Fanfic / Star Trek: Mirror

Star Trek: Mirror (The Movie) is a Star Trek (2009) fanfiction by spectralPhobia. It can be read on the Archive of Our Own, with additional information available in the ST:M tag on the author's Tumblr (linked to at the beginning of the fic).

Following the events of Star Trek Beyond, Chekov has transferred off the ship, Jaylah is on board getting some on-the-job training from her best friend, and Spock and Uhura no longer appear to be romantically involved, but other than those things life aboard the USS Enterprise seems to be more or less back to normal, and Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura are preparing for a diplomatic mission to a little planet named Halka.

It doesn't go quite as planned. The Halkans refuse to negotiate, Kirk gets some of their sacred mirror stuck to his hand after touching it, and they beam back to the ship — except the ship they return to isn't exactly the one they left.As the landing party tries to find a way home from the savage alternate reality they've found themselves in, the remainder of the crew become increasingly aware that something is very, very wrong with the people who beamed back up from Halka. And this altered version of their Captain is planning something big...

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Star Trek: Mirror provides examples of:

Tropes A to D

• Action Girl: Uhura, as per canon. Averted with Jaylah, as it's her Gadgeteer Genius traits that come to the fore here whilst the ass-kicking element of her character never comes up save for in conversation.
  • Dark Action Girl: Mirror Marlena, Mirror Chapel and Mirror Uhura.
• Action Survivor: Yeoman Rand. It's a fair bet that none of this is in her job description. She copes surprisingly well.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • Halka is a snow planet here. Word of God is that this was done both for narrative purposes and as an excuse to design winter uniforms. The Halkans themselves have also been heavily redesigned as Humanoid Aliens that bear more of a resemblance to Keenser than to the more human races present.
  • Kyle is an ensign rather than a lieutenant.
  • Villains Blend in Better is in effect here, in stark contrast to the original episode.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: The original Mirror Marlena appeared to care more about being the Captain's woman than her scientific duties. Here, she regards being The Beard for Mirror Kirk as 'act[ing] against [her] nature' and whilst she puts up with being thought of as the Captain's woman, it’s so she can get on with her science in relative peace, and she makes it quite clear that she'd utterly despise the situation if it weren’t so useful.
  • Adaptational Badass: Mirror Marlena does a better job of bodyguarding her Captain than his actual bodyguards - a far cry from the Captain's woman of the original series. An odd variation occurs with Rand: whilst her original series counterpart heated coffee by shooting it with a phaser, this version freely admits she doesn’t know how to aim at all, but she still does more to help win the day than the original ever did.
  • Adaptational Dye-Job: Word of God has it that this version of Janice Rand is a redhead rather than a blonde. The Imperial uniforms are also much darker here, with the exception of Kirk's Custom Uniform, which is just made less sparkly.
  • Adaptational Modesty: The author's artwork shows that the women’s uniforms in the Terran Empire's Starfleet look near-identical to the men's, as opposed to the famously Stripperiffic crop-tops and miniskirts of the original series.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Mirror Spock is less morally-upstanding than the character he's a reboot of, demonstrated by him having actively participated in the creation of the Tantalus Field. That said, he’s on the side of the heroes and is still willing to consider a Heel–Face Turn (as long as he doesn't have to harm his lover to do so).
  • Promoted to Love Interest: Mirror Spock to Mirror Kirk. Inverted with Mirror Marlena, who's Demoted as a result of the above.
  • Race Lift: Marlena Moreau was white in the original series, but the author draws her with darker skin and fancasts her as Gina Rodriguez or Josie Loren.
• Adaptation Distillation: In the original series, Chapel was a nurse during the five year mission and became a doctor in time to hold that position in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. ST:M takes place during the reboot's five year mission, but she's already a doctor.
• Adaptation Expansion: As a movie-style adaptation of a forty-minute television episode, this is to be expected. There's more about Halkan culture, and Marlena Moreau gets an actual characterisation (in both universes) rather than just being a generic Girl of the Week. We also learn the origins of the Tantalus Field. The author has noted that the screenplay is probably three hours longer than would be feasible for a real movie.
• Adapted Out: Inverted. Chapel, Rand, Kyle and M'Benga are all adapted back in, and whilst it's true that no mention is ever made of Mirror Chekov, there’s a damn good reason for that.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Halkans cite this as their reason for not helping the landing party once they're trapped in the Mirror Universe. According to their policies, if they’re there, it's because they were destined to end up there, and it's really none of the Halkans' concern.
• All There in the Manual: The character designs for Marlena, Chapel and Rand, as well as some Hypothetical Casting, appear on the author's Tumblr, which also gives a better impression of the redesigned Imperial uniforms and the Starfleet-issue cold-weather gear. There's also a weird hypothetical example, as the screenplay gives us some worldbuilding and exposition (such as the reason Mirror Sulu doesn’t wear a wedding ring) that would be lost in filming were this ever to be produced for real, unless it made its way into an equally-hypothetical Novelisation.
