Love this deep dive man. I've always considered it rather curious that even with early access to the Defiant, 23rd century Mirror Starfleet in TOS seems to, like you said, be on par with the prime universe. Probably an example of an authoritarian society being *less* conducive to innovation. I'll definitely explore more of the mirror universe's history in future videos of mine!
In Star Trek Online, the Terran Empire of the 25th Century runs almost entirely on designs stolen and repurposed from the Prime Universe, and knowledge from the Prime Universe given by the Envoy, like how to destroy the Iconians.
@@480JD yeah Leeta from the Dabo table runs it now in the mirror she is Admiral Leeta of the I.S.S. Enterprise (no joke) and she even has the power of the pah-wraiths now and basically does assaults thru the badlands in game now. The Kelvin mirror side is run by the disco crew at one point and the ISS charon, the empresses flagship (Styx dreadnought) is found scattered over time and space on the planet Pahvo from when Lorca destroyed it as well, but they mostly stick to the badlands and do mirror incursions due to the ease of crossing circa 2411 in star trek online.
Like in TOS the Terran Empire fell rather quickly because failuresauce, I think Francisco Franco's was the longest fascist regime lasting something like 40 years. but yeah fascism works even less than the soviets; what makes me nervous is the State Capitalism way China is doing their commie and dictating to our business' how to do things if they don't want kicked out of China's market; Reagan really screwed the pooch on that one and now they have the upper hand and are just: "Hong Kong, ours now" and shit.
I always joked that the terran empire ships have the thermostat set 10 degrees higher than normal timeline ships so everybody's wearing skimpy outfits, short sleeves, and are irritated because of the constant heat
Makes sense, less focus on creature comforts on warships used by a millitary regime, compared to long range exploration ships used by a peaceful regime.
They should've made a Star Trek spin off that is all about the Terran Empire. That way they could have all the war, strife and retcon they want without triggering the hardcore fans.
@@ArabicNameGuy The mirror episodes of disco were good and fit the show way better. No idea why they didn't go that route the whole time. Missed opportunity
My favorite Terran Empire backstory is the comic book one, where humanity was conquered by the Romulans, and turned towards evil by the years of suffering, hating and killing, and the ruthless insurgents or terrorists who expelled the Romulans became the government of Earth. A great story, though I'm not sure if such a campaign could be successful.
@@toddscanlan2574 1700s US had the same tech and thousands of miles of ocean on their side and almost lost even with French and Spanish backing. The Viet Cong were annihilated by US forces and the NVA barely won even with Russian and Chinese backing. The Taliban were crippled in a couple months and only survived due to foreign funding and interference. The Romulans can cross the stars with ease and could have just flattened Earth with orbital bombardment before occupying it. But they didn't because plot.
@@PhoenixFires Of course the things I listed were different in how they came into fruition. The similarities they share are that the "terrorists", and "insurgents" beat back a superior fighting force and the survivors became the new leaders, much like the Terren/Romulen conflict. Think big picture, you're getting way too caught up in the specifics and fine details. Btw, while the Americans had similar technology, they were most certainly lacking in ships, weapons, troops, and battle experience. They were still very much outmatched.
@@toddscanlan2574 The insurgents were never what primarily lead to the defeat of their enemies. And the tech differences were smaller if not totally non-existent. If the Vulcans were backing a human revolution then sure, maybe they stood a chance. But this idea that an interstellar dominion could be beaten back by some determined hairless apes is absurd. Humans would be fish in a barrel. Trapped on a planet while the Romulans would dominate space, the air, and the seas. They have nigh-unlimited resources and wouldn't be against the genocide of humanity, meaning they could just destroy any pesky insurgencies in an instant. There's no "Alright, well you have an equal power giving you weapons and funding and we're tired of this and don't wanna escalate this further." Imagine if Vietnam, Afghanistan, or 1700s America were simply nuked. And there was no repercussions because they had no allies. Its over in a week.
@@jeandelacroix6726 Nah. DAoT is way beyond anything the Terran Empire ever achieved. If anything they more match low-mid range IoM tech. DAoT had stuff like black hole weapons, and reversing the time of your ship a fraction of a second so it drops a copy of you and your ship right onto itself. They also had giant snake like machines that were large enough to eat stars.
I've got a somewhat different take for why innovation stagnated. Hoshi's top priority would be to build more Constitutions ASAP so she could play their captains off against each other and couldn't be overthrown by whoever controlled the _Defiant_ as she'd overthrown her predecessor. So you'd get a massive fleet of mid-23rd century ships in the mid-22nd. That's why they mopped the floor with every alien. But they'd never build anything beyond the TOS era. In DSC I'm pretty sure that the only ship we see that's far beyond anything in TOS is the palace ship, and being the palace ship it makes sense that the emperor would always have it under his or her thumb (as much as one ever could in such a cutthroat empire). But otherwise, no emperor would ever authorize the building of an Excelsior, say, or a Galaxy, for fear that the captain of the first such ship would launch a coup (which might be another reason the palace ship was built as a superdreadnaught). So they had to knock out all the aliens they met before those aliens built something stronger than a Constitution. But the Klingons and Cardassians managed to leap frog the Constitution fleet because Spock let up the relentless pressure against them, and the Empire fell.
Most imperial cultures fall to internal problems rather than external threats. As you say the Emperor’s chief objective would be to keep potential usurpers down. The boost of the Defiant gave the Terrans the edge but once secure they stagnated. Focused on internal dissent they failed to react to the advancing Cardassians and Klingon survivors. Ironically victory defeated the Terrans.
In DIsco we saw Crossfield and other prime ships of the Disco prime era. The Defiant was a huge technical leap forward but the Empire still had the same Resource and industrial capacity as it’s counterpart this means. It would have been cheaper and more efficient to build those other ships that sat in the tech tree from NX to Constitution class but to a more developed standard as they would still out gun their adversaries.
Mirror Universe is where we go to play with the darkside of Trek... in a sort of black and white almost cheesy way. They tend to have less subtlety and just be bad for bad sake.
I have the novelization of “Dark Mirror” in which the crew of NCC1701D is featured. I do remember the crew showing “respect“ toward the mirror universe Captain Picard only to refer to him as “Old Shiny” behind his back.
I would love to see a continuation of the mirror universe post DS9 with humanity winning back their freedom and reestablishing themselves as a power in the galaxy
I've written a fanfiction that sorta tells that story It follows the events after the humans victory over Worf and their quest to retake the sol system My fanfiction also explores the mirror TNG crew and the commissioning of the ISS Enterprise D to become the new Empires tool into crushing the remains of the Alliance I wish I still had the link for it or I'd share it with y'all.
I personally don't think so. At least not biologically. Given that we are told that Burnham is Georgiou's adopted daughter in the mirror universe, I think that each "Emperor" chooses a favourite subordinate to be their successor, either the most loyal or the most competent, and that person is then adopted. Succession thus comes with no regard for direct familial ties in order to avoid the major succession crises like what have been seen during the medieval and early modern periods, or classical Rome since the Terran empire seems to be heavily inspired by them.
Could you do a video that would speculate what a battle between the mirror universe and the borg might end up looking and a potential outcome? That would be interesting. Thanks for all that you do! These are fun to watch.
You should read a book called Dark Mirror. In this book Spock never gains any influence. In that book The ISS Enterprise D faces off with the USS Enterprise D. The Prime universe Enterprise is no match against the Mirror Universe ship.
I believe it was that Spock didn't gain enough influence, though it has been a while since I read the book. My personal headcanon for that alternate universe is the Tholians managed to get the either other USS Defiant aka Sisko's Pimp Hand or the SS Defiant along with a history book on where the empire went wrong by Jean-Luc Picard.
