#despite yourself

[images © Paramount/CBS

The Original Series 

“Mirror, Mirror”  The very first appearance of the mirror universe gets a bit of a pass because it was novel and curious. It’s mostly a campy episode full of amusing overacting, but we were used to that from The Original Series, and its pacing and originality made it easier to ignore how implausible this world was—they visited Earth replicas all the time on that show and we blew right past it! Somewhere under this Twilight Zoney “what if” scenario is a decent resolution about how different conditions can affect a person’s outlook, yet the decency of someone like Spock can still prevail. In the end, if this was the last we saw of this fantasy land, we’d be satisfied with it.

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Deep Space Nine

“Crossover” DS9’s forays into the mirror universe prove a little harder to swallow if you’re trying to accept the continuity of the timeline. It’s a bit fascinating to follow up with the story after Spock’s takeover has allowed the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance to rise to power, but the butterfly effect really makes no sense. You CANNOT think about why all these characters exist in these exact locations because there’s just too much that’s all too convenient. The episodes feel more fanficky, as they embrace making fun little asides to entertain themselves. We do have to give points for the sheer presence of Intendant Kira and for taking the big swing to unexpectedly kill off Odo and Quark.

“Through the Looking Glass”  The DS9 mirror arc could have easily ended with “Crossover” and no one would have complained, but continuing the actually interesting story of the Terran Resistance to the KCA does have some merit. But boy, do I find this episode to be a bit all over the place. You’ve got to admit it’s fucked up for Prime Sisko to have sex with Intendant Kira and Mirror Jadzia, even if it is to survive, because it reduces all the women to pieces of ass. The addition of Jennifer Sisko could have added some conflict, but we were mostly unimpressed with her character. Props for including Mirror Tuvok (though somehow without a goatee?) because it’s a rare divergence between the two universes. 

“Shattered Mirror” The more the DS9 mirror arc continues, the more convenient everything becomes. The fact that they introduce Regent Worf right after Michael Dorn has joined the cast smacks of blatant contrivance, but he and Garak have such chemistry that I can look past it. And even more than in the previous mirror episode, Jennifer is so uninteresting! It might be the more restrained acting or it might be the attempts to actually tempt Ben, but Jennifer as a character doesn’t embrace the mirrorness of it all. She’s not having ANY fun with it. It’s a good touch that the one character without an equivalent is Jake; just don’t think about anything else too hard.

“Resurrection” For our next representation, the mirror universe instead comes to us! We found prime timeline Bareil to be so milquetoast that it was delightful to see his equivalent who is downright charming! However, Major Kira seems out of character the whole episode long! She falls for this Bareil at the drop of hat, which does NOT seem in keeping with her usually guarded nature (especially in the context of the rest of the season). Even Nana Visitor has said as much. Eh, maybe she’s on the rebound after the Shakaar thing. We also found there to be not nearly enough Intendant Kira! She has like one quick scene pretending to be Kira, and people pretending to be their counterparts is the funnest part of a mirror universe episode!

“The Emperor’s New Cloak” All pretense has fallen by season seven and the writers have basically admitted they were only going for jokes in these episodes. But the jokes really do feel like they’re only for the writers, and the audience doesn’t get to be in on it. Vic Fontaine is a flesh-and-blood person just to confuse people. The Ferengi joke reaches its culmination by killing off Brunt not because it’s integral, but because it’s a running gag. If we said it was convenient when they introduced Mirror Worf in “Shattered Mirror,” imagine how convenient we found it when they introduced Mirror Ezri in this one. And finally, the ladies kiss just to arouse the teenaged boys watching. Says Chris (who typically loves mirror universe episodes): “It’s not representation, it’s titillation.” Yeah, that sums up the DS9 mirror universe to a tee.

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Enterprise

“In A Mirror, Darkly”

Enterprise seems to have really understood the assignment when visiting the mirror universe. These episodes had no living character representation from the prime universe to compare against, which may have actually been in their favor because it allowed the story to both stay within the canon and also really embrace the camp nature of Mirrorland. The Zephram Cochrane tease sets the tone well, the T’Pol arc works, and they actually put in effort in the opening credits that we’ve lauded before! Soval having a goatee, despite being an obvious joke, still works somehow! On the flipside, the Gorn was terrible and should have just been a shitty rubber costume, and the Tholian CGI doesn’t hold up. 

We’ve said before that this two-parter really could have been one episode. The first half feels especially drawn out because there’s so much to establish about the circumstance that could’ve been trimmed down. Mostly, we’re left with a good taste in our mouth from this one, so it’s rather a serendipitous thing that the show got cancelled after season four because the writers had been planning a full multi-episode arc in the mirror universe in season five. And we know how spending too much time in the mirror universe can get old really fast…

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Discovery

“Despite Yourself” We mentioned last week that Discovery has the most episodes set in the mirror universe out of any of the series, which is saying something because it also has the fewest total episodes from this selection. The designs are jaw-dropping (even though I personally find them overdesigned, but I’ve griped about this before). The fight choreography between Burnham and Connor is stunning! And this episode marks the time that I start coming around to Tilly, whose impression of Captain Killy walks that tightrope between goofy comedy extremes with expert precision! Making the major MacGuffin be the prime timeline Defiant seems a little wanky to us (especially because it never does pay off), so it does make us wonder if viewers new to Trek will have ANY idea what’s going on… but that’s a problem we have with a lot of the new series overall.

