In A Mirror, Darkly

DVD, Enterprise S4 (In A Mirror, Darkly)

Amazing! That's my first thought when this episode begins, even now I know what's coming. How wonderful to see the historic first contact between humans and Vulcans, with the 'First Contact' theme music, and then… boom! This isn't your Father's 'Star Trek' universe, to coin a phrase from the Abramsverse films, the great Zefram Cochrane blasting the alien visitor clean across the screen. He couldn't do the hand gesture, so he kills. That alone should tell you you're not in Kansas anymore, but even better is to follow with a new opening sequence complete with menacing theme music and images of war throughout human history, and for anyone that knows their classic 'TOS' episodes it must be obvious by now: we're in the Mirror Universe!

I can't say I was ever the biggest proponent for this alternate universe, made a regular destination in 'DS9,' but if you're looking to pay tribute to 'TOS,' then 'Mirror, Mirror' in which we first saw this place, is arguably one of the top five episodes that come to mind when you think of the series, so it's fantastic that 'Enterprise' decided to bring it back, and not just bring it back, but make it the first MU two-parter, and take the opportunity to have some fun with other key components of 'TOS.' It's tragic that amid such a celebration of the franchise's history was the moment when news came through for cast and crew that they wouldn't be coming back for a Season 5 (though it was reportedly during Part II they found out). Just when they were doing some of their best episodes of the series (and 'Bound,' but the less said about that…). Not that I'm saying this two-parter was particularly in the category of best episodes of the series, as if you look at them objectively, you can see that they're fun, but a bit empty in terms of story. The motivations and fine acting of many episodes of Trek tended to take a backseat to the spectacle and decadence of playing around with the established characters and continuity, which was the point, really. I can't help feeling that the characterisations didn't go far enough, or weren't nuanced enough as 'evil' versions of our universe's heroes. And T'Pol didn't have a beard!

The thing is, there's so much to enjoy that you don't spend too long thinking about there not being a proper story, you just sit there grinning at the opening and the opening credits; Reed's new invention of the agoniser booth; the little nods to 'TOS' (Tucker's radiation scars look just like Captain Pike's in 'The Menagerie'), as well as the big ones (finally, after almost forty years the mystery of what a Tholian looks like is solved!), and the gigantic one: a Constitution-class starship to play in. Who-ho! It's amazing that they could go to the trouble of recreating those well-known sets of 'TOS' and have them fully formed and operational - yes, they'd done similar before on 'TNG' ('Relics'), recreating a portion of the bridge so the ageing Scotty could be melancholy over his old ship; and even more spectacularly they created portions of sets and corridors for the thirtieth anniversary celebration, 'Trials and Tribble-ations' on 'DS9.' But this time to actually create a fully working bridge set, as well as other parts of the most famous starship in history… it just puts a smile on your face whenever there's a scene there. And it really, really makes you want to hurry up and see part two. I think this would have been an ideal candidate for a high profile feature-length episode, just as 'Voyager' used to do, with plenty of advertising to get the news out there, but Paramount or CBS, or whatever they called themselves at the top, couldn't be bothered and were happy to let the series slide out of existence taking the last piece of true Trek production into the grave.

For as big and as flashy, and as many lens flares, the new films and their version of the Enterprise can never compete with that real, historical place that has been in the public eye since the sixties, and it's an episode like this that proves what a difference adherence to established history can do, and all without upsetting the canon. It's magical. And it's not even the USS Enterprise! That's the clever thing, not only do we get our first full-body view of a Tholian, we tie directly into a 'TOS' episode, 'The Tholian Web,' in which the USS Defiant (no, not that one!), got pulled through a rift into presumed destruction. But, aha, no no, it didn't: it went through into another universe, one hundred years in the past where it becomes a trophy to be fought for. Apparently even the layout of the dead crew's bodies are arranged in the correct way as seen in that episode way back in the late sixties, which is incredible and really shows how much many of the people involved in this eighteen year run of Trek loved it. Their attention to detail and care for the subject; their application and knowledge made such a run possible, and if the ball was dropped with 'Enterprise,' at least we got a chance to see the series step up a gear and go for it again. But these are all sentiments I should be saving for the finale.

