Mirror, Mirror along Space Seed, The Doomsday Machine, The Enterprise Incident and and The Ultimate Computer are some of the best episodes ever filmed. Something future "Trek's" sadly never equalled
Spot on analysis TAS. Spock's goat is one of Star Treks most remembered, and loved images. Fantastic and groundbreaking episode. I've watched it dozens and dozens of time covering 6+ decades and still I reel when Kirk gets coldcocked coming out of the turbolift. Man that leave a mark. Kirk doesn't go down though. Tough dude. Your back stories were awesome. Thanks for sharing, RNB
One of my all time favorites. Inspiration to the other series episodes as well as fan made shows. The fan series "Star Trek Continues" did an excellent job of picking up where the TOS episode left off.
What a great episode! Spock : Indeed, gentlemen. May I point out that I had an opportunity to observe your counterparts here quite closely. They were brutal, savage, unprincipled, uncivilized, treacherous - in every way splendid examples of homo sapiens, the very flower of humanity.
13:14 You make an excellent point! For the sake of a story as yet to be written, I had a theory to account for this. Simply, the closer one universe is in its contents to another, the easier it is to cross over to it. The specific details are what counts. Hence the similarities are what makes it more likely to "accidentally" go from one universe to another. Given that the sheer number of alternate histories is probably effectively infinite, it is likely such close parallels are bound to crop up sooner or later. Call it hand-waving if you will (you won't be wrong) but this does account for the facts as seen.
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios The third episode of STC "Fairest of them all" is IMO, is a direct continuation of Mirror, Mirror. The episode picks up where the TOS episode left off. Oh I forgot to mention Grant Imahara died yesterday. He played Lt. Sulu.
Mirror Mirror was my white whale. During the first time it aired in my country (I was 12) the power went out at the start. Since them, for years, something always happened to stop me seeing it in rerun/ I finally got to see iit in my 30s by buying the damm videotape, locking the doors and telling people not to interrupt on pain of death. It was a good episode but it kinda got spoiled because i was waiting for a fire o a meteorite, or Mormons....
In the Mirror World, They would be "good". We on this side with Goatees are the "Evil" ones... Now where is that death star plans... Opps, wrong series...
I have to wonder about the general reaction when Sisko showed up at the beginning of season 3 with a goatee? Same with putting the command staff in red for TNG, given the previous... history for characters in that colour.
The phaser pistols were hung on the left hip for a crossdraw using the right hand, as the uniform dagger was placed on the right hip. The dagger is the empire's primary symbol after all.
What I love about this episode is the speech Kirk gives to Spock at the end. During the time of the cold war it was a powerful reminder that change (dissent) is a long term strength and rational, while conformity and force are a weakness. Making for one neck for one noose.
It is a pity that they never made an episode or 10 of the "Mirror Universe" for TNG... Riker with a Goatee or Data?? Damn, an Evil Data... You know he would be Captain of the ISS Enterprise-D... Riker and Picard would be smear marks on the hull..
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios IIRC in the novel Worf is a slave, yet in the TV time line he's Emperor (although initially he was to have been Intendent Kira's deputy but Dorn was unavailable so Garak was inserted instead.)
You're right that it's... really weird that the mirror universe stays even partially in sync with the normal one, for hundreds of years even. They shouldn't even have the same characters really, as that means almost everyone's parents are still getting together and mostly having the same kids in each universe (one notable exception being Jake Sisko, who has no mirror counterpart, but even then his mirror parents still got married). I always imagined that there was more to the mirror universe than just being some random parallel universe where Wesley's the tactical officer, that there must be some mysterious external force (of course out of universe that mysterious force is "scriptwriters") that binds the regular and mirror universes together, and stops them falling too far out of sync.
My theory, branching off from Spock's thesis in "City On The Edge Of Forever" that time is fluid and flowing in one direction, is that all the parallel aspects of the Mirror Universe, or any of the alternate timelines we've seen, is the timeline trying to line back up and repair itself, until somewhere downstream, maybe several millenia later, everything is one big happy timeline again.
The one thing I thought that was wrong in the mirror universe was all the lower ranking crew members walking around with weapons. Too easy to slip a knife in the back of the C.O. The agonisers made sense though. "Look here crewman nobody, that's no way to swab a deck! Your agoniser please!" Great episode though. In a mirror darkly 1&2 from Enterprise is very good. Fairest of them all from Star Trek Continues is good as well. Keep up the good work!
Loved this episode! My only complaint is that I would have loved to have seen what happened when evil Kirk & co. arrived on our Enterprise. Despite that, probably my personal fav - after 'Balance of Terror'. Great vid - keep 'em coming!
While I don't think it was the intention, having them wear the phasers that way, with the handle out is more conducive to a "fast draw", which is fitting for the most violent society. To be honest, I never noticed it until this video pointed it out, but when I saw it that's what I immediately thought of.
