4x19 In a Mirror Darkly, Part II

[Dimitris]

Production: 095
Season: 4 Episode: 19
Air Date: 04.29.2005

In the mirror universe, Archer commandeers the 23rd-century Defiant from the Tholians and uses it in a nefarious power grab.


Synopsis

After using the Defiant to repel a Tholian attack, the power-hungry Archer and Enterprise crew set about using this advanced ship to seize control of all of Earth's Terran Empire. As Archer takes full command of the Defiant and reviews the alternate history of Starfleet, his duplicitous lover Hoshi, a traitorous T'Pol and a reptilian Gorn stowaway hatch schemes of their own.

[Dimitris]

Cast & Creative Staff

Cast:
Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox
Jolene Blalock as T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III

Guest Cast:
Gary Graham as Soval
Gregory Itzin as Admiral Black
Derek Magyar as Kelby
John Mahon as Admiral Gardner

Creative Staff:
Director: Marvin V. Rush
Teleplay By: Michael Sussman
Story By: Manny Coto

[Dimitris]

02.08.2005
Production Report: Classic Déjà Vu in "Mirror" Part II


SPOILER ALERT!!! Warning: Information here may also spoil previous episodes!
It was what every fan of the original Star Trek dreams of: Sitting in the captain's chair, wearing his uniform, using his communicator and phaser ... and leading that glorious starship where no man has gone before.

Of course, we're not talking about Captain Kirk's chair or uniform, but pretty close. In the second part of the alternate-universe epic titled "In a Mirror, Darkly," the 23rd-century Constitution-class U.S.S. Defiant takes center stage, throwing the set of Star Trek back nearly 40 years to a time when operations officers wore red, command officers wore gold, and women wore less.

In Part II of the story — described by writer Mike Sussman as "a prequel to 'Mirror, Mirror' and a sequel to 'The Tholian Web'" (previous production report) — the mirror-universe Archer and his crew have located a rumored Earth ship from the future in Tholian space. It is the Defiant, after it disappeared from its home universe in a spatial interphase, but now is being stripped by slaves of the mirror Tholians. Archer and his people manage to commandeer it and get it operational. With its 100-year advanced technology, the Defiant will make a formidable weapon against the Terran Empire's enemies. But it turns out Archer has an even more nefarious agenda in mind.

Like in Part I, the entire story takes place in the mirror universe. The only interplay with the regular Enterprise characters comes when the evil crew learns about their counterparts from the Defiant's database, and the imagination of the paranoid Archer runs a little wild.

As previously reported, (Production Sneak Peak: Mirroring History) the set designers, art designers and construction crew had the thrilling opportunity to reproduce the Original Series bridge in exacting detail. At first, though, it was trashed — when seen in Part I and the beginning of Part II — but thankfully the characters fix it up so it could be occupied in all its classic Roddenberry-esque glory. The team had also constructed a TOS-style corridor and diagonal Jefferies Tube, from the same specs used in "Trials and Tribble-ations," for Part I as well as Part II. For Part II more sections of the Defiant were constructed, reproduced from familiar settings including several horizontal and vertical Jefferies Tubes, the Rec Room (with replicators), Captain's Quarters and the Briefing Room, the latter dressed with a Federation flag using the seal first seen in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

But the production took on even more of a classic flavor in the form of costumes and props. In the story [final spoiler warning!!], most of the principal characters have beamed over to the Defiant in EV (extra-vehicular or environmental) suits. Subsequently the Tholians use their web-making capabilities to destroy the mirror NX-01. That leaves Archer, T'Pol, Tucker, Reed and Mayweather on the other ship in their grey EV undersuits. So once they take up residence, they go through the original crew's wardrobe and don their uniforms.

That put Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating and Anthony Montgomery in the classic-style red shirts (knowing they're doomed if they ever go on an away mission!), and Scott Bakula got to wear the green wraparound tunic like that worn by Captain Kirk in several episodes including "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "The Doomsday Machine." Jolene Blalock took on the science-blue miniskirt, like what Christine Chapel wore.

When Blalock first appeared on set in that outfit, Bakula remarked, "Did we run out of material for Jolene's skirt?" God bless the '60s.

