As the Trope Maker the Star Trek franchise is full of examples:
Examples:
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Comic Books
- The IDW comic story "Mirrored" gives us the Mirror Universe of the Kelvin Timeline Universe. As Captain Spock vanquishes the Klingons in the name of the Terran Empire, Commander Kirk vists Rura Penthe to get revenge on Nero (who in this universe never escaped, and has been there since the attack on the Kelvin). Then Kirk ends up with control of the Narada, and things get worse.
- "Succession" deals with what happened in the mirror universe following season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery and what became of the Terran Michael Burnham.
- More recently, IDW has reimagined Dark Mirror by introducing a new iteration of the ISS Enterprise-D, whose make incursions into the prime universe in their attempts to raise the Terran Empire's fortunes in their conflict against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. A prequel shows young Jean-Luc Picard aboard the ISS Stargazer. A spin-off features the ISS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, coming into conflict with Neelix and Kes whilst discovering an unassimilated Annika Hansen, whose references to the Borg pique Captain Janeway's interest, leading to her appearance in Star Trek: Online.
- The one-shot "Hell's Mirror" depicts the confrontation between the heroic Khan Noonien Singh and the crazed Captain Kirk.
Literature
- The Star Trek: The Next Generation novel "Dark Mirror" explores a Mirror Universe where the Terran Empire, or the United Empire of Planets as its called here, survives well into the 24th century after Spock's efforts to reform the Empire fail. By the 2360s the Empire is running out of space to conquer and makes an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the prime universe. note
- Star Trek Shatnerverse novels explain that the Klingon-Cardassian alliance was the brainchild of former Emperor Kirk as a means of taking revenge on Spock for deposing him from the throne and to regain the Terran Empire's throne for himself. This was mainly due to Mirror Spock deciding not to kill Kirk after his return. Spock did manage to save the Halkans by claiming they were a client state of the Klingons and that attacking them could lead to a war with the Klingons that the Empire didn't want at the time. This resulted in Kirk getting a commendation for seeing through the Halkan trap.
- In the Star Trek Novel 'Verse novels set in the Mirror Universe established that Spock was unable to convince Kirk to spare the Halkans and got in a fight with the man. Spock killed Kirk and then disposed of Kirk's body with the Tantalus Field. After Spock's opponents accquired the same habit of disappearing that Kirk's opponents used to have, dissent died down on the ISS Enterprise. Gathering power and influence, Spock rose to command the Empire, which he soon disestablished in favor of the Terran Republic, but the Klingons and Cardassians still wanted revenge for the Empire's acts. Spock died on Earth in the novel verse, but his followers were able to engineer a rebellion that would in time liberate Earth and its allies from the Klingons and Cardassians.
- The Star Trek novels continue the Mirror Universe after season seven of Deep Space Nine, showing us how the Terran Rebellion is becoming more of a social revolution, as well as giving us perspectives on Mirror Spock's rise to power as Emperor after the initial episode "Mirror, Mirror", Empress Sato's putting down of the rebellion during the Enterprise era, and how Picard stopped being a slave and became a Terran Rebellion leader during the TNG era. The MU gets a happy ending: As the mirror DS9 gang kicked much booty with their version of the Defiant, somebody got their hands on the Enterprise-E's specs. The tide of the war is turned, this time by genuinely good guys and not an equally-brutal faction that the existing bad guys were keeping down. And now, the rebellion is victorious, and with the war over, they've got this nice shiny awesome spaceship that's no longer needed for battle. The Enterprise will now be used for exploration under the command of a rebel named Picard.
- Also, the Expanded Universe does show us more than one version of the Mirror Universe, though whether it's intentional or simply the Trek EU not being having nearly as tight continuity as the Star Wars one is unknown. "Dark Passions" is quite incompatible with the Shatnerverse version, for example. Also, one book written well after DS9 features several alternate universes, including one featuring the ISS Enterprise-E of the Terran Empire, which doesn't work with the DS9 incarnation of the MU, so that one is clearly deliberately alternate from the beginning.
- It also explores how long the unique mindset of the Terran Empire has been around. In Dark Mirror, Picard reads that universe's version of The Merchant of Venice, which has Portia saying "The quality of mercy must be earned", and pointing how it's silly to expect a pound of flesh not to have blood too, allowing Shylock to get his revenge. Picard sees The Bible and refuses to read it.
Live-Action TV
- The Star Trek Mirror Universe started out (in the Star Trek: The Original Series that introduced it) as identical to the main universe, except for the moral inversion between the Federation characters and their evil Terran Empire counterparts. When the Mirror Universe was revisited in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the correspondences were less straightforward — the Empire had been overthrown by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, humans were downtrodden slaves, and the station was run by Kira's evil counterpart.
