LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

 Episode Title:  Mirror, Mirror

Air Date: 10/6/1967

Written by Jerome Bixby

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Captain James T. Kirk        Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock and  Commander Spock                        DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones” and  Dr. Leonard H. McCoy            James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”  and Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott       George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu and Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu             Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura        John Winston as  Lieutenant Kyle and Lieutenant Kyle            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie and  Lieutenant Leslie                Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley and Lieutenant Hadley         BarBara Luna as Lieutenant Marlena Moreau and Lieutenant Marlena  Moreau        Roger Holloway as Lt. Lemli and  Lt. Lemli                       Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov and Ensign Pavel Chekov     Pete Kellett as Head of Kirk’s guard unnamed                Bobby Bass as unnamed imperial crewman          Bobby Clark as  unnamed imperial crewman          Johnny Mandell as  unnamed imperial crewman               Russ Peek as Spock's Vulcan Guard unnamed      Paul Prokop as unnamed imperial crewman                Vic Perrin as Tharn and Tharn        

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and ISS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Halka and Halka

My Spoiler filled summary and review: Mostly I write these reviews by myself but today I have the opportunity, seeing that this is “Mirror, Mirror,” to work with my own mirror universe counterpart who I met after an accident involving my microwave.  (It turns out in the real world you can breach to the mirror universe using microwaves.)  We have agreed that each will cover the parts that take place in our respective universes.  We will both be offering commentary in the additional thoughts section.  Be warned I find my mirror self to kind of a creep but if you can’t get along with yourself who can you get along with in that universe? 

                The episode begins with Captain Kirk trying and failing to win a mining agreement with the Halkan High Council.  The Halkan are extreme pacifists and they are afraid that if they let the Federation mine dilithium crystals those crystals could be used for war.  Captain Kirk, along with his landing party of Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, and Lt. Uhura, has been trying to convince the High Council that their missions are peaceful.   The Halkans agree that Starfleet has peaceful intentions but their ships still carry weapons that can be used for war.  It would be a betrayal of their principals as a people to be party to any violence even if it was justified violence made in self-defense.

                While these negotiations have been going on a severe ion storm in space is playing havoc with the Enterprise’s equipment.  The Captain sees that these negotiations are going nowhere so he calls up to the ship to have the landing party beam back aboard.  As they are transported back to the ship something goes wrong.  Those transporting feel dizzy and the transporter room appears to change to them.

                I was looking forward to watching the Enterprise wipe out this pathetic group of loser pacifists, but when our most glorious Captain emerges from the transporter something is immediately wrong.  Kirk and the landing party seem confused that everyone is saluting him.  After Spock gives Kyle a taste of his agonizer for his gross incompetence with a transporter (it was so fun to see him cry and beg) the First Officer notices something is wrong with the Captain.  When he inquires Kirk confirms dizziness and will have Dr. McCoy check them out in sickbay.   

                

               When they get to sickbay we find out what is wrong.  These four are fakes!  They are duplicates from a parallel universe where Earth is run by peaceful weaklings and humans have no Terran Empire to dominate the galaxy with!  Yet in this universe of weaklings McCoy still manages to spill acid in the same place. The Fake Kirk wants to know what the Empire wants the real Kirk to do.  One thing is clear they want to stop the crew of the ISS Enterprise from carrying out their mission and destroying the cities of Halka.  They are doing this because their Federation teaches them that it is okay for lesser spices to deny them.  (As if that was the way any universe works.) He sends Fake Scott on assignment to sabotage the phaser units.  Little does he know that Mr. Sulu’s security doesn’t let anyone mess with the ship’s weapons.  

Mice in the uniforms of giants!

       

Of all the fakes, Lt. Uhura is the only one who seems like she is worth a damn.  The way she put Sulu in his place would sure make the real Uhura proud.  Then unfortunately the fake Kirk enters the bridge and everyone salutes thinking he is their great leader.   However the fake Kirk soon shows his weakness with dealing with the cowards on the surface.  Instead of reigning good Terran Imperial hell upon Halka he actually tries to prevent the Empire’s mission.  For those of us expecting to see worthless pacifists fry in this episode we were plenty disappointed.   I thought when the fake Scott couldn’t sabotage the engines the Halkans were done for. 

