Now in command of the Defiant from an alternate universe, Jonathan Archer means to become Emperor of the Terran Empire. But T'Pol is working against him, and recruiting other aliens who stand at the brink of annihilation if humans gain more power.
Several times, I've suggested that the final season of Enterprise had a "dump out the toy box" mentality, grabbing at any thread from classic Trek (loose or not). That generally served the show well, leveraging its identity as a prequel. But this half of this two-parter carries things perhaps a bit too far. In an episode that's already dealing with Tholians, time travel, and the mirror universe, we now get a Gorn! And of course, a moment where a starship captain has to fight it one-on-one in physical combat.
I find it an ineffective and unnecessary addition to the story. I give an "A" for effort on the part of the production, but the Gorn doesn't quite look convincing. They wisely avoid the classic series' rubber suit approach (limiting things to just occasional glimpses of a practical Gorn hand, or mostly keeping the creature in shadow). But television CG of the early 2000s isn't quite up to giving us a Gorn, in full light, wrestling with Scott Bakula. If this were all in service of some necessary plot point, I could understand the effort. But the Gorn is a subplot that doesn't help at all with the resolution of the many story elements already being juggled here.
Yet there kind of needed to be a subplot, because the main story is already wearing thin. As Star Trek: Discovery would demonstrate over a decade later with the back half of its first season, the mirror universe is something best served up in small doses. Even Deep Space Nine, which went back to this well several times, never did more than one mirror universe episode a season. As this part two marches on, I find myself tiring of one person backstabbing another, but being allowed to live to do it again. I'm tiring of this person falling into bed with that person. I'm tiring of all the camp villain monologuing. The original "Mirror, Mirror" was a pointed cautionary tale with a moral message at its climax. Somewhere (fairly early) along the way, the re-heats became a vehicle for T & A.
There are attempts at something more profound, but they feel a bit half-hearted to me. T'Pol's efforts to inspire a resistance are noble, but her speeches to Phlox and Soval seem a bit flat. Archer being taunted by visions of his counterpart from another universe are fun, but it's ultimately not about morality -- it's watching the pain of a narcissist who can never be satisfied.
Yet even as I get bored of the story, this second part wows me with production design. Yeah, that CG Gorn isn't top notch... but the fact that it's moving around a recreation of the original Enterprise sets is. This is not the first time Star Trek has re-created these iconic sets, but it is the most extensive re-creation yet. We get the bridge, the captain's quarters, the hallway, and the Jefferies tube. We even get a new set that's lovingly styled to match something that would have been built in the late 1960s. Everyone puts on classic uniforms. Majel Barrett does the voice of the computer! And it's all accompanied by authentic sounds from the classic sound library, and lit like it's for the first color televisions.
Other observations:
- Phlox mentions that Shakespeare is grim in any universe. Fun.
- Why did they cast Gregory Itzin as this one-off mirror universe admiral, only to kill him after a few brief scenes? Maybe the plan was to have shown him in the prime universe later in the series.
- The big twist at the end is that Hoshi Sato and Travis Mayweather (but especially Hoshi) win out over everyone. The writers are very knowingly giving us the triumph of the day players. But come on, guys -- you could have written better for them at any time.
The storytelling here loses a lot of steam from part one. But I'm a huge sucker for all the classic Trek surroundings -- enough to unreasonably weight the episode more highly. I give "In a Mirror Darkly, Part II" a B.
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