Mirror Universe

For other uses, see Parallel universe.

The Mirror Universe is a fictional parallel universe in which the plots of several Star Trek television episodes take place. It resembles the fictional universe in which the Star Trek TV series takes place, but is separate from the main universe.[1][2] The characters in the Mirror Universe are aggressive, mistrustful, and opportunistic in personality. Whereas the Star Trek universe depicts an optimistic future in which the Earth-based United Federation of Planets values peace, co-operation and exploration, episodes set in the Mirror Universe feature the human-dominated authoritarian Terran Empire which values war, despotism, and conquest instead.[3] The Mirror Universe has been visited in one episode of Star Trek: The Original Series,[4] five episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine[1][5] and a two-part episode of Star Trek: Enterprise[6] as well as several non-canon Star Trek novels and video games. It is named after "Mirror, Mirror", the original series episode in which it first appeared.[7]

Television

Emblem of the Terran Empire

The Original Series

The Mirror Universe was first introduced in the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured the brutal Terran Empire, run by humans and their Vulcan allies, in place of the United Federation of Planets. The Mirror Captain Kirk of the ISS Enterprise was a mass murderer who was promoted to Captain after assassinating Captain Christopher Pike. Discipline aboard starships was enforced through torture — either through agonizers carried by crewmembers or agony booths. Officers were barbaric in behavior and advanced in rank by killing superiors who they thought were incompetent. Roman/Nazi-style military salutes were used by crewmembers to show loyalty to their captain.[7]

Episodes

Series # Title Overview
TOS 204 "Mirror, Mirror" Four crewmembers from the USS Enterprise switch places with their Mirror Universe counterparts and must get home while avoiding being discovered by the Mirror Universe crew of the Enterprise.
TOS 309 "The Tholian Web" The USS Defiant (NCC-1764) is trapped in Interphase in Tholian space and vanishes. (No elements from the Mirror Universe are shown or mentioned anywhere in this episode. Its connection with the Mirror Universe was established retrospectively by "In a Mirror, Darkly").

Deep Space Nine

The Mirror Universe was later revisited in the Deep Space Nine second season episode "Crossover", and turned into a storyarc that spanned into the final season, with five Mirror Universe episodes over the course of five seasons.[5] The show reveals that when exposed to individuals from the normal universe, the Terran Empire began to reform itself for the better, but was overthrown in the 23rd century by an alliance of alien species who took advantage of the Empire's self-weakening and conquered it, enslaving Terrans and Vulcans in the process.[8]

Episodes

Series # Title Overview
DS9 223 "Crossover" Dr. Bashir and Major Kira are transported to the Mirror Universe 100 years after the events of "Mirror, Mirror". They find that the Terran Empire has been replaced by an Alliance of Klingons, Cardassians and Bajorans and that humans are slaves.
DS9 319 "Through the Looking Glass" The Mirror O'Brien kidnaps Sisko where Sisko must impersonate his late counterpart to save the Mirror version of his late wife.
DS9 419 "Shattered Mirror" After the Mirror Jennifer Sisko kidnaps Jake, Captain Sisko must travel to the Mirror Universe to retrieve his son. While there the Mirror O'Brien wishes for Sisko to help him prepare their version of the Defiant for battle against the Alliance in what could mean freedom for the Terrans.
DS9 608 "Resurrection" The Mirror version of Vedek Bareil arrives on DS9 as he flees from the Alliance. His real reason for being in our universe is to steal the Bajoran Orb of Prophecy and Change for the Intendant, the Mirror Kira. However, before he can complete this mission, he has a change of conscience, convinced by Kira, leaving the Orb behind and returning to the Mirror Universe with the Intendant.
DS9 712 "The Emperor's New Cloak" Grand Nagus Zek, financial leader of the Ferengi Alliance, is captured and taken to the Mirror Universe as a hostage. Quark and Rom must pay a ransom of a cloaking device to free Zek, but Regent Worf imprisons them all in his quest to crush the Terran rebels.

Enterprise

A two-part episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, entitled "In a Mirror, Darkly", introduces the early developments of the Mirror Universe.[6]

Episodes

Series # Title Overview
ENT 418 "In a Mirror, Darkly" Mirror Archer, Mirror Forrest, and the rest of the crew discover that the USS Defiant, a ship from 100 years in the future of an alternative universe, has travelled to their universe through a rip in space. All of the crewmembers except Captain Forrest evacuate the ISS Enterprise as it is attacked by Tholians and board the Defiant. The Enterprise is destroyed, and its surviving crew uses the improved technology of the Defiant to chase away the Tholians. Archer replaces Forrest as captain.
ENT 419 "In a Mirror, Darkly Part II" The Mirror Enterprise crew find the Defiant littered with the corpses of its former crew who murdered each other due to the effects of Interphase which causes humans to become psychotic. The Tholians use slaves to strip the ship. The overseer is a Gorn named Slar, who sabotages the Defiant and kills some of the survivors of the ISS Enterprise. Mirror Archer defeats the Gorn, and then his thoughts turn to using the powerful Defiant to take control of the Terran Empire. However, it is Mirror Hoshi Sato who ultimately threatens to use the Defiant's weapons on the Emperor of the Terran Empire and replace him as Empress of the Empire.