I've always believed we are so much closer to this universe than that of Star Fleet. That Enterprise spin off of first contact seems scarily on point for us. Especially with the way we are going.
That's because the future Gene Roddenberry envisioned will only ever arrive in some alternate cosmos where humans have the capacity for decency and rational behavior. We ARE the mirror universe, and will shortly be killing those smugly intelligent and condescending Vulcans and conquering everybody! I can't wait until we Terrans can fulfill our Manifest Destiny to make the Universe Great Again- MUGA!!!
@Shawn Tipton It is never mentioned in canon that the Terran Empire was formed from the Roman Empire. If that were true, then most human characters, those of European descent (i.e. Kirk, Picard, etc.), wouldn't exist, because without the fall of the Roman Empire, the Germanic people couldn't settle in Western Europe, so most people in that region would have more celtic and roman heritage, with no germanic heritage, so modern Europeans and as we know them couldn't existed. Therefore, it would be impossible to have MU counterparts to characters like Kirk, Picard, Riker...
The mirror universe works because we're given just enough to keep them interesting, with a cast of characters that we get to see in a new light. An entire season, or an entire show, of generic evil characters would wear out it's welcome real quick
@@canadian__ninja one dimensional characters are the bane of any sci fi story and irredeemable evil is impossible for audiences to relate to. The trick would be adding some moral complexity. In the Star Wars universe there were naive Imperial officers who felt loyal but hated the things they were ordered to do. They didn't understand that the Empire itself was evil and beyond redemption; they thought it could somehow be reformed.
It's not out of the question. The intro credits of "In a Mirror Darkly" hint that the Terran Empire's government already existed around the mid-20th century, and an Axis victory in WW2 would be the best chance for that to happen.
@@JeanLucCaptain In defense, it wasn't morality, but logic that drove our JTK. Weird as that sounds, but's that's exactly, in a brilliant moment, that Kirk proposed. And he left Spock with an ALT-DEL mode. I'm guessing that the MU Spock used it... logically.
I'd like to see a story where someone goes back in time assassinates Mirror Spock and the Empire Continues into the 24th Century. I want to see how good they'd be at facing the Borg
The first time I ever heard of the mirror universe was in the T.O.S. Season 2 episode 'Mirror Mirror' where Kirk Scotty McCoy and Uhura are transported to the mirror universe through a transporter accident combined with an ion storm that was going on at the same time and one thing I always wondered is who came up with the idea for the mirror universe episodes starting with T.O.S. as it was that series that first came up with it.
So the Defiant did bring a giant leap forward for Terran technology. Seeing those torpedoes in DIS, even Prime Universe's 24th century ships don't have kind of firepower.
@@FedoReds88Although it was never mentioned on screen, I once found an article where someone calculated a main universe photon torpedo's yield. And it came up in the range of about 100 megatons. That is nowhere near enough to fracture a planet's crust. Charon's torpedoes do have that effect, so they are clearly more powerful than their main universe counterparts.
@@refulgent_fanta waith, 100 megatons is enough to fracture the crust, but depends on how this energy is used For example, if the tszar bomb have been detonate near or inside the surface (between 100 meters over or inside) we would have obtained the equivalent of an surface squashing earthquake, with all the correlate, that torpedoes seems to have been detonate exactly during the impact, so the explosion (due to the velocity) occurred very below the surface But also it's depends of how the energy is produced, with an hbomb we have an enormous amount of radiation (neutron's an gamma mainly) and heat in an particular spectrum, whit an antimatter one, beside the facts we never see one (fortunately), we would have a different spectrum of radiation and energy, so the effects have to be different in term of results
@@FedoReds88 Indeed, one might imagine that Star Trek torpedoes can be programmed to behave like bunker busters, burrowing below the surface before detonating.
There's an artist on Deviant art that has literally designed am entire Terran Empire fleet, complete with space stations, defenses and PLANETARY ASSAULT forces 😎
I feel like Terran Empire technology is pretty crappy, all things considered: - they captured a Vulcan Science vessel, giving them a massive leg up on United Earth Starfleet. They then (mostly) defeated the Vulcans and Andorians, propably gaining their tech on top. Yet that was not enough to pull ahead of the Prime Universe Federation - the Agony Booths were a development by Mirror Phlox - not a original terran invention - the charon was a one-off thing. Something only possible via the Mycelial power generator. Nothing indicates they could not have done the same in the Prime universe - they were just smart enough not to. - Despite having gained 24th century technology a literal century earlier, the 24th century ISS Enterprise was on par with the 24th century USS Enterprise. They should have been about 100 years ahead - then they had to steal the plans of the USS Defiant and still almost failed at building one. Again, no own development The terran empire was given technology 100 years ahead of the prime universe _twice_ and they barely managed to _draw even_ with the Federation. Their entire progress seemed reliant on stealing technology - from the prime universe or other mirror verse powers. They seem incapable of advancement themself.
Considering how innovators and intellectuals are prime targets for authoritarian regimes, who tend to execute the people who might depose the current leader or question the regime, there's going to be a lot of stagnation, especially when they run out of enemies to steal from. The Terran Empire's reign also prevented the development of technologies like the Cloaking Device (likely due to the lack of Romulan presence, while T'Kuvma's cloaking device was either never developed, or destroyed before it could become fully implemented), which had to be acquired from the Prime Universe.
There's a massive difference between the infrastructure necessary to build single prototypes and the infrastructure for mass-production. In any hierarchy, the most powerful ships, weapons, and positions of authority can only be handed to people who display complete loyalty to the top ranks. This creates an incentive for the number of "good" tools to be kept small and in the hands of the elite, while the cannon fodder makes do with tools that are either barely above parity or outright inferior to those used by the enemy - let alone the trusted few. It also makes for a lot of secrecy, a lack of redundancy and duplication of work. The Terran Empire was NEVER going to tear the Defiant apart in order to figure out how it worked. They also didn't (and couldn't) immediately start building new ships from existing blueprints. Their best and brightest would have been enlisted to hand-build _spare parts_ to keep their existing ship operational. Building new ships requires building entire factories to produce raw materials in the quality and quantity necessary. The bigger and more complex the supply chain, the more vulnerable it is to disruption and the more information will "leak" to one's enemies. Even the century's worth of advanced scientific data in the ship's computers would need to be painstakingly confirmed with repeat experiments. Quality is a multiplier for quantity. Zero quantity multiplied by anything is still zero.
@@Grizabeebles Just having a working example of what is possible makes a huge difference. Atomic power was delayed for decades, because it was deemed *impossible* to get a chain reaction going. And we are still not 100% sure economic fusion power is possible. Sure, you can not build copies outright. But it should still accelerate your progress by a few decades.
Use of ionized hull plating on Enterprise makes no sense, given access to Vulcan shield tech. Honestly, though, I suspect it was the writers forgetting themselves on that one.
I ALWAYS IMAGINE THE IMPERIAL UNION OF PLANETS, THE EARTH WITH THE SWORD IS FOR TERRAN SHIPS, WHILE OTHER PLANET MEMBERS (LIKE VULCANS AND OTHERS) USE THEIR RESPECTIVE PLANET
Yup. I'd put up with bureaucracy versus being assassinated or tortured as a matter of day to day military life (not sure what civilian life is like for Terrans but I doubt it is completely hazard free)
They are popular because people have a morbid curiosity with alternative histories and in being able to either vicariously or directly shed their morality in a fictional or simulated setting. The Man in the High Castle, Star Wars TIE Fighter, Grand Theft Auto, "Remember, No Russian". , etc....
Also, it has the advantage of not needing to have a proper good series, or beloved one, as it is out of continuity. It has more liberty to do their stuff. Discovery writing problems weren't as annoying in mirror universe as they were normally, precisely because their passive-aggressive assholes, crazie people and other things are not that "out of character" in the universe.
