Mirror, Mirror (TOS episode)
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The episode introduces the alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept in Star Trek for the first time. The stardate of the episode was never revealed.
Quick Overview: A transporter mishap slips Captain Kirk and his companions into a parallel universe.
After failing to persuade the Halkan Council to allow the Federation to mine dilithium crystals on their planet, Captain James T. Kirk, along with Dr. McCoy, Scotty, and Lt. Uhura, return to the Enterprise. The effects of an ion storm however, create a mishap during transport, and the landing team beams aboard an unfamiliar Enterprise.
The team discover they have entered a parallel universe to their own, where the USS Enterprise is called an "Imperial Starship" or ISS Enterprise, and the Federation is now called the Terran Empire. The group's uniforms have also changed into more "revealing" outfits, including a decorative sash tied about their waists. Uhura now bares her torso, while Kirk's casual uniform is a sleeveless tunic. Kirk also notices he now has a set of strange medals on his chest.
The group's first experience in this hellish reality is the unforgiving torture of the transporter operator, Mr Kyle, by a mirror-universe Mr. Spock who now sports a menacing-looking goatee, and a device called an agonizer. The mirror Spock administers the punishment for almost losing the Captain to the operator's carelessness. Almost immediately, Kirk guesses that the mirror-universe landing party must have beamed aboard his Enterprise but the crew here does not know this. The team decides to impersonate their mirror counterparts for now, until they find a way to return to their universe.
Fortunately, their fears of what their counterparts could be doing in their universe are groundless. Back on the USS Enterprise Mr. Spock immediately discovers the personae of his Captain and the rest of the landing party have changed significantly and orders security to take them to a holding cell. The mirror Kirk tries to bribe Spock with rewards of "his own command" if he's freed. Spock simply replies "fascinating" and goes about his investigation into what has happened. Spock determines that the ion storm must have opened a barrier between parallel universes, and somehow, the landing team's counterparts switched places.
Back on the ISS Enterprise Kirk goes to his quarters, which is very different to what he's used to, and examines his mission orders. He learns that he has been ordered to annihilate the Halkans if they refuse the Empire's "request" to mine dilithium. Horrified, Kirk studies his counterpart's records further, learning he succeeded command of the ISS Enterprise by assassinating Captain Christopher Pike, and that he also was responsible for massacring 5000 colonists on Vega IX.
Mirror-Spock informs Kirk that the ship is ready to attack the Halkans, and Scott reports that he failed to sabotage the weapons systems. Desperately, Kirk orders a delay in the attack for 12 hours. This piques mirror-Spock's curiosity, but he obeys the order. Kirk then survives an assassination attempt by the mirror Mr. Chekov, and Spock subjects Chekov to an agony booth and tortures him. Kirk realizes the fastest way to promotion around here is to successfully kill your superior, especially when they appear to be neglecting their duties.
Meanwhile, Scotty and McCoy work secretly to figure out what happened with the transporter. While Scotty is finding a way to return them to the correct universe, Kirk meets the beautiful Lt. Marlena Moreau, who refers to herself as the "Captain's Woman." At the same time, mirror-Spock reports the suspicious activity of his Captain to the Imperial Command, and receives orders to kill Captain Kirk if he does not carry out the order to destroy the resisting Halkans.
Back in Kirk's quarters, Marlena shows Kirk the Tantalus Field, a device which can secretly monitor anyone on the ship and "eliminate" them at his leisure. When he prevents her from eliminating the mirror Spock, she realizes Kirk's personality is different.
Kirk continues to stall the mirror Spock until his team can find a way back to their reality. Spock, not wanting command of the Enterprise, as it would make him an instant target of assassination, decides instead to study the Captain as long as he can. Marlena wants her Kirk back as well, and helps the team return as much as she can.
Scotty reports to Kirk that he may have finally found a way back. In a fight with mirror-Spock, Kirk knocks the Vulcan unconscious. When mirror-Sulu and his thugs attempt to kill the landing party, Marlena eliminates the thugs with the Tantalus Field and Kirk knocks out mirror-Sulu. Uhura, Kirk, and Scotty head for the transporter room while McCoy stays behind to make sure that mirror-Spock is all right. This Spock suddenly comes to and quickly mind melds with McCoy. He discovers the switch, but surprisingly agrees to assist Kirk in returning the landing party to their own universe. This gesture convinces Kirk that this Mr. Spock is still an honest and cooperative person despite the current environment. He suggests to mirror-Spock that a Federation-like system is better and more logical than the ruthless totalitarianism of the Empire. This Spock agrees to consider the idea and is encouraged when told about the Tantalus Field he could use.
