Short Version.
Dissatisfied with the idea that the Mirror Universe is anything like a typical science fictional alternate universe, I have come up with a theory that there is a separate Mirror Universe for every Mirror Universe story line, and that crossover events create one or both of the universes crossed between, making them billions of years old.
Long Version:
I watched the Star Trek Discovery episodes "Despite Yourself", "The Wolf Inside", "Vaulting Ambition". on April 30, and "What's Past is Prologue", "The War Without, The War Within", & "Will You Take My Hand" on May 1, 2020.
And the revelation that Lorca was from the Mirror universe in "Vaulting Ambition" got me thinking the next day watching the next three episodes.
Part One of Two: Problems with the Mirror Universe.
I have always thought that the Mirror Universe in "Mirror, Mirror" was an improbable alternate universe. I always thought that it was improbable to have simply diverged from our universe at a point in time and naturally developed from then.
The way all the Mirror characters act like the Terran Empire seems natural to them implies that the empire has existed for all their lives and for some time before they were born. Mr. Scott and Dr. McCoy should be in their forties, so it seems likely that the Terran Empire was founded at least 50 years before "Mirror, Mirror"..
But in such a radically different society as the Empire, the parents , grandparents, and other ancestors of the characters should have had significantly different lives. Kirk and Spock are probably in their mid thirties, Sulu, Uhura, and Marlena Moreau should be in their late twenties, and Chekov said he was 22 in "Who Mourns for Adonais?"
How could they be born with the same genes? A person's genes are a mix of their mother's from an egg cell and their father's from a sperm cell, and each egg and sperm cell has its own individual mix of genes. The slightest variation in someone's life experiences would change when they had sex with their spouse and thus which group of sperm would be racing to fertilize an egg, to say nothing about which sperm, if any, was successful. Thus in a radically different society the same people could not be born.
And if the same person genetically was born in the prime universe and the mirror universe, they would have different experiences in those radically different societies, which would give them different personalities, making them different persons who would make different life choices.
So how could they all wind up serving on the same ship (in the service of different political systems) at the same planet with similar (though not identical) missions), and wind up being transported at the same time and place? The odds of that happening naturally would be extremely small. I wonder if it would be possible for anyone to accurately calculate how incredibly small those odd would be.
And of course the mirror episodes of DS9 happen about a century after "Mirror, Mirror" but involve many Mirror characters who are counterparts of DS9 characters. With each second or year that passes after two alternate universes diverge, they should become more and more different, and thus it should become more and more improbable for someone and their genetic twin to be born in the two universes.
The Mirror Universe episodes of Discovery happen about a decade before "Mirror, Mirror" and so extend the known time span of the Mirror Universe by only a decade.
The two part Enterprise episode "In a Mirror Darkly" extends the history of the mirror universe a century earlier. Thus the Mirror Universe stories are spread over four series over a span of about two hundred years.
And of course "In a Mirror Darkly" opens with a scene where Zefram Cochrane and his companions attack and capture the Vulcan ship in the Mirror Universe version of Star Trek: First Contact, probably about a century before "In a Mirror Darkly", and thus about three hundred years before the Mirror Universe episodes of DS9.
And the opening title sequence of "In a Mirror Darkly" features a scene of a Moon landing and setting of a Terran Empire flag on the Moon, which should be about another century before Star Trek: First Contact , and thus about four hundred years before the Mirror Universe episodes of DS9.
With each second or year that passes after two alternate universes diverge, they should become more and more different, and thus it should become more and more improbable for someone and their genetic twin to be born in the two universes.
So I find it really hard to believe that the Star Trek "prime" universe and the Mirror Universe can be typical science fiction alternate universes.
Part Two of Two: Many Mirror Universes:
So my new theory is that there are several separate Mirror Universes:
One for the Enterprise episode "In a Mirror Darkly", a second for the Discovery Mirror Universe episodes a Third for the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror", a fourth for the DS9 episode "Crossover", a fifth for the DS9 episode "Through the Looking Glass", a sixth for the DS9 episode "Shattered Mirror", a seventh for the DS9 episode "Resurrection", an eighth for the DS9 episode "The Emperor's New Cloak", and hypothetical others for hypothetical future Mirror Universe stories.
Furthermore, universes are created by the crossover events.