Call me a pig but young Nichelle Nichols was one of the most incredibly beautiful women on the planet. The bare mid-drift of her costume just accentuates that.
There was one change from TOS to Discovery with this episode. The Vulcans actually are part of the rebels on Discovery while part of the Terrian Empire in TOS
Hey, I recently found your channel and I’m completely Hooked! My favourite series’ of yours are Back Trek & Truth or Myth (Starships) and was hoping you could eventually do a video on the Challenger, Freedom, and Soyuz Classes. & Possibly the USS Antares 👊
While I like mirror universe episodes as much as anyone else, the big issue I have with them is how all the same people end up in the same ships/places etc if everything else is so different. It takes a lot of variables to have them all end up on the one ship in the main universe and to have these same variables occur in such a different version of it is a bit unlikely to me. Having said that, they're the best episodes in any series they show up in, no doubt!!
I have and always love this episode of TOS and the others were okay but this is and will always be the best Mirror Mirror universe episode ever for me!!!!!!!
I agree that it is HIGHLY unlikely the two universes would line up so closely, especially given all the deaths and characters hooking up, but I ignore it because the mirror universe is so much fun especially in DS9. Have you seen Counterpart? That's a great series I'm certain was inspired by Trek's MU.
I got an idea why there's no Terran empire livery on the outside of the Enterprise. The worker bees that paint the hull were going to be installed next Tuesday. ;D
It is interesting that given the opportunity to redo the outside of the ISS Enterprise CBS didn’t add the decals. I’m trying to remember if the “Enterprise” alternate universe episodes had aired before the remastered “Mirror Mirror” was done. And there’s all the incredible coincidences and non-coincidences that do seem rather arbitrary (the “same spot” where McCoy spilled acid while Capt Pike is not in that wheelchair on Talos IV). Still, it works for me every time because they managed to create such powerful dissonances between what we expect and what actually is on the alternative Enterprise. As someone interested in post colonial theory I especially love the idea that “the Empire” is the inverse of “the Federation.” The same elements are there, only turned upside down.
Granted, the vagaries of having only 48 minutes for an episode. That said, I'd've still loved to have seen more of what happened when the Terran Empire people showed up on the USS Enterprise.
Then there are the ST fan films: The Fairest of them All from Star Trek Continues. As well as how it all started with For Want of a Nail from StarShip Farragut and the Crossing.
Falling asleep, server turned off while brain is plugged in, run over by a farm tractor, hit by a truck, transporter accident. So many ways to go to an alternate universe. Kirk should thank his lucky stars that he didn't have to deal with the goddess of whine.
Good episode (double meaning). If you admire Jerome Bixby's work, I suggest "The Man From Earth". This is an expanded story of "Requiem for Methuselah" but not Star Trek. Go watch it.
For me, the greatness of the episode lies in the fact that mirror Spock is far less evil then any other person on the mirror enterprise. You couldn't better explain the reasoning behind the philosophy of the vulcans.
On the other hand you get the impression Vulcans in the mirror universe are terrifying. Spock's personal bodyguard is made up of Vulcans and that's one reason mirror Sulu is hesitant to cross him.
Greetings Triangulum! Thanks for this video. This is my second favorite TOS episode after “The City on the Edge of Forever “! Did you know that this episode‘s script had undergone revisions into its final form. Originally, it was supposed to be Captain Kirk alone who transported into the Mirror Universe. The Federation in that universe wasn’t evil, just technically backward in their technology. This more “primitive” federation’s ships couldn’t go fast than warp 6 and they hadn’t invented phasers. Also the mirror federation had just lost a war with the Tharn Empire (this name was retained as the name of the Halkan council leader) The Spock of this mirror universe had a bad temper and It was McCoy who had a beard which at first repelled Kirk....and KIRK WAS MARRIED! Also, Kirk kept fainting and growing weaker in the episode because it was as if the mirror universe was trying to expel a foreign object. Like A body using its immune system to get rid of a foreign microbe. Kirk helped this primitive federation by teaching them phaser technology from our universe and how to improve the velocity of their warp engines. In the climax battle of the episode, the mirror enterprise defeated the Tharn using Prime universe technology giving hope to the mirror federation. The mirror Dr. McCoy was injured during the battle. When Kirk gets back to our universe. He finds that prime doctor McCoy was also injured in an accident and the nurse who healed him was Captain Kirk’s wife in the mirror universe. MY SOURCE IS “THE STAR TREK COMPENDIUM “, which I bought in the late 1980s. It’s chock full of interesting information I prefer the episode as it was finally filmed, but one wonders at the legacy the original script might have had... WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Indeed i Do, as I mention some of it in the video :P And I as well have the Original Hard Cover Star Trek Compendium as one of my sources! However, as a rule for these videos, everything I say in them must be confirmed by 3 separate valid sources. And so anything that can not be, doesnt make it in to the video :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios 3 separate valid sources is an excellent rule of thumb. I just discovered your channel today and Subscribed immediately. I can’t wait to view the rest of your content!