In other media

Novels

In addition to the TV episodes several novels make use of the Mirror Universe setting, as well a number of short stories in Star Trek anthologies.[1][7] Elements of these novels may contradict continuity as established in later TV episodes.[9]

Star Trek: Stargazer

The Star Trek: Stargazer novel Three, by Michael Jan Friedman also features the Mirror Universe.[7]

Dark Mirror

Diane Duane, in her Star Trek: The Next Generation book Dark Mirror offers another explanation of what happened after Captain Kirk and three others of his crew encountered the Mirror Universe.[7] In the novel, the Empire is still in existence in the 24th century. The point of divergence initially appears appears to be the Eugenics Wars where the genetic supermen were not defeated and eventually turned on each other resulting in atomic war but works dating back to the days of ancient Greece supporting the Empire's current mindset are noted.[10]

Shatnerverse

Various novels have been set in the Deep Space Nine version of the Mirror Universe, including a trilogy by William Shatner, which reveals the Mirror Kirk (or "Emperor Tiberius" as he calls himself) was still alive and plotting to reconquer the Empire.[1]

Star Trek: Mirror Universe

In 2007, two collections of Mirror stories were published: the first involves Mirror Enterprise, TOS and TNG, the second features Mirror DS9, Voyager and New Frontier.

A further collection entitled Shards and Shadows was released in January 2009.[11] The Mirror Universe storyline was concluded in the novel Rise Like Lions, released in November 2011.[12] A further story taking place in the Mirror Universe, Section 31 - Disavowed, was released in October 2014.[13]

Games

A number of Star Trek games take place in the Mirror Universe or reference it.[1] Among them, the first-person shooter Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, the massively multiplayer online game Star Trek Online, the battle simulator Star Trek: Shattered Universe which is entirely set in the Mirror Universe, Decipher's tabletop roleplaying game, and Star Trek: Attack Wing.[1]

Comics

The Mirror Universe Saga is a trade paperback that reprints eight issues of DC Comics' Star Trek comic book (issues #9 - #15, as well as issue #16 which completed the arc but did not actually involve the Mirror Universe) chronicling an encounter between the Mirror Universe and our own. It is set immediately after the events of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which had just been released shortly before the series was first published. The series was credited to Mike W. Barr (head writer for DC's Trek comic at the time), Tom Sutton, and Ricard Villagran.[14]

This story, like all Trek comics stories and novels, is not considered canonical with the main Star Trek universe.

Web series

Star Trek Continues is a fan-produced non-canon web series set in the timeframe of the original Star Trek series. "Fairest of Them All", released in 2014, is its third episode and a direct continuation of the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror". It features guest support from Asia DeMarcos as Marlena Moreau (played in the original series by BarBara Luna), Bobby Clark as Council Leader Tharn, Bobby Quinn Rice as Transporter Technician, Michael Dorn as the computer of the ISS Enterprise, and the first appearance of Kipleigh Brown as Barbara Smith (played in the original series by Andrea Dromm).[15]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Granshaw, Lisa (1 April 2015). "A look through Star Trek's Mirror Universe". Boing Boing. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  2. ↑ Okuda, Michael; Denise, Okuda; Mirek, Debbie (1994). The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 9780671886844.
  3. ↑ Hantke, Steffen (1 January 2014). "Star Trek's Mirror Universe Episodes and US Military Culture through the Eyes of the Other". Science Fiction Studies. 41 (3): 562–578. doi:10.5621/sciefictstud.41.3.0562. JSTOR 10.5621/sciefictstud.41.3.0562.
  4. ↑ "The Top 10 Original Star Trek Episodes". Newsweek. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  5. 1 2 MacMillan, Graeme (13 May 2015). "WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". WIRED. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  6. 1 2 MacMillan, Graeme (29 July 2015). "WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek: Enterprise". WIRED. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 DeCandido, Kieith (29 December 2015). "Star Trek The Original Series Rewatch: "Mirror, Mirror"". Tor.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  8. ↑ Handlen, Zack (21 June 2012). "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Crossover"/"The Collaborator"". A.V. Club. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  9. ↑ Ward, Dayton (4 August 2012). "Ten for Ward #5 – 10 Trek Novels "the Canon" Passed Over". Star Trek.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  10. ↑ Duane, Diane (1993). Dark Mirror. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-79377-2.
  11. ↑ Palmieri, Marco; Clark, Margaret (2008). Shards and Shadows (1st Pocket Books trade pbk ed.). London: Pocket. ISBN 978-1416558507.
  12. ↑ Mack, David (2011). Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions (1st Pocket Books pbk ed.). New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-1451607192.
  13. ↑ "Star Trek David Mack Is Back With New Star Trek Novel Section 31: Disavowed". CBS Entertainment. 2014-11-25. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  14. ↑ Barr, Mike W. (1991). Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga. New York: DC Comics. ISBN 0-930289-96-X.
  15. ↑ Watters, Bill (18 June 2014). "Review: Star Trek Continues, Episode 3: Fairest of them All". TrekMovie.com. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
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