Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2.23

Crossover

Major Kira and Doctor Bashir are on their way back through the wormhole in a runabout when something goes wrong. They are picked up by some Klingons who seem ready to kill them until they recognize Kira. They take Kira and Bashir back to the space station, which is not where it was when they left. There they learn that things are quite different aboard the station because they have crossed over to another universe, the Mirror Universe.

Kira almost immediately meets her counterpart, Intendant Kira Nerys. Garak, MU Kira's second in command, encourages her to kill both of the new arrivals. MU Kira decides otherwise. She works for the Alliance, which was originally formed by the Klingons and the Cardassians. The Bejorans have since joined the Alliance.

MU Kira puts Bashir to work doing manual labor. There he meets the Mirror Universe's counterparts for O'Brien and Odo. O'Brien is also forced to do manual labor as are most Terrans (Humans). Odo runs the work detail. Kira is given some freedom to roam the space station but with an escort. She meets Quark and Sisko. She unsuccessfully tries to get Quark to help her get back to her own Universe.

Garak tries to get Kira to help him kill her MU counterpart and take over the space station. He doesn't give her much of a choice. She winds up turning to MU Sisko for help. The episode ends with Kira and Bashir getting back to their own universe.

Thoughts

Dax is in this episode but she does not show up until Kira and Bashir have returned from the Mirror Universe. Only MU Garak appears in this episode. Jake is not in this episode.

I thought it was a little silly how they made direct references to Captain Kirk's trip to the Mirror Universe; see Star Trek (1966) episode 2.04 Mirror, Mirror. It was almost like it was something that was well known by everyone.

I watched it or tried watching it once before, in 2011. I thought that having watched the original series Mirror Universe episode would be enough background but it wasn't. I can appreciate this episode much better now that I have watched most of the episodes that precede it.

I love how different Benjamin Sisko is in this episode. I assume that Avery Brooks had a lot of fun with the part of MU Benjamin Sisko.

This was a decent episode. It is middle tier in my mind. The ending was a little too simple, too neat and tidy in my opinion.

Notes 

Garak was the only character other than the main cast who played a significant role in this episode.

Peter Allan Fields and Robert Hewitt Wolfe wrote the story. Fields collaborated with Michael Piller on the teleplay. This is the eighth episode of this