This is one of my favorite episodes but it has one major flaw. If history had changed in the Mirror Universe as stated, it is unlikely that any of the crew as we know it would have been the same. The difference was so great that none of them were even likely to have been born. This goes for all other Mirror Universe appearances in Trek series.
The evil goatee trope has possibly grown to be larger than Star Trek. A lot of people probably see it on other shows completely unaware of its origin. The only knock against this as the best episode is that it is really much I,proved with familiarity of the series. That’s very unusual for TOS, as most episodes don’t require much knowledge of the show. Although, “City on the Edge...” probably has a bigger hit, the fact that it’s extremely atypical for the series. As loopy as the Mirror universe is, it’s still on the Enterprise with our familiar characters, and has a structure typical to what you get on TOS. “City” has a very different narrative going on, and is really divorced from most regular Star Trek elements for most of the episode.
Why would he make log entries as that would reveal him to not be who he was? And I figured their missions just happen to coincide at that time and not so much the universes were synched up. That’s just my own head canon.
Admittedly the coincidences and parallel universe being in sync and whatnot isn’t perfect and doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, but I don’t care since it was fascinating to see it play out nonetheless.
Much prefer mirror mirror than City on the Edge of Forever and it led to some great sequels in D69 and Enterprise (not to sure about Discovery) learned a lot on this episode . 👍
I am about to watch this episode on Netflix but I will say I got a bit board of the mirror universe stuff in DS9. The enterprise mirror universe stuff is really good though
That was her? She was the leader of the stolen modified federation ship transformed into a war ship from Star Trek Phase II web series "Enemy Starfleet"
Well, I know nothing about physics, but if we took the infinite earth theory, I think is a probability that at least one of those infinite parallel universes were as sync as this two... 😁😁😁
Two random universes being in sync is indeed very improbable if we assume total randomness of infinite (or even finite but large number of verses - Sliders had the same issue) but... it could be handwaved. All this is nowhere near canon but for example a bored Q cherrypicking the connection might be a thing or it could be a case of twin verses linked with one fate like two sides of one coin. Each one being the opposite in our eyes but still ending almost the same... and it would probably wreck havoc on free will concepts, too. On a sidenote, Enterprise visiting all the "Planet Of Hats" every week could be considered a similar form of alternate Universe/Earth on a metalevel Rod Sterling from Twilight Zone would feel very much at home - _"this is Earth, but contrary to our home Roman Empire did not fall here"_ and so on. "Mirror, mirror " is special in this case just because they did it in-universe and with good/evil flipped.
And on a completely random note, does anyone find Uhura’s pose in the opening scene on the planet unintentionally humorous? It’s like the director told Nichelle “I want you to stand here, with your leg up there”. With the Mirror uniform coming just a scene later, it’s not like they needed to sex up Uhura or anything. It’s one of those things that once you see it, you never stop seeing it.
Thanks to enterprise, the one thing that bugs me about this ep, is that if the Defiant got taken to the 22nd century, the mirror universe kirk goes to should be more advanced than the prime universe.
I have to admit I liked Elite Force having a homage to this episode and Warhammer 40k Space Hulk. Works best playing the female main though. A little light fanservice that's not extreme. (Tbf both Elite Force games are almost nothing but various forms of fanservice. I geeked out a bit and I'm not remotely a huge Trek fan. I can only imagine what big Trek folks thought playing them. )
The only way to make two such similar universes believable is to add a third very similar universe... which could be done in a new Trek series: Tiberius - in which the mirror universe Kirk has aged and fled from his universe to a third universe almost exactly like our universe... Tiberius murdered the third universe's Kirk and took over the Feds, Klingons, and Romulans, has learned about the Borg and plans to invade their territory. The only way to stop Tiberius from galactic domination or unintentional obliteration of humanity in the event the Borg win is for the three versions of Sulu and Chekov, also aged, to team up... The Dirty Half-Dozen. Roles to be played by the original actors. Throughout the series, multiverse versions of beloved Trek characters from all series will appear including three versions of Thomas Riker. Except for Picard... he has his own show.
I think has something to do with the nature of the relationship between main and mirror universes on a quantum or sub-quantum level. Seeming serendipitous aligning of events between them, hence mirroring between them. How else do you get same ppl in the same places from different histories and personalities?
Yeah, but it really makes no sense... As we've seen, there are deaths all the time in the Mirror Universe of our main Characters, so for things to line up is impossible...
I love the epsiode, but it's the sort of thing that really falls apart when you put too much thought into it. The vastly different histories would make having nearly the entire crew be the same nearly impossible. DS9 actually compounded it when we learned that no mirror Jake Sisko had ever been born. It highlights that with a completely different government, history, and space exploration poilcy almost none of the characters should even have direct counterparts.
