Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II (2005) User Reviews

FANTASTIC

[rms125a · 9/10 · 7 December 2020]

SPOILER ALERT: LOTS OF SPOILERS

First, to be honest, I have seen very few episodes of any of the Star Trek spin-offs, which I am just not that crazy about. I do watch the original series repeats on H/I (Heroes & Icons) network. However, this episode (and its preceding episode, Part 1) were incredible. Well-written, well-acted, and, sadly, all to accurate psychological profiles. I also occasionally (not too often) like storylines where bad beats good. Not often, but occasionally TV must acknowledge that good doesn't always beat bad. In this case, extraordinarily, based on the shocking twist at the end, quite unexpectedly, an greater evil beats the bad. (Sato is even worse than Archer -- lacking any of his good and/or complicated qualities or his skills as a warrior and merely exploits the victory for which he was almost single-handedly responsible.)

There is also a wonderful "Macbeth"-ish quality to the episode. Bakula's Mirror Universe Archer is clearly Macbeth. Capt. Forrest can be seen as Duncan. T'Pol is a female Macduff, although sadly, she and her gallant allies lose. Sato IS Lady Macbeth (without actual benefit of marriage), albeit one with none of the doubts and guilt by which that particular Shakespearean character was tormented. There is also a bit, although this may be purely my imagination, of demographic harbingering in that the white male power figure is taken down by an Asian woman with her (for the moment anyway) lover, a black male. The two French kiss for Archer's benefit in front of him as he lies dying.

Great episode. I have started watching the Star Trek spin-offs that I never was interested in before. TOS still the best, though, except for a few bad episodes.

Archer Gets a Bit Greedy

[Samuel-Shovel · 9/10 · 24 July 2018]

In the second part of "In a Mirror, Darkly", Archer is able to take control of the Defiant, stealing from the Tholian docks. The Enterprise is destroyed with Forrest still aboard but the Defiant is able to retrieve some of the rescue pods. But there appears to be a stowaway aboard, left over from when the Defiant was being scrapped in dry dock. The crew finds out it is a Gorn. An exciting hunt involving Reed, Archer, and some MACO's happens before Archer cleverly uses the gravity plates to trap and kill the Gorn.

Now as acting captain, Archer takes the Defiant to go assist the ISS Avenger as it is being attacked by a group of rebels. Archer orders the destruction of a Vulcan ship (much to the dismay of T'Pol) and is the hero of the fight. Aboard the Avenger is Admiral Black, a high ranking officer, who orders Archer to take the Defiant to Earth where it can be studied and dissected. Wanting to maintain his command, Archer kills Black and begins planning a coup against the Empire. He demands Star Fleet to surrender.

T'Pol sees the writing on the wall for her people and convinces her fellow non-Terrans that they need to stop Archer and the Defiant before he rises to the role of emperor. Her and Soval recruit Phlox to cut the power from the vessel. It works temporarily but Trip is able to stop him in time and re-energize the Defiant. It destroys the Avenger with everyone aboard. The counter-coup is defeated and Archer heads towards Earth to claim his prize.

But you are never safe in this universe. Hoshi poisons his champagne with the help of Travis. She claims the role of empress and arrives at Earth demanding Star Fleet's surrender.

Oh boy are people ruthless in this mirror universe! Everyone will do anything to climb to the throne. Interestingly, T'Pol still feels like a bit of a peacekeeper. She attempts to make the Federation a thing in her universe as well, causing Archer to destroy the ship's historical logs and erasing any reference to the universe we're familiar with. I guess Spock has a similar personality later on in this universe.

I wonder if Archer would have been so power-hungry if he hadn't read about his counterpart who was the first warp 5 starship captain. This may have ended up leading to his ultimate demise. Hoshi saw an opportunity to rule and she took it.

But this really is a stellar episode, an excellent standalone two-parter. The action is exciting, everything feels high stakes as they kill of memorable characters left and right (well, mirror characters), and the constant betrayals and tactical mind games make this a fun ride to the finish. I wonder how the rule of Empress Sato went...

Great fun

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 2 January 2021]

Enterprise crew from the alternate universe obtain the US Defiant and head back to Terran Empire to face the rebels.

