DS9's mirror universe dived off a cliff into fantasy land when Vic Fontane showed up as a flesh-and-blood human. That didn't make any sense whatsoever. The mirror universe went from "cruel reflection" to "complete joke".
Mirror Universe problems
- Thread starter Itisnotlogical
- Start date
The writers haven't come to an agreement whether the MU is opposite or just different. I'd say that the right answer is, whatever advances the theme of the MU best.
What's the theme? That we can better appreciate the morality and restraint of the normal Federation by observing its opposite. Also, it's fun to see the namby-pamby Starfleet characters stabbing each other in the back and torturing each other while wearing skimpy clothing and goatees.
So follow whatever logic lets you do that best. For instance, is it fun to see the bad Cardassians be good? Only for the sake of irony (e.g., Intendant Kira sexually harassing nice-guy Dukat).
You're right, that was too random. Is it enlightening, sexy or fun to see Vic be a flesh and blood person? No. So that serves no purpose.
What's the theme? That we can better appreciate the morality and restraint of the normal Federation by observing its opposite. Also, it's fun to see the namby-pamby Starfleet characters stabbing each other in the back and torturing each other while wearing skimpy clothing and goatees.
So follow whatever logic lets you do that best. For instance, is it fun to see the bad Cardassians be good? Only for the sake of irony (e.g., Intendant Kira sexually harassing nice-guy Dukat).
You're right, that was too random. Is it enlightening, sexy or fun to see Vic be a flesh and blood person? No. So that serves no purpose.
I always under the impression the MU was something more than just another alternate reality, that's why it gets its own name. Also, I feel there is more of a connection between it and the Prime, thus explaining all the travel back and forth. My own theory is that every universe in the multiverse has its own "Mirror" where everything is exactly the same, just morally inverted and with the opposite attitudes towards facial hair.
Was he human, though? I've heard theories he was an android.
Not Vic, but he was referred to as Fontaine. So unless Felix's last name is also Fontaine, I would assume that was meant to be Vic.
Was he human, though? I've heard theories he was an android.
Not Vic, but he was referred to as Fontaine. So unless Felix's last name is also Fontaine, I would assume that was meant to be Vic.
Bolded what the MU has always been, right from the very beginning. YMMV may vary, of course.
Pretty much this. Fourth-wall breaking humor and other such weirdness are what make "The Emperor's New Cloak" one of the more bearable MU eps, to me. The whole concept of the Mirror Universe is so incredibly stupid that the only way I can enjoy an ep about it is when it's not taken too seriously. "Cloak" was still pretty dumb, but at least it's amusing.
The ultra-anal stuff you complain about in the STXI forum, yet this is okay?
Uh-huh.
*sigh* Back on topic please.
Huh, that never occured to me before now. Felix made Vic in his own image in the same way that Doc Zimmerman made the EMH mark 1 in his.
Makes sense to me.
Bolded what the MU has always been, right from the very beginning. YMMV may vary, of course.
Pretty much this. Fourth-wall breaking humor and other such weirdness are what make "The Emperor's New Cloak" one of the more bearable MU eps, to me. The whole concept of the Mirror Universe is so incredibly stupid that the only way I can enjoy an ep about it is when it's not taken too seriously. "Cloak" was still pretty dumb, but at least it's amusing.
Completely agreed on both points. The MU has always been idiotic, and it's painful when the shows take it seriously. Emperor's New Cloak is the ONLY MU ep I find bearable. Bizarro Ezri's snarking and Quark and Rom's reactions really make the episode work. But really, the one MU episode that has Ezri in it is the one watchable one. Why am I not surprised?
Huh. Years after the fact I'm suddenly finding opinions on the DS9 MU episodes that are the complete opposite of my own... 
I'd think even in a worst-case scenario people would have to give some props to Crossover, but I wonder whether some might be unhappy with that one because of what it does with Kirk's final speech to MU Spock.
I'd think even in a worst-case scenario people would have to give some props to Crossover, but I wonder whether some might be unhappy with that one because of what it does with Kirk's final speech to MU Spock.
I am another one who believes that 'Mirror Vic' is actually Felix. I wasn't aware, though, that he was ever called 'Fontaine'...oh well, that could be Felix's last name, who knows. In the RU, Felix probably just picked a first name for his hologram that sounded cool and 60's-ish.
He was called 'Vic' and 'Fontaine' and 'Vic Fontaine' - all in the space of a few lines of dialogue.
Explaining how a holographic character supposedly from 1962 Las Vegas becomes a flesh-and-blood 24th-century human is one thing, but I think trying to make someone clearly identified in dialogue as Vic Fontaine into Mirror Felix is going to be a stretch (unless, perhaps, you care to make 'Felix' Vic's middle name?
) Personally, I've spent even less time worrying about any of that than Mirror Vic spent alive on screen. This is all the explanation it ever needed:
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Explaining how a holographic character supposedly from 1962 Las Vegas becomes a flesh-and-blood 24th-century human is one thing, but I think trying to make someone clearly identified in dialogue as Vic Fontaine into Mirror Felix is going to be a stretch (unless, perhaps, you care to make 'Felix' Vic's middle name?
Sorry, I had forgotten that MU Vic's name was actually mentioned on screen.
You don't even need to go that far; you can always pull out the big BttF science fail: even if the "normal" parents meet up, why do the same 1/300m sperm still make it?
Vis-a-vis Mirror, Mirror, one could vaguely speculate that the Federation became the barbaric empire right after Marlena was born. But the DS9 eps should have logically been in other Mirror Universes... and the rather pointless In a Mirror, Darkly defnitely shouldn't take place in the same MU as TOS'.
kkozoriz1
Fleet Captain
(emphasis mine)
Explaining how a holographic character supposedly from 1962 Las Vegas becomes a flesh-and-blood 24th-century human is one thing, but I think trying to make someone clearly identified in dialogue as Vic Fontaine into Mirror Felix is going to be a stretch (unless, perhaps, you care to make 'Felix' Vic's middle name?
This is the Prime Universe Rom (and Quark) who of course would only know him as Vic. Mirror Bashier only calls him Fontaine.
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