I often thought that too. Same goes when people complain about our own history. I think of people never came over and settled America. You wouldnt even exist to complain. Lol
Yeh no Jake because Ben and Jennifer weren’t together long enough, but despite the different circumstances, everyone else apparently has the exact same parents who gave birth at the exact same time, creating a person physically identical to the prime versions!
And who’d have thought that the final scene of Kirk meeting prime Marlena would come in handy 30 years later to allow Sisko to meet Kirk! You’ve got to take your hat off to the production of TOS for this episode. To say they had virtually no budget, they managed to create an interesting mirror universe with some reused footage, only 2 new crew uniforms, altered females uniforms, some badges, wall decals and a fake goatee! It’s funny to to think that it probably took the Terran Empire 100 years to reverse engineer the Defiant so they could build their own Constitution fleet. And then 100 years after that, they’d steal the plans for another Defiant so they could build their own...
I think that the Mirror Mirror episode is okay but not to the caliber of City of the Edge of Forever. In Deep Space Nine the alternate universe episodes were okay also but not the best.
I had a similar reaction from my SIL a few years back; when she asked "What's up with the Evil Spock beard?" I responded with a bad Leonard Nimoy impression and answered, "I would tell you... but then I would have to kill you".
I find it funny how the good landing party in the episode somehow ended up wearing the attire of the bad landing party, and vice-versa, in this episode. How did they manage to get their clothes swapped? If you were transported to an alternate universe, wouldn't you still be wearing your original clothes when you arrive in the alternate universe? I know they did it that way so that Evil Spock wouldn't immediately notice that Evil Landing Party had been replaced, but still...Things that make me go "Hmmm..."
Network Censor: Hmmm, scenes of torture, meh... Women being treated as property by officers,eh, I treat my wife like that... A violent regime where asassination is common as a means of advancement, yeah yeah... A woman shows her navel... *OH MY GOD!!! THAT... THAT GOING TOO FAR! WHAT'S NEXT FOR THESE SMUT PEDDLERS?!? ANKLE SHOTS???*
Mirror, Mirror along Space Seed, The Doomsday Machine, The Enterprise Incident and and The Ultimate Computer are some of the best episodes ever filmed. Something future "Trek's" sadly never equalled
A fan favorite for sure! Thank you! 👍🏻👍🏻
You're very welcome Jolly! :)
:D
The problem of synchronized mirror timelines is invisible when you're distracted by lunch.
Long live the Terran Empire!
LOL
Spot on analysis TAS. Spock's goat is one of Star Treks most remembered, and loved images. Fantastic and groundbreaking episode. I've watched it dozens and dozens of time covering 6+ decades and still I reel when Kirk gets coldcocked coming out of the turbolift. Man that leave a mark. Kirk doesn't go down though. Tough dude. Your back stories were awesome. Thanks for sharing, RNB
One of my all time favorites. Inspiration to the other series episodes as well as fan made shows. The fan series "Star Trek Continues" did an excellent job of picking up where the TOS episode left off.
Mirror, Mirror, was a bold and very exciting episode for the series.There was so much tension and suspense.
I agree completely! Personally Mirror, Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, The Ultimate Computer and the Immunity Syndrome are my favorites...
TriAngulum Audio Studios absolutely! Second season was amazing!
What a great episode! Spock : Indeed, gentlemen. May I point out that I had an opportunity to observe your counterparts here quite closely. They were brutal, savage, unprincipled, uncivilized, treacherous - in every way splendid examples of homo sapiens, the very flower of humanity.
Spock : 'I found them quite refreshing'.
Kirk: 'I think we have just been insulted'.
Bones: 'I know we have'.
Such great, witty dialog, and you can just hear, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley saying them!
13:14 You make an excellent point! For the sake of a story as yet to be written, I had a theory to account for this. Simply, the closer one universe is in its contents to another, the easier it is to cross over to it. The specific details are what counts. Hence the similarities are what makes it more likely to "accidentally" go from one universe to another. Given that the sheer number of alternate histories is probably effectively infinite, it is likely such close parallels are bound to crop up sooner or later. Call it hand-waving if you will (you won't be wrong) but this does account for the facts as seen.
"It's a Good Life" is one of the most unsettling pieces of television I've ever watched.
Something the original Twilight Zone was always a master at doing, unsettling people in a good way :)
The story is even more unsettling. I read it as a kid, the the shivers never left me.
My favorite TOS episode!
It's certainly one of mine as well :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios The third episode of STC "Fairest of them all" is IMO, is a direct continuation of Mirror, Mirror. The episode picks up where the TOS episode left off. Oh I forgot to mention Grant Imahara died yesterday. He played Lt. Sulu.
They did a sequel episode "Fariest of them All" in Star Trek Continues
Mirror Mirror was my white whale. During the first time it aired in my country (I was 12) the power went out at the start. Since them, for years, something always happened to stop me seeing it in rerun/ I finally got to see iit in my 30s by buying the damm videotape, locking the doors and telling people not to interrupt on pain of death. It was a good episode but it kinda got spoiled because i was waiting for a fire o a meteorite, or Mormons....
Nichols' favourite episode since Uhura gets a proper character arc in this one.
DS9 did a fantastic job taking the mirror universe to the next level. Some of my favorite episodes.
You kind of get the feeling that Marlena could have ended up running the Empire.
Exactly! :)
This is one of my favorite TOS episodes.
Evil universe=goatee
Always made me wonder if the evil version of people already with goatees have clean-shaven faces.
LOL What a fun question :)
In the Mirror World, They would be "good". We on this side with Goatees are the "Evil" ones... Now where is that death star plans... Opps, wrong series...
I have to wonder about the general reaction when Sisko showed up at the beginning of season 3 with a goatee? Same with putting the command staff in red for TNG, given the previous... history for characters in that colour.
Kevin Gomolchak Or they'd have *really* big beards, like bikers or ZZ Top. 😀
I have to admit that the promos were artfully done, particularly if you look at them as someone would that did not know anything about the episode.
Oh yes, I love them :) Make you WANT to watch the episode right away :)
Excellent job!!
Thank you!
Well said and completely agree. A VERY transformative episode 😏 as well as profound. 💓.
Yes definitely one of my favourites!
Great video sir, mirror mirror is one of my favorite episodes.
The phaser pistols were hung on the left hip for a crossdraw using the right hand, as the uniform dagger was placed on the right hip. The dagger is the empire's primary symbol after all.
Very nice Episod like it very much
Thank you Dominik! :)
What I love about this episode is the speech Kirk gives to Spock at the end. During the time of the cold war it was a powerful reminder that change (dissent) is a long term strength and rational, while conformity and force are a weakness. Making for one neck for one noose.
It is a pity that they never made an episode or 10 of the "Mirror Universe" for TNG... Riker with a Goatee or Data?? Damn, an Evil Data... You know he would be Captain of the ISS Enterprise-D... Riker and Picard would be smear marks on the hull..
Oh I completely agree! Though I DO love the novel Dark Mirror by Diane Duane :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios IIRC in the novel Worf is a slave, yet in the TV time line he's Emperor (although initially he was to have been Intendent Kira's deputy but Dorn was unavailable so Garak was inserted instead.)
@@Djarra Thus why Novels are NEVER canon :P
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios I remember that book. It had a space dolphin and it was great
LOL I know right? :)
You're right that it's... really weird that the mirror universe stays even partially in sync with the normal one, for hundreds of years even. They shouldn't even have the same characters really, as that means almost everyone's parents are still getting together and mostly having the same kids in each universe (one notable exception being Jake Sisko, who has no mirror counterpart, but even then his mirror parents still got married). I always imagined that there was more to the mirror universe than just being some random parallel universe where Wesley's the tactical officer, that there must be some mysterious external force (of course out of universe that mysterious force is "scriptwriters") that binds the regular and mirror universes together, and stops them falling too far out of sync.
Yeah I know right? We've seen our hero counterparts in the Mirror Universe killed off all the time, so for the 2 to line up would be impossible...
My theory, branching off from Spock's thesis in "City On The Edge Of Forever" that time is fluid and flowing in one direction, is that all the parallel aspects of the Mirror Universe, or any of the alternate timelines we've seen, is the timeline trying to line back up and repair itself, until somewhere downstream, maybe several millenia later, everything is one big happy timeline again.
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios that being said, I certainly wouldn't mind Mirror Leeta "debriefing" me 🤣
The one thing I thought that was wrong in the mirror universe was all the lower ranking crew members walking around with weapons. Too easy to slip a knife in the back of the C.O. The agonisers made sense though. "Look here crewman nobody, that's no way to swab a deck! Your agoniser please!" Great episode though. In a mirror darkly 1&2 from Enterprise is very good. Fairest of them all from Star Trek Continues is good as well. Keep up the good work!
Star Trek Continues did a great follow up to this episode. Showing what happened afterwards on the ISS Enterprise.
You know those fans in the '60s were beside themselves with anticipation when they saw that trailer.
Loved this episode! My only complaint is that I would have loved to have seen what happened when evil Kirk & co. arrived on our Enterprise.
Despite that, probably my personal fav - after 'Balance of Terror'. Great vid - keep 'em coming!
A favorite IMO & definitely rewatchable. Maybe the empires attitudes on marking their ships changed from the NX era?
Leonard Nimoy as Mirror Spock really looked distinguished and really cool with a goatee on him. Logical and very strong as a character.
While I don't think it was the intention, having them wear the phasers that way, with the handle out is more conducive to a "fast draw", which is fitting for the most violent society. To be honest, I never noticed it until this video pointed it out, but when I saw it that's what I immediately thought of.
I have to agree with you.
Call me a pig but young Nichelle Nichols was one of the most incredibly beautiful women on the planet. The bare mid-drift of her costume just accentuates that.
