One Of Star Trek: Enterprise's Best Episodes Had Technically None Of The Main Characters

The classic "Star Trek" episode "Mirror, Mirror" is one of the series' most high concept stories, and thus one of its most remembered: Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and co. wind up in a parallel universe where Starfleet serves a Terran Empire, not a United Federation of Planets. This "Mirror Universe" has endured as one of most reused settings in "Star Trek."

When "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" revisited the Mirror Universe, it followed the formula of "Mirror, Mirror" each time: the main characters get transported to the Mirror Universe and meet evil doppelgangers of themselves and their friends. The prequel series "Star Trek: Enterprise" did something different with its Mirror Universe two-parter, "In A Mirror, Darkly" (written by Mike Sussman and Manny Coto) which was set completely in the Mirror Universe. Though the episode features the main cast, they both are and aren't playing their usual roles.

In the Mirror Universe, Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) is not a captain, but the frustrated first officer of the ISS Enterprise. The episode follows Archer's pursuit for glory as he stages a mutiny against his captain, Maximilian Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong). Specifically, Archer has discovered the Tholians, the rarely seen crystalline aliens with web-spinning ships, have pulled in a ship from another universe. He thinks this mystery ship can help the Empire crush a rebellion staged by its subject races and make him a hero.

Whenever the best episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise" are counted, "In A Mirror, Darkly" invariably finds a place on that list. It's definitely one of the "Enterprise" episodes that I revisit the most. While the two-parter may not be "Star Trek" at its most cerebral, it is a starship-sized load of entertainment — the kind of fun you can only have while breaking the rules. 

"In A Mirror Darkly" often feels like a grab bag of Easter eggs. It is the very last standalone episode of "Enterprise" before climactic two-parter "Demons" & "Terra Prime," then epilogue series finale "These Are The Voyages." Though the "Enterprise" crew had hoped for a season 5, episodes like "In A Mirror Darkly" show a series going for broke because it knows this might be it. 

The cold open recreates a scene from 1996 film "Star Trek: First Contact," where Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) makes first contact with Vulcans. The Mirror Cochrane (portrayed with a body double and some face-concealing editing) greets the Vulcans with a shotgun, not a handshake. The people raid the Vulcans' ship, thereby answering how humanity came to lead a galactic empire.

The Tholians were a villain of the week back in the original series episode "The Tholian Web," where the Enterprise was investigating the disappearance of fellow Starfleet ship the Defiant. "In A Mirror Darkly" brought the Tholians back and, thanks to CGI, finally showed their red silicon-based selves. The ship Archer is seeking? It's none other than the Defiant, pulled across time and into the other side of the Mirror Universe. You can tell the episode was written by "Star Trek" fans because it answers a question those fans had been pondering for almost 40 years. 

The second half likewise has a subplot where Archer faces a Gorn which has stowed away on the Defiant. The Gorn, famous for the episode "Arena" where Captain Kirk faces one in gladiatorial combat, were like the Tholians: often-referenced in the "Next Generation" era series, but never seen. "In A Mirror, Darkly" let "Enterprise" feature them without contradicting "Arena" (before "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" brought the Gorn back full-time).

Don't worry, there's still a fun story that strings together the Easter eggs of "In A Mirror, Darkly." "Star Trek" is about competent professionals who get along well. Humanity doesn't work for wealth anymore, but collective good and personal achievement. In the Mirror Universe, though, we haven't exorcised the demon of greed. 

"Mirror, Mirror" depicted the ISS Enterprise as a scorpion's nest, where assassination of superior officers is an easy way to move up in rank. The episode was a fish out of water story about the "normal" Enterprise crew trying to function within a world of backstabbers. For the characters of "In A Mirror, Darkly," treachery is business as usual. Archer betrays every superior he has as his megalomania grows, but he doesn't do due diligence watching his own back. In particular, T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) fears what her new xenophobic captain will do to the Vulcans should he get the power he desires, and so works to undermine him.

Thus, the episode offers soapy thrills of the kind "Star Trek" usually doesn't. There's perverse fun in watching a bunch of evil people trying to get one over on each other. Upping the camp is how each Mirror "Enterprise" character is sneering and/or a sadist. They function, in-fighting and all, like Cobra from "G.I. Joe" or the Decepticons from "Transformers," and are about as brash in their super-villainy.

The four-season run of "Enterprise" is enviable for most shows, but for a "Star Trek" series, it was disappointing. The premature ending of "Enterprise" confirmed that "Star Trek" was no longer the dominant TV science-fiction it had been in the 1990s — but at least it got to visit the Mirror Universe before it wrapped up.