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 2x4 "Invasive Procedures"

rating: ***

the story: A rogue Trill seeks to pilfer the Dax symbiont.

what it's all about: The highly unfortunate thing about the timing of airing "The Siege" and "Invasive Procedures" back-to-back at the beginning of the second season is that they both feature the station getting evacuated, so it creates a situation where you've kind of got to decide which is the better version of the story.  On the one hand, you'd think "Siege" would come out on-top because it's the conclusion of the ambitious three-episode arc that is itself a huge selling point.  But the thing is, "Siege" seems thrown together and unearned.  "Invasive Procedures" on the other hand seems anything but.

The key difference is that the good guys have a dilemma that directly involves them this time, rather than merely the unwitting center of a crisis that otherwise doesn't really involve them except by choice (yay generic hero situation!).  And actually, "Procedures" is the soft beginning for what became one of the defining character arcs of the series, the trouble of Trills without symbionts. 

The Next Generation episode "The Host" introduced the concept of the joined Trill species, but it was Deep Space Nine that really had a chance to run with it, thanks to having Jadzia and then Ezri Dax as series regulars.  Jadzia would run into more problems of this kind in "Equilibrium," and then there was Ezri herself, the next host after Jadzia of the Dax symbiont, who embodied the problems of new and/or unprepared hosts.  (In case it slips your mind, but the reason Sisko tends to call Jadzia "Old Man" is because he knew the host before her, who was an old man.)  Ezri experiences the same problems in "Field of Fire," all the way in the last season.

So that's considerable reach for the problems "Procedures" addresses.  The Trill in Deep Space Nine were more fully developed than in "The Host."  "Equilibrium" is a better episode than "Procedures," but "Procedures" features a more memorable villain, mostly because he's played by John Glover, and has the future Tuvok in Voyager, Tim Russ, supporting him in one of Russ's several minor appearances before becoming a Star Trek regular.  In the end, it's all about hubris, not having any idea what the problems really are in what Glover's character is trying to accomplish.  Pretty standard storytelling, but it helps bring the characters together in a way that hadn't really happened previously in the series.  In a way, if you want to overlook the three-parter, or consider it an extension of the first season finale ("In the Hands of the Prophets") you might think of "Procedures" as the real second season premiere.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is pretty series-specific.
• series - Could easily function as the easy entry point of the season.
• character - Important for the future of the Dax symbiont.
• essential -  Okay, pretty important!

notable guest-stars:
John Glover
Tim Russ
Megan Gallagher
Steve Rankin

The Next Generation 6x18 "Starship Mine"

rating: *

the story: Picard must defend the ship against a gang of pirates.

similar to: "Macrocosm" (Voyager), "Acquisition" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: Picard's Die Hard moment and audition for his action-heavy appearances in the films is a fun little romp (say hello to Tim Russ's franchise debut; see you in a few years, Voyager!), repeated a couple of times (Janeway's commando turn in Voyager's "Macrocosm;" Enterprise's Ferengi episode, "Acquisition") for good effect (hey, it makes for good entertainment!), and features some fun character moments, both for Picard (remember that he's a horse-riding fan, because it'll come up again in the movies; also, he's most certainly not the barber!), and Data (his fascination with the tedious Hutchinson!).

Otherwise, this really is the throwaway little romp it appears to be.  It's not a bad episode.  It's also not hugely important.  For Next Generation, you kind of wish they'd done something a little more substantial, especially with the cerebral Picard front and center.  But apparently this is exactly what Patrick Stewart wanted.  You don't say no to Picard, the real or the fake one.  The baddies found out the hard way...

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Tim Russ
Patricia Tallman