The Mirror Universe?

[Paradise City]

The episode where these underground guerrillas have the capacity to build a cutting edge ship like the Defiant! Quadruple facepalm. Most of these episodes had very predictable outcomes.

I liked the first Mirror episode well enough but I would've prefered a defeated but surviving Terran Empire rather than an Empire that had been completely obliterated.

 

[Michael]

Episodes, novels, and comic books. It became quite the trend in the 80s.

So, which episodes specifically?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Star+Trek+sequel+episodes

You are kidding, right? This doesn't answer the question at all. You specifically said there were “a ton of TOS follow-up stories” and yet you can't name one single episode. Also, what's with the condescension? Mine was a perfectly legitimate question. Either you know episodes that fit your description or you don't. At this moment it just looks like you were imagining things, to be honest.

 

[Mysterion]

Not a fan. I wasn't a fan of the direction it took to begin with, then later it somehow got worse, with utter nonsense like Human Vic.

Diane Duane's novel Dark Mirror did the 24th century Mirror Universe so much better, IMO.

Well thanks to the TNG episode Parallels both depictions, and those from the novels and ENT can all be valid. After all they established that there were at least 285,000 different timelines. One has to imagine that there are some variations of the whole "Federation as evil-Empire" in the mix there.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I wonder if "Parallels" ever intended to feature such a universe. I'd love to have seen that!

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I liked the first DS9 Mirror Universe episode, but not the episodes following.

I do like the TNG novel that takes place in the Mirror Universe; it's a hypothetical episode that probably wouldn't have been made since Berman played it extremely safe. Not too mention, he didn't like much reference to TOS.

 

[DonIago]

^Are you sure you're not confusing Berman with Roddenberry?

I thought Human Vic was a ridiculously silly thing to do. It made little sense at all, but given how crazy the MU is anyhow I just rolled with it, and if nothing else it would have been worth it just to see people getting so wound-up about it ever since.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

^Are you sure you're not confusing Berman with Roddenberry?

Nope. I didn't particularly care for Roddenberry's decisions pre-Berman nor Berman's decisions for the franchise...like nixing Andorians because he thought they were silly.

I digress.

We were talking about the Mirror Universe?

 

[DonIago]

In the MU I suppose TOS ran for 10 seasons, but was also considered a rather silly sci-fi satire that never went anywhere after its initial popularity.

...oh god, in the MU, TOS is Red Dwarf!

 

[Joel_Kirk]

In the MU I suppose TOS ran for 10 seasons, but was also considered a rather silly sci-fi satire that never went anywhere after its initial popularity.

...oh god, in the MU, TOS is Red Dwarf!

Or a version of LEXX.

I mean Zev (Eva Habermann) seems like the type of girl that would be in an early Roddenberry production...or a character he wouldn't mind having in one of his productions.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Not a fan. I wasn't a fan of the direction it took to begin with, then later it somehow got worse, with utter nonsense like Human Vic.

I agree, mirror Vic was nonsense. And I bet the writers would agree as well. My guess is they were just trying to give the audience (and mostly themselves) a little chuckle, especially since it was such a brief appearance, because that's what it did for me. I laughed at the "nonsense" of it, then moved on and forgot about it.

It's interesting because there is plenty of nonsense all over Star trek from TOS to nuTrek and beyond (whether or not pun is intended is TBD). Sometimes you can forgive, overlook or accept it, sometimes you can't. I think it often depends on how much you're enjoying the show/film to begin with. But the biggest thing is how it hits you, and you can't really control that. You can't be talked into changing your reaction to something. Sometimes I wish I could!

So true. If you like something, no matter how goofy it is, you'll excuse it.

 

[Paradise City]

Mirror Vic is the mirror version of the guy who created the holosuite program. It's not that difficult to explain that away.

 

[dub]

If you like something, no matter how goofy it is, you'll excuse it.

And sometimes, as in the case of Mirror Vic, one can enjoy it because it's nonsense. And nonsense seemed to be the obvious intent with that one. I don't think the writers were thinking "Mirror Vic is the mirror version of the creator of the Vic hologram." I also don't think they saw it and thought after the fact "oops, I guess that doesn't really make sense. Why did we do that?" Nah. They were totally thinking, "Mirror Vic would be ridiculous and fun. Why not! Let's do it! Let's see if we get away with it!" The writers were having a little fun. That's my guess. I enjoyed the moment. I see why others didn't though.

