Mirror Universe (Star Trek)

The Mirror Universe is a fictional parallel universe in which the plots of several Star Trek television episodes take place. It resembles the fictional universe in which the Star Trek TV series takes place, but is separate from the main universe. The Mirror Universe has been featured in several different Star Trek TV series. It is named after "Mirror, Mirror", the original series episode in which it first appeared.

Overview

Emblem of the Terran Empire

The characters in the Mirror Universe are aggressive, mistrustful, and opportunistic in personality. Whereas the Star Trek universe depicts an optimistic future in which the Earth-based United Federation of Planets values peace, co-operation and exploration, episodes set in the Mirror Universe feature the human-dominated Terran Empire which values conquest instead. The term "Terran" is predominantly used for humans.

By the 22nd century, humanity had formed the Terran Empire and enslaved dozens of alien worlds and species. Discipline aboard starships was enforced through torture — either through agonizers carried by crewmembers or agony booths. Officers were barbaric in behavior and advanced in rank by killing superiors who they thought were incompetent. Roman/Nazi-style military salutes were used by crewmembers to show loyalty to their captain. When exposed to individuals from the normal universe, the Terran Empire began to reform itself for the better, but was overthrown in the 23rd century by an alliance of alien species who took advantage of the Empire's self-weakening and conquered it, enslaving Terrans and Vulcans in the process.

Though the Mirror Universe is darker and violent than the normal universe, a few Mirror characters are more friendly or docile than their normal counterparts. For example, Mirror Quark helped Terran slaves escape and reach freedom while Mirror Brunt is a kind and considerate Ferengi.

The Mirror Universe has been visited in one episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, five episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and a two-part episode of Star Trek: Enterprise as well as several non-canon Star Trek novels and video games.

Not all characters have a Mirror counterpart; because the Mirror versions of Ben and Jennifer Sisko separated before conceiving a child, there is no Mirror version of Jake Sisko. Since humans were enslaved by the time period of The Next Generation, a Mirror version of Data was never created. Also, since the Dax symbiont was never joined with Ezri Tigan in the Mirror Universe, there is no exact copy of Ezri Dax, only Mirror Ezri Tigan. Mirror versions of several characters died during the course of the various Mirror Universe storylines whereas their normal counterparts remained alive. The reverse is also true with Bareil Antos and Jennifer Sisko being alive in the Mirror Universe while their normal counterparts had died, although the Mirror Jennifer was later killed in the episode "Shattered Mirror".

Characters from each universe refer to the other as "parallel" or "alternate" rather than "mirror".^[1]

Enterprise

A two-part episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, entitled "In a Mirror, Darkly", introduces the early developments of the Mirror Universe.

On April 5, 2063, Zefram Cochrane conducts his warp flight, drawing the attention of a passing Vulcan ship, as per the events shown in the normal universe in Star Trek: First Contact. When the Vulcans landed and made their peaceful introduction, however, Cochrane killed the leader with a concealed weapon and led the townspeople in commandeering the Vulcan ship.

Terran domination was made possible by technology taken from the Vulcans and other defeated races. By 2155, the Terran Empire had already enslaved the Vulcans, Andorians, Orions and Tellarites and launched successful attacks against the Klingons and the Xindi (as seen in the opening credits). As such, the Mirror Universe crew of Enterprise, known as the ISS Enterprise, is more racially diverse than its normal counterpart, with Vulcans and Tellarites serving as crewmembers. The Mirror T'Pol holds a position of trusted authority and the Mirror Phlox serves as Enterprise's physician. The Mirror Soval is an enlisted science crewman aboard the ISS Avenger, another Starfleet vessel which includes Andorian and Orion crewmembers.

During the episode's stated date of January 2155, Mirror Archer steals the USS Defiant, a Constitution-class starship that has technology and power that is century more advanced than ISS Enterprise, from the Mirror Tholians. Archer is later poisoned by Mirror Hoshi Sato, who attempts to use the power of the USS Defiant to declare herself Empress of the Terran Empire.

The Original Series

The Mirror Universe was first introduced in the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured the brutal Terran Empire, run by humans and their Vulcan allies, in place the United Federation of Planets. The Mirror Captain Kirk of the ISS Enterprise was a mass murderer who was promoted to Captain after assassinating Captain Christopher Pike.