I can enthuse about the production design and the effort expended on this episode, but I have to check myself a little. You see, the MU episodes were generally not the best of their series', as likeable as they could be. For me, only 'Through The Looking Glass' stands up as a truly great story, the others are all enjoyable slices of a continuing narrative. The acting wasn't bad, it was just not layered enough, but that was the style of the MU in general, I'm not disputing that, but Archer is very close to his usual shouty self, and while this part of the story is all about the power struggle between Captain Forrest's loyal followers, and those on Archer's side, that's pretty much all it's about. Undeniably fun, but not deep in any way. Again, I'm not complaining, as MU episodes aren't known for their depth and subtlety - they're supposed to be a chance for the cast to let their hair down (literally for T'Pol and Hoshi), and play alternate versions of their characters, ones that are looser and more unpredictable. But it seems that most of them are just more angry. Phlox displays a sadistic pleasure in cutting up and killing animals and other lifeforms, but though he carries out the actions I didn't feel like John Billingsley was allowed to run wild and show his pent-up ability to emote or perform that he keeps in check as an alien character. Trip is uptight, that's his character. Major Reed delights in torture, but I didn't get a sense or horror from seeing him, as I should. T'Pol is more logical, but manipulative with it.

What I'm saying is that things are too similar. The clothes are different, Forrest's back from the dead, the ship has decals… but things don't feel radical enough. It's fantastic to see Tellarite and Vulcan crewmembers in uniform, something we wouldn't see in our universe, so it was more of that kind of thing that was needed to emphasise the MU locale. I suppose I didn't have the impression that these actors are embracing their Dark Trek roles with as much glee and relish as we've often seen in MU episodes. Maybe it was something to do with news of cancellation, though they were professionals and wouldn't have allowed something like that to affect their work (and they didn't know about it during Part I), or perhaps it was just the long hours of a long season at boiling point. But things weren't fizzing, somehow, which left it up to the garnish to plant that grin on my face. The garnish was wonderful, and it worked, but I would have liked a good plate of story and juicy character moments to get my teeth into, too. I would also say that as much as it was a great surprise to have a different theme music, it didn't sound like the carefully thought out theme for a TV series - if it had been imagined as the first episode of a new Trek series, perhaps a stronger theme would have been forthcoming, but it was only a small part of the episode, so I can understand that it was only meant to be a gag, and with time and money at a premium you can't perfect everything. But it was that impression of good stuff, but not great stuff that permeated the episode, for me.

All is forgiven, however, when we see that Constitution-class Defiant. They couldn't have come up with a better way to pay homage to their forebear than to tie into an actual episode of 'TOS,' and give us some answers about a mystery from that series. It makes me long for 'Enterprise' to have survived the full seven years so we could have seen what they would have done for a fortieth anniversary celebration episode! Those old sound effects, the lighting, the arrangement, it's all so delightful to behold, and regardless of getting to that point being a little Tab A into Slot B, it was all worth it for the chance to see an old favourite in widescreen. We even get an updated version of the Tholian web, which in turn gives us what I believe is the only sighting of the Enterprise NX-01's escape pods (though technically it's only the Mirror version, the ISS Enterprise, so the NX-01 may not have them).

Every series at some point has to show the ship/station exploding in a fireball of death. I can't recall if we'd seen the NX-01 break up like that, but we get the full experience here, as, like George Kirk in another 'mirror' universe, Admiral Forrest apparently sacrifices himself to let Hoshi escape (I do wonder why he was so attached to her, as I never really believed they loved each other so much that he'd sacrifice himself to save her, nor is that the usual MU way - Forrest could have been a noble version, just as Mirror Spock was, but he needed fleshing out). I had a problem with how unclear it was whether Forrest survived, since we don't see him go out in the blaze of glory Vaughn Armstrong deserved (this being his last of so many appearances on both this series and other Trek), but I wonder if it was another of those little loose ends writers like to leave in so that when the inevitable happened (if the series had continued), and we returned to the MU, they could get Forrest back? I could buy that, and it's yet another disappointment to chalk up to early cancellation. On the other hand, if Forrest did die he may be the only character in Trek history to die twice in the same season! It's a wonder Archer wasn't close to death himself, after ten hours in the agony booth. I know it was meant to be a device that didn't wear you out so pain could keep being administered without your body completely shutting down, but going through any extreme pain for ten hours you'd think he wouldn't be able to stand up, yet after initially falling out of the booth he's soon on his feet again and not too worse for wear.

