Star Trek: The Mirror Universe's History Explained (2024)

The Mirror Universe is one of Star Trek's most intriguing concepts. The franchise has wisely used the Mirror Universe sparingly since it was introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series so that each appearance is an event. The alternate reality where nearly every beloved Star Trek character is the opposite of who they are in the Prime Universe has spanned TOS, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Star Trek: Discovery. The Mirror Universe is also very different from the Kelvin timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies, which diverges from the Prime timeline at a fixed point in the 23rd century.

The history of the Mirror Universe runs parallel to the Prime Universe's because both realities co-exist in the same space but in a different dimensional plane. Thevariances between people from the Prime and Mirror Universes are primarily cultural, with the Mirror counterparts hewing towards malevolence and bigotry. However, there is also at least one distinct physical difference between the two universes: When the USS Discovery was trapped in the Mirror Universe duringStar Trek: Discovery season 1, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) noticed that "the cosmos has lost its brilliance" in the alternate reality. Burnham didn't just mean metaphorically; the Mirror version of Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) needed eye drops due to his photosensitivity to the light in the Prime Universe.WhileStar Trek's Prime timeline has its share of difficulties, every visit to the Mirror Universe confirms that it's an absolutely terrible place in comparison.

Related: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Can Solve Pike's Mirror Universe Mystery

In the Mirror Universe, instead of the United Federation of Planets, humanity formed the Terran Empire and successfully conquered the Alpha Quadrant in the 22nd and 23rd centuries. Thanks to the USSDiscovery crossing over to the Mirror Universe and back in 2257, both the Federation and the Terran Empire knew of each other's existence but suppressed this information to prevent further crossovers. The Mirror Universe's Terran Empire was ruled by an Emperor and its Starfleet subjugated most of the other races including Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Orions, and Denobulans. While Federation starships are designated USS (for United Starship), in the Mirror Universe, Terran vessels carry the designation ISS (Imperial Starship). However, the Terran Empire collapsed by the 24th century and was overrun by their enemies, the Klingons and the Cardassians, which formed an alliance along with other worlds like Bajor.

The most iconic symbol of the Mirror Universe remains the Mirror Spock (Leonard Nimoy) who sported a goatee and represents its obvious differences. Indeed, this alternate version of the Vulcan is a pivotal figure in the Mirror Universe's canon because it was under his watch that the Terran Empire ultimately fell for good. The history of theStar TrekMirror Universe does unfold confusingly since fans experienced it starting with TOS, and then DS9 picked up the story in the 24th century before Star Trek: Enterprise jumped backward 200 years with a prequel tale. Star Trek: Discovery season 1 then returned to the Mirror Universe a decade before TOS before it jumped to the 32nd century and filled in some details of what became of the Mirror Universe in the last 800 years. For clarity's sake, here is what happened in the Mirror Universe chronologically from before First Contact with the Vulcans to what is known about the alternate reality in the year 3189.

How The Terran Empire RoseTo Power

On the Mirror Universe's Earth, history unfolded in a mostly identical fashion as in the Prime Universe, except the human race embraced war and fascism as a means to solve problems. Mirror Earth's history involved nations going to war, with the strong overcoming the weak, until the pivotal date of April 5, 2063. This was the day of First Contact with the Vulcans, who landed in Boseman, Montana after Zephram Cochrane (James Cromwell) became the first human to achieve warp flight.

However, instead of a peaceful meeting as had occurred in the Prime Universe, which fans saw in Star Trek: First Contact, in the Mirror Universe, Cochrane immediately executed the Vulcan visitor with a shotgun, believing this was the first step of an alien invasion of Earth. (Cochrane's shotgun later came to be owned by the Mirror Jonathan Archer.) Cochrane's people then raided the starship and executed the other Vulcans aboard. With Vulcan technology, the human race took to the stars, establishing the Terran Empire within the next century. The Terrans conquered and enslaved many of the other races in the Alpha Quadrant, and the xenophobic human-led empire lasted for almost 300 years.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery Reveals What Happened To Vulcan In The 32nd Century

The Mirror Universe In Star Trek: Enterprise (22nd Century)

Star Trek: The Mirror Universe's History Explained (2)

In 2155, Commander Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) mutinied against his Captain, Maximillian Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong), and took command of the Terran Empire's flagship, the ISSEnterprise. Archer's scheme involved taking the Enterprise into Tholian space to retrieve the USSDefiant (NCC-1764), a Constitution-class starship that time-traveled from the 23rd-century Prime Universe to the 22nd-century Mirror Universe in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web" (unrelated to the USS Defiant,NX-74205, featured prominently inDS9).

