Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"The Emperor's New Cloak"
Air date: 2/1/1999
Written by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Directed by LeVar Burton
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"I can't believe it ... Julian just shot Vic Fontaine!" — Quark
Nutshell: Bleah.
"Disappointing" only begins to describe "The Emperor's New Cloak." Words like "a waste," "meaningless," and "boring" also come to mind. I never would've thought DS9's final venture into the alternate universe (which has generally served the series well as good comic-book entertainment) would become the worst episode of the season. (And I hope it remains the worst of the season.) Maybe the title of the episode, a pretty bad pun, should've been a forewarning.
DS9 this season has had a tendency to wander a bit, but at least the writing has been reasonably good in most episodes. "The Emperor's New Cloak," conversely, feels like an episode written by a computer program. The input query: How many mirror-universe characters can we randomly insert into a lame-brained plot, and in what ways can we make everyone less interesting than they ever have been?
These days, a lot of people seem to be screaming "Why?" when we get an episode that doesn't advance us closer to series closure. While I've occasionally been a voice in that collective, I usually judge a show for its entertainment value, not simply its large-scale "relevance." But with "The Emperor's New Cloak," I have to ask: Why this? Why now? And why me?
Far be it for me to dislike a Ferengi episode (naw, come on), but my objection to this show isn't that it's a Ferengi episode. My objection is that everything that happens in this episode was born out of an attitude that seems to say, "We have Ferengi and evil characters; who needs a story?"
And yet it's not the Ferengi that ruined this episode (though Rom and Zek certainly didn't help the cause). What ruined this episode was a total disregard for motivation, continuity, and reasonable entertainment value. Why even use these alternate-universe characters—who have comprised a sort of mini-subplot throughout the series—if none of them are going to remain interesting?
The episode begins with Blatant Contrivance of the Week. Zek has gone missing in the alternate universe and mirror-Ezri has come through to bring Quark a message: Give the Alliance—who holds Zek captive—a cloaking device, or Zek dies. Why does the Alliance need a cloaking device? Because it would give them an advantage to help crush the Rebellion (bwahaha), and there's no cloaking technology in the alternate universe, right?
Wrong. Previous alternate universe episodes have used the cloaking device, but never mind; continuity isn't the name of the game here. I have a better question: Why did Zek even go to the mirror universe? To open new profit avenues, naturally. Yeah, right. And I'm thinking that tomorrow I'll stroll into Kosovo and set up a hot dog stand.
Once mirror-Ezri brings Quark the news, Quark decides the only way to get a hold of a cloaking device is to steal the one from Martok's ship. Quark probably deserves jail time for this little maneuver (theft of military equipment during a war?) but the episode merely treats it as a joke, and not a very good one. One of the show's funnier not-so-funny scenes is a gag where Quark and Rom carry the cloaked cloaking device through the corridors of the station. The "picture this" in question is of Shimerman and Grodenchik carrying nothing, trying really hard to look like they're carrying something heavy. Har har. In these cases, less is more: It might've been funnier if the scene were shorter.
Once we get into the alternate universe, I figured the story would get off the ground and we might be looking at some closure to the things we've seen happen in this crazy place over the past five years. Well, I figured wrong.
Simply put, very little in this plot is worthy of attention. The characterizations are aimless and confused. Everybody's appearance comes off as gratuitous and no one gets any worthwhile dialog. To say everyone in the episode is poorly motivated would be an understatement. Character reactions border on random, thanks to the confines of a shoestring plot. (Just think of all the opportunities for scheming and payback, especially given the volatile nature of the Kira/Garak/Worf alliance. All are put aside for bad comedy.)
I realize the mirror universe has been shallow ever since "Through the Looking Glass," but it always had a zany, madcap appeal. But this time there's no comic-book exhilaration like in "Shattered Mirror" or "Looking Glass," and it isn't remotely thoughtful about its characters' actions and feelings as was "Crossover." At the very least, you would think there'd be some entertaining attitude to find in the material or the performances, but, alas, that's also nowhere to be seen. The sense of omnipresent chaos that characterized previous alternate-universe shows is completely removed this time around. Now it's all routine.
As for the humor, little of it worked for me. Too much of the episode is wasted on stupid jokes; this has to be the slowest venture into the mirror universe yet. First we have to put up with several lengthy scenes of Rom trying to comprehend the nature of the alternate universe (why Behr and Beimler think Rom-the-annoyingly-verbose-idiot is funny is beyond me). Then we get extremely dull use of Zek in what I hope is his final appearance (poor Wallace Shawn; he's been such a good sport)—here he gets to engage in another iteration of the oh-so-tired lobe-fondling gag.
When the evil mirror characters are allowed to talk, their dialog is surprisingly trite, even for a comic book. Andrew Robinson, in only his second appearance of the season, is completely wasted. Once a fountain of charged dialog, mirror-Garak has become such a bumbling persona that I felt sorry for Robinson, who was apparently told to overplay his part so far as to make him simply look like a fool.
Nana Visitor is not in much better a situation. I can see what they were going for with some of this; Intendant Kira's bipolar instability has her switching on a dime from sweetly condescending to violently angry. But like Garak, it's way overdone. It exists to feed itself and not any strong story direction. I'll freely admit that Nana Visitor in tight leather is always nice to look at, but that alone can't carry an hour. The reason she was so compelling in "Crossover" is because there was a tortured character underneath all the posturing. And in later episodes like "Looking Glass" and "Shattered Mirror," there was good chemistry with Sisko, Garak, and Jennifer Sisko.
Of course, there's also Regent Worf, who yells a lot, which is not interesting in and by itself unless there's good dialog behind it, which there generally isn't. (Although, the show's biggest laugh has to be when he tries on a glove, then tells one of his crewmen: "You, come here. Your regent needs you!"—and then punches the guy in the face to test his new glove. That's the sort of clever goofiness we needed more of.)