Some Trek series should revisit the mirror universe after the rise of the Terrans from slavery. Maybe they already build a new empire. Great video! I almost got some Warhammer 40k vibes from those Discovery Terran empire clips.
I never liked the idea of the "Terrans unable to innovate" or having to need "help" from the prime universe to advance since it makes no sense to me, look at the cold war-era US and USSR, both sides manage to improve and develop new technologies military and otherwise, and both having completely different government systems. When the cold war ended military technology slowed down yes but not technology overall and it hasn't taken much to "militarize" technologies developed during peace for civilian use. I think that the Terran Empire should have the same level of technology development as the prime universe counterpart. PD: you don't simply reverse engineer an alien spaceship, evil or not Terrans are still homo sapiens.
I agree. The direction of innovating would be different but it would still be there. I never liked designs being identical between the two universes except for some cosmetic differences.
Surely they would've implemented the augs on everyone, just to have an edge over stronger aliens, such as klingons and vulcans, but would've also improved the genetic pool, avoiding the autodestructive aggressivity's gene
I always liked Hoshi becoming Empress. She was treated so badly over the course of Enterprise that it was nice for her to get a win. Even if it was in an alternate universe... 😔
@@LoreReloaded I like to think she added some titles like Living Incarnation of Sol Hyperion and Dragon Empress of the River of Stars because she wasn't Regina Andor and Dominar of Qo'nos yet.
@@LoreReloaded Maybe not a "requirement" maybe more like a tradition where an Empress would chose and groom their heir. That seemed to be hinted at in Discovery mirror universe trilogy. Just wished they hadn't ruined it by adding the terran's eyes are more sensitive to light, kind of ruins the whole point of the mirror universe to me.
I always saw the mirror universe as a inverted parallel universe to the star trek universe. Not a branching time line. It would be interesting to see the borg played out as a positive merger of organic and technology equally as powerful to the terrain empire.
This reminds me of Galactic Civilizations II. In it, you start with a neutral alignment. But your actions and choices shift your alignment towards good or evil. All three paths give you certain advantages but also have disadvantages. And this even affects which tech you can research. For example, one tech that enhances the speed of ships can only be researched by a good civilization. The description states that it was invented by a man suffering from a birth defect. An evil civilization would’ve just killed him at infancy. This kinda mirrors the Terran Empire. They’re so obsessed with domination and power games that everything else tends to slide by the wayside. Klingons can sometimes fall into the same trap, although any scenario of a war usually ends with them winning
I've always felt the Terran empire would have made more sense if Khan had started it after winning the war against other augments. It would be interesting to see normal humans become 2nd class citizens and be used mostly for cannon fodder.
There is a 2 part book series that really expands the 24th century mirror universe. We get mirror 7 of 9 the Origins of Worf how Kira rose to power. Even mirror Janeway and Voyager crew worth a read.
One thing not mentioned is how in some novel (sure, not canon but I loved it), it turns out Spock's plan was to cause the collapse as the empire could not be reformed. And his own calculations showed the other empires that would rise, fight amongst themselves, and eventually some new form of a federation would form out of all the carnage.
You keep equating the Original Universe (of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT) with the Prime Universe (Of STD, Picard and Lower Decks). There are even two different Mirror Universes you're talking about as if they are one. The Mirror Universe of the original Star Trek universe and the Prime Mirror Universe. (Some would even say 3 universes, as some fans don't consider the alternate universe of DS9 to be the original Mirror Universe - as it doesn't "mirror" the main universe anymore - and consider it instead to be a parallel universe of the original Mirror Universe).
Just a little food for thought: As long as there is such a thing as "wartime" & "peacetime", mankind is always restricted, at least to some degree. Because this means that there is a specific time and place for war to occur. Thus there are limitations. It is when you get into something like Warhammer 40k and there being only war..... that is true nightmare fuel. (edit: and I am only talking about the actions humanity would do in a "there is only war" scenario here, all the other stuff like chaos and xenos and all that, not even going there, just humanity)
People tend to forget that human history is more than just non stop brutal warfare and 40k fans tend to overlook the fact any "glory" the Imperium wins is often incorporeal and on the backs of millions of people who just get thrown into the grinder or slavery. One of the reason why people join Chaos is because life is so shit that even the dark voice promising everything to you that you know is sus has a faint chance of actually improving your lot.
Thanks for the break down. lore I think that the mirror universe wouldprobably have kept innovating if they had of meet an entity like q . Honestly I was wondering why you didn't suggest that the q might have played a part in it I really would like to know your view on that the idea that maybe the q manipulated the situation with the prime and mirror universe
Some topics worth exploring are 1. which novel would translate well to the screen 2. how would Star Trek have fared if the original pilot had been accepted 3. does Star Trek still reflect Genes vision
I would say spock's mistake was reforming SF too much while there were still a number of powers that would have taken advantage of the situation. I know this is likely nitpicking but technically what Archer did was mutiny. He died before he could try a coup.
@@ryank5424 I'm sure you did. It's called "facts." Take that from an expat who lived in third world China for seven horrible years before moving back to the Human world.
That’s why humans love Klingons. At heart we are the same. Warriors who love killing when the restraints are removed and it’s do or die. Quark had our number in that one episode, “"Let me tell you something about hewmons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time, and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes. You know I'm right, don't you? Well? Aren't you going to say something? " Nog : "I feel sorry for the Jem'Hadar."
Maybe instead of Starfleet outlawing cloaking device usage during the 24th in our universe, this uni outlawed their Tantalus Field tech. Because Mirror "advantages."
If you want to do some history comparisons take a look at the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire had advanced technologies such as plumbing, aqueducts and building architecture just to name a few. Many of those technologies were lost for centuries after fall of the Roman Empire.
Just think, Kirk (pretending to be Mirror Kirk) stopped Mirror Kirk's lover from instant-killing Mirror Spock... the snowball that led to the avalanche that killed the Terran Empire. So, if the switch-er-roo didn't happen, the Terran Empire might have been unGodly monstrous, like an evil-to-the-core Dominion.
I love the Mirror Universe stories. When we are so used to the Prime "Goodie goodie" Starfleet it's awesome to see a warped version of them with no morals. Kind of makes you appreciate the Prime Starfleet better when you see what they COULD be if Starfleet did not have rules and morals.
Calling the canon Federation goodie goodie is horrifying. It's aggressively and hypocritically militaristic, pushing its specific and internally inconsistent version of morality on everyone.
Discovery would have been a much better show had it been set entirely in the Mirror universe. Imagine the twist at the end of the Pilot if it revealed we weren’t watching Starfleet at all.
In Star Trek Online Leeta from the Dabo table runs it now in the mirror she is Admiral Leeta of the I.S.S. Enterprise (no joke) and she even has the power of the pah-wraiths now and basically does assaults thru the badlands in game now. The Kelvin mirror side is run by the disco crew at one point and the ISS charon, the empresses flagship (Styx dreadnought) is found scattered over time and space on the planet Pahvo from when Lorca destroyed it as well, but they mostly stick to the badlands and do mirror incursions due to the ease of crossing circa 2411 in star trek online.
Use of ionized hull plating on Enterprise makes no sense, given access to Vulcan shield tech. Honestly, though, I suspect it was the writers forgetting themselves on that one.
There is a comic series based on a TNG era mirror universe where a buff, sleeveless, Picard with a goatee steals the latest and last great hope for the survival of humanity: The Galaxy Class Warship
4:40 " the weaponry inside them was designed to cause mass devastation and harm" Man, it's going to fuck this guy up to hear what weapons have been designed to do for the past 3000 years.
