Do you like the Mirror Universe Episodes?

[Astraea]

Regarding the Romulans in the MU, the new anthology, Shards and Shadows, has an NF story featuring them.

And for the list of DS9 mirror eps, off the top of my head:
Crossover, Through the Looking Glass, Shattered Mirror, Resurrection, The Emperor's New Cloak. Am I missing any?

 

[Aquehonga]

If they had really wanted to show us the MU, we'd have seen Sisko on the bridge of an Imperial ship.

You said it. I'd have preferred an MU similar to the TNG MU of the novel DARK MIRROR or the Original TOS MU in MIRROR, MIRROR.

But, being there are infinite alternate/parallel universes, many have Earth Empires still alive & kicking.

I hope in some MUs, in addition to the standard evil humans & Vulcans, you have pacifist Klingons, peaceful Romulans, humanitarian* Cardassians, wealth-hating Ferengi & a huge Pax Galactica/Federation/Republic in the Gamma Quadrant, administered by a coalition of peaceful changelings, Vorta & other species who share the changelings philosophy of peace, goodwill & exploration.

*I'm aware of the ironic use of the term humanitarian here.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Aquehonga...in the MU we saw on DS9, the Ferengi actually didn't seem so bad (Brunt sure wasn't). But I do agree, I would've liked to see some decent individuals among the other races as well.

 

[Ezri II]

Aquehonga...in the MU we saw on DS9, the Ferengi actually didn't seem so bad (Brunt sure wasn't). But I do agree, I would've liked to see some decent individuals among the other races as well.

Oh, the Vulcans would be a treat to see

The mirror universe 7 of 9 now that would be someone to play with

 

[Gary7]

Should've stopped after the second one.

What was with Sisko sleeping with Mirror Kira and Jadzia? Wouldn't that be awkward when he got home.

And the copy of the Defiant was a bit much.

Missed opportunity to see what MU Romulans were like.

I'm in complete agreement. Especially about the Defiant... wow, they have the ability to replicate the whole thing in record time, but then can't quite get the structural integrity right? It's like building the World Trade Center from scratch and then not knowing how to correct flaws with the elevator shafts. And then, why build just one? Why not two or three?

Also, I never quite get it... at one point they're down to practically no shields, "the next shot will destroy us", and nobody seems seriously worried--not even Sisko. Yes, he's an excellent pilot, but I didn't detect any nervousness on his part. It just didn't feel plausible to me. And yes, they flew close to the hull of the Klingon cruiser because the surface guns couldn't move fast enough, but towards the end you see the Defiant at some distance away--one shot and they've have had it.

And another thing: In the mirror universe, personalities are very different. True, there are underpinnings of similarities, but generally everyone is supposed to be emotionally opposite. Nice people are nasty, the confident are meek, the cordial are unruly... I guess it's not a complete reversal across the board, but I'd have expected Jennifer not to be as soft and endearing. Bashir was definitely a complete opposite. O'Brien? He became the same O'Brien as in the 'normal' universe... I couldn't tell them apart.

Lastly, we have this 'security breach', where the technology is developed to enable universe-to-universe transport. O'Brien is able to do this on his own without any help. So... wouldn't other more skilled people have come up with it as well? Even still... wouldn't it create a serious breach of security? You'd think that the next most important thing to do would be to create some kind of energy barrier that prevents them from coming through. Or go back to destroy the technology that has been developed so that they don't keep coming through. If the Mirror universe is deviant, wouldn't you think the people there would exploit this "hole"? Come on over to the 'positive' universe, steal stuff, then return back home? I smell a massive gap in plausibility here.

So... although I did enjoy the first two episodes, I thought that those which followed were not handled well and left too many loose threads dangling.

 

[apenpaap]

I really like the Mirror Universe episodes (even Resurrection and the Emperors noew Cloak), but it's a pity that their story meant there could be no mirror episodes on Voyager.

 

[JustKate]

I wanna third choice, I wanna third choice!

I loved the first Mirror Universe episode - loved it loved it loved it. And I believe I really liked the second one, although my memory of it isn't really clear. But after that...well, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Except for chocolate.

 

[kitsune]

The mirror universe never made sense to me. If everybody's personality is different in the mirror universe, then surely people would have made babies with different people throughout history, yet somehow everyone still has an exact, genetic clone counterpart in the opposite universe.

This is similar to the time-travel paradox: If you traveled back in time and so much as delayed one man's actions by one second from the proper timeline, all of his descendants would instantly and irrevocably be different from how you remember them. This is because the sperm a man is carrying at any moment in time are constantly moving around. There is thus no way to change history in any measurable way without changing the population from that moment forward.

 

[kitsune]

Aquehonga...in the MU we saw on DS9, the Ferengi actually didn't seem so bad (Brunt sure wasn't). But I do agree, I would've liked to see some decent individuals among the other races as well.

Oh, the Vulcans would be a treat to see

The mirror universe 7 of 9 now that would be someone to play with

I wonder what the Borg modus operandi would be...

 

[Tulaberry whine]

2. As mentioned the "let's make it so we can reuse all the sets we have" approach.

To be fair, that's a criticism that could be made of almost every TV sci fi series that's ever been made.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Non-canon though it may be, I find that I like the DS9 mirror episodes now that I know exactly *why* the Terran Empire fell.

