History Series / MirrorMirror

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/10721thumbpng540x405compressed.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Far far away, on the edge of the world, you are lost out of place, out of time...]]'']]

-> "That's one of the great curiosities of history, isn't it? How events can be seemingly unrelated to one another and yet be somehow linked, parts of a greater scheme. A series of events, all flowing on streams into a river, converging towards one single and inevitable moment... somewhere in the future."
-->-- '''The Old Man.'''


''Mirror, Mirror'' is a 1995 Australian/NZ co-production about two families from 1919 and 1995 respectively after they find out that they can access each other's timelines through an antique mirror.

The 1995 side involves Australian Jo Tiegan (Petra Yared [[note]] credited as "Petra Jared" [[/note]]), whose mother has just been appointed principal of a New Zealand school and has dragged the entire family with her. On a trip to the local shop, Jo finds herself inexplicably drawn to an antiques store run by a strange old man who knows her name, and insists that not only does she take an old mirror he owns, but also that he personally places it.

Jo soon discovers why this was necessary: the mirror functions as a portal to the year 1919, when the place was owned by the Iredale family, whose neighbour Sir Ivor Creevey-Thorne is housing a young Russian named Nicholas.

Meanwhile, in 1995, a dig at the school leads to the discovery of a canister of toxic chemicals in a well, which is then accidentally sprayed on two students. With both students' lives hanging in the balance, Jo and her newfound friend Louisa race against time to prevent this from ever having happened.

For the famous ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' episode of the same name, go [[Recap/StarTrekS2E4MirrorMirror here]].

''Not'' to be confused with Creator/GregoryMaguire's DarkerAndEdgier [[Literature/MirrorMirror literary remake of Snow White]] of the same title, or with the [[Film/MirrorMirror 2012 film of the same name]].

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!!This series contains examples of:

