Mirror, Mirror

“Alternate reality” pieces begin their lives fighting an uphill battle. In addition to their obligation to entertain, they must also maintain the strictest adherence to logic. Viewers will naturally be tempted to ask questions like “how did a world like this come about?” or “what ‘butterfly effect’ change in the past produced that crucial difference?” or “there’s no way the universe could have turned out like that.” Okay, that last one isn’t a question. But you get the idea. Part of the fun of stories like this is maintaining the sense that a fork in the road somewhere in the past could plausibly have led not only to reality as we know it but also to the strange new reality of the story. That’s a tough trick to pull off.

And this one doesn’t even come close. The story is predicated on the existence of a parallel universe in which everyone looks the same, the ship looks the same, the uniforms look more-or-less the same, and yet the whole place is rotten. In this alternate reality the Federation is a totalitarian regime, and this Galactic Empire is rife with more cruelty, torture, genocide, petty intrigue and homicidal scheming than ancient Rome. The so-close-and-yet-so-far twist defies all belief.

I should hate this one. But I don’t. In fact, it’s one of my favorite episodes, simply because it’s tremendous fun. The what-if-everyone-was-evil-and-Spock-had-a-beard? premise leads to no end of entertaining plot twists. It’s a little like watching your normally-sedate coworkers get smashed at a Christmas party and do things you never would have thought they’d do. I also enjoyed the subtle changes in the sets and costumes, such as the appearance of a new “evil Federation” logo all over everything.

Thanks to a transporter malfunction during an energy storm, Kirk, McCoy, Uhuru and Scotty are zapped into the aforementioned mirror universe, while their counterparts end up in their places. Fortunately for the crew of the “real” Enterprise, Kirk-2 and his three companions are so vicious and crazy that their actual natures are swiftly discovered and they’re planted in the brig.

The “real” foursome on Enterprise-2 have a more interesting time of it. Because the denizens of the Galactic Empire are accustomed to all kinds of plotting, our heroes don’t draw much attention when they whisper to one another about their predicament. However, Spock-2 – as cool and clever as his counterpart – swiftly catches on, especially after Kirk breaches protocol by refusing to annihilate a planetful of people who won’t cooperate in a dilithium crystal deal.

Once the truth comes out, Spock-2 and the “captain’s woman” (why either Kirk would willingly abandon such a scantily-clad assistant …) help our heroes once again swap places so everyone ends up where they belong.

However, all this fun comes with at least one sobering moment. When Real-Kirk is hanging out with the official Captain’s Squeeze in his cabin, she shows him a secret monitoring device that lets him spy on the crew. As noted in previous episodes, security cameras aren’t a frequent occurrence in the Star Trek Universe (not even when they would have been useful). Yet in the Evil Star Trek Universe they’re apparently common as dirt. Or at least as common as they are in 21st century America. So the good side doesn’t spy on everyone all the time, but the evil side takes constant surveilance for granted. Sort of makes you wonder which side of the mirror we live on.

Fun fact: At one point we learn that Kirk-2 rose to the command of the Enterprise after assassinating Captain Pike-2. Fans will recall that in our universe Pike was the previous commander of the Enterprise featured in “The Menagerie.”

Episode rating:

Stardate: Unknown

Episode type: Alternate reality

Written by: Jerome Bixby

Original air date: October 6, 1967

The Changeling / The Apple

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