I am thinking of writing a fanfic based on it, but the plot would depend on one crucial issue:
Is the Mirror Universe simply an alternate timeline in which Earth developed into a barbaric Empire rather than the idealistic Federation? Or is reality itself different in the mirror universe so that evil is the norm?
BTW: I loved the novel Dark Mirror, and despised the DS9 episodes.
IIRC, it’s the former and not the latter.
It seems to be a universe of opposites. But, not exactly an alternate evolution of the universe. Why would it mirror the one point in time of the universes where the particular story being told is?
Good guys are bad is the basic plot line.
The first time Trek did it, it was effective. The DS-9 versions were pure torture. An overused, weak plot crutch, if you ask me.
From The Star Trek Encyclopedia:
This doesn’t sound like it fits into the usual definition of “alternate timeline,” but it’s still vague enough to cover either of your options. The mirror universe as described above could have been the result of a split from our own universe at some point in the past. However, this split must have affected more than Earth’s history. Note mirror-Spock’s remark that his disappearance would be avenged by his operatives, some of whom are Vulcans; the implied threat in the last phrase suggests that Vulcans are not the peace-loving logicians of our universe, so the barbaric Empire was most likely not based solely on a change in Earth’s history. The concept of an alternate reality where “evil is the norm” leads to some interesting questions regarding the whole development of civilization, which unfortunately I don’t have time to explore at this moment. Maybe in the morning I’ll be able to get back to this.
There were logical inconsistencies even in TOS’s Mirror, Mirror.
What logic is there in assuming that the mission Good Enterprise was on would be mirrored by Bad Enterprise?
Since the people and the governments were SO incredibly different, it would make more sense for the missions, crew roster, even ship names would be wildly different.
Remember, if it was truly an alternate universe, the split would’ve had to take place far back in time. What an amazing coincidence that they MIRROrED each other so effectively, just when the writers needed them to.
For 1966, this was a good show. It gave us a break from regular Star Trek and showed us the range the actors and writers had. And we saw Spock in a goatee!
As a one timelot device, it was ok, even fun. After that… trite.
Sorry, but that’s what this Trekker thinks of mirror uni plots.
The reality is fundementally different way of approaching it wouldn’t work, either. Spock was Spock in both universes, if you know what I mean.
IMHO, it would take a Quantum Leap to make the mirrors work with all these inherit drawbacks.
But, go for it!
If you have a site to go see it when finished, I’d like to…
one time plot device
drinking and posting again
I recommend posting and drinking. It seems to work better that way.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but “What NCB said”.
That was my understanding, too. IIRC, the people on the planet were not evil in the mirror universe.
There are any number of parallel universes. The DS9 mirror-verse is a close analogue to “our” universe because it is the one time-line descended from the TOS cross-over bifurcation event that has sufficient details in common to thin out the boundaries.
Daughter timelines wherein a Sisko analogue had not been born, or where the Human empire had resisted the Cardassian/Klingon alliance are too distant in the chrono-quantum dimention to allow cross-overs of personnel from “our” timeline.
There are thin spots all through the multiverse, and cross-overs happen constantly. It is only when the background details are diverse enough to notice that an effort to “return” is made.
Hey, now. They had the evil Kira wearing leather and gettin’ it on with Jadzia. That’s worth lots.
Now that I think about it, most of my fond memories of Star Trek babes was when they wore leather: Kira, B’elanna, Kes, Keylar…
Actually the novel Dark Mirror does answer your questions (if it’s the one I’m thinking of, a Next Generation story where the ‘Dark side’ Federation creates a system to jump into ‘Our Good’ Federation’ universe [ itself jumping around space with the help of that ‘spider’ scientist ]) - apparently the universes started out the same, but the Dark Federation one became evil over time (Good Picard finds this by reading the historic books in the Evil Picard’s ready room - by the time of Shakespeare the universe was already heartless). Yes, I know the books are not canon, but still…
Dark mirror is the only ST novel I own, mostly because it was 50 cents at a library book sale…
The DS9 mirror was outstanding.
