Mirror Mirror On The Wall

[alex_antonin]

I was watching the Star Trek TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror" the other day. But earlier something occurred to me: how do we know a mirror universe of ours would be dark? Maybe *our* universe is the dark one? I mean, I look around at the world and the shape it's in, how people behave, and if we're not the dark mirror universe, I would really hate to see a place darker than this one.

Comments

[consortofvenus.livejournal.com]

The Trek mirror universe, particularly the DS9 one, I enjoy but it also bugs me. I know including the female homosexual relationships was probably because they wanted to shake things up and the premise made it easier to do. But still, no same-sex relations in the main 'verse and they have them in the 'dark' one.

Even so, as a piece of camp of the kind that Star Trek is famous for, I like a lot. But I don't think mirror universes would be like that at all. And could they be connected in such a linear fashion? You could say, naively, that right now where I'm alive here I could be dead at the same time in another 'verse but I think that's a little simplistic. It's not even a case of dying in 1999 there instead of 2060 here - they're just independent time-lines. There would probably be, considering current theory and the way logic/chaos works already, an infinite variety of variations, universes where you and I never existed, where the chemistry is so different that life as we can understand it can't even exist.

[consortofvenus.livejournal.com]

scratch second sentence in second paragraph... not mirror verses, just alternate verses.

As for mirror verses, I suppose there could be different variations of those as well, if we're not assuming a perfect mirror.

[dorkphoenyx.livejournal.com]

I think the idea there was (at least in the TOS version) that they were supposed to be the opposites of the people or race; so humans never progressed from baser instincts, Vulcans never embraced the teachings of Surak. It's a shame that they never encountered the Klingons or Romulans in the mirror universe, because by that principle they would have been the diplomats and logicians. (Especially the Romulans, given that lore has them as distant relatives of the Vulcans who shunned Surak's discipline).

In the DS9 mirror verse, the idea is more of a leap backwards in time, and sideways in concept. The real verse is set after the Cardassian Occupation; the mirror verse during it, and under the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. The Terrans are the slaves, a reversal of the fortune since Kirk visited the mirror universe.

They allude to many mirror verse residents knowing of or having travelled between the two universes, which makes me think that there are points of connection where they are tied closely to each other - preserving the continuity of residents and features.

[beginnings-end.livejournal.com]

I definitely think ours would be the dark one...when I was about 12 I came to the conclusion that hell couldn't be worse than living this life. So there couldn't be a literal fire and brimstone hell-you-go-to-after-death sort of thing.

This is as bad as it gets.

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

We do live in the worst of all possible worlds, ruled by beings bent upon our utter destruction and the sowing of pain and anguish.

[christinathena.livejournal.com]

I just don't get why it would be "mirror". What's wrong with a world that's just different? Better in some aspects, worse in others?

(Also, one thing that always bugs me about things like that - WHY are the same people around? Everyone just happens to have sex with the same people in both worlds? And it just happens that the same sperm and the same egg unite in both universes?)

[alex-antonin.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the second point. I think the attitudes would be different, the people different too.

[alex-antonin.livejournal.com]

Although, I will add that when I was a kid I was terrified of my evil twin from another universe coming into this one and ruining my reputation and my life.

[christinathena.livejournal.com]

I sometimes worried about the same thing. I worried more about finding myself in a parallel universe, though, and not knowing anything that was going on.

[alex-antonin.livejournal.com]

:-)