• Alternate Continuity / Alternate Universe: To the IDW comics, which cannot be reconciled with ST:M.
• Ambiguously Gay:
  • Mirror Marlena describes acting like Mirror Kirk's girlfriend as being 'against [her] nature' and neither version shows any interest in men. However, since they also never show interest in anyone else, they're both technically Ambiguously Aromantic.
  • Whilst Mirror Sulu is married and lacking his original counterpart's lecherous attraction to Uhura, and Mirror Kirk doesn't seem surprised to learn that the regular Sulu has a husband, we're never outright told that this version is attracted to men. That said, it's probably reasonable to assume that he is.
• Amicable Exes: Spock and Uhura evidently didn’t repair their romantic relationship following the events of Beyond, but they're still very close and seem to have decided that they're Better as Friends. She's even implied to be a Shipper on Deck for him and Kirk.
• As Lethal as It Needs to Be: This version of the Tantalus Field has a tranquiliser option, although being a Disintegrator Ray is still its default setting.
• Ascended Extra: Doctor Christine Chapel - in previous films she was very briefly The Unseen before being Adapted Out, whereas here she's a major character and Acting CMO. Lieutenant Marlena Moreau also qualifies in comparison to the character she's based on - in the original series her Mirror counterpart was introduced as yet another Girl of the Week, and the Prime version only appeared at the very end as an implied Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest for Kirk (and, in finest original series tradition, was never mentioned again.) Here, both versions are important characters.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Scotty and Uhura during the fight in Engineering.
• Batman Gambit: Mirror Kirk's intimate knowledge of Spock and the fact that the Enterprise crew are generally bound by regulation combine to keep him one step ahead of his opponents whilst remaining undetected, and to use the predictions he can make to lay his plans. To be precise: He lets the crew apprehend him and his people so that they'll end up in the brig, which has its own ventilation system - when the Bindweed poison makes its way through the rest of the ship they'll be the only ones conscious - there's a whole flashback sequence to detail the full brilliance of the gambit, which can't quite be done justice here.
  • Didn't See That Coming: He didn't count on his second-in-command's substitute being a Fake Defector and stabbing him in the back.
• The Beard: Mirror Marlena for Mirror Kirk.
• Beard of Evil: Mirror Spock has one. The landing party can't quite take it seriously.
• Because Destiny Says So: Part of the reason behind the Halkans' Alien Non-Interference Clause.
• Big Bad: Mirror Kirk.
• Big Damn Heroes: As McCoy is being attacked by Mirror Chapel and losing, Kirk has found the Tantalus Field and proceeds to remotely tranquilise her. Shortly afterwards he takes down the security guards antagonising Uhura and Scotty in the same way.
• Blatant Lies: After repeatedly asking Spock to join him and almost throwing away his entire plan for him, Mirror Kirk attempts to deny that he's obsessed. Absolutely no-one believes him.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The 'new' characters: Chapel is the blonde, Marlena is the brunette and Rand is the redhead.
• Brainy Brunette: Marlena Moreau.
• But Not Too Gay: Justified (as much as this trope can be justified, anyway) - since this is intended as a hypothetical installment of canon, the author was aware that the relationship between Kirk and Spock wouldn't be made too explicit and so had to use this trope. It's justified In-Universe too, because the Mirror versions only interact in flashback and inhabit a world where Love Is a Weakness, and the regular versions aren't together yet. It's also something of a Subverted Trope: the portrayal is actually very close to the indisputably canon heterosexual Sarek/Amanda interactions from Journey to Babel.
• Call-Back: When Spock lets Jaylah take over from Scotty, he's well aware that it's not the first time an inexperienced cadet saved them all.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Mirror Kirk knows he's a terrible person and he's proud of it. It’s Played for Drama.
• Chekhov's Gun: Several:
  • The Magirian Bindweed. Mirror Chapel uses it to poison McCoy. Two hours before, the Mirror landing party used a gaseous agent derived from it to knock out the entire crew.
  • In the main universe, McCoy replaced his desk when an acid spill weakened the old one and caused it to collapse, but his Mirror counterpart still has the old one. He weaponises the collapse in a fight with Mirror Chapel, not that it does him much good.
  • Kirk uses the massively heavy lirpa he noticed on the wall of his counterpart's quarters to smash open the bulkhead, get to the wires within, and disconnect the intruder alarm to assist McCoy in breaking him out.
  • At one point, Spock is seen to be wearing a silver chain around his neck. We later learn that that chain is attached to a pendant containing a holoemitter, and, more importantly, a data chip - just what the crew need to implement their plan to bring the landing party back.
