Jammersreviews

Note: This review contains significant spoilers.


In brief: A garish and goofy comic book, but plenty of fun to get the job 
done, and with a great last act.

Plot description: In the mirror universe, Archer stages a power play to take 
over the Enterprise -- initially under the command of Captain Forrest -- and 
diverts it deep into Tholian space.

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Star Trek: Enterprise - "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I"

Airdate: 4/22/2005 (USA)
Written by Mike Sussman
Directed by James L. Conway

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
Rating out of 4: ***

"This is ludicrous, captain!" -- T'Pol, on the right track
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Last week's abysmal "Bound" was a silly hour with a lame plot that treated 
women like objects. The episode had its (delusional) defenders, who labeled 
it a "guilty pleasure." The error in that description was the use of the 
word "pleasure" in connection with a show that was such a colossal bore and 
a general insult to the intellect.

Now here comes "In a Mirror, Darkly," which is also a silly hour that 
generally treats women like objects. The key difference, however, is that 
"Bound" was a relentless bore and "Mirror" is quite a bit of fun, with 
inventive plot details. The term "guilty pleasure" applies in this case. I 
can recommend "Mirror" on its chosen level of hyper-aggressive testosterone, 
hilarious teeth-gnashing, and across-the-board sociopathic behavior. This 
is, after all, the mirror universe. If you're looking for any depth in the 
slightest, you've come to the wrong show. But it should be noted that the 
whole point of the mirror universe is that it's an evil comic book where 
strange things happen. If you want an evil comic book, you've got an evil 
comic book.

The episode also features a clever opening teaser (first contact with the 
Vulcans is marked by Zefram Cochrane pulling out a shotgun and blowing the 
Vulcan ambassador away), an inspired alternate title sequence (showing the 
advancement of human technology as a purpose for escalating warfare), and a 
brilliant final act of pure Trekkian fun. These attributes alone would make 
the hour worthwhile even if everything in between was pointless (which, come 
to think of it, is a close call).

To call this episode over-the-top would be an understatement. This is a 
go-for-broke hour of lunatic madness. A lot of it is admittedly inane, but 
that's the point. The entire episode takes place in the mirror universe and 
involves exclusively the mirror characters, which is something of a 
departure from previous Trek mirror-universe episodes, in which characters 
crossed over from one universe to the other and found themselves out of 
their element. This prohibits the interaction of characters with their 
anti-universe and instead allows exclusive focus on the eeeeeeevil 
characters.

Everyone here is a scumbag, pretty much without exception. The Enterprise is 
commanded by Captain Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong gets to reprise a version of 
his character killed earlier this season). Archer is the first officer, who 
usually wears a frown so extreme that I was left wondering if Scott Bakula 
had strained all his facial muscles in the making of this episode. Phlox is 
a doctor of the most unscrupulous kind, who dreams up new ways to torture 
and kill. In one amusing scene, we see his sickbay of horrors, where as a 
hobby he dissects animals while their insides pulsate.

Reed is a MACO and a sadist who smiles a subtle but evil grin at the 
prospect of anything involving torture or something blowing up. He has 
invented a torture chamber ("the booth") that sends agonizing pain straight 
into the brain. When a ship attacks the Enterprise, Reed's happy about it 
because it means he gets to shoot back. Mayweather is also a MACO, and I 
guess it's fitting that his mirror character is as equally underused as his 
normal version. Trip is a bitter engineer whose exposure to radiation has 
left him disfigured. He still hits on T'Pol, even in this universe.

Sato is the captain's mistress (for whomever the captain happens to be at 
the moment), trading sex for career advancement, although it seems that 
"advancement" is simply the right to have the captain's ear. If there's one 
complaint I'd lodge, it's that she's not permitted any strength or power 
beyond the barter of her sexuality. At least Intendant Kira was in charge in 
the DS9 mirror-universe episodes, and had a ruthlessness that allowed her to 
compete with, and surpass, her rival males. Then again, trying to look for 
character "virtues" in a story that is by definition utterly without virtue 
is probably foolish; the males are all violent psychopaths, so it's not like 
we should be looking for redeeming qualities.