In the 23rd century, every starship had a different style patch for their uniforms. We never saw the Defiant patch in "The Tholian Web," so wardrobe came up with something new. Basically they did a variation on the standard Starfleet arrowhead, tilting it and adding an extra angle to its shape.

Linda Park as mirror-Hoshi remained in her bare-midriff blue jumpsuit (though as the captain's woman she's also seen several times in slinky lingerie), and John Billingsley as the evil Phlox continued to wear a thick black leather costume. They and the other surviving crew got away from Enterprise in escape pods, so all the human extras wore mirror versions of either the blue jumpsuit or the MACO fatigues.

In addition to the outfits, the cast got a chance to play with Original Series phaser pistols and communicators, along with other props such as those square colored data disks, an Uhura-style earpiece, old-style PADDs and tools. In the Rec Room, T'Pol orders up some of those multi-colored "food cubes" from the replicator (isn't that just Play-Doh?). The actors honestly got a kick out of it all. During one scene on the Defiant bridge, while cast and crew were milling about between set-ups, you could hear someone whistling the Original Series theme song. It was coming from a red-shirted Montgomery.

It wasn't just the actors. Other members of the team got into the action. The one who scripted this adventure, Mike Sussman, himself donned a red shirt and played a dead Defiant crewmember on the Corridor set.

Nostalgia can be a dual-edged sword, though. With Original Series sets come Original Series gaffes. The sliding doors to the Turbolift were a challenge. A crew person was behind the set pulling the mechanism to open the dual doors, but it was up to the assistant director to yell "Open" when an actor approached them. The idea was that the actor shouldn't have to pause in his walk. It worked most of the time, but occasionally the timing was off and there were a few unpleasant bumps followed by under-the-breath curses. Maybe they'll show up in a blooper reel someday. [We won't mention any names, like Dominic Keating for instance.-Ed.]

[Dimitris]

But the whole episode didn't take place on the classic sets. Even though the mirror Enterprise was destroyed in Part I, the standing ship sets — which had already been redressed with Terran Empire logos — were put to use as another NX-class mirror-universe vessel, Avenger.
You have to be asking, since this is a mirror universe episode, who's got the goatee? Shouldn't there be some Vulcan with a goatee? Of course! Well, who's the most prominent male Vulcan on this series? That's right — Gary Graham as Soval, who is serving as Science Officer on Avenger. When that ship makes a rendezvous with Archer's Defiant, the bearded Vulcan becomes a prominent player in the story.

Speaking of guest stars, there's another very familiar face in this show. Gregory Itzin was the Vulcan commando "Captain Sopek" in "Shadows of P'Jem," and in the last season of Star Trek: Voyager he was "Dr. Dysek" in "Critical Care." He was also in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine twice, for "Who Mourns for Morn?" and "Dax." Here he plays "Admiral Black," who takes command of Avenger after its captain is killed in battle, and who deals with the recalcitrant Archer.

Also returning to the guest cast list is Derek Magyar as Kelby, the second-in-charge of Engineering who is introduced in "Affliction" and seen again in "Bound."

There is also a wide assortment of colorful aliens on both ships. The Avenger has both an Andorian male and an Orion female as bridge officers. The Defiant retained a Tellarite slave from Enterprise, and also procured some slaves from the Tholians, including one of a new alien species.

And on the subject of aliens, we saw the re-introduction of the Tholian species in Part I of "Mirror," and in Part II we encounter another familiar TOS face — a reptilian one. A Gorn named "Slar" was in charge of the slave crew onboard the Defiant stripping it when it was appropriated by Archer. And he has no intention of cooperating with the humans, so he wreaks havoc throughout the ship. This mirror-universe Gorn moves with a bit more speed, flexibility and ferocity than the one Kirk fought in "Arena."

Like the Tholian, the Gorn will be a CG creation rendered in post-production. On the set, though, people in a black "tracking suit" performed the movements of the creature. Stunt coordinator Vince Deadrick Jr. donned the suit for the scenes requiring physicality and interactions with the human characters. For the static, close-up shots, a stand-in named David Anderson filled the suit.

The visual effects team will have their hands full with this episode, though it should be an enjoyable challenge. Foremost, they will be rendering the exterior of the Constitution-class starship. Plans call for the Defiant to look slightly newer than Kirk's Enterprise, with more detail such as intricate hull plating patterns. We will also see the Tholians create their famous web.