You're a pig. And I totally agree. ;D
There was one change from TOS to Discovery with this episode. The Vulcans actually are part of the rebels on Discovery while part of the Terrian Empire in TOS
Hey, I recently found your channel and I’m completely Hooked! My favourite series’ of yours are Back Trek & Truth or Myth (Starships) and was hoping you could eventually do a video on the Challenger, Freedom, and Soyuz Classes. & Possibly the USS Antares 👊
Awesome, thank you! And yes, there will be more starship videos coming... :)
The Booth, Captain? Hail David!
Man, that commercial looked some Tarantino grindhouse flick.
Would like to see an entire series of star trek set in the mirror universe
New subscriber today!
Cool video!
STAR TREK CONTINUES has an awesome episode that picks up where Mirror Mirror left of but in the mirror empire universe.
This episode works best as a mysterious one shot
Uhura was impressively ripped! Pretty nice!
While I like mirror universe episodes as much as anyone else, the big issue I have with them is how all the same people end up in the same ships/places etc if everything else is so different. It takes a lot of variables to have them all end up on the one ship in the main universe and to have these same variables occur in such a different version of it is a bit unlikely to me. Having said that, they're the best episodes in any series they show up in, no doubt!!
I have and always love this episode of TOS and the others were okay but this is and will always be the best Mirror Mirror universe episode ever for me!!!!!!!
I agree that it is HIGHLY unlikely the two universes would line up so closely, especially given all the deaths and characters hooking up, but I ignore it because the mirror universe is so much fun especially in DS9. Have you seen Counterpart? That's a great series I'm certain was inspired by Trek's MU.
There's even an American prog-rock band called Spock's Beard. They're amazing and I'm a huge fan.
In a word -- what did I think ..? "Fascinating ..."
D.A.
I got an idea why there's no Terran empire livery on the outside of the Enterprise. The worker bees that paint the hull were going to be installed next Tuesday. ;D
LOL
It is interesting that given the opportunity to redo the outside of the ISS Enterprise CBS didn’t add the decals. I’m trying to remember if the “Enterprise” alternate universe episodes had aired before the remastered “Mirror Mirror” was done. And there’s all the incredible coincidences and non-coincidences that do seem rather arbitrary (the “same spot” where McCoy spilled acid while Capt Pike is not in that wheelchair on Talos IV). Still, it works for me every time because they managed to create such powerful dissonances between what we expect and what actually is on the alternative Enterprise. As someone interested in post colonial theory I especially love the idea that “the Empire” is the inverse of “the Federation.” The same elements are there, only turned upside down.
Was the Mirror Universe the same one where Lazarus (The Alternative Factor) was from?
I would love to see a BACK TREK of every mirror episode in cannon.
Made it more comfortable lol
Granted, the vagaries of having only 48 minutes for an episode. That said, I'd've still loved to have seen more of what happened when the Terran Empire people showed up on the USS Enterprise.
Then there are the ST fan films: The Fairest of them All from Star Trek Continues. As well as how it all started with For Want of a Nail from StarShip Farragut and the Crossing.
Falling asleep, server turned off while brain is plugged in, run over by a farm tractor, hit by a truck, transporter accident. So many ways to go to an alternate universe. Kirk should thank his lucky stars that he didn't have to deal with the goddess of whine.
LOL
The guys from Section 31 must be real saints in the mirror universe.
Good episode (double meaning). If you admire Jerome Bixby's work, I suggest "The Man From Earth". This is an expanded story of "Requiem for Methuselah" but not Star Trek. Go watch it.
Mirror universe: mirror alphabet!
What's the big deal, Gene?!
Lost opportunity, if you ask me!
For me, the greatness of the episode lies in the fact that mirror Spock is far less evil then any other person on the mirror enterprise. You couldn't better explain the reasoning behind the philosophy of the vulcans.
On the other hand you get the impression Vulcans in the mirror universe are terrifying. Spock's personal bodyguard is made up of Vulcans and that's one reason mirror Sulu is hesitant to cross him.
Greetings Triangulum! Thanks for this video. This is my second favorite TOS episode after “The City on the Edge of Forever “!
Did you know that this episode‘s script had undergone revisions into its final form.
Originally, it was supposed to be Captain Kirk alone who transported into the Mirror Universe.
The Federation in that universe wasn’t evil, just technically backward in their technology. This more “primitive” federation’s ships couldn’t go fast than warp 6 and they hadn’t invented phasers.
Also the mirror federation had just lost a war with the Tharn Empire (this name was retained as the name of the Halkan council leader)
The Spock of this mirror universe had a bad temper and It was McCoy who had a beard which at first repelled Kirk....and KIRK WAS MARRIED!
Also, Kirk kept fainting and growing weaker in the episode because it was as if the mirror universe was trying to expel a foreign object. Like A body using its immune system to get rid of a foreign microbe.
Kirk helped this primitive federation by teaching them phaser technology from our universe and how to improve the velocity of their warp engines.