I enjoyed this episode (and part 1) for the cool intro, fan service plot and several fun and exciting scenes.

The plot is by far the best mirror universe episode since 'Mirror Mirror', with plenty of action and nostalgia. It ties into a number of episodes, particularly the aforementioned one and 'The Tholian Web'. One major twist is quite predictable but when it happens it's still a very enjoyable moment.

Performances are pretty hit and miss. Scott Bakula chews the scenery big time in a shouty and deliberately evil turn as a power hungry Archer. Connor Trinneer is equally as shouty but not quite as OTT underneath some poor make up. Jolene Blalock is erratic as always and struggles during the emotional scenes. John Billingsley is as good as ever in a more sadistic take on Phlox. The one I enjoyed the most was Linda Park who combines the sensuality of a classic femme fatale with something that could be out of Game Of Thrones.

This works as a very effective prequel to 'Mirror Mirror' and does a fair bit of 'universe building' of the mirror kind. It helps that it doesn't waste time by focussing on interaction between universes which would have been too much like the other episodes and stuck to its own story.

Part 1 (8/10) was a better story, whereas Part 2 (7.5/10) contained the most fun.

Archer is too ambitious!

[Tweekums · 10/10 · 3 September 2010]

As the second half of this two part story starts Enterprise has been destroyed and the Archer, T'Pol, Malcolm, Travis and Trip are aboard the USS Defiant, a ship from a hundred years in the future. After picking up the survivors from Enterprise they set about repairing the ship; this is made much more difficult when it becomes apparent that they don't have the ship to themselves, a creature known as the Gorn has killed one of the engineering crew and taken vital components. Once that problem has been solved the Defiant can join the battle against the Vulcan and Andorian rebels. Archer expects to be given official command of the Defiant but is just told that he will get his own command 'when a ship becomes available. Believing the admiral intends to steal the glory he kills him. He soon has even greater ambitions and sets course for Earth with plans to but himself on the throne. As he has had all non-humans apart from Dr. Phlox transferred off the Defiant T'Pol tries to persuade the doctor to destroy the ship, as she believes Archer's conquests won't stop with Earth. It is just a pity for Archer that he was so paranoid about his alien crewmembers that he wasn't so careful about the human ones.

Like the first part of the story this was a lot of fun; while not strictly necessary for the story it was nice to see the crew don the uniforms of the original Star Trek. There was plenty of great action including a fight between Archer and the Gorn that was reminiscent of a similar fight involving Captain Kirk and an impressive if short space battle. Hoshi in this universe is far more forward, it was great seeing Linda Park play sexy rather than quiet; and it was the highlight of the episode seeing her kill Archer and declare herself Empress at the end.

Spectacular

[slip_fuhrer · 10/10 · 29 August 2008]

I am up at an hour which I should be spending sleeping, as I have work in the morning. But I can't take my eyes off of this splendid twist on Enterprise. I love this series, though I have to say, this alternate universe two part episode is fantastic. Seeing Jonathan Archer as a power hungry, and equally driven character is something I was skeptical about, upon first reading the "info" on the episode before watching, but it plays beautifully. Likewise, the twist on the other characters, Most notably, Dr. Flocks, and Tucker, are played well. The ability to play both sides of the fence goes to show that these three actors do their job well. Travis, T'pol and Reid Aren't as memorable in their twisted states, though I am not so sure why. T'pol doesn't seem to have changed much other than her outfit, and displays a bit more emotion than one would expect from a Vulcan, Reid just seems to be a sinister little twerp that we don't care about, and Travis is basically the same...Following orders with nothing really too interesting going on about him to grab our attention. it was very nice to see the crew step aboard the Defiant and to see the insides of that old Star Trek style ship come to life again.

**SPOLIER BELOW**

The ending was somewhat enexpected, as usually in Enterprise the good triumph over the bad, Archers demise was unexpected to me as well, and as for Hoshi...She makes a damn sexy Empress.

All in all I give these two episodes a ten out of ten. Grats.

