Deep Space Nine 4x20 "Shattered Mirror"

rating: ****

the story: Mirror Jennifer kidnaps Jake so Sisko will help complete Mirror Defiant.

what it's all about: At this point, a brief synopsis of this episode probably looks like gobbledygook, so let's break it down for the potentially uninitiated: "Mirror, Mirror" in the original series introduces an alternate reality where, basically, everything that's good is bad.  Deep Space Nine revisits this alternate reality for the first time in "Crossover," then again with "Through the Looking Glass," in which Sisko is confronted with the doppelganger of the wife he lost a long time ago.  So, Mirror Jennifer is that doppelganger.

Okay?  "Shattered Mirror" is in some respects the culmination of Deep Space Nine's Mirror Universe stories.  Oh, there're a couple more, but they're not hugely essential, at least not to the extent of the first three visits, especially as they relate to Sisko.  They also comprise the first big completed arc of the series.  In a lot of ways, not only does "Shattered Mirror" bring closure to "Looking Glass," but it's an answer to "The Visitor" at the start of the season as well, the fourth season's twin answers to the strong character work both Siskos received in the third season, when Sisko finally found peace with his life and mission at the station, and his son Jake started carving a path for himself.  Meeting Mirror Jennifer was a cool moment, but it would've sort of remained that if "Shattered Mirror" hadn't occurred after it.

Simply put, this is a crucial episode of the series.  If anything, Jake's interactions with Mirror Jennifer have more meaning, since he's reconnecting with a version of his mother, who died when he was very young.  Jake had grown a lot at this point in the series, and as I've mentioned, begun to come into his own.  "The Visitor" was his definitive spotlight, which meant he was ready to carry this kind of episode.  To have seen how far he could go was to be just as moved to see him reduced, all over again, to someone's child.  This is why Jake will always serve as a stark contrast to the wunderkind that was Wesley Crusher, who although he grew up, too, was always presented as his own man and even existed quite comfortably for a whole season without his mother, in Next Generation.

The ending of the episode, then, is just as poignant as the conclusion of "The Visitor."  At this point it shouldn't be a spoiler to find out that Mirror Jennifer dies.  The method of her death is part of the genius of the episode.  Mirror Kira, more commonly known as the Intendant, truly becomes a villain, and in some ways presages Dukat's arc across the series proper (it's very telling that Dukat doesn't seem to exist in the Mirror Universe, although of course Garak does, and his appearances are always fun to watch in these episodes).  She had been the most distinctive presence in Deep Space Nine's Mirror Universe from the start, but her significance fell when Mirror Jennifer unexpectedly changed the dimensions of the arc.  So to see their paths fatefully converge was, as I said, a true stroke of genius. 

Really, there was no good way to continue the arc past this point.  "Resurrection" in the sixth season is a wonderful bonus (with a great twist), while "The Emperor's New Cloak" in the seventh delivers a de facto resolution (good guys get their definitive victory, which these episodes served to forestall all along, ever since Kirk begged Mirror Spock to be the change he wanted to see in the world) that predicted the final episode of the series, too.  But neither could hope to compete with "Shattered Mirror."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Another return to the Mirror Universe of the classic "Mirror, Mirror."
• series - Which at this point had become a defining element of Deep Space Nine.
• character - Jake joins the fun.  Which doesn't turn out to be so fun for him.
• essential - It's basically the conclusion of a Mirror Trilogy, and resonates with material throughout the series.

notable guest-stars:
Felecia M. Bell (Mirror Jennifer)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Aron Eisenberg (Mirror Nog)

Deep Space Nine 3x19 "Through the Looking Glass"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko is brought to the Mirror Universe to confront the most unlikely foe: his dead wife's doppelganger.

what it's all about: What's even more unlikely than Deep Space Nine producing one classic sequel to the original series classic "Mirror, Mirror" (last season's "Crossover")?  Producing a second.  (And, also, a third: next season's "Shattered Mirror," completing arguably the best trilogy of the whole franchise.)

You really only need to look at the story summary, a truly genius move that few other shows would even consider as a possibility.  What's most brilliant about it is that the actress whose minor appearance as the late Jennifer Sisko in "Emissary," the first episode of the series, returns, for a far more substantial role.  It's a gamble that absolutely pays off.  Even if you don't think the actress nails it, Avery Brooks does.  It's one of the key performances in a season full of them, a season that redefined Sisko as the true lynchpin of the series, after a few seasons in which that was never a certainty.  It happened with Picard, too, but Sisko's accomplishment is the greater for having so much demanded of him in one season and every time proving to be up to the challenge, as if all of Picard's best moments were in the third season.  (I mean, there's still "Pale Moonlight" and "Far Beyond the Stars" in the sixth season, but it's still incredibly hard to stack anything up against Sisko's appearances this season.)

"Looking Glass" at last tackles the elephant in the room, which two previous seasons had danced so badly around, Sisko's devastating loss, the central element of the very first episode, for him.  Seeing it finally revisited, and brilliantly, was a moment that really had to happen, but the way it happened is the genius of the episode, in another trip to the Mirror Universe, the signature alternate reality of the franchise (revisited several other times in the series besides, plus the two-part Enterprise entry "In a Mirror, Darkly").

The third season scored so well with Sisko because it constantly put him in discombobulating situations, and each time he proved worthy to the task.  The Mirror Sisko we met in "Crossover" was about as far from the Sisko we knew then, and later, as you could get, so to see that character reverse-engineered, not even to talk about the Jennifer element, is to see exactly how Sisko goes about making decisions.  That's probably the best way to view the episode if you don't particularly care for the greater implications, which is what you should be able to say about classics, whether they can work on multiple levels, and how much they challenge the viewer.  Anyone who thinks this might just be a Mirror Universe rehash will have to admit that it adds significant new wrinkles to the formula.

