Star Trek: Mirror Universe Picard Uses [SPOILER] As A Weapon

Star Trekdepicts an idealistic future where Earth has eliminated war, poverty, and even human racism from its society. Although conflicts and corruption still exist, particularly in shows such as Star Trek: Discoveryand Star Trek: Picard, many of the problems that humanity has struggled to overcome for centuries have finally been solved – at least in Star Trek’s prime universe.

Unfortunately, there is also the Mirror Universe – a parallel universe where Star Trek’s ideals are distorted into a nightmarish reflection of themselves. Here, murder, corruption, and backstabbing aren’t vices, they’re the perfect means to rise in the pecking order. In this dark world, humanity never created Starfleet to peacefully explore the universe and invite other worlds to join their United Federation of Planets. Instead they established a “Terran Empire” that sent ships out to conquer and dominate other worlds.

While the Mirror Universe showed up only briefly in the original Star Trek series, it proved popular enough to be revisited in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Enterprise. Episodes featuring the Mirror Universe helped flesh out its alternate history – revealing that humans gained warp technology by killing the Vulcans that landed on Earth during the prime universe’s “First Contact.” Their ability to travel to new worlds helped expand their Terran Empire across the universe and turn humans into the dominant force in the galaxy… for a time.

When the prime universe’s Captain Kirk was accidentally sent to the Mirror Universe, however, he managed to convince its version of Spock to try and reform the Empire to ensure its survival. Instead, Spock’s reforms ended up weakening the Empire and making it a prime target for the Cardassians and Klingons, who conquered the human Terrans and made them their slaves. Surprisingly, this made the next generation of humans more sympathetic underdogs, and many episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nineshowcased a growing Resistance made up of humans, Vulcans, and Trill working side-by-side.

While this suggested that the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation also became freedom fighters in the future Mirror Universe, IDW comics revealed this was not true at all. Instead, the alternate version of Captain Jean-Luc Picard proved to be a classic example of human treachery, as he used his ability to inspire others as a keen weapon to re-establish the Terran Empire, one murder at a time.

Picard’s early history was showcased in Star Trek: Mirror Images #3, which revealed a young Picard taking over the Stargazer, not through an act of heroism like his mainstream counterpart, but through guile and murder when he disagreed with his Vulcan captain’s decision to surrender to the Cardassians… by stabbing him in the back. However, this was not a simple murder of passion, but a calculated move – as the captain was not popular with the crew and more than willing to follow Picard’s lead when he used a risky warp trick to fool the Cardassians into misreading their position, giving the Stargazer a chance to escape.

Picard’s continuing rise was showcased in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken. Still the captain of the Stargazer, Picard found a much better prize when he learned of the Terran Empire’s newest starship – the Enterprise. Seeing a chance to further his power, Picard plotted to take control of the ship – but realized he’d need help doing this. As a result, readers got to see Picard using his trademark skill of diplomacy and negotiation to recruit many familiar faces to his cause. He got Geordi LaForge, one of the main engineers for the ship, to help him steal it. He convinced the android Data to fake his death to gain independence from his creator Doctor Soong and join Picard’s crew. He gets a disgruntled Will Riker to serve as his first officer (once he beats the stuffing out of him). And he used his “mind witch” Deanna Troi to read the intentions of his crew to ensure he only had people loyal to his cause.

Picard is even able to convince Doctor Beverly Crusher’s “crazy” son Wesley to drop his act and function as one of his crew, once Wesley “runs the numbers” in his head and sees that Picard’s leadership offers the best chances for survival. And while distrust and lies run rampant in the Mirror Universe (for good reason), Picard is more than willing to listen to the counsel of the El Aurian Guinan (who everyone feels is the real crazy one), even thanking her for warning him against egotistical behavior. About the only TNG cast member Picard isn’t able to recruit is Worf – understandable since Worf is the Kingon regent in the Mirror Universe’s Klingon-Cardassian Alliance and likely not interested in serving on a Terran ship.

Of course, the Mirror Universe being what it is, Picard still had to deal with backstabbers and social climbers – and he proved he was capable of taking them all out with physical force and killing moves if necessary. However, he showed he was also more than willing to treat those loyal to him fairly – which made it easier for him to coordinate his people when it was time to not only take control of the ship from Captain Jellico but also engage the Cardassians in a firefight. Ultimately, Picard manages to take control of his Enterprise (and possibly gain his greatest weapon in returning the Terran Empire to its former glory). And while some questioned Picard’s ability to retain the loyalty of so many, it would appear that – even in the Mirror Universe – Picard retained his ability to convince others to follow his lead through a twisted form of diplomacy.

Where other leaders in the Mirror Universe enjoy using torture and intimidation to ensure loyalty, Mirror Picard regularly encourages people to improve themselves (as long as it benefits him) and rewards creative thinking. It’s an unconventional approach that actually employs tactics from the more idealistic prime universe, but they get Picard the results he wants.  And that just might make him the most dangerous Star Trek Mirror Universe doppelganger of all.

Source: screenrant.com