One wonders at what Mirror Universe Borg would be like? I personably believe that the Collective would still be hive minded and set on assimilation, on both a Nano and Biological mindset. Surely the Borg would have recognized genome manipulation as beneficial to the Collective? Why just focus on the cyborg part when you can genetically modify? For the benefit of the Collective? And that would make one hell of an advantage over the Terran Empire. They don't have the tech to adapt. The Borg would simply assimilate the Terran Empire, takes what works, adapt an move on. And that is quite troubling, at least for the Mirror Universe, because that makes the Borg truly unstoppable. In any universe.
Can't wait to get that swag, it better be stuff like a shirt with the quote, "No not the Orphans!" Or "Suliban don't have souls" 😂 keep up the great work man!
I love the Mirror universe. I’d love a series on it. I’ve always wondered how Q would be in the Mirror universe, we thought he was bad in this universe sometimes, I can just imagine how ruthless he would be there.
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE episodes ENTERPRISE : ⬇ IN A MIRROR DARKLY pt 1 & pt 2 TOS : ⬇ MIRROR MIRROR DS9 : ⬇ CROSSOVER THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS SHATTERED MIRROR THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOAK VOYAGER : ⬇ LIVING WITNESS ?
I always see the Terran empire as humanity as his worse if humanity keeps with his destruction tendency hate fear self interest... While the federation is the best human can offer collaboration selfless
I think The Original Series "Empire of Planets" was likely an interspecies alliance born out of necessity due to an impending stalemate between the Vulcan/Andorian/Tellerite rebellions and the Terran Empire. Emperor Georgiu said you can't make war with an entire galaxy. This lesson never needed to be learned for the Terran Empire. The Prime Universe had its own isolationist movement in "Terra Prime", I imagine if the Enterprise NX-01 had discovered future technologies that United Earth would be covetous of it too and the "Terra Prime" movements ideology would have gained a more prominent foothold. Ironically, the xenophobia of the Discovery era Terran Empire is due in large part to the technological advantages received from the prime universe's USS Defiant crossing over.
I have a theory on this; I believe Mirror Universe started when Na'kuhl General Vosk started tampering with the timeline. Agent Daniels couldn't successfully stop the Na'kuhls, so the timeline splits when Jonathan Archer was brought back to past. See, from Beta canon, STO, Terran Empire had no quarrels with the Na'kuhls because they knew mirror humans aren't responsible for the destruction of the Na'kuhl Star.
I don't remember the book, but there was a flashback to the ending of first contact: Zefram Cochrane threw a coin to decide if he should tell the others about the dangers of the Borg. In the mirror universe he revealed the dangers of the future threat, leading to Earth choosing a more militant stance to space and other races.
@@sakisen Well in Enterprise opening credits it shows the moon landing with the Terran flag instead of US Flag which likely happened before the time of Cochrane even if it didn't still happen in the 60s. One theory I've heard was it was a response to losing the Romulan War, but between that clip and Enterprise taking place before the Romulan War that could only be true if there are multiple Mirror universes.
Love this deep dive man. I've always considered it rather curious that even with early access to the Defiant, 23rd century Mirror Starfleet in TOS seems to, like you said, be on par with the prime universe. Probably an example of an authoritarian society being *less* conducive to innovation. I'll definitely explore more of the mirror universe's history in future videos of mine!
In Star Trek Online, the Terran Empire of the 25th Century runs almost entirely on designs stolen and repurposed from the Prime Universe, and knowledge from the Prime Universe given by the Envoy, like how to destroy the Iconians.
@@Janoha17 so the Terran Empire was able to rebuild itself? Excellent to know.
@@480JD yeah Leeta from the Dabo table runs it now in the mirror she is Admiral Leeta of the I.S.S. Enterprise (no joke) and she even has the power of the pah-wraiths now and basically does assaults thru the badlands in game now. The Kelvin mirror side is run by the disco crew at one point and the ISS charon, the empresses flagship (Styx dreadnought) is found scattered over time and space on the planet Pahvo from when Lorca destroyed it as well, but they mostly stick to the badlands and do mirror incursions due to the ease of crossing circa 2411 in star trek online.
Like in TOS the Terran Empire fell rather quickly because failuresauce, I think Francisco Franco's was the longest fascist regime lasting something like 40 years. but yeah fascism works even less than the soviets; what makes me nervous is the State Capitalism way China is doing their commie and dictating to our business' how to do things if they don't want kicked out of China's market; Reagan really screwed the pooch on that one and now they have the upper hand and are just: "Hong Kong, ours now" and shit.
@@ns0557212 how'd a Bajoran end up leading the Terran Empire? What a mess.
As a Trek fan I love the Terran Empire. As a Stellaris player it is a way of life
“Let’s be xenophobic, it’s really in this year.”
the imperium of mankind approves.
"Let's find some nasty, slimy, ugly alien to fear"
"There's no more cutesy stories 'bout E.T. phoning home"
let's learn to love our neighbors like the Christians learned in Rome
I always joked that the terran empire ships have the thermostat set 10 degrees higher than normal timeline ships so everybody's wearing skimpy outfits, short sleeves, and are irritated because of the constant heat
Makes sense, less focus on creature comforts on warships used by a millitary regime, compared to long range exploration ships used by a peaceful regime.
@@ulfjohnsen6203 nah, it's the other way around. The reason they're so warlike is because they're grumpy about their bad air conditioning.
Ohh so its flordia
@@mr.voidroy6869 ... You know that explains a lot about them
@@Snivy_1245except in the episode Yesterday's Enterprise the Enterprise D crew were still wearing pretty much the same uniforms.
They should've made a Star Trek spin off that is all about the Terran Empire. That way they could have all the war, strife and retcon they want without triggering the hardcore fans.
in my headcanon, Discovery is in a Terran-adjacent Universe
it explains how pithy and petty they all are
@@ArabicNameGuy The mirror episodes of disco were good and fit the show way better. No idea why they didn't go that route the whole time. Missed opportunity
I'm all for!
i thought that was what dsc and picard were though, they certainly don't follow prime universe at all.
@@smartgoku9048 Nah its just current year corporate driven narrative. A terran adjacent universe trek would have been interesting if done well.
My favorite Terran Empire backstory is the comic book one, where humanity was conquered by the Romulans, and turned towards evil by the years of suffering, hating and killing, and the ruthless insurgents or terrorists who expelled the Romulans became the government of Earth. A great story, though I'm not sure if such a campaign could be successful.
1700's America, the Taliban, and the Vietcong, would like to have a word.
@@toddscanlan2574 1700s US had the same tech and thousands of miles of ocean on their side and almost lost even with French and Spanish backing. The Viet Cong were annihilated by US forces and the NVA barely won even with Russian and Chinese backing. The Taliban were crippled in a couple months and only survived due to foreign funding and interference. The Romulans can cross the stars with ease and could have just flattened Earth with orbital bombardment before occupying it. But they didn't because plot.
@@PhoenixFires Of course the things I listed were different in how they came into fruition. The similarities they share are that the "terrorists", and "insurgents" beat back a superior fighting force and the survivors became the new leaders, much like the Terren/Romulen conflict. Think big picture, you're getting way too caught up in the specifics and fine details. Btw, while the Americans had similar technology, they were most certainly lacking in ships, weapons, troops, and battle experience. They were still very much outmatched.
@@toddscanlan2574 The insurgents were never what primarily lead to the defeat of their enemies. And the tech differences were smaller if not totally non-existent. If the Vulcans were backing a human revolution then sure, maybe they stood a chance. But this idea that an interstellar dominion could be beaten back by some determined hairless apes is absurd. Humans would be fish in a barrel. Trapped on a planet while the Romulans would dominate space, the air, and the seas. They have nigh-unlimited resources and wouldn't be against the genocide of humanity, meaning they could just destroy any pesky insurgencies in an instant. There's no "Alright, well you have an equal power giving you weapons and funding and we're tired of this and don't wanna escalate this further." Imagine if Vietnam, Afghanistan, or 1700s America were simply nuked. And there was no repercussions because they had no allies. Its over in a week.
