827. Double ImagePUBLICATION: Star Trek #10, DC Comics, January 1985
CREATORS: Mike W. Barr (writer), Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: The Excelsior arrives at Regula to bring Kirk and crew back to Earth, putting their bird-of-prey in tow, but it has to take a detour when a nearby starbase is attacked by the mirror Enterprise. Having already defeated the USS Courageous and the starbase's support craft, the Enterprise takes on the much tougher Excelsior. By taking control of the Klingon ship inside its shields, mirror Kirk is able to disable Excelsior and beam aboard, where he meets his other self...
CONTINUITY: Excelsior. Captain Styles. The Mirror Universe. Regula I. Carol Marcus. All as per the last issue.
DIVERGENCES: DS9's Crossover says that soon after Mirror, Mirror, mirror Spock became leader of the Earth Empire and initiated disarmament policies based on our Kirk's advice. "Soon after" may not be as soon as we were led to believe. If entire ships were able to cross over to our universe, it's likely we would have heard something about it afterward. Certainly, the existence of a mirror cloaking device contradicts The Emperor's New Cloak.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Styles shows off his chamber of horrors
REVIEW: A "Mirror Universe Saga" is of course an exciting prospect, especially if mirror Kirk is going to be this devious. His ploys make for exciting battle sequences and reflect well on our Kirk too (pun intended). One character that doesn't look too good is Captain Styles, whose arrogance (from ST III) is upped 200% for the comic. The implication is that the Excelsior is almost a match for the mirror Enterprise, but that mirror Kirk still has the advantage because he's the better captain. I'm also happy to see Barr's original characters on the attacked starbase. Because ST III and IV only use a skeleton crew, the films took them out of the action. Barr keeps them involved and wondering if they'll be reassigned. Good stuff, with Carol's cheesy line about goodbye being the saddest word in any language the only real flaw.
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