In the climax battle of the episode, the mirror enterprise defeated the Tharn using Prime universe technology giving hope to the mirror federation. The mirror Dr. McCoy was injured during the battle.
When Kirk gets back to our universe. He finds that prime doctor McCoy was also injured in an accident and the nurse who healed him was Captain Kirk’s wife in the mirror universe.
MY SOURCE IS “THE STAR TREK COMPENDIUM “, which I bought in the late 1980s. It’s chock full of interesting information
I prefer the episode as it was finally filmed, but one wonders at the legacy the original script might have had...
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Indeed i Do, as I mention some of it in the video :P And I as well have the Original Hard Cover Star Trek Compendium as one of my sources! However, as a rule for these videos, everything I say in them must be confirmed by 3 separate valid sources. And so anything that can not be, doesnt make it in to the video :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios 3 separate valid sources is an excellent rule of thumb. I just discovered your channel today and Subscribed immediately. I can’t wait to view the rest of your content!
@@mrScififan2 Well thank you so much for the support and hope you enjoy :)
This is one of my favorite episodes but it has one major flaw. If history had changed in the Mirror Universe as stated, it is unlikely that any of the crew as we know it would have been the same. The difference was so great that none of them were even likely to have been born. This goes for all other Mirror Universe appearances in Trek series.
The evil goatee trope has possibly grown to be larger than Star Trek. A lot of people probably see it on other shows completely unaware of its origin. The only knock against this as the best episode is that it is really much I,proved with familiarity of the series. That’s very unusual for TOS, as most episodes don’t require much knowledge of the show. Although, “City on the Edge...” probably has a bigger hit, the fact that it’s extremely atypical for the series. As loopy as the Mirror universe is, it’s still on the Enterprise with our familiar characters, and has a structure typical to what you get on TOS. “City” has a very different narrative going on, and is really divorced from most regular Star Trek elements for most of the episode.
I always wanted to know if Klingons were GOOD guys in that universe.
I was literally born during this episode. October 6 1967. My god, I'm old. And a nerd.🖖
Definitely one if not the best episode of tos. Ds9 used the mirror universe a bit too much.
Why would he make log entries as that would reveal him to not be who he was? And I figured their missions just happen to coincide at that time and not so much the universes were synched up. That’s just my own head canon.
As I recall, "Mirror, Mirror" was one of 4 episodes that has an "Unknown Stardate"
Who can't like to see Spock have a goatee, he looked fantastic.
Admittedly the coincidences and parallel universe being in sync and whatnot isn’t perfect and doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, but I don’t care since it was fascinating to see it play out nonetheless.
Much prefer mirror mirror than City on the Edge of Forever and it led to some great sequels in D69 and Enterprise (not to sure about Discovery) learned a lot on this episode . 👍
OH indeed I do as well... And DSC did a great job in the Mirror Universe :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios I think it's a matter on a personal opinion on disco mirror.
@@ken.f.c.1977 Of course it is, IDIC and all that :)
Hail the empire! *salutes*
Sometimes I wonder if WE'RE living in an alternate universe, because the stuff happening on this planet is abysmal.
I am about to watch this episode on Netflix but I will say I got a bit board of the mirror universe stuff in DS9.
The enterprise mirror universe stuff is really good though
Well enjoy :) I know I did :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios funny enough just finished.
It is most definitely enjoyable that's for sure.
I feel the same way.
That was her? She was the leader of the stolen modified federation ship transformed into a war ship from Star Trek Phase II web series "Enemy Starfleet"
This episode of Star trek is so close to me that I wear a goatee to this day.
Well, I know nothing about physics, but if we took the infinite earth theory, I think is a probability that at least one of those infinite parallel universes were as sync as this two...
😁😁😁
Two random universes being in sync is indeed very improbable if we assume total randomness of infinite (or even finite but large number of verses - Sliders had the same issue) but... it could be handwaved. All this is nowhere near canon but for example a bored Q cherrypicking the connection might be a thing or it could be a case of twin verses linked with one fate like two sides of one coin. Each one being the opposite in our eyes but still ending almost the same... and it would probably wreck havoc on free will concepts, too.
On a sidenote, Enterprise visiting all the "Planet Of Hats" every week could be considered a similar form of alternate Universe/Earth on a metalevel Rod Sterling from Twilight Zone would feel very much at home - _"this is Earth, but contrary to our home Roman Empire did not fall here"_ and so on. "Mirror, mirror " is special in this case just because they did it in-universe and with good/evil flipped.
one of my favorite episodes because spock has a beard
280th like
And on a completely random note, does anyone find Uhura’s pose in the opening scene on the planet unintentionally humorous? It’s like the director told Nichelle “I want you to stand here, with your leg up there”. With the Mirror uniform coming just a scene later, it’s not like they needed to sex up Uhura or anything. It’s one of those things that once you see it, you never stop seeing it.