So much fun

[Hughmanity · 10/10 · 8 June 2021]

The most amazing thing about this 2-parter is how they managed to make the Defiant look and feel so much like TOS Enterprise which should have made it look outdated, and yet they somehow make it seem futuristic and technologically advanced versus the 'Enterprise' era ships.

Extremely well done with the mirror characters that are so much fun to watch, and with all the nods to TOS. Seeing the Enterprise crew in TOS uniforms was awesome.

'Enterprise' got soooooo much better in seasons 3 and 4. I wish they had been allowed to continue, especially with this mirror storyline.

Power Plays & A Mirror Universe

[timdalton007 · 8/10 · 3 November 2016]

In its final season on air, the Star Trek prequel series Enterprise finally found its feet. Under a new show runner, the series finally became the prequel series it was originally pitched as being. It explored and tied-in with many aspects of Trek's lore. One of the most exciting moments of that came as the show was beginning to wind down prematurely. In A Mirror, Darkly brought Enterprise into the Mirror Universe made famous by the Original Series episode Mirror, Mirror and explored throughout Deep Space Nine's run. Picking up from the explosive cliffhanger of part one, the second episode was to take viewers even further into the Mirror Universe's origins.

While the first part was set largely on the Mirror Universe version of the NX-01, part two took crew and viewer alike onto a new ship: The Definat, brought over to this universe following the events of the Original Series episode The Tholian Web. The result is that virtually the entirety of the episode is set on a Original Series starship and that we get to see Enterprise's regulars on its decks, its bridge especially. Some of them even up in the familiar uniforms as well, allowing an interesting contrast both in costumes and design from what we're used to. Even more surprising is how great they look, that the designs and costumes hold up well even with a very different crew occupying and wearing them. Add on a fight between Archer and an Original Series alien foe, and it's something that makes this particular episode stand out even more.

Like with previous Mirror Universe episodes in Trek, the fun of these episodes is watching the cast members play different versions of familiar characters. One of the biggest surprises come out of Scott Bakula's Archer. Seeing him go from our usual goodhearted starship captain to the somewhat ruthless, passed over one time too many first officer was already a surprise but this episode sees the script and Bakula take this Archer even farther. Confronted by knowledge of his counterpart in a different universe and given a chance not just for command of a ship but potentially the Terran Empire itself, the Mirror Archer becomes an at times reckless gambler who risks not just his life but those of his crew and indeed his new ship to go as far as he can. It's a compelling performance and one that might well be Bakula's finest from the entire run of the series.

Then there's Park as Hoshi. Already recast into the Captain's Woman role that we saw Barbara Luna's Marlena play back in Mirror, Mirror but with an updated 21st century edge, Park gets some of the best moments in this episode to herself. This is a Hoshi who isn't the quiet, almost ineffectual communications officer often seen in the series but a conniving, manipulative femme fatale who it turns out isn't afraid to get her hands dirty if need be. Given the writing of Hoshi throughout much of the series, Park getting the chance to sink her teeth into some meatier material is an even bigger revelation than Bakula's Mirror Archer.

They aren't alone though. All of the Enterprise regulars get some interesting moments in this episode though some get more than others. Jolene Blalock's T'Pol is a big highlight of this episode as, in keeping with the way the Mirror Spock was portrayed, we're given a more conniving Vulcan than we're used to which leads to some wonderful confrontations between T'Pol and Archer, and indeed between T'Pol and Hoshi as well. Plus, as with Vaughan Armstron's Forest in the first episode, we get to see a reoccurring character in a different role with Gary Graham's Vulcan Soval who goes from an ambassador in the normal universe to a science officer on one of the Empire's ships but whom gets some a couple of interesting scenes as well with T'Pol. Sadly, like in the previous episode, Anthony Montgomery and Conner Trinneer end up being shuffled to the back proverbially speaking, they get some screen-time that shows just enough of their Mirror counterparts to wet appetites.

The writing and direction are also among Enterprise's finest. Both Mike Sussman (who wrote the previous episode as well) and director Marvin V. Rush picks up on the energy from the cliffhanger and run with it, quickly picking up the threads and taking them farther than what might have been possible in just forty-five minutes. The second episode takes the hints and references from the first and expands them into a tale of power plays on personal and cosmic scales, building up to an immensely satisfying conclusion that manages to take the viewer by surprise (or at least it did me on my first viewing). Combined with a first rate action score by Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner and some of the show's better CGI set piece battles, the result is one of Enterprise's finest productions.