Which is not any harder to believe than the science fictional idea of alternate universes constantly coming into existence whenever a decision is made by people or random physical processes. And the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics actually involves alternate universes.
So is it Prime type of universe that is created from the Mirror type of universe by the crossover process, or the Mirror type of universe that is created from the prime type of universe by the crossover process?
I don't know.
Maybe the crossover creates both universes and makes both of them come into existence already billions of years old.
In every crossover the persons who cross over and some other persons have doppelgangers, duplicate other selves existing in both universe, though usually of highly different personalities and ethical standards. Though doppelgangers are born at the same time in both universes, they can die at different times in the different universes.
Does every single person out of gazillions in one universe have doppelganger in the other universe? I don't know.
Perhaps the crossover process which creates one or both universes only creates duplicates for the persons connected in some way with the persons who crossover, chosen according to some unknown rules, and the vast majority of people created might be randomly generated and without doppelgangers.
Fans of Lost in Space might remember the episode "The Anti-Matter Man", December 27, 1967, which may have been influenced by TOS episodes like "The Enemy Within", October 6, 1966, "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, and "Mirror, Mirror", October 6, 1967. The anti-matter world of that episode certainly doesn't resemble the antimatter universes of theoretical physics or of harder grades of science fiction, but does resemble the Mirror Universe(s) of Star Trek in some respects.
I note that the Lost in Space episode "The Magic Mirror", February 16, 1966, might possibly have had a slight degree of influence on "Mirror, Mirror". The strange relationship between matter and antimatter universes in the TOS episode "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, with the good Lazarus and the evil Lazarus, may have influenced both the Lost in Space episode "The Anti-Matter Man", December 27, 1967 and the TAS episode "The Counter-Clock Incident", 12 October 1974.
What is more important than this tangled web of possible influences is the fact that the TOS episode "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, with the good Lazarus and the evil Lazarus, and the TAS episode "The Counter-Clock Incident", 12 October 1974, are both part of Star Trek canon, and both feature anti matter universes which are reversed or opposite to the prime universe in various ways.
So the technobabble explanations for those two goofy antimatter universes in Star Trek canon should possibly have some relation to the technobabble explanation for the creation of the Star Trek Mirror Universe(s).
Dissatisfied with the idea that the Mirror Universe is anything like a typical science fictional alternate universe, I have come up with a theory that there is a separate Mirror Universe for every Mirror Universe story line, and that crossover events create one or both of the universes crossed between, making them billions of years old.
Long Version:
I watched the Star Trek Discovery episodes "Despite Yourself", "The Wolf Inside", "Vaulting Ambition". on April 30, and "What's Past is Prologue", "The War Without, The War Within", & "Will You Take My Hand" on May 1, 2020.
And the revelation that Lorca was from the Mirror universe in "Vaulting Ambition" got me thinking the next day watching the next three episodes.
Part One of Two: Problems with the Mirror Universe.
I have always thought that the Mirror Universe in "Mirror, Mirror" was an improbable alternate universe. I always thought that it was improbable to have simply diverged from our universe at a point in time and naturally developed from then.
The way all the Mirror characters act like the Terran Empire seems natural to them implies that the empire has existed for all their lives and for some time before they were born. Mr. Scott and Dr. McCoy should be in their forties, so it seems likely that the Terran Empire was founded at least 50 years before "Mirror, Mirror"..
But in such a radically different society as the Empire, the parents , grandparents, and other ancestors of the characters should have had significantly different lives. Kirk and Spock are probably in their mid thirties, Sulu, Uhura, and Marlena Moreau should be in their late twenties, and Chekov said he was 22 in "Who Mourns for Adonais?"
How could they be born with the same genes? A person's genes are a mix of their mother's from an egg cell and their father's from a sperm cell, and each egg and sperm cell has its own individual mix of genes. The slightest variation in someone's life experiences would change when they had sex with their spouse and thus which group of sperm would be racing to fertilize an egg, to say nothing about which sperm, if any, was successful. Thus in a radically different society the same people could not be born.
And if the same person genetically was born in the prime universe and the mirror universe, they would have different experiences in those radically different societies, which would give them different personalities, making them different persons who would make different life choices.
So how could they all wind up serving on the same ship (in the service of different political systems) at the same planet with similar (though not identical) missions), and wind up being transported at the same time and place? The odds of that happening naturally would be extremely small. I wonder if it would be possible for anyone to accurately calculate how incredibly small those odd would be.
