"In a Mirror, Darkly" Reviews

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 12:02am

No bad acting? Are you kidding?

That episode had more ham than an Easter dinner...

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-04-25 12:05am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:No bad acting? Are you kidding?

That episode had more ham than an Easter dinner...

I didn't notice any.

And my family doesn't eat ham at Easter. So there!

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-04-25 12:06am

RedImperator wrote:I'll tell you what, they should have put Linda Park in that outfit a LONG time ago.

Hubba hubba hubba

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2005-04-25 12:14am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:No bad acting? Are you kidding?

That episode had more ham than an Easter dinner...

Bakula hammed up everthing several dozen notches. But he looked like he was having some sort of a fit, more than being evil or ambitious, especially during the briefing scene...

"ALL THIS TECHNOLOGY!! ALL FOR OUR TAKING!!!"

I thought I saw bits of saliva flying all over the place. That said, I rather enjoyed the episode overall.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2005-04-25 12:25am

A couple of points.

1. The new intro was amazing. And perfectly tongue in cheek, when that winged ship flies over Luna...and starts dropping photon torpedoes onto it, I almost cracked up completely. The emphasising of the history of war instead of exploration was perfectly done.

2. Great ties to Mirror Mirror. Every little detail was perfect.

3. Vulcans were not made slaves. I think Trek Today ran in the wrong direction with that one throw away line. The dialogue IMO is clear that its Archer just showing how he doesn't like Vulcans that much. As far as I am concerned, its clear the Vulcans and Humans are equal partners in the Empire.

4. The Suluban cloak was a nice touch, fits with the whole 'We are the people who steal and use anything' feel of the Empire.

5. The Tholian IMO was done quite well. We only ever saw a face onscreen after all in any previous ST. They HAD to extrapolate it and I think they did a bloody good job.

6. The Tholien web was very nice. Different from previous styles, but nice. I wonder if with enough ships they can make a small web quite quickly, rather then taking a long time to make a larger version. I also wonder what the limits are on its power? Can it absorb energy thrown at it with perfect or near perfect efficiency and simply become more powerful? What are its limits?

7. Why the FUCK hasn't Linda Park been dressed like THAT before?

8. The redoing of the Defiant was brilliant. I wonder if its a reuse and upgrade of the E-Nill set built for that DS9 episode 'Trials and Tribbleations'. At the least, I'm sure they applied what they learned from that episode to this one. The directing was brilliant. When they were on the bridge, it didn't FEAL like an ancient 60's era bridge on a low budget series, it felt like a subtly advanced ship of awesome power just sleeping and waiting. I'm not exactly sure, but I think they've subtly changed the design slightly. Insomuch the buttons and consoles and such don't LOOK cheap. Its hard to explain...call it higher quality components used in the construction or something. It just doesn't LOOK like a cheaply painted wooden set anymore. Kudos to the Enterprise set team.

9. The is the FIRST episode of Enterprise I have tuned into since the end of season 3. I mean that, I didn't even watch season 4's premier. I heard good things about this one though and tuned in...and I am glad I did. Waiting for next week now.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2005-04-25 12:26am

I liked the begining of the episode,the Vulcan arrival in 2063.

Vulcan: Live long and prosper.

Cochrane: *BLAM*

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-04-25 12:34am

Guess this is a good place to reiterate my belief that the franchise could be helped greatly by a move to Paramount's cable cousin at Showtime ...

Put the Mirror Universe series on a network where they really could show the dark side of the Empire (and I suppose a few even nicer outfits for Ms. Park) and you'd have some possibilities.

*Edit - and a couple show notes I forgot ... the Doctor's scientific interest turned to mad-torturing-scientist was a nice touch, and I laughed at the Rottweiler Porthos!

FedRebel · Post by **FedRebel** » 2005-04-25 12:45am

Jadeite wrote: I just downloaded the intro, the suit the astronaut was wearing in the moon landing sequence looks like the standard Enterprise space suit, so perhaps the Terran Empire was simply claiming Luna later?

The Empire was around during the 30's-40's

It's possible that mankind only ventured to the moon after the Empire conquered most of the planet, more than likely this lunar landing didn't ocurr til much later, explaining the more advanced suit and higher quality pic

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2005-04-25 12:57am

Jon wrote:The hostility of the humans during first contact and the opening credits with the alternative moon landing, for example, would suggest that the divergence point for the Mirror Universe was some time before first contact.

