"In A Mirror, Darkly" Discussion Thread...

[MrPointy]

The first episode was great fun and one of the best ENT eps of S4. I kind of thought that IaMD should have been a single episode though, as the 2nd episode dragged on for me.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

The First Contact opening and "Aren't all Tellerites guilty of something?" are my favorite parts.

Also Archer's "Bridge is yourrrs, Captain!"

That it all had NOTHING to do with non-Mirror U Enterprise crew was surprising, proof that when Trek goes outside the box good things can happen.

 

[Unicron]

Indeed. Some argue that the MU only works when there's a crossover so we have a contrast between the universes, but I disagree. Not having such a crossover was a plus for me, because it's been done in every other MU ep. And not always very well.

 

[Trekwatcher]

I enjoyed it thoroughly. The most satisfying thing for me was how it reconciled the technology discrepancies: the thing about how all Treks after TOS seemed to be more technologically advanced. They sold it about the only way they could, by having characters rave about how more advanced the TOS ship was and the plot device that the Defiant was the only way to win a 22nd century war.

Exactly-I love the bit where they drool over the size of Defiant's warp coils. To them, it DID look advanced!

 

[egonbeeblebrox]

I'm not a big fan of "Enterprise" but I really loved these episodes. The reveal shot of the Defiant was fantastic. Easily the best moment in the series for me. That or when they get the bridge to light up and all the old sound effects start playing.

 

[JM1776]

Took them not altogether seriously. Enjoyed them immensely.

Would have banged Hoshi, but not been fooled by her for a minute.

What do you mean, you don't believe me ... ?!

 

[Crewman47]

Something I just started to wonder there that's probably been mentioned before, but going from the scene from First Contact we see that the Vulcans don't look that different from there counterparts in the original timeline so how exactly did they come to be subjugated (I think) by the Terran empire almost 100 years later in the MU?

If the crew of the T'Plana Hath were all murdered don't you think the Vulcans themselves would find out about this and decide to stay away from Humans altogether? They also should be able to hold there own ground when it came to defending themselves against the Humans if the Humans tried to conquer them?

Any thoughts?

 

[Eurosolo]

A. Great. Episode.

True Awesomeness!

 

[SFRabid]

I think that the fanwank critics are given way too much credence. A few prolific posters hitting ever ST forum on the net does not affect my opinion of season 4 or this two-parter. These are two of my favorite episodes of Enterprise and any ST series.

 

[THE_FETT]

One of the best of the MU episodes. Well written, and nicely interwoven; I thought complimented the TOS episode in a great way that other MU episodes didn't really do. I remember first seeing it, and when the theme started playing after the teaser I was all like, "Whoa they changed the theme?" Then I was like, "Hey I like this new theme" but then I was like, "Hm, seems a little ominous... for Star Trek" then I saw all the explosions and stuff and was like, "That's kind of... weird to show explosions" then it slowly dawned on me what was going on. That whole intro alteration was a really nice touch.

What was also funny was that a friend of mine showed up in the middle of the episode, and was like, "Whats this?" and I'm like, "Star Trek Enterprise. It's the new Star Trek show" but I didn't tell him it was MU. I can't remember exactly what was going on at that point, but I remember it was someone being brutalized ro something; mirror-Archer going apeshit on someone; and my friend's like, "Wow they've really taken Star Trek a different direction."

 

[greenmystik]

I liked that episode very much. I thought it was cool how they wove in TOS and explained how the MU jump ahead of the tech curve.

 

[Sci]

I really liked the episodes. Wish we had gotten to see the planned follow-up for Season 5...

What was it gonna be about?

The first MU story in Glass Empires is by Sussman, Ward, and Dilmore, and it tells what would have appeared in Season 5 if it had happened. It's called Age of the Empress and features MU Hoshi, Shran, T'Pol, and a whole host of other characters both familiar and new.

The second story in Glass Empires, called The Sorrows of Empire, by David Mack, was also excellent -- nay, brilliant. It was an amazing deconstruction of the nature of tyranny and of the need for constitutional democratic liberalism as it followed Spock through his decades-long plan to destroy the Terran Empire from within.

 

[Bak_and_Blue]

What was it gonna be about?

The first MU story in Glass Empires is by Sussman, Ward, and Dilmore, and it tells what would have appeared in Season 5 if it had happened. It's called Age of the Empress and features MU Hoshi, Shran, T'Pol, and a whole host of other characters both familiar and new.

The second story in Glass Empires, called The Sorrows of Empire, by David Mack, was also excellent -- nay, brilliant. It was an amazing deconstruction of the nature of tyranny and of the need for constitutional democratic liberalism as it followed Spock through his decades-long plan to destroy the Terran Empire from within.

Now that sounds cool. Is this available somewhere to read?

 

[Smiley]

The first MU story in Glass Empires is by Sussman, Ward, and Dilmore, and it tells what would have appeared in Season 5 if it had happened. It's called Age of the Empress and features MU Hoshi, Shran, T'Pol, and a whole host of other characters both familiar and new.

The second story in Glass Empires, called The Sorrows of Empire, by David Mack, was also excellent -- nay, brilliant. It was an amazing deconstruction of the nature of tyranny and of the need for constitutional democratic liberalism as it followed Spock through his decades-long plan to destroy the Terran Empire from within.

Now that sounds cool. Is this available somewhere to read?

As we said in our posts, both stories are in the book called Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Glass Empires. There is also a TNG story in that volume called The Worst of Both Worlds by Greg Cox. I agree that The Sorrows of Empire is absolutely brilliant. It is one of my few 10/10 reading experiences of this decade.

 

[Bak_and_Blue]

^^okay thank you. Sorry I'm not 100% up on stuff.

 

[Sci]

^^okay thank you. Sorry I'm not 100% up on stuff.

No problem at all, and the book can be found here.

 

[gblews]

The second story in Glass Empires, called The Sorrows of Empire, by David Mack, was also excellent -- nay, brilliant. It was an amazing deconstruction of the nature of tyranny and of the need for constitutional democratic liberalism as it followed Spock through his decades-long plan to destroy the Terran Empire from within.

Now that sounds cool. Is this available somewhere to read?

As we said in our posts, both stories are in the book called Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Glass Empires. There is also a TNG story in that volume called The Worst of Both Worlds by Greg Cox. I agree that The Sorrows of Empire is absolutely brilliant. It is one of my few 10/10 reading experiences of this decade.

Absolutely agree. Sorrows is shockingly brilliant. I recommend to any Sci-Fi fan, but for Trek fans, it should be mandatory.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

What I liked best about IAMD were the cheer/cringe moments. It was a testement to all involved that they could get us to cheer for the Mirror crew, then go "Oh, wait a minute...that's EVIL..."*cringe*

I also had to cheer/cringe every time I saw the Defiant in action. One the one hand, she was crewed by a bunch of pirates, but you just had to stand up and cheer to see a Connie kickin ass Old School...

Dammit...I gotta go watch that again now...

 

[Mistral]

I watch this every time skiffy plays it-it's just FUN! Ditto for the "Vic" episodes of DS-9: just FUN! Whee!

Weaving in the Tholians was brilliant and seeing the old Conny-class Bridge was like 'Whoosh!"
As for the Vulcans as second-class citizens-it looks like Cochrane wiping out the Vulcan crew would have given Earth time to work up an attack fleet-and the advantage of owning a Vulcan ship outright to reverse engineer could have made them strong enough for the Empire to take over Vulcan.

 

[KayArr]

They were an utter waste of time. They took two slots away from some other good story that we could have had about the actual characters that I loved.