The real core of this episode, if there is one, centers on Ezri's unknown loyalties. She's in cahoots with the evil Alliance, but her business partner, Brunt, doesn't like the Alliance. There's a friendship between Brunt and Ezri that displays a promise of depth (as well as paralleling the unexplored feelings Quark has for the Ezri of his own universe). Brunt comes off as the story's most sympathetic character—which of course means he's Dead Meat. In keeping with the established tradition of Intendant Kira killing one mirror-Ferengi per mirror-universe episode, Kira stabs Brunt because she's convinced "he was going to betray me."
What's disappointing is the amount of confused uncertainty in the Ezri/Kira relationship. Ezri and Kira have apparently been lovers, but the relationship is sketchy and undefined, and at the end when they part ways with some sort of understanding, it feels flat. Of course, the relationship probably wasn't meant to be taken seriously; it all but shouts, "Look how hip we are—we have LESBIANS! Lesbians are cool!" I have nothing at all against homosexual overtones. "Rejoined," if you choose to call it a homosexual episode per se, was one of fourth season's highlights. And the Intendant's narcissism and lesbian overtones were particularly interesting in their subtle ways in previous mirror-universe shows, particularly "Crossover." Here? It's half-baked and trivialized, taking back seat to the cloaking device plot, as if we actually cared. What's worse is the pointless walk-on of mirror-Leeta at the end, which is played for a cheap laugh that seems to buy into the "lesbians for the sake of looking hip" mindset. Thanks, but I'll pass.
Another aspect of the story I found annoying was that all the villains are just so blatantly stupid. Once they get their hands on the cloaking device, what do they do? Prepare to execute the Ferengi! But, oops! They suddenly realize they can't install it without Rom's help, so the executions are delayed. Rom installs the cloaking device. What next? Prepare to execute the Ferengi! Do they suspect for a moment that Rom had the brains to sabotage the cloaking device? No, because that would require characters smarter than Rom. It's almost as if Behr and Beimler had an oversized, flashing red button on their word processor that randomly inserted [PREPARE TO EXECUTE FERENGI] into the script, and, dang it, the button was just so inviting, they couldn't help but push it a few times! Garak eventually goes to execute the Ferengi and ends up the victim of one of the most predictable and unsatisfying death scenes imaginable.
About all I can think to do here is gripe about how hollow, forced, and lifeless the characterizations were. That's a shame, because this universe has never been lifeless. Given that this was the final alternate-universe show, you'd think they'd find room for closure. They don't. All the potential was doomed from the moment the decision was made to center the plot around the Ferengi. Sisko should've been the catalyst for this story, not silly Ferengi hijinks. It's a cheat, and, frankly, I hope such cheats don't indicate a pattern for what lies ahead.
But even if I hadn't been expecting closure, this episode would still be a loser. There's not nearly enough thought invested in any aspect of the story for it to work on its own terms. Shallow is okay, but shallow still has to be done entertainingly, otherwise it's just a waste of time.
Next week: Homicide: Life on the Station.
Previous episode: Prodigal Daughter
Next episode: Field of Fire
Like this site? Support it by buying Jammer a coffee.
105 comments on this post
Sat, Nov 3, 2007, 10:37pm (UTC -5)
I like Ferengi episodes (kill me if you like) - they're not the cream of the crop exactly, but I don't expect anything but silliness when I tune into an episode with the inevitable "Profit" in its title. I also love the Mirror Universe. So what the heck went wrong here?
Sorry folks, but a worthy goodbye to DS9's Mirror Universe this wasn't. "Resurrection" at least had the merit that it was just bland and boring - this one is downright unwatchable. This looks as though it had been written by some kind of ScriptBot - and the cheap variety, too. Except for The Episode That Must Not Be Named (read my comment on the one before "Profit and Lace" for more on that), this is probably the worst episode of the series.
A clunker like that, and in the final season too. Nice work, guys. Not. Yuck.
Sat, Dec 20, 2008, 3:04pm (UTC -5)
I however think it was a fun episode (quite good for a Ferengi outing too) which got more and more entertaining as it went. It also kinda served the goal to bring the mirror universe arc to an end.
So maybe this was not a great episode, but it was ok. I'd give it 2 1/2 stars.
Mon, Apr 13, 2009, 8:20pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Aug 22, 2009, 8:16pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Nov 5, 2009, 5:25am (UTC -5)
Sat, Jun 12, 2010, 6:07pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Aug 25, 2010, 1:34am (UTC -5)
And I also agree with Jay: the Vic Fontaine gag was quite lame.
Mon, Nov 15, 2010, 10:27pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Dec 6, 2010, 4:14pm (UTC -5)
I have never particularly cared about the mirror universe (all my investment has gone into the "real" one) so that just leaves general entertainment and I'm afraid I was yawning through most of it (when not shaking my head at convenient coincidences like Mirror Ezri, Vic and the death of Mirror Jadzia). Dull, and a waste of precious time better spent wrapping up the series.
(Ideally they should've blown up Terok Nor, the Defiant and maybe set auto destruct on the Klingon ship. Give that silly mirror universe the send-off it deserves. No objection to the idea of leaving a Ferengi or 3 on board either!)
Mon, Apr 25, 2011, 1:38am (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 30, 2011, 3:21am (UTC -5)
Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 6:54pm (UTC -5)
I expected bad. Had fun. I acknowledge (and damn) it's flaws, but it wasn't *quite* as awful as I'd anticipated.
