Terran Empire
Encyclopedia : T : TE : TER : Terran Empire
The Terran Empire is, in the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Mirror Universe counterpart of the United Federation of Planets. It appears to differ from the Federation in almost all aspects of philosophy and ethics — where the Federation is peaceful, the Empire is violent to the point of allowing promotion in its Starfleet via assassination of superiors; where the Federation has strict rules protecting less-advanced societies, the Prime Order of the Empire is to allow no resistance to its wishes to go unpunished. Punishment on Imperial Starfleet vessels is administered by the use of hand-held agonizers or, for serious offenses such as an unsuccessful assassination of a superior, the agony booth. Both of these work by direct stimulus of the brain's pain centers. Aliens are experimented on in painful ways as a matter of routine.
The uniforms and heraldry of the Empire reflect its very violent nature; uniforms are more flamboyant and always incorporate weapons — daggers and phasers. The symbol of the Empire is a stylized Earth with a sword behind it, the hilt appearing to protrude from the North Pole and the point coming out behind the South Pole. Assassination of disobedient officers by their subordinates is encouraged as a means of maintaining discipline and as a means of career advancement for those who are successful. As such, high ranking officers typically have bodyguards to counter such attempts. A starship commander will typically keep one, or even several, consorts from among the crew, although these relationships tend to be brief - given the Empire's tendency towards treachery and betrayal. However, life in the Empire is not wholly corrupt, as many Imperial officers such as Maximilian Forrest and Malcolm Reed did show remarkable loyalty to their crewmates.
Initially, the Vulcans appeared to be a second-class race of the Empire (as seen in "In a Mirror, Darkly"). In the years following the events of this episode, Vulcans became an influential member of the Empire, nearly as ruthless as their human counterparts - as typified by the mirror Spock.
The Empire is stated to be unstable in the first episode in which it appears ("Mirror Mirror") and the mirror-universe Spock estimates that it will be violently overthrown in the next few centuries. In the episode "Crossover" it is discovered that the Empire fell to an alliance of Klingons and Cardassians, and Humans and Vulcans are now enslaved. It is unknown what has happened to Earth or Vulcan in this universe, although they are most likely slave worlds of the alliance.
The specific point at which the Mirror Universe deviated from the normal Trek universe is unknown. It is known that first contact with the Vulcans in that universe proceeded very differently, as an angry mob of humans stormed the Vulcan ship, killed its crew, and took their technology. The opening theme from the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" has led many to believe that the Empire existed at least as early as the Project Apollo moon landings (an astronaut is seen planting the Empire's flag on the moon). However, it is possible that it was not the Apollo mission, but simply another mission to the moon, or perhaps the founding of a lunar colony. Another reason why it may not be an Apollo mission is that the astronaut appears to be wearing an EV suit seen in Enterprise (a smaller brownish suit completely different to the bulky white suits of modern and past astronauts) and so would have taken place around that time. Also it is mentioned by the alternate Phlox that there are many differences between classical literature of the two universes except for that of Shakespeare; which could lead to the assumption that the divergence happened sometime after Shakespeare's plays were written, or simply that both versions of Shakespeare had identical outlooks on life – and in 2155, Mirror-Archer mentioned that the Terran Empire had already endured "for centuries".
A key difference between the universes of the Federation and that of the Terran Empire is noted in the opening scene to "In a Mirror, Darkly" whereby instead of greeting the Vulcan captain, as in in the normal Trek universe, Zefram Cochrane took out a shotgun and shot the Vulcan in the chest directly. This event was just one of the many events that contributed to the foundation of the Terran Empire (which arguably already existed by that point, as the Empire's logo appeared in opening credits scenes apparently set during World War II). This is surmised through the fact that in both universes, Zefram Cochrane was idolized for what he did at first contact and would be followed no matter what took place.
At some point after James T. Kirk from the United Federation of Planets returned from the mirror universe (Terran Empire), it is said that the Spock of that universe began promoting reforms in the Terran Empire; it is believed that they began to take a more peaceful stance and armaments were gradually reduced - it is believed that this led to the eventual downfall of the Terran Empire and the enslavement of the Humans, Vulcans, and other ex-Terran Empire worlds.
Government
Although it was always assumed that the Terran Empire was run by an Imperial Government, it was unclear for some time as to whether the Empire had a Head of State such as an Emperor, or was run in a similar fashion as the Romulan Star Empire. has made it clear that the Empire had a monarch and that the monarch may have supreme power making the Terran Empire an absolute monarchy. At the end of the episode, In a Mirror, Darkly, Hoshi Sato overthrows her commanding officer and, using the firepower of the captured USS Defiant, declares herself Empress in January 2155.It is unclear whether Hoshi actually succeeds in her attempt to become Empress, although it is in any case unlikely to have any far-reaching effects; members of the Imperial Starfleet do not particularly care who the monarch is, since their loyalty is to the office, not the person holding it.
External link
- article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.