| In A Mirror, Darkly (enterprise Episode) |
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"In a Mirror, Darkly Part I" was the 700th live-action ''Star Trek'' episode broadcast {Link without Title} . The episode opens with the closing scene from the feature movie '''' with cries of conquest. The credits then roll, depicting not peaceful exploration, but milestones in humanity's history of war, both terrestrial and interstellar. Notably, it appears that the human history of conquest and exploration up to that point are different from both regular Star Trek chronology and from regular history. If there is a single "point of divergence" for the Mirror Universe, this is not it. The show's starring cast are crewmembers on the ISS ''Enterprise'' of the episode " The Tholian Web ." It appears that, after disappearing into interphase, the ''Defiant'' was carried not only a century back in time, but into the Mirror Universe , where the Tholians of 2155 are intent on using it to their own benefit. Archer takes an away team to the ''Defiant'' to capture it for the humans. In the meanwhile, the ''Enterprise'' is caught and destroyed by the Tholians, with Forrest lost but the rest of the crew escaping in lifeboats. Archer declares himself captain of the ''Defiant'' and orders his crew to take the fight to the enemy. In Part II, Archer repopulates his ship with the escaped crew of the ''Enterprise'', defeats a rebel alien fleet, and decides to declare himself Emperor, using the ''Defiant'' and her advanced technology as his trump card. Several crewmembers, including Archer, don 23rd Century Starfleet uniforms in lieu of wearing their environmental suits from ''Enterprise''. A conspiracy led by various alien members of his crew, including T'Pol , Phlox and Soval , fails to stop him. However, he is incapacitated by his lover Hoshi Sato , and she declares herself Empress upon arriving at Earth. The episode closes on that note, with the final fate of all main characters unknown (many have been threatened with death, and Archer poisoned via Champagne , but since their deaths have not been explicitly depicted, it is not known for certain whether they are actually dead, with the exception of Forrest, Soval, and Admiral Black). These episodes foreshadow the future of the Mirror Universe (humanity's downfall and the rise of an alien-led empire) in its dialogue. They also include numerous references to the Original Series: besides the ''Defiant'', they depict Tholian s and Gorn on screen for the first time since the 1960s. They also contain many TOS-era sets, props, costumes and other paraphernalia, which were recreated solely for these episodes. Interestingly, the Mirror Universe version of Starfleet is shown to be considerably more diverse than its real world counterpart, with Vulcans , Andorians and even an Orion seen serving in various capacities, although it is implied that these are conquered races. It was during filming of this episode that the cast and crew were notified of the cancellation of ''Enterprise''. With this episode, actress Majel Barrett , widow of ''Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry became the first and only actor to participate in every ''Star Trek'' series including the Animated Series, as well as both the ''Original Series''-based and ''Next Generation''-based film series. In this episode she provided the voice of the ''Defiant'' computer. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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