![]() ![]() However, Archer has been prone to similar fits of distrust and insecurity. Mirror!Archer is established as paranoid in In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I, with that paranoia escalating into full-blown delusion in In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I I. Threatening mirror!T’Pol with mirror!Cochrane’s pump-action shotgun, mirror!Archer admits, “I wonder how history would have played out if Cochrane hadn’t turned the tables on your invasion force.” It is only a degree or two removed from some of Archer’s more pronounced anti-Vulcan rhetoric. Most notably, mirror!Archer’s virulent racism against the Vulcans is only slightly more pronounced than his mainstream counterpart’s attitude in episodes like Broken Bow or Breaking the Ice. There are other cues taken from the show’s turbulent early days. (Not for nothing, holographic!Hoshi suggests the same possibility in These Are the Voyages…) “I’ll go back to Brazil, start teaching again.” This is, of course, a reference to Hoshi’s recruitment by Archer in Broken Bow, and a suggestion that the character might be going something of a full circle. “Word on the ship is the war may be over soon,” reflects mirror!Hoshi at one point. There are other ways in which In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I and In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II seem to hark back to an early stage of the show’s history. Conway was the director responsible for Broken Bow, the pilot episode of Enterprise. Conway had been responsible for some of the franchise’s most memorable and popular hours most notably The Way of the Warrior, an episode that had effectively served as a second pilot for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Conway, a veteran of the franchise dating back to Justiceduring the first season of The Next Generation. In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I is also the only episode of the fourth season to be directed by James L. It is one of only two Enterprise episodes to feature an appearance from James Cromwell as Zephram Cochrane, albeit in stock footage the other is Broken Bow. The opening scene is a restaging of the first meeting between Vulcans and humanity at the end of Star Trek: First Contact, acknowledging that Enterprise as more of a sequel to First Contact than a prequel to the original Star Trek. They serve to take Enterprise back to the beginning in a very literal and figurative sense. In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I and In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II do something similar. These Are the Voyages… makes the entire show a subset of Star Trek: The Next Generation, confirming fears that rippled through the first season’s focus on Next Generation aliens like the Nausicaans ( Fortunate Son) and the Ferengi ( Acquisition). Demons and Terra Prime are about the darkness at the birth of the Federation, playing like a metaphor for the show’s flawed foundation. It is too much to describe it as an exorcism, and it is too late to completely save what has been a flawed show, but it does feel Enterprise is taking stock.īound takes the adolescent sex fantasies introduced in the decontamination scenes in Broken Bow and builds a whole toxic episode around them. Whether knowingly or not, the final stretch of the fourth season seems to tackle the ghosts that have haunted the show from the outset. The late stretch of the fourth season seems to fixate upon the show’s original sins, the problems and difficulties baked into the core concept. As the show’s conclusion inches closer and closer, it seems like Enterprise has begun to focus on its own failings and its own flaws. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |