Plot synopsis
Yes. The Defiant disappeared from “our” universe.
When you guys say Tellerite, you’re meaning Tholian aren’t you? Or is there something even more weird going on?
My major nit with any mirror universe ep on any of the Treks, is that there is no way the parallels could maintain themselves for so long, in such coincidental detail as we always see. So, if the Evil Empire extends far enough back in time to encompass antiQuantum and anT’Pol, then by the time it got to antiKira, random changes and conscoius choices should’ve changed things around so much that even an antiQuark couldn’t exist for long as we see him, if at all.
It’s a flawed premise. But, it’s a fun flaw. Usually. Well, twice. In TOS and for one ep in DS9.
There were at least three Mirror episodes on DS9.
Yes, I know. My point was that only one of them was fun.
That was some of the worst acting I have ever seen.
I loved it. The whole thing.
I figured Cochrane would pull out a gun, but it was cool anyway.
The opening was great. I usually FF through it, but didn’t this time.
Even the overacting was really fun to watch.
So is anti-Hoshi dead? I would really hate them to pull some cheesy “her’s was the only escape pod that made it through the web” type thing.
Of course, it would be even cheesier if somehow anti-Porthos made it.
No, Phlox was torturing a Tellurian at the beginning fo the ep.
err Terrerite lol
…and he and Reed were getting off on it. I’ve never seen Dominic Keating play a better role.
I thought the episode was quite on a par with the rest of this season. 
Here the writers and actors have a chance to be as different and/or as outrageous as they want and I don’t feel they took advantage of it. It was a vehicle, for the most part, to show parts of TOS that we are familiar with. Product placement, if you will. Two main plot problems: they made Archer and Forrest too nice and they shoe-horned in time-travel just so they could show us TOS equipment. With Archer and Forrest alternating between nice and nasty I just felt confused. I was prepared to see them as bad guys, but I felt betrayed as they shifted motivations. And time-travel just to show us TOS stuff is too contrived. Overall the episode is like eating potato chips and Hersey’s kisses. Both fun junk food, but not together.
[sub]I unexpectedly/unusually have way too much time this afternoon, so get ready…[/sub]
[ul][li]I loved the Cochrane/Vulcan scene at the beginning. Getting the First Contact actors was great. I knew Cochrane would kill the Vulcan. It doesn’t make sense that the Vulcans would drop in so peacefully if they have been monitoring Earth and know of it’s barbaric tendencies. Later Archer mentions that Cochrane stopped a prelude to invasion. If true, the Vulcans were stupid for not being prepared. If false, the Vulcans were stupid for not being prepared.[/li][li]The opening credits were cute. I especially liked the pre-Enterprise ship at the end. Same as the original, but then the ship fires on a planet. :)[/li][li]When I saw the ISS “Sword-through-Earth” logo between Bergama’s credits I just want the sword to be impaling them.[/li][li]So Phlox created the Agony Booth too. Keep everything in Trek in the family, eh?[/li][li]It would have been cute to connect Reed to Section 31 in the ISS. But again, Reed had his transgression and “now all is as it should be” - “we shall speak no more of it.” :([/li][li]Archer and Forrest walked down a corridor with guards every 10 feet saluting them. Good point about a militaristic/empire culture. Then notice that it Never Happenned Again!? Even when Forrest/T’Pol stormed the bridge, there were no guards anywhere! I hate it when the writers throw in a feature and never use it again! :mad:[/li][li]Forrest has a sucky guard and both are stpuid to let that mutiny go down. Notice Mayweather is a MACO?[/li][li]When Archer talks over the comm, Phlox is seen dismembering a reptile. Ooh! Bad! No, Phlox should have been seen working on a human’s dismembered arm that was still moving! :)[/li][li]When Archer, et al, saluted his new takeover, Archer should have saluted the screen and not faced T’Pol. T’Pol is a slave and he should show his authority by ignoring her and confidently exposing his back. :([/li][li]Similarly, Archer should not ‘explain’ that he got a private communication authorizing his takeover. He shouldn’t explain, he should lead.[/li][li]Since they have a Suliban cloak, does that mean they all did the Xindi thing too?[/li][li]Poor Porthos![/li][li]Hoshi’s part is good. She gets to act and have fun, change expressions, wear skimpy clothing, be a vamp, be a would-be assassin. Everything! :)[/li][li]Bakula’s microseconds of overacting were shadowed by his blandness even in the Mirror Universe. All the guy does is scowl. If he fails or succeeds, all he does is scowl. Even kissing Hoshi, he scowls! 
