Topic: "In a Mirror, Darkly" to turn famous Trek event on its head (SPOILERS IN UPDATE)

[Rat Boy]

From Trek Today

TrekToday sources today revealed the crew of the Enterprise NX-01 will have their first encounter with the alternate reality in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly". Currently scheduled as the seventeenth instalment of the season, the episode is reportedly set to open in familiar surroundings: Bozeman, Montana, on April 5, 2063, the date of first contact between Earth and Vulcan.

However, this isn't your father's first contact. As the Vulcan ship lands and Zephram Cochrane prepares to greet the off-worlders, a somewhat disgruntled mob begins to mass in the area. When the ship's captain steps out and greets the humans with the immortal words, "Live long and prosper", one of members of the crowd produces his weapon and incites the others to attack the Vulcans. They rush together in a mob, overwhelming the stoic Vulcans with their show of brute force, and changing the course of human history forever.

Just for laughs, the Vulcan commander should have a goatee.

[Alidar Jarok]

This definately looks interesting.  It looks like, for the teaser, there will be some clips from ST: First Contact.  It would be cool if they could hire James Cromwell for this small opener as well, but I doubt that will happen.

Its probably an episode I'm most excited about.

[SDaewAnahos_xc]

From Trek Today

TrekToday sources today revealed the crew of the Enterprise NX-01 will have their first encounter with the alternate reality in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly". Currently scheduled as the seventeenth instalment of the season, the episode is reportedly set to open in familiar surroundings: Bozeman, Montana, on April 5, 2063, the date of first contact between Earth and Vulcan.

However, this isn't your father's first contact. As the Vulcan ship lands and Zephram Cochrane prepares to greet the off-worlders, a somewhat disgruntled mob begins to mass in the area. When the ship's captain steps out and greets the humans with the immortal words, "Live long and prosper", one of members of the crowd produces his weapon and incites the others to attack the Vulcans. They rush together in a mob, overwhelming the stoic Vulcans with their show of brute force, and changing the course of human history forever.

Just for laughs, the Vulcan commander should have a goatee.

Sounds cool! Hopefully this will lead to several returns to the mirror universe. DS9 showed us what the mirror universe was AFTER TOS, TNG never breached that part of the trek multiverse, VOY didn't either to the best of my memory --- now we get to see before TOS.

Should prove to be ... interesting.

[Iceman]

When does this one air?

[Nemesis]

I'd like it if they revealed that Enterprise is taking place in the Mirror Universe.

[Commander Maxillius]

yeah, Archer seems a little too bad-ass for the wimpy PC Starfleet.


I wouldn't be surprised if Archer retires (or is fired) from service upon the founding of the Federation.

[GDA-S'Cipio]

yeah, Archer seems a little too bad-ass for the wimpy PC Starfleet.

Bad-ass is not a word I'd use to describe Archer.


The Prime Directive hasn't even been written yet, and he's already worried about breaking it.

An alien race is trying to exterminate his planet, and he goes into a suicidal funk because he had to blast an enemy observation post.

-S'Cipio

[Rat Boy]

The spoiler-getters at the Trek BBS just got ahold of new secret tidbits.  The actual thread is here, but I'd thought I'd save you the trouble.  In the Mirror Universe episode (now a 2-parter, it seems), we'll see:

* Gorn (no continuity violation if it's the mirror Gorn [or stepping on SFB/SFC's Gorn if it's mirror, as well])

* Science Officer Soval

* A ship called the Defiant with "all its technology" (either the TOS ship from "The Tholian Web" or the mirror one from DS9)

* A ship called the Avenger

* Captain Forrest, the mirror version of the now-deceased admiral

* Major Reed

* Commander Archer?


It really is an alternate reality, isn't it?  If the Defiant is the same as the Consitution-class ship from TOS, it could be that it traveled through the interphase into the past and into the mirror universe.

[Rat Boy]

Okay, from the link above, we're getting a bigger idea about the plot...

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The U.S.S. Defiant from the Original Series episode "The Tholian Web" is deposited in the 22nd Century of the Mirror Universe thanks to the spatial interphase it was trapped in.  An idependent salvage ship staffed by Gorn and other aliens recovers it and steals the technology on board.  Later, that ship is captured by the Enterprise, which up until recently was commanded by Captain Forrest before First Officer Archer killed him (shades of how the mirror Kirk killed the mirror Pike to take command of the Enterprise).  Archer's crew tortures one of the aliens for information on where the Defiant is, but he doesn't talk.  They torture a second and Archer threatens to use a phaser taken from the Defiant (unique in that it can vaporize someone, whereas phase pistols can't) on him to get him to talk.  That one leads him back to the Defiant, where there's a Gorn on board.

Later, an Imperial ship called the Avenger, commanded by an Admiral Black and with Science Officer Soval, is trying to fight off some Andorians.  Archer and the Defiant shows up to bail them out.  Black gets interested in the ship from the future and hatches a plan to take it for himself...


Is it just me, or doesn't this sound a bit too...ambitious?  Modern Trek shows have shyed away from doing episodes involving things from TOS (namely, the bridge of the old Enterprise) because of the cost involved, and when they did do it, they figured out how to do it without building a lot of the old sets and relying heavily on green-screens.  Not only are we supposedly getting an old-style Constitution-class starship in this episode, but we're also getting Mirrorized versions of the ENT sets and wardrobes, a full-blown Gorn, and also a live Tholian.  Given how much ENT's budget has allegedly been slashed, I'm willing to bet that it will end up not being the Defiant but another ship, or there won't be any scenes shot on it.

[Sirgod]

You Might Be right. I recall the Original Transcript For "Relics"envolved a Functioning Bridge, with Crew Members.

I bet Also, This Episode starts with a Back shot Of the Captain giving orders, only to Reveal Capt. Forrester. OK so It's just a Guess, But that would be cool.

Stephen

[Rat Boy]

For "Relics," they only built about a fifth or so of the bridge and framed the shots just right to make it look like Picard and Scotty were standing on two different sides of the bridge.  For "Cause and Effect," the Bozeman was supposed to be a Consitution-class starship until it was changed to a Miranda-class variant from the TMP era for budgetary reasons.

About the only thing I can think of as to how they can pull this off is if they saved the sets from the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations."  That had a few corridors, a turbolift, and part of the bridge.  But, it'd still be a lot money to do, especially with what else they're doing in the very same episode.  Heck, you have to wonder what episodes are getting the short end of the budget stick if they're trying to do this along with the Romulan arc, the Klingon arc, the Orion arc, and the final episodes involving the Earth, Moon, and Mars.

Also, I think we can stop treating a lot of this as rumor since Manny Coto has stated today that a lot of what's being seen in this ep will be seen, at least as of right now.

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah it does seem ambitious (and expensive).  The Defiant alone will be the biggest cost.  I would hope they redesign the uniforms, but this doesn't necessarily have to be the case.

BTW, I think the budget is actually pretty similar.  It was the licensing fee that was cut by UPN, so you'd assume they cut the budget to match the new income, but this might not be the case.

Who knows, it should be fun.

[Rat Boy]

Here's Trek Today's synopsis of the spoilers, done much better than mine, I'll admit.

[Sirgod]

This episode keeps sounding Better and Better.

stephen

[J. Carney]

This episode keeps sounding Better and Better.

stephen

ANy air date yet... I might just have to check this one out.

[Rat Boy]

April or May.

[Alidar Jarok]

This is making me excited