We really don't need to be invaded to learn to be imperialist, though. Just take the empire we have right now into space.
The Terran Empire was so close to becoming The Imperium of Man!
And the technologies able to wipe anything sounds a bit like lost DAoT tech
In fairness, they're only in late M2. They have another 27,000 years or so before the Emperor of Mankind even finishes reunifying Holy Terra.
Give it time, still gotta go though our golden age before our creations turn on us. We'll get there lol.
@@jeandelacroix6726 Nah. DAoT is way beyond anything the Terran Empire ever achieved. If anything they more match low-mid range IoM tech. DAoT had stuff like black hole weapons, and reversing the time of your ship a fraction of a second so it drops a copy of you and your ship right onto itself. They also had giant snake like machines that were large enough to eat stars.
@@tba113 M2 would be the year 1000-1999 so they'd be in M3 right?
I've got a somewhat different take for why innovation stagnated. Hoshi's top priority would be to build more Constitutions ASAP so she could play their captains off against each other and couldn't be overthrown by whoever controlled the _Defiant_ as she'd overthrown her predecessor. So you'd get a massive fleet of mid-23rd century ships in the mid-22nd. That's why they mopped the floor with every alien. But they'd never build anything beyond the TOS era. In DSC I'm pretty sure that the only ship we see that's far beyond anything in TOS is the palace ship, and being the palace ship it makes sense that the emperor would always have it under his or her thumb (as much as one ever could in such a cutthroat empire). But otherwise, no emperor would ever authorize the building of an Excelsior, say, or a Galaxy, for fear that the captain of the first such ship would launch a coup (which might be another reason the palace ship was built as a superdreadnaught). So they had to knock out all the aliens they met before those aliens built something stronger than a Constitution. But the Klingons and Cardassians managed to leap frog the Constitution fleet because Spock let up the relentless pressure against them, and the Empire fell.
Most imperial cultures fall to internal problems rather than external threats. As you say the Emperor’s chief objective would be to keep potential usurpers down. The boost of the Defiant gave the Terrans the edge but once secure they stagnated. Focused on internal dissent they failed to react to the advancing Cardassians and Klingon survivors. Ironically victory defeated the Terrans.
In DIsco we saw Crossfield and other prime ships of the Disco prime era. The Defiant was a huge technical leap forward but the Empire still had the same Resource and industrial capacity as it’s counterpart this means. It would have been cheaper and more efficient to build those other ships that sat in the tech tree from NX to Constitution class but to a more developed standard as they would still out gun their adversaries.
Mirror Universe is where we go to play with the darkside of Trek... in a sort of black and white almost cheesy way. They tend to have less subtlety and just be bad for bad sake.
Which is why I always skip those episodes when I rewatch series - same for time travel.
And much cooler paint jobs😜
Spock with a beard!
@Jacko Sargs I guess that explains my feelings about those episodes too.
I have the novelization of “Dark Mirror” in which the crew of NCC1701D is featured. I do remember the crew showing “respect“ toward the mirror universe Captain Picard only to refer to him as “Old Shiny” behind his back.
I would love to see a continuation of the mirror universe post DS9 with humanity winning back their freedom and reestablishing themselves as a power in the galaxy
That is kinda played out in the game StarTrek online.
I've written a fanfiction that sorta tells that story
It follows the events after the humans victory over Worf and their quest to retake the sol system
My fanfiction also explores the mirror TNG crew and the commissioning of the ISS Enterprise D to become the new Empires tool into crushing the remains of the Alliance
I wish I still had the link for it or I'd share it with y'all.
You do see this in the Mirror Universe book series.
JAMES
I'd rather see the timeline changed and Mirror Spock assassinated.
The big question for me is: is Emporer Georgiou a descendant of Sato?
Great question
No
I personally don't think so. At least not biologically.
Given that we are told that Burnham is Georgiou's adopted daughter in the mirror universe, I think that each "Emperor" chooses a favourite subordinate to be their successor, either the most loyal or the most competent, and that person is then adopted. Succession thus comes with no regard for direct familial ties in order to avoid the major succession crises like what have been seen during the medieval and early modern periods, or classical Rome since the Terran empire seems to be heavily inspired by them.
The Star Trek Discovery:" to die standing" might mention if she is related to Sato. I have it just haven't read it yet.
I agree with @MahsaKaerra's assessment, plus, Georgiou is Malaysian and Sato is Japanese.
Could you do a video that would speculate what a battle between the mirror universe and the borg might end up looking and a potential outcome? That would be interesting. Thanks for all that you do! These are fun to watch.
You should read a book called Dark Mirror. In this book Spock never gains any influence. In that book The ISS Enterprise D faces off with the USS Enterprise D. The Prime universe Enterprise is no match against the Mirror Universe ship.
Dark Mirror is indeed an excellent book. The TNG series missed a serious opportunity when they didn't do some episodes about the Terran Empire
I believe it was that Spock didn't gain enough influence, though it has been a while since I read the book.
My personal headcanon for that alternate universe is the Tholians managed to get the either other USS Defiant aka Sisko's Pimp Hand or the SS Defiant along with a history book on where the empire went wrong by Jean-Luc Picard.
@@rvaughan74 correct. Mirror-Spock failed and was executed for treason. His reform attempts died with him and the Empire's rule continued unabated.
I've always believed we are so much closer to this universe than that of Star Fleet.
That Enterprise spin off of first contact seems scarily on point for us. Especially with the way we are going.
That's because the future Gene Roddenberry envisioned will only ever arrive in some alternate cosmos where humans have the capacity for decency and rational behavior. We ARE the mirror universe, and will shortly be killing those smugly intelligent and condescending Vulcans and conquering everybody! I can't wait until we Terrans can fulfill our Manifest Destiny to make the Universe Great Again- MUGA!!!
@Shawn Tipton It is never mentioned in canon that the Terran Empire was formed from the Roman Empire. If that were true, then most human characters, those of European descent (i.e. Kirk, Picard, etc.), wouldn't exist, because without the fall of the Roman Empire, the Germanic people couldn't settle in Western Europe, so most people in that region would have more celtic and roman heritage, with no germanic heritage, so modern Europeans and as we know them couldn't existed. Therefore, it would be impossible to have MU counterparts to characters like Kirk, Picard, Riker...
@Shawn Tipton Yes, it may be hinted, but as I said before, it wouldn't make any sense, for the reasons I said in my previous comment.
@@diogoe.s.t.2293 did you just imply that celtic and latin people aren't white?
With all the new series coming out, why oh why do we not have a Star Trek: Mirror series to look forward to?!
What do you mean, all the series thus far have been in the mirror-verse.
/s
@@Obdimus Well you would say that wouldn'tcha, being from the Terran Empire and all. I'm onto you Obdimus!
How I would love a series that takes place in the Mirror Universe!
The mirror universe works because we're given just enough to keep them interesting, with a cast of characters that we get to see in a new light. An entire season, or an entire show, of generic evil characters would wear out it's welcome real quick
@@canadian__ninja one dimensional characters are the bane of any sci fi story and irredeemable evil is impossible for audiences to relate to. The trick would be adding some moral complexity. In the Star Wars universe there were naive Imperial officers who felt loyal but hated the things they were ordered to do. They didn't understand that the Empire itself was evil and beyond redemption; they thought it could somehow be reformed.
I've always thought that the mirror universe was created by Mccoy saving kirk's girlfriend leading to Germany winning ww2
That might be the best Star Trek Theory I’ve ever seen. It makes so much sense!
It's not out of the question. The intro credits of "In a Mirror Darkly" hint that the Terran Empire's government already existed around the mid-20th century, and an Axis victory in WW2 would be the best chance for that to happen.