* AdultsAreUseless:
** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged.]] The Old Man is the only one who has any clear idea of what the hell is going on [[spoiler:and even he makes a critical oversight]]. Only Louisa, Jo and her brother Royce can actually use the mirror properly, and most of the adults have their own reasons for not helping them.
** Nicholas' guardian Sir Ivor is the BigBad, and the Iredale tutor is an EvilTeacher who [[VillainTeamUp joins forces with him.]]
** Louisa's father ''tries'' to be helpful, and manages to find the warehouse where the smugglers are storing their goods. Unfortunately, he is attacked by Sir Ivor's thugs and scared into silence.
** Jo's father discovers what the mirror can do halfway through the show, but forbids her to use it due to the dangers involved. ([[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Not that she listens.]])
** The girls respective mothers only learn the truth towards the end of the show, by which time they can mostly just stand by and watch, though Louisa's mother ''does'' help Jo get back to her own time (along with Jo's father.)
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: The final scene of the series has Jo, Tama and [[spoiler:Nicholas]] cheer over the fact that [[spoiler:Jade has been [[RetGone erased from existence]] due to the changes in history]].
* AndStarring: Nicholas Hammond receives an "and" credit.
* AngryGuardDog: Bullseye, Campbell's dog who also acts as the latter's RightHandAttackDog. He turns on his master however after Jo [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe brings him a bag full of dog biscuits]] from 1995.
* BigBadEnsemble: Sir Ivor, and arguably [[spoiler: the Old Man.]]
* BrokenMasquerade: Happens gradually, as more and more people learn about the Mirror. [[spoiler: Though in the end, the only people in 1995 who know about it are Jo, Tama and Nicholas.]]
* CassandraTruth: The protagonists have a hard time convincing the adults of anything, whether it be the existence of TimeTravel or the villain's EvilPlan.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The mirror only works for those who truly believe in it. Kids have a much easier time using it than adults.
* ColorCodedCharacters: Jo and Louisa spend most of the show wearing similar-looking dresses in yellow and red, respectively.
* CuriosityKilledTheCast: The saying this trope was named after is said word for word by Sir Ivor after he has Jo captured. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that she still comes out on top in the end.]]
* DatedHistory: When the show was made, it was considered somewhat plausible - if rather far-fetched - that [[spoiler: Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov]] had escaped his execution, fled the country and lived abroad under an assumed name, because they NeverFoundTheBody. Since then however, his remains have been found, squarely putting the show into AlternateHistory territory.
* DidAnastasiaSurvive: {{Averted|Trope}}. The execution of the Romanovs is mentioned, but there's no indication that Anastasia survived. [[spoiler: Her brother, on the other hand...]]
* DoubleDoubleTitle
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The entire 20 episode series takes place during a single week ([[MeanwhileInTheFuture or, if you want to be technical, two weeks separated by the better part of a century]]) with a prologue set some time beforehand.
* FeudingFamilies: The Tiegans and the Coigleys, of which every member seems to loath their counterpart in the other family (except for Royce, who doesn't have one). Catherine and Leonie clearly hate each other, with the latter trying to get rid of the former. This rivalry is [[ObligatoryJoke mirrored]] by that of their daughters, Jo and Jade. Also, Catherine's husband Andrew has a (possibly one-sided) dislike of Leonie's husband Dennis.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Several clues are given to Nicholas' true identity before TheReveal. He's quite sickly, [[spoiler: as he's suffering from hemophilia.]] This is why he does everything to not let his anger get the better of him [[spoiler: as the Old Man.]] He also has a photo of a family [[spoiler: who historically savvy viewers will recognise as the Romanovs.]]
** If the Old Man's theory that [[spoiler: Jo is a reincarnation of Louisa]] is correct, then it's ''very'' appropriate that [[spoiler: they meet each other through a ''mirror.'']]
* GambitRoulette: The Old Man uses an OmniscientMoralityLicense to carry out one of these. It turns out that [[spoiler:he's Nicholas]] but that doesn't matter because [[spoiler:it all comes apart at the last minute]].
* TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack: With the twist that the "reflection" is a completely different person. [[spoiler: The Old Man speculates that they might share a soul, but this is never confirmed.]]
* GivingRadioToTheRomans: More like "lending walkie talkies and remote controlled toy cars to the post-Edwardians."
* HappilyMarried: Jo's parents. While they do have the occasional argument, it's still clear that they are a loving, supportive couple.
* HollywoodCostuming: Several viewers have pointed out the the clothes worn in 1919 consistently look far more Victorian than what would be expected for the post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarI era. [[RuleOfCool Rule Of]] CostumePorn, perhaps?
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: To Literature/SnowWhite, of course.
* MagicMirror: The Mirror itself, naturally.
* NewspaperDating: A variation. Jo shows Louisa a calendar to prove that she has travelled into the future.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Jo's interference in 1919 leads directly to the canister ending up in the well, [[StableTimeLoop which was exactly what she was trying to prevent in the first place.]] She has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment when she realises this.
* {{Novelization}}: Has one written by Hilary Bell, one of the show's writers. It's mostly faithful to the plot of the series, but has some minor differences (such as the descriptions of the Old Man's hair and the color of the horse Nicholas rides at one point).
* ParentsAsPeople: Jo's parents are portrayed like three-dimensional characters who have their own problems and are doing their best to deal with a situation they don't quite understand. [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] by Jo's father Andrew, when he says that she "doesn't believe in parental infallibility."
* PhraseCatcher: Many characters in 1919 point out that Jo has "[[BoyishShortHair hair like a boy.]]" [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that, as Louisa points out, it was pretty much only boys who had haircuts like that at the time.
* PortalToThePast: The mirror.
* PortalSlam: The mirror must be placed in exactly the same place at both ends in order to function properly (at one point, it has to be taken on a train). Also: [[spoiler:Nicholas can't go through unaided [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet because both he and his ring exist at both ends]], and the mirror itself vanishes (along with the store) once history is irrevocably altered.]]
* PotteryBarnPoor: Sir Ivor refers to the living conditions in New Zealand as uncivilised and savage, even though he and the Iredales are clearly living in comfortable, big, upper-class houses with several servants. [[IntendedAudienceReaction This is likely deliberate, to show his arrogance.]]
* TheReveal: Two of them. First we learn that [[spoiler: Nicholas is really Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, the last surviving child of Tsar Nicholas II]]. Then at the end we find out that [[spoiler: the Old Man is Nicholas' future self, manipulating time in an attempt at getting his throne back.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: It is never revealed how the Mirror came to be or how it can act as a portal. Even the Old Man admits that he has no idea why or how the mirror works, only that it does and how he can use it to his advantage.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Time travellers are immune to changes to the timeline when they are outside of their own time:
** After Jo's first trip back to 1919, the drum of toxic waste appears in the well in 1995. Jo is the only one who remembers it not having been there the previous day.
** Jo accidentally breaks off a piece of the mirror's frame with Titus' cricket ball in 1919. As far as Tama and Royce are concerned, the frame was always damaged. Jo tells them that they just think it was.
** In the final episode, [[spoiler:Nicholas uses the neutralising agent on the toxic waste in 1919, detoxifying it. This changes the timeline so that Mia and Jesse were never sick. Jo and Tama are the only people from 1995 to remember that they were sick in the first place as they were with Louisa and Nicholas in 1919 when history changed.]]
* SanDimasTime: Time passes at the same rate in both 1919 and 1995. Whenever someone travels back or forward in time, they are gone for the equivalent amount of time in the other era.
* ShoutOut:
** [[ThereAreNoCoincidences Appropriately enough]], Louisa just happens to have the book ''[[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Through the Looking-Glass]]'' in her bedroom.
** Creator/HGWells and Creator/JulesVerne - the former of which was still alive and working in 1919 - are both mentioned once or twice InUniverse.
** Jo quotes two of Maxwell Smart's best known {{Catchphrase}}s from ''Series/GetSmart'': "Good thinking, 99" and "Sorry about that, Chief."
* TemporalParadox: Tama and Jo insist on remaining in 1919 just to see [[spoiler:Nicholas pouring in the neutralizing agent, because if they didn't, they wouldn't have any memory of the experience]].
* TimeTravelRomance:
** Jo and Nicholas develop an attraction to each other soon after they meet. [[spoiler:Nicholas eventually settles permanently in 1995 and moves in with the Tiegans.]]
** Louisa and Tama are attracted to each other from the moment that they meet but they are eventually separated for good as they each remain in their respective eras. [[spoiler:In the final episode, it can be seen in Louisa's obituary that she named her son after Tama, indicating that she never forgot him.]]
* TimeTravelTenseTrouble:
** Louisa mentions how strange it feels to talk about things happening [[MeanwhileInTheFuture "right now"]] in past tense.
** At one point, Tama calls Sir Ivor "the worst gangster since UsefulNotes/AlCapone", only for Royce to point out that Ivor technically predates him.
* TimeyWimeyBall: [[spoiler:What propels the plot along.]]
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak While neither one of them]] [[GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak fit the mold exactly]], Jo and Louisa still clearly have this dynamic going on, further showing the differences between their time periods.
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** Several clues are given to Nicholas' true identity before TheReveal. [[IllBoy He's quite sickly,]] [[spoiler: as he's suffering from hemophilia.]] This is why he does everything to not let his anger get the better of him [[spoiler: as the Old Man.]] He also has a photo of a family [[spoiler: who historically savvy viewers will recognise as the Romanovs.]]

