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Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
In the season 2 episode “Mirror, Mirror,” Star Trek perfected the alternate universe trope long before Hollywood became obsessed with the unlimited franchise-expanding potential of a multiverse. Crucially, Star Trek’s experiment with a parallel universe focused more on the dramatic possibilities of a multiverse than the spinoff opportunities.
Star Trek pre-empted a lot of popular sci-fi tropes, primarily the use of speculative stories about the future to explore pressing social issues affecting our lives today. The series was way ahead of the curve on time travel, augmented reality, and the parallel universe trope. The latter gave us one of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.
Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" Was One Of The First Great Parallel Universe Stories
Long before Rick and Morty and Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Star Trek told one of the first great parallel universe stories. In season 2, episode 4, “Mirror, Mirror,” a malfunction in the transporter inadvertently switches Captain Kirk and his crew with their evil counterparts from a parallel universe.
Later dubbed the “Mirror Universe,” this alternate dimension was populated with people just like us, but with no conscience or moral character. In the Mirror Universe, the Enterprise belongs to a ruthless empire, not a benevolent federation. Much like in the Seinfeld episode “The Bizarro Jerry,” it’s fun to see the dynamic you’re familiar with flipped on its head.
“Mirror, Mirror” is consistently ranked as one of Star Trek’s best episodes, and deservingly so. Even after more than half a century’s worth of lackluster multiverse stories beating the concept into the ground, “Mirror, Mirror” is still an exciting, unpredictable, thought-provoking parallel universe story.
The Mirror Universe Is One Of The Best Pieces Of Star Trek Lore
The Mirror Universe ended up being one of the best pieces of Star Trek lore, because there’s infinite dramatic potential in every character having their own evil doppelgänger. The stories practically write themselves; every character’s mirror-world variant is a morality tale waiting to happen. It’s a great way to develop the characters, too — you can learn a lot about a person from their evil twin.
Deep Space Nine went back to the Mirror Universe a lot, Enterprise had a great two-parter about the Mirror Universe, and it was an important part of the first season of Discovery. One day, I’d love to see a Star Trek movie that deals with the Mirror Universe. Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek to hold a mirror up to society, and the Mirror Universe does that literally.
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