Mirror Spock is the traitor, but prime Kirk is who ruined Terran Empire.
Ya it's a different universe working on different rules. Your morality doesn't apply here.
@@JeanLucCaptain In defense, it wasn't morality, but logic that drove our JTK. Weird as that sounds, but's that's exactly, in a brilliant moment, that Kirk proposed. And he left Spock with an ALT-DEL mode. I'm guessing that the MU Spock used it... logically.
Kirk wiped his ass with the prime directive
There different lore about why Mirror Spock did what he did. One of them is to start a fresh beginning by rip out the old always.
I'd like to see a story where someone goes back in time assassinates Mirror Spock and the Empire Continues into the 24th Century. I want to see how good they'd be at facing the Borg
The first time I ever heard of the mirror universe was in the T.O.S. Season 2 episode 'Mirror Mirror' where Kirk Scotty McCoy and Uhura are transported to the mirror universe through a transporter accident combined with an ion storm that was going on at the same time and one thing I always wondered is who came up with the idea for the mirror universe episodes starting with T.O.S. as it was that series that first came up with it.
The mirror universe is my guilty pleasure I can't get enough of.
So the Defiant did bring a giant leap forward for Terran technology. Seeing those torpedoes in DIS, even Prime Universe's 24th century ships don't have kind of firepower.
Actually this torpedoes have the exactly same power of their counterpart, just we now have the cgi to show it
@@FedoReds88Although it was never mentioned on screen, I once found an article where someone calculated a main universe photon torpedo's yield. And it came up in the range of about 100 megatons.
That is nowhere near enough to fracture a planet's crust. Charon's torpedoes do have that effect, so they are clearly more powerful than their main universe counterparts.
@@refulgent_fanta waith, 100 megatons is enough to fracture the crust, but depends on how this energy is used
For example, if the tszar bomb have been detonate near or inside the surface (between 100 meters over or inside) we would have obtained the equivalent of an surface squashing earthquake, with all the correlate, that torpedoes seems to have been detonate exactly during the impact, so the explosion (due to the velocity) occurred very below the surface
But also it's depends of how the energy is produced, with an hbomb we have an enormous amount of radiation (neutron's an gamma mainly) and heat in an particular spectrum, whit an antimatter one, beside the facts we never see one (fortunately), we would have a different spectrum of radiation and energy, so the effects have to be different in term of results
@@FedoReds88 Indeed, one might imagine that Star Trek torpedoes can be programmed to behave like bunker busters, burrowing below the surface before detonating.
@@MrStephenRGilman a fully multi-purpose weapon, fully into the star trek's technological fashion
I would love more Mirror Universe! It's the most interesting part of Star Trek, seeing alternate versions of characters you know.
There's an artist on Deviant art that has literally designed am entire Terran Empire fleet, complete with space stations, defenses and PLANETARY ASSAULT forces 😎
That sounds very cool
What is the channel's name?
want to know more, intensifies
I feel like Terran Empire technology is pretty crappy, all things considered:
- they captured a Vulcan Science vessel, giving them a massive leg up on United Earth Starfleet. They then (mostly) defeated the Vulcans and Andorians, propably gaining their tech on top. Yet that was not enough to pull ahead of the Prime Universe Federation
- the Agony Booths were a development by Mirror Phlox - not a original terran invention
- the charon was a one-off thing. Something only possible via the Mycelial power generator. Nothing indicates they could not have done the same in the Prime universe - they were just smart enough not to.
- Despite having gained 24th century technology a literal century earlier, the 24th century ISS Enterprise was on par with the 24th century USS Enterprise. They should have been about 100 years ahead
- then they had to steal the plans of the USS Defiant and still almost failed at building one. Again, no own development
The terran empire was given technology 100 years ahead of the prime universe _twice_ and they barely managed to _draw even_ with the Federation.
Their entire progress seemed reliant on stealing technology - from the prime universe or other mirror verse powers. They seem incapable of advancement themself.
Considering how innovators and intellectuals are prime targets for authoritarian regimes, who tend to execute the people who might depose the current leader or question the regime, there's going to be a lot of stagnation, especially when they run out of enemies to steal from. The Terran Empire's reign also prevented the development of technologies like the Cloaking Device (likely due to the lack of Romulan presence, while T'Kuvma's cloaking device was either never developed, or destroyed before it could become fully implemented), which had to be acquired from the Prime Universe.
There's a massive difference between the infrastructure necessary to build single prototypes and the infrastructure for mass-production.
In any hierarchy, the most powerful ships, weapons, and positions of authority can only be handed to people who display complete loyalty to the top ranks. This creates an incentive for the number of "good" tools to be kept small and in the hands of the elite, while the cannon fodder makes do with tools that are either barely above parity or outright inferior to those used by the enemy - let alone the trusted few.
It also makes for a lot of secrecy, a lack of redundancy and duplication of work.
The Terran Empire was NEVER going to tear the Defiant apart in order to figure out how it worked. They also didn't (and couldn't) immediately start building new ships from existing blueprints. Their best and brightest would have been enlisted to hand-build _spare parts_ to keep their existing ship operational.
Building new ships requires building entire factories to produce raw materials in the quality and quantity necessary. The bigger and more complex the supply chain, the more vulnerable it is to disruption and the more information will "leak" to one's enemies.
Even the century's worth of advanced scientific data in the ship's computers would need to be painstakingly confirmed with repeat experiments.
Quality is a multiplier for quantity. Zero quantity multiplied by anything is still zero.
@@Grizabeebles Just having a working example of what is possible makes a huge difference.
Atomic power was delayed for decades, because it was deemed *impossible* to get a chain reaction going. And we are still not 100% sure economic fusion power is possible.
Sure, you can not build copies outright. But it should still accelerate your progress by a few decades.
Use of ionized hull plating on Enterprise makes no sense, given access to Vulcan shield tech.
Honestly, though, I suspect it was the writers forgetting themselves on that one.
@@TommygunNG Polarisation and ionisation are different things. I think. It is hard to tell the technobabble appart 😊
I ALWAYS IMAGINE THE IMPERIAL UNION OF PLANETS, THE EARTH WITH THE SWORD IS FOR TERRAN SHIPS, WHILE OTHER PLANET MEMBERS (LIKE VULCANS AND OTHERS) USE THEIR RESPECTIVE PLANET
It's the *TERRAN* Empire. Screw them xenos and their heritage.
Humanity first, death to the Xenos!
THE FIRST TERRAN EMPIRE!!!!
Mabie a shield, like meat shield
The Terran Empire is so opresive that makes You love more the Federation.
Yup. I'd put up with bureaucracy versus being assassinated or tortured as a matter of day to day military life (not sure what civilian life is like for Terrans but I doubt it is completely hazard free)
They are popular because people have a morbid curiosity with alternative histories and in being able to either vicariously or directly shed their morality in a fictional or simulated setting. The Man in the High Castle, Star Wars TIE Fighter, Grand Theft Auto, "Remember, No Russian".
, etc....
Man in the high castle is just TERRIFYING.
Also, it has the advantage of not needing to have a proper good series, or beloved one, as it is out of continuity. It has more liberty to do their stuff. Discovery writing problems weren't as annoying in mirror universe as they were normally, precisely because their passive-aggressive assholes, crazie people and other things are not that "out of character" in the universe.
I think another video about the culture of the Terran Empire would be great!
Some Trek series should revisit the mirror universe after the rise of the Terrans from slavery. Maybe they already build a new empire. Great video! I almost got some Warhammer 40k vibes from those Discovery Terran empire clips.
In Star Trek Online, they did exactly that, they were led by Mirror Leeta (she has superpowers thanks to pah-wraits)! 😀
I never liked the idea of the "Terrans unable to innovate" or having to need "help" from the prime universe to advance since it makes no sense to me, look at the cold war-era US and USSR, both sides manage to improve and develop new technologies military and otherwise, and both having completely different government systems.