The good news for Vic haters -- and I know you're out there -- is this is the scene that turns that character into a mortal

Spoiler: good news 4 h8ers

and kills him off forever...at least in one universe! It happened, and it's canon!

 

[Sakonna]

There's an interesting quote from Ira Steven Behr about the thinking behind "Emperor's New Cloak" on it's Memory Alpha entry:

"We all felt the need, with a small 'n', to revisit the alternate universe one last time. Let's face it, the alternate universe is such a wacky idea, and I don't care what anyone says, "Mirror, Mirror" was a wacky, silly show. Though we tried in many ways to play it with a straight face, at first, in Deep Space Nine, as time went on it just became tougher for us to not see it as what it was, which was kind of a rather flakey alternative to what we had been doing. So who better to have to have Rom and Quark? Rom is trying to figure out the alternative universe. I just thought Rom stood in for all the fans who want logic and who want it to make sense, and want it to be taken seriously, something that is inherently not that serious. He cracked me up every time he tried to label it, or tried to find a definition of it. To me it spoke a lot about the fans and Star Trek, his little arc in that show, the need for it all to make sense in the most obvious way. To really enjoy the alternate universe episodes, you just have to let go, you have to relax your sphincter a little bit and not be so anal about it, and just try to have some fun. We all love, obviously, the Intendant, and we just had a lot of fun with the characters. It was not an easy show to do, because it is tough to get the tone right. The whole thing was pretty funny". (Cinefantastique, Vol. 32, No. 4/5, p. 72)

I think this approach really misses that the actual fun of the MU -- for me, anyway -- is getting to watch the performers fully commit to these insane characters and dark circumstances. All the commentary and deconstruction and intentional humor they're attempting via the Ferengi and mirror Vic and all that... I can sort of appreciate the intent, but it lets the air out. Play it straight and let the audience enjoy how outrageous that is, don't put characters in the middle of it constantly telling us "wow, this universe is crazy and outrageous!" The absurdity of the MU is already evident without needing to apply this extra layer of slapstick nonsense to it.

 

[DonIago]

Though it kind of makes sense that if anyone was going to try that approach to things, it would be Rom.

 

[DS9forever]

I never got the appeal of Mirror, Mirror either - isn't the Terran Empire akin to Nazism?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Didn't James Darren actually ask to play mirror Fontaine, because he always wanted to do a scene like that (where he goes in with guns blazing)?

 

[Michael]

I never got the appeal of Mirror, Mirror either - isn't the Terran Empire akin to Nazism?

Yeah, and? They are obviously the antagonists in the original episode. Save for Spock, of course, who's a Good Guy in every 'verse.

 

[LeadHead]

I liked most of the MU episodes.
"Crossover" was well done, giving us a good glimpse and establishing the condition of the MU.

"Through the looking glass" was a good Sisko adventure, giving him some good action plus a strong emotional journey.

"Shattered Mirror" set up Regent Worf as a potentially interesting adversary in future episodes, but we all know how that went. The action sequences are top notch and fun. I also liked that Jake was discovering that the MU was more than just a place where you get to see different versions of your friends and family.

"Ressurection" I didn't like, a MU episode without even going to the MU? We had also already done the "dead spouse is alive" concept. The episode fell flat for me.

"The Emperor's New Cloak" *facepalm* I know what they were trying to do, since the Ferengi had been killed over and over in the MU, give the Ferengi some poetic justice in defeating the alliance. Personally, it would have been more appropriate if they had captured or had to kill the Intendant, since she was the one who had killed or ordered the death of all of our Ferengi friends in the MU. The episode aimed for humor and it missed, some conclusion to the MU was needed, but Sisko, Kira or Worf should have been the ones crossing over. Quark could've come along, but it shouldn't have been such a Ferengi centric episode.

 

[Terok Nor]

Crossover, Through The Looking Glass and Shattered Mirror were great. The writers clearly didn't give a crap about the Mirror Universe after that and it showed.

 

[hux]

Mirror episodes are like holodeck episodes. Filler.

They're inconsequential. You can kill regulars, bring back the dead, travel anywhere etc. You either enjoy the gormless nonsense of it all or you don't.

Vic is no more ludicrous than holograms becoming self-aware every five minutes. The only reason I disliked mirror Vic was because he was the Liberace of revolutionaries. He looked like a confused grandmother.