Showing proper respect to the Captain

For this action Chekov gathers some men to attempt to assassinate Kirk, he has been planning this for some time, but he doesn’t know this isn’t the real Kirk.  That should make it easier but Chekov is such a loser that he can’t kill this imposter.  Chekov gets captured by Kirk’s guard and one of his own men betrays him realizing what Kirk could do for his career.   At least fake Kirk handles that right: loyalty isn’t much when it comes late.  Speaking of this fake Kirk, he does give Captain’s logs at the strangest of times.  No mention where is he recording them, our Enterprise’s computer system?   Imperial auditors will have a field day with those reviews. 

The fakes all have a meeting in Kirk’s quarters. Since they aren’t smart enough to figure out things for themselves they have the computer do all the hard work of explaining how they got to our universe and how to get back to their own.  After they make plans to head back the fake Kirk and McCoy decide to do research on “themselves” and what is immediately obvious is that fake Kirk cannot deal with the real Kirk’s greatness.   They wonder about their own weak universe and how they will handle the great Terran warriors. 

Back in our sane Star Trek universe Mr. Spock has things well in hand.  All four crew members from the evil mirror universe are quickly placed in the brig.  The alternate Kirk tries to bribe Spock with money and power.  It is quite creepy to see a version of Captain Kirk who murdered his predecessor to gain his command. 

As fake Kirk witnesses that loser Chekov being justly tortured by the Captain’s Personal Guard, he is approached by our Mr. Spock.  Spock sees Kirk act weak by releasing Chekov from the full duration of “the Booth.”  Spock expresses his concerns about the Captain’s action in not following the Empire's righteous policy.  I liked the conversation between him and Spock, but I wish Spock were saying it to the real Kirk.

Spock thinking he is talking to his captain

Fake Kirk enters the Captain’s quarters and Lt. Marlena Moreau is there waiting for him.  Fake Kirk seems surprised because apparently this Kirk doesn’t sleep with women in his universe.  Kirk and Marlena have a bit of a lovers spat, which is pathetic as he is not the real Kirk.  Fake Kirk receives a call from Spock who informs him that Starfleet has ordered him to be executed if he doesn’t end his cowardice in three hours.  Marlena laughs as she observes that Spock was so loyal it will cost him his life.  Then Marlena explains to the fake Kirk the Tantalus field, the greatest weapon of Starfleet’s greatest captain.   Fake Kirk stops her from using it on Spock, which is the only good thing Fake Kirk does.   

Marlena goes to another room to change and Fake Kirk is contacted by Fake Scotty, Kirk tells him they have a three hour deadline and the chief engineer responds with actually a half an hour.   They have one shot to get home and if they miss it they’re done for.   For the first time I am cheering for the fakes I can’t stand to deal weakling characters anymore it is time to send them home. 

Sulu contacts Spock excited to get rid of Kirk who is now openly a coward.   It is too bad that Sulu doesn’t understand that this isn’t the real Kirk.  Spock blows Sulu off and the two exchange small threats.  Spock is however beginning to suspect that something is up beyond just Kirk disobeying orders.  He notices Kirk is not the only crew member behaving oddly, the strange behavior is displayed by almost every member of the landing party.  He also discovers that Kirk and Scotty are working together on a project in secret. 

Fake Kirk has never seen such beauty

The fake Scotty and McCoy are making their adjustments to the Enterprise’s systems in order to make their escape.  While they are doing this Uhura, the only fake worth anything, begins seducing Sulu so he won’t see what has happened.  When they are done she slaps him and uses her dagger to get away from him and off the bridge.  

The group of fakes meets up in sickbay but they are surprised by Mr. Spock.  The fakes may have the hearts of cowards but they can fight.  They manage to not only defeat Spock but seriously injure him in the process.  This is the price Spock pays for not bringing his Personal Guard and trying to solve everything himself.  I always knew he would pay for that one day but he is saved by his enemy’s weakness.  Realizing Spock will die unless they do something, they decide to risk returning home in order to save him. 