  • After Spock rejects Mirror Kirk's final We Can Rule Together, Mirror Kirk gives him a communicator tuned to the only open frequency so he can contact the ship should he change his mind. Sulu and Spock later use this to play Fake Defector.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Spock stows an intoxicated and unconscious Janice Rand somewhere she won’t be seen, gives her a phaser, and implants instructions into her mind regarding what to do when she wakes up. Later, when Spock and Sulu are trying to fight off the Mirror landing party, she serves as a one-woman example of The Cavalry.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Jaylah’s scavenger past comes in handy when the Mirror landing party strand the crew on Halka and they need to strip their escape pods for materials.
  • The Legend of Chekhov: The Halkan mythology about transcending souls and universal constants is scoffed at by McCoy, until the landing party find themselves body-swapped with their evil alternate selves and the weird Halkan myths they studied in the opening scene become their only hint as to how to get home.
• The Chessmaster: Mirror Kirk.
• Clarke's Third Law: When Scotty complains about how he'd prefer a scientific explanation for the Taahtal-os rather than a legend that sounds suspiciously like magic, Uhura invokes this trope.
• Continuity Cameo: Doctor M'Benga gets to appear at the end as a medical officer from another ship.
• Continuity Nod: Kirk died, and the fic doesn’t gloss over that fact the way that canon has. He seems to be over it, but Spock and McCoy definitely aren't.
  • Half-Vulcans named Spock seem to have a habit of going for Kirk's neck.
  • Both versions of First Contact are summarised.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind:
  • Mirror Kyle shoots Mirror Keenser and destroys the agonizer's controller to save Scotty and Uhura just as all seems lost. Then he dies.
  • During the climax, Mirror McCoy is about to kill Spock. Enter Yeoman Rand.
• Curse Cut Short: McCoy swears in the middle of beaming, and so the Precision F-Strike is rendered as 'f—k'.
• Custom Uniform: As per the original series, Mirror Kirk has an updated version of the sleeveless vest, although it's the regular Kirk who’s seen in it the most.
• Darker and Edgier: Than the episode it's based on. Mirror, Mirror was a particularly Fanservice-laden installment of a slightly corny sci-fi serial where nobody you actually cared about got hurt, the Evil Doppelgangers were apprehended before they could cause any damage to life, property or the heroes' reputations, and you knew everything would go back to normal at the end of the episode. Not so much here. The Mirror crew are legitimate threats in both universes, but it's the main universe that has the most to lose, and by the end both versions of Kyle are dead, Kirk and Spock are both seriously injured, and the landing party are being called in for psych evaluations following the actions of their counterparts.
• Darkest Hour: Towards the end, the Mirror landing party has seized control of the Enterprise and marooned the entire crew save for Rand on Halka. It's freezing cold, none of them have winter clothes save for the survey team who were already down there, and the Mirror landing party are planning to blow up the planet, magnify the range of the Tantalus Field, and conquer the Federation. Additionally, the odds of getting the original landing party back are slim to nonexistent.
• A Day in the Limelight: Whilst the fic spends a lot of its time with Kirk and Spock, it's really an ensemble piece where everyone gets to be awesome. Chapel and two different versions of Marlena become important characters, Sulu becomes Spock's Number Two and comes up with the plan that ultimately saves the day, Jaylah shows off her Gadgeteer Genius tendencies, Uhura and Scotty kick ass together ,Rand and Mirror Kyle become The Cavalry, and whilst McCoy doesn’t get in on the badassery quite so much, he becomes very important to Mirror Marlena due to being the first person to really believe in her.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart: Kirk threatens to invoke this trope when Mirror Spock is about to kill Uhura, McCoy and Scotty - if he tries anything, Kirk will take his own life, and if Kirk dies, Mirror Kirk won’t have a body to return to. Mirror Spock doesn’t particularly want to risk it.
  • It's also mentioned later that Mirror Rand was killed prior to the events of the story.
• Deadly Doctor: Mirror McCoy and Mirror Chapel.
• Deadpan Snarker: McCoy, as per canon.
  McCoy (on being asked for a taser): Oh yeah, sure, let me check this skinsuit's pockets — well butter my ass and call me a biscuit, here it is, it's right next to a printer!! Oh look, there's also a vacuum cleaner!!!
• Death by Adaptation: In the original series, Kyle is one of the few redshirts to survive. Here, he dies.
• Demonic Possession: Put forward by Spock to explain the strange behaviour of what the reader knows to be the Mirror landing party - he doesn’t say 'demons', but the principle is there.
• Depraved Bisexual / Depraved Homosexual: Averted - whilst Mirror Kirk and Mirror Sulu are undeniably evil, said evil is entirely disconnected from their sexualities. Mirror Sulu's never even comes up, and Mirror Kirk's love for Mirror Spock is the closest thing he has to a redeeming feature.
• Designated Girl Fight: Averted. The genders of the Mooks Uhura fights off are never specified (and are more than likely a mixture of various human and/or alien identities), and the only person Mirror Chapel has any physical altercations with is McCoy.
• Disintegrator Ray: The Tantalus Field.
• Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Mirror Kirk regards Spock as this, and would really like to be the same for him. He’s rather surprised that Spock disagrees with this notion.
• Dramatic Pause: Kirk makes one before asking Scotty about turning the artificial gravity off.
• The Dreaded: Mirror Kirk and Mirror McCoy.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe. McCoy isn't remotely amused when Kirk tries to make a joke about his death in Into Darkness. Even Mirror Spock thinks it's a dick move.

Tropes E to J

• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Mirror Kirk is unrepentantly evil, but Mirror Spock still seems to love him, and it's implied that he actually prefers his Kirk to the decent human being who temporarily takes his place. The tragic thing is that Mirror Spock doesn't realise that Mirror Kirk really does love him back and isn't just using him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mirror Kirk genuinely seems to have feelings for Mirror Spock despite being a complete bastard, and even appears to regret having to knock out the regular Spock. When telling Spock how unlikely it is that the swap can be reversed, it's noted that the separation from his version is having an effect on him, and Kirk later finds out that the reason Mirror Kirk uses Mirror Marlena as The Beard is to prevent Mirror Spock from becoming more of a target.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Whilst he's capable of the pretence, Mirror Kirk doesn't get what his counterpart and The Federation are all about, nor does he understand Spock as much as he thinks he does. As far as he's concerned, if he can't get back to his own universe and Spock can't retrieve his Captain then the logical course of action is to accept the situation; it never even occurs to him that Spock might prefer his nicer, softer counterpart or that the crew might actually want that version back, and he's surprised that his attempts to incite Spock to join him keep failing.
  • There is some justification for this last part - the version of Spock he's used to is the Mirror version, who is both evil and his lover, so whilst he has enough of a grasp on the regular version to execute a Batman Gambit, the absence of the above two traits keeps throwing him off when it comes to his motivations.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Zig-Zagged Trope. Whilst the Mirror versions of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Chapel, Sulu and Keenser are all straight examples, especially compared with their regular counterparts, Mirror Spock is at least somewhat reasonable, Mirror Marlena might be a Jerkass but at heart she just wants to get on with her science, and Kyle is pretty much the same in both universes. We don’t know anything about Mirror Rand because she’s already dead, and there doesn't seem to be a Mirror Jaylah at all.
• Evil Wears Black: Zig-Zagged Trope. The art shows that the standard Imperial uniforms are mostly black with coloured accents, although the medical uniforms feature an additional blue tunic and Mirror Kirk's vest is entirely goldish-green in colour. However, the landing party wear the darker Imperial uniforms for the majority of the story as a result of the body-swap whilst their Mirror counterparts wear the brightly coloured uniforms we associate with the heroes.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The fic is a hypothetical reboot of Mirror, Mirror.
• Fake Defector: Sulu suggests Spock become this - if he pretends to take Mirror Kirk up on his repeated offer of a place at his side, the two of them can get back up to the commandeered Enterprise and implement their plan.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Whilst most people call him 'Captain' and Mirror Marlena calls him 'James', Mirror Spock is the only one who calls Mirror Kirk 'Jim.'
• Friendship Moment: McCoy and Mirror Marlena - he's the first person she ever confides in about anything.
• Foreshadowing:
  • At the very beginning, Spock is stated to be trying not to let anyone know about a connection between the Halkan mythology of universal constants and Vulcan culture. We later learn that the t'hy'la bond is a universal constant and that he and Kirk have one.
  • The Halkan name for their 'Soul Mirror' is the Taahtal-os. The similarity to 'Tantalus' is no coincidence...
  • The absence of the Taahtal-os in the Mirror Universe version of Halka foreshadows the revelation that it’s the power source for the Tantalus Field.
  • The First Chancellor claims that the Taahtal-os reacted to Kirk's touch because it 'sensed the [universal] constant within him', which should be impossible. When talking to Mirror Spock, Kirk realises that the constants they were talking about at the very beginning are things that apply to himself and Spock, and it's later revealed that Kirk is (or will be) one half of a t'hy'la bond, which is a universal constant. You can guess who the other half is.
  • Mirror Marlena's momentary surprise at Kirk's passionate kiss foreshadows the fact that she's not really Mirror Kirk’s girlfriend.
  • Mirror Marlena's 'not now, at least' disclaimer when informing the man she thinks is Mirror Kirk that he can’t control Starfleet Command the way he controls his subordinates implies that some day he will have that ability. Sure enough, we eventually find out that Mirror Kirk was planning to take over the Empire before he entered the regular universe and turned his focus to conquering the Federation.
