UNCUT - Shattered Mirror (DS9 S4E20) | Star Trek Journey 410
Comments (63)
With long ass seasons back then, I appreciate the mirror episodes for a change of pace. Better than many other fillers for me. In a modern show, these would mostly be a waste of time.
The first mirror episode or two were popular, so they kept doing them, but every one after the first is a step down, and they start getting too crazy and silly.
Bro, they don’t look anything alike. Jennifer’s way hotter.
imo best mirror universe episode, but these guys just hate the mirror universe. I guess I'm a little different as TOS has never been a high bar for me (I know some may dislike that opinion) so I'm not wanting them to chase the OG mirror universe episode feel at all really. I really enjoy seeing our characters doing different roles/version and the connected stories of Terrans trying to fight for their freedom.
To let Alex off the hook a bit, I thought it was Captain Yates too for a second, and wondered why Jake looked so shocked. We haven't seen her for a while, I'm like a baby, no object permanence, not that I'm saying she's an object, dig dig dig.
It's wild that they buried a strong Jake and Sisko bonding moment in a dang mirror mirror episode.
Also something else that just occurred to me. Kira and O'Brien got turned back, presumably because the interdimensional transporter module was programmed to do so. But if the goal is to get the mirror Defiant up and running, O'Brien should 100% have been brought over. Sisko might have helped design the Defiant, but the Chief is the one who made it operational.
I'd say this is the second best of DS9's MU eps. A lot of that is down to what they did with Jennifer and Jake here. Whatever else happened in the episode, seeing Ben(reluctantly) and Jake(enthusiastically) get attached to this alternate version of Jennifer, and then have to go through losing her again, it's enough to elevate this to a low B for me. Sisko's "let's go home" at the end gives me similar vibes to Kirk's "let's get the Hell out of here" in City on the Edge. Not quite the same but both wanting to get away from a place they just experienced a deep trauma in. The Intendant and MU Garak were fun as always, and the Regent was fine. I think there are actually Mirror Universe TNG books which portray part of the Terran Empire as having survived, but being on the back foot against the klingons and cardassians. Haven't read them, but I love the artwork of the MU TNG crew. One of the big issues with what DS9 did with the MU was that in TOS, the humans/terrans seemed to be this comically evil version of humanity from the prime universe, and the aliens seemed to be mostly the same or just going along to get along. On DS9 it's flipped. The Terran versions of our characters seem fundamentally similar but just shaped and hardened by a terrible existence, while the aliens became the over the top villains. Smiley is basically the Chief, just a bit rougher around the edges. Jennifer, for all the times they tell us she's different, really doesn't seem very different at all from the little we saw of prime Jennifer. While I appreciate what they did with her here, it kind of defeats the purpose of doing a MU episode. The Intendant is the only one that really embraces the cartoonishly evil vibes from Mirror, Mirror.
The character beats with Jennifer were legitimately better than I remembered, but the connective tissue of the mirror universe eps are still just kinda nothing. I was pretty impressive with how hard they tried in the space battle in this episode, though. Pretty ambitious!
one of my favorite episode its important to understand not every episode is for everyone most 10/10 episodes for you are boring to me
Huh. I watched this on the anniversary of my Dad's death... wierd feeling. Anyway, I'm glad this episode did what "Looking Glass" didn't, used the MU Jennifer for some emotional character beats.
The can opening... hilarious
I agree this episode is good but I feel the mirror universe has worn out its welcome at this point. And it does seem dump that no intruder alert sirens or even just odo doesn’t know when people from the other side are coming aboard, especially at all the attention giving to the dominion. So yeah not a huge fan of these episodes. I do understand why sisko stayed and fought thou, and I loved the Garak /worf interplay
“Give us Intendant Kira with someone on a leash!” It’s true, the thing that could have made me not check out for this episode was more Intendant Kira. At least “Through the Looking Glass” had those scenes in her boudoir. That alone was enough to make it a superior episode.
