This is going to be sketchy because I jumped into the middle of the second episode of a multi-parter. When I turned it on, there was Captain Archer dressed up like James T. Kirk (in that green bowling shirt he used to wear), sitting on what looked like the bridge of the TOS Enterprise, blowing ships out of space with maniacal glee. Naturally, my interest was piqued. From what I could make out, the story was set in the mirrorverse, and the mirror!counterparts of Archer and the crew had somehow gotten their hands on USS Defiant. Not Ben Sisko's Defiant, but the Constitution class Defiant that Kirk and company tried to rescue when it was sucked into some kind of anomaly in The Tholian Web episode of TOS. It seems the anomaly not only pulled the ship into the mirrorverse, but back in time as well. Evil!Archer decided the Defiant would be just the thing he could use to conquer the empire and become emperor. The weirdest thing about it all was that the officers, and only the officers, apparently decided to play dress up using all these neat uniforms they found on board.

The "real" Enterprise crew didn't seem to be in the episode at all, so it was like a total AU fanfic. I now feel compelled to watch the first part, so I downloaded it last night.

Actually, the mirrorverse crew went into "our" universe to grab the Defiant and take it back home, because they needed the firepower to win a war. Archer was originally on the side of the Empire, but became disillusioned with them after saving their asses.

I now feel compelled to watch the first part, so I downloaded it last night.

I thought the first part was a lot more watchable than the second part, but the second part had all kinds of nifty production design shoutouts to the original series.

Actually, the mirrorverse crew went into "our" universe to grab the Defiant and take it back home, because they needed the firepower to win a war.

Really? I didn't get that impression. I got the impression that the rip the Tholians had created had pulled the Defiant into the mirror universe and back in time.

Wow, that's... really complicated.

I can't say I was paying enough attention to be able to back up my read of it.

Were the Tholians in the mirror universe too? Attacking the mirror crew?

Were the Tholians in the mirror universe too? Attacking the mirror crew?

Yup. Apparently it was the mirror Tholians who lured the Defiant into the rift. They were fishing for sentients from the other universe.

The best part of the episode? No theme song. The opening credits were done as if the show were being shown in the mirrorverse.

Actually, now that I watched the first ep, I remember what it was that really threw me about the second. I tuned in just as they were tracking down a Gorn who was doing contract work stripping technology from Defiant for the Tholians, so my first thought was that it was a story about the first meeting with the Gorns. Then Archer showed up in his Kirk suit, and I was all WTF?

It was very disquieting.

The opening credits were done as if the show were being shown in the mirrorverse.

As cracktastic as the rest of the episodes were, that theme song made me gleeful.

Also, the preview for next week scared me and started me grumbling about canon again.

I decided to start catching up with eps from about halfway through the season. These two past episodes have been interesting what with not tying in with the us-verse characters. But what was with Archer talking to Mirror!Archer. I was confused. Was I supposed to be able to tell what was going on there?

I also missed the preview. Are they staying in the mirror verse?

Tru Calling fans: LJ user tightropegirl has some information in her latest post about what was planned for the rest of the season.

Oh, thanks, 'Suela! A friend of mine was really interested in that, so much so that she wanted me to conjecture it for her.