Prodigy: Cracked Mirror

Fresh on the heels of serving up tribbles, Star Trek: Prodigy delivered its take on another classic franchise concept -- the Mirror Universe.

The Protostar returns at last to a rendezvous with Voyager. But Voyager is trapped in a schism of reality, with different parts of the ship existing in different parallel universes. Crossing between realities, the Protostar crew tries to restore Voyager... and faces a big obstacle from the Mirror Universe.

I feel like this won't be a popular take among typical Star Trek fans -- but I am well and truly tired of the Mirror Universe. Yes, "Mirror, Mirror" was one of the best episodes of the original series. And Deep Space Nine's initial revisit there was a fun bit of fan service. But as the Mirror Universe continued to crop up on that series, then Enterprise, and then became the core of an entire season of Discovery? Well, sure, it could still be fun on occasion... but it sure felt tired a lot of the time. And yet, if Star Trek: Prodigy is to be Star Trek 101 for a new, young audience, I suppose you have to do the Mirror Universe at some point.

I do find Prodigy's take on it quite strange, though. Maybe the Prodigy writers are as tired of the Mirror Universe as I am, because they don't even devote a full 22 minutes to it. First, they offer up a spiritual sequel to the Voyager episode "Shattered" (albeit involving reality instead of time), a fact which Chakotay even acknowledges in the episode. I have no idea why they did this, except perhaps to bring back Okona one more time "just 'cause." (Or maybe it was to tease us with bringing back Tuvix?)

By giving half the episode's short run time over to other, non-Mirror universes, we admittedly don't have time to tire of what we get here. On the other hand, there's no time to bridge the gap between the state of the Mirror Universe the last time we saw it (chronologically) and now. The Terran Empire is somehow right back on top in a decade? Maybe the real message here from the Prodigy writers is that none of this should be taken too seriously (as the Discovery writers did?).

Or maybe "the message" is not to look for messages in a Mirror Universe episode. (I'm pretty sure there hasn't been one since the original "Mirror, Mirror.") What you're supposed to look for is actors hamming it up and having fun, as Robert Beltran and especially Kate Mulgrew do voicing the Mirror versions of Chakotay and Janeway. And even the whales are evil! That's just fun.

"Just fun." That's the overriding thing about this episode, in the moments I can manage to set all that other baggage aside. Since I thought "Cracked Mirror" was by no means "bad," I suppose I'll give it a B-. But I'm glad that by the end of it, the stage is set for the final act of the season -- the Protostar and Voyager are back together, and it's time to conclude the story.