Dark Mirror

[Hoshi_Mayweather]

I skimmed through this book (skipping the first third) and liked what I've read.(This would have made a good episode).

muDeanna Troi as the main baddie was pretty ruthless; muWorf was the benign character that befriends Picard; muPicard was a character I would've liked to see on the small screen. Beverly Crusher was the 'Captain's woman'...

Even muBarclay makes an appearance as the Captain's personal guard...

The Agony booth makes a return, a favorite of muTroi; and muTroi seems to use her 'mental gifts' a little more...i.e. She can tell if you're lying, if you're nearby, what you're dreaming about, etc. (And given that this is the MU we're talking about, you can never let your guard down)...

As one who thought TNG played it too safe, I like the fact the crew steps into a universe that contrasts their own. (Too, I like the TNG crew revisiting an aspect of TOS, something I felt TNG didn't do enough of).

I don't want to go into too much for risk of spoiling if I hadn't done so already (even if there are spoiler tags)...but I think this is a good sequel to 'Mirror, Mirror.'

Anyone else like this book? I think it's one of the best...

[JoeZhang]

It's the only mirror universe book I liked - I tried a couple of the others after a thread here and they just read as sad fanboy pandering for people who couldn't get a date.

[Nerys Ghemor]

I thought it was very good as an MU book. I've always thought so much more could've been done with the MU than what we saw on DS9 (the episodes kinda slid downhill as time went on).

One scene I will never forget is when Picard was reading the books on the MU Picard's shelf, working his way slowly back--and it all came down to one missing act of mercy in a book thousands of years old. Very chilling, that.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I thought it was pretty interesting that the MU Enterprise-D does not have personal communicators for its crew, on the assumption that such things would make people easier to track down and kill (kind of like the Tantalus Field in TOS).

And the 'political officer' alt-Troi was damn chilly. God only knows what alt-Lwaxana must have been like...

Only thing is, I like the term 'Terran Empire' better than what that book had. Admittedly, the term had not yet been invented when the novel was written (it was first used in "In a Mirror, Darkly" - all other uses were just 'the Empire'), but it just sounds more badass than 'United Empire of Planets'.

Nerys Ghemor wrote:

---

One scene I will never forget is when Picard was reading the books on the MU Picard's shelf, working his way slowly back--and it all came down to one missing act of mercy in a book thousands of years old. Very chilling, that.

What do you mean? The alternate version of The Merchant of Venice? The divergence was much earlier than that, at least up until the alternate Plato's Republic.

I do remember being very glad that Picard didn't even open the alternate universe version of the Bible. I believe I even thanked the author personally for not showing that.

[John Clark]

I think I'd have liked to have seen this one on screen

I certainly enjoyed the book

[LightningStorm]

Babaganoosh wrote:

---

Only thing is, I like the term 'Terran Empire' better than what that book had. Admittedly, the term had not yet been invented when the novel was written (it was first used in "In a Mirror, Darkly" - all other uses were just 'the Empire'), but it just sounds more badass than 'United Empire of Planets'.

I thought the term was used in DS9's Crossover. I could be misremembering though.

[Nerys Ghemor]

Babaganoosh wrote:

---

What do you mean? The alternate version of The Merchant of Venice? The divergence was much earlier than that, at least up until the alternate Plato's Republic.

I think it may have been the Iliad, actually--an act of mercy from Achilles that was omitted in the MU version.

I do remember being very glad that Picard didn't even open the alternate universe version of the Bible. I believe I even thanked the author personally for not showing that.

Oh yeah, definitely.

Though who knows what Picard would've found. Heck, maybe the Bible would've been completely unchanged--but people's reactions were totally different.

[Semah]

Diane Duane's Star Trek universe is close to my favorite interpretation. The Federation has to act equal parts Diplomatic Corps, Explorers, Scientists, and (when all else fails) Soldiers, and they pursue all of these aspects with equal skill. Dark Mirror is a logical progression for her version of the OS timeframe. In my mind, she more than anyone portrays the sheer joy and excitement that these characters have in doing what they do. And she's quite skilled in creating interesting minor characters that are interesting, but do not outshine the TV characters.

[foravalon]

I always thought Terran Empire was an informal term, like people calling the UFP simply "the Federation".

[Trent Roman]

Nerys Ghemor wrote:

---

I think it may have been the Iliad, actually--an act of mercy from Achilles that was omitted in the MU version.

Yup; in this version, Akilles kills Priam after the old man comes to beg to get Hektor's body back and give him an appropriate burial. That said, I don't think variations in literature (particularly one already so bloody-minded as the Iliad) can account for the MU's divergeance, nor do I think they necessary indicate when the timeline diverged. I think it's possible and I daresay likely that a civilization like this one would have no problem going back and editing classic works of literature to something more to their taste.

I love Dark Mirror; despite everything we've seen on Deep Space Nine and subsequent follow-ups in the books, when I think of the Mirror Universe one of the first images to come to mind is still Imperial Picard standing over his counterpart as he loses consciousness, saying "Ill met by starlight, indeed." Such menace!

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

[captcalhoun]

that's my thought as well, Trent. Imperial literature being different is not a very good indicator.

[Semah]

Trent Roman wrote:

---

That said, I don't think variations in literature (particularly one already so bloody-minded as the Iliad) can account for the MU's divergeance, nor do I think they necessary indicate when the timeline diverged. I think it's possible and I daresay likely that a civilization like this one would have no problem going back and editing classic works of literature to something more to their taste.


Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

That was my take on it. A large scale Ministry of Truthesque rewrite of all major literature.


I think there was a line in the book stating that the divergence started around the time of the Eugenics Wars, but I could be misremembering.

[Sci]

foravalon wrote:

---

I always thought Terran Empire was an informal term, like people calling the UFP simply "the Federation".

It's possible, but there's no evidence of it. It's been called "the Terran Empire" whenever it was called anything other than "the Empire."

[Christopher]

Calling it the Terran Empire makes me wonder if it had an agent named Dominic Flandry....

[Nerys Ghemor]

Trent Roman wrote:

---

Yup; in this version, Akilles kills Priam after the old man comes to beg to get Hektor's body back and give him an appropriate burial. That said, I don't think variations in literature (particularly one already so bloody-minded as the Iliad) can account for the MU's divergeance, nor do I think they necessary indicate when the timeline diverged. I think it's possible and I daresay likely that a civilization like this one would have no problem going back and editing classic works of literature to something more to their taste.

I agree that's possible. But what's telling is that the edits are more and more subtle as you go further back in time. If you go by the theory that these were redactions from a later time period rather than some divergence that started subtly thousands of years ago and got worse as time went on, I am curious to know--what do you use to explain that progressive divergence? Why not simply redact it all with the same heavy-handedness?

(I do not remember that line about the Eugenics Wars in Dark Mirror, BTW, but that's not saying it wasn't there.)