But the Jennifer element is definitely good enough to warrant classic status all on its own.  Everyone in the episode clearly enjoys the possibilities given them.  This one is really hard not to love.  If none of what I've already said sells it for you, just think of this: "Looking Glass" also sneaks in the craftiest interseries character appearance ever, with Voyager's Tim Russ appearing as Mirror Tuvok, with no one really drawing attention to it.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Another fruitful trip to the Mirror Universe.
• series - Another in a fruitful series of Deep Space Nine trips there.
• character - Sisko comes face-to-face with the specter of his dead wife.
• essential - Too darn good to ignore.

notable guest-stars:
Felecia M. Bell (Mirror Jennifer Sisko)
Tim Russ (Mirror Tuvok)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Dennis Madalone

Deep Space Nine 1x1/1x2 "Emissary"

****

There are too many things to recommend about the first episode of Deep Space Nine.  It may be the best pilot in franchise history.

Famously envisioned as the series set on something other than a starship, Deep Space Nine is the first Star Trek incarnation to feature the name of its setting in the title, a trend that continued through the next two creations.  DS9 is, of course, a space station, still controversial a setting, as many sci-fi fans believe the idea was stolen from J. Michael Staczynski's Babylon 5, at that time still waiting for an official launch.  Gene Roddenberry had been briefed on the concept before his death in 1991, but this is the first time the Great Bird of the Galaxy had no direct input on a resulting product in the franchise.  It was truly the dawn of the Rick Berman era.

Anyway, "Emissary" has its roots squarely in the Next Generation "Best of Both Worlds" two-part episode that left a seismic impact on fans.  Benjamin Sisko, serving as first officer of the Saratoga, experiences the Battle of Wolf 359 firsthand, the moment Captain Picard, as semi-assimilated human representative Locutus, leads the Borg in its drive toward Earth and obliterates an entire Starfleet armada along the way.  Sisko's ship is among those lost in the disaster, and while he is able to rescue his young son Jake, he loses his wife Jennifer.  Three years later, he's still brooding over the loss, unable to truly move on, when he's assigned to Deep Space Nine, formerly Terok Nor, a Cardassian station in orbit of Bajor, a planet that has been ravaged for decades and now a protectorate of the Federation, a potential future member, assuming the politics work out.  The Bajorans, however, are just as reluctant about this situation as Sisko, who only wants to resign his post, while the Cardassians try and pretend everything's fine.

Just like, well, Captain Picard, who is the officer assigned to help Sisko make the transition.  Sisko is less than pleased about it.  In fact, he can barely hide his fury.  He blames under no uncertain terms Picard, and can't stand to be in the same room as him.  It's the first time anyone we're supposed to care about has reacted negatively toward Picard, for whom the audience has always had sympathy, possibly because no one we knew had been adversely affected by his experience with the Borg.  Other than, you know, all those ships lost at Wolf 359.

However, Sisko finds himself confronted by Bajor's spiritual leader, Kai Opaka, who says she sees something special in him.  It's probably the first time someone has approached him in three years and see potential in him, and not just a body to be moved around, to occupy space here or there.  Opaka moves him along the path toward discovery of the wormhole, a passage through space that also happens to contain the Prophets, the basis for Bajoran religion.  Except the Prophets are also noncorporeal beings who are interested in rehabilitating Sisko, help him move on from his loss, and move forward, because as Opaka suggested, he has great things to accomplish.  They don't understand the concept of time, or human experience, and while Sisko helps them with that, they help him look beyond these things, too.

It's a profoundly spiritual introduction, and if that had been the only contact with the Prophets, "Emissary" would still be a milestone in franchise lore, the first time a main character is truly challenged to become something greater than they once were, to accept the possibility of their own potential.  In fact, that's what Deep Space Nine is all about, Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future in working order, striving toward perfection, even while everything seems to work against this ambition.  Roddenberry himself liked to believe that humanity would have already reached that point, so all the characters to this point had already come to a basic understanding of themselves and their abilities.

Sisko is surrounded by individuals who have much work to do.  Miles O'Brien, a familiar Next Generation presence but mostly relegated to a transporter operator, suddenly has an entire space station to maintain, and a family to pacify, just like Sisko.  They're mirror images, in many ways.  Major Kira is the angry Bajoran who doesn't believe there's any point to working with Starfleet, but is forced to try.  Jadzia Dax is suddenly a young woman, but the symbiont used to belong to an old man Sisko called friend.  Julian Bashir just earned his medical license, and is looking forward to adventure, naively.  Odo seems most at home, but he's the outsider who doesn't even know who his people are.  Quark is the opportunist who doesn't want this opportunity!

Sisko actually didn't have that much more to do during the first few seasons of the show, so that makes "Emissary" all the more important, setting everything in motion, and it does so in grand fashion.  Seeing that this would be the first time Star Trek stayed in one spot for an extended period of time (seven seasons, in total), it was important to establish that there would be enough interesting things to care about, and if the characters themselves weren't enough, then hopefully the threat of the Cardassians, long established in Next Generation, and the Bajorans, who had suffered under them for many years, and had previously been represented by the popular character Ensign Ro, who was actually supposed to be featured in Deep Space Nine.  Gul Dukat makes his first appearance during "Emissary," and like Sisko would take a long time to develop into the major character he'd become (in fact not even appearing again until the second season).

It is absolutely essential viewing for any Star Trek fan, either as the first episode of Deep Space Nine, or for its profound insights into the human condition.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo
Aron Eisenberg
Max Grodenchik
Felecia M. Bell
Camille Saviola
J.G. Hertzler
Patrick Stewart

Memory Alpha summary.