In the Terran Empire, officers were promoted by assassinating their superiors and order was kept by use of the "Agonizer" pain-giving devices. In some serious cases, the "agony booth" could also be used. Aesthetic differences included the Mirror crew's uniforms being more flamboyant and somewhat robe-like, with ceremonial daggers for the officers; Mirror Sulu was a Gestapo-like political officer with a disfiguring facial scar; Mirror Spock had a Van Dyke beard (which led to a number of pop culture references of people from evil alternate universes having beards), whereas the regular character does not; the "United Nations" emblem of the Federation was replaced by the Terran Empire symbol, which consisted of the Earth imposed over a vertical sword of conquest.

In this original encounter, Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Lieutenant Uhura, and Chief Engineer Scott had been turned down by the peaceful Halkans, who did not want to trade for dilithium. They feared the use of the material for war. An ion storm causes a beam-up to go awry, however, switching the crew with their alternates and sending the team into the Mirror Universe.

Normal Kirk is forced to pose as his mirror counterpart and discovers the ISS Enterprise was on a similar mission as his own ship, only the Terran Empire would not take no for an answer. They threaten to begin bombing the planet from orbit unless the dilithium is sent to them. Kirk orders the bombing to be postponed, but other officers become suspicious and one attempts to assassinate him for acting against the interests of the empire.

Both Spocks find out the dual nature of the affected officers and work on a way to get them home.

Before leaving the Mirror Universe, Kirk asks the Mirror Spock about the Halkan prediction of a galactic revolt to which Mirror Spock reply it will happen in approximately 240 years with the inevitable overthrow of the Empire. Kirk uses this response to give an impassioned speech to Mirror Spock that continuing to support the Empire was illogical and that one man with the right tool can make a difference. He asks Mirror Spock to be that man, and Mirror Spock replies that he will consider Kirk's proposal.

Deep Space Nine

The Mirror Universe was later revisited in the Deep Space Nine second season episode "Crossover", and turned into a story-arc that spanned into the final season, with five Mirror Universe episodes over the course of five seasons.

On Deep Space Nine, which takes place over 100 years after the original contact with the Mirror Universe, it was revealed that drastic changes had occurred in the Mirror Universe because of the interference of the regular universe's Kirk. Before he left the Mirror Universe, James T. Kirk planted seeds of doubt in the Mirror Spock's mind about the Terran Empire's brutal tactics. Kirk noted that Spock was a man of honor in both universes, and the Mirror Spock listened to Kirk's urging for reform. Mirror Spock's future role on Enterprise and the fate of Mirror Kirk are unclear. Mirror Spock then went on to become Chief of State of the Terran Empire. Mirror Spock introduced many popular reforms that largely ended the iron-fisted rule of the Terran Empire, especially a vast demilitarization program. However, these reforms were ill-timed.

Not long after Mirror Spock's demilitarization drive, the Terran Empire encountered the Alliance, a unified government of the Klingons, Cardassians and Bajorans. The Alliance conquered the ill-prepared Terran Empire and enslaved the Terrans and Vulcans. Terrans became pariahs and a slave race, often subjected to mass forced physical labor.

The Alliance does not have cloaking device technology. However, cloak technology did exist in the 22nd century on at least one Terran starship, who in turn took it from the Suliban.

The Romulans also exist in the Mirror Universe, as Sisko, while impersonating Mirror Sisko, told Mirror Jennifer Sisko that he was leaving to see the Romulans to get them to join the fight against the Alliance.

The Bajorans of the Mirror Universe were ruled by the Terran Empire until they were liberated by the Cardassians, joining the Alliance and becoming masters of Terran slave forces. Notable among them was Intendant Kira, the counterpart to the normal universe's Kira Nerys. Intendant Kira was ruthless, sadistic, hedonistic, bisexual and sexually aggressive — characteristics common in Mirror Universe females. She maintained power in her sector of the Alliance from Terok Nor, the counterpart of Deep Space Nine.

When Deep Space Nine officers Julian Bashir and Kira Nerys visited the Mirror Universe, they sparked a rebellion among the Terran slaves led by the Mirror Sisko and Mirror O'Brien. Over the next five years, the Terran Rebellion would drag on and was not conclusively finished. The rebellion eventually captured Terok Nor for use as a base of operations and built their own version of the Defiant using plans stolen from the normal universe.

Episodes

The following is a list of episodes that take place in the Mirror Universe or involve characters from the Mirror Universe, in in-Universe chronological order.

Novels

Star Trek: Mirror Universe

Besides the various canon productions depicting the Mirror Universe, it was the basis of many novels and comics, however as each TV series made its own mark on the continuity of the Mirror Universe the histories and futures established for the universe in non-canon works began to contradict canon.

