The WORST Two-Parter ever!

[AdmiralScreed]

The two-part pilot episodes for DS9 and VOY were also pretty drab, IMO.

I can't believe how much we disagree on!

"Emissary" drab!?! In my opinion, it's one of the best ever DS9 episodes. Great acting from Brooks before he went completely over to the "hammy" side post-season 5. Compelling story, characterisation etc. What's not to like?

Maybe you had to have seen it back in 1993 and its premiere, but it was also a real lightning bolt from the blue - such a contrast from TNG.

It took me a few episodes to get into DS9, so someday when I go back and rewatch the series I might enjoy this one more knowing everything that happens later. Or maybe I won't. When I first started watching TNG I was completely hooked by the pilot. For one reason or another DS9 and VOY's pilots didn't have the same effect on me.

 

[Misco]

In a Mirror, Darkly surely wins this. It almost ensured that I didn't make it to the finale of Enterprise. I genuinely lost the will to live about fifteen minutes in and the fact that it was a two-parter made it all the worse. I can't believe that just when ENT had finally managed to pull its socks up and produce a run of good (maybe even great, occasionally) episodes the writers threw this crock of faeces at us.

 

[Tiberius]

In a Mirror, Darkly surely wins this. It almost ensured that I didn't make it to the finale of Enterprise. I genuinely lost the will to live about fifteen minutes in and the fact that it was a two-parter made it all the worse. I can't believe that just when ENT had finally managed to pull its socks up and produce a run of good (maybe even great, occasionally) episodes the writers threw this crock of faeces at us.

Perhaps you could say WHY you thought it was so bad...?

 

[F. King Daniel]

I thought "In a Mirror, Darkly" was a pointless waste. Who cares about any of these evil duplicates?

Imagine how awesome "Tomorrow's Enterprise" could have been, where a future ship lands in our Archer's lap, on the eve of some incoming Romulan or Xindi attack that'll cost millions of lives, and Daniels begging Archer to destroy the ship and not to change history even further....

 

[sonak]

I thought that "IAMD" was just a bit of fun fluff. Pretty good, nothing special, better than a lot of ENT, but that's not saying much.

 

[The Wormhole]

I re-watched In a Mirror Darkly about a month ago, and I still think part 1 is Pure Awesome. Part 2 on the other hand is pure fanwank. Entertaining, definately, and certainly within Enterprise's top 10, but it's still the ulitimate form of fanwank. Still, I guess at this point Enterprise had nothing to lose.

 

[Misco]

Perhaps you could say WHY you thought it was so bad...?

Gladly.

I'm not really an ENT fan; I've only watched the series on DVD all the way through once a few months ago and I doubt I will be repeating the experience, so I don't remember IAMD perfectly. However, I know that by the time I reached IAMD for the most part I had really enjoyed season 4 of ENT, despite knowing that I was moving closer to TATV; an episode I had already watched, and disliked, a long time ago to see what all the fuss was about when it first aired. There were only a few precious episodes of season 4 left and I was really hoping they would maintain the high quality that much of the rest of the season had achieved.

Well, you can imagine my disappointment.

I don't particularly like mirror universe episodes anyway, although there are a couple I don't mind, but IAMD is far worse than all the others. With it being set entirely within the MU, by which I mean there are no crossover characters from 'our' universe, it just means that we spend two episodes watching random people we've never seen before and will never see again. This has no effect on 'our' universe and I may as well have been watching another show. Not to mention the fact that we don't even know what happens to the MU characters we've been forced to watch. What's the point?

I don't know for sure, but I imagine more money was spent on these two episodes than on a number of others that season, what with the rebuilding of the Constitution class bridge set and any number of other costume/prop/set changes. Money that should probably have been spent on something else.

The characters are so over-the-top. Yes, I know this is par for the course in MU episodes but it just seems so obvious in IAMD. The Hoshi/Archer thing in particular rubbed me up the wrong way.

The new credits irritate me, it's just a reminder that I'm not even really watching ENT. And the high-cut uniforms the women wear are just one more pointless change I could have done without.

Overall I just view IAMD as being a big, dumb, expensive?, waste of time episode. Time that could have been better spent doing something else. Anything else. I'd take another Night in Sickbay over that mess. Would I view the episodes differently if it had come at a different point in the series overall. Maybe. But it didn't and I don't.

 

[The Wormhole]

One thing to keep in mind, they didn't know Enterprise was ending when they wrote IAMD. In fact, I think the actual cancellation announcement was made during filming of part 2. The original intention was to revisit the Mirror Universe a couple of episodes every season, sort of a series within a series. I know, waht if scenarios have no impact on the episode as presented, it's just something I felt like pointing out.

Also, Mike Sussman turned his notes in to Pocket Books on season 5's Mirror Universe story, and they turned it into the Enterprise story in the first Mirror Universe anthology of short stories.

 

[Starbreaker]

Workforce aka We Found Another Way to Make Tuvok Laugh Parts I and II

 

[Misco]

One thing to keep in mind, they didn't know Enterprise was ending when they wrote IAMD. In fact, I think the actual cancellation announcement was made during filming of part 2.

