The Mirror Universe storyline and small-universe syndrome

In fiction events and situations tend to be connected to the main character usually for increased dramatic results. Burnham is our main character, the drama revolves around her arc. It makes more sense for the evil emperor to be her beloved captain and mother figure than some random guy with a goatee. It’s not realistic, but it’s called fiction for a reason.

Does it make sense that Spider-Man’s arch nemesis is his best friend’s father? Or that of all the people in the galaxy, the guy who blew up the Death Star is the son of Darth Vader, who happens to rescue his twin sister after meeting his dad’s old droids and the mentor who failed his father? Or how No, but that makes the story more interesting for the audience. Ever notice how the Enterprise was always the only ship in the area when trouble brewed? It was coincidental, it’s because it would be boring if they were just scanning rocks all day. You want to see things happen with personal stakes connected to the characters. These aren’t valid complaints, it’s nitpicking how basic storytelling works.

 

Usually alternate worlds in fiction have the same people doing similar things despite HUGE differences in circumstances (see: Before and After/Year of Hell, Yesterday's Enterprise/Generations, Wrath of Khan/Into Darkness). Discovery actually subverted it by having everyone be in similar places to their MU counterparts because of Lorca's meddling.

 

Maybe we can call it the spooky universe instead. Like the particle physics thingy.

 

I'd call it "destiny." Except:

"Destiny didn't bring me here, Captain. You did that."

 

Lorca makes his own Destiny, and they never outright said he was behind her shuttle accident on the way to stir.

 

Or that the burglar who killed Uncle Ben just happened to be the same crook Spidey declined to capture earlier? Or that the Genesis Device just happens to be designed by Kirk's old flame and his long-lost, hitherto-unmentioned son, who come under attack by Kirk's old nemesis at the same time Kirk just happens to be overseeing a training mission on the Enterprise . . .. .?

Heck, look at any old Edgar Rice Burroughs space opera. You could drop the hero, the heroine, and the villain in three different places across an entire planet and they would all end up in the same torture chamber in the same lost city at the same time.

 

I thought that was obvious? Mirror Lorca and Prime Lorca switched places right as the Buran was trying to escape. Lorca made it pretty clear that he was BEAMING back to the ship at the time, which is how the switch happened. Which means it was PRIME Lorca in that shuttle with Mirror Burnham.

Mirror Burnham was probably trying to help Prime Lorca get back to his own universe when the shuttle was destroyed, and the Emperor, in grief and rage, assumed she had been trying to help him escape.

Or maybe I should use "destroyed" in quotes?

 

There's no significant dealbreaking difference in the manner the Mirror Universe was handled between TOS, ENT, and DSC.

No, ENT did it first, chronologically.

Star Trek Into Darkness with the "Mudd incident" and seizing his ship.

ENT again, if you count the original Defiant crossing over, though it wasn't reported back to the Primeverse.

 

Burnhams shuttle, the disco picks her up from.

 

Discovery wasn't involved in the operation where Mirror Burnham and Mirror Lorca were supposedly killed. The Emperor's ship was pursing them at the time.

My point is that Lorca later tells Burnham that he was BEAMING back to the Buran when they were attacked. But Mirror Burnham was killed trying to apprehend him, apparently on a shuttlecraft that was destroyed in transit. Which means the shuttle fiasco happened AFTER the switch, and the Lorca who is wanted for Mirror Burnham's murder is, in fact, Lorca Prime.

 

DSC handled the MU almost exactly like DS9 did.

Kor

 

Not seeing it, aside from Georgiou's Orion orgy.

I thought Discovery's Mirror arc felt most like DC Comics' awesome The Mirror Universe Saga arc from the 1980's.