In a Mirror, Darkly
"In a Mirror, Darkly" is a two-part episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Its title is from 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 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 Star Trek episode which takes place entirely within the mirror universe.
"In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I" was the 700th live-action Star Trek episode broadcast.[1] With this episode, actress Majel Barrett, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, became the first and 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.
Synopsis
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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 shoots the Vulcan, 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 credits then roll, depicting not peaceful exploration, but milestones in humanity's history of war, both terrestrial and interstellar.
The show's starring cast are crewmembers 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 a century back in time, but into the mirror universe, where the Tholians of 2155 are intent on using it to break away from the oppressive and anthropocentric Terran Empire. Jonathan Archer 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 but the rest of the crew escaping in escape pods. Archer declares himself captain of the Defiant and orders his crew to take the fight to the enemy.
In Part II, Archer repopulates his ship with the escaped 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
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These episodes foreshadow the future of the Mirror Universe (The Terran Empire as seen in Star Trek: The Original Series and its downfall and the rise of an alien-led coalition 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 Tholians and Gorn on screen for the first time since the 1960s. They also contain many TOS-era sets, props, costumes and other paraphrenalia, 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 V-2 rocket launch, a hydrogen 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), Call to Glory, and The Jacket. The animated logo of the Terran Empire includes an Earth rotating the opposite way.
Notes
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (December 2007) |
- These two episodes mark the first time since the Original Series that the entire Constitution class bridge was rebuilt for a Star Trek episode. In previous episodes where it 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. Visual effects were used to fill in the gaps.
- 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.
- 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 Enterprise crew to either see the ship or find out any information about it, as this would conflict with established canon, and pollute the time line.
References
External links
- In a Mirror, Darkly episode guide at StarTrek.com
- In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II episode guide at StarTrek.com
- In a Mirror, Darkly at Memory Alpha
- In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II at Memory Alpha