In 2007, two collections of Mirror stories were published: the first involves Mirror Enterprise, TOS and TNG, the second features Mirror DS9, Voyager and New Frontier. Dark Passions and the Shatner novels are not part of the canon as established in these stories.

The first of these collections, Glass Empires, comprises Age of the Empress (describing Hoshi Sato's reign as Empress); The Sorrows of Empire (Spock's career from immediately after Mirror Mirror to the forging of the Alliance at the Mirror Khitomer Accords, explaining that the fall of the Empire was orchestrated by Spock in order to force the people of the empire to fight for their freedoms and make sure the Empire never reformed); and The Worst of Both Worlds (in which Jean-Luc Picard, a Terran slave, must defend the Alliance against the even worse threat of the Borg).

The second, Obsidian Alliances, consists of The Mirror Scaled Serpent (Chakotay's resistance cell encounters Neelix and Kes in the Badlands); Cutting Ties (in which M'k'nzy of Calhoun ("Muck"), a slave of the Romulan Empire, meets the mirror counterparts of the Excalibur crew); and Saturn's Children (in which Kira plots to regain the position of Intendant from Ro Laren while O'Brien faces discontent in the Rebellion). The latter of these ties into the Mirror Kira's appearance in the Deep Space Nine relaunch series of novels.

A further collection entitled Shards and Shadows was released in January 2009.^[2] The Mirror Universe storyline was concluded in the novel Rise Like Lions, released in November 2011.^[3] A further story taking place in the Mirror Universe, Section 31 - Disavowed, was released in October 2014.^[4]

Star Trek: Stargazer

The Star Trek: Stargazer novel Three, by Michael Jan Friedman also features the Mirror Universe. Since the Stargazer novels are set during Picard's first command, nearly 40 years before the DS9 crossover, it provides a glimpse of the Mirror Universe between the fall of the Terran Empire and the rise of the successful Terran Rebellion. In it, the counterpart of a member of the USS Stargazer crew crosses over from the Terran rebel ship Stargazer to kidnap the Stargazer’s chief engineer Simeon for the armed resistance against the Alliance. The captain of the Stargazer is the counterpart of the USS Stargazer's first officer, Gilaad Ben Zoma. The presence of a recently initiated rebellion against the Alliance in DS9 indicates that the rebels in Three were ultimately defeated.

Dark Mirror

Diane Duane, in her Star Trek: The Next Generation book Dark Mirror offers another explanation of what happened after Captain Kirk and three others of his crew encountered the Mirror Universe. In the novel, the Empire is still in existence in the 24th century. The point of divergence seems to pre-date the Eugenics Wars (dating back to the days of ancient Greece), which in this timeline consisted of the supermen annihilating each other with nuclear weapons, with humanity following their mindset in its new-found freedom. While on the Mirror Enterprise, Picard finds several historical works of literature that reflect their universe's aggressiveness. The novel concludes with Picard advising the mirror Worf - here a slave - to encourage the Empire's slave races to wait for the chance to strike back, as the Empire's attempt to conquer our universe shows their increased desperation for new territories to conquer to enforce their powers.^[5]

Shatnerverse

Various novels have been set in the Deep Space Nine version of the Mirror Universe, including a trilogy by William Shatner, which reveals the Mirror Kirk (or "Emperor Tiberius" as he calls himself) was still alive and plotting to reconquer the Empire. Apparently, it had been he who originally created the Alliance to overthrow Spock before it turned on him. His right-hand man is Regent Jean-Luc Picard, who works with the counterparts of other Enterprise-E bridge crew. He is opposed in his aims by Mirror Spock, now the Intendant of the Vulcan Resistance. Mirror versions of Kathryn Janeway, other Voyager crewmembers and Tasha Yar also appeared.

Comics

The Mirror Universe Saga is a trade paperback that reprints eight issues of DC Comics' Star Trek comic book (issues #9 - #15, as well as issue #16 which completed the arc but did not actually involve the Mirror Universe) chronicling an encounter between the Mirror Universe and our own. It is set immediately after the events of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which had just been released shortly before the series was first published. The series was credited to Mike W. Barr (head writer for DC's Trek comic at the time), Tom Sutton, and Ricard Villagran.

