In a Mirror, Darkly

"In a Mirror, Darkly" is the eighteenth and nineteenth episodes of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and originally aired on April 22 and 29, 2005.

The decision to set an Enterprise episode in the mirror universe originated with a pitch to enable William Shatner to appear in the series.

However, these installments feature a mirror universe Jonathan Archer and evil counterparts of the normal characters, who serve the cruel and militaristic Terran Empire.

This installment also saw the return of Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Maxwell Forrest after his main universe character was killed on screen earlier in the season in the episode "The Forge".

In 2155, Doctor Phlox and Major Reed demonstrate a new torture device to Captain Forrest and Commander Archer on the ISS Enterprise.

T'Pol leads a team to free Forrest and reclaim the ship, but Archer encrypts navigation control to prevent a course change.

Archer shows images of an alternate universe vessel from the future named USS Defiant (a Constitution-class starship, last seen in "The Tholian Web"), that has technology and power that is a century more advanced than ISS Enterprise.

T'Pol and Tucker restore power to the weapon systems, allowing Defiant to destroy enough enemy vessels to escape the trap.

Ensign Kelby is killed trying to repair the warp drive, and the crew discover, from Tholian slaves left on board, that a Gorn named Slar has sabotaged the ship.

Archer, after hearing voices telling him to achieve more fame and honor, decides to lead an assault team and kills the Gorn.

Tucker is able to repair the warp drive and the ship leaves to rendezvous with the ISS Avenger, arriving in time to save it from four rebel spacecraft.

Soval and T'Pol meet, contemplating a future where alien species are respected and treated as equals; they convince Phlox to join their movement and sabotage Defiant.

The Reeves-Stevenses proposed that it could be explained that instead of killing its victims, the field instead transported them back through time to a penal colony in the main universe.

The storyline was pitched by Shatner, who had worked with the Reeves-Stevenses on the Shatnerverse series of Star Trek novels, to Manny Coto, Brannon Braga and Rick Berman.

Berman had already received a pitch by Mike Sussman that would have Shatner portray an ancestor of Captain Kirk, who happened to be the chef on the Enterprise (NX-01).

It featured footage used in other Paramount Pictures productions, including the Soviet nuclear submarine Konovalov firing a torpedo from The Hunt for Red October.

[17] Zimmerman led the construction of a full three-quarters around set to represent the bridge of the USS Defiant, which was used from the final day of filming the first part of this episode.

It was the first time that a bridge set of that scale from a Constitution-class starship from The Original Series had been used since the final episode "Turnabout Intruder" was aired in 1969.

Senior illustrator Doug Drexler was involved in the design; he had previously worked on the research that went into re-creating parts of The Original Series era USS Enterprise for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", as well as a set which was exhibited in Hyde Park in London.

[20] Technically, this was not a mistake on the part of production for Star Trek Enterprise, because every ship of the line was supposed to have its own insignia, as seen in other episodes of the original series, the reason there was USS Enterprise uniform insignia on the extra cast members filling positions on the Defiant during filming was due to lack of money and poorly made costumes of the late 1960's that did not hold up to reuse during season three filming.

Bakula wore the wrap-around green uniform previously worn by Shatner in several episodes including "The Trouble with Tribbles", while Trinneer, Keating and Montgomery donned red shirts.

The normal Enterprise costumes also underwent changes, with those worn by female members of the crew having a portion removed to reveal their midriffs.

He rated the episode three-and-a-half out of four stars, and said that it was so much fun that "had they adopted this attitude from the start, Enterprise probably would still be flying missions next season.

[17] She thought that the second installment saw the series "stretching a clever idea too thin", and that a "one-hour 'Mirror' would have made more sense in terms of the pacing and for Enterprise as a whole.

"[35] Den of Geek ranked it the number one episode of the series, writing that the installment "manages to include some of Enterprise's most inventive moments, not least the revised opening credits.

"[36] Jay Garmon at TechRepublic ranked it as the fifth best episode, saying that the writers managed to include a "gleefully malicious and fatal series of unexpected double-crosses, but also work in some of the most satisfying and coherent mythology gags that Enterprise ever displayed".

[44] That same year, Vulture wrote: "The series took a long time to find its feet, only hitting its stride in its final season with episodes like the two-part “In a Mirror, Darkly.”[45] Fans at the 50th anniversary convention in Las Vegas chose the two-parter as one of the "Ten Best Star Trek Episodes" of all time, out of more than seven hundred live-action installments produced as of that date.

[46] Laura Connolly, Roma Goddard and Michael Moore were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling For A Series for their work on this episode.

[47][48] "In a Mirror, Darkly" was first released for home viewing as part of the Star Trek: Enterprise series four box set.

[50] It subsequently became one of three Enterprise episodes to be included in the Star Trek: Alternative Realities Collective DVD set which was released in 2009.