Star Trek Continues ”Fairest of Them All” - Detailed Analysis & Review

Today's episode of Star Trek Continues, "Fairest of Them All" takes us back to the mirror universe, for a direct sequel to the original Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror". We get to see what happened next after prime Kirk planted the seeds of change in mirror Spock's mind. It's a fun and meaningful story. Let's dig in and talk about it.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven. 

I'm Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

 

This is episode 97 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Fairest of Them All”

 

The description on StartrekContinues.com reads

In the Mirror Universe, Spock faces a choice that determines the future of the Terran Empire.

 

The teleplay was written by James Kerwin and Vic Mignogna

Based on a story by Vic Mignogna

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on 15th of June 2014.

 

You’ll notice as we go along, that many episodes of Star Trek Continues are sequels, either direct, or subtle, to TOS episodes. This is the second one that is a direct sequel, in this case, to Mirror Mirror.

 

The mirror universe is an interesting thing. When you start to think about it, the idea breaks down quickly. The more the universes diverge, the less likely it would be to see the same people. For example, how astonishingly unlikely, in this universe, that Sarak still married Amanda, a Terran, and brought Spock into the world.

 

At its core, the mirror universe is silly. I’ve heard some argue that because of this, mirror universe episode should be campy. I strongly disagree with that. Mirror Mirror, while built on the somewhat silly premise, was serious drama. The only hint of campiness, to me, was mirror Kirk’s over-acting, but even that was done for dramatic effect. When DS9 started doing mirror universe episodes, it also took the premise seriously and made gritty drama about it. Sadly, as these episodes went on, they got progressively sillier, the last of them, in season 7, being a Ferengi comedy.

 

People point to Spock’s beard, claiming this is a campy idea, but I think that’s mainly just because it’s become such a meme. At the time, putting a goatee on Spock served a very practical purpose. Not only did it make him look more menacing, but it very quickly and effectively showed us, visually, that something was different. This wasn’t our Spock.

 

Even the trend of having other mirror universe Vulcans wear the same beard doesn’t feel like a campy move to me. We know that vulcans are creatures of tradition. They practically all have the same hairstyle, so it’s only reasonable to assume that having a goatee would be a cultural imperative for mirror Vulcans. Look at the real-world culture of the Amish, who all grow a beard after they marry.

 

So, yeah, my point is, I’m up for treating the mirror universe as fodder for serious drama. And this episode follows its predecessor in just that.

 

The episode begins with Kirk’s closing speech to Spock at the end of Mirror Mirror. It’s a great speech. He has some very compelling words for Spock. It was always a favourite part of that episode. And I love how at the end of it, Spock says “I shall consider it.”

 

And with that note of hopefulness, We follow Kirk and his crew back to the prime universe.

 

But in this episode, we instead stay in the mirror universe with Spock, to see what he does next.

 

And I have to say this is a brilliant move.

From the moment I first heard Intendant Kira tell the story of how Mirror Spock had dismantled the Terran Empire, turning it into a more reasonable and peace-loving organisation, and then its subsequent conquest by the alliance, I’ve been enthralled by the idea of seeing that play out.

 

During early DS9