Sulu looking to take command

While the fakes are trying to save Spock, Sulu shows up with the security team looking to kill them all and make himself Captain of the Enterprise.  He might have succeeded if Marlena Moreau hadn’t chosen now to strike.  With his men disappearing into thin air the fakes take Mr. Sulu down easy.  The fake McCoy remains to take care of Spock while the others head to the transporter room. Marlena meets them there and lets them know that she is also a coward and wants to leave with them. Fake Kirk  tells her that is not possible for only the four can change places with their real selves.

Spock trading losers for warriors

 Spock wakes to fine that the fakes are weaklings who grant mercy.  He does a force meld on McCoy and the fake learns what a Spock interrogation feels like.  Spock cuts the power to the transporter which scares the fakes and the fake Scotty and Kirk argue of who should sacrifice himself to the stronger universe.  Mr. Spock arrives at the transporter to help the fakes leave our universe and get our heroes back.  Before he leaves fake Kirk gives a stupid speech, Mr. Spock tries to tell him his idea is dumb but gives up. 

Back home in our regular universe Kirk and McCoy muse with Spock listening that they may have preferred Spock with a beard.  They asked him how he was able to see through the doppelgangers and Spock says it was easier for the civilized to appear savage then the savage to appear civilized.  However he did feel that their counterparts represented at type of pure humanity that was most refreshing. 

Additional thoughts: Wow what an episode!  Sorry for those of you who don’t like my mirror universe self.  To be frank, I don’t like him either.  He is a piece of work and he will be back but I want to reflect on the episode myself and give everyone my thoughts.

Setting a Mr. Sulu for a fall

My first thought is about those wacky transporter accidents.  If there is a little thing wrong such as strange yellow dust the transporter it splits the Captain into two different people.  This time passing through an ion storm causes a malfunction that makes the away team gets transported into a parallel universe.  Not only do they get transported to the parallel universe but their clothes don’t, those still head home to their proper destination.  However, rather than leave them naked the away team is conveniently placed by the transporter into the clothes of their doppelgangers.  This also happens vise-versa.     

Mirror Spock sitting next to the throne

Speaking of clothes I really like the mirror universe uniforms they look really cool with their belts and ceremonial daggers.  Good idea having all their badges appear on the other side.  The women are really sexy, I don’t know if there is a man on this Earth who enjoys the exposed mid-rift on attractive woman more than myself.  It’s lot of skin but at the same time no naughty bits.  Uhura and Moreau are really rocking it.  

Wow!

We now have returned the same strange Captain’s Logs that we saw in “The Squire of Gothos” during the duel scene and almost all throughout “The Arena.”  “Excuse me Mr. Chekov before you assassinate me you will please allow a moment record my thoughts in a Captain’s Log?”  Also, as my counter-part pointed out, where is he recording these things, in the computer system of the ISS Enterprise?  Imperial Starfleet Command must have had quite the shock when they audit those logs.

"You want to get cut"

I have stated in the past that when I review these episodes I try not to take into consideration what comes later, because I want to review the episode in its own merits not judge what future writers add.  However I will note that I think it’s an absolute shame that Star Trek: The Next Generation never had a Mirror Universe episode.  There was of course there was that great book by Diane Duane, but really wish that had been a multi-part episode.  Episodes we do get in the later series are okay but most fail to truly embrace that magic that this episode provided.

What this episode gave us was not just the run of the mill parallel universe but a mirror universe.  However the mirror being used is not regular one but one from a fun-house.  In one universe humanity is united and peacefully co-exists with other worlds under the banner of The United Federation of Planets, where in the other humanity is still united but violently conquerors worlds into their oppressive Terran Empire.  Such differences and similarities that exist between the Federation and the Empire can’t be explained by simple alternate history.