  • Mirror Chapel makes reference to Mirror Kirk's enemies having 'disappeared' - soon afterwards we learn about the Tantalus Field. This in turn, combined with the mysterious tractor beam blueprints Kirk and Spock find on their respective ships foreshadows Mirror Kirk's plan to expand its range to cover the entire quadrant.
  • Mirror McCoy tells Mirror Kirk that his obsession with Spock will be his downfall. Guess what happens a little later on.
• Girl of the Week: Subverted. When Kirk meets Mirror Marlena, her behaviour leads him to believe she's in a relationship with his counterpart and so he plays along...only for her to drop the act the minute they set foot in the Captain's quarters, and for Mirror Spock to show up shortly afterwards and kiss him in the Vulcan way.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Although Mirror Scotty reckons otherwise, the remaining members of the bridge crew definitely aren't stupid, and neither are the landing party.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Mirror Sulu has the same characteristic facial scar of his original series incarnation, and it seems that everyone in the Mirror Universe has more scars than their counterparts.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Mirror Kirk is not happy about how much time Mirror Marlena spends with his lover. It’s obvious to the reader, however, that Mirror Spock doesn’t want anybody else.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Christine Chapel. The same cannot be said for her Mirror counterpart.
• He Knows Too Much: This trope is the reason Mirror Rand is dead.
• Heel–Face Turn: Mirror Spock and Mirror Marlena are implied to be making one.
  • High-Heel–Face Turn: Mirror Marlena is the first to contemplate it, although she's still out for herself up until the very end.
• Human Aliens: Averted with the rebooted Halkans, who, whilst still humanoid, are described as 'short, bulky, [and with] dark grey skin, three horn-like nubs and blue dots on their foreheads.'
• I Need a Freaking Drink: McCoy's reaction to the concept of escorting the Halkans to a diplomatic conference, and to encountering the Mirror Universe.
  • Later on, Spock has this reaction as well.
  If he were human, he would be rubbing his temples, sighing, and raiding McCoy's alcohol stash to deal with this shit.
  • McCoy gets another one when trying to explain to Kirk why joking about your own death in front of the people who saw it happen is a really stupid thing to do.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: 'I'm a doctor, not a diplomat.'
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: Whilst the peculiar behaviour of the rest of the landing party is noted, it's Mirror Scotty who really gives the game away. How? Apparently Mirror Scotty doesn't have a Mirror Jaylah for a best friend, and the regular Jaylah is very distressed by his indifference to her.
• Improbable Weapon User: Yeoman Janice Rand. Give her a suitable weapon and she improvises with something entirely different.
  Spock: Yeoman, I thought I gave you a phaser?
  Rand: Sorry, Commander, I don't really know how to aim and stuff… I'm a yeoman, I work with a PADD and a stylus!
• Incessant Music Madness: Someone from Engineering comms Spock in tears and begs him to make Jaylah turn off her music prompting an Oh, Crap! from Chapel - the only time Jaylah turns her music up that loud is when she's distressed.
• Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath: Subverted; whilst McCoy struggles with the ethics of leaving his counterpart to deal with the poison working its way through his system, his counterpart is both a medical professional and a terrible human being, so in the end he decides to just get the hell out of that body and back into his own rather than trying to neutralise the effects himself.
• The Intern: Cadet Jaylah is identified as being this trope, as a result of being on good terms with the Enterprise's Chief Engineer (although she’s probably closer to being an apprentice). Having not actually graduated yet, she’s not quite eligible for Ensign Newbie status.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The reader knows full well that the landing party who beamed back aboard the USS Enterprise isn't the one that beamed down, but it takes the remaining crew a while to really spot the thread.
  • The fact that the Mirror versions of Kirk and Spock are lovers won't be too surprising to anyone who's read the tags, but Kirk didn't see it coming at all. However, this is only an example for the fic itself - in the hypothetical film, there would be no tags, and moviegoers sufficiently committed to avoiding spoilers would be just as surprised as Kirk.
• Irony: The Halkans are Perfect Pacifist People, but their sacred object is being used to power what is essentially Project INSIGHT turned up to eleven.
• Jerkass: Mirror Marlena is cynical, bitter and callous, showing no regard for life at all, but she’s not really evil per se.

