I always thought it was a mistake to have Tharn, the Halkan Councilman, be the same character in both universes. He should have had different personalities that were attuned to each universe. I believe it was correct to have him as highly principled in our own universe and refuse to provide the dilithium crystals for ethical reasons. But his counterpart in the mirror universe should have been greedy and demanded the Empire pay an exorbitant amount of money for the dilithium crystals. A price the Empire did not want to pay.
I hadn't thought of that in previous viewings, but just thought it while watching before reading your comment, so will agree with you. Of course the existence of this mirror universe is highly dubious, almost artificial, like Q putting PIcard on the Enterprise as a lieutenant who's "punctual" but all his accomplishments being done by someone else so the Federation is unchanged.
My second favorite episode. Incredible how well it was written. The actors must have had fun with this one. My favorite line is when Spock tells Sulu, "...and some of them....are Vulcans."
Check out episode from Star Trek Continues Series on RU-vid called " Who the fairest of the all" It continues on from where this episode finished, It was as good as this.
"Mr. Spock, you are a Vulcan. And as a Vulcan, there are certain human pleasures you will never understand." (pause) "I'm bored. And I want to see if I can make them sweat a little." You're welcome, Kirk.
One of my favorite moments in this episode is when the Halkan leader says: "Ten hours or ten thousand hours, Captain, it would not make a difference. We are ethically compelled to refuse your request, because you would use their power [the crystals] for conquest." ... At this, the evil Spock raises an eyebrow, as if to say, "this man is beginning to make some sense."
I thought Spock started getting suspicious in the transporter room when he had to ask Kirk about "standard procedure". And the look on his face as Kirk said to have the transporter circuits checked. Look closely at Kyle, too. He seems to have a puzzled look on his face.
Love "Mirror, Mirror" --- always loved it when the regular characters were inverted somehow. Like "A Piece of the Action" or "The Enemy Within" --- even when Scotty was accused of being a Jack the Ripper type in "Wolf in the Fold". Fun! 😇😈
Murder, abuses of all sorts, sexual harassment, torture, genocide and all sorts of evils are daily life and expected behavior. Yeah, I'd be uncomfortable too though Kirk and co was still able to pull through fairly well
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura: "You are away from your Post Mister!" Security Chief Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu: "Is The Captain Here? Is Spock Here? When the Cat's away.....0:01
They did. First season episode The Enemy Within, written by Richard Matheson, who also had written episodes on the Twilight Zone and also an active role in the movie, Somewhare In Time as he also had a cameo role in the movie as well to.
Evil Kirk: I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!!! *failed to sexually assault Uhura; takes her hostage at her communications post* Mirror Kirk: Step away, impostor! You don't belong here, and she's mine! Bodyguards!!!! Evil Kirk: I WANNA LIVE! *breaks down crying while holding phaser to her head* Mirror Uhura: *stabs Jim in the groin with her side dagger; he drops phaser. she vaporizes him with it. points both at Mirror Kirk* Close your mouth, instead of hailing frequencies, "Sir!" *walks over to his command chair and sits, just like fellow comm officer Hoshi Sato once did* Take him, guards! He will be my sex slave after a few hrs in the booth. I'm Captain now!!!! THE END And beginning of Empress Nyota the 1st
Well he wasn’t too happy because none of the crew in the Terran Empire universe were that friendly, nor in a good mood. Too bad for Kirk, And the next thing he almost got assassinated by Chekov. Which is unfortunate because Chekov(Walter Koenig) looked so cute like the members of the Beatles... was that Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr?