Principal photography on this episode ran from Wednesday, January 26, though last Thursday, February 3, though production went into an eighth, B-unit day on Friday while the next episode commenced. Marvin Rush, normally the director of photography (DP), took the reins as full-fledged director on this show (he practically co-directs every episode anyway). This is his first director's credit on Enterprise, but he was listed thusly on Voyager's "The Thaw" and "Favorite Son," and Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Host." While Rush filled the helmer's shoes, camera operator Doug Knapp fulfilled DP duties.

As mentioned, Mike Sussman wrote the scripts for both parts of "Mirror," but on Part II Manny Coto has "Story by" credit.

Last Wednesday, Day 6 of the schedule, was when word came down that the series is being cancelled by UPN as of the end of this season. Given the high energy and enthusiasm surrounding this episode, the news was understandably a blow. It was surprising that the announcement came so early — before February sweeps even — but at the same time there was a sense of relief and gratitude that the uncertainty was over. While most in the company had been cautiously optimistic about renewal, many felt the writing was already on the wall. The actors can now book auditions unencumbered with a tentative commitment for next year, especially now that pilot season is underway. And not just the actors — all crew members are now sending out feelers for their next job, even while there are three more episodes to shoot. It's sad that for the first time in 18 years, Star Trek will not be in production, but that's the business, and all must move on.

"In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" is production number 95 in what will ultimately total to 98 episodes of Enterprise. It is tentatively scheduled to air April 22, with the series finale slated for May 13. Watch Episode Detail for updates.

[Dimitris]

Plot Summary:

With the ISS Enterprise destroyed, the Tholians begin to build a web around Defiant, but Tucker gets tactical systems online and Archer orders the ships and spacedock destroyed before they can complete it. Despite Tucker's success in the battle, Archer is annoyed to learn that it will take Tucker three days to reconstruct the warp drive and threatens to find a new chief engineer in twelve hours. Defiant rescues Enterprise's escape pods and sets out to rendezvous with the fleet, determined to put down the rebellion before the rebels destroy Starfleet. Sato enjoys reading about their counterparts in the alternate universe via Defiant's database, but Archer loathes the idea that his counterpart was a peacemaker and explorer who sold out Earth's future to sub-human species.

When Kelby is attacked and killed while searching for missing plasma regulators, Archer realizes that there is an intruder aboard and discovers from torturing a prisoner that it is a Gorn. After being goaded by a taunting double of himself, he manages to trap and kill the Gorn, through Reed is seriously injured and several crewmembers are killed beforehand. With the missing components installed, Defiant heads to rendezvous with the fleet. Archer blows up several Andorian and Vulcan ships and protects the NX-class ship Avenger, commanded by Admiral Black with Soval as his first officer. But when Black refuses to give Archer an immediate field promotion and turn Defiant over to him, Archer begins to hallucinate his alter ego criticizing his weaknesses and kills the admiral. He then tells the Avenger's crew that Starfleet Command has betrayed all the people of Earth by allowing the Empire to become weak and promises to overthrow the admirals. Privately T'Pol asks Soval whether he has read Defiant's historical files, which describe a universe in which Vulcans and Humans are equals, and asks him to help her stop Archer by destroying Enterprise.

Meanwhile, Archer is hatching a plan to rid Defiant of all non-Terrans, though he says he has nothing against Phlox whose people aren't rebels. He contacts Admiral Gardner and demands Starfleet's unconditional surrender and tells T'Pol that her service is no longer required. On Avenger with Soval, she recruits Phlox to help destroy Archer in the name of loyalty to the Emperor. Sato discovers her plans to sabotage Defiant and turns her over to Archer, but not before she, Soval and Phlox have hatched a plan to disable Defiant's main power. Though Tucker discovers Phlox's meddling and knocks him out, Avenger damages Defiant before Tucker restores shields and Archer orders the destruction of Avenger. He celebrates with Sato, gloating that soon he will be Emperor Jonathan Archer, but she has drugged his champagne, and celebrates her own victory in the arms of Mayweather before contacting Admiral Gardner to demand immediate surrender. When he asks who the hell she is, she identifies herself as Empress Sato.


