Like most, I think 'Mirror Mirror' to be to be best and 'In A Mirror, Darkly' a close second. I loved how they not only worked in the USS Defiant but when confronted with the it's advanced technology the only part they truly embraced were the weaponry. The DS-9 episodes just did not click with me- looked more like an excuse to over-act by the regulars. I do feel though that the NX should have had more changes to it than just a paint job- something along the lines of the Warship Voyager in 'Living Witness' would have been fun.
For me, basically the same as what most have already said: Mirror, Mirror is king, IAMD a very close second. The DS9 Mirror Universe episodes just plain stunk.
DS9's mirror universe was hokey and over the top and mostly used as a playground of disposable versions of the main characters. ENT's take was awesome but awesome in a fanservice way. TOS wins.
In a Mirror Darkly does it for me. Mirror, Mirror comes as a close second, but my issue with it is how quickly Kirk formulates the theory of being in a parallel universe. Those lines kind of felt like artificially put there to make the watcher understand exactly what is happening. Crossover was pretty good too. The first time I watched that episode in the 90's, I was all over it, as I also remembered the Kirk incident. I admit, I did not watch the rest of DS9 episodes (I never watched past season 3), so I have no opinions on them.
I second this, really there wasn't any other option Kirk could have considered, apart from maybe Spock went nuts and changed everything around while he was on the planet! I loved the DS9 Mirror Universe episodes, but as a fun distraction rather than a "true" mirror universe story, I could even postulate that they may be in a "different" mirror universe to that shown in Mirror, Mirror and In A Mirror Darkly. I regard the latter two as fantastic episodes. I always thought it would have been fun for TOS to re-visit the universe, discovering that Kor was almost like Kirk, with the Klingons and Romulans being very Federation-like.
A difficult question. TOS' episode was great, so was ENT's. I like the first DS9 one, also. I guess my favourite is the one with Worf, "Shattered Mirror". The other ones are also good.
Until reading this thread, I did not know there were so many Mirror episodes, especially in DS9 [I'm not really a Niner]. How many Mirror episodes did DS9 do?
That they are inside some mind trick or under the influence of some malevolent alien? It happened many times before that episode. They always ran into things that drove the crew mad, delusional or simply degenerate. The fact that Kirk somehow just guessed the right answer for that situation seemed kind of far-fetched to me.
Well, if we're going to analyze the scene, let's at least have the transcript: I've highlighted what I think are the key pieces of information that Kirk bases his supposition on. Everything being the same, but different, and then the same down to certain details that can't easily be known (how many besides McCoy knew about the acid spot?), the behavior of the transporter beam, and the surge of power because of the storm all suggest that they've accidentally beamed somewhere else, because of the storm. That somewhere else can't really be in their own universe, either. QED. Yeah, I agree: Kirk's just that good. He can argue a machine into blowing itself up. He has a genius-level intellect, and he doesn't shrink from the logical conclusion. It's also worth noting that the theory is confirmed later in the episode, first by the ship's computer as a plausible theory, and then later by Scotty as what's actually happening, when he sets up the transporter to beam them back, as Scotty is able to determine that they don't have much time left to return. Even if it had been a mind trick, so what? How could they have been any worse off, by following the best escape plan they had before them?
Of course "Mirror, Mirror" was excellent because of the "what if..." story idea it examined, but for me ENT's "In A Mirror, Darkly" excelled in exploiting the story idea (and these are the only ENT episodes I ever watched full length, I'm really not a prequel fan with the exception of B5's "In the Beginning"). With TOS Gene Roddenberry wanted to have "Hornblower" in it, Nicholas Meyer delivered it with ST II and VI but exaggerated, IMHO while IAMD did a great job of conveying a maritime feel, although admittedly it was more "Pirates of the Caribbean" than "Horatio Hornblower". Everything in IAMD reminded me of pirates doing their business but of course within a futuristic context. If that was the essential idea I can only congratulate the ENT producers on an excellent job. Bob
In a Mirror, Darkly definitely. What clearly sets it apart from the other MU episodes is the fact, that it is totally a mirror episode, from teaser to end credits (you´ve got to admire how they even changed the opening credits along with the music to match the rest of the episode(s)). This way we get to see "our heroes" as they are in the other universe, without the posing as bad guys and tiptoeing around of the "real" characters as in Mirror, Mirror (which I still like a lot, nonetheless). It´s a straight forward fun story to watch, without any constraints, completely detached from ENTs "real" universe. And though some apparently consider bringing the Defiant back this way as "fanwank", I was really thrilled the first time a saw it ... did NOT see that coming IAMD may also be an interesting entry for someone wo hasn´t seen any ENT episodes before, since it stands so separate from the rest of the show and also has the ties back to TOS. Mario
I love this one thing Linda Park said about her appearances in IAMD. She said she was trying to "put the Ho in Hoshi".
Even if we count the Talos IV incident (which didn't involve this crew), and maybe Trelane, I believe, at this point in the series that "always ran into things" of the calibre to look like a parallel universe is probably overstating it. Indeed, at this point, Kirk had practical experience with alternate universe hopping to know it might make you dizzy, so he asked the crew.