* MagicMirror: The Mirror iself, naturally.

''Mirror, Mirror'' is a 1995 Australian/NZ co-production about the goings-on in both 1919 and 1995, after they find out that they can access each other's timelines through an antique mirror.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: To Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs, of course.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The entire, 20 episode series takes place during a single week ([[MeanwhileInTheFuture or, if you want to be technical, two weeks seperated by the better part of a century]]) with a prologue set some time beforehand.

* CassandraTruth: The protagonists have a hard time convincing the adults of anything, whether it be the existence of TimeTravel or the villains EvilPlan.

--> "That's one of the great curiosities of history, isn't it? How events can be seemingly unrelated to one another and yet be somehow linked, parts of a greater scheme. A series of events, all flowing on streams into a river, converging towards one single and inevitable moment... somewhere in the future."

* DidAnastasiaSurvive: [[AvertedTrope Averted.]] The execution of the Romanovs is mentioned, but there's no indication that Anastasia survived. [[spoiler: Her brother, on the other hand...]]

* GambitRoulette: The old man uses an OmniscientMoralityLicense to carry out one of these. It turns out that [[spoiler:he's Nicholas]] but that doesn't matter because [[spoiler:it all comes apart at the last minute]].

* HollywoodCostuming: Several viewers have pointed out the the clothes worn in 1919 consistantly look far more victorian than what would be expected for the post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne era. [[RuleOfCool Rule Of]] CostumePorn, perhaps?

** Nicholas' guardian is the BigBad, and the Iredale tutor is an EvilTeacher who [[VillainTeamUp joins forces with him.]]

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: The final scene of the series has Jo, Tama and [[spoiler:Nicholas]] cheer for the fact that [[spoiler:Jade has been erased from existence due to the changes in history]].