Spoiler: novels

Mirror Spock planned the whole thing in advance. He *wanted* the Empire to fall and to be conquered. He reasoned that humanity of that universe had to know what it was like to be enslaved, in order to prevent the Empire from ever rising again and to ensure that the next human government would be benevolent. Oh, and there's the Vulcan sleeper agents planted throughout the Klingon/Cardassian alliance with the intention of bringing *it* down as well. Spock's last line before he is executed, sums the whole thing up: "The end of my empire will mean the end of all of yours."

 

[Cyke101]

Also, I never quite get it... at one point they're down to practically no shields, "the next shot will destroy us", and nobody seems seriously worried--not even Sisko.

It's a kick-ass battle scene for sure, but the one thing that sticks out for me is how Sisko tells Smiley that he'll take over the helm... and they have the time for an entire sequence of dialogue for it. For a few seconds, they're just standing around. What happened to "the next shot will destroy us," guys?

And another thing: In the mirror universe, personalities are very different. True, there are underpinnings of similarities, but generally everyone is supposed to be emotionally opposite. Nice people are nasty, the confident are meek, the cordial are unruly... I guess it's not a complete reversal across the board, but I'd have expected Jennifer not to be as soft and endearing. Bashir was definitely a complete opposite. O'Brien? He became the same O'Brien as in the 'normal' universe... I couldn't tell them apart.

That's my primary issue with the DS9 mirror episodes. The premise of the Mirror Universe isn't that everybody is opposite, but rather that Humanity is just downright evil. In TOS and ENT, the non-humans were good and mostly honorable (or otherwise unchanged) but humans couldn't be reasoned with. Humanity's drive, ambition, and great potential going the wrong way is a great idea. If All of Trek teaches us that the core of humanity is ultimately good, what if the core of humanity was unabashedly evil? If humanity and the Federation can reach great heights and power through goodwill and exploration, what would an evil Federation do? The Federation Gone Bad.

But as you point out, the humans in DS9 eventually remain the same, and some of them are just as heroic as their actual counterparts. Now they're plucky underdogs. Blech.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Most of them are okay, but nothing spectacular. I voted yes, still.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

The mirror universe eps. are one of the few things I don't like about Deep Space 9. The TOS mirror universe ep. perfectly treads the line between fun and horror.

I felt like the DS9 MU stuff kind of shoehorned the whole concept in. I felt that the whole resistence vs. the evil empire thing they were trying to pull off was incredibly generic and predictable.

Along with the pah wraiths, I see the MU DS9 stuff as one of the few mistakes DS9 made.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I loved them. Mirror, Mirror is definitely one of my top 5 TOS episodes.

Is there a Star Trek book where Mirror Spock kills Kirk? I'd be willing to read that.

I think the next Star Trek series should have 3 Federation ships trapped in the DS9 Mirrorverse. Down with the Federation. Long live the Federation Empire in the Mirrorverse. LOL

psik

 

[Red Ranger]

I voted "yes," but like a lot of good ideas, DSN ran the Mirror universe concept a bit into the ground. My fave counterparts were, of course, Kira and Worf. I also liked how they brought Jennifer back. A nice way to bring back Felecia Bell. I wish we'd seen more of the real Jennifer Sisko, too, with more flashbacks. And one of my fave scenes is when our Bashir kills the Mirror Odo -- just blows his ass up! -- RR

 

[tomalak301]

I like Through the Looking Glass a lot better than Crossover, even though both are extremely good. I just thought there was a more fun to it, and it was great to see Jennifer again. Also, the fight at the end with Sisko tricking Kira was awesome.

As for the other three, Shattard Mirror was pretty good (Great effects), Ressurection was probably the worst, and Emperor's New Cloak gave us a hot Ezri. Can't complain about that.

 

[Anika Hanson]

No, I think they over did it in the end, and it lost some of it's mystery. I didnt like the idea that they could just hop over at will and why wasnt sisco more warry of them.Think it was done much better in TOS and the TNG book dark mirror

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I loved the first two, I disliked the next two, and flat-out hated the last one. So overally, no. It really got tiresome after a point.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I've only seen the first three, but I liked them all. I think people here are taking them way too seriously. The way I see it, they're basically just excuses for the cast to have fun with their characters by being able to play them more over-the-top/evil than usual (except Andrew Robinson, who understandably didn't like having to play Garak as basically someone's bitch). You'd think DS9 Mirror episodes would be more effective than that of "Star Trek" with all the advances in special effects, acting, writing etc. between them, but "Mirror, Mirror" is still more tightly written, better acted, and overall just more consistently entertaining than any DS9 mirror episode.

And I disagree that the Enterprise mirror episodes weren't as good as the DS9 ones. Although the one where Jake goes to the mirror universe has some truly moving tragedy in it, I think for the most part the mirror universe episodes are just weird fun. "In A Mirror, Darkly", however, had some fantastically powerful drama in it and should be dismissed as just a bunch of wild alternate dimension craziness (although there are a lot of funny bits, like Sato's blatant slutiness). I can't emphasize how much that episode redeems the whole series. I've only see one other Enterprise episode (which I hated) and I like Enterprise more than Voyager (which I've seen about half a dozen episodes of) based entirely on the strength of those mirror episodes.