“The Wolf Inside” The arc continues the next episode with a bunch of reveals, a writing device that season 1 of Discovery dipped into possibly too much. We do have to commend the portrayal of the Terran Empire Rebellion led by the Fire Wolf, as it fills in some worldbuilding in a way that feels true to the setting. Sarek continues the trend of mirror Vulcans having goatees, which is a damn nice touch! Was it a little too expected for the emperor to be revealed as Georgiou in this universe? Maybe, but Michelle Yeoh really makes it work, as we’ll see in the next episode!

“Vaulting Ambition” We get some of the best of Emperor Georgiou in this episode, despite her lazy Susan entrance which is face-palmingly dumb. Michelle Yeoh devours the scenery with reckless abandon the entire time. It is a joy to watch someone embracing a role so thoroughly. But wait, there are more reveals to hackily write into dialogue! Maybe it’s just the writing in that one scene, but the Lorca reveal feels really cop-out-y. The whole sensitivity-to-light retcon strikes us as contrived just to get that big revelation moment that modern television drama seems to thrive on these days. Meh.

“What’s Past Is Prologue” Boy, this sidequest just keeps going, doesn’t it? When even Chris is saying the arc is going on too long, then you’ve overstayed your welcome in the mirror universe. And that’s kind of the problem we have with how Discovery interprets this nefarious setting: They’re treating this funhouse universe as serious writing, and it makes the tone of it topple under its own weight. Everyone’s plans (Lorca’s, Burnham’s, Landry’s… etc) are TERRIBLE. Each character ends up holding the idiot ball just to make the plot move forward, all culminating with the stupidest thing any character has ever done: bringing Emperor Georgiou to the prime universe with us. Which brings us to our final appearances of the mirror universe in this series.

“Terra Firma” Here we are in season three, and the SSHB hosts have been done with Emperor Georgiou as a character since the end of season one (where we frankly wish this show had left her). Finally, a mirror universe episode that Chris doesn't blindly love! This two-parter mostly serves to free up Emperor Georgiou so she could lead that Section 31 show everyone was talking about and no one wanted, but it sure does take its time in doing so. We’ve been saying for a while that Georgiou’s presence on Discovery was limited to out-of-place quipping and blatantly being evil, so we mostly just wanted to be rid of her. 

The rest of this two-parter is pretty standard mirror fare. Lots of scheming. Nearly every named character dies. Most of the characters strike us as one-dimensional set dressing, as nearly any extra could have been swapped into any other scene without affecting anything (but I can say that about their prime universe counterparts as well). And the simply mirrored opening credits seem like a last-minute effort. We do get Mirror Burnham, who is definitely a highlight as Sonequa Martin-Green goes for broke at every opportunity! We do wonder if making this all one episode would have felt better paced in the season? Especially since, by the end, the send off to Emperor Georgiou mostly feels unearned and leaves us feeling icky.

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Prodigy

“Cracked Mirror” THIS IS HOW YOU DO THE MIRROR UNIVERSE! Sorry to spoil Prodigy for you if you haven’t seen it yet, but those of us who’ve seen this episode just love it so much it warrants including even if we haven’t covered it on the podcast yet. It’s a smaller taste (only a part of one already short episode), which is just enough time to establish the setting, the mirror equivalents of Janeway and Chakotay, and how its inclusion fits in with the overall story. And it’s that last element that really makes this episode work for us. We’re not venturing into the mirror universe just for fun, to crack jokes, and for the reference of it all (though that’s all there for the established fans), but because the whole season arc is about jumping through time and space! The mirror universe is seeded several episodes prior! We see other alternate dimensions in this episode to fully establish what’s going on, even for kids who might not have familiarity. And once we’re here, the plot stays simple enough to make sense while still having that screwball mirror energy to acknowledge the differences. Jillian the whale is evil and has a scar like Sulu did, for crying out loud! What’s not to absolutely love about this? Paramount had no idea what a great show they had.

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Section 31

Prepare for some whiplash. We go from praising my favorite depiction of the mirror universe to cringing at one of the most derided installments in the Star Trek canon: Section 31. Now, this whole movie is trash, but let’s just focus on that opening scene, which depicts Philippa’s backstory in the mirror universe. As a scene, it’s actually well done, I’ll admit. It’s more of that intensely dark depiction of the mirror universe that Discovery trotted out, but it stands in sharp contrast to anything else we’ve ever seen before from the mirror universe and also to the rest of this particular movie, which seems to mostly be composed of quips and action sequences. The world building that we get of how things run in this universe seems simultaneously expected and confusing as hell. We understand how cutthroat every element of the mirror universe is… but it also makes no sense? It’s like Hunger Games meets Squid Game, but no matter how you mix them, it doesn’t turn into Star Trek to us.

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