Better than the last mirror episode, but not by much. Seems like they can just visit each other from other universes whenever they want. Nice seeing Worf in the mirror universe. Overall: B- rating.
The mirror Klingons seem to be unchanged. I was expecting them to have flowers in their hair...
Its kind of funny how those writers thought they had a real winner with these MU episodes
This was... some kind of Episode.
Won't anyone think of the children??? More to the point, Jake. Poor guy. Lost his mother twice. Having lost my mother, I can only imagine seeing someone just like her (or basically her). How mind blowing it would be. Then to watch her die. I would not handle it well. And I feel bad for Mirror Jennifer; she gets to see a kid she will never have. Because Jake is such a good guy, its gotta mess with her, too.
I just got here and it's obvious they CRAPPED ON THIS EPISODE just according to the comments. 🤣😅 It's official. These guys hate The Mirror Universe episodes apparently for whatever reason. 😅🤣 That's cool. I'm gonna go ahead and watch the rest of the episode. Remember I just got here and saw the comments. 🤣
Laugh too much and you'll pull an oblique
Totally disagree with most of the takes, I def think you judge it to harshly because it’s a mirror episodes, the space battle was great & good character stuff for Jake & Cisko, a mirror Worf & the intendant fun as always - def the best mirror universe episode - solid A
I think the problem with this one is there isn’t a whole lot going on until the end. And while the action sequences were well done for mid 90s tv, they haven’t aged as well as Wrath of Khan or BoBW, or even way of the Warrior because so much of it leans on cheap 90s CG and those other examples having stakes I cared about.
Oof, harsh room on this one. Sometimes it's nice to have a fun, light little distraction like this, especially after such a heavy preceding episode. No masterpiece here, but I had fun with this one. Some touching Sisko/Jake moments, fun mirror interactions, and a super fun comic book style space battle sequence. With 26 episodes every season, there's room for flights of fancy like this.
They are incapable of just having fun with DS9. I think they've got this weird thing where if a lot of people say they like something, then they instantly put their defenses up? I mean now we have to listen to bitching about Jeffrey Combs.
I don’t vibe much with these episodes, but I found them infinitely more enjoyable when there was a calendar year between them during the real airing. The streaming era is the enemy of gimmick episodes.
A simple thank you for making my day more fun with enjoyable entertainment.
Shattered Mirror? More like Shitty Gimmick
I do enjoy how horrible everyone’s wigs are... but I was as bored as you guys. I just don't care about the Mirror Universe.
C'mon...Dax's hair looked pretty good.
You know Jennifer’s performance in this episode is a million times better than the other two times we saw her.
I swear, the final scene between Garak and Regent Worf, totally reminds me of scenes featuring Starscream and Megatron. Their whole dynamic, really...
Well its official...you guys are emotionally Barron
The one thing I do appreciate about this episode is that it laughs at its own silliness. “We’ve got plenty of captains…” 😂 “I’m trying…” 😂 “Make it so!” 😂😂
Oh I know it's shallow but I came for the story but I stayed for the PEW PEW PEW! I just love that scene with the Defiant and the Klingon ship. I must have watched it 100's of times. Sometimes you want heart, sometimes you want character and sometimes you just want special effects. PEW!
DS9 sex scoreboard We got some scoring but of course we did it is the mirror on the ceiling universe. The sex score board Jadzia 5 Quark 5 Bashir 4 Sisko 3 Kira 3 Morn 3 Worf 2 Jake 2 Chief 1 Odo 1 Keiko 1 GUEST: Mirror Kira 5 +1 Mirror Jadzia 2 +1 new Mirror Nog +2 new Mirror Garak +1 new Mirror Bashir +1 new Mirror Jenifer 0 Mirror Worf 0 Mirror Smiley 0 DETAILS: We had to revise an earlier miss. M Garak and M Kira has been confirmed but not counted. Dax bashed Bashir, well at least in the mirror. M Nog does the double dabo
Did we count mirror Dax and Sisko encounter? Lol
Unfortunate that you don't appreciate the mirror universe shows like a lot of us do. I remember always being very excited when a mirror universe show showed up. It was a chance for the actors to do something a little different and break character and just chew scenes.. I understand they weren't great quality, but they were always a good fun hour of Trek to me.
I think Smiley was referring to the last Mirror Universe episode, when he came to the station to kidnap Sisko. There wasn't a visit by him to our universe that we didn't see.
I remember Ira saying at some point that, based on feedback (don't know where from), the mirror universe episodes were thought to be some of the most popular so they felt compelled to keep an arc going. Surprised me then, puzzles me now. I'd have been fine with that being a one-time story in TOS and never used again. Unfortunately, they ultimately just overused and abused it (IMO).
I got the impression that The Nagus and Crossover were so well-received that they kind of spawned their own subgenres of DS9, for better or worse.
The wooden spoon for the season has to go to either this episode or Accession IMO
Sons of Mogh? The Muse?
"What do you mean that''s his mom?" "She's the woman that gave birth to him." LOL!
Mike drop
Each time I revisit the mirror episodes, the less I care about them, but in the past I always had fun with them. Now, it's just very feint positive feelings, but otherwise the lack of stakes is more on my mind, and I'm mostly checked out beyond the 'novelty fun' of it all, but it hurts that these plots in retrospect are often thin.
Dammit, now all I can think about is how we've all missed out on Quark and Rom's Great Skydiving Adventure.
I would have folded like laundry.
As a Canadian... he really should be SKILOMETERS MacBryan instead of Miles/Smiley O'Brien. Just sayin', -Fellow Capt'in
Yeah the mirror episodes are not usually my thing, this one wasn't too bad I just care about our own universe more so.
When I first saw this episode I liked it but I did feel by now they were beating a dead horse.
Honestly better than I remembered, but still a slog. The mirror universe worked best before DS9 really got its edge. Once we have brutal episodes like Hard Time in our universe, what's the mirror universe going to do for us?
It is what it always was. Some like the „special“ episodes. Some don‘t. Q, Lwaxana, Mirror universe, Emissary, Ferengi. Whatever. For my part I don‘t get that. I treat them all like „regular“ episodes. If one is great, it‘s great. If it‘s not, it‘s not. This one is better than the last one. Both are worse than Crossover. Nothing more, nothing less.
I agree. I think they get labeled as such because these things you mentioned tend to occur once per season. (on average, I mean! There's exceptions), so in viewers minds, they become "the mirror episode", "the Lwaxana episode", etc. I have been guilty of using these phrases as well, although I know it's kinda silly.
Mirror episodes are frustrating
Bashirs over acting 😭
Lol seeing Mirror Universe Kira makes my beard grow, too
Bit of irony in Alex wanting to see Worf in an earlier DS9 Mirror Universe episode, as Worf was actually supposed to be in Crossover, but Dorn was too busy filming All Good Things to do it. Mirror Worf's role and lines in the Crossover script were given to Mirror Garak instead.
I didn't know that, that makes so much sense why Mirror Garak was so non-Garaky
This is actually my favorite "mirror" episode. There's so much to like about it. I do notice Alex doesn't like media where characters have trauma, or behave in wrong ways he disagrees with. Sometimes that's the point, though. I just feel he gets uncomfortable easily which is valid. Personally I like Angst. I also do not agree that there needs to be "stakes" to be enjoyable. I'm not saying the "mirror" episodes are my favorite. They're not at all. But this is a great one IMO. And yas! Mirror Worf was GOATed! For a mirror episode? S Overall DS9 grade? Solid B
Best part of mirror universe is changing into the Terrans uniforms and trying to not get caught and act extra evil while twirling your mustache. Making the humans a slave race because Spock reformed the empire? What a weird choice.
Oh hell yeah, stopped me from random youtube vids
The thumbnail being the boys popping for Nog is the most on brand shit i've ever seen. I love it.