Meanwhile on board the USS Enterprise, Spock decides to attempt the beaming sequence at the same time the ISS Enterprise attempts theirs. He has the mirror-universe landing party take their positions on the transporter pads and prepares to beam them out. The transport begins at the same time the Imperials beam their party out. The exchange is successful, and the landing party is repulsed when they learn about their counterparts' barbaric personalities.
Later, back on the bridge, Kirk meets Lt. Marlena Moreau, who is quite a different girl from what he experienced her to be in the other universe.
Trivia
- The episode is followed up in several episodes, starting with "Crossover".
- A two-part episode, entitled "In a Mirror, Darkly" provided a prequel episode to the Mirror Universe demonstrating how the Empire was formed and revolving around technology from the future stopping a 22nd century rebellion.
- The Mirror Universe is also traveled to by the crew in the novel Dark Mirror by author Diane Duane. In this version of the Mirror Universe, however, the Terran Empire continued to prosper after the Original Series visit, whereas in Deep Space Nine the Empire is shown to have fallen shortly thereafter. As is the standard policy regarding Star Trek canon, the events shown on screen supersede the events in the novels. The Next Generation episode "Parallels" established, however, that there actually an unlimited number of parallel universes, and the events of the novel could've taken place in one of these parallel universe.
- The Mirror Universe Spock's goatee has since become a part of popular culture as a satirical symbol of evil and normality run amok; it is also the namesake of the band Spock's Beard.
- This episode is considered to be one of the most popular of the Original Series.
- William Shatner wrote a 'Mirror Universe Saga' beginning with the book, Spectre.
- On the USS Enterprise, Scotty is third-in-command. On the ISS Enterprise, Sulu is third-in-command.
- This was spoofed in a South Park episode, whereby an "evil Cartman" crossed into the normal South Park universe, but was the opposite of Cartman, thereby causing the "evil" Cartman to be an actually better person than the true Cartman. All the characters from the parallel universe were bearded.
- This was spoofed in a Futurama episode, where Bender's twin, Flexo, who has a beard, was widely considered to be the evil version of Bender, but was actually better robot than the true Bender. The Bender from the alternative was, of course, bearded. In another episode, "The Farnsworth Parabox", when the team enters another universe, both they and their counterparts accuse each other of being evil (though in reality, the only difference between the two universes is the outcome of coin-tosses).
- The two part Megas XLR series finale "Rearview Mirror, Mirror", features many references to the original Star Trek episode and Universal Century Gundam. The basic plot of the episodes, which center on an alternate universe where Coop and Kiva have gone evil and a battle-hardened Jamie opposes them, is taken from the classic Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", as the title references. Evil Coop's army consists of silver Zaku-lookalikes, while his personal machine has a head nearly identical to the MSN-04 Sazabi. Similarly, the relationship between the alternate reality characters (where Kiva chose to stay with Coop, instead of Jamie) mirrors the tragic relationship of Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray, his rival Char Aznable, and the young soldier Lalah Sune. The first part of this two-part also features a reference to the all your base are belong to us phenomenon, a similar phrase shows in a screen when Coop remembers his life of defeating aliens in video games.
- This was spoofed in Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 611 (Last of the Wild Horses), where Gypsy and Tom Servo swapped universes with their evil alternate selves. In the alternate universe, Mike Nelson was now in Deep 13, wearing a costume similar to Kirk's and evading assassination attempts by Crow, while forcing his universe's version of Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank to watch bad movies on the Satellite of Love (Forrester and Frank even appear in the theater for a brief movie segment). The episode ends with the "normal" Forrester and Frank discovering the joys of the agony booth.
- The scene at the end of the episode where Captain Kirk met the real Lt. Moreau was used in the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" for the meetings between Captains Kirk and Benjamin Sisko.
External links
- [Mirror, Mirror] at StarTrek.com
- #redirect
- [Five-Minute Mirror, Mirror] — Parody version
| Last produced: "The Apple" | | Next produced: "The Deadly Years" |
| Last transmitted: "The Changeling" | Next transmitted: "The Apple" |
| Preceded by: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" | Star Trek Mirror Universe episodes | Followed by: "Crossover" |
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