It did, as I recall. Try at World War 2, with the Nazis winning, if I recall Dark Mirror correctly.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 01:01am

As I said before, I don't think there ever was a diverging point for the Mirror Universe. It's not an alternate timeline that branched off, it's an indepented, parallel universe.

I think the Mirror Universe was always evil.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2005-04-25 01:01am

Speculation.

Its just a symbol in the trailer. It doesn't say 'This is where the Empire starts'.

The suit they used to plant the flag on the moon was a modern Enterprise era EVA suit, not a 1960's one.

The evidence best suggests a twin divergence at the point of First Contact.

Without Picard and the E-E crew comming back and telling everyone how cool the Vulcans are and how peace is going to break out (and without the Borg shooting up the launch site and remember this is JUST after WW3) Zephy panics and blows the Vulcans away.

And it looks like the Vulcans were planing an invasion of Earth at the same time, from Archers statement in the episode. So combined, it meant the Earth united to fight them off. Then later, after probably beating each other senseless, the Vulcans and humans all join together.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 01:05am

If the Vulcans were already planing an invasion of Earth, then that would mean they were "evil" to begin with, too. Which further suggests the lack of a divergence point and indicative that it's simply how the Mirror Universe always has been.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2005-04-25 01:09am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:If the Vulcans were already planing an invasion of Earth, then that would mean they were "evil" to begin with, too. Which further suggests the lack of a divergence point and indicative that it's simply how the Mirror Universe always has been.

Are we sure the Vulcans are evil in the mirror universe,they landed unarmed,and they were shot by the humans so i'm kind of surprised that after this happened they were not at war with earth.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2005-04-25 01:10am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:If the Vulcans were already planing an invasion of Earth, then that would mean they were "evil" to begin with, too. Which further suggests the lack of a divergence point and indicative that it's simply how the Mirror Universe always has been.

The Vulcans, even in Enterprise are hardly pacifists. They have been in an on again, off again war with the Andorians for God knows how long afterall. Its almost certiant that they didn't come with major forces to Earth, there is no way we could have beaten them off in our post WW3 state. It was probably a small scouting force that we beat off, then used the technology to crash start our own programs.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 01:11am

I don't know, I was just going with what other people said, in an attempt to dispell the rather rediculous notion that the Mirror Universe had a diverging point from the main timeline.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2005-04-25 01:16am

Chris OFarrell wrote:Speculation.

Its just a symbol in the trailer. It doesn't say 'This is where the Empire starts'.

The suit they used to plant the flag on the moon was a modern Enterprise era EVA suit, not a 1960's one.

The evidence best suggests a twin divergence at the point of First Contact.

The novel Dark Mirror, admittedly noncanon, outright states that the timelines diverged in the 1940s with the Axis winning the Second World War.

Eframepilot · Post by **Eframepilot** » 2005-04-25 01:34am

Actually in Dark Mirror, Picard initially thinks that the divergence point was the Eugenics Wars but then finds evidence of differences throughout literature all the way back to the Iliad (Achilles murders Priam at the end).

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2005-04-25 01:43am

And I think he (Picard in Dark Mirror) found evidence in 'The Merchant of Venice', where Portia instead of arguing that blood was not part of the deal, argues that its completly just for the pound of flesh to be taken.

So they cut it out, find they took a little too much and give poor Antonio back his 'change', then he dies

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 01:45am

Ah, so that's just more (albeit noncanon) evidence for the lack of a divergence point.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2005-04-25 01:47am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Ah, so that's just more (albeit noncanon) evidence for the lack of a divergence point.

What creates parallel universes in Trek, hmmm? Divergences in the timeline. Every time. There has to be one back in there somewhere.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 01:49am

Not if more than one universe already existed in the first place.

Already existing parallel universes were additionally shown in that one TNG episode with Worf universe hopping.

And who says that the Mirror Universe has to work like time travel, anyway?

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2005-04-25 02:08am

If they were independently formed, I find it highly unlikely that they'd mirror each other.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 02:12am

Then what kind of diverging point besides one that occurs at the Big Bang turns everyone in that universe "evil?"

That's what I'm actually suggesting: alternate timelines whose diverging points occur so immediately that they're essentially independent from each other.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2005-04-25 04:09am

Honestly, just because there's no divergance point that you can see Spanky, doesn't mean there isn't one. For all you know, Picard pissed in the primordial Soup in All Good Things and created the mirror universe.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-25 04:16am

But then something like that would only make the change applicable to humans, not all the other species as well, which is the actual case.

I'm just saying that it probably occurred at the very beginning.