The end result is one of Enterprise's best episodes. Going straight off the previous episode, it manages to contrast in somewhat with an incredible recreation of an Original Series era starship as well as its costumes. Beyond the production, it also tells an interesting story with plenty of suspense and action. The ending leaves the viewer begging for more and it's just a shame that the proposed follow-up never happened due to the show's cancellation. It also shows what the series could accomplish at its best as both a Trek prequel and as a series in its own right.

I really liked this one!!!

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 1 June 2015]

This is the second part of a wonderful two-parter. While I loved the original "Mirror, Mirror" episode from the old "Star Trek", this evil parallel universe was way, way overused in some of the subsequent Trek spin-offs. At first I liked it when the crew of Deep Space 9 was visited by these evil parallel doubles but after so many follow-ups, it became way overused. What I loved about "Mirror, Mirror" was its originality. Fortunately, in "Star Trek: Enterprise", they managed to use the old concept but infuse it with wonderful originality and life. I think this two-parter is in the must see category for fans.

In the previous episode, Archer orchestrated a mutiny in order to try to steal a ship that was somehow stolen from the future. With it, he planned on taking over the evil empire and being its evil emperor. However, in part two, there were some hiccups, including a Gorn aboard the stolen ship that was trying to disable the vessel as well as the machinations of the evil and often disloyal crew. Can Archer manage to rule this awful parallel universe?!

This episode has so much going for it. Like part one, the normal intro for the show is replaced by an evil intro--complete with martial music and clips of war and violence! It also did NOT feature nice beings from our universe--just very, very bad ones from theirs. It was NOT like the nice Trekkie folks getting stuck there but as if it was a show intended for an evil audience to enjoy! It also featured a deliciously evil ending--with no redemption, no nice ending and just more of the awfulness that make this parallel world fun to watch. My only complaint is a minor one--why make a CGI Gorn when the CGI quality was that poor and obviously fake? I really think the original "Star Trek" Gorn looked better!!

Who's on First?

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 31 March 2017]

Good grief. The Defiant is like a bouncy ball. It's in one court then another. We will soon run out of ambitious characters to take over. At some point, I guess, someone will be smart enough to recognize that you trust no one. How did all these people get jobs? Anyway, it's a rapid fire episode with lots of action, twists, and turns. The aliens are suddenly targeted as the enemies. They have a right to defend their turf. Then they fall under the same delusions as everyone else. I guess the question we need to ask is whether or not there is any good in this universe? There is certainly a "Game of Thrones" vibe to all of this, although it predicted that serious. Even the music at the beginning has a little bit of that. It will be interesting to see what's next and if the forces of evil will be righted or do they actually become the way of the world.

Pointless Story

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 1 May 2010]

Archer activates the powerful Defiant and uses the ship to defeat the enemies of the Empire, including the internal ones in his crew. Then he heads to Earth with the intention to take over the power in a coup. However, there is a final and unexpected betrayal that affects the fate of Archer and the Empire.

"In a Mirror, Darkly: Part II" is the conclusion of a pointless story of a violent universe. I was expecting some sort of interaction between the universes but the plot is limited to the parallel universe in a forgettable episode. I hope the music score of these two episodes prevail and replace the annoying theme of this series. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Reflexo Sombrio 2" ("Dark Reflex 2")

What was the point of it?

[tonycarr · 2/10 · 14 October 2022]

To be fair, I'm not a fan of mirror universe episodes. I don't see the point of them. This one is one of the worst. The effects are good and the fanboys will get a buzz out of the references to Kirk and Co though the Gorn is totally unnecessary. Gregory Itzin makes an entrance and is promptly killed off

The problem is that this episode wanders around the place desperately searching for an ending. Not only that, the characters were so deeply unpleasant I stopped caring what happened to them. You could have killed them all of and I wouldn't have bothered.

All in all a filler of the worst kind.

