4-20. Shattered Mirror.

Mirror Garak ingratiates himself with Regent Worf.

THE PLOT

Sisko receives an extremely welcome visitor from the Mirror Universe: Jennifer (Felecia M. Bell), that universe's version of his late wife. Jennifer fills him in on a recent victory the Terrans scored over the Alliance of Klingons, Bajorans, and Cardassians. The humans have taken control of Terok Nor, their equivalent to Deep Space 9. But this isn't purely a social call, and when Sisko is called away for a meeting, Jennifer takes Jake to her universe - leaving a transport device behind as an invitation to Sisko.

The captain accepts, grimly determined to recover his son. Jennifer and "Smiley" O'Brien greet him with a deal: His help in exchange for Jake. O'Brien downloaded the schematics for the Defiant during his brief visit to Sisko's universe, but he can't quite make the ship work. The very problem Sisko overcame with the ship's power being too much for her hull is presenting itself here. They need Sisko to solve this problem within four days. 

If he can't get the ship online by then, Regent Worf will arrive with his Alliance battle fleet to retake the station. And if that happens, the Terrans promise, then Sisko and Jake will be taken right along with the rest of them!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: Fiercely devoted to his son's welfare, and looks ready to tear "Smiley O'Brien" and Jennifer apart with his bare hands when he arrives at Terok Nor. But he is quickly talked down when shown that Jake is well and, in fact, enjoying himself. He is up to the challenge of getting the Defiant into shape, and he is not as immune to Jennifer's appearance as he pretends to be. He surprises himself when he insists on commanding Defiant in the final combat, something which was not part of the arrangement. Avery Brooks is on fine form, and he and "Smiley" make as engaging a team here as they did in Through the Looking Glass.

Kira, The Intendant: Nana Visitor's silky, sexually predatory Intendant remains hypnotic any time she's on screen. This episode plays her almost as a Hannibal Lecter figure. Captured by the rebels, she shows no hint of being cowed by them. She laughs at them as if they were a collective joke. She barters with Sisko for information that will help in the coming battle - All the while plotting to further her own agenda. This is the most powerless we've seen her to date, and yet she is still the most formidable of the villains here. By some distance.

Jake: Is captivated by Jennifer, marveling at just how much she is like the mother he remembers. His absolute love and faith may well push Jennifer to be more and better than she would have been in other circumstances. Mostly, Jake acts as an observer, the one person here who has not seen the Mirror Universe before. He is overjoyed to see not only his mother again, but also Nog - though in the latter case, he's in for a rude awakening as to how starkly different Mirror Nog is from his much-missed best friend.

Worf: Mirror universe Worf actually has much of what our Worf always wanted. He is a pure Klingon, commanding his own ship and his own Klingon crew. He not only keeps Garak prisoner for his failure to defend Terok Nor, he actually keeps him on a chain leash, yanking the leash any time Garak says something that displeases him. He has all the Klingon bloodlust, with none of our Worf's restraint. He commands with an iron fist, and even barks out, "Make it so!" in a fun TNG reference. Michael Dorn seems to be having a grand time playing a near-operatic villain, even if Mirror Worf isn't even close to being as formidable as the Intendant.

Hot Parallel Space Babe of the Week: Felecia Bell returns as Jennifer Sisko... and has apparently taken some acting lessons. She's still noticeably weaker than Avery Brooks or Colm Meaney (or even Cirroc Lofton, for that matter), but she does acquit herself with a reasonable performance that's on par with what you'd expect of a Trek guest actress. It goes without saying that she bonds completely with Jake, and in an effective emotional scene she tells Sisko how hard it is for her to be with the boy. "My Ben Sisko is dead. I look at Jake and all I see is the son that I'll never have."

Garak: Mirror Garak has, in previous episodes, been portrayed as a purely ruthless and dangerous opponent. This episode brings his characterization more into line with the normal Garak - which is a good thing, since his silver tongue and healthy sense of self-preservation are far more entertaining to watch. One of Deep Space 9's strengths is its willingness to create new character pairs. This episode pairs Garak and Worf, to enormously good effect. Their scenes together are darkly hilarious, and I hope to see them revisited in future Mirror Universe installments. 


THOUGHTS

Deep Space 9 makes its annual visit to the mirror universe, and delivers another hugely enjoyable piece.  Shattered Mirror is a direct sequel to Through the Looking Glass, and it's a good one. It carries that episode's plot forward, moving the Terran/Alliance conflict forward. The sense of momentum is raised even higher than it was in last year's episode, with a rousing battle scene at the climax.

This is a Sisko-heavy episode, and Avery Brooks delivers as expected. Still, reflecting the strengths of the core series, it is also an excellent ensemble piece. There's something here for all of our regulars. Mirror Julian, who was a one-dimensional sneer in Through the Looking Glass, is developed into an effective action man - which is achieved without compromising on the unpleasantness we saw in the previous episode. He's still belligerent and possibly a sadist, but he is also clever and courageous, justifying his (possibly self-bestowed) rank of "captain." He clearly enjoys the loyalty of Mirror Dax, who insists on accompanying him on a possible suicide mission and threatens Sisko with a knife if he ever dares touch her again.

The episode has virtually no dead space, and its 45 minutes breeze by so quickly that it's actually disappointing to see the end credits arrive. The annual Mirror-verse episode had the potential to become a tiresome gimmick, but Deep Space 9 has applied the same sensibilities to the parallel universe that it applies to the core universe. Each episode has stood alone, with its own strong narrative. At the same time, each episode has moved the mirror universe forward.

What Deep Space 9 has done with its mirror episodes is to create an entertaining, even compelling arc. It's impressive stuff, and I look forward to the next mirror episode advancing that even further.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Hard Time
Next Episode: The Muse


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3-19. Through the Looking Glass.

