see through a glass, darkly") is quoted by Captain Picard in Star Trek Nemesis. The episode is the only episode in the entire Star Trek franchise which takes place entirely within the mirror universe.

Synopsis

The crew salutes Commander Archer

Part I

The episode's teaser opens with the closing scene from the feature movie Star Trek: First Contact, and features footage originally used in that feature film. Most of the footage of the Vulcans landing on Earth is directly lifted from the film, up until the point where Zefram Cochrane greets a Vulcan, who has arrived on earth to make First Contact with the young human species, and attempts to perform a Vulcan salute. But the scene does not play out as viewers remember: Cochrane opens up his coat, takes out a shotgun, and shoots the Vulcan. He orders the ship to be raided and its technology assimilated and the assembled humans raid the ship. For this episode, footage of Cochrane and the assembled humans executing the Vulcan crew and stealing the T'plana-hath with cries of conquest was newly created with stunt actors dressed identically to James Cromwell (Cochrane) and Cully Fredericksen (Vulcan Captain).

The theme song then played, but this was a darker version without words. Instead of the music that described hope and perseverance to achieve purely scientific and exploratory goals, this one showed battle music and images of warfare and mass destruction. In order: we see ancient sailing ships firing cannons, WWI planes being shot down, WWII infantry and tanks advancing, then with large amounts of armed soldiers marching in line and above them was a symbol of the Earth which was stabbed from the top with a blade (this was a symbol of evil Earth). Displayed also were scenes of artillery firing; a burst from a flame thrower; war planes engaging their enemy; a nuclear explosion; a fighter bomber plane rising from a track; two submarines fighting and the second one being destroyed; a flaming city with a tank passing through it; long range missiles; an anti-aircraft weapon locking on to a plane; a carpet bombing run; and a giant bomb being dropped. We then see the Apollo 11 launch as with the usual title sequence, but cut to a scene on the surface of the moon where the flag is that of the Earth bisected with the blade. Following this are scenes in space, of Cochrane's first warp ship followed by an NX-series craft attacking alien cities and a lunar colony. We then see the Enterprise shooting down a Klingon Bird of Prey, marines dropping down from ropes and shooting other species (that was the same footage that was used in the Xindi story arc from the previous season), a giant starship battle, and finally the evil Earth symbol once more.

The show's starring cast are crew members on the ISS Enterprise of the Mirror Universe, under command of Captain Forrest. The Terran Empire is on rocky ground; their hegemony over the alien races of the universe is being threatened by constant insurgency. Deep inside Tholian space, the Enterprise encounters the USS Defiant, NCC-1764 fresh from its last appearance in the Original Series episode "The Tholian Web". It appears that, after disappearing into interphase, the Defiant was carried not only into the mirror universe, but also a century back in time, where the Tholians of 2155 are intent on using it to break away from the oppressive and anthropocentric Terran Empire. Commander Jonathan Archer (the ISS Enterprise's first officer) takes an away team to the Defiant to capture it for the humans. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is caught and destroyed by the Tholians, with Forrest lost and many of the crew dying in escape pods hitting energized walls of a Tholian energy space trap (or "Web") set around the Enterprise. Archer declares himself captain of the Defiant and orders his crew to take the fight to the enemy.

Part II

Archer repopulates his ship with the surviving crew of the Enterprise, defeats an insurgent alien fleet, and decides to declare himself Emperor, using the Defiant and its advanced technology as his trump card. Several crewmembers, including Archer, don 23rd Century Starfleet uniforms in lieu of wearing their environmental suits from Enterprise. A conspiracy led by various alien members of his crew, including T'Pol, Phlox and Soval, fails to stop him. However, he is incapacitated by his lover Hoshi Sato, and she declares herself Empress upon arriving at Earth. The episode closes on that note, with the final fate of all main characters unknown (many have been threatened with death), and Archer poisoned via champagne.

Background information

ISS Enterprise (NX-01)

These episodes foreshadow the future of the Mirror Universe (the Terran Empire as seen in Star Trek: The Original Series and its downfall and conquest by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance as seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) in its dialogue. They also include numerous references to the other parts of the original series; besides the Defiant, they depict the Gorn on screen for the first time since the 1960s. They also contain many TOS-era sets, props, costumes and other paraphernalia, which were re-created solely for these episodes. Interestingly, the Mirror Universe version of Starfleet is shown to be considerably more diverse than in the mainstream universe, with Vulcans, Andorians and even an Orion seen serving in various capacities, although it is implied that these are conquered races.

Altered credits

The altered opening credits sequence for this episode depicts historical archive footage of World War I troops on the march, a squadron of Stuka dive-bombers, a Saturn V launch, an atomic bomb exploding, aerial carpet bombings, a T-90 tank, an F-15 Eagle, and a B-1B Lancer.

Other scenes used in the opening credits come from earlier Star Trek productions, including the launch of the Phoenix (from Star Trek: First Contact), a shot of several torpedoes striking a building (from the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Dragon's Teeth"), the destruction of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey (from the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Expanse"), an assault by a team of MACO troops (from the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Xindi"), and a battle between Enterprise and the Xindi, as well as the destruction of the Rigellian Scout Ship by the Romulan Drone (disguised as Enterprise).

These credits also show scenes from different properties belonging to Paramount Pictures, including The Hunt for Red October (of the Konovalov firing a torpedo), The Sum of All Fears (of the three missiles against a sunlit background), Call to Glory, and The Jacket. The animated logo of the Terran Empire includes an Earth rotating the opposite way.

Production

• These two episodes mark the first time since the Original Series that the entire Constitution-class bridge was rebuilt for a Star Trek episode. The appearance of the Defiant bridge was made to look identical to how it was shown in 1968’s "The Tholian Web", right down to the positions of the dead crewmen.
• In previous episodes where a Constitution-class bridge was depicted, for example the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics" and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", only small sections of the bridge were rebuilt, with visual effects used to provide the appearance of completion.
• In keeping with the Original Series' depiction of every Starfleet vessel's crew having unique uniform insignia, one was made for the Defiant crew uniforms seen in this episode. (In "The Tholian Web", stock uniforms were used, however their insignia was never shown onscreen.)
• For the Part I teaser new shots were filmed and inserted into footage from the film Star Trek: First Contact. While Enterprise was normally shot in digital, the Mirror First Contact scenes were shot on film so that they would match the appearance of the original footage.
• Unlike TOS and DS9 stories where regular characters "crossed over" into the Mirror Universe, this episode took place entirely in that realm - a decision which, in a DVD bonus feature, Executive Producer Manny Coto stated was made primarily in the belief that the TOS episode where it first appeared was "obviously" first contact between the two universes.
• According to interviews with the episode's writer Mike Sussman, the Defiant was originally going to be used in his Season 2 episode "Future Tense". The idea was abandoned based on the premise that it was too difficult to include the Defiant in the episode without allowing the original Enterprise crew to either see the ship or find out any information about it, as this would conflict with established canon, and pollute the timeline, which is of no concern to the mirror universe crew.^{[citation needed]}
• This episode is the most recent appearance of longtime Trek actor Vaughn Armstrong, who plays Captain Maximilian Forrest - the counterpart of his regular Enterprise character, Admiral Maxwell Forrest, who had been killed in "The Forge" earlier in the season.

External links

• In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I at the Internet Movie Database
• In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II at the Internet Movie Database
• "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I" at TV.com
• "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" at TV.com
• In a Mirror Darkly, Part I at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I at StarTrek.com
• In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II at StarTrek.com