MIRROR, MIRROR (STAR TREK)

(Redirected from Mirror, Mirror (TOS episode))
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'"Mirror, Mirror"' is an episode of ''. It is a second season episode, #33, production #39, and was broadcast for the first time on October 6, 1967. It was repeated on April 12, 1968. It was written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Marc Daniels.
The episode introduces the alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept in Star Trek for the first time. The episode has a transporter mishap swapping Captain Kirk and his companions with their evil counterparts in a parallel universe. In the so-called Mirror Universe, the ''Enterprise'' is a ship of the Empire rather than the Federation, promotions are earned by assassination, and Mr. Spock has a beard.

Contents

Plot

40th Anniversary remastering

Trivia

External links

Plot

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 universe parallel to their own, where the USS ''Enterprise'' is called an "Imperial Starship" or ISS ''Enterprise'', and there is no Federation, with a brutal regime called the Terran Empire in its stead. The group's uniforms have also changed into more "revealing" outfits, including a decorative sash tied about their waists, plus an assortment of sidearms. Uhura now sports a bare midriff, while Kirk's casual uniform top is replaced by 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 "a command of (his) own" if he's freed, among other offers. 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 visits his quarters and finds it very different from the one he has become familiar with. There he examines his mission orders learning 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 5,000 colonists on Vega IX, among many other atrocities.
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 torture within an agony booth as punishment. Kirk surmises that the fastest known path to promotion in the parallel universe is to successfully kill one's superior officer, especially when they appear to be neglecting their duties, especially "prime orders of the Empire" as Chekov notes.
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 Lieutenant 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 uncooperative 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 ISS ''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 there may be a way to return to their universe, but one of them would have to remain behind and manually operate the transporter. The mirror-Spock suspects the landing party are conspiring for some reason, and confronts them. In the ensuing fight, 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 alright. Mirror-Spock suddenly comes to and quickly mind melds with McCoy. He discovers the switch, and subsequently offers to operate the transporter to return the landing party to their own universe. This gesture convinces Kirk that this universe's Mr. Spock is still an ethical Vulcan guided by logic 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. Mirror-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 his own universe's Lieutenant Marlena Moreau, who is quite a different girl from what he experienced her to be in the other universe. Kirk tells Spock that Moreau "seems like a nice, likable girl" and that he thinks they "could be friends."

40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and first aired November 11, 2006 as part of the remastered ''Original Series''. It was preceded a week earlier by "The Trouble With Tribbles" and followed a week later by "Space Seed". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS ''Enterprise'' that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

★ The Halkan homeworld has been updated to look more realistic.

★ The transition effect between the mirror universes has been smoothed and reworked with a zooming video effect.

★ The ISS ''Enterprise'' now looks different from the USS ''Enterprise''. The hull is gun-metal gray, the name "I.S.S. ENTERPRISE" is shown on the saucer. The front of the warp nacelles lack swirling light effects of the USS ''Enterprise'' and include antennas. The ends of the nacelles have a series of exhaust ports instead of a dome.

★ The agonizer Spock uses on Mr. Kyle glows and sparks with red energy when activated.

★ The agonizer booth that Mr. Chekov is placed in now glows with red energy and includes an image warping effect.

★ The Tantalus Field effects have been enhanced.

Trivia

★ This episode is the first and possibly only time Scotty calls Captain Kirk "Jim".

★ The mirror universe is featured in ''TNG'' novel ''Dark Mirror'', by Diane Duane, which features a Galaxy-class ISS ''Enterprise'', NCC-1701-D.

★ In Parallels (TNG episode), an Enterprise D appears in the end of the episode from a Borg controlled universe. In the original script, it was to be a Mirror Universe Enterprise D.

★ When live-action ''Star Trek'' returned to the mirror universe, in the ''Deep Space Nine'' episode, "Crossover", it contradicted this version of events, by having the Terran Empire fall between "Mirror, Mirror", and "Crossover". ''DS9'' would have several mirror universe episodes.

★ William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Steven's Star Trek novels have featured the Mirror Universe established in ''DS9'' continuity (see Spectre, Dark Victory and Preserver), including the return of the Mirror Kirk, calling himself "Emperor Tiberius".

★ A two-part '' episode, "In a Mirror, Darkly", provides a prequel to the Mirror Universe demonstrating how the Empire was formed and revolving around technology from the future stopping a 22nd century rebellion.

★ The scene at the end of the episode where Captain Kirk met the Lt. Moreau of his own universe was edited into the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" with the character of Benjamin Sisko inserted in place of Moreau.

★ The episode was spoofed in the ''South Park'' episode "Spookyfish", whereby an "evil Cartman" crossed into the normal South Park universe, but was the opposite of Cartman, thereby causing the "evil" Cartman to actually be a better person than the true Cartman. All the characters from the parallel universe were bearded.

★ The episode 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 a nicer robot than the true Bender. 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 episode was referenced in the two part ''Megas XLR'' series finale "Rearview Mirror, Mirror," which 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 ''Trek'' episode, as the title references.

★ The episode 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, sporting a goatee and wearing a costume similar to Kirk's while evading assassination attempts by Crow, and 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 episode was spoofed on the show ''Robot Chicken'', in a sketch in which two Michael Jacksons (one the currently known, the other the Michael Jackson from twenty years prior who had been abducted and replaced by aliens) fight to define which is the "real" one. The older one is, naturally, bearded, and the line "To be safe, you'll have to kill us both" is used.

★ The episode was referenced in ''A-Next'' issue 10. The character J2 doesn't grasp the concept of alternate universes, hence Thunderstrike explains it to him by reminding him of the Star Trek episode.

★ The episode was referenced in the ''Stargate SG-1'' episode "Point of View", in which Teal'c and Apophis's alternates have goatees.

★ The episode was spoofed in the ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' video game, during a meeting of the Scooby Gang, Buffy is surprised to hear Giles tell her he doesn't mind her returning to cheerleading, commenting that she "likes this alternate-universe Giles" and asks if "the old Giles [is] coming back." Giles replies, "Don't be ridiculous, Buffy; the alternate-universe Giles has a beard."

★ The episode is referenced in the Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I) episode of the Venture Bros. in which Dean Venture uses a fake goatee for a disguise.

★ The progressive rock band Spock's Beard likely took their name from this episode.

External links

★ Mirror, Mirror side-by-side comparisons

★ ''Mirror, Mirror'' at StarTrek.com

★ ''Mirror, Mirror'' Story Outline Review