Not even close to as bad as that Risan weather episode. Ungh. ;)
Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 4:41pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Apr 29, 2012, 6:07pm (UTC -5)
Wed, May 2, 2012, 3:13pm (UTC -5)
Let's be honest here. The lesbian Kira, Ezri, and Leeta aren't there because it's "hip." That motivation would be bad enough in and of itself. No, they're there because it's HOT! Why else, but to to appeal to the stereotypical puerile, basement-dwelling, convention-attending demographic?
Fri, May 4, 2012, 7:58am (UTC -5)
Tue, May 8, 2012, 6:27pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Jun 7, 2012, 8:49pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Jul 19, 2012, 12:18pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Sep 24, 2012, 2:41pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Dec 2, 2012, 12:24pm (UTC -5)
So, the writers insult the LGBT by authorizing pseudo-lesbianism in the mirror-universe. It rings like only an evil universe can have homosexuals... Moreover, the use of Quark to become a ridiculous female ferengi in the most mysoginistic episode of all time (profit and lace).
I never really cared for mirror universes, but this one is certainly the worst.
Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 10:01am (UTC -5)
So what if AltKira/AltEzri was played for titillation? AltKira/anyone played the same. Frankly, the only difference is that Nana Visitor and Nicole de Boer made a cute not-really-couple.
Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 10:52am (UTC -5)
Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:52pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 6:13pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Aug 8, 2013, 8:45am (UTC -5)
I do enjoy Worf as Regent though, and I think he enjoys it too
Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 10:41pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 6:18pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Nov 9, 2013, 10:48am (UTC -5)
5/10
Mon, Jan 13, 2014, 1:44pm (UTC -5)
I got very sick of Rom continually trying to figure out the mirror universe, he seems to think that everyone should be the exact opposite in all things of their regular universe counterparts. If that was the case, then because the characters in the regular universe are alive, the characters in the alternate universe should be dead. Even Rom should be able to figure this out: many things, but not all, are different.
If the Intendent had not escaped, the episode might have been a little bit better; with the capture Mirror Worf, Mirror Garak and Mirror Kira, the mirror universe arc could have been wrapped up. The rebels get a significant enough victory that the Alliance leaves them alone. Instead, the MU arc doesn't have an ending, it just - mercifully - stops.
The characters behavior is just... silly. They don't behave like alternate versions, they behave like a gross parody. It makes no sense for Worf to execute Quark and Rom. The two Ferengi delivered on their promise. No matter how evil you are, if you punish those who do what you want, you get a bad reputation, and no one will want to work with you. Also, since they have shown themselves to be useful, they might continue to be useful in the future. Quark and Rom could obtain things the Alliance needed. This brings us back to the premise: why kidnap Zek? It makes more sense to do business with him. Zek could deliver a whole lot more than a cloaking device.
And how does Quark get away with stealing a cloaking device from a Klingon ship? They could have just had Quark use his black market contacts to obtain a cloaking device, this would have avoided this awkward plot hole. It also seemed un-Ferengi to rescue Zek out of loyalty - where's the profit in that?
Mon, Jan 13, 2014, 5:21pm (UTC -5)
First of all, we've seen Quark procure a cloaking device before, in the second season (I can't remember the episode name). Beyond that, his actions in this episode harken back to the first couple seasons when he'd flagrantly break the law and apparently pay no penalty.
Also, the mirror characters lose all of what made them interesting (or simply flat line). Regent Worf if particularly bad.
But the WORST part is that apparently nothing has happened since "Shattered Mirror". The cool part about the mirror universe in seasons 2-4 was that it was advancing, and every time we got an episode there, we found out what had been going on.
Clearly, the creators wanted another Quark episode and another mirror universe episode and mashed the two together for this unsightly mess. Yuck.
Sat, Feb 15, 2014, 6:41am (UTC -5)
This is all one-note silliness and the mirror universe is way too easy to get into, but it's a harmless diversion from the serious tone of the other episodes.
Sun, Feb 23, 2014, 11:06pm (UTC -5)
By the bad acting delivered here even by some who are usually interesting, one can almost bet that even the actors couldn't afford the script they were given.
Thu, May 15, 2014, 4:03pm (UTC -5)
But Man, could we have 1 episode that doesn't focus on Ezri?
Mon, Jun 2, 2014, 5:09pm (UTC -5)
For people whom can deal with the fact that sci fi is allowed to be funny sometimes - I recommend this. 3.5 stars out of five for me.
Fri, Aug 22, 2014, 1:12pm (UTC -5)
Zek.
Mirror episode.
ZERO stars.
Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 7:41pm (UTC -5)
Garak's death was absolutely the laziest kill I've ever seen on this show. He might as well have been hyposprayed. Not that I want to see someone's insides melt, but they already established how painful it would have been. Just... why to any of it?
An absolute waste of an hour. Zero stars. The only solace from this one is that it has no consequences or worthwhile character moments whatsoever so it's totally skippable. You won't even need to hit up a wiki (unless you need to know about Julian and Ezri holding hands).
Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 3:59pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Nov 6, 2014, 6:09pm (UTC -5)
Grand Negas was double plus annoying - near unwatchable. 'Angry' Worf was a caricature of his inner self. The Ferengi shenanigans gave me pause to consider just how this supposedly financially savvy species managed to create a galaxy spanning financial empire.
One half of one star - for Ezri's costume. ;)
Thu, Jan 8, 2015, 4:03am (UTC -5)
I appreciate the mime-acting but the concept was stupid. A ship-specific cloaking device wouldn't cloak itself. It cloaks the ship's hull, not everything within it, including itself. That would be something like Pressman's Phasing Cloak.
Thu, Jan 8, 2015, 4:04am (UTC -5)
Thu, Jan 8, 2015, 7:48am (UTC -5)
Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 1:09pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Aug 3, 2015, 11:00am (UTC -5)
This ALWAYS comes up whenever there is any portrayal of same-sex ANYTHING. Afer the Rejoined episode, we had a TON of really awkward Worf/Dax (including some horribly sexist stuff), we've seen workplace sexual harassment endorsed, we've seen TONS of heterosexual 'cheap' scenes.