When the cold war ended military technology slowed down yes but not technology overall and it hasn't taken much to "militarize" technologies developed during peace for civilian use.
I think that the Terran Empire should have the same level of technology development as the prime universe counterpart.
PD: you don't simply reverse engineer an alien spaceship, evil or not Terrans are still homo sapiens.
I agree. The direction of innovating would be different but it would still be there. I never liked designs being identical between the two universes except for some cosmetic differences.
I'm so glad your channel was recommended to me. Thank you for so many videos to binge!
The more realistic version of mankind in space.
Plot twist... Startrek turns out to be 40K's dark age of technoliogy :D
I think an updated version of a deep dive into Mirror Universe is a good idea.
I second this idea 💡
I concur
If you do a redo of a terrain episode, I'm holding my fingers for a comprehensive one. Long form content is my go to
Excellent, great choice of topic Lore Reloaded my boi
Id love to see what the Terran Empire would be if they had augments
Imagine if they met the Borg in the TNG timeline...
Surely they would've implemented the augs on everyone, just to have an edge over stronger aliens, such as klingons and vulcans, but would've also improved the genetic pool, avoiding the autodestructive aggressivity's gene
@@alessiodecarolismaybe terrans are augments
I always liked Hoshi becoming Empress. She was treated so badly over the course of Enterprise that it was nice for her to get a win. Even if it was in an alternate universe... 😔
Emperor Hoshi is great in the books too. I wish they would do stories based on them instead of the stuff we got on DISC
I choose to believe that hoshi installed a requirement that the emperoress be of Asian decent and female …
What if the person simply identifies as Asian?
@@LoreReloaded I like to think she added some titles like Living Incarnation of Sol Hyperion and Dragon Empress of the River of Stars because she wasn't Regina Andor and Dominar of Qo'nos yet.
@@LoreReloaded Maybe not a "requirement" maybe more like a tradition where an Empress would chose and groom their heir. That seemed to be hinted at in Discovery mirror universe trilogy. Just wished they hadn't ruined it by adding the terran's eyes are more sensitive to light, kind of ruins the whole point of the mirror universe to me.
Long Live the Empire! It's my favourite aspect of Star Trek Lore :)
The Terran Empire vs. the Goa'uld system lords. Dew it.
I always saw the mirror universe as a inverted parallel universe to the star trek universe. Not a branching time line.
It would be interesting to see the borg played out as a positive merger of organic and technology equally as powerful to the terrain empire.
You should read the TNG novel Dark Mirror. It's written before this episode and the DS9 mirror episodes.
This reminds me of Galactic Civilizations II. In it, you start with a neutral alignment. But your actions and choices shift your alignment towards good or evil. All three paths give you certain advantages but also have disadvantages. And this even affects which tech you can research. For example, one tech that enhances the speed of ships can only be researched by a good civilization. The description states that it was invented by a man suffering from a birth defect. An evil civilization would’ve just killed him at infancy.
This kinda mirrors the Terran Empire. They’re so obsessed with domination and power games that everything else tends to slide by the wayside. Klingons can sometimes fall into the same trap, although any scenario of a war usually ends with them winning
The Imperium of Man in Warhammer is a good example of that stagnation.
The Mirror Universe in Discovery definitely borrows from the Imperium of Man, between the aesthetics, ideology, and the Torpedo Exterminatus.
1:28 Tpol was very nice Eye Candy
I've always felt the Terran empire would have made more sense if Khan had started it after winning the war against other augments. It would be interesting to see normal humans become 2nd class citizens and be used mostly for cannon fodder.
sounds a bit like Warhammer 40k. SM are the elite troops worshipped by all while the normal IG soldier is cannon fodder
@@jeandelacroix6726 Dune, you're talking about Dune
In a novel he did.
There is a 2 part book series that really expands the 24th century mirror universe. We get mirror 7 of 9 the Origins of Worf how Kira rose to power. Even mirror Janeway and Voyager crew worth a read.
Janeway went back past to killed Spock. To talk him out of it. This is mirror version of Janeway.
Mirror Universe's "The Merchant of Venice" has Portia saying "The quality of mercy must be *earned*", and Shylock getting his pound of flesh.
One thing not mentioned is how in some novel (sure, not canon but I loved it), it turns out Spock's plan was to cause the collapse as the empire could not be reformed. And his own calculations showed the other empires that would rise, fight amongst themselves, and eventually some new form of a federation would form out of all the carnage.
you know they really missed a huge opportunity in everything after TOS by not making Spock The Emperor. Just think about the end of mirror mirror
That Rebellion was killed off.
In Stellaris, all my Earth-based empires have the words Terran, Solar, or United.
You keep equating the Original Universe (of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT) with the Prime Universe (Of STD, Picard and Lower Decks). There are even two different Mirror Universes you're talking about as if they are one. The Mirror Universe of the original Star Trek universe and the Prime Mirror Universe. (Some would even say 3 universes, as some fans don't consider the alternate universe of DS9 to be the original Mirror Universe - as it doesn't "mirror" the main universe anymore - and consider it instead to be a parallel universe of the original Mirror Universe).
The agonizer and agony booth is their crowning achievement until the Tantalus Field device was discovered by evil Kirk.
Just a little food for thought: As long as there is such a thing as "wartime" & "peacetime", mankind is always restricted, at least to some degree. Because this means that there is a specific time and place for war to occur. Thus there are limitations.
It is when you get into something like Warhammer 40k and there being only war..... that is true nightmare fuel. (edit: and I am only talking about the actions humanity would do in a "there is only war" scenario here, all the other stuff like chaos and xenos and all that, not even going there, just humanity)
People tend to forget that human history is more than just non stop brutal warfare and 40k fans tend to overlook the fact any "glory" the Imperium wins is often incorporeal and on the backs of millions of people who just get thrown into the grinder or slavery. One of the reason why people join Chaos is because life is so shit that even the dark voice promising everything to you that you know is sus has a faint chance of actually improving your lot.
I would watch a Terran Empire series or movie
What messed the Mirror Universe up is that they did not have a section 31.
Thanks for the break down. lore I think that the mirror universe wouldprobably have kept innovating if they had of meet an entity like q . Honestly I was wondering why you didn't suggest that the q might have played a part in it I really would like to know your view on that the idea that maybe the q manipulated the situation with the prime and mirror universe
Man, imagine if they *had* gotten ahold of a DS9-era Defiant class ship.
If they launched an invasion to the Prime Universe with that tech, the Federation and allies could very well be in serious trouble
Does the Kelvin timeline have it's own separate mirror universe or does it share the mirror universe with the prime timeline.
The Kelvin "mirror" is the water in the toilet bowl that is JJ Trek!
In the Kelvinverse comics by IDW they do. The Mirror Kelvin Khan is a resistance fighter for example
Some topics worth exploring are 1. which novel would translate well to the screen 2. how would Star Trek have fared if the original pilot had been accepted 3. does Star Trek still reflect Genes vision
I also think a fresh take on the mirror universe would be great
I would say spock's mistake was reforming SF too much while there were still a number of powers that would have taken advantage of the situation.
I know this is likely nitpicking but technically what Archer did was mutiny. He died before he could try a coup.
In the book "Sorrows of Empire," it claims Spock KNEW his reforms would leave the Terran Empire-turned Republic defenseless, and that was his goal.
@@rharris4736 I think I read that one. It sounds familiar. 🖖
@@ryank5424 I'm sure you did. It's called "facts." Take that from an expat who lived in third world China for seven horrible years before moving back to the Human world.
