Show: Star Trek; Enterprise
Episode
Particulars: S4EP19, “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part 2”
Standalone
Thoughts: While this episode still primarily consists of people planning or
attempting to betray other people, it’s more forgivable this time, because it’s
pretty obvious what the true purpose
of this episode is; namely, to enjoy some nostalgia for TOS. Much like “Trials and Tribble-ations”, sets, props, costumes,
and sound effects were lovingly recreated, and if you’re a Trek fan, it’s hard not to
get a kick out of it. I’m someone who’s never actually seen all of TOS, and I have that reaction. It helps that the actors, Bakula in
particular, seem to be enjoying themselves immensely, which makes it more
likely that the audience will pick up on the enthusiasm and have fun as well.
I feel like this is an episode (though it applies to the
two-parter as a whole) where it’s better not to overthink it, and to just sit
back and enjoy the spectacle. There’s the obvious nostalgia factor, but if
you’re a fan of characters being manipulative, you may enjoy that aspect as
well. I certainly did, not the least of which because I can’t help but think of
a certain Cardassian. And anything that reminds me of Garak is a positive in my
books.
How it Relates to
the Whole: Besides the obvious relation to TOS, and “The Tholian Web” in particular, we get to see a Gorn
(from TOS’ “Arena”) and do a bit of
foreshadowing for later development in the Mirror Universe. I’ve also gathered (SPOILER ALERT) from reading reviews of
Discovery that the events of this
episode are referenced in that show’s
foray into the Mirror Universe. For once, Enterprise
influenced future Trek shows
instead of just making references to previous material, and I’m proud of it for
that, especially given how maligned it is.
Other: *During
the “Previously on” segment, in-between the plot relevant material, there’s a
two second clip of Archer slamming Malcolm up against a wall. Normally, the
material shown in recaps are meant to be relevant to what’s going to play out
in the episode, but there’s no confrontation between Archer and Malcolm in the
episode. There’s not even a scene suggesting that Malcolm’s plotting against
him, which would explain why Archer would be on his guard around him. I don’t object
to the clip’s inclusion, but I wish it had actually served a purpose.
*To the credit of the tech guys, if you pause and squint
at the screen in the scenes where Archer pulls up data about the “real”
universe, you can see that there’s actual text instead of random words (or
passages from classic literature). I’m sure it’s even clearer in higher
definition, and if my examining Memory Alpha for geeky purposes is any
indication, fans have examined it fully and tried to use it to fill in the gaps
in Star Trek history. While I approve
of all this, there is one thing that puzzles me somewhat. If you pause and look
at Archer’s profile, you’ll see lots of interesting tidbits, like how he
becomes ambassador to Andoria, but there’s one detail that’s missing; a date of
death. Isn’t it generally common practice to have the birth and death dates of
a famous person be one of the first things you see, especially in short
biographies? Especially since this biography comes from the Defiant, when presumably Archer had
passed away by that point. I know the out of universe reason is to try to leave
things open-ended, both for themselves and for the fans, but it still goes
against the traditional way of doing things, and thus was worthy of notice and
mention.
*One story element that I don’t quite understand is the
glimpses we get of “our” Archer. After reading from that aforementioned
database, Mirror Archer occasionally hears (and possibly sees, but that may
just be for the audience’s benefit) “our” Archer talking to him. This seems
like a setup for “our” Archer to act as Mirror Archer’s conscience, but
instead, he basically eggs Mirror Archer on in his evil plots. Given that
Mirror Archer dismissed “our” Archer as weak, it seems strange that he’d keep
dwelling on his alternate counterpart. I’d have bought it if he was afraid he’d
become weak like “our” Archer if he didn’t carry out his plans, but that’s
never explicitly stated. I’m all for subtlety, but sometimes it can give the
wrong impression, which in this case is to put the idea in our minds that
Mirror Archer is insane, even by the standards of the mirror universe (I’m
pretty sure that’s the theory that SFDebris subscribes to). Me, I just think
more could have been done with it.
*There’s another example of cribbing from other sources
lurking in this episode. At one point, we see things from the Gorn’s point of
view, and the screen goes red and hazy. I’m pretty sure that was stolen from
the Predator movies, especially since
the Gorn seems to favor watching his prey from high vantage points. I’m not
judging, of course, I’m just amused.
*After seeing the mirror version of Admiral Forrest, we
get to see its version of Ambassador Soval today…and he’s got a goatee. I guess
the showrunners couldn’t resist the callback after all.
Badass Malcolm
Moment: Malcolm’s not in the episode all that much, but he gets a scene
similar to the one in “Rajiin” where he orders his squad via hand gestures to
take up positions while stalking an enemy. The vibe he’s giving off this time,
though, is much more threatening, and
as I’ve previously established, I have a huge weak spot for an authoritative
Malcolm, though I’d probably not like it as much if it was a regular part of
his character. I’m generally not one for “bad boys”; I just like it when good
guys display a bit of badness.
(I also feel the need to point something else out,
something that’s just ambiguous enough that it can’t qualify for this entry. While
Malcolm disappears from the story after getting caught in an explosion and his
condition is later described as touch and go, we never get confirmation that he
died. I checked Memory Alpha to see what the authorial intent was, and
discovered that they wanted to keep their options open in case they revisited
the mirror universe in a [theoretical] fifth season. I naturally choose to
believe that Malcolm pulled through, which leads me to my point. Not only did
he survive a huge explosion, he did it while wearing a TOS security uniform, which has a…reputation. In other words,
Malcolm beat the redshirt curse. You can’t get much more badass than that.)
After the Fact
Update: You can tell just reading the Memory Alpha page for this episode
how much care writer Mike Sussman took in crafting the story. He looked for
ways to include things he and other writers had always wanted to do (like
include a Gorn), realized the audience would want to see the TOS style bridge more than its briefing
room and changed locations of scenes accordingly, and kept things as open-ended
as possible in case of that hypothetical fifth season. You really get the
impression that he enjoyed himself writing it, and I appreciate both his
dedication and his enthusiasm.
Also, he made up the historical information on those
viewscreens (including actually giving a death year for Archer; so he did take that into consideration) without
consulting anybody else on what to write, on the assumption that no one would
be able to read it, and was then kind of horrified when he realized it was
legible. In fandom terms, he put his headcanons into the series, and they
became canon. Now that’s living the
fandom dream.
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