Analysis:

Though there are many enjoyable moments in "In a Mirror, Darkly Part Two", it feels a bit like a joke stretched too thin, and I can't help wondering what people who haven't seen the original series and don't know anything about the Gorn, the Tholians, the Mirror Vulcans and all the rest think about all these clever but ultimately pointless allusions. The fight with the Gorn felt particularly gratuitous to me; they were a neat species in "Arena" but we hardly know anything about them in the canonical Kirk's universe, let alone the alternate universe, and I didn't particularly enjoy watching a big dinosaur take a bite out of a MACO before being killed by Archer who didn't even get to test the "disintegrate" setting on it. I figured maybe Reed was going to die and the Gorn was as good a way to get rid of him as any, but I can't even recall whether we heard if he recovered; the implication from Phlox was that no one would mourn if he didn't save the creep, but the issue ultimately became irrelevant.

And really I could say the same for the entire episode. Does Sato want to get rid of Archer so she can sieze power herself, being the same sort of megalomaniac who will probably later be killed by a jealous underling, or does she actually have issues with the idea of dismissing the "inferior species" no matter how much she resents T'Pol personally? Vulcans seem to be doing somewhat better by Kirk's era in the Mirror universe - Sulu seems afraid when Spock threatens him with his Vulcan henchmen, and Spock is certainly not Kirk's slave. Then again I wonder why Soval has such a high rank on Admiral Black's ship, taking command without much of a struggle when Black dies, obeyed by Orions and Andorians who don't appear to be plotting to take his position. There are a lot of little niggling inconsistencies and unanswered questions like these, which make the episode less fun as a romp, and therefore more disturbing as a guilty pleasure.

A one-hour "Mirror" would have made more sense in terms of the pacing and for Enterprise as a whole. We don't really need to see a catfight between Sato and T'Pol; we don't really need to see Mirror Phlox's incompetence as an engineer. It would have been nice to see more of what made Tucker tick, perhaps, but we didn't get that even over the course of two hours; I thought he was covering for Phlox when he went down to engineering and given his enjoyment of T'Pol's assets I thought he might throw in his lot with the Vulcans to save her. The biggest thing we didn't need, though, was a delusional Archer. What's so scary about bigoted people is that so many of them aren't completely crazy; they have convinced themselves, quite logically, that their race, gender, religion, etc. is so much better than everyone else's that they have the right and obligation to rule over or even exterminate anyone who isn't like them. They don't hear voices and argue with themselves. I thought at first that perhaps "In a Mirror, Darkly" was supposed to connect thematically with the arc leading up to Enterprise's finale, in which the Earth-first group Terra Prime will reportedly espouse xenophobic ideals, but the Mirror Archer is so over-the-top that it's hard to take him seriously as a threat.

So there's no lesson to be learned, and at the same time this second installment doesn't have the gleeful fun of "In a Mirror, Darkly Part One." The emotional T'Pol is quite interesting - frightened, passionate, angry - and as a result it's rather upsetting to watch her brought down and tortured, minus even the sleazy innuendo with Tucker which suggests that he, at least, does not have a problem serving with non-Terrans. Even the sex is less fun, as Sato simpers and pretends to be worried that she doesn't know all there is to know about pleasing an Emperor. There's nothing deeply offensive about the gratuitous sexuality - at least not with "Bound" as a benchmark - but it just isn't terribly entertaining to watch Jonathan and Hoshi make out in the dark, spending more time plotting than enjoying themselves.

So yes, it's a real treat to see Defiant decked out just like Kirk's Enterprise, right down to the Lite Brite consoles and the garishly painted Jeffries tubes. And it's fun to see Reed take on the role of a redshirt quite literally. And it's interesting to see a Gorn in the era of CGI (I wasn't impressed by the raptorish design, I missed the old stiff Gorn-walk). And perhaps some people find it amusing to watch a phaser set to disintegrate used to kill an admiral. But T'Pol's token mention of how humans will pay for their arrogance and xenophobia doesn't make this feel like Star Trek, and this second hour isn't entertaining enough to love as homage to the original series. I'm sorry that Enterprise spent one of its final hours stretching a clever idea too thin.