This week I wanted to write a bit about a common sci fi trope; that of the mirror universe.
The trope has its roots in various works of fiction (literature and film), but I think the Star Trek : The Original Series episode ‘Mirror, mirror’ really put it into the limelight. Parallel universes have been used a lot, but the mirror universe is different in that it is not the result of a change, a branching off, but develops alongside the current universe: a fuller explanation can be found on this tv tropes page.
Two main questions popped up when I caught the mirror universe episode of Star Trek Enterprise the other day:
Why are our mirror counterparts always evil and /or immoral?
Why does being evil or immoral equate to skimpy or edgy outfits, facial hair, and a more relaxed attitude towards relationship(s) with work colleagues?
The first question arose because it occurs to me that it is a broad generalisation to assume all people are either ‘good’ or ‘evil’ and I use quotes because there cannot be just one definition of those terms.
While there is an aspect of this which comes across in the Star Trek mirror universe episodes, the broader picture is that these characters become ‘evil’ by some personality traits being opposite. I also find it odd which traits have been altered in the mirror universe; Worf is a brave and honourable character in the OG universe, in the mirror universe he seems to remain brave and honourable, but the different political setting has him on the other side. Of course a part of this comes down to the fact that most ‘bad guys’ don’t realise they are the bad guys. The character development is explored more in the novels which accompany the series, I will acknowledge.
Kira Nerys is another one who has odd traits become opposite – the episodes in which the Intendent features display her to be ruthless and cruel which is at odds with her OG counterpart. However, she is also sultry, has ‘relationships’ with a number of characters, fills her room with slaves, etc. I don’t particularly think of Nerys’ monogamy as being a main character trait, so I am not sure why it is used here to show how wicked she is. It seems a little judgemental – not the keeping of slaves of course, that is undeniably wrong – to suggest that it is wrong to feel attraction and closeness to many people.
This brings me to my other question; even if we argue that the use of mirror characters in science fiction has more depth than just ‘good characters are bad – everyone has power hungry intentions’ (although I have yet to see a mirror universe in which a character is hopelessly lazy, or a generous character becomes miserly), that still leaves the second question.
While not all characters seem affected by this mirror universe (O’Brien seems to be similar, if slightly affected by his status of being a slave, retaining many of the same traits), what is common is the visual portrayal of all the ‘immoral’ versions of the OG characters.
ST:TOS set the standard when they first displayed Spock with the goatee (somewhat reminiscent of Ming the Merciless), and this trope was repeated in later series – Intendent Kira with her slinky outfits, Captain Archer and the Mirror Enterprise crew. The subtext seems to be that it is somehow immoral to dress in a revealing fashion, to take a lover, to style your hair in a sultry way. In ST: Enterprise, Archer has stubble, and the female crew wear slinky cropped tops.
This is seen in other media as well: albeit an alternate universe rather than a mirror universe, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Wishverse, vampire Willow is all sultry and ‘vamped’ up. I grant that vampires are generally evil due to their soulless state, but my issue is why does Vampire Willow have to wear snug, form-fitting outfits and behave in a more lascivious fashion towards others? Again, it is making passion in women synonymous with evil.
Red Dwarf attempted to break this mould – in a way – in their episode ‘Back to Reality’. Whether it counts as a ‘mirror’ universe or not, the characters are led to believe that they have been playing a game and they waken from a situation on Star Bug to find they have been playing a VR game (like Total Recall) and their true personalities / life situations are far different from what they believed: Lister is Voter Colonel Sebastian Doyle, head of the secret police in a fascist state; Rimmer is Billy Doyle, Lister's half-brother and a tramp; Cat is Duane Dibbley, a dorky human; and Kryten is Detective Jake Bullet, a half-human traffic officer. While it is not a true mirror universe, and not even really an alternate reality or parallel world as technically it is all a result of the actions of a creature called the Despair Squid, I like the fact that they decided to look at different versions of our characters and didn’t go the trope route.
Willow:
ST: TOS -Mirror, Mirror...
Deep Space 9
Star Trek: Enterprise
Red Dwarf
And for bonus, Evil Ash vs Ash, from Ash vs Evil Dead.
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