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A Look At: In a Mirror, Darkly - Part 1

Three of Seven gives her opinions on the Enterprise episode, In a Mirror, Darky.

By Three of Seven Tue 27 Oct, 2015 2:00 PM - Last Updated: Tue 12 Apr, 2016 10:49 AM
With Star Trek Online launching a wave of new content this Tuesday, New Dawn will bring in some more mirror universe content. So with that, I today bring my review of one of my favourite mirror episodes, from Enterprise. I have a fascination with the mirror universe; amplifying the bad sides of humanity and being the opposite of the good guys. I do also like the slight change of uniform, but no further mention of that will be made.

This two part episode tells a story of the ISS Enterprise, which is currently at war with rebels in the Terran Empire and what happened to the USS Defiant (NCC-1764) from the prime universe. We are introduced to Forrest, who is the Captain of the ISS Enterprise and Archer is his first officer, it is Archer who wants to venture into Tholion space to recover technology that he sees as vital to the empire, but Forrest disagrees, who threatened Archer with the agony booth which is seen earlier.

The mirror Enterprise is full of backstabbing, for rank or for glory and everything that goes along with it, it is amazing to see that this ship even functions with such a manipulative Name:  Ent Defient.png
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Size:  116.0 KBThe USS Defiant as seen in the Tholion drydock.crew! What we find out from Forrest and his encounter with Sato, is that the war does not seem to be going well, but the ISS Enterprise is soon taken over by First Officer Archer, who prevents Reed from killing Forrest and gets cloaking installed. The mistake he made here was not letting Reed kill Forrest, as we soon end up in a position where the ship is retaken from Archer.

It is hard to know who to side with in an episode full of villains, you may even feel sorry for the Vulcans onboard, but I stuck with my usual favourites from Enterprise, both Sato and Reed, Sato here is a completely different person to her prime counterpart, Reed, well he just fascinates me regardless of the situation.

Moving back on track with the first part of the two parter, Archer is taken to visit the agony chamber for his actions, lucky him! He is only spared because the data he had about the technology in Tholion space had interested the Fleet Admiral. We then go on an adventure to find the ship, which is the USS Defiant, captured in a drydock. An assault team is assembled to take the ship, some dead officers are found and the ISS Enterprise is attacked by the Tholions. What happens after that and in part two, I will leave for you to watch for yourself, I wouldn’t want to ruin the whole episode.

This first episode of a two parter is bizarre in many aspects, much like the majority of the Trek mirror universe. Our cast of characters are part of an amazing empire but less disciplined than a young Klingon, they don’t even have the manipulation skills of the Romulans, so it’s no surprise that ultimately, the Terran Empire is in ruins by the events seen in Deep Space 9. What we see here is more of a fun escape from the normality of Enterprise, a sadistic Dr. Phlox was possibly my favourite of the differences shown.

Overall, I think this is an episode or episodes worth watching, not for the plot, or even finding out the fate of the USS Defiant, but more as something a bit different, a bit spicy! Now I must continue my own plans to become the leader of the Terran Empire!

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IN A MIRROR, DARKLY?

WRITTEN & EDITED BY Three of Seven - rena.hobden@ufplanets.com
10 Comments
Tue 27 Oct, 2015 2:24 PM
Great article Three! I loved In Mirror Darkly as it allowed the characters to expand beyond their starfleet roots and take on a true evil representation of themselves, the what if? story. I really enjoyed the fact that they linked the episode to TOS and the USS Defiant, also it provided solid ground for explaining how the Terran Empire advanced so fast and so quickly to annex most of known space.
Tue 27 Oct, 2015 3:28 PM
I feel that when humans reach the level of interstellar travel, the Mirror Universe is what we will see. Tongue Out I too wondered how the Terrans manage to get anything done at all with the backstabbing going on. Then again, almost the same thing is going on in Congress (minus the literal backstabbing of course.)

Phlox's "would you kindly die" line was funny. Mirror Archer going nuts and seeing the prime version of himself mocking him. Mirror Hoshi putting the -censored- back in Hoshi (not my words, it was actually mentioned by the cast. Tongue Out)

I was glad the show had at least one arc featuring the Mirror Universe. Though I would have liked to see the Earth-Romulan war during the series instead of the temporal cold war that turned into the Xindi arc.
Tue 03 Nov, 2015 2:20 AM
The only thing that could have been better with "In Mirror Darkly" would have been that after Hoshi poisned Archer it should have been T'Pol who enters the room but not Travis.
Tue 03 Nov, 2015 3:51 AM
The best part of Into the Mirror Darkly was that T'Pol was even hotter than the regular T'Pol...... <sigh>
Tue 03 Nov, 2015 5:27 PM
The only thing that could have been better with "In Mirror Darkly" would have been that after Hoshi poisned Archer it should have been T'Pol who enters the room but not Travis.
I don't know. Hoshi and T'Pol were literally at each other's throats earlier so it wouldn't make much sense. If it were T'Pol instead of Mayweather that showed up, better queue up some Barry White. lol
Fri 06 Nov, 2015 3:15 AM
I will pick up Three's comment about the uniforms- I have a theory that the uniforms changes may have been the secret key to everything, right in front of our faces all along. Conquest and slaves aside, the sheer amount of resources saved by eliminating about a third of the uniform resource/energy budget may have bought the Terran Empire several more ships in its critical formative/expansive period than would have otherwise been possible.
Fri 06 Nov, 2015 12:37 PM
I dunno about that saved resources theory. Speaking as someone who has had to pay for many a outfit for lady friends over the years, for some reason the less the material the greater the costs.

Don't ask me why, I have no idea. As someone with a deep appreciation of the female form, purely for artistic reasons of course, I do like seeing plenty.

You know. For the art.

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Fri 06 Nov, 2015 3:23 PM
I dunno about that saved resources theory. Speaking as someone who has had to pay for many a outfit for lady friends over the years, for some reason the less the material the greater the costs.

Don't ask me why, I have no idea. As someone with a deep appreciation of the female form, purely for artistic reasons of course, I do like seeing plenty.

You know. For the art.

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Yes. Art. :emoticon_ShiftyEyes
Fri 06 Nov, 2015 3:39 PM
The females in the Terran empire tend to gain glory and rank through seduction, or use said seduction to control those below them or gain information. It's also not on the extreme level like the Orions are, but while I like the uniform, none of the way the empire works makes sense, lol.

Also, just a note, clothes are charged by the label not material used, though you can find some cheap versions of the similar stuff! The material just isn't as nice to wear.
Fri 06 Nov, 2015 5:46 PM
The mirror universe is, like much of Trek, simply aspects of human society taken to a ridiculous extreme in an effort to force us to confront those aspects of ourselves.

So yeah, it would never work, its simply unsustainable. It does make a fun universe for stories, and allowed the actors to dip into roles they normally never get to play.

I'm a loudmouth extrovert who is a total sucker for beautiful women in this universe, so I can only assume mirror Kains would be awkward, quiet, and either completely unable to talk to women or not into women at all.

And as for the labels on women's clothing, I can't say I'm very familiar with that part. The price tags, however, can bring a tear ro my eye.

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