Thanks to enterprise, the one thing that bugs me about this ep, is that if the Defiant got taken to the 22nd century, the mirror universe kirk goes to should be more advanced than the prime universe.
Love this episode. DS9 did a nice good job with Mirror Universe.
Really I never felt that they did...
I have to admit I liked Elite Force having a homage to this episode and Warhammer 40k Space Hulk. Works best playing the female main though. A little light fanservice that's not extreme. (Tbf both Elite Force games are almost nothing but various forms of fanservice. I geeked out a bit and I'm not remotely a huge Trek fan. I can only imagine what big Trek folks thought playing them. )
Man, imagine bellybuttons being controversial...
The only way to make two such similar universes believable is to add a third very similar universe... which could be done in a new Trek series: Tiberius - in which the mirror universe Kirk has aged and fled from his universe to a third universe almost exactly like our universe... Tiberius murdered the third universe's Kirk and took over the Feds, Klingons, and Romulans, has learned about the Borg and plans to invade their territory. The only way to stop Tiberius from galactic domination or unintentional obliteration of humanity in the event the Borg win is for the three versions of Sulu and Chekov, also aged, to team up... The Dirty Half-Dozen. Roles to be played by the original actors. Throughout the series, multiverse versions of beloved Trek characters from all series will appear including three versions of Thomas Riker. Except for Picard... he has his own show.
I think has something to do with the nature of the relationship between main and mirror universes on a quantum or sub-quantum level. Seeming serendipitous aligning of events between them, hence mirroring between them. How else do you get same ppl in the same places from different histories and personalities?
Yeah, but it really makes no sense... As we've seen, there are deaths all the time in the Mirror Universe of our main Characters, so for things to line up is impossible...
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios it has something to do with the probability/chance particles between universes being unbalanced lol like the episode of DS9
@@PJFrye LOL Look at you using technobabble... You didnt work for Voyager did you? :P
I love the epsiode, but it's the sort of thing that really falls apart when you put too much thought into it. The vastly different histories would make having nearly the entire crew be the same nearly impossible. DS9 actually compounded it when we learned that no mirror Jake Sisko had ever been born. It highlights that with a completely different government, history, and space exploration poilcy almost none of the characters should even have direct counterparts.
I often thought that too. Same goes when people complain about our own history. I think of people never came over and settled America. You wouldnt even exist to complain. Lol
Yeh no Jake because Ben and Jennifer weren’t together long enough, but despite the different circumstances, everyone else apparently has the exact same parents who gave birth at the exact same time, creating a person physically identical to the prime versions!
And who’d have thought that the final scene of Kirk meeting prime Marlena would come in handy 30 years later to allow Sisko to meet Kirk!
You’ve got to take your hat off to the production of TOS for this episode. To say they had virtually no budget, they managed to create an interesting mirror universe with some reused footage, only 2 new crew uniforms, altered females uniforms, some badges, wall decals and a fake goatee!
It’s funny to to think that it probably took the Terran Empire 100 years to reverse engineer the Defiant so they could build their own Constitution fleet. And then 100 years after that, they’d steal the plans for another Defiant so they could build their own...
The best season was seasons 1 & 2.
I think that the Mirror Mirror episode is okay but not to the caliber of City of the Edge of Forever. In Deep Space Nine the alternate universe episodes were okay also but not the best.
I guess there was a reason why I grew a Goatee shortly after getting my MBA. I am the Evil version of me.
LOL I knew it! :P
I had a similar reaction from my SIL a few years back; when she asked "What's up with the Evil Spock beard?" I responded with a bad Leonard Nimoy impression and answered, "I would tell you... but then I would have to kill you".
Oh, man that palm strike. 😆 Even by Trek standards...
Uhura's midriff is worth the price of admission.
Fantasy parallel universe
I like ALL the mirror universe episodes in all the the trek series!!!But i think they could have done SOOO!!! Much more with Jonathan Archer!!!!😠😠😠😡😡😁
The timelines wouldn't of added up either.
I remember a MST3K episode they did a parody of the mirror universe as well...crow had a goatee! Lol
I find it funny how the good landing party in the episode somehow ended up wearing the attire of the bad landing party, and vice-versa, in this episode. How did they manage to get their clothes swapped? If you were transported to an alternate universe, wouldn't you still be wearing your original clothes when you arrive in the alternate universe? I know they did it that way so that Evil Spock wouldn't immediately notice that Evil Landing Party had been replaced, but still...Things that make me go "Hmmm..."
Not if it's something more a kin to the essence or soul of a person switching universes, which seem to be the case!
Network Censor: Hmmm, scenes of torture, meh... Women being treated as property by officers,eh, I treat my wife like that... A violent regime where asassination is common as a means of advancement, yeah yeah... A woman shows her navel... *OH MY GOD!!! THAT... THAT GOING TOO FAR! WHAT'S NEXT FOR THESE SMUT PEDDLERS?!? ANKLE SHOTS???*