Believe it or not this actually makes me feel a little better about the whole thing! I never knew they got the cancellation announcement so late in the day. That said, everything I dislike about IAMD still stands, like you said, outside factors can't make up for how the episode plays within the series. But at least now I know the writers didn't just throw away two perfectly good episode slots on an MU episode without a thought. Then again... if the series had continued into season 5 and beyond it sounds like I would have had to endure at least one follow up episode. *shudders*

Also, Mike Sussman turned his notes in to Pocket Books on season 5's Mirror Universe story, and they turned it into the Enterprise story in the first Mirror Universe anthology of short stories.

Which I read and really enjoyed, strangely. I read it before seeing the episode though. Perhaps if I had seen/read them the other way around I would see things differently?

 

[bullethead]

Having recently rewatched The Search, I have to say it is probably one of the weaker two parters Trek has had. While it has a lot of plot and character relevance to the series, it really doesn't engage you as much as it could. It has a lot of elements that just hang there and don't really add that much (why bother having Dax and O'Brien get captured on the planetoid when they wind up in the same chamber as Sisko and the rest? What's the point of Eddington when he does practically nothing outside of the simulation?) There's just a bit too much going on in the story for there to be a lot of depth within the constraints of the episode run time, so the novelization winds up being far superior to the actual filmed episode, because it gives a bit more depth to the whole thing.

 

[DS9forever]

^ Eddington was obviously planned to be a recurring character and that is the episode they introduced him in. Sisko forced to leave Dax and O'Brien behind was to inject more drama into the episode.

 

[CaptainMatt]

One thing to keep in mind, they didn't know Enterprise was ending when they wrote IAMD. In fact, I think the actual cancellation announcement was made during filming of part 2. The original intention was to revisit the Mirror Universe a couple of episodes every season, sort of a series within a series. I know, waht if scenarios have no impact on the episode as presented, it's just something I felt like pointing out.

Also, Mike Sussman turned his notes in to Pocket Books on season 5's Mirror Universe story, and they turned it into the Enterprise story in the first Mirror Universe anthology of short stories.

Well, according to an ENT castmember, possibly Scott Bakula himself, on the Season 4 DVD bonus features, the cast went in to do the 4th season knowing it would be their last.

 

[bullethead]

^ Eddington was obviously planned to be a recurring character and that is the episode they introduced him in. Sisko forced to leave Dax and O'Brien behind was to inject more drama into the episode.

That's what they wanted (and got in Eddington's case), but it didn't really seem to matter since the Defiant got ambushed right after that and then it was the end of the episode.

One thing to keep in mind, they didn't know Enterprise was ending when they wrote IAMD. In fact, I think the actual cancellation announcement was made during filming of part 2. The original intention was to revisit the Mirror Universe a couple of episodes every season, sort of a series within a series. I know, waht if scenarios have no impact on the episode as presented, it's just something I felt like pointing out.

Also, Mike Sussman turned his notes in to Pocket Books on season 5's Mirror Universe story, and they turned it into the Enterprise story in the first Mirror Universe anthology of short stories.

Well, according to an ENT castmember, possibly Scott Bakula himself, on the Season 4 DVD bonus features, the cast went in to do the 4th season knowing it would be their last.

I think the production staff was hoping for the new direction to pull in enough viewers to keep the show going and/or better word of mouth about the show would make the execs consider going ahead with season 5, but the actors knew the writing was on the wall and were probably preparing themselves for the worst.

 

[The Wormhole]

One thing to keep in mind, they didn't know Enterprise was ending when they wrote IAMD. In fact, I think the actual cancellation announcement was made during filming of part 2. The original intention was to revisit the Mirror Universe a couple of episodes every season, sort of a series within a series. I know, waht if scenarios have no impact on the episode as presented, it's just something I felt like pointing out.

Also, Mike Sussman turned his notes in to Pocket Books on season 5's Mirror Universe story, and they turned it into the Enterprise story in the first Mirror Universe anthology of short stories.

Well, according to an ENT castmember, possibly Scott Bakula himself, on the Season 4 DVD bonus features, the cast went in to do the 4th season knowing it would be their last.

I don't know about the cast, but Manny Coto and the other writers were expecting (or at least hoping) for a fifth season. They were considering making Shran part of the main cast and even had some early plotlines developed. Read up here.

 

[F. King Daniel]

William Shatner's pitch where (our) Archer meets an old Mirror!Kirk, would have been lots more fun than the MU ENT double we got, IMO.

 

[CaptainMatt]

Had the series carried on to a fifth season, it seems like TPTB were planning to have a Shatneresque episode. The early cancellation, as with a lot of other things, ruined this.

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

there too many two parters,that i cant think of 1,the only 1 i didnt like was scorpion.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

"Time's Arrow" was easily the worst in TNG. I was totally bored, except for a few of Samuel Clemens' lines and the lovely 19th century costumes.

I don't know the other series well enough to rate their two-parters.