Thoughts on characters seen only in the mirror universe

[t_smitts]

Now, obvectively, I understand that with the attrition due to constant warfare going on there, there should be not only a number of "prime universe" characters who have no mirror counterpart (i.e. Jake Sisko), but there should also be a number of mirror universe characters who have no "prime" counterpart (i.e. mirror Keiko O'Brien may have been executed at some point, and mirror Miles may have married and had children with someone else).

That being said, I did see previously-unseen characters in mirror universe episodes as kind of a wasted opportunity, story-wise, when we it might've been a bit more interesting to see the counterpart of someone we've seen before.

For example, with Admiral Black, they could've put, say another officer we've seen before in that position, or they could've put Forrest in his place and had the ISS NX-01 commanded by, say, A.G. Robinson (which would've been an interesting twist on Archer and Robinson's rivalry in the prime universe).

That pitiful alien slave that mirror Archer tortured could've instead been any one of the alien characters they encountered over the past 4 years.

Finally, I thought it would've been more fun if, for the Bozeman, Montana teaser, they brought back that young woman who was featured so prominently in that scene in the movie to be the one to say "Board the ship! Take everything you can!".

Thoughts?

 

[T'Girl]

If you think about it, there should be at least some people on the local scene of the story who we've never seen before.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

For example, with Admiral Black, they could've put, say another officer we've seen before in that position, or they could've put Forrest in his place and had the ISS NX-01 commanded by, say, A.G. Robinson (which would've been an interesting twist on Archer and Robinson's rivalry in the prime universe).

But if they'd done that, they'd have lost a perfect chance to cast Gregory Itzin, and as we all know by now, that's never a good idea.

Besides, Forrest was where he was so we could see him doing pretty much the same thing his regular counterpart did: sacrifice his life for the good of others. Which goes to show, not everyone in the Mirror Universe is evil!

 

[BigJake]

The Mirror Universe doesn't really bear over-thinking. It's sort of an "otherworld" what-if-our-good-guys-were-bad-guys trope, but it's not really alternate history... and when you think about it, the bad guys of "our" universe should actually turn up as good guys in the Mirror Universe.

 

[T'Girl]

^ No the good guys in our universe are bad in the mirror, and the already bad people in our universe are in fact even worse in the mirror.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The Halkans, on the other hand, are exactly the same!

 

[The Wormhole]

For example, with Admiral Black, they could've put, say another officer we've seen before in that position, or they could've put Forrest in his place and had the ISS NX-01 commanded by, say, A.G. Robinson (which would've been an interesting twist on Archer and Robinson's rivalry in the prime universe).

Thing is, AG Robinson was played by Special Guest Star of the week Keith Carradine, who could not be guaranteed to be available or even interested in returning. Better to stick with the actor who has been a regular and reliable or use a new character.

That pitiful alien slave that mirror Archer tortured could've instead been any one of the alien characters they encountered over the past 4 years.

Could have, wasn't, not bothered.

Finally, I thought it would've been more fun if, for the Bozeman, Montana teaser, they brought back that young woman who was featured so prominently in that scene in the movie to be the one to say "Board the ship! Take everything you can!".

That young woman would have aged nearly a decade since First Contact was filmed when that Enterprise episode was. It's possible she doesn't even resemble herself from 1996. Better to stick with a new character who we can pretend was there in First Contact, we just didn't see him.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Aside from the entertainment factor, at it's best, the Mirror Characters provide an opportunity to see how our heroes would have handled vastly different circumstances - in essence stripping away the nurture and seeing the true nature beneath.

Admittedly, though, this didn't happen all that often and the episodes were done more for the "fun" of letting the actors inhabit characters who behaved very differently from what we were used to seeing.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

^ No the good guys in our universe are bad in the mirror, and the already bad people in our universe are in fact even worse in the mirror.

I thought it was the good guys were sexy in the mirror universe and the bad guys were boring. And you got to sleep with all your friends.

 

[Xerxes1979]

I have always thought that the mirror universe was some sort of faux reality dependent on the main one.

Just as Beverly created her own reality inside a static warp bubble I contend the mirror universe depends on the thoughts of the characters in the hero verse.

The mirrorverse of DS9 only appears to have continuity because the idea of crossing over more than once was proposed so the invented backstory would have to be consistent to the dreamers(i.e. the Siskos).

It makes more sense to have fresh "evil" realities created than to ponder why the Terran Empire was unable to mass produce Constitutions 100 years early and diverge more fully from the TOS timeline.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The Mirror Universe doesn't really bear over-thinking. It's sort of an "otherworld" what-if-our-good-guys-were-bad-guys trope, but it's not really alternate history... and when you think about it, the bad guys of "our" universe should actually turn up as good guys in the Mirror Universe.

Yeah, it makes zero sense that after such radical divergence events such as "In a Mirror, Darkly" and the revolution post-"Mirror, Mirror", that the DS9 alternates would be in the same place as their prime counterparts.

More proof that the closer you look, the more you see that Trek is a comic book fantasy world and not science fiction.

 

[T'Cal]

Coincidentally, I'm just now listening to the audiobook ST:TNG ark Mirror, a very good tale about Picard and crew being pulled into the MU and their attempt at getting back home. It's read by John DeLance, who does a great job. The story involves few other characters besides the senior staff and their MU counterparts. This very easily could've been a great two-part episode or even a feature film. It even has the obligatory big-ass enemy ship with lots of power and weapons (the ICC-1701-D Enterprise).

 

[F. King Daniel]

^I don't know if it made it to the audiobook, but the description of the Mirror Enterprise-D in that book is chilling.

 

[T'Girl]

Yeah, it makes zero sense that after such radical divergence events such as "In a Mirror, Darkly" and the revolution post-"Mirror, Mirror", that the DS9 alternates would be in the same place as their prime counterparts.

I do feel that it isn't a case of there being a "divergent point" somewhere in history, rather these two universes are tied to each other in a interactive fashion, they're linked. That's why while not identical they are so close. People, materials, technology and basic events.

They are ongoing mirror images of each other, alway were, alway will be.

 

[FormerLurker]

A lot of the similarities between who populates various alternate and 'mirror' universes across the multiverse really comes down to what I've come to call hereditary vs incidental avatars.

The hereditary variety are the same people in each universe, with the same families, siblings, parents, grandparents, etc. down through the ages, so that each version is physically the same person; same height, build, and intellectual capacity, with identical features barring environmental differences like scarring. They're also all born on the same day, were conceived on the same day, etc., and have similar tastes and attractions.

The incidental variety is a little more esoteric in nature. While looking, and for the most part acting, like the same person universe or dimension to universe or dimension, there are differences, some painfully obvious. From subtle differences like one being more intelligent than the next, to obvious differences in height or frame or build, or even coloring, one having an innate tan while the next is as pale and translucent as any carrot-topped redhead you've ever seen. This happens because while they look similar, they actually are not. They have different parents, different families, and only exist because a quirk of heredity pulled a set of traits forward that resulted in the similar individual. In point of fact, their parents are often people that don't exist in the other timeline, and the avatar is someone that technically, their timeline shouldn't have been able to produce. It was just the luck of the draw.