As I mentioned in another thread, beware of the characters who are dead in the mirror universe: Spock, Oddo, Sisko, Quark come to mind.
Depends on the particular babe. Kes, no way. Kira, maybe, but she was hotter in a tank-top. And I think that we can all agree that B’elanna was born to wear leather.
Best of all, it showed us Uhura’s navel.
Meh, I’ve never found good and evil to be opposites in practice, especially since they’re so open to interpretation. Thus, all that crap about anti-matter universes just seems immature.
The DC comic books dealt with the mirror universe at length and postulated that the two universes were identical up to the Romulan wars mentioned in the “Balance of Terror” episode. The “real” universe fought these wars in deep space, while the alternate suffered battles much closer to Federation territory, thus making its inhabitants more warlike and paranoid (kinda like post Sept-11 America, one could argue, but that’s another thread).
The main problem I found with the DS9 episodes is how contrived they feel. When chracters were added to the “real” universe, they’d pop up in the alternate for no real reason, as mirror-Worf did when Michael Dorn joined the cast. It felt artificial.
If anything, the popularity of these episodes should have clued in the Trek writers that the viewers didn’t mind if the characters were a bit more ruthless or sexual. The only time Voyager even got close was in a fake alternate history presented in the “Living Witness” episode. By comparison, the “real” timeline feels preachy and bloodless.
I agree that the “alternate timeline” and the “evil reality” scenerios both have logical inconsistancies- that’s why I’m having trouble deciding which version to go with. I’m accepting TOS episode as canon and Dark Mirror as semi-canon. Here’s the facts I have to reconcile:
The mirror universe has many strong, if imperfect, parallels to the prime universe. The main characters all have duplicates.
The difference in history goes back at least several centuries and affects at least Earth and probably most of the worlds of the Federation. At the same time, this does NOT affect the entire galaxy.
It isn’t just the same people reacting differently to different circumstances- there seems to be an active principle of moral inversion. The Dark humans are either actively evil, degenerate, or at least damaged and embittered. I empathise with the Barclay counterpart in Dark Mirror. Imagine, being neurotically afraid that everyone is out to hurt or humiliate you- and living in a world in which this is a realistic assessment of the truth.
In short, it seems like the “Dark Mirror” really is a Dark Mirror- that that universe has a Kirk, Spock, Picard, etc. precisely because the prime universe does. And that they’re evil because the very principle of that universe is to have an evil analog of the Federation with a race of humans as cruel and degenerate as the real Federation is enlightened. I’m leaning towards one of two explanations: (1) The Mirror universe is the domain of an insane member of the Q continuim, or (2) The two universes somehow are counterbalanced to each other- the best case and worse case scenerios for how the human race developed.\
Don’t forget Oddo’s brother, Odo
Add Rom and Nog to the list. It seems like most of the DS9 cast is dead in the mirror universe.
One more: Evil Kirk got to be captain of the Enterprise by assassinating Captain Pike.
If you read “Number of the Beast” by RAH (not that he has any standing in Star Trek), you’ll find that the alternate universes exist because someone created them as fiction, that is you can slip into OZ or Barsoom or down the rabbit hole or whatever because each of them is the product of someone’s fevered imagination. There’s no necessity for logical consistency.
It’s only ego (Universist bigotry?) that makes us refer to ourselves as the “primary” universe. We are all just characters in someone else’s entertainment.
So, the Dark Mirror universe exists because the Star Trek writers wrote about it. Do what you will with it.
Side note for discussion: Spock-with-a-beard was logical but not a pacifist. Since both the logic and the pacifism came from the same historical event, I wonder what happened? In my foggy, mostly-senile brain it seems I recall that a hero/philosopher (whose name we learned but I forget) led the movement for logic and peace because the Vulcans almost destroyed themselves in a war. Yes? No?