- And was actually an Unbuilt Trope in its first appearance. Even though his mirror counterpart had a Beard of Evil, Spock was, as the show put it, "A man of honor in both universes", and not strictly evil in the mirror universe despite clearly being on the side of the angels in the primary reality. Further, the Aliens Of The Week were Actual Pacifists in both the 'normal' universe and in the Mirror Universe.
- There were several non-canonical sources made between before DS9 that explored the Mirror Universe. As the setting wasn't as well defined as it was later by DS9 some continuity elements may shock some readers. For example the term "Terran" wasn't coined until DS9, thus the works refer to the Empire (which was nameless in the original "Mirror, Mirror" episode) as the United Empire of Planets (for example in the TNG novel Dark Universe, in which the Empire is still pretty much fine in the 24th century) and in some countinuities as the Human-Vulcan Empire with Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites having more equal footing in the Empire than was shown in Enterprise. However this might explained why Vulcans shared the punishment and were turn into slaves by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance.
- Certain other aspects of characters are flipped in the mirror universe as well. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Bashir is a stupid and brutish thug (most likely due to never having been genetically altered), Odo is a sadistic slave overseer, Jadzia is a Psycho Knife Nut who is mirror Sisko's lover, mirror Sisko (while a good guy) has very little in the way of restrained self-control, and mirror Ezri and Leeta (while also not villains, though also not squeaky-clean) are both lesbians. Brunt of all people becomes a Nice Guy. Things get ridiculous when an entirely fictional holodeck character appears as a real person, (perhaps his mirror creator makes androids instead of holodeck characters?) whereupon everyone gives up trying to make sense of things.
- When the prequel series Enterprise revisited it in "In A Mirror Darkly," it also completely changed its opening credits' entire mood from "Idealistic Yet Not Naive Hope" to "War! Conquest! Exploding Slow Lasers!" Moreover, since almost everyone except maybe the Vulcans is shown to be evil in one way or another, the ending in which The Bad Guy Wins doesn't really come as a surprise. What does come as something of a twist is it's the bad gal who wins, and then promptly proclaims herself Empress.
- In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Parallels", Worf is stuck traveling between different realities in which there are mostly only minor differences. The only semi-villainous alternate main character was a Riker from a timeline in which the Borg had assimilated much of the galaxy, who fired on Worf's shuttle, desperate to avoid returning to his native universe. He does sport a much more wild and unkempt beard than our Riker, but it is clearly a Beard of Sorrow rather than a Beard of Evil.
- The episode "Parallels" does show one Mirror Universe from the Bajorans perspective, as in one is them who are the enemies of the Federation (not the Cardassians) and who actually conquest Cardassia and not the other way around.
- "Living Witness" opened with what appeared to be a mirror universe setting, with a vicious Janeway threatening a planet to get resources. It turned out to be an inaccurate historical record written by this civilization some time in the future, based on an incident with Voyager several hundred years ago. The holographic doctor's backup unit is later activated and sets the record straight. Those familiar with Deep Space 9's episodes likely knew it wasn't the case, those who hadn't been watching...
- Discovery revisits the Mirror Universe, when the spore drive malfunctions and sends the ship there. The crew manage to get their hands on a rebel database, allowing them to brush up on this world's history. They realize that their only way back is to find the USS Defiant that ended up there in ENT. We're also shown a glimpse of Captain Sylvia Tilly of that universe, who is as bloodthirsty and vicious as the original Mirror!Kirk. Burnham's double is, apparently, not much better. On the other hand, the double of the morally-ambiguous Lorca is a good guy, who attempted to rise up against the Emperor. Until we found out Lorca that we know is actually the same mirror universe Lorca, and the entire happenings during the first half of season 1 is orchestrated by him
- We are also introduced to the one biological difference between a Mirror Universe Terran and Prime Universe human: sensitivity to light. This is how Michael recognizes that the Lorca she serves under is actually from the Mirror Universe. And it retroactively explains why Mirror Universe ships had poorer lighting.
- We also meet the reigning emperor of the Terran Empire - Phillipa Georgiou, who is as different from Captain Phillipa Georgiou as day from night. When she ends up in the Prime universe, courtesy of Burnham, the first thing she does is nearly shoot Commander Saru for not immediately bowing down to her, as befits a proper slave (he's an alien, therefore a slave in her universe). She then convinces Starfleet to allow her to destroy Qo'noS, just like she did in the Mirror Universe, in order to force an end to the war.
- This arc does explore some implications that are ignored in the other shows. Given that the Mirror counterparts are bloodthirsty and evil, killing each other any chance they get, and crossovers have been happening for centuries, it starts to stretch credibility that nearly everyone has a living counterpart as well as a somewhat similar background (Kirk is still captain of the Enterprise, O'Brien is still an engineer at Deep Space Nine, etc). Michael discusses with several individuals the oddity of how similar yet different their background remained, and implied some sort of cosmic element keeping the two universes connected.