That’s what makes his overacting with that “Knock that thing out” line to Phlox all the more disconcerting. He goes from Buster Keaton’s “Stone Face” to Simon Legree’s over-the-top with no in-between.[/li][li]The only nice touch is Archer keeping is hand cocked on his ip over his gun. A nice kid-playing-with-power kind of feel. :)[/li][li]The ISS Enterprise has traction emitters, so I guess they steal more here. Good, but when the Tholians were shooting Enterprise it looked like Enterprise had shields, but then Hoshi spoke about the hull plating going down. Maybe the visuals were the cloaking field getting hit. It’s a small nit, just disconcerting.[/li][li]When Archer interrogated the Tholian and said, “Answer my questions or you will be harmed,” I almost burst out laughing. I thought of the Monty Python Spanish Inquistion skit and wondered if he’d threaten him with the comfy-chair next. :D[/li][li]Archer kept turning to Hoshi for each translation from the Tholian. You never acknowledge the translator and always stay focussed on the prisoner. :([/li][li]It felt gratuitous to have the androgenous Tholian give are a “maternal ancestor” insult to Archer.[/li][li]The idea of the Tholian being a natural crystalline transmitter was good. :)[/li][li]Trip gets T’Pol at Pon Farr is great in this universe. :)[/li][li]Trip’s exposure to Delta rays is name dropping, but fun. I wish Reed had a left-eye patch and Reed and Trip could have a scene arguing with T’Pol coming up on their blind side and startling them! :D[/li][li]I liked Forrest berating Archer for not having ambition. Sadly, it seems to reflect the acting too.[/li][li]I felt bad about Trip in the agony booth having to confess to an uncaring Archer, “I’ve always been loyal to you!”[/li][li]Why did the Vulcan’s, apparently a slave-ish race, fight to help Forrest? Oh, well.[/li][li]Forrest should have killed Archer when he regained command.[/li][li]When the Tholians gridded Enterprise I didn’t like the initial web suddenly growing the fine-mesh grid. There’s no precedent. The Tholians in TOS grew it strand by strand. :([/li][li]Forrest is too wimpy as a captain. He doesn’t maintain authority; he get’s mutinied; he’s too scared during the Tholian attack; he sacrifices to get his crew away. He couldn’t get to be captain in the ISS without being more ruthless.[/li][li]Archer gathered intelligence from slave workers revealing the Defiant in the Tholians hands. This takes time. So when they visit the Defiant, those bodies should be dessicated from vacumm or decomposed. :([/li][li]If the Defiant had little power, how did they get the turbolift to get them to the bridge so that they could push open the doors with their hands?[/li][li]The Defiant’s system’s were off-line according to T’Pol. So how could they come on-line so fast; how could the engines start up so fast (re: Psi 2000); how could life-support and sensors come on-line so fast?[/li][li]Why can they understand and control Defiant, a 100 year-in-the-future-ship so easily. Trip can overload reactors from the bridge (in a ship with primaries off-line) and T’Pol makes the bold statement, “I can activate their systems.” How does she know how? :([/li][li]The Defiant powers up Really Fast - sensors, engines, life-support in just a minute or so![/li][li]Forrest says, ‘to the escape pods’ and “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.” Too soft for the ISS and unprecedented.[/li][li]I like when Reed saw Enterprise destroyed and twisted a bit of a smile. A good acting/writing moment. :)[/ul][/li]So next episode has more gratuitous TOS references when everyone dresses up in TOS. Even Archer has Kirk’s quarters and a bottle of … uh … well, uh, it’s Green! Maybe the Hoshi/T’Pol cat fight will be good. … No, I don’t think so either. You think they’ll go so far as to have the Defiant interphase and have Archer et al see Kirk or Uhura ghost-like? I know they want to. You see, stealing from TOS is just easier than writing your own story. My rewritten scene in the review of the last episode may be dreck, but I’m not a professional writer, so I demand a bit more of real writers.
The episode lost points for none of the mirror-characters having goatees.
In the TOS episode, wasn’t Spock the only Mirror-person to have a goatee?
Maybe T’Pol has one, but you just can’t see it. 
With all the doodads they were wearing on their uniforms, I couldn’t tell if they were carrying agonizers. Nobody had time to use one, apparently. Maybe next week.
Aes: I’ll send those tapes to you as fast as I can fill them. Thanks, 'plant, for burnin’.
Since ENT’s ending and I won’t be needing tapes any longer, thanks to both of you. When I’m on my feet financially, I’ll think of some way to repay you for your help.
According to the podcast agonizers aren’t availible in the 22nd century. The agony booth has only just been invented, miniturization takes time.
My liquor bill is on file at Pop 'a Top.
I think Diane Duane wrote the TNG MU novel Dark Mirror. Troi was the Agony Booth specialist in that one. Too bad TNG never did a Mirror ep.
Thanks for confirming that. I actually did watch The Tholian Web when it was on last night. I couldn’t believe that that episode was on, just a few hours after I watched the Enterprise episode it was related too! Weird, huh? I wonder if they did it on purpose, or it was just a coincidence…
Ya’ll been drinkin’.
All Ya’ll been drinkin’.