Shattered Mirror

DVD, DS9 S4 (Shattered Mirror)

Losing one wife and Mother could be considered unfortunate, but to lose the same one twice is sheer carelessness. If you had a choice between sacrificing the real Jake or the Mirror Jennifer most would probably choose Jennifer as she couldn't fit into their lives for real - Kasidy would have a thing or two to say about that. Then again, watching following episode 'The Muse' you might change your mind… Sisko would be most devastated to lose his son, but even more, Jennifer was 'meant' to be dead and it's difficult to see how she could have become a part of his life again, but even so, they didn't have to kill her and missed a trick by not having her meet Kasidy.

This was the third annual jaunt to the Mirror Universe, the final part in a loose kind of trilogy, since the parallel universe was left fallow for a year after, and the next visit was actually an inverse of the other stories by having characters visit our universe. I think it was wise to leave off the strand for a while as, although this was a pretty good episode, it had lost some of the tension of the previous two stories and comes across as low-key. When you think of the big battle in which the tough little ship ISS Defiant faces off against a gigantic Klingon cruiser/warship/whatever it's called, it might seem ludicrous to brand the episode low-key, especially when many of the Mirror performances are anything but.

My point is that there isn't such a feeling of danger and edginess that featured so successfully in the first two visits: in 'Crossover' Kira and Bashir learn about this alternate reality and the revelation that it's the same universe visited by Kirk and crew in 'TOS.' The pair are in constant danger, whether they realise it or not and it becomes a race to escape the clutches of the Intendant and the evil denizens of Terok Nor. 'Through The Looking Glass' took things a stage further by having Sisko kidnapped and forced to play his Mirror counterpart to stay alive, forcefully interacting with people he knows, but doesn't know. The threat of exposure is ever-present and added that extra spice (not to mention the excellent cameo of Tuvok from 'Voyager').

This visit to Mirror, Mirror-land doesn't have such high stakes: the Terran rebels have beaten back the Alliance forces and claimed Terok Nor for themselves. Yes, there's the inevitable threat of a fleet coming to retake the station from them, but there's very little interaction between the two sides, and Regent Worf and Garak (like Jabba The Hutt with Leia chained to his side), are kept removed from the other characters. There are some good moments with Worf displaying the impatience and rage that our Worf keeps in check just below the surface, and the black humour in the moment he stabs the slimy Cardassian while the Klingon guard sheepishly realises the key which Garak was accused of stealing has actually dropped into his boot, is quite amusing (but like last episode I can see why the video was rated 15).

When Sisko first arrives he just walks off with Smiley O'Brien to his office and they have a little chat. There's nothing dynamic in the way Sisko acts, he just seems mildly put out that Jennifer would take Jake. And it turns out that Jake went of his own free will, so there's little to cause ripples, aside from Captain Bashir punching Sisko in return for the wallop he gave him in the last episode, but that enmity doesn't go anywhere, they're even, and Bashir doesn't really cause much trouble after that. Admittedly, I thought he was going off to warn the Alliance when he takes a ship (the interiors looking strangely like that of a Runabout…), so his heroic moment worked, when he comes in cheering to take the Defiant's back in the battle against the Klingon super-cruiser, very much in the style of Han Solo surprising us all by speeding in on the Millennium Falcon during the Death Star attack, something that, thanks to the sheer size of the thing, was quite reminiscent of the surface battle of that film, the Defiant ducking and weaving on the huge underside of the enemy vessel.

Like Bashir, Dax didn't have much to do, aside from slapping Sisko for fooling her at their last meeting, hanging off Bashir and pressing a few buttons. There are a lot of little moments like that that don't have much explanation so it feels like a very insider episode - you need to have seen the other Mirror stories to really understand, there's so little reintroduction of the concepts and characters. I think one of the biggest things that lessens the impact of the episode as a whole is that with Terok Nor now under rebel control its gloomy interior, glowing red and with a slightly different layout to DS9 (no central Ops console, very strange to see and a different camera view from behind the transporter pad), there's no danger there any more. About the most threatening thing on the station is the pint-sized Quark-alike, Mirror Nog, who exists only long enough to upset Jake and get himself killed by the Intendant, adding his name to the roster of familiar characters that have been killed off, and in particular, fulfilling the edict of 'a Ferengi an episode' which began with Mirror Quark and continued with Mirror Rom.

