Which Mirror Universe Era do you prefer?

Which Mirror Universe Era do you prefer? The Terran Empire Era from the Enterprise to TOS or the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance Era from DS9?

Personally I prefer the Terran Empire Era, I think seeing evil versions of normally heroic human characters is more fun then evil Cardassians and Klingons, who are already presented villains in the Prime Universe.

 

TOS. The Empire is at its height. And it is simple. Humans never evolved morally from the era of the ancient world. Humans were once like the Terran Empire, and yet the species functioned. The Terrans' technology evolved, but their morality did not. Its cutthroat, might-makes-right, and they're basically pirates. And there's none of the muckity muck of decades of canon and postmodern reappraisal, "what history lead up to this", and the rest to get in the way of a story about bad guy fun.

 

Definitely DSC-TOS. Also loved Diane Duane's Dark Mirror (how TNG-era MU should have been) and DC comics TOS movie-era MU run.

ENT's version failed to make me care about any of the characters so it fell totally flat.

DS9 made it (something admittedly very goofy) into a self-parody, where all the women were bi or lesbian (because gay can only be shown in the twisted evil universe??), and Vic Fontane was a human just because.

 

Definitely TOS because it went to shit afterwards. As much as I love DS9, it totally butchered the Mirror Universe and I grew to hate it every time the show revisited it. It's reached the point now that I don't like the Mirror Universe being touched upon in books and comics anymore.

I will say one good thing about ENT's Mirror U though, it cemented ENT & TOS together visually and showed that just because the TOS era had a retro style didn't mean that it was inferior. I do admit it was a kick seeing a TOS Constitution making mincemeat of ENT era ships, even if it was in the Mirror Universe.

 

I love the Mirror Universe from top to bottom but I think my favorite representation of it so far is the DS9 stuff.

 

Careful there. It's still a heated debate as to whether or not he was human or android.

What novel is that from? I just looked over Memory Beta, and according to it the Mirror Universe still had the Eugenics Wars which still ended with Khan's defeat and the Terran Empire outlawing genetic engineering.

 

Than that's not the Mirror Universe, that just an alternate universe.

 

The Mirror Universe needs no Khan. The fact is humans were like they are in the Mirror Universe for eons, and happily went along in backstabbing and heinousness well into civilization. Look to Rome or the Vikings, the Middle Ages, and the nasty bits about Egypt and the Greeks. They warred, murdered, enslaved and did really atrocious things as par for the course that the popular history would prefer to forget. And it was simply accepted as something normal, or even proper. The higher up you were, the more likely it was someone wanted what you had, and would cloak themselves in allies and legitimacy when you were pushed out of the picture. The lower you were, the more open you were to abuse without recourse. For goodness sake, for a long time, revenge and letting the parties work it out themselves through murder if necessary, was a legal option. In Rome, and sorry for this nasty subject, rape was something to be dealt with by the family privately, outside the law, for their retribution. Also in Rome, the family was a dictatorship of the pater familias, and the father could do whatever he well pleased in his private dictatorship. In the Middle Ages, there was outlawry as an option in many societies. To be an outlaw did not mean you were a criminal. It meant that you were declared outside of the law for your crimes, and anyone could do anything to you they wanted (say, murder you) and you had no legal protection or rights against it. The Terrans are humans that never evolved morally or socially. Its Game of Thrones in space.

 

I'm not very fond of the mirror universe episodes, it's a daft idea and an excuse for cartoonish writing, hammy acting and other self-indulgencies.
That being said, ENT didn't do it too badly (at least nowhere near as badly as other series, DS9 in particular), so that, I guess.

Exactly what I meant with "cartoonish writing". Leeta's not human and has the brainpower of a twice-roasted peanut, but somehow, with a mere personality change, she can lead a cutthroat xenophobic human empire.

 

TOS. Though I haven't seen "Despite Yourself" yet. Will watch it Sunday night with the second part.

 

Well, considering we've only ever seen the ST and DSN eras of the Mirror Universe in any real Star Trek Production, its 50/50. But I'll go with the ST era. I like that the Empire is still in power and strong.

 

The Mirror Universe is the one visited by Kirk in "Mirror, Mirror", and the ENT, DS9 and DSC crews in their respective episodes. As per Data in "Parallels", there are an infinite number of parallel universes. The Myriad Universes stories all take place in different ones. Basically an in-universe way to do "what if...?" stories.

 

All of them.

 

"Mirror Universe" refers specifically to the universe from Mirror, Mirror revisited in DS9, Enterprise and now on Discovery. It's its own thing.

 

Android would be highly unlikely. Terrans would never be able to construct one, given how they're slaves and all that.

Personally, I think it's the MU counterpart of Felix, Vic's programmer. Makes sense that (in the RU) Felix would model Vic's physical appearance on his own self, just like Doc Zimmerman did with the EMH and like Noonien Soong with Data and Lore.

My theory is that, in the RU, Felix is kind of an overworked, underappreciated cubicle drone, who created Vic as a way to live out a fantasy life. And in the MU, Felix actually IS the badass warrior that his RU counterpart can only dream of being.

(actually, the only reason there even is a MU version is because James Darren wanted it.)

 

Discovery has the mirror universe? I had no idea. I guess that's what I get for forgetting to renew my CBSAA subscription.

Kor