One thing I don't understand about the alternate universe, if Scotty is chief engineer, shouldn't he be allowed to check the phasers at his discretion? Plus why would the security chief have higher authority to the ships systems than the captain? Granted they're living in a paranoid, fascist dictatorship but you would think that their parallel universe counterparts' jobs on the ship would allow them free access to the ship.
djargus+ I think this arrangement simply places extra layers of control on the ship's systems (from sabotage). After all, Kirk and Scotty weren't able to carry out their plan as desired. That's the whole point! Implement many INDEPENDENT layers of security (i.e. independent people) on the ships most critical systems and no one can very easily carry out an unauthorized plan that goes against Starfleet command. It would require more extensive collusion among more people - not so easy to do. Who knows what kind of devious plans the real captain and engineer might want to cook up? Given the independent layers of security (the on-duty security guard as well as security chief Sulu) minimizes that possibility. I think it's also being conveyed that weapons systems are considered exceptionally critical in this opposite universe in order to maintain terror by providing "customary examples", in Spock's words. Weapon's systems are like gold to these monsters - hence the additional layers of control/security.
Star Trek Enterprise Episode In The Mirror Darkly Part One aired in 2005 drew on this premise when Chief Engineer Commander Charles Tucker was discovered to have initiated a procedure that allowed sabotaged on The NX Starship ISS Enterprise by Maco/Security Chief Major Malcolm Reed who would conduct the interrogation on Commander Tucker Who spent Four Hours In The Agony Booth. The Truth being Commander T'Pol used a Vulcan Mindmeld to have him sabotage the ISS Enterprise to bring sensors offline so she could free Captain Forrest from The Brig and She Melded with him again to forget what he had done.
Several inconsistencies with this episode. Although I did like this episode nevertheless. The Hulkan counsel should have also been 'evil'. For one thing, they Hulkans would have not allowed the Federation Enterprise to even penetrate their space. Instead...the alternate landing party should have beamed into the alternate universe...in middle of a war. Oh well....it was a great episode.
Not everything is opposite in this universe (despite the approach Discovery took). Many things appear to be the same or in some cases just some what off. The Vulcans for instance appear to have been the same in both Universes until the Terrans conquered them in the Mirror Universe.
Excellent episode, notice the high backed comand chair of Kirks, which was also seen in the episode, The Ultimate Computer. Also, this time Sulu is wearing a red shirt instead of the yellow shirt with the comand insignia on it.
Sulu wore the Red shirt in "Mirror Mirror" because he was also "Security Chief" as stated by the security guard who prevented Engineer Scott from getting to the Phaser Bank room.
Kirk should have learned from this and hired a competent security chief, perhaps a Vulcan woman like Saavik, except with a "T'P-" name like the women in "Amok Time." But then how many things like stealing a shuttlecraft, activating the transporter or taking over Auxiliary Control wouldn't happen. Drama.
Love that epidode, Mirror Mirror, everybodys favorite. Loved that high back comand chair. Saw it on another episode, The Ultimate Computer, on the USS LEXINGYON.
If there was a way to merge both episodes of Star Trek Mirror Mirror with Star Trek Continues in Fairest of Them All, it would be like an amazing movie with the Original Casting playing the Good side and the Star Trek Cast playing the Mirror Universe, I think it would be very interesting. They did it with Star Trek Nine- the Trouble with Tribbles for example... With digital splicing and editing, one could create an entirely new episode, that would connect the two episodes together.
Yes i thought about that when i first seen this episode last year? they missed a trick with Mirror world. They should have made this into a Star Trek feature film with the original cast. if they had done it right it would have been a brilliant film. But sadly it was not meant to be. But i really feel the Star Trek producers slept in on this one by not making it into a big budget film.
I think that world in this episode,in which Earth is an powerful imperia, is real.World, in which Earth is piesfull planet is paralell reality. Why? Because human's nature is inchangeble. Maybe, second reality is story about "How everything coul be if Earth was piesfull".
Kirk should have learned the importance of good security. He can defeat anyone in hand to hand combat one-on-one. It takes two to get him to the brig. Should make sure security always works in twos to avoid getting beat. Also, I think the imposters were discovered immediately in the transporter room and it didn't take Spock an hour or so to round them up, though Kirk might have fled and had to be chased.