The Intendant prepares to strike
against the Terran rebels.

THE PLOT

Sisko is in Ops when Chief O'Brien approaches, asking to speak with him privately. When Sisko turns away, O'Brien pulls a phaser on him and orders him to the transporter. They beam out, onto a waiting ship - and into another universe!

Sisko quickly realizes that this isn't his O'Brien, and that he has been taken to the mirror universe Kira and Bashir had visited a year earlier. Events have progressed, with the mirror Sisko and O'Brien leading a full-blown rebellion against the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance. But the mirror Sisko is dead, leaving a critical mission incomplete: a rendezvous with a human scientist working on a project that will doom the rebellion.

Unless Sisko agrees to finish his counterpart's mission, the rebels will have no choice but to kill that human to stop the project from being completed. The catch? The scientist is Jennifer Sisko (Felecia M. Bell), Benjamin's wife!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Avery Brooks, who has sat on the sidelines of the last few episodes, gets the spotlight here. He gives an excellent performance, showing how his Sisko is different from (better than) the mirror one as he outthinks his opponents where his counterpart would simply have tried to outfight them. He throws himself into the scenes in which Sisko pretends to be his mirror self, clearly enjoying the chance to carouse with Dax and Kira and punch out Bashir. As in The Maquis and Past Tense, the role of thinking man's action hero suits Brooks - something I'm hoping the writers have noticed.

Kira, The Intendant: Basically a repeat of her performance in Crossover. She's highly sexual and completely ruthless. She acts on whims more than plans, much to Garak's frustration when a whim leads her to keep Sisko alive for at least a little while longer. She does have strong instincts, though, and knows that Sisko's threat at the episode's end is no bluff.  Nana Visitor remains terrific as The Intendant, neatly stealing pretty much every scene she's in.

O'Brien: His mirror universe counterpart is very much the same man that our O'Brien is. This episode partners him with Sisko for almost the entire running time. Avery Brooks and Colm Meaney play splendidly opposite each other, O'Brien's solidity providing Sisko with a reliable anchor.

Dr. Bashir: Siddig has about as much fun with mirror Bashir as Brooks has with Sisko. Dirty and disheveled, he looks and sounds like an old movie pirate as he stirs up dissension within the rebel ranks. He practically spits his dialogue as he argues against Sisko. I'm actually sorry his role is so small - More mirror Bashir would be enormously entertaining.

Dax: In the mirror universe, she is Sisko's mistress. Mirror Dax is a lot more focused on self-interest and self-preservation than our Dax. Like our Dax, she is very loyal to Sisko. Though she wants to leave with him, she accepts his decision to stay with the rebels. She backs him up when Bashir speaks against his plans, ready to use deadly force to halt any arguments. On a shallower note, Terry Farrell joins in the mirror universe tradition of having her darker counterpart be sexier than her already very appealing normal Dax.

Garak: Mirror Garak continues to be what our Garak probably was before his disgrace. He is formidable and shrewd, and has no qualms about using torture and murder to achieve his ends. His desire to topple The Intendant and take over her position, detailed in Crossover, gets no mention here. Then again, I'm not sure there would have been room for it in the already packed plot. If there's a third mirror universe DS9 episode, though, I'd love to see this dark Garak's machinations come to the fore.

Tuvok: The mirror universe provides the franchise with a way to cross the two active Trek series by having a mirror Tuvok as part of Sisko's rebellion. Despite his prominent billing, he is only in the episode briefly. Disappointingly, neither his characerization nor his performance are even a little bit different than on Voyager. Mirror Tuvok is the exact same man as our Tuvok, which makes his minor role entirely uninteresting.


THOUGHTS

Crossover was one of the best episodes of Season Two, and one of the best-received. Making a sequel to it was probably a no-brainer for the production staff. The challenge was to produce an episode that worked both as a sequel and as interesting episode on its own.

Simply doing "more of the same" would not have worked. Having been to the mirror universe once, we already know how different the characters are in their world than in ours. That episode was breathtaking because it took the DS9 audience and two of its regulars on a tour of a vision of hell, with the demons wearing the faces of people we already know. It was dark and surprisingly disturbing, with a distorted and surreal feel to it.

But having given us that tour, we know the DS9 mirror universe. An effective return would have to marry the inherent interest value of the mirror universe to a strong plot.

Through the Looking Glass achieves this quite brilliantly. Writers Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe have built on what was established in the earlier episode, and used those trappings to construct a rescue plot that is tightly-paced and genuinely clever. Just enough information is held back to keep things tense and exciting, without allowing it to become confusing. The mirror universe backstory has clearly been well planned out, and everything slots perfectly into place. It's a stunningly well-structured script, one whose momentum never lets up.

In the margins, there is still time to have some fun with the mirror characters. Mirror Rom is more outspoken than our Rom, giving Max Grodenchik a couple of excellent scenes. Mirror Dax and Mirror Bashir are a lot of fun. The rebel encampment may just be the umpteenth redressing of the Star Trek cave set, but at least it's well used, and director Kolbe keeps the lighting adjusted to maintain a dramatic atmosphere throughout.

Unfortunately, while she's not as awful here as she was in Emissary, there's not much getting around Felecia M. Bell's acting limitations. Given how critical Jennifer's role is to the episode, her wooden performance does sound an "off" note, particularly as the episode builds to its climax. Still, save for Bell, this is a wonderfully entertaining episode: Well-made, wonderfully-acted, and scripted with an eye toward pace and structure. Terrific fun.


Overall Rating: 9/10

Previous Episode: Distant Voices

Next Episode: Improbable Cause

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