I can't even express what it's like to watch episode after episode with heterosexual characters almost every single time, till even my pretty tuned-in radar only slightly beeped when the 'I'm not her type' conversation happened - because frankly, I had given up on seeing ANY LGBT representation on here.
If the problem is that it caters to horny 16-year olds, do remember that most of the romance scenes do precisely that. The difference with the few seconds of having on-screen same-sex romance of any kind is that it happens to cater to a large number of people who almost NEVER see any of that.
I certainly don't have any standards or expectations of some great relationship portrayal out there - this is to the comment that it's an insult to lesbians and bisexuals. No, it's not. It's great to have ANY representation, and the fact that it was not the main focus of the story, slipped in as something as normal as Quark appreciating Ezri in the opening scene - THAT was refreshing.
I hope at least some people get this point. Every single episode you have some kind of heterosexual interaction that is often WAY more than what was shown between women in this episode. Before jumping on pulling that stuff down, do consider what that means. Imagine you had EVERY episode with that, and 2 episodes in 7 seasons showing ANY scenes with an opposite-sex pairing of ANY intensity/depth.
And then all the gay people saying, oh but that's insulting to straight people. Or that's just thrown in for the ratings. Heh.
Mon, Aug 3, 2015, 11:22am (UTC -5)
Also, I do understand what you're saying. It's great to have any representation out there. I grew up thinking it was ok to be gay because I watched 2 men get married on Roseanne. That's powerful stuff right there. Watching something on TV normalizes it. It really does.
That said... I loved Rejoined because it DIDN'T seem like a rating grab. I mean... I'm sure the trailer made it look that way, but the trailers often made heterosexual things seem like ratings grabs too (see Seven of Nine). But the Rejoined STORY just was so un-sensational, and completely normalizing (nobody even mentions the same sex attraction being an issue... and likewise the Risa episode has Worf jealous of a woman... I'd say Jadzia is canonically bi-sexual).
But this episode. It just felt like... the mirror versions of all the characters are more twisted/amoral than our regulars. So the twister/amoral guys get to be gay. Yay? I just don't know if that's something to celebrate. I appreciate the gay friendly tone of a lot of Trek, especially the "under the radar-blink and you'll miss it stuff" like Whoopi's "when 2 PEOPLE love each other", the non-issue made of the SSA with Khan/Dax and even mention of somebody's co-husband at some point. The show just glosses over it like the non-issue it should be in the future.
This just felt like a step backwards. And a step backward done for ratings. I didn't care for it... but that's just my 2 cents.
Fri, Aug 7, 2015, 4:52pm (UTC -5)
Makes sense in a way for it to be glossed over as a non issue, but if so it's amazingly subtle compared to the hetero stuff. Or in the TOS era, they'd have just directly placed a gay person on the bridge (which had its share of skirt chasers at times) had it been on their radar at the time. Perhaps they just weren't feeling quite as bold and as willing to fight conservative TV networks by the TNG era onwards
Sun, Nov 1, 2015, 4:07pm (UTC -5)
More LGBT would have been nice although thinking about sex change Quark really makes me cringe (Men wearing female clothing acting super girly is like black face in my opinion but I admit that I have a very special view on that topic)
Nevertheles, what I liked about trek was that changing your body or being with the same sex is mostly treated as something normal.
Thu, Nov 5, 2015, 1:42pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jan 4, 2016, 12:47pm (UTC -5)
So, Grand Negas Zek is involved in yet another zany scheme messing with supernatural powers (see also "Prophet Motive"). Unlike "The Magnificent Ferengi", we're given a reluctant Quark who is half-motivated by his desire to be with Ezri. Some of the best scenes come from the Mirror Universe being completely genre-blind and playing into Ferengi tricks. It might make you wonder how much different Ferengi are in the mirror universe, since people in that universe continually underestimate them.
Now, there are some really silly bits to this episode. Ezri's randomly a lesbian (or bi-sexual, who knows), Zek is flirting with random women when at this point in his characterization he really shouldn't be, and Rom rambles too much about things we already observed in previous "Mirror" installments.
But there's also a lot going on, and it's fun to revisit the Terrans as they seem to have successfully beaten back The Alliance. I would consider this a better bottle episode than the finale to end all Mirror episodes, and judged and that light it's a fun romp with characters and conflicts that are otherwise missing from season 7.
Mon, Jan 4, 2016, 5:39pm (UTC -5)
Ezri:"You're catching on."
Sure seems like the Mirror Ezri is not just Ezri but also Dax, so Jadzia seems to have died in both universes pretty much simultaneously. As someone mentioned above, rather convenient.
Mon, Jan 4, 2016, 9:11pm (UTC -5)
That said no line of dialogue (yours included) has me convinced that EITHER of them were joined to mirror Dax. Anyone else want to weigh in?
Mon, Jan 4, 2016, 9:50pm (UTC -5)
Act 1 Scene 2:
"QUARK: Good, because I'd rather talk about us. Dax, Dax, you're the most fascinating woman I've ever met. I love you. There. I said it!
EZRI: My name's not Dax."
This Ezri isn't Dax. She's still a trill, just an unjoined trill.
Tue, Jan 5, 2016, 9:41am (UTC -5)
Sun, Feb 21, 2016, 3:14pm (UTC -5)
Possibly the most self-aware moment in the whole series comes when Rom is trying to reason his way through how the Mirror Universe works - by this point in time, it just doesn't. How else do you explain how Vic frickin' Fontaine turns up? I was a big fan of the earlier MU episodes, and some of the Ferengi episodes have been great, but this is just a mess.