Can we get back to the show now?

[brueggemanntami · 4/10 · 21 July 2018]

Some very good reflections of the original Star Trek here. I enjoyed the familiar costumes and sound effects. However I didn't like this alternate universe any more than I did the other ones. Enterprise had a great story-line and group of characters without this contrived gimmick that has been done over and over. It was a good show, cancelled way too soon. And by the way, if the women have to run around half naked, how about doing the same with the men. Us ladies could use some eye candy too if it's going to stoop to that level. In my opinion, they wasted two episodes of the little time the show had left on this. My two least favorite of the entire Star Trek: Enterprise series.

The worst acting of the series

[sunflower1343 · 5/10 · 15 March 2019]

Someone evidently told the actors that everyone in the dark universe wore exaggerated grimaces and sneers and growls, because with the exception of T'Pol, whose actress bumbled her way around clueless about how to deal with the concept, and Phlox, who was deliciously menacing, scenery was chewed and spit out with gusto. It was painful to watch, especially Archer, who looked particularly constipated, as if he had a ghost of an idea he wanted to evoke but fruitlessly strained to get it out there.

Aside from that, the fact that such a back stabbing organization could never survive made the whole thing was a pointless exercise.

That said, it was incredibly cool seeing the old ship and uniforms again, and hearing the musical effects of the old bridge. So for that, 5 stars.

Most stupid episode of the series

[craig_vandertie · 1/10 · 11 April 2019]

Seriously ensign Sato kills off all the most experienced and skilled command officers and takes control of the Constitution class starship, those Screen Writers must have seriously been tripping as is the idiot who claims this was the best episode of the series.

Let us now talk about the other unrealistic aspects of this story line, it appears humans conquered the planet Vulcan so humans would also have used their technology and not developed the inferior technology incorporated in to the NX-01.

The Star Trek Universe Blown up

[JVIRT99 · 5/10 · 1 April 2020]

This review covers both episodes of In a Mirror, Darkly, parts 1&2. First off, Part 1 was definitely one of the worst episodes of ANY Star Trek series ever. A totally weak effort that seemed to come from the mind of a juvenile delinquent. Part 2 was somewhat fun to watch with all the Original Series sets, uniforms and production values, but it can't hold a candle to TOS Mirror, Mirror episode. A true ST classic all the way.

The hope that many of us old time Trekkers had with the minor successes of Enterprise seasons 1&2, faded fast with the mind numbing outrages of season 3. One example. What compelled the producers and writers to take Captain Archer, the great explorer from Earth and turn him into a violent and emotional joke, I will never understand. After which it was all downhill. These 2 episodes show why ST Enterprise was finally doomed, making this its last season.

If someone was setting out to destroy the Star Trek universe, blow up the timeline and rip out the heart of ST canon, these 2 episodes would be the way to go. Sad and pathetic.

Filler episodes at the end of a series?

[stuart-smith729 · 1/10 · 1 September 2020]

A couple of episodes ago Archer confronts Malcolm, Malcolm admits but refuses to speak about who he is serving.

The next episode it seems forgotten about then we have these two boring filler episodes right at the end of the series, why?

I now have three episodes to go and the quality has severely dipped. I really hope these final three go back to the standard previously set but these were incredibly stupid, boring and ultimately pointless.

if they'd appeared in Season1 then fair enough but at this point in the series?

close but no cigars

[wolfgang-28 · 3/10 · 8 November 2017]

when you dare to compare TOS with Enterprise on the "mirror universe" there is only one winnner. TOS. not even eye candy, T'Pol and Hoshi in a kind a "space slut" outfit and behaviour makes it interesting. At least I do catch myself always to compare every scene....In General thats the Problem with every remake. Why don't they make a new script , why do they fiddle and make it worse nearly every time? well "Enterprise" was already doomed when they made this episode. Only the last one is even worse. I'll go to that one when I got mended from this mess. I am just watching this in the rerun of the whole series....with 2 episodes from mon-fri. Too much to suffer. I have to clean my brain with some good old fist fighting Kirk. Frequencies closed.

