Many starships of fans have said it but I'll join them; Mirror Mirror is arguably the best Star Trek ep ever made, and I'd say it's also one of the ten best single television broadcasts I've ever seen.
Amazing work, seemingly born of the team taking an amazing TV show they had 100% confidence in and, can only guess but... on a specific edition (consciously intended or did it just happen?) deciding to push to make something about 100x better than even the excellent standard show they were already transmitting each week...?
The Simpsons achieved similar with Last Exit to Springfield in 1993; a single episode from a (then) blisteringly outstanding stable that is outlandishly better than the pipingly strong pack around it, with observation, complexity and inspired touches almost every ten seconds or so;a Star Trek TOS episode is 50 min not 22, yet Mirror Mirror's pace, with the exception of perhaps and only the first sick bay scene, is almost as intense.
Other reviewers have covered Mirror Mirror's plot and most points have been made, esp on the swift adaptation by all (except by perhaps McCoy) to realities in the Galactic Empire, but special mention has to go to both BarBara Luna and the writers for her character, Marlena Moreau.
Marlena is likely the very best of Star Trek characters/guest leads ever. Probably only on screen for 10, max 15, of the full 50 mins, she adds an irreplaceable dimension of human ambition, frustration, amorality and yearning for a better life that none of the regulars, breath-taking though they are, ever match.
It may be that all great shows, and all great writing and production teams, and indeed almost everyone who has passion for their work or any venture, find a time in his/her/its life when all's done, nothing hindered nothing feared and everything achieved; for original Star Trek this was it.
Amazing work, seemingly born of the team taking an amazing TV show they had 100% confidence in and, can only guess but... on a specific edition (consciously intended or did it just happen?) deciding to push to make something about 100x better than even the excellent standard show they were already transmitting each week...?
The Simpsons achieved similar with Last Exit to Springfield in 1993; a single episode from a (then) blisteringly outstanding stable that is outlandishly better than the pipingly strong pack around it, with observation, complexity and inspired touches almost every ten seconds or so;a Star Trek TOS episode is 50 min not 22, yet Mirror Mirror's pace, with the exception of perhaps and only the first sick bay scene, is almost as intense.
Other reviewers have covered Mirror Mirror's plot and most points have been made, esp on the swift adaptation by all (except by perhaps McCoy) to realities in the Galactic Empire, but special mention has to go to both BarBara Luna and the writers for her character, Marlena Moreau.
Marlena is likely the very best of Star Trek characters/guest leads ever. Probably only on screen for 10, max 15, of the full 50 mins, she adds an irreplaceable dimension of human ambition, frustration, amorality and yearning for a better life that none of the regulars, breath-taking though they are, ever match.
It may be that all great shows, and all great writing and production teams, and indeed almost everyone who has passion for their work or any venture, find a time in his/her/its life when all's done, nothing hindered nothing feared and everything achieved; for original Star Trek this was it.