Tropes K to N

• Killed Offscreen: Kyle.
• Kirk Summation: Kirk gives one to Mirror Spock and Mirror Marlena - he knows his original universe isn't perfect, but it's better than the Mirror Universe. This being the Reboot version of Kirk, there's also a bit of '"The Reason You Suck" Speech' thrown in for good measure.
• Kiss of Distraction: Downplayed; the intent and outcome are the same, but it's a Vulcan kiss, and said Vulcan kiss is only a symbolic gesture - it's what it represents (namely, Spock's impending (and fake) Face–Heel Turn) that causes Mirror Kirk to let his guard down.
• Klingon Promotion: The reason Mirror Sulu and Mirror Chapel are trying to kill Kirk and McCoy respectively - he'll move up in rank, and she'll become CMO.
• Love Is a Weakness: The Mirror landing party (their leader excepted) seem to believe this. They’re not entirely wrong - if it weren't for Mirror Kirk's insistence on recruiting Spock, they would have been able to conquer the Federation.
• Love Transcends Spacetime: In every universe, there will always be a Kirk, there will always be a Spock, and they will always be t'hy'la. Kirk is not aware of the significance of this, but Spock is.
• Magitek: The Taahtal-os is the power source of the Tantalus Field computer.
• MacGyvering: The crew are marooned on Halka whilst the Mirror landing party plot their doom. Their best (and only) shot at foiling Mirror Kirk's plans requires a science station, but all they have are their escape pods. Fortunately, whilst they don't have their Chief Engineer on hand to cobble together what they need from what they have, they do have Jaylah, and she doesn't let them down. What she comes up with looks a little strange, but it gets the job done.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: As per usual with Star Trek; however it's a Downplayed Trope due to there being a lot of main characters and a few prominent secondary characters to split the load between, and it's justified in the Mirror Universe since there are very few people to whom the landing party can go for assistance.
• Magic Mirror: The Taahtal-os.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The Taahtal-os - is it really magic or just Clarke's Third Law in action? Uhura and Scotty seem to think it's the latter, and the First Chancellor admits it's a possibility, but is there any way technology or some scientific phenomenon could exhibit the same properties?
• Mauve Shirt: Kyle, of the 'dies anyway' variety.
• Mind Rape: Mirror Spock does this to Kirk when Kirk fails to behave in a way consistent with that of his lover and refuses to share his thoughts freely in order to protect his crew.
• Mindlink Mates: Implied of the Mirror versions of Kirk and Spock - the non-spoken portions of the screenplay point out that something feels wrong in the former's head upon entering the regular universe, and both Mirror counterparts reference the fact that their other half is apparently shielding before realising they aren't talking to the person they thought they were. Mirror Kirk in particular likes to talk about how alone the regular Spock must be in his mind, suggesting that the Mirror version isn't.
• Mirror Universe: The plot revolves around one.
• Mythology Gag:
  • It's explicitly noted in the directions that, in the first scene, Kirk is wearing the green wrap tunic his original series counterpart occasionally wore in place of the standard gold shirt.
  • Chekov is serving on the Federation's newest flagship. Her name? USS Discovery.
  • The Imperial uniforms have been completely redesigned, but the sparkly gold sashes have survived in the form of sparkly gold belts.
  • One of Mirror Chapel's previous kills was a medical officer named Boyce. Mirror Marlena later mentions a Colt, although it's not made clear whether or not this refers to Yeoman Colt or if the name is just a coincidence.
  • Kirk initially considers sending McCoy to help Scotty in Engineering, like in the original episode, before changing his mind and sending Uhura instead.
  • Mirror Marlena jokes about accompanying the landing party back to their original universe, in reference to the fact that in the original episode, she begged to leave with them. Later, she genuinely does ask to leave with them, but once again she stays to help Mirror Spock reform the Empire.
  • When explaining how badass it is to go sleeveless in the Mirror Universe, Mirror Marlena tells McCoy that he and Kirk might as well be wearing crop-tops.
  • Kirk tells Mirror Spock that there's a weapon on the ship that will make him invincible. Except in this reality he's not talking about the Tantalus Field - he's talking about Mirror Spock himself.
  • Towards the end, Chapel claims that 'let me help' are the three words more powerful than 'I love you'.
  • Spock talks about self-made purgatories whilst declining a relationship with an attractive blonde.
  • Spock and Kirk reprise their original series counterparts' somewhat famous conversation about luck and miracles from A Taste of Armageddon.
• The Needs of the Many: When Chapel protests Spock's assumption of command due to his injuries, he invokes this trope, telling her that the safety of the ship is more important than one person's health. It's also Sulu's reasoning for accompanying Spock back to the captured Enterprise - he'll be in horrible danger but he'll do it to save the crew and the Halkans.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: All of this could perhaps have been avoided if Kirk hadn’t touched the Taahtal-os.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The crew only have the opportunity to win the day because Mirror Kirk gave Spock a way to contact him and get back aboard the ship.
• The Nicknamer: Jaylah is well aware of her Accidental Misnaming of Kirk and Scotty but continues to call them 'Montgomery Scotty' and 'James T' 'for the sake of old times.' She’s also apparently turned her attention to the rest of her new family - as far as she's concerned, their CMO is named 'McBones'.
• Number Two: Sulu to Acting Captain Spock. On the villains' side, Mirror Scotty is this to Mirror Kirk (although not prominently enough to be The Dragon), but Mirror Kirk plans to replace him with Spock as soon as the latter agrees to make a Face–Heel Turn.

Tropes O to T

• Only the Pure of Heart: Only Perfect Pacifist People are permitted to associate with the Halkans. Not many people have ever been permitted to associate with the Halkans.
• Oblivious to Love: Despite the fact that Mirror Kirk is his lover and possibly his bondmate, and in spite of being a touch telepath who can generally tell whether someone's being sincere, Mirror Spock doesn't seem to realise that his Captain genuinely loves him. Possibly justified - Mirror Kirk is apparently pretty good at shielding, and Love Is a Weakness in the Mirror Universe…
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Kirk gets one when he realises that Mirror Spock has taken his communicator and locked him in his quarters.
  • Chapel gets one when Jaylah hacks the sound system to play Metallica at a ridiculously high volume - Chapel was one of the people helping her with her rehabilitation and knows that her turning her music up dangerously high means she's badly stressed. This combined with the strange behaviour of the landing party causes her and Spock to realise once and for all that something’s not right.
  • McCoy gets one when Mirror Sulu declares the landing party fugitives and sets the entire crew on them.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Marlena gets one when, whilst telling Spock and Chapel that the Captain has relieved everyone bar the landing party, she realises that something’s not quite right - and the reader realises that the Mirror landing party have commandeered the bridge.

• Outside-Context Villain: In a world that believes in peace and diplomacy and which has gotten used to thinking of Captain Kirk as The Hero, Mirror Kirk is definitely this trope, and he seems to be aware of it…
• Paranoia Fuel / Nightmare Fuel: McCoy and Kirk regard the Tantalus Field as both of these tropes In-Universe.
• Perfect Pacifist People: Deconstructed with the Halkans - they're smug, condescending, and generally very unpleasant to be around as a result of their high moral standards. Their Planetary Hat seems to be 'being self-righteous assholes'.
• Pistol-Whipping: Mirror Kirk does this to Spock to incapacitate him.