With the Terran Empire in danger of losing a war against its many enemies, Archer's ambition was to use the far more powerful Defiant from the alternate reality to stage a coup where he would become the new Terran Emperor. Although the Enterprise (and Captain Forrest) was destroyed by the Tholians, Archer succeeded in commandeering the Defiant. However, Archer was betrayed and killed by his mistress, Hoshi Sato (Linda Park). Sato then took command of the Defiant and completed Archer's coup, declaring herself Empress at the end of Star Trek: Enterprise's two-parter "In A Mirror, Darkly."

The Mirror Universe In Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 (23rd Century)

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100 years later, Star Trek: Discovery season 1's Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) revealed himself to be a Terran from the Mirror Universe and he used the starship's spore displacement hub drive to return to the alternate reality. However, he wanted Michael Burnham to help him stage a coup to dethrone the Terran Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh). Burnham and the crew of the USSDiscovery posed as their Mirror Universe counterparts in order to survive being trapped in the parallel dimension.

By 2257, the Terran Empire was the dominant power in the Alpha Quadrant and, under Georgiou's leadership, the humans conquered the Klingons, although a band of alien races formed a rebel alliance against the Terrans. Georgiou also knew about the Prime Universe and the Federation because she had access to the USSDefiant's data files. But Georgiou's gravest threat was Lorca, who nearly succeeded in his coup. At the end of Star Trek: Discovery's four-part saga in the Mirror Universe, Lorca was killed and Georgiou's reign was ended, but Michael Burnham brought the evil doppelgänger of her late Captain Georgiou back with her to the Prime Universe.

Related: Star Trek Discovery Theory: What Section 31 Did To Emperor Georgiou

Emperor Georgiou posed as her Prime Universe counterpart and helped end the Klingon War of 2256-2257 before joining Section 31. In Star Trek: Discovery season 2, Georgiou helped the USSDiscovery and the USSEnterprise defeat the rogue A.I. called Control that took over Section 31 and tried to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy. Out of loyalty to Burnham, Emperor Georgiou traveled with the Discovery 930 years into the future, permanently leaving the 23rd century behind.

The Mirror Universe In Star Trek: The Original Series (23rd Century)

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Star Trek: TOS' "Mirror, Mirror" was the first appearance of the Mirror Universe that started it all. Chronologically set a decade after Emperor Georgiou traveled to the Prime Universe, a transporter accident switched the Prime Universe's Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and three of his officers with their Mirror Universe counterparts. While USSEnterprise's Spock quickly imprisoned the evil duplicates of his crewmates, aboard the ISSEnterprise, Kirk had to navigate the dangerous political waters of the Terran Empire, where assassinating your superior officers and rivals is the key to advancement and power.

As Kirk grasped the profound differences between the two universes, he realized that the goateed Mirror Spock harbored grave doubt aboutthe longevity of a fascist regime like the Terran Empire, which was doomed to totally collapse within 240 years. Before switching back to his proper universe, Kirk challenged the Mirror Spock to do what he could to change the destiny of the Terran Empire.

In the greater context of the overall Mirror Universe's history, Star Trek: Discovery season 2 revealed that the Prime Universe's Spock already knew what the Mirror Universe was thanks to his adopted sister Michael Burnham's experiences and from meeting Emperor Georgiou. As part of his lifelong pact never to reveal the truth about Burnham or the Discovery, Spock's swift and decisive actions when he meets Mirror Kirk become recontextualized since the Vulcan knew precisely where this evil version of his Captain came from.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery Retcons Spock In Mirror Universe Episode

The Mirror Universe on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (24th Century)

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine continued the story of the Mirror Universe for five episodes over the course of its seven seasons. In the first Mirror Universe episode, "Crossover," Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) and Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) accidentally traveled to the alternate reality of the 24th century, where they learned that the Terran Empire was conquered by an alliance led by the Klingons and Cardassians. The Mirror Spock did take over the Terran Empire a century prior, but in his bid to lead the Terrans toward peace, they became vulnerable and were overrun by their alien enemies. Terrans are now slaves in the 24th century fighting a rebellion against the Klingons and Cardassians. Ironically, whereas Spock's legacy was the reunification of the Vulcans and Romulans in the Prime Universe, the Mirror Spock's attempt at nobility caused the demise of the mighty Terran Empire.

DS9's Mirror Universe saga was intensive, with characters crossing over into both universes, and the action revolved around the Deep Space Nine space station, which was still known as Terok Nor in the Mirror Universe. In "Through the Looking Glass," Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) had to briefly replace his dead counterpart who was the leader of the Terran resistance in the Mirror Universe. Meanwhile, "Smiley," the Mirror Miles O'Brien, emerged as a central character of DS9's Mirror Universe story; Smiley not only recruited the Prime Sisko, but he also stole the plans for the USSDefiantfrom Deep Space Nine so that the Terran rebels could have a warship of their own.

Word of the Mirror Universe eventually reached the Ferengi Alliance and Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn) jumped to the Mirror Universe in order to open up business opportunities. Meanwhile, itwas revealed that the Terrans' main enemy was the Klingon and Cardassian Alliance's Regent, who turned out to be Worf (Michael Dorn). The Regent was eventually overthrown by the rebels in DS9's final Mirror Universe installment, "The Emperor's New Cloak." However, DS9's Mirror Universe story remained unfinished and left off with the Terran rebels still fighting to bring down the Klingon and Cardassian Alliance. This was the last and furthest chronological point Trekkers have seen of the Mirror Universe, since Star Trek: Discovery season 3 jumped centuries past it into the 32nd century.

The State Of The Mirror Universe In Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 (32nd Century)

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Star Trek: Discovery season 3 brought the crew of the eponymous starship, including Emperor Georgiou, to the year 3189, where they reunited with what was left of the United Federation of Planets.AtStarfleet Headquarters, Georgiou was personally debriefed by a mystery man named Kovich (David Cronenberg), who is likely an agent of the 32nd century's Section 31 and was uniquely interested in the time-displaced Terran Emperor. During their meeting, Kovich updated Georgiou, who knew nothing of the events seen in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, on the state of the Mirror Universe. The Starfleet agent revealed that the distance between the Mirror Universe and the Prime Universe had been increasing for centuries, which has prevented crossovers. In fact, no one had jumped from either reality for 500 years.

Kovich also informed Georgiou of the fact that the Terran Empire that she once ruled collapsed centuries ago, although he didn't specify the Mirror Spock's central role in its demise. Starfleet then claimed that they identified a chimeric strain on the subatomic level in the Terran stem cell, which explains the Terran predisposition towards malevolence, although Georgiou dismissed the notion. However, immediately after her debriefing with Kovich, Emperor Georgiou began suffering debilitating traumatic flashbacks of her past in the Mirror Universe. What this ultimately means for the Emperor and whether fans will learn more about the fate of the Mirror Universe remains to be seen in Star Trek: Discovery.

Next: Star Trek: Discovery Theory: Mirror Michael Killed Emperor Georgiou's Son

Star Trek: The Mirror Universe's History Explained (2024)

FAQs

Where did the Mirror Universe come from in Star Trek? ›

Star Trek: The Original Series | “Mirror, Mirror” (1967)

As with so many now-iconic Star Trek conceits, the Mirror Universe started with a single one-off episode, in which transporter interference from an ionic storm spits Kirk, Uhura, Scotty, and McCoy out into a “parallel” universe from their own.

How does the Mirror Universe work? ›

The mirror universe idea is inherently simple, Turok says. It evokes a geometrically symmetrical universe that one can imagine looking like an hourglass on its side. On the right is a universe flowing forward in time; on the left, a universe flowing backward in time.

Did TNG ever go to the Mirror Universe? ›

Star Trek: The Next Generation never did a Mirror Universe episode, and that ultimately worked in the show's favor.

What happened to the defiant in the Mirror Universe? ›

The USS Defiant (NCC-1764) is trapped in Interphase in Tholian space and vanishes. No elements from the Mirror Universe are shown or mentioned in this episode, but its connection with the Mirror Universe was established retroactively by the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly".

Are the Borg in the Mirror Universe? ›

The Borg were a cybernetic, hive-mind collective in the mirror universe, much like their counterparts in the Prime universe.

Is Picard set in the Mirror Universe? ›

No, because what we see in Star Trek Picard, Season 2, isn't the Mirror Universe at all but rather our prime universe only changed by Q. One tell-tale difference is, of course, in the Mirror Universe the chief human political structure is the “Terran Empire.”

What happened to Earth in the Mirror Universe? ›

Earth was subjected to a Klingon planetary bombardment during the fall of the Terran Empire (circa 2297). The western half of North America was reduced to wasteland, Ireland and New Zealand were smashed into tiny islets, and the new continent of East Africa was created when a faultline cracked open.

Is Star Trek: Discovery in an alternate universe? ›

Discovery has always been part of Star Trek's Prime Timeline

Star Trek is a Multiverse with two main timelines, as well as a third offshoot reality called the Mirror Universe.

How did the Terran Empire fall? ›

The novel The Sorrows of Empire depicts Spock becoming Emperor of the Terran Empire in 2277 and reforming the Empire into a democratic society, only to be overthrown and killed by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in 2295.

Did DS9 overlap with TNG? ›

DS9's crossovers with TNG characters often provided superior character development compared to their original appearances. "The Way of the Warrior" was the best TNG/DS9 crossover, seamlessly blending the strengths of both shows into an exciting episode.

Why was Star Trek TNG canceled? ›

Paramount's rationale for ending TNG was driven by the increasing budget for the series and the studio's desire to keep the Star Trek movie franchise going. By the early 1990s, the films that starred the aging cast of TOS were waning, and Paramount saw TNG as the future of the Star Trek movies.

Did Voyager do a Mirror Universe episode? ›

Star Trek: Voyager never made the jump across dimensions to the Mirror Universe, but one episode showed audiences what that might have looked like. The Season 4 episode "Living Witness" showed a very different USS Voyager in one of the series most interesting and high-concept episodes.

What happened to the king in Mirror, Mirror? ›

It is belived that the king was killed by the beast but he is actuly transformed into a beast when Snow was eight and never seen again until the queen sets him on Snow at the end of the film.

What is the Mirror Universe theory? ›

As described by astrophysicist Paul Sutter for Live Science, the idea posits that for every interaction of normal matter in our universe, a mirror interaction occurs in the universe of dark matter.

Did Sisko design the Defiant? ›

Benjamin Sisko helped design the Defiant, which was conceived as a prototype vessel to counter the Borg. Sisko receives command of the Defiant in 2370 to make contact with the Dominion in the show's third-season premier. Unlike most Starfleet ships, the Defiant is built for combat rather than science and exploration.

Where did the mirror shard come from? ›

The mirror shard was a gift from Sirius given to Harry in “Order of the Phoenix.” The mirror is part of a set that allows people to communicate with each other. After Sirius' death, Harry put it in his school trunk and forgot about it.

What caused the wormhole in Star Trek? ›

This wormhole was constructed by an alien intelligence. Most wormholes are either naturally occurring or the result of dangerous warp drive malfunctions. Such wormholes tend to oscillate wildly across time and space, thus making them useless for normal interstellar commerce.

Where did the red matter come from in Star Trek? ›

It is manufactured from decalithium, a rare isotope that the Narada was equipped to mine. The novelization of Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster states that red matter's destructive properties are magnified by intense heat and pressurization that a star or a planetary core can provide.

Does the Dominion exist in the Mirror Universe? ›

In the mirror universe, the Dominion was much more tolerant and fair than its counterpart in the primary universe. For example, in this universe when the Founders put the primary Julian Bashir on trial for killing the mirror Odo many years before, the trial was completely fair and just.

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