Why didn't TNG have...

[JarodRussell]

... a mirror universe episode?

Evil Picard getting stabbed in the back by evil Riker who wants to become Captain, now that would have been something.

 

[Smiley]

You may as well ask why they didn't visit the "Shore Leave" planet instead of Risa. There was no expectation of seeing the MU on the show. TAS and VOY did not go there, either.

If you really want to have the MU touch all the series, you have to say that one of the parallel Enterprises from "Parallels" is from the MU, fold TAS in with TOS, and call the "Living Witness" recordings MU logs that fell through spacetime to influence the culture of that alien world.

 

[Klingon Empire]

Gene R probably thought it would be bad story telling to have a Mirror Universe ep, seeing as he already had one in TOS.

Of course, Berman & Braga got a hold of the show and had to put MU eps in almost every series, building up an 'anticipation' of sorts, and now people expect there to be a MU ep in every series, when really, if not executed properly, it can become over done and just plain out bad writing.

 

[Mr Cool Dude]

Yesterday's Enterprise was about the closest thing they got to it. There was some tension between Picard and Riker in that episode.

 

[Klingon Empire]

That could be considered an Alternate timeline, however. Seeing as the arrival of the 1701-C severely alters the existing timeline.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Yesterday's Enterprise was about the closest thing they got to it. There was some tension between Picard and Riker in that episode.

I am not surprised. Yet another "that bartender that nobody knows anything about has a vague intuition so let's put the ship, the crew, and the entire timeline in jeopardy because of it" episode.

 

[Mr Cool Dude]

That could be considered an Alternate timeline, however. Seeing as the arrival of the 1701-C severely alters the existing timeline.

I agree. I meant that it was the closest thing they got to a mirror universe - not that it was a mirror universe. The characters are altered - Picard and Riker don't get along for example.

 

[T'Girl]

Voyager's mirror universe story could be Living Witness. That crew made all the other mirror universe crews look like a bunch of pussys.

 

[TheMurph]

I'm actually glad that TNG didn't have a MU (Not counting Yesterday's Enterprise) episode. It go overdone in the later series.

 

[indolover]

It's a shame the writers never thought of this.

Imagine Regent Worf, or an unprincipled Picard, or a bisexual Crusher and Troi.

Nemesis should have had this as a setting, but the "nemesis" being the mirror Picard.

 

[mark101]

ya, an evil picard would have been sweet. We had a wussy picard and an old married christmas picard, no evil tho,

 

[Tosk]

Gene R probably thought it would be bad story telling to have a Mirror Universe ep, seeing as he already had one in TOS.

He didn't seem to think it was bad storytelling to have the very first episode of TNG after the pilot be some half-assed retread of a TOS episode.

 

[Klingon Empire]

Gene R probably thought it would be bad story telling to have a Mirror Universe ep, seeing as he already had one in TOS.

He didn't seem to think it was bad storytelling to have the very first episode of TNG after the pilot be some half-assed retread of a TOS episode.

I read the first few lines of the plot on Wikipedia just now, and this is what sprung as the most identical thing:

an away team beams over to the Tsiolkovsky and finds the crew frozen to death in various stages of undress

What the crap. That sounds like it sucks.

Man, Gene. That's weak.

 

[Mojochi]

'Parallels' is alternate dimensions, & the mirror universe plot device is just alternate dimensions, with far weaker science in the fiction, imo,

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's a shame the writers never thought of this.

Imagine Regent Worf, or an unprincipled Picard, or a bisexual Crusher and Troi.

Then read "Dark Mirror" by Diane Duane. An early TNG hardcover novel, set in the Mirror Universe. Also the "Dark Passions" duology by Susan Wright.

 

[scotpens]

I'm actually glad that TNG didn't have a MU (Not counting Yesterday's Enterprise) episode. It go overdone in the later series.

Overdone? Not possible. You can never have too many Trek babes in belly-baring uniforms.

 

[Vonstadt]

Actually I am kinda glad they didnt have one. Somehow i dont know why it just didnt feel right or TNG's style for there to be one for me.

and as a DS9 fan, I think they went a little overboard with the trips back and forth. Those really arent among my favorite DS9 episodes.

Vons

 

[Hober Mallow]

It's a shame the writers never thought of this.

They did.

During TNG's run, Starlog did an interview with some TNG writers where they talked about trying to do a mirror universe episode. They said the basic of the episode would be that Spock took Kirk's advice, and we were going to see the inplications. For whatever reason, they ended up not doing it (and wouldn't have discussed it with Starlog had they any intention of doing it). This was around TNG season four or five. I was surprised when DS9 eventually did it.

 

[EnsignRicky]

After The Naked Now, they probably felt it best to distance themselves from retreading too many Original Series Premises. Something they managed to do fairly well for the remainder of the series.

 

[Crewman47]

I would like to have seen an MU episode or two in TNG cause unlike The Naked Now it would've acted as a direct sequel to a TOS episode and could've us shown what happened after the events in the TOS episode. It would also have fitted more in TNG than it did in DS9 cause it would be more Starfleet orientated and I do agree that DS9 did slightly overdo them a bit.