The I.S.S. Enterprise obtains the Genesis technology developed by Dr. Carol Marcus then enters our universe to spearhead the Empire's intended conquest of the Federation. Meanwhile, in the "real" universe, Captain Styles of the Excelsior has arrived at Regula I, where Kirk and crew have found temporary safe haven, to take them back to Earth to stand trial for their mutinous actions (as depicted in Star Trek III). When they encounter a mystery attacking ship, Styles overconfidently believes the Excelsior can defeat the attacker, which is an "outdated" Constitution-class ship, but it turns out to be the I.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Mirror Kirk. The Mirror Enterprise crew easily overpowers the inexperienced Excelsior crew, taking over the advanced vessel, and Mirror Kirk dispatches Mirror Spock (who despite his words at the end of "Mirror, Mirror" had elected to return to Mirror Kirk's side after all, after logically deducing that the efforts of any one single man would be a useless gesture against the Empire). Mirror Sulu and Mirror Chekov travel to Vulcan (aboard Kruge's Klingon bird-of-prey, captured by Kirk during Star Trek III and confiscated by Styles when taking custody of the Enterprise survivors) to find Spock, still recovering from the fal-tor-pan ritual on Vulcan. Kirk and his own crew manage to escape and take over the I.S.S. Enterprise, which is destroyed by remote control by the Mirror Kirk; the real Kirk's crew survives by escaping in the ship's saucer section.

After retaking the Excelsior from Mirror Kirk (and placing the Mirror Enterprise crew in stasis), Kirk takes command of Excelsior and takes it to the Mirror Universe in a gambit of impersonating Mirror Kirk yet again. His plan is to break the back of the Empire's planned invasion by taking command of the Imperial fleet aboard Excelsior, then turning on the fleet at the critical moment. One Empire officer, a Captain Blaine, is suspicious of Kirk's intentions; however, rather than suspecting Kirk is his counterpart from the other (our) universe, he is familiar with Mirror Kirk's history of advancing through the ranks by use of treachery and intrigue and thinks Kirk is out to take control of the Empire for himself.

Saavik researches Imperial history to help familiarize the crew with the Mirror Universe and its history, so as to better portray their own counterparts. Her research reveals the likely point of divergence between the two universes - the Romulan War. In our universe, Earth and Romulus fought their war in deep space. In the Mirror Universe, the war was fought in Earth's solar system, and Earth lost. The Romulans held Earth for ten years until a resistance overthrew them. This resistance did not disband once the Romulans were deposed, however; rather, its leaders proclaimed that Earth would no longer be conquered, but rather would be the conquerors themselves. Thus did the resistance movement form the seeds of what would eventually become the Terran Empire.

Meanwhile, Mirror Spock reaches Vulcan, where he engages in a mind meld with the recovering Spock of our universe. However, once Mirror Spock touches his mind, Spock is able to reflexively initiate a meld of his own. In the ensuring battle of minds, Spock draws strength to restore his mind, and at the same time, Mirror Spock becomes reconciled to "our" Spock and the two make common cause to stop the Empire. The two Spocks use the captured Klingon ship to cross into the Mirror universe.

Also seen during this storyline is the counterpart of Kirk's son, David Marcus - still much alive in the Mirror Universe, and leading a resistance cell against the Empire.

The Empire accepts Kirk's proposal to align with the Romulans and Klingons to defeat the Federation, Klingons and Romulans. However, Kirk and Scott have a plan to disable the entire fleet of Empire ships, then, when sufficiently defeated, disable the Romulan and Klingon ships (correctly suspecting both parties would turn their guns on Excelsior once the battle had ended) and return home. The empire, however, already had its own Excelsior built; they had studied the Federation ship earlier in the arc, and used the data gleaned from this examination for help in making their own Excelsior operational. The Mirror Excelsior is under the command of Captain Blaine, who had evidently convinced others within the Empire's Admiralty of Kirk's duplicity. Fortunately, Scotty had deliberately screwed up the Excelsior's systems before Empire technicians studied them, giving their scanners false readings; as a result, the Mirror Excelsior cannot draw enough power to operate and is easily defeated.

The Excelsior then returns to the Federation, having dropped off their mirror counterparts in shuttles. When Mirror Kirk awakens, he tries to contact the nearest Imperial vessel for assistance - not realizing he and his crew have been branded as traitors after the real Kirk's actions left the Imperial fleet crippled. The I.S.S. Nogura picks up Mirror Kirk's distress signal, and after verifying the identity of those aboard, destroys the shuttle, killing all aboard. Of the Mirror Enterprise crew, only Mirror Spock survives, and he elects to join David Marcus' resistance cell.

