Why no Alternate Universe Story on TNG

[DumbDumb2007]

Why didn't they ever do an Aletrnate Universe story on the Next Generation ?
An Alternate and evil Picard would have come across as sort of like Edward Longshanks in Braveheart. An evil Riker and an Evil Data would have been wicked.
Troi as an evil version would have bene on par with nana Visitor's evil Intendant from DS9.
An Evil Work would have been well....
An evil Beverly Crusher would have beeb Picard's mistress. The alternate version of the Enterprise would or could have been along the lines of the future version of the Enterprise seen at the end of All Good Things.

 

[shapeshifter]

You mean "Mirror" Universe.

That would have been cool, don't know why they didn't.

I believe a novel or two may have explored the idea.

 

[Robert Treat]

Dark Mirror by Diane Duane came out in audiocassette and hardcover about five months before DS9 aired Crossover, and pretty much had an Enterprise crew like you're describing, except Worf was kept around as a slave, the Klingons having been conquered. Also, there was no Data as Noonian Soong was killed in one of the Empire's purges.

Parallels was originally to have this as one of its myriad realities, but they were already writing Crossover so they instead had a reality where the Borg conquered the Federation.

 

[Red Ranger]

For the most part, TNG shied away from sequels, with the exception of the sub-par rehashes of TOS eps into TNG eps, like how "The Naked Now" was an inferior version of "The Naked Time," or how "Home Soil" was a laughable update of "Devil in the Dark." Ho-hum!

It might have been fun to see a Mirror Universe Enterprise, but as we saw in DSN, the Terran Empire, as Mirror-Spock predicted, was overthrown.

Red Ranger

 

[Robert Treat]

According to Memory Alpha Too Short a Season was originally supposed to have been a sequel to A Private Little War.

 

[Diesel Micky Dolenz]

IIRC, Roddenberry initially wanted TNG to stand on its own, without too many TOS follow-ups. Berman was odd, too, about TOS, even preventing Picard from using the name Spock when he mentioned attending the wedding of Sarek's son.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Honestly, I can't see the bland TNG gang being interesting in the MU. We already saw an evil Picard and Data (Locutus and Lore) and in a way, an evil Riker (Tom). The rest, who cares? Worf was in the DS9 MU but he just seemed like his usual self!

 

[Kegek]

^
No... MU Worf was more idiotic. Just like MU Garak. Only the difference was less obvious for obvious reasons.

Anyway, "Yesterday's Enterprise" is about as close as the series got to a darker, MU-like take on the characters. And it's about as much as it needed. Sure, no Worf, but you want Worf in the MU, go watch DS9.

 

[Finn]

Hello?...Yesterday's Enterprise, Parallels, and in a way, Tapestry and All Good Things..

 

[Christopher]

I think I read once in Starlog that Jerome Bixby had pitched a "Mirror, Mirror" sequel to TNG -- called "Broken Mirror," I believe -- but they didn't buy it. I've always wondered what it would've been like.

 

[Praetor]

Does anyone recall the TNG comic by DC's depiction of an alternate universe with the Alpha Quadrant conquered by Borg led by Locutus and the Enterprise-D sans saucer, commanded by a one-eyed Riker? I may be remembering incorrectly, but I thought this was supposed to be the mirror universe, at the time. Slightly more interesting than what DS9 gave us, and definitely a bit less campy. Well, one-eyed Riker excluded.

And is it just me or does 'one-eyed Riker' sound dirty?

 

[Unicron]

I think that was called "The Worst of Both Worlds" but I'm less sure it was intended to be the MU. I think mainly it was just a what-if AU based on BOBW, like some of the ones seen in "Parallels."

 

[Sisu]

From memory, it was another universe, not "the" Mirror Universe. Picard and the crew helped the almost assimilated other Enterprise lead by One-Eye Riker.


It does sound dirty.

 

[HRHTheKING]

The Mirror Universe should have been the basis for NEM.

Would have been a far better movie IMO.

 

[Lilith]

Mirror Troi

I don't spent money on shows I like & the only thing Trek-related I ever bought was the First Contact DVD for 5 bucks, but damn, I would've payed happily for even an episode with a smokin' hot, evil, bitchy Mirror Troi

Unfortunately I have to make do with Dark Mirror, which is a good read, but damn, the visuals!

That aside, I think a Mirror-story is the only thing I really regret they didn't do, although I'm a bit in dubio about it. It could've been teh awesome, but it could also have sucked worse than a 24th century vacuumcleaner

 

[Nebusj]

Praetor said:
And is it just me or does 'one-eyed Riker' sound dirty?

Hey, `one-eyed Riker' is about the toughest poker game you can play without getting into the variants where the players are telepathic. Show some respect for those who've mastered it.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I'm just as glad they didn't. DS9 frankly wore out that concept with its contrived and repeated entries into the MU. On TOS it was an interesting one shot idea that explored the dark sides of the characters. DS9 took it to extremes and, while the first time was cool, subsequent trips became more of the same.

And every story I've seen involving the TNG cast in the MU has gone down the same, unimaginative path with easy to plot situations. Even Enterprises' "In the Mirror Darkly" was only interesting for the geek value of having a Constitution class ship figure in the (overlong) plot.

Besides, too many of the actors feel "Mirror Universe" means "ham it up." Although, Patrick Stewart might have given us some subtle shadings with some very quiet evil. Evil Data wouldn't work simply because he's strong and smart enough to be ruler of stuff. Best to not have him there at all, which nobody would have liked....

Ah, I'm putting way too much thought into this.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Praetor said:
Does anyone recall the TNG comic by DC's depiction of an alternate universe with the Alpha Quadrant conquered by Borg led by Locutus and the Enterprise-D sans saucer, commanded by a one-eyed Riker? I may be remembering incorrectly, but I thought this was supposed to be the mirror universe, at the time. Slightly more interesting than what DS9 gave us, and definitely a bit less campy. Well, one-eyed Riker excluded.

And is it just me or does 'one-eyed Riker' sound dirty?

I have all 4 of those comics. It started out really good... then, in my opinion.. fizzled.

 

[Unicron]

The big problem with DS9's take, IMO, is that the Terran Empire was no longer there but the Alliance was pretty much the same thing, just with more aliens than humans. There was no impact from the viewer's perspective of a large power no longer being around.

 

[Crewman47]

Canon aside, where do you suppose the Mirror Universe seen in DS9 diveregd from the Mirror Universe mentioned in the Dark Mirror novel as they both imply that each universe is the same one Kirk and co visited back in the TOS days.

Any thoughts?