* AdultsAreUseless: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged.]] The Old Man is the only one who has any clear idea of what the hell is going on [[spoiler:and even he makes a critical oversight]]. Only Louisa, Jo and her brother Royce can actually use the mirror properly, and most of the adults have their own reasons for not helping them.

* FeudingFamilies: The Tiegans and the Coigleys, of which every member seems to loath their counterpart in the other family (except for Royce, who doesn't have one.) Catherine and Leonie clearly hate each other, with the latter trying to get rid of the former. This rivalry is [[ObligatoryJoke mirrored]] by that of their daughters, Jo and Jade. Also, Catherine's husband Andrew has a (possibly one-sided) dislike of Leonie's husband Dennis.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Several clues are given to Nicholas' true identity before TheReveal. [[IllBoy He's quite sickly,]] [[spoiler: as he's suffering from hemophilia.]] This is why he does everything to not let his anger get the better of him [[spoiler: as the Old Man.]] He also has a photo of a family [[spoiler: who historically savvy viewers will recognise as the Romanovs.]]

* [[TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack The Girl In The Mirror Talks Back:]] With the twist that the "reflection" is a completely different person. [[spoiler: The Old Man speculates that they might share a soul, but this is never confirmed.]]

* {{Novelization}}: Has one written by Hilary Bell, one of the show's writers. It's mostly faithful to the plot of the series, but has some minor differences (such as the descriptions of the Old Man's hair and the color of the horse Nicholas rides at one point.)

* ShoutOut: [[ThereAreNoCoincidences Appropriately enough]], Louisa just happens to have the book ''[[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Through the Looking-Glass]]'' in her bedroom.

''Not'' to be confused with Gregory Maguire's DarkerAndEdgier [[Literature/MirrorMirror literary remake of Snow White]] of the same title, or with the [[Film/MirrorMirror 2012 film of the same name]].

* PotteryBarnPoor: Sir Ivor refers to the living conditions in New Zealand as uncivilised and savage, even though he and the Iredales are clearly living in comfortable, big, upper-class houses with, in the case of the latter, several servants. [[IntendedAudienceReaction This is likely deliberate, to show his arrogance.]]

* ShoutOut: [[ThereAreNoCoincidences Appropriately enough]], Louisa just happens to have the book ''[[AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Through the Looking-Glass]]'' in her bedroom.

[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[AwesomeMusic Far far away, on the egde of the world, you are lost out of place, out of time...]]'']]

* NewspaperDating: A variation. Jo shows Louisa a calender to prove that she has travelled into the future.

* {{Novelization}}: Has one written by Hilary Bell, one of the show's writers. It's mostly faithful to the plot of the series, but has some minor differences (such as the descriptions of the Old Man's hair and the color of the horse Nicholaus rides at one point.)

* PortalSlam: The mirror must be placed in exactly the same place at both ends in order to function properly (at one point, it has to be taken on a train. Also: [[spoiler:Nicholas can't go through unaided [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet because both he and his ring exist at both ends,]] and the mirror itself vanishes (along with the store) once history is irrevocably altered.]]

* TheReveal: Two of them. First we learn that [[spoiler: Nicholas is really Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, the last surviving child of Tsar Nicholas II.]] Then at the end we find out that [[spoiler: the Old Man is Nicholas' future self, manipulating time in an attempt at getting his throne back.]]

** At one point, Tama calls Sir Ivor "the worst gangster since UsefulNotes/AlCapone," only for Royce to point out that Ivor technically predates him.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak While neither one of them]] [[GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak fit the mold exactly,]] Jo and Louisa still clearly have this dynamic going on, further showing the differences between their time periods.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Several clues are given to Nicholas' true identity before TheReveal. [[IllBoy He's quite sickly,]] [[spoiler: as he's suffering from hemophilia.]] This is why he does everything to not let his ager get the better of him [[spoiler: as the Old Man.]] He also has a photo of a family [[spoiler: who historically savvy viewers will recognise as the Romanovs.]]
** If the Old Man's theory that [[spoiler: Jo is a reincarnation of Louisa]] is correct, then it's ''very'' appropiate that [[spoiler: they meet each other through a ''mirror.'']]

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The entire, 20 episode series takes place during a single week ([[MeanwhileInTheFuture or, if you want to be technical, two weeks seperated by the better part of a century]]) with a prolouge set some time beforehand.

* [[TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack The Girl In The Mirror Talks Back:]] With the twist that the "reflection" is a completely different person.