After returning to his own universe, Kirk gives a reporter an exclusive on how he and his crew saved the Federation from an invasion about which they would have never known. Her reports in the mass media paint the Enterprise survivors as heroes, much to the consternation of Starfleet brass who still wanted Kirk court-martialed. In the end, facing a public-relations nightmare if they proceeded with a full trial, Starfleet reluctantly gives Kirk full command of the Excelsior, ostensibly for an extended shakedown cruise to help work out all the bugs in its system. With the exception of Spock (who is assigned to a command of his own, the science vessel Surak), Kirk's entire crew joins him on this new mission.^[6]

This story, like all Trek comics stories and novels, is not considered canonical with the main Star Trek universe.

Star Trek games

Portions of a number of Star Trek games take place in the Mirror Universe.

Shattered Universe

A 2004 Star Trek game — Star Trek: Shattered Universe — is set sometime after the original series episode "Mirror, Mirror". In the game, Captain Hikaru Sulu and the crew of the U.S.S. Excelsior swap places with the crew of the I.S.S. Excelsior thanks to a localized stellar ion storm. They are hunted by Mirror Chekov, who commands the I.S.S. Enterprise, and assisted by the Mirror Klingons and Mirror Romulans. During their trek home, the Excelsior crew encounter Mirror Universe variations of the original series' missions, including the M-5 multitronic computer, a giant space-amoeba and a Doomsday Machine, although the latter is under the escort of the ISS Constellation and ISS Intrepid.

While the game takes place at some point during the era of the Star Trek films, it is unclear exactly when. The Enterprise has not yet been decommissioned, but Sulu is in command of the Excelsior, placing the game somewhere in the timeframe of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country". Spock has not yet completed his coup d'état—the Empire contacts Mirror Chekov several times during his mission to capture Sulu—but there is still much time for that to occur in the Mirror Universe timeline. There is no indication the character of Kirk, either version, is involved in the storyline.

Elite Force

During the Star Trek game – Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force – the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager are trapped in what is called a "ship's graveyard". Among the wreckage of ships there is an unidentified Constitution-class vessel from the Mirror Universe crewed entirely by humans. It is made apparent that this vessel is from the Mirror Universe by the "sword in the earth" symbol on the walls of the ship, the uniforms of the crew, and the fact that they attack hand to hand with daggers instead of phasers (It is shown in Mirror Mirror that crew members are equipped with daggers). These members of the Terran Empire have presumably been trapped in the graveyard for many years and have formed an alliance with crews of Klingons, Malon, and Hirogen, though it is unknown if any of these races are also from the Mirror Universe. This alliance practices piracy and scavenges ships within the graveyard, taking by force any needed supplies and weaponry. Their own ship appears to have been heavily damaged and has received many emergency repairs. Many of the ships belonging to the Klingons, Malon, Hirogen, and Terran Empire have been joined together to form a base of operations. This is referred to as "the Scavenger Base".

The members of the Voyager's Hazard Team, a specially trained group of officers trained to deal with unusual threats, are sent to board this base of operations to recover isodesium. This substance is needed to survive against the power-draining effects of the graveyard.

Starfleet Command

In Star Trek: Starfleet Command, a player who eventually joins the Starfleet Special Forces during the Federation campaign will be launched on a series of missions involving the Mirror Universe. It begins with an encounter involving the destroyer USS Boston during an experimental "star tap" test, capturing the player's counterpart (in exactly the same ship as the player's main vessel) when the player is accused of crimes against other empires, a mission to capture the Mirror Captain Decker, and a showdown over Earth against a fleet of Doomsday Machines led by the Mirror counterpart of Matthew Decker, who is supreme commander of the Imperial forces.

See also

• Parallel universe

References

1. ↑ Okuda, Michael; Denise, Okuda; Mirek, Debbie (1994). The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 9780671886844. 
2. ↑ Palmieri, Marco; Clark, Margaret (2008). Shards and Shadows (1st Pocket Books trade pbk ed.). London: Pocket. ISBN 978-1416558507. 
3. ↑ Mack, David (2011). Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions (1st Pocket Books pbk ed.). New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-1451607192. 
4. ↑ "Star Trek David Mack Is Back With New Star Trek Novel Section 31: Disavowed". CBS Entertainment. 2014-11-25. Retrieved 2015-02-15. 
5. ↑ Duane, Diane (1993). Dark Mirror. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-79377-2. 
6. ↑ Barr, Mike W. (1991). Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga. New York: DC Comics. ISBN 0-930289-96-X. 

External links

• Mirror Universe article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Chronology
• Hypothetical Timeline - Canon Fodder: Fixing the Star Trek DisContinuity