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Mirror universe conundrum (startrek.website)

I recently started a rewatch of DS9. And it's going so well I found myself in S5 in no time. There are a bunch of mirror universe episodes in that series. I used to hate those when the show came out. I look at them as interesting diversions now. Kind of like making a Muppet Show episode.

So if we put to the side the notion that MU episodes are acting bones thrown to the cast by the writers and producers. And that this is sci-fi and you have to suspend disbelief: how come most of the characters in the show DS9 have mirror copies? If we just look at relationships: MU's Sisko and Jennifer hooked up but had no children. MU Smiley was never forced to eat Sushi or Cardassian food with a botanist of our acquaintance. There is no Molly in the MU. Kirayoshi hasn't been born yet where I am on the rewatch. If Molly avoids all temporal trap doors and grows up, beams over to the MU for whatever fabricated reason, she'll come back disappointed. Same with Jake and his offspring. That's just three examples of people who don't appear in the MU. What are the odds that Bennifer, Kira, two Daxes, Bashir, Quark, Rom, Nog, Garak, Odo, Brunt, O'Brian - all of these guys make an MU appearance. All their parents met up and procreated (or they got shot out into the universe for fun by the MU great link). This doesn't seem likely. We have three examples of a group of people of about a dozen main and recurring characters who didn't get born in the MU. The family tree is cut off in about 10% of the characters I listed. That sort of variance must accumulate through time. Identical MU copies should be the absolute exception, not the norm.

If we go to Disco, MU I'm gonna name you Saru is there. In a universe where they eat Kelpians. What are the odds his parents survived long enough to meet and make a really tall baby?

How can this make Star Trek sense?

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[-] hallettj@leminal.space 2 points 2 weeks ago

They sort of address this in an episode in season 7 where Rom goes to the MU, and goes on and on about inconsistencies with the concept. The other characters respond by rolling their eyes and ignoring him.

You really have to suspend disbelief in that same episode when

S7 SpoilerVic Fontaine shows up

If I had to propose an in-universe explanation I'd say maybe there are multiple branching mirror universes, and something about the crossover process selects normal and mirror universe pairs with the same people in them at the moment of crossover. That connection would have to persist somehow in certain circumstances so that the DS9 MU characters who got killed don't "come back to life" in later MU episodes.

this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2026
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