And of course the mirror episodes of DS9 happen about a century after "Mirror, Mirror" but involve many Mirror characters who are counterparts of DS9 characters. With each second or year that passes after two alternate universes diverge, they should become more and more different, and thus it should become more and more improbable for someone and their genetic twin to be born in the two universes.
The Mirror Universe episodes of Discovery happen about a decade before "Mirror, Mirror" and so extend the known time span of the Mirror Universe by only a decade.
The two part Enterprise episode "In a Mirror Darkly" extends the history of the mirror universe a century earlier. Thus the Mirror Universe stories are spread over four series over a span of about two hundred years.
And of course "In a Mirror Darkly" opens with a scene where Zefram Cochrane and his companions attack and capture the Vulcan ship in the Mirror Universe version of Star Trek: First Contact, probably about a century before "In a Mirror Darkly", and thus about three hundred years before the Mirror Universe episodes of DS9.
And the opening title sequence of "In a Mirror Darkly" features a scene of a Moon landing and setting of a Terran Empire flag on the Moon, which should be about another century before Star Trek: First Contact , and thus about four hundred years before the Mirror Universe episodes of DS9.
With each second or year that passes after two alternate universes diverge, they should become more and more different, and thus it should become more and more improbable for someone and their genetic twin to be born in the two universes.
So I find it really hard to believe that the Star Trek "prime" universe and the Mirror Universe can be typical science fiction alternate universes.
Part Two of Two: Many Mirror Universes:
So my new theory is that there are several separate Mirror Universes:
One for the Enterprise episode "In a Mirror Darkly", a second for the Discovery Mirror Universe episodes a Third for the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror", a fourth for the DS9 episode "Crossover", a fifth for the DS9 episode "Through the Looking Glass", a sixth for the DS9 episode "Shattered Mirror", a seventh for the DS9 episode "Resurrection", an eighth for the DS9 episode "The Emperor's New Cloak", and hypothetical others for hypothetical future Mirror Universe stories.
Furthermore, universes are created by the crossover events.
Which is not any harder to believe than the science fictional idea of alternate universes constantly coming into existence whenever a decision is made by people or random physical processes. And the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics actually involves alternate universes.
So is it Prime type of universe that is created from the Mirror type of universe by the crossover process, or the Mirror type of universe that is created from the prime type of universe by the crossover process?
I don't know.
Maybe the crossover creates both universes and makes both of them come into existence already billions of years old.
In every crossover the persons who cross over and some other persons have doppelgangers, duplicate other selves existing in both universe, though usually of highly different personalities and ethical standards. Though doppelgangers are born at the same time in both universes, they can die at different times in the different universes.
Does every single person out of gazillions in one universe have doppelganger in the other universe? I don't know.
Perhaps the crossover process which creates one or both universes only creates duplicates for the persons connected in some way with the persons who crossover, chosen according to some unknown rules, and the vast majority of people created might be randomly generated and without doppelgangers.
Fans of Lost in Space might remember the episode "The Anti-Matter Man", December 27, 1967, which may have been influenced by TOS episodes like "The Enemy Within", October 6, 1966, "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, and "Mirror, Mirror", October 6, 1967. The anti-matter world of that episode certainly doesn't resemble the antimatter universes of theoretical physics or of harder grades of science fiction, but does resemble the Mirror Universe(s) of Star Trek in some respects.
I note that the Lost in Space episode "The Magic Mirror", February 16, 1966, might possibly have had a slight degree of influence on "Mirror, Mirror". The strange relationship between matter and antimatter universes in the TOS episode "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, with the good Lazarus and the evil Lazarus, may have influenced both the Lost in Space episode "The Anti-Matter Man", December 27, 1967 and the TAS episode "The Counter-Clock Incident", 12 October 1974.
What is more important than this tangled web of possible influences is the fact that the TOS episode "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, with the good Lazarus and the evil Lazarus, and the TAS episode "The Counter-Clock Incident", 12 October 1974, are both part of Star Trek canon, and both feature anti matter universes which are reversed or opposite to the prime universe in various ways.
So the technobabble explanations for those two goofy antimatter universes in Star Trek canon should possibly have some relation to the technobabble explanation for the creation of the Star Trek Mirror Universe(s).
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