• Pragmatic Villainy: Whilst it would have been better had Mirror Spock locked Kirk out of all the ship’s systems, that would have created too much suspicion.
• Put on a Bus: Chekov is now a Lieutenant aboard the USS Discovery and doesn’t appear in the story at all.
• Reaction Shot:
  • Written for Scotty and Uhura when they learn that Mirror Spock melded with Kirk.
  • The whole landing party get another later when Kirk puts a phaser to his temple.
  • Spock, Sulu, Chapel and Jaylah get one when they learn about the Mirror landing party’s plan for Halka and for them, and the entire remaining crew gets one when Spock tells them what the Mirror landing party has done.
  • Sulu has an individual one at just how complicated the exchange will be.
  • Spock has one whilst Mirror Kirk makes his final attempt to convince him that they should be together.
  • Everyone who hasn’t seen the Tantalus Field in action gets one when Mirror Kirk turns it on the Yorktown.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Since this story is written as though it were an actual installment of the Kelvin Timeline, there's no way for Chekov to make an appearance due to his actor's death. The main universe Chekov is therefore Put On A Different Starship and the scene in Mirror, Mirror where Mirror Chekov attempts to assassinate Kirk is instead given to a random Mook
• Red Herring: The landing party initially believe that their situation was caused by Kirk touching the Taahtal-os, only to learn later that the 'impure' can't use it to travel between dimensions since their destinies aren’t constant across universes; the cause of the problem is just a run-of-the-mill Teleporter Accident. But then, when the First Chancellor realises that the Mirror reacted to Kirk, he says that Kirk must be a universal constant after all, and the landing party report that the Mirror was the cause of the storm and the malfunction.
• Red Shirt: Although the ones in the Mirror Universe are more like Mooks and Evil Minions, the Admirals Mirror Kirk disintegrates on Yorktown count as an unusually high-ranking example. We've never seen them before, they're never given names, they're around for less than a minute, and the only reason they’re even mentioned is so that they can be killed off and so that Commodore Paris can be introduced to Mirror Kirk. There's also Henson - she doesn't die, but she exists solely to be manipulated by Mirror Kirk.
• Remake Cameo: If this were ever actually filmed, William Shatner would get one, thanks to the pendant from the unfilmed ending of the first movie finally making its way into the official canon.
• Run the Gauntlet: The landing party have difficulties with Mirror Sulu and Mirror Chapel, and Kirk and McCoy have to fight their corresponding nemesis as the group makes its way to the transporter room.
• Scenery Porn: The descriptions of Halka are clearly intended as this. It becomes Scenery Gorn later on.
• Script Fic: ST:M is presented in screenplay format, however Word of God is that the planned sequel will be written in ordinary prose.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: This is an Inverted Trope in theory since the women's uniforms in the Mirror Universe all appear to be practical jumpsuits whereas the main universe has those sixties-style minidresses, but is Zig-zagged in practice:
  • Chapel and Rand appear to be wearing the minidresses in the art, although equally-heroic Jaylah and Marlena have trousers.
  • Uhura and Mirror Uhura have swapped uniforms thanks to the body-swap, playing the trope straight.
  • Mirror Kirk's uniform covers less skin than Kirk's, which would play the trope straight, but again, they've swapped outfits.
• Sequel Hook:
  • Mirror Spock tells Kirk that his version of Spock will need him very soon, in an obvious reference to Pon Farr. Mirror Kirk also makes reference to it whilst talking to Spock, and since Word of God is that the regular version of the Enterprise's command team will be getting a Relationship Upgrade, it's not unreasonable to assume that this plot thread will be picked up again...
  • At the end, the reader learns that Spock is going to be court-martialled, although the charges are unrevealed.
• Shipper on Deck: Uhura is implied to be one for Kirk and Spock - Spock once accused her of picking out certain songs for an unexplained purpose that he wouldn’t want her declaring to all and sundry, and [[All There in the Manual the author considers at least one of said pieces to be a Spirk song.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers! / Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: A minor conflict between the landing party and their Mirror allies is that, whilst the group that was born and raised in The Federation believes in the former, the pair from The Empire is pretty convinced of the latter. As per the original series, Kirk wears them down.
• Sixth Ranger: Mirror Spock and Mirror Marlena to the landing party. (They’re also Guest Star Party Members, since a similar teamup is unlikely to occur again.)
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Upon first beaming up to the ISS Enterprise, the landing party are understandably rather confused. Then Spock walks in and:
  The landing party forgets about their problems for a moment because all attention is drawn to Spock's GOATEE.
  • Later, Scotty temporarily neglects the party's problems again in favour of having a nerdgasm over the inner workings of the Tantalus Field.
  • He has another one when he implies that his main reason for wanting to leave the Crapsack World of the Mirror Universe is because Mirror Keenser is Chief Engineer.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: The Mirror versions of Kirk and McCoy certainly seem to think so, and because they’re both The Dreaded, they can get away with it.
• The Smurfette Principle: Averted. Whilst Uhura is the only woman on the landing party, the group eventually joins forces with the Mirror versions of Spock and Marlena, making it Two Girls to a Team. Meanwhile, whilst the only members of the traditional main cast left in the regular universe (Sulu and Spock) are male, Chapel and Marlena join them as protagonists, supported by Jaylah and Rand. The author's Tumblr also indicates that Saavik will appear in the sequel.
• Space Cadet: Jaylah, as per the final moments of Star Trek Beyond.
• Spotting the Thread: Several at once. Spock and Chapel are discussing the strange behaviour of the people they think are their friends, and Chapel mentions that McCoy generally asks for her help but now no longer seems to trust her. Then they find out that Jaylah's turned her music up ridiculously high, which is how she copes with distress. When she's asked about it, she reveals that Scotty - her best friend and mentor - no longer seems to care about her, and it finally becomes clear that something is very wrong. Back in the Mirror Universe, however, it only takes Spock one conversation to realise something's off.
• Stronger Than They Look: Chapel, who can manhandle a Vulcan.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: At the end, when Spock is explaining the concept of t'hy'la to Kirk, the latter assumes he’s describing the Fire-Forged Friendship of the command crew rather than a possible romantic connection between the two of them specifically. Spock, who isn't quite ready to deal with the truth himself, chooses not to correct him.
• Take Over The Federation: Mirror Kirk had plans for seizing control of the Empire, but he'll gladly adjust said plans to accommodate his changing circumstances.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The landing party and their Mirror allies aren’t terribly fond of each other to begin with.
• Teleporter Accident: Of the Teleportation Misfire variety, although the Taahtal-os was involved.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Mirror Marlena's opinion of Kirk jeapordising her Captain's reputation.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Well, killing is fine when absolutely necessary, but Kirk objects to disintegrating Mirror Chapel and has to institute a 'no murder' policy with his Mirror allies.
• Three Lines, Some Waiting: The action flips primarily between Kirk’s discovery of his counterpart's actions and motives, the adventures of Uhura and Scotty, and Spock's conflicts with Mirror Kirk. There's the odd scene from the perspective of McCoy when the landing party splits up, but not quite enough to qualify as Four Lines, All Waiting. Each time the first two groups reunite this becomes Two Lines, No Waiting, before the two storylines reconnect at the end.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Jaylah would very much like to do this to the Mirror landing party. Spock won't let her because the crew needs them alive in order to reverse the switch.
• Trust Password:
  • Henson asks Kirk to prove he really has switched back with the Mirror landing party, and he responds by listing various things about her, such as her peanut allergy and vegetarianism. Unfortunately, the reader knows it's still Mirror Kirk, and he learned all those things from her personnel file. Fortunately, Henson is still a competent crewmember despite being innocent and poison-addled, and comms Spock to check. Unfortunately, she can't get hold of him and succumbs to the Bindweed shortly afterwards anyway - just after passing Mirror Kirk her communicator and placing her hand in reach, giving him the opportunity to use her handprint to escape the brig.
  • Spock later asks Uhura to describe a specific event in order to ascertain her universe of origin - Mirror Kirk broke his hands and so he can't ascertain the truth by melding with her.
• Two Girls to a Team: Uhura and Mirror Marlena to the landing party (plus Mirror Spock).