I will just say that I will applaud forever the choice of whoever came up with Leather Ezri, however. "Call me Shmun" indeed. 1.5 stars.
Sun, Apr 3, 2016, 2:37pm (UTC -5)
QUARK: I can't believe it. Julian just shot Vic Fontaine.
ROM: I thought Vic was his favourite singer. No wonder they call it the alternate universe.
That line is kind of delightfully loopy and nonsensical: as if Vic being Julian's favourite singer is the most relevant bit of data on evaluating whether or not Julian would shoot the guy, and, of course, as if "alternate" automatically means that everything in the universe will be "alternate." It is kind of funny to presume that the opposite of Vic being Julian's favourite singer is for Julian to kill Vic. I mean, funny once, for one line, not for a whole episode.
The cloaking plot really goes nowhere slowly, except that it leads to the Regent et al. being captured and Garak dying, which I guess is a major Terran victory, but wow does it just make the Regent and Garak et al. look stupid. So mostly the two stories that actually carry through are emotional subplots. The main one is Mirror-Ezri's, who has the main arc in this episode, the Han Solo renegade decides she has a heart, which in her case also means that she's a renegade who realizes that she has a conscience and so won't carry out the Intendant's evil schemes no matter how much she seduces her. This actually means Mirror Ezri also has the same arc as Mirror Bareil in "Resurrection." It is disinterestedly told, with no indication of why Ezri has the set of values she does or how she survived being a solo renegade when the galaxy seems to have picked sides pretty ferociously, etc. It is also really a major indicator of what has been wrong with all the MU episodes post-"Crossover," though it is obviously at its worst here. In "Crossover," there was some novelty in some of the alternate characters who didn't get much to do (especially Odo), but mostly what worked was that the key players in the MU -- Kira, Sisko, O'Brien, to some extent Garak -- made choices, had feelings (multiple -- not just one feeling repeated over and over again), had worldviews that could change as the episode went on. Since then, with each episode the focus seems to have narrowed; in "TTLG" and "Shattered Mirror" it's *mostly* Jennifer who is allowed the possibility of changing sides, with most of the other characters settling into familiar routines, and then in "Resurrection" Bareil is the main focus with the Intendant as background. Here it really is *just* Ezri who makes a choice, which, really, is the same choice that was made before by Bareil, and to a lesser extent by Jennifer, and by Sisko and Smiley in "Crossover." The MU episodes basically just tell the same story, over and over again, of someone caught between possible lives and deciding they have a conscience. And that would be fine, sort of, if there were other stories as well. "TTLG" and "SM" imperfectly put the emphasis on Sisko, and "Resurrection" kind of put some focus on our Kira, but this one *mostly* jettisons arcs for any characters other than Ezri (and, I guess, Brunt, who is mostly a tool to further her arc). It's particularly annoying in a season that has spontaneously decided to give Ezri all the stories for a few weeks. While Quark has more screen time, he is *mostly* static which means that this is one of three consecutive episodes in which Ezri is the main mover and shaker of the plot, although of course in "Prodigal Daughter," with its shoestring plot, that didn't mean that much moving and shaking.
The other story here is: will Quark get to date Ezri? This universe's Ezri is into Bashir. What about the MU one? And the answer is no. Glad we have that settled. I guess having Brunt there as an honourable Just Friends guy who is willing to stand up for what is right after being led astray by his powerful love for Ezri maybe has some Quark significance. Or not.
The other running element here is Rom's commentary on the alternate universe, which, as I said above, is very annoying, but in particular it also shows the writers really running out of anything to say about the MU besides, hey, isn't it crazy how some things are opposite but others aren't? It's Rom doing meta-commentary but pretty dull, uninspired, and annoying meta-commentary, which it seems is all there is left in this series of MU episodes.
Anyway, yeah, this episode is very bad for many reasons mentioned above, and the only thing I find worth talking about is larger patterns and themes in the series, and in the MU episodes in particular.
Sun, Apr 3, 2016, 2:37pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Apr 4, 2016, 1:29pm (UTC -5)
Good analysis. I still believe this show is better viewed as a "Ferengi Show" than as a "Mirror Show", because, like you said, all the non-Ferengi characters are incredibly one-dimensional this time around.
As for broad messages from this episode? Don't underestimate Quark, I suppose. It also gives us a chance to see how Quark and Rom have grown over seasons. Yet Rom ends up detracting from the episode with his meta-criticism that adding to it.
Tue, Apr 5, 2016, 2:08pm (UTC -5)
Thu, May 12, 2016, 2:12am (UTC -5)
I believe the producers mentioned at some point that the alternate universe characters are exactly the same people with the same character but with different backgrounds. I only mention this to point out *just how* useless Rom's musings are. There is nothing to figure out; it's the same people but with different experiences thus they came out differently. If alt/Kira has lesbian tendencies then so does Kira, and if she's obsessed with how others see her then we may suspect that Kira has a bit of this too (as well as the fiery moods). Right from the start I was seeing the alt crew as being basically the same dudes but put through bad times and not trusting. Smiley came out more or less the same because he was a bit privileged as a tinkerer on Terok Nor. I always saw the alt universe as an opportunity to learn about the real counterparts, such as the fact that Sisko can really be a savage when he's not controlling himself, and that Julian can be very brash and keep his own counsel about things.
All this to say - the commentary about "alternate" was ridiculous beyond even the obvious reason of it being written poorly.
Thu, May 12, 2016, 10:35am (UTC -5)
Thu, May 12, 2016, 1:35pm (UTC -5)
SPOILERS:
My best guess is that the presence of Mila in Garak's life gave him a role model to balance out the influence Tain had on him. Maybe without her Garak really would have turned out to be a pure sadist.