It's easy to forget, amidst all the love and appreciation for a Constitution-class starship, that this was the episode that invented the look of the Tholians. But it's so true to what you might have imagined, better even, that you almost don't think about it, it's just so natural a development, as if it had always been so and they just hadn't shown it on 'TOS,' hitting the nail on the head (but not too hard or it might shatter!): a crystalline structure, multi-legged like a spider or crab, with the ability to use their own structure to communicate with their own kind - the tremulous whine is so pitiful you feel for the poor creature. It's one of those totally alien aliens, and a stroke of genius. Really, I can't express how impressed I was with what they came up with for such a long-established, but never fully realised race. It even ties neatly into the tiny details we knew of the species before this episode: in 'DS9' we occasionally hear of the Tholian ambassador, and that he owed Sisko a favour, the Captain calling it in for some Tholian silk for Kasidy Yates. You can believe that these creatures could spin silk as their form suggests a connection to the nature we see in our own world, something Trek's always done with aplomb, and which helps to give alienness a reality for us to understand subconsciously.

The arrowhead design of the ships can't be as credited as the alien design, since it goes back to 'TOS,' but just as in 'Future Tense' one of the stronger episodes of Season 2 of 'Enterprise,' where we first saw these ships again, the modern update looks really nice (even if the explosion of its destruction falls into the weaker CGI style you tended to get). I thought from that earlier episode that Tholians were going to play a bigger part in the series, and I think one problem with the series was that they didn't fully embrace the Trek universe as the other series' did, perhaps trying too hard to focus on humanity's first steps into this new technology and space exploration to avoid falling into the trap of repetition, but in effect they took too long to get to established races making a meaningful contribution to the series and I believe that's one of the things that lost it traction as they fell into the pitfall they'd tried to avoid by having any old aliens of the week a common occurrence rather than delving into the 'TOS' races (though they did a pretty good job with the Andorians), something it took until this season, and new management, to get to.

Even races that were invented for the series never fully received their due, such as the Suliban, although at least in this episode we do hear of the race again as the cloak they're using is Suliban technology. This leads me to wonder if the Temporal Cold War happened in this universe, as that's how they were getting their genetic upgrades and technology? It seems more likely that a full on hot war would have sliced through the centuries as soon as MU inhabitants solved time travel - you can only imagine what these people would do with that ability, probably destroy all time in their universe. It's safe to assume they never, for whatever reason, got their hands on this technology, probably too busy fighting to invent it, otherwise there would be no continuity to the MU at all, it would have fragmented into a mess as factions went back and forth, manipulating history, or more likely, directly altering it whenever they chose. Perhaps the Vulcans were believed - they don't put any credence in alternate universes (we could have done with one of these when it came to the Abramsverse being suggested at Paramount!), just as in our universe the Vulcans stoically refused to accept time travel, the mirroring of which could be a little in-joke against our pointy-eared friends. It's a solution to explain the coherence of the MU's timeline, anyway…

One last reason I don't consider this two-parter as great, despite it having some greatness within it (you can't get greater than powering up the Defiant's bridge - even the helm viewer that pops out of the console looks incredible, and as for T'Pol getting to use the equivalent of Spock's science viewer…), is that it's only connected with our universe in the most cursory of ways, through the hardware being lured into the MU. Otherwise (just like the Abrams films), it has nothing to do with anything, even more so if we're talking the TV series, which it has no connection to in story terms, at all! Not to say a completely unconnected story can't have resonance, as the 'Voyager' episode 'Course: Oblivion' is quite affecting, but this is all about doing something in the MU that I'm not even sure has any relevance to the MU storyline since it's not the changing of an empire as the 'DS9' stories updated, cleverly positing that Kirk's peaceful intentions made the Terran Empire weak. It would have been very hard for them to come up with a way to tie into 'Mirror, Mirror' and make that be a continuation of this, so I'm not saying it's a problem, it just could have been taken a stage further.

I sound ungrateful, but I really do like this episode, loving the attention to detail, the chance to see the Mirror versions of these characters, and some amazing continuity. All this almost makes me forget that this might have been the time William Shatner made his return to Trek, as there were talks to get him in as a Mirror Kirk, which would have been brilliant. There's still the possibility that he may return in the thirteenth Trek film, but I'd have really been impressed if they'd had him in this two-parter, though it wouldn't have made any difference to the series' lifespan, I'm sure, as things were too far gone, and the powers above had tired of Trek. I could go on all day about how sad it was that the series was abandoned just when it was picking up and learning what its potential could be. But like the poor Tholian, it didn't resonate strongly enough to be saved. I just hope the ISS Enterprise was kept warm, or all those female crewmembers were going to catch cold!

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