For example when a drugged up Dr. McCoy accidentally goes back in time in “The City on the Edge of Forever” he alters history in such a way that the landing party near the Guardian of Forever is marooned as the universe around them changes.  In the universe where Hitler won World War II there was a never Federation, Starfleet, or starship Enterprise.  Yet in mirror universe although everything is different everything is also the same.  Captain Kirk is still the Captain of the Enterprise, Mr. Spock is the first officer, and McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura are all in the same positions in both realities. There is a slight change with Mr. Sulu as having the additional job of being head of the ship’s Gestapo.  However even the transporter chief is the same and Captain Kirk’s predecessor on both universes is Captain Pike.  Also both Pike’s careers meet rather violent ends, although ours doesn’t die.

Besides people there are other things.  Scotty notices that in both universes the Enterprise has the same level of technology; the only difference is the mirror Kirk’s primary weapon the Tantalus field, which isn’t even Terran technology.  (Speaking of which, shouldn't mirror Kirk have a lock or password on that device?  It seems strange he would allow it to be used by anyone who could find it.)  The two starships are on the exact same mission at the exact same time.  Other missions seem also identical with exceptions to Imperial brutality.  The spot where Dr. McCoy spilled acid happened in exact same place in both universes.  When they are trying to go home at no point are they able to communicate with our universe and tell them what the plan is.  It just develops on the other side naturally.   Just as our landing party is coming home, our Mr. Spock is there to help send the other party back.

Another important part I would like to make before my counterpart takes back over.   In the mirror universe, as it is presented in this episode, only the humans/terrans are different.  The Halkans are exactly the same in both universes: pacifists who will die before aiding terrorists but would also not help like-minded peaceful people because they may use violence in self-defense.   The characters of Mr. Spock are both identical the only difference is the mirror Spock is doing his best to survive and prosper in this horrific environment created by the Terran Empire.   

From a different universe

“Mirror, Mirror” has long regarded as one of, if not the, worst episode of the franchise. It was banned almost immediately after it aired.  I had to get special permission to view it and now that I have seen it I almost wish I hadn’t.  Impostors from a non-imperialist universe show up and outwit the officers of the Emperor’s finest starship?   Seeing it for myself I have to say that I don’t blame Roddenberry for having Gene L. Coon and Jerome Bixby shot one month after the episode’s first and last showing.

I can think of no greater betrayal of Roddenberry’s vision than this episode.  One has to go back to where we were in the 1960s.  After Emperor John I of House Kennedy destroyed Cuba after the Bay of the Pigs with the new sub-nuclear weaponry (all the fire power but none of the background radiation) and allowing Turkey to invade the Ukraine, the power of the Soviet Union was broken and humiliated on the world stage.  These early victories showed the world that best power on Earth was Imperial States of the American Empire. 

Then out of almost nowhere a TV writer showed up with a dream.  In the past science fiction always showed aliens conquering the Earth’s people until one powerful empire purged itself of weakness and made them leave.  Roddenberry had a different idea: imagine an Empire like ours that unified the Earth and brought our special brand of fascism to the stars.  Thus the show Star Conquerors was born and the world was never the same. 

This loser couldn't kill a fake Kirk

The worst part of this episode was the fake Kirk trying to talk Spock into betraying his Captain.  See this episode in a vacuum makes you think he might do it.  However the title says “Star Conquerors starring William Shatner” the Captain isn’t going anywhere.  We have this season and the next to finish before making cartoons and six great films.  After “Star Conquerors VI: The Discovered Country” a film that was made to celebrate our final conquest of the Soviet Union under the combined military leadership of Field Marshall Ronald Reagan and Fleet Admiral George H.W. Bush, Emperor John I himself said that we owe a special thanks to show Star Conquerors and if Emperor Abraham of House Lincoln hadn’t unified North America in the 19^th century we might not have William Shatner to play James T. Kirk.  William Shatner lives in what was once Canada, now just the Canadian region.    

Watching a worm squirm 

The only good thing that came out of this episode was I got to find out the in canon reason for Chekov’s execution and stuffing of his remains in the next episode.  Chekov was always there to show how useless Russians were but having his body stuffed and on display did that far better than when he was alive.  After the final Klingon surrender in “The Discovered County” it was funny to see stuffed Chekov in the room where the surrender was being signed.  Star Conquerors is always great for metaphor.

In closing the mirror universe is a scary place.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

FINAL JUDGEMENT 0 OF 10