• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Is the MU in ENT and TOS a 1:1 of the regular one?

Lance

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
It obviously has off-shot in a considerable number of ways by the time the DS9 era rolls around.

But do we get the impression that the Mirror Universe of ENT and TOS is a 1:1 of 'ours'? Or are there indications that they may be of a different technological level than our own?

It occurs to me that a Terran Empire that slashes, burns and conquers might have technological levels in advance of our own, simply because they invade planets and take what they want.

We know Mirror!Kirk 'appropriated' the Tantalus Device from its original owners, and I can even imagine the agony booth being built upon some kind of stolen alien tech.
 
Last edited:
Sorry, from the thread title I thought you were asking if the mirror universe is to the same scale as our own. What if it was slightly larger or smaller?
 
Sorry, from the thread title I thought you were asking if the mirror universe is to the same scale as our own. What if it was slightly larger or smaller?

That's a good question in itself. ;) Would a 'savage empire' branch out into the cosmos at a faster rate than a benign entity? Given that the Terrans haven't got any of those fiddly rules about contact with other life, and they (presumably) simply make landfall on any planet they discover and conquer it by brutal means, would suggest that the Empire would likely be a larger 'force' than the Federation, or that they may have charted more of the galaxy.
 
A lot of savage empires never really evolve much. They stagnate as they conquer and destroy rather than innovate. Sure they reverse engineer things but they don't create their own.

I would say that the only reason that the ENT-MU and TOS-MU maintained the same tech level was the introduction of the Defiant. There is no reason to say that the MU didn't strip 1764 for parts, rebuild and copy it's design and stagnate technologically for the following 80 years. In fact it's quite plausible as the tech was so advanced that enemies couldn't cut through it's shields nor block it's weaponry.

I would even go so far as to say that the Defiant was probably the number 1 reason the Terran Empire fell, as with a "god mode" ship being on their roster so long, they forgot that enemies can advance and adapt to them, eventually their bonus is gone and their tech is not advancing to keep pace with their enemies.
 
Strange how the 2260's MU Enterprise has the older style "slots and spires" nacelles, while PU Defiant as shown in ENT had the newer "spinning globe" versions.
 
I had forgotten in my opening post that, in fact, ENT heavily implies that the agony booths were at least in part a product of the enslavement of an alien race... specifically, Denobulan. (Mirror Phlox was a seemingly willing co-inventor of the device, but it's worth noting that Denobulans are enslaved to the Terrans in that universe, therefore no enslavement, no agony booth.)
 
We know in the MU the Terran Empire has built more NX class ships than have been built in the Prime Universe. The Prime Universe only has two, but the MU as at least nine, ISS Avenger's registry was NX-09. So there is some technological advancement in the Mirror Universe over the Prime.
 
I would assume, given the Terran Empire's proclivities, that weapons and war tech would be highly advanced, while "peacetime" tech, such as holodecks and medical advances would lag behind. It the LitVerse, it is implied that once Spock became Emperor, that the Terran Empire made amazing scientific advancement.
 
Well, there's only 1 canon Star Trek work set in the 23rd century MU. The novels expand upon that and portray the 23rd century Terran Empire as having conquered Bajor and in active contact with the Cardassians and the Breen, which the 23rd century Federation did not have. Also, Carol and David Marcus and their colleagues achieved a fully functional version of the Genesis device.
 
Well, there's only 1 canon Star Trek work set in the 23rd century MU. The novels expand upon that and portray the 23rd century Terran Empire as having conquered Bajor and in active contact with the Cardassians and the Breen, which the 23rd century Federation did not have. Also, Carol and David Marcus and their colleagues achieved a fully functional version of the Genesis device.

I know it's an alternative universe in itself, but the 2009 Star Trek movie did canonise that the 23rd century Federation had already made contact with the Cardassians (or, at the very least, knew about them). If the fundamentals of the Abrams-verse are supposed to be taken at face value, then we might logically assume that the so-called 'Prime' universe Federation of the same period was well aware of the Cardies also (and I have no reason to doubt that).
 
I prefer to believe Uhura said Kardashian in Trek XI therefore leaving my personal canon that there was no contact between the Federation and the Cardassians in the 23rd century unblemished.
 
I prefer to believe Uhura said Kardashian in Trek XI therefore leaving my personal canon that there was no contact between the Federation and the Cardassians in the 23rd century unblemished.

Hmm, I don't know. Personally, I think I'd rather not have contact with the Kardashians. ;)
 
The assumption is that the MU reverse engineered USS Defiant, but couldn't recreate everything back in 2155. So they made do with a lesser version of the vessel, making improvements until they could replicate the technology.

ISS Enterprise might be up to USS Defiant standards, or she might still be a bit behind. Or perhaps she is slightly ahead, and the "older" nacelle styling is actually additional armor in case an enemy managed to breech the shields. And more combat oriented starship.
 
Sorry, from the thread title I thought you were asking if the mirror universe is to the same scale as our own. What if it was slightly larger or smaller?
mDvIu3D.png
 
^Bring back Giant Spock Clone!!



IIRC, the ENT MU episodes were intended to be the start of an ongoing arc. I suspect they'd have ended with the Defiant destroyed before any technology could be salvaged.
 
I think each version of the MU is unique, and it is created suddenly like an inaccurate photocopy of the prime universe. That's the only way to explain how the same individuals could be born generations apart (Spock, Kira,...) in universes where different behaviors and events occur.

An MU will flash into existence due to an event in the prime universe, and the number of such "bad copy" universes just keeps growing.
 
I told you not to cross the streams!

Now we have a gray-haired terminator running loose!
 
Well, there's only 1 canon Star Trek work set in the 23rd century MU. The novels expand upon that and portray the 23rd century Terran Empire as having conquered Bajor and in active contact with the Cardassians and the Breen, which the 23rd century Federation did not have. Also, Carol and David Marcus and their colleagues achieved a fully functional version of the Genesis device.

I know it's an alternative universe in itself, but the 2009 Star Trek movie did canonise that the 23rd century Federation had already made contact with the Cardassians (or, at the very least, knew about them). If the fundamentals of the Abrams-verse are supposed to be taken at face value, then we might logically assume that the so-called 'Prime' universe Federation of the same period was well aware of the Cardies also (and I have no reason to doubt that).
Uhura ordered a Cardassian sunrise in 2255. It could be that the drink made its way to Federation space via interstellar trade between 2233 and 2255 without the Federation actually having solid information about the Cardassians.

Neither canon nor the novels have set a specific date for Federation-Cardassian first contact. The novels just say that in-universe, not everyone agrees on what qualifies as the very first contact.

I guess what does possibly count, though, is that Archer and T'Pol passed by a Cardassian in the abductees' room aboard the AI space station in ENT - "Dead Stop".
 
I guess what does possibly count, though, is that Archer and T'Pol passed by a Cardassian in the abductees' room aboard the AI space station in ENT - "Dead Stop".

I would argue that first contact between species or civilisations would technically require both parties to be conscious ;)
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top