- The third season of Discovery reveals that the Starfleet of the fourth millennium has figured out how to scan for the specific genetic differences between humans and Terrans in order to catch any "visitors" from the other universe. Furthermore, they claim to have isolated a protein chain that supposedly makes Terrans evil. Georgiou brushes off their claims as overly simplistic. It's also revealed that the two universes have moved apart, and there haven't been any visitors in 500 years. Going back in time through the Guardian of Forever, Georgiou influences an alternate version of the mirror universe she lived through in season 1.
- Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard introduces a different Mirror Universe, which is actually the regular timeline, altered by Q changing the past. In this one, the dominant power is the Confederation of Earth rather than the Terran Empire, but it has much the same policies, only it seems to be more efficient because it's a more Lawful and less Chaotic evil. Picard is a ruthless general who collects the skulls of his enemies, Rios is a colonel fighting against the Vulcans, Seven is the President, with Agnes as her chief scientist and Raffi as her head of security, and Elnor is a Romulan freedom fighter. If anything, this is more chilling than the regular Mirror Universe, because while it's usually presented as having always been like that, this universe is specifically the result of something that happened as recently as 2024. The Confederation of Earth is in many ways similar to the Mirror Universe's Terran Empire. Both are xenophobic to the extreme, but the Empire focuses on enslavement, while the Confederation prefers to exterminate aliens. There also seems to be a lot less backstabbing in the Confederation, with loyalty to humanity being paramount. An interesting difference is that the Confederation Star Corps seems to use army ranks instead of navy ranks, so we have General Picard and Colonel Rios. This version of Picard is a ruthless conqueror, slayer of many aliens, including General Martok, Gul Dukat, and Sarek. Also, while the Empire was always on the verge of rebellion from the aliens, the Confederation seems to be a lot more successful in stamping out dissent and is even more successful militarily, having managed to defeat the Borg.
Video Games
- Star Trek Shattered Universe has Captain Sulu and the USS Excelsior drawn into the mirror universe, where they are confronted by Captain Chekov of the USS Enterprise-A.
- The Ultimate Universe mod for Star Trek: Legacy includes a bunch of Terran Empire equivalents of Federation ships from the ENT, TOS and TNG eras.
- The video game Star Trek Online revisited the Mirror Universe. Unlike other Expanded Universe entries, this Terran Empire went right back to being tyrants after liberating themselves from the Klingon Alliance. Prior to the Season 11 update, the emperor was James O'Brien, son of "Smiley" O'Brien, who attempted to alter the Bajoran Wormhole to initiate a full-scale invasion of the Prime universe. Season 11 changed this so that the empire was now ruled by an unidentified emperor with strange powers, with the main threat on the Prime side being the mirror universe Leeta, who as an admiral fought and won their own Iconian War via weaponry from the future and now seeks to invade our world as a staging ground for a bid to the throne.
- The "Mirror of Discovery" arc introduces the Discovery-era Terrans including Captain Tilly.
- The emperor is eventually identified as Wesley Crusher, though they relinquish the position after the Terran Gambit arc, replaced by Leeta with Marshal Janeway and her borg armies at their side. As mentioned above, this arc draws on concepts from the IDW comics.
- As part of the Terran Gambit arc, the player does finally get to see, play as, and eventually meet their own Mirror Universe counterpart, known as The Inquisitor
. They have the player character's build and face, but they wear a Terran uniform and have an artificial voice box on their throat. Earlier missions had a character state that she had killed the player's mirror counterpart, but these new missions retcon it into her merely trying to kill them and falling (instead ruining their vocal cords, requiring the voice box). The devs say she was lying (which is entirely in-character for her). - As part of all this, the player can acquire and fly Mirror Universe vessels. The Tier 5 Mirror ships found in lockboxes are nearly identical to their main-universe counterparts with only minor differences in console configuration and bridge crew seating, while the Tier 6 Terran ships found in the Zen store are entirely new ships not seen before (there are no Tier 6 Mirror Universe Klingon or Romulan ships yet).
Web Originals
- Star Trek Continues: The episode "Fairest of Them All" is a direct continuation of the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror" which deals with the immediate aftermath of the episode. Unable to prevent Kirk from destroying the Halkan homeworld, Spock leads a mutiny against Kirk and most of the crew takes Spock's side after Kirk says what he really thinks of the Enterprise crew in a room where Spock had turned on the intercom. Spock gives Kirk and his few loyalists a shuttlecraft so they can reach the nearest habitable world.
Western Animation
- Star Trek: Lower Decks shows Mariner going into a holo-deck simulation of the Mirror Universe which she calls it by that name. The simulation however shows the Terran Empire which by that time was already defeated.