Ran out of ideas

[jasonbuckley-02962 · 1/10 · 2 March 2022]

This is obviously just a filler episode. They have run out of story arcs and this is just rubbish to fill the gaps. A very poor story with rather poor acting as none of the actors could believe what was happening.

Annoyingly sexist two part episode.

[loretta-morandin-276-199834 · 3/10 · 11 November 2019]

These and the episode prior are so I can't focus. Other than that they would have been great episodes. So annoying.

Juvenile fan-service

[GentlemanGeorge · 1/10 · 17 September 2021]

By the fourth season, Enterprise was fading fast. This episode was a naked ploy to diddle fan boys by cashing in on the reverence for everything TOS.

The re-created sets, costumes, and beloved Constitution Class starship all looked great, but there is only one problem - there is NO PLOT. There is no exposition, no development, and no resolution. Basically, everyone in this corner of the mirror-universe is a back-stabbing sociopath.

So now we know what happened to the Defiant after it disappeared in TOS. Big deal. No attempt is made to explain how the Defiant is brought into the mirror universe, and also managed to time travel a century into the past.

Mirror Archer and crew transport over and become Mary Sues, having zero difficulty comprehending starship systems 100 years beyond them. Half of them, Archer included, develop a clothes fetish and decide to start wearing the uniforms of the deceased Defiant crew. Eww. Archer goes full psycho and intends on using his new ship to take over the empire and become Emperor. He begins seeing a hallucination of himself, an embodiment of his own paranoia, who antagonizes him to mutiny against his superiors - but for some reason, THIS Archer is wearing a uniform from OUR universe. This also is never explained.

There is a sub-plot of Empire crew members who are trying to resist, but this goes nowhere as they are all wiped out. Um...ok... Finally, mirror Archer is poisoned by Hoshi during a bootie call in his quarters. Apparently, mirror Archer is even dumber than his counterpart.

Fanboys certainly must have loved the CGI Tholian and Gorn (neither of which was faithful to canon, but hey, this IS "Enterprise" afterall. Who cares about canon, right?

IMHO, the best mirror universe sequel is "Fairest Of Them All" , from the fan-produced series Star Trek Continues. They made ten great "fourth season" TOS episodes for less than what this one dumpster fire cost.

Terrible storylines

[Bobby123242 · 2/10 · 19 April 2022]

I can totally see why no one was watching the show anymore at this point. These episodes where absolutely horrible in my opinion. It's like the writers didn't even care anymore. Only things I enjoyed were the costumes, and finally getting to see how they should have had T'Pol looking for the last three and a half seasons. Why they would hide such a beautiful woman under that short wig is anybody's guess...

Belly top uniforms are apparently fashionable on board the warships of the Terran Empire

[tomsly-40015 · 5/10 · 19 April 2024]

The first episode of this double episode started promisingly. Once again an adventure in the mirror universe and once again the characters are a vile copy of their morally exalted counterparts on the other side.

In the second episode, everyone in the crew seems to be scheming and revolting against everyone else in order to ultimately become the new Emperor - and only through ONE captured ship from the other universe, whose technology is 100 years more advanced than what the Terran Empire has to offer. Doesn't seem like a strong empire if it can be brought to its knees by a single ship.

Archer seems quite inauthentic as a domineering wannabe captain and megalomaniacal usurper of the throne. Although Hoshi makes quite a convincing impression as a concubine, the end of the episode seems rather far-fetched. By the way, whoever came up with the idea that the uniforms for women in the mirror universe should be belly tops probably has no idea what purpose a uniform should serve. Speaking of uniforms: Why does the crew dress in the uniforms of the captured ship's crew? It's one thing that Archer puts on the green sweater for fun, but why do everyone else change their uniforms? What was the point of this action, other than fan service? By the way: What was the point of this double episode in the first place? In the other series there was at least always a connection between the characters on both sides.

The Gorn in this episode - oh my goodness. They have the charm of the old Japanese Godzilla films. Although in this episode these Gorn at least look humanoid enough to believably convey that this species can build and fly spaceships. In SNW, the Gorn seem more like the creatures from the Alien films - savage beasts with claws that could barely press a button on a control panel. Let alone have a progressive social structure.