Through The Looking Glass

DVD, DS9 S3 (Through The Looking Glass)

The Mirror Universe, part of the enduring legacy of the Original 'Star Trek', cried out for a sequel after Season 2's visit. In that story we found out how much had changed since Kirk turned Spock round to peace, and almost as much has progressed now we revisit a year later. A new Rebellion has grown up from the seeds planted by Bashir and Kira after inspiring Smiley O'Brien. Out of the many likely guest stars to 'crossover', shall we say, I should think Tuvok was one of the least in contention seeing as our version was lost in a distant part of the galaxy. Jennifer Sisko was also very long odds to reappear, being dead in our universe, but it just shows you can bring anyone in with the right story. No one is truly dead until both they and their mirror counterpart is killed, and even then there's time travel and Prophets taking on their persona, and who knows what else!

Far from taking over the series, the Defiant has been used sparingly and for the right reasons. It doesn't shake a nacelle in this episode, but is useful as redressed sets for Smiley's rebel ship, which I'd never noticed before thanks to the extreme lighting - the transporter, corridors and rooms, are all courtesy of the Defiant (except for one bit of corridor that looks like a station doorway, but not the lift with its fancy map graphic on the wall, unless that too is a redress of the Defiant's turbolift - we see that so rarely as the ship is so small so it's difficult to tell. Maybe Smiley didn't need to capture the Defiant's specs in Season 4 after all, he just had to look around his own ship! Lest the Runabouts (used even more sparingly than the Defiant) be forgotten, the piloting area is a redress of the Runabout cockpit. Was Smiley's ship Cardassian built? It had the familiar golden brown ripples of the station's Cardassian transporter visual. We also see a little more of the station and perhaps the only airlock door to appear with no windows in it (at the Ore Processing facility). One of the rare vertical ellipse windows is also glimpsed.

While in the first 'DS9' Mirror story it was enough to be going to that universe, for a sequel they needed to up the stakes. They did so by making the heart of the story about the two Siskos - Jennifer has all this vitriol stored up to fling at Ben, but when it comes down to it she's only able to exert half-conviction when Sisko reacts in a totally unexpected way. For his part he successfully keeps the bravado of Captain Sisko, while skillfully, but truthfully making up for his counterpart's faults. One of the best moments is when he vows to get her out of the seemingly impossible situation and she wholeheartedly replies "I believe you!", signalling her change of heart so strongly. As in 'Civil Defense' Sisko activates the station's self-destruct, but I'm not sure how he knew the Intendant's code - he hopes the station was designed by the same Cardassian as in his universe, but Kira would have her own personal code. It's possible he could have accessed some program of the designer's which told him what the current code was.

Avery Brooks had an interesting challenge, playing Sisko as playing Mirror Sisko, so he's not as violent or expressive as that version was, but is more expressive than normal Sisko. It must have been difficult to find the right balance as he'd played the full-on Sisko, but didn't want to go that far. He meets the challenge admirably (let's not get ahead of ourselves, Captain will do for now!). He, himself gets to be called Captain for probably the first time (and gets to talk about himself in that rank in the third person!), so maybe he was inspired by the experience and more open to becoming a Captain than ever before? On hearing of Captain Sisko maybe Starfleet thought it was time the real Sisko was a Captain? Let's hope he didn't notice the Intendant's attraction to baldness or he might not have been so quick to shave his head...

I'd forgotten how exciting the end was, with all its shooting matches and tricks and near misses - both Smiley and Jennifer have close calls where beams narrowly miss them. I didn't realise when Smiley was scratching behind his ear that it was the sub-dermal communicator, I thought it was another little reminder that he's a bit dirty and maybe he'd got fleas! I'd also forgotten that Rom wasn't a traitor, and it was all a ploy. The tradition of killing off a famous Ferengi per visit took shape with this episode. They had been quite indiscriminate in the first visit, killing Quark and Odo, and with this they'd got rid of Sisko and Rom. They must have realised they couldn't keep making Mirror stories if they murdered all the main characters, but still wanted to have some fun, so the idea of the Ferengi being the most likely candidates for death came into being. That's my theory, anyway.

I wonder if there's a Parallel Prime Directive to complete the set, alongside the standard Prime and Temporal Prime Directives? If not, Sisko may have kept the details of his disappearance vague so as not to give too much embarrassment to his colleagues. Starfleet must have known about the event however because the universes travel at the same rate of time and he could have been gone a couple of days. How to explain it? I also wonder if there's supposed to be the suggestion Jennifer and Smiley are fond of each other with the way she talks about him at the end. Possibly not as I don't recall that being borne out in the next part of the 'trilogy'.

This is Garak's second episode in an unprecedented four-episode run. Season 1 belonged to Nog and the O'Brien's, 2 saw Rom come into his own more, but 3 has definitely been Garak's showcase, even though this is a third episode in which he plays a Garak that isn't Garak (after 'The Search' and 'Distant Voices'). The Mirror Garak has no finesse and is all about power and hurting people for the sake of cruelty. He can't restrain his emotions, but relishes the chance to let loose under the Intendant's orders. He comes across as a little stupid, allowing his pleasure for violence to overwhelm him. So far we haven't quite discovered whether our Garak shares any of these attributes deep inside, but we're about to...

As with the last few episodes there is something to link back to the previous one. This time it's the characters playing variations of themselves, and doing so with aplomb. Dax is quite scary and Bashir looks like a tramp so that it was almost a pleasure for Sisko to knock him head-over-heels across a table! Morn hasn't been seen as regularly this season, the visits to Quark's bar not quite the same backbone of the series as they had been, but he does get a mention, as do Vole fights (first mooted in 'Destiny'). The Romulans also get an honourary reference as that's the story Sisko tells to let people know he's going to be gone for a while. How Smiley explained Sisko's 'death' a second time I don't know. I expect his followers thought it was all a ruse again. Lastly, the Badlands are seen to be just as stormy in the Mirror universe as in ours. Surely they should be a place of peace and serenity?

****