So without the imminent threat of discovery, and without the station seeming such a terrible place, and with the enemies off in the distance, what is there to keep something burning in the heart of the episode that it remains a good watch? Jennifer Sisko. Her third and final appearance came at the right time in the series - we'd just had some throwbacks to the first season, with Kai Opaka and Sisko's role as Emissary, and since last we met Mirror Jennifer, Kasidy had come on the scene and the series is now gearing up for its second half. So it seems right that they closed out that storyline. There was never any doubt that Sisko had by now put his wife's death behind him and moved on, so it's left for Jake to carry the weight of seeing his Mother, and yet not his Mother. The first scene when he's been shooed off from his and Nog's spot on the Promenade, visibly missing his friend (and by the end I'll bet he was missing him even more after meeting Nasty Nog), he returns home to see his Mum sitting there. Lofton's features crease into confusion at first, but soon he's playing a great glee and excitement, growing as the episode progresses. Jennifer shares the intensity of the experience, seeing the child she never had and this is the core of the story, leading her to sacrifice herself to protect Jake who looks upon her as the Mother he didn't have.

Jake's belief that they can be a family again is evident on his eager face, so when his Dad tells him to stop making plans you can tell that's exactly what he's been doing. I didn't feel the loss as strongly as other deaths on the series. I'm not sure if it was because of the unreality of the setting, or the thought they could just pop off to another parallel universe and see her again. Actually, that's the point of the Mirror Universe: it's not just any old alternate reality, it's a set reality that has its own continuity and plots - here we're left with the threads of the Intendant's escape to Bajor where friends will hide her (sparing Jake's life and intending to collect the debt from Sisko), and Worf and Garak's plan to kill her and all the rebels. This isn't a universe that can be reset like the eleventh film did, it has its own rules and internal consistency, which I think most people want from Trek. Yet it also enables the writers and actors to have fun and do almost whatever they like.

I'd have liked O'Brien and Kira to cross over (presumably some kind of DNA tracer pattern selected only Sisko for transport), and as it is there are no doubles at all. I also felt it could have done with a guest star from 'TNG' or 'Voyager' for added appeal, although we do get the Mirror Worf for the first time and I loved his "Make it so" before bopping Garak away! I also liked seeing the agoniser again, which was originally used on Chekov in 'TOS,' I believe. Dennis Madalone was the famous Stunt Coordinator, and also played the Marauder in the Mirror episodes, and he finally gets a line, blaming the Intendant for his wife's death. I felt he was far too easily knocked out by little Nog brandishing a tea tray, and I have the feeling he never appeared in the subsequent Mirror episodes, but at least he had a moment of glory, ignoble as it was. Carlos Carrasco, Garak's guard, had previously played another Klingon, D'Ghor in 'The House of Quark' so this could be the Mirror version of him. He'd later play a role on 'Voyager' ('Fair Trade') and an Orion Syndicate criminal in 'Honour Among Thieves.'

It's good that the rebels got their own version of the Defiant, although it had already been seen - the interiors were used for a rebel ship in 'Looking Glass,' minimally disguised. As much as the angry ship was useful, and I liked seeing all these people working hard to get her ready, that's precisely what was missing from the station scenes. I wanted Sisko to blow his top, to do something radical, but everyone knows he's not their Captain Sisko and I wanted to see people out to get him from the rebels, perhaps his life being in danger from Bashir, and having to properly fight him at a critical moment during the battle or preparation. But he stays calm, only seeming slighted by Jennifer stealing Jake away, but at the same time having the greatest endorsement of the way he brought his son up when Jennifer compliments him on Jake, the closest he could get to hearing his wife tell him he's done a good job. Yet I never felt strongly enough about any scenes, even Jennifer's death, and I don't know whether that was the acting (Worf and Garak are off the scale in their own little set, but everyone else isn't extreme enough), or that the story was fairly basic, or that the uncomfortable innuendo was on the rise, I just don't know. Perhaps the invention and opportunities of the Mirror Universe had been exhausted by this time?

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