Tropes U to Z

• Unholy Matrimony: The Mirror versions of Kirk and Spock are a couple. One of them is a murderous tyrant, and whilst the other is slightly better, he’s still a long way from 'good' - he helped create the Tantalus Field, after all.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Uhura and Scotty tell Kirk they'd like to beam down to Halka again to find out how to get home. It doesn't go as planned. There's a lot of seismic activity that almost gets them killed, and not only do the Halkans refuse to help them even after learning that their visitors aren't the bad guys, but they can't take any readings from the Taahtal-os because it's missing.
• Villainous Crush: Mirror Kirk has one on Spock due to his regarding the Vulcan as his Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest. Unlike many examples of this trope, he never tries to force anything sexual to happen between them, and wants Spock to defect and join him of his own free will.
• Villains Blend in Better: Played straight, unlike in the original episode. Mirror Spock and Mirror Marlena become aware that the landing party that beamed aboard isn't quite the same as the one that beamed down relatively quickly, but by the time the non-Mirror crew can be certain that something is wrong the Mirror landing party have already set their plan in motion.
• We Can Rule Together: Mirror Kirk practically begs Spock to join his cause on several occasions. It backfires on him horribly. Not only do his offers give Spock and Sulu a way to board the captured Enterprise, foil Mirror Kirk's plans and facilitate the safe(ish) return of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura, but the Mirror counterparts of the latter three become disgusted with their Captain's sentimentality, decide he's outlived his usefulness and try to off him.
• Wrench Wench: Jaylah, as per canon - if it's at all possible, she might even have gotten better now she’s had some formal engineering training. Her first appearance has her, having just finished some upgrades, eagerly asking Scotty what she ought to be doing next, and later she gets to revisit her roots by building a functioning science station from scratch.
• Wham Shot: Hypothetical example: the void in the Mirror council chamber where the Taahtal-os should be would be one on-screen.
• World of Badass: The Mirror Universe - even the lowly redshirts are stated to be more capable of asskicking than Kirk thanks to their hostile circumstances.
• You Are in Command Now: With Kirk and McCoy trapped in the Mirror Universe, Spock and Chapel take over as Acting Captain and Acting CMO, whilst Sulu steps up to become Acting First Officer.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once the rest of the Mirror landing party learn about the Tantalus Field, they decide Mirror Kirk is effectively useless to them and, in finest Mirror Universe tradition, stage a mutiny and try to kill him.

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