The Mirror Universe Star Trek podcast

Paramount recently announced they'd be making a special TV movie starring Michelle Yeoh. The subject? Section 31, the secret organization within the Federation that operates in the shadows, doing the dirty work that, they claim, needs to be done to maintain the utopian society of Star Trek. Since its introduction in the Deep Space Nine episode "Inquisition", Section 31 has been one of the most intriguing later addition to the Trek mythos, and one of the most controversial. Does their existence undermine the whole premise and themes of Star Trek? Are they a necessary examination and counterbalance to some of Trek's underlying assumptions? And can a movie about them be any good? We delve into the possibilities on this special new episode of Mirror Universe--catch it now before it's mysteriously erased from the timeline...

One of the precepts of Star Trek was always that it was going to get worse before it got better. In Trek's imaginary future history, the near future is supposed to be very bleak indeed, with nuclear war, genetically engineered overlords, and near-complete societal collapse on its way before we finally get our act together and build the Federation. That progression has been sketched out in a number of ways over the years, and makes for an intriguing, complex, and seemingly--but perhaps not actually--self-contradictory timeline. For this episode, Adam and Douglas, joined once again by guest Dylan Roth of the Are You Afraid Of The Dark Universe?  podcast, boldly take it upon themselves to imagine what a Star Trek show set during this tumultuous, very un-Trek like time period would look like.

One of the biggest appeals of Star Trek is the advanced technology to which the characters have access--some of which has, famously, influenced inventors and engineers in the real world. It seems like there's rarely a problem that a Starfleet engineer can't solve with a bit of technobabble and some time puttering around in the Jeffries tubes. But Trek's fetishization of technology raises a lot of issues...in particular, does the franchise promote the idea that technology can let us skip over more awkward and complicated social and cultural issues and "cheat" our way to utopia? On this episode, we're joined by Dylan Roth of the Are You Afraid Of The Dark Universe? Podcast for a deep dive on Trek's answer to the question, "Will Tech Save Us?"

This podcast was born partly out Douglas and Adam both commenting on Carl Garcia (@carlinspace)'s twitter livetweets of Star Trek, and as he moved into the late Rick Berman era we made a bet to see which of the two "bad" Star Trek shows Carl would like more: Voyager or Enterprise? This blew up into a larger discussion, with Douglas defending Voyager and Adam defending Enterprise. While we don't think either show is particularly great, figuring out which is the least bad makes for an interesting peek into what makes Trek work and what doesn't....

Appropriately enough, this 13th episode turned out to be fairly cursed, with technical and scheduling issues delaying it until 2023. Nevertheless, we enjoyed taking this look at one of the most well-regarded Star Trek spinoff novels, A Stitch in Time, which tells the story of one of Trek's most well-realized characters, Elim Garak. For an extra layer of veracity, it was written by the actor who played him, Andy Robinson, and as well as (somewhat controversially) expanding on Garak's backstory, it offers us a glimpse of the post-DS9 order. Is it canon? Is it even meant to be? Garak wouldn't want us to know!

The latest Trek series boldly goes where many of them have gone before. Is that a bad thing? Douglas and Adam dissect their thoughts on Strange New Worlds in this episode.

With multiple Star Trek shows on the air right now, they've had to do something to distinguish themselves, and it's hard to think of a harder let turn than doing an animated comedy. But Lower Decks has quickly become one of the best Trek shows--not just funny and irreverent, but true to the spirit of Trek in surprising ways. With Douglas finally having seen the show, we take a look at this oddball entry in the Trek canon.

Funny how Star Trek's all about creating an ideal society...but every time the Trek heroes encounter a supposedly ideal society other than their own, it's usually a mess and needs to be destroyed. We've returned for an episode dealing with Trek's recurring theme of social engineering, either via well-meaning but restrictive laws, or a literal all-powerful god computer controlling everything. If you're enjoying or have enjoyed the podcast, don't forget Adam has a Patreon that helps us pay for hosting and technical costs!