As for Worf...yeah, I just don't like his alternate self very much. He's a comic character, which is ok, but as a study of Worf he doesn't offer much other than the fact we already know that the most important formative thing about Worf was being brought up by Humans. He does tend to verge towards simplistic ways of viewing things, and I guess a simplistic way of viewing royal station would be to...act like a tyrant? I guess.
Thu, May 12, 2016, 2:37pm (UTC -5)
Which, sorry, I don't think I have sorted out what I want to say exactly. But I suspect that what made our Garak is that Tain withheld his love and forced him to jump through hoops for him, but Mila loved him (and later so did Bashir and others on DS9), which on a long enough time scale allowed Garak to hope there was a better way than the one Tain taught him. His being a spy forced him into the position of thinking like others, and his being a spy *and* an illegitimate child and finally someone in exile taught him how to live as both powerful and powerless, and to empathize with the powerless, first as a tactic and eventually as a survival skill. I agree that mirror Garak seems to have the same need to please his superiors, but a lot less subtlety in it; in this episode, we see his insecurity burst forth when he is told he can't hold a candle to our Garak. So I tend to agree he probably still has Tain's Cardassia as a value system, without much of Mila's Cardassia giving him the internal strength to weather a significant loss of status except through more sadism. So he was still, I think, raised in a system that only values the strong (and approval of one's "superiors"), but got more "approval" and less love.
Yeah, I mean, I think Worf is meant to be something like a TOS-style Klingon version of Worf, with Worf's tendency toward melodrama, flashes of anger, and somewhat royal sense of entitlement, without the various things that keep those in check in our Worf. In season four, Worf's decision to break with the Empire is a moral decision but it also demonstrates his willingness to basically decide that he himself can make that magnitude of decision, and some of that maybe comes from his sense of entitlement as being of noble blood and the head of a prestigious house (along those lines, his not bothering to think of how this would affect Kurn is there too). But yeah, it's kind of thin.
Thu, May 12, 2016, 3:21pm (UTC -5)
Fri, May 13, 2016, 11:12am (UTC -5)
Sun, Nov 13, 2016, 3:00am (UTC -5)
Watching it now, I still feel that is the best part.
Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 4:42pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 5:06pm (UTC -5)
Without her, this would be a pretty OK episode in a switch your brain off kind of way. As long as this didn't result in more of Zek, anyway.
Thu, Feb 16, 2017, 8:35pm (UTC -5)
Disappointing that it's Ira Behr and Hans Beimler who wrote this episode.
Kira asking Ezri if she would ever betray her and then hugging her and saying "Oh... oh, oh, oh" was a low point for both actresses.
Another accurate review by Jammer..
Tue, Mar 7, 2017, 6:55am (UTC -5)
Leeta and Ezri's "debriefing" conversation was unashamedly played for cheap titillation. And I appreciated it. :)
Fri, Apr 14, 2017, 4:50pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Jun 25, 2017, 2:29pm (UTC -5)
It's Ferengi silliness, it's Mirror Universe silliness, cast get to have fun in different characters.
It's not a work of art, it's not high drama. It's just a bit of fun.
2 stars, pushing 3. For me, because it's watchable and fun.
Mon, Jul 10, 2017, 3:48pm (UTC -5)
Yup, you knew that Ezri would be evil the second she showed up wearing a lot of eye shadow, because only bad girls wear make up.
Mon, Jul 17, 2017, 4:44pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 10:45am (UTC -5)
I literally, honestly, and thankfully FELL ASLEEP during this episode. Enough said.
I got about as far as the demand for a cloaking device.
(Yawn) Nodding off just typing about this o...n...e....
zzzz.....
Fri, Jul 28, 2017, 4:05pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Aug 6, 2017, 2:43pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Aug 6, 2017, 2:46pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Oct 5, 2017, 3:34am (UTC -5)
{ Say what you want about DS9, it's the least heteronormative of all Trek }
1. The episode Rejoined
2. In the alternate universe, evil woman = lesbian or bisexual
So ... I guess?
Sun, Apr 22, 2018, 12:45pm (UTC -5)
And Vic Fontaine is suddenly a real person. Whatever.
Ferengi + Mirror mashup. Ugh, no.
Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 2:20am (UTC -5)
Sun, Sep 9, 2018, 2:05pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Oct 4, 2018, 8:24pm (UTC -5)
If this episode tried to do something, it's maybe to show how Mirror Ezri develops something of a conscience. But that falls flat in a scene where she just lets Mirror Kira (who I've always found annoying) go. The bit of a lesbian vibe was just gratuitous crap.
Other than Mirror Ezri, nothing even close to being notable in this outing character-wise. And who even gives AF about Mirror Ezri anyway. Quark isn't going to score with her either.
Mirror Garak was particularly stupid -- the whole "inquisition" scene was just so dumb. Mirror Brunt being a nice guy was odd. I did find the part where Mirror Worf punches some nameless Klingon funny -- but that was about it. Rom going on about poisonous tube grubs and trying to rationalize the alternate universe was tedious to get through.
Anyhow, so much is ridiculous here -- Quark/Rom stealing the cloaking device from Martok's ship -- give me a break, Zek figuring out how to get to the Mirror Universe, the fact that the Mirror Universe doesn't have a cloaking device so they have to get it from the Prime Universe -- the whole premise of the episode is so bad.
0.5 stars for "The Emperor's New Cloak" -- this episode is in memory of Jerome Bixby who wrote "Mirror, Mirror". He'd be turning in his grave at this pile of dogshit. The worst episode of DS9 S7 kills 2 terrible birds with 1 stone: gets the token Ferengi episode and Mirror Universe episode out of the way so the series can get on to stuff that matters.
Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 2:50pm (UTC -5)
There was a speck of an interesting idea, that both version of O'Brien were pretty good guys so would mirror Brunt end up being bad in both-and kind of interesting that, against what you would expect, he (pretty much) didn't. But that's not nearly enough, too much else was too dumb. Particularly bad were the scenes where Ezri re-meets the Intendant (as if the Ferengi know that means they won't have their deal honored) and when Rom and Zek just stay on the floor until Ezri tells them they'll escape so come on.
The ending particularly admitted this is just for dumb fun, just for weirdness and overdone pandering and reversals, what you wouldn't and couldn't do in the standard series/franchise. The basic point also seemed to be don't take the Mirror Universe seriously, both factions are both pretty bad and they'll probably just continue in a pretty-much stalemate indefinitely. "Shattered Mirror" and then "Resurrection" were much better conclusions to the Mirror Universe, this episode was unnecessary and a little damaging but it seemed to be its goal to outright undo the previous sense of conclusiveness.
I think 2 stars, a miss with some annoyances but not particularly unenjoyable overall.
Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 3:05pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Feb 14, 2019, 10:28am (UTC -5)
--Two eps in a row about someone missing. And the Grand Negus, blech. This can't be good, can it? This Quark prayer is pretty fun, though.
--"Call me Shmun." I would have preferred "Call me Ishma-shmun."
--OMG, Mirror Universe combined with Grand Negus??? Is Meridian finally going to have some competition for DS9 worst ep ever?
--The invisible things you carry sure can weigh you down.
--LOL. Alternate Universe Vic. This episode gets points already, so it's ahead of Meridian. Up from -1,000 stars to -900.
--"It's the smart move." "Do we look smart to you?" -800
--AU Kira with the Negus. -900
--Garak and Worf. -800
--Sabotage!! Good work, Rom. Not a bad resolution. -700
--Eh. -700 stars. Better than Meridian by 300 stars. Had the advantage of not taking itself seriously, and some good lines.
Onward.
Thu, Feb 14, 2019, 10:51am (UTC -5)
Thu, Feb 14, 2019, 12:54pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Feb 14, 2019, 8:35pm (UTC -5)
Was I the only one that thought Alt Vic was a robot? When he's lying there dead, I remember the impression of . . . wires or something, sticking up from his wound. I assumed, "Oh, in this world he's an android instead of a hologram."
@Peter G
@Chrome
I confess I exaggerated my dislike just to be silly - it's definitely better than the total, total waste that is Meridian. Though, Peter, yes, you may be the only one that actually liked it, on the board. You've got the ears of a Ferenghi to be able to hear that distant drummer drumming. :)
I can see the fun of the ep and it did keep me engaged. For me, it's more the MU than the Ferenghi that I don't like.
Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:59pm (UTC -5)
Nonsense plot
Garbage episode
Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 2:17pm (UTC -5)
Ha!
Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 9:53am (UTC -5)
Really strange episode that dips into Discovery or Nemesis territory of badness.... simply on the basis of how lazy the writing became about hoping between the different universes. Its boring and lazy and starts to destroy the fabric of the setting and the show.
Fri, Nov 22, 2019, 5:40pm (UTC -5)
Ferengis carrying a heavy nothing was funny precisely until the invisibility spell machine flickered into visibility (I suppose because we're stupid), and from there on went from dopey to dopier.
I liked how BIG the Worfship was, that's worth half a snicker. (I can't even tell you which side he was on, or I would have identified the ship that way.)
Kira and Ezri looked great; Visitor does Entertaining Psychotic Hot Bitch better than Boer. Their kiss was a major so-what now - but bold for prime time in '99. (And they probably thought they could get away with it in an "alternate" universe.
Which universe, in this ep, makes no sense of any kind, even in the context of previous alt-uni episodes, some of which have at least had dramatic weight - and most of which have been visually and "characterfully" entertaining. This one, not at all. No motivation, no plot logic, nothing. I couldn't follow the shifting purposeless loyalties - and I didn't care.
Bad. Horribly bad. It's not that they were going for something (even something stupid) and missed it. It's that they weren't shooting for anything at all, and achieved less.
HOWEVER. Quark's prayer to his Ferengi idol was as smart an exposition/commentary as Trek has ever done in such a short scene. That might have been worth the free price of admission -
but not quite the time I spent watching what I must consider The Worst Trek Ever - or, in the MU, the best Star Drek Episode of All Time.
Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 2:24pm (UTC -5)
I love to point out star trek hypocrisy and inconsistency but i find none worth mentioning in this episode. War is bad. money is bad. Men serve the women who merely tolerate their existence. As leta and Dax demonstrate they do not need men for anything. Women are stronger(no matter how much smaller and less muscular they may be), craftier, more intelligent and command the obedience of men either through blind loyalty or fear and intimidation - even after they are dead or in another universe! Kudos!
Sun, Mar 8, 2020, 5:25pm (UTC -5)
To be fair, this is an episode which isn’t designed to take itself seriously, and after the darker tone of the more recent episodes, it was arguably time for something a bit lighter.
And as far as it goes, this episode is just as campy as the rest of the MU episodes - and sadly, it still carries the same slightly disappointing overtones, as pretty much all of the morally dubious, PVC-clad inhabitants of the MU are linked to BDSM tendencies and LGBT sexual preferences. It’s unfortunate that DS9 decided to keep traveling down this overly cliched “bad guys are sexual deviants” path, given how it dealt with many other prejudices and historical injustices in a more balanced way.
Still, it offers some closure on the MU, and Worf gets to chew the scenery, the furniture and pretty much everything on screen as he froths his way to an inevitable defeat.
It’s just a shame they decided to return the Grand Nagus back to the normal DS9 universe...
Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 5:13am (UTC -5)
Sun, Feb 28, 2021, 10:49pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 10:57am (UTC -5)
Sat, May 15, 2021, 9:45pm (UTC -5)
At this point in the series, I have completely given up on the writers advancing the Dominion War plotlines, and accept that DS9 has become a shell game. For example, The audience wants to see Weyoun 7 reopen the wormhole so the War can resume in earnest, but what it gets is the Intendant kissing alternate Ezri.
So I sit back and enjoy the succession of disconnected episodes, several of which have actually be darned good.
"Emperor's" was, in many spots, thoroughly enjoyable. The Klingon hitting the floor was great (well-timed at least) and Quark's visual reactions to some of Rom's conjectures were fun to watch. Brunt's gratuitous death went entirely too far, but while Vic's death clearly jumped-the-shark, it was so iconoclastic and unexpected that I can't completely condemn the writers for that one. I like Vic a great deal, in all his appearances, but I can understand the deep animus many may harbour toward lounge lizards and grant them their need to see one 86'd once in a while.
Solid 2 stars to me, and I would watch it again.
Sat, May 15, 2021, 10:13pm (UTC -5)
I sympathize to an extent with the complaint that the war arc wasn't advanced in even intervals in S7. In fact the same sort of issue could be raised with certain arcs in S1-4 as well, such as the Bajoran stories or the Klingon/Cardassian problems. I think it's helpful to keep in mind that the showrunners had multiple plates spinning at once with this series, and getting some of them into the forefront was probably like pulling teeth. They weren't really allowed to do long-form arcs (which really only happened for the 1st time with the start of S6), and I expect they were even discouraged from too much serialization as an overall rule. They were trying to get traction with their desire for continuing storylines, but had to watch out, as the execs didn't like it. And on top of all that, there was also the idea that Trek should have numerous script ideas in the air, be creative about what each week's adventure would be, and entertain original concepts put forward by writers. So the objective of furthering an arc was apparently very important to Behr in particular, but that was probably not the chief consideration of what would make airtime even by S7.
Put that together with the fact that they did, in fact, get license to go on to do an unprecedented series of connected episodes (SPOILER, it's later in S7), and you get a situation where they had a batch of episodes mid-season that had to fill the mandate of (a) adventures of the week, (b) variety in both style and story type, and (c) giving unique stories to particular characters. That's a lot of boxes to check off, so I would not personally agree that they were playing a shell game with audience expectations. I think maybe a more charitable interpretation of the strange series of random episodes mid-S7 is that it was the price that had to be paid for what came later. It's sort of like seeing Shades of Grey as being an installment plan on Q Who, which if seen in that light makes it much more sympathetic as something that got greenlighted.
Sun, May 16, 2021, 5:03am (UTC -5)
"I think that a more charitable interpretation of the strange series of random episodes mid-S7 is that it was the price that had to be paid for what came later".
Nicely encapsulized. I agree that it must have been a crazy environment for the DS9 writers in S7 particularly. I know almost nothing of the backstory, so I find your comments educational. I am glad that the issue of "audience expectation" was part of that whole.
The term "shell game" was uncharitable to be sure, and not the best word choice. What I hope came through in my earlier post is that I have liked a lot of the standalone episodes. That is to say, I often like what the writers give me, even when I started out wanting something different. I think DS9 somehow tests one's internal preference/tolerance system on a show-by-show basis. The scenario is as follows: you are itching for an installment of The Main Arc, you sit down with your favorite ice cream and it's "uh oh--Ferengi" or even worse "uh oh--the Nagus". However, I have found that if I get through the first scene, I'm generally satisfied. If someone asked me to write down what general 'DS9 resonant frequency' I am, I would say "Sisko-serious, and battle-oriented" . That being said however, I have grown to actually like many of the less Armageddon-esque shows. Nog and Vic were great together, and light Ferengi shenanigans sometimes hit the spot after a long day. One does not live by Jem'Hadar alone, and I respect what the writers managed to create in the whirlwind of the show's last season. Thanks!
Thu, May 27, 2021, 7:40pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 10:20am (UTC -5)
Sat, Feb 19, 2022, 3:50am (UTC -5)
I have always disliked what DS9 did with the idea of the Mirror Universe. The TOS epiosde "Mirror, Mirror" ended on a note of hope that the mirror version of Spock, a man of integrity, might summon a better future in light of his conversation with "our" Kirk. There was not really a need to revisit it; TNG as a series never did any kind of follow-up on it. We were permitted to live in the hope that something positive grew from the seed Kirk had planted.
Ah, but DS9 is where hopes go to die, and we had to be shown a mirror universe as dark as the one Kirk had visited.
Mon, Oct 3, 2022, 10:58am (UTC -5)
Mirror-Dax v.8.0: "My name's not Dax."
Quark [terrified]: "OOOOOh, I get it. Those clothes, the knife, the aggressive attitude. It's all role-playing. Er... Call me Shmunn!"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Come on, dude, that alone is worth a couple shiny 'uns, and there's plenty of nuggets like that throughout the ep.!
What we have here is the tried-and-tested problem-story-solution episode pattern. It's not a "heavy" episode, with any serious consequences, a profound message or (*dry heave*) "social commentary." There's no ten-minute, dry heart-to-heart narcoses about "my mommy didn't hug me enough when I was little," "the prophets want us to do X," or "according to ancient Blahblahdian tradition..." Yes, the story is meandering at times and kinda ridiculous in parts (aren't most of them though!) but it's done pretty humorously and has you wondering how the gang's going to get out of the pickle.
The resolution, too, isn't *quite* the criminally overdone eleventh-hour deus ex machina, so this gets a solid three stars from me.
On another note, Dax v.8.0 is SUCH an implausible character. She looks too jejune and acts too immature--or is it the other way around?--to be on Melrose Place, let alone be taken seriously as a Starfleet officer. I liked her in this edition though!
Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 1:19am (UTC -5)
Submit a comment
◄ Season Index