The only more or less "normal" person on the ship is T'Pol, who, as a 
Vulcan, does not seem to harbor the aggressive hostility that all the humans 
do. Like Spock in the original "Mirror, Mirror," she's governed by a more 
tempered disposition. After a power play that leaves a number of crewmen 
dead and Captain Forrest locked in the brig, T'Pol helps Forrest regain the 
upper hand. She does this not out of ambition for conquest, but out of a 
loyalty that seems logical.

The plot is a crackpot concoction involving Archer's plan to take the 
Enterprise deep into Tholian space, where his intelligence points to the 
location of a secret base that is holding a Starfleet vessel that has been 
lured from an alternate (i.e. our) universe. But not just from another 
universe, Archer reveals, but from a century in the future of that other 
universe, promising more advanced technology that could be used in the 
Terran Empire's plans for unlimited conquest.

In executing this plan, there is an endless series of manipulations, 
betrayals, power shifts, and scenes of people screaming in the torture 
chamber. As much time as the crew (and presumably all of humanity) spends at 
each other's throats, it's a wonder they've been so successful at conquering 
other societies. It seems to me that just fending off overthrows within the 
command structure would be a full-time job.

The tone of these scenes is all attitude and evil comic-book grins, often 
with enjoyably funny results. You certainly have to regard the actors with 
admiration here: It takes guts to willingly throw yourself head-on through 
scenes of such inherent goofiness, devouring the scenery as if your life 
depended on it. Considering the enormity of the ridiculousness, the 
performances are fearlessly energetic. Scott Bakula in particular seems to 
be in a nirvana of play-evil, snapping his neck around with every line of 
dialog. Actors often say that playing the villain is fun. Everyone must've 
had fun here, because everyone is the villain.

A few words on the women's Starfleet uniforms: namely, extremely 
stupid-looking. Robert Blackman, the costume designer, either dropped the 
ball or was under some sort of directive that required nearly 12 inches of 
midriff. On the sex appeal front, Hoshi's negligee is fine and good, but the 
Starfleet uniforms are a laughable embarrassment of the implausible. Come 
on, folks. There's acceptably over-the-top, and then there's blatant 
stupidity.

No matter, because all is forgiven by the last act, which is nothing short 
of brilliant. The Enterprise reaches the Tholian base and discovers a 
TOS-era Constellation-class starship, the USS Defiant. Viewers with 
encyclopedic instant-recall of classic Trek (or, in my case, easy access to 
my old reviews) will remember the Defiant as the ship from TOS's "The 
Tholian Web." When it vanished from the TOS universe, it apparently ended up 
here. Now mirror-Archer wants to beam aboard and steal it.

This leads to great sequence in which the Tholians discover the Enterprise 
and surround it with their energy web, and then start pummeling it with 
torpedoes. The crew evacuates in the escape pods while Forrest remains 
aboard to give them time to escape (although I wasn't quite sure what he was 
trying to do). The Enterprise explodes in a big fireball. Reed, watching 
from the Defiant, almost smiles, as if seeing explosions triggers an 
automatic response in his brain.

And, in what may be the coolest scene of the year, Archer's away team powers 
up the darkened bridge of the Defiant. I gotta tell you: When that bridge 
lit up and the TOS sound effects started chirping, I wanted to cheer. The 
feeling this evokes is exactly as if the cast of Enterprise had stepped 
through a time portal to emerge directly on the sets of the original series 
in 1966. It's a surreal and wonderfully pure fan moment, and I loved it. The 
production designers have perfectly recreated the bridge of what is 
ostensibly the Defiant, but in pure viewer terms is what we know is meant to 
be the original Enterprise. This is one of those imaginative moments where 
fictional universes spill into one another in the most unlikely and 
unexpected of ways, and generate a reality of their own.

If only this sort of imagination serviced a story that wasn't so 
fundamentally silly and full of characters whose attitudes run counter to 
this very notion of self-referential Trek imagination, we might've had 
something really special here. As it is, we have one very special moment 
within an hour of fairly amusing ones.

--
Next week: Will the mirror shine or shatter?

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Copyright 2005, Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is prohibited.

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