What if they do a Terran Empire episode in _Lower Decks?_
I think in the mirror universe, the entire crew of Lower deck would be executed for incompetence, sooner or later 😄
Terrans never die!
What about the Tantalus Field that the Empire's Kirk had in his quarters that he used to pluck off his enemies?
That’s why humans love Klingons. At heart we are the same. Warriors who love killing when the restraints are removed and it’s do or die. Quark had our number in that one episode, “"Let me tell you something about hewmons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time, and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes. You know I'm right, don't you? Well? Aren't you going to say something? "
Nog : "I feel sorry for the Jem'Hadar."
Id love to see a video on the different tactics used on station combat vs ship combat
Maybe instead of Starfleet outlawing cloaking device usage during the 24th in our universe, this uni outlawed their Tantalus Field tech. Because Mirror "advantages."
What about the Tantillus device, i know I misspelled it. But the thing in Kirk's cabin in Mirror Mirror
I mentioned it towards the end
If you want to do some history comparisons take a look at the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire had advanced technologies such as plumbing, aqueducts and building architecture just to name a few. Many of those technologies were lost for centuries after fall of the Roman Empire.
Just think, Kirk (pretending to be Mirror Kirk) stopped Mirror Kirk's lover from instant-killing Mirror Spock... the snowball that led to the avalanche that killed the Terran Empire. So, if the switch-er-roo didn't happen, the Terran Empire might have been unGodly monstrous, like an evil-to-the-core Dominion.
I love the Mirror Universe stories. When we are so used to the Prime "Goodie goodie" Starfleet it's awesome to see a warped version of them with no morals. Kind of makes you appreciate the Prime Starfleet better when you see what they COULD be if Starfleet did not have rules and morals.
Calling the canon Federation goodie goodie is horrifying. It's aggressively and hypocritically militaristic, pushing its specific and internally inconsistent version of morality on everyone.
they should do a tuvix episode, except the resolution is exactly the same XD
Discovery would have been a much better show had it been set entirely in the Mirror universe. Imagine the twist at the end of the Pilot if it revealed we weren’t watching Starfleet at all.
In Star Trek Online Leeta from the Dabo table runs it now in the mirror she is Admiral Leeta of the I.S.S. Enterprise (no joke) and she even has the power of the pah-wraiths now and basically does assaults thru the badlands in game now. The Kelvin mirror side is run by the disco crew at one point and the ISS charon, the empresses flagship (Styx dreadnought) is found scattered over time and space on the planet Pahvo from when Lorca destroyed it as well, but they mostly stick to the badlands and do mirror incursions due to the ease of crossing circa 2411 in star trek online.
Definitely wish there was more mirror universe T'pol
Did Linda Park come back to play Empress Sato in Star Trek: Discovery?
I would enjoy seeing possibly a larger and more comprehensive video on the terran empre
Season 1 discovery
I wonder if elements of both could be combined for a good Trek universe?
Use of ionized hull plating on Enterprise makes no sense, given access to Vulcan shield tech.
Honestly, though, I suspect it was the writers forgetting themselves on that one.
Mirror Hoshi. Nuff said.
So basically Warhammer 40,000 but without space marines.
Section 31 Movie Started Filming on January 30th 2024 so Exciting, and People were saying that it would Never Happen.
The mirror universe novels are a great read folks well worth a read if you haven’t already
I haven't read them all but the ones i read were great .
There is a comic series based on a TNG era mirror universe where a buff, sleeveless, Picard with a goatee steals the latest and last great hope for the survival of humanity: The Galaxy Class Warship
When Star Trek goes full 40K, it's a weird flex but I can dig it.
I'd listen to you read the phone book
4:40 " the weaponry inside them was designed to cause mass devastation and harm"
Man, it's going to fuck this guy up to hear what weapons have been designed to do for the past 3000 years.
DAMN glad to be back Y.T unsubbed me over half a year ago .I thought this channel was taken down
One wonders at what Mirror Universe Borg would be like? I personably believe that the Collective would still be hive minded and set on assimilation, on both a Nano and Biological mindset. Surely the Borg would have recognized genome manipulation as beneficial to the Collective? Why just focus on the cyborg part when you can genetically modify? For the benefit of the Collective? And that would make one hell of an advantage over the Terran Empire. They don't have the tech to adapt. The Borg would simply assimilate the Terran Empire, takes what works, adapt an move on. And that is quite troubling, at least for the Mirror Universe, because that makes the Borg truly unstoppable. In any universe.
Can't wait to get that swag, it better be stuff like a shirt with the quote, "No not the Orphans!" Or "Suliban don't have souls" 😂 keep up the great work man!
They are landing on the nuclear stockpile!
@@LoreReloaded Why Shraviq!? WHY?? 😂😂 Love the RPG series, it's the true vision of Gene Roddenberry 💩
You know, sometimes i wish for a full series about the Terran Empire's conquest... but then i remember...
OH YEAH WARHAMMER!
Terran Empire is the embodiment of sci fi TV shows and movies of the 30's and 50's.
I love the Mirror universe. I’d love a series on it. I’ve always wondered how Q would be in the Mirror universe, we thought he was bad in this universe sometimes, I can just imagine how ruthless he would be there.
It would probably be the same Q. They can travel back and forth through time, what's a parallel dimension?🤷♂️😁
There is no Q's in Mirror Universe. They would have join together billions and trillions years ago. Mirror and Prime.
@@AzathothXy that does make a lot of sense. I didn’t think about that. Thank you
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
episodes
ENTERPRISE : ⬇
IN A MIRROR DARKLY
pt 1 & pt 2
TOS : ⬇
MIRROR MIRROR
DS9 : ⬇
CROSSOVER
THROUGH THE
LOOKING GLASS
SHATTERED MIRROR
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOAK
VOYAGER : ⬇
LIVING WITNESS
?
Terran should be 100 years ahead of prime reality in its 22nd century since Vulcans weren't holding them back.
I always see the Terran empire as humanity as his worse if humanity keeps with his destruction tendency hate fear self interest... While the federation is the best human can offer collaboration selfless
I think The Original Series "Empire of Planets" was likely an interspecies alliance born out of necessity due to an impending stalemate between the Vulcan/Andorian/Tellerite rebellions and the Terran Empire. Emperor Georgiu said you can't make war with an entire galaxy. This lesson never needed to be learned for the Terran Empire. The Prime Universe had its own isolationist movement in "Terra Prime", I imagine if the Enterprise NX-01 had discovered future technologies that United Earth would be covetous of it too and the "Terra Prime" movements ideology would have gained a more prominent foothold.
Ironically, the xenophobia of the Discovery era Terran Empire is due in large part to the technological advantages received from the prime universe's USS Defiant crossing over.
evil federation always looked so much better on screen
Star Trek The Terran Empire should be Tarantino’s 10th movie.
I have a theory on this;
I believe Mirror Universe started when Na'kuhl General Vosk started tampering with the timeline. Agent Daniels couldn't successfully stop the Na'kuhls, so the timeline splits when Jonathan Archer was brought back to past.
See, from Beta canon, STO, Terran Empire had no quarrels with the Na'kuhls because they knew mirror humans aren't responsible for the destruction of the Na'kuhl Star.
I don't remember the book, but there was a flashback to the ending of first contact: Zefram Cochrane threw a coin to decide if he should tell the others about the dangers of the Borg. In the mirror universe he revealed the dangers of the future threat, leading to Earth choosing a more militant stance to space and other races.
@@sakisen Well in Enterprise opening credits it shows the moon landing with the Terran flag instead of US Flag which likely happened before the time of Cochrane even if it didn't still happen in the 60s. One theory I've heard was it was a response to losing the Romulan War, but between that clip and Enterprise taking place before the Romulan War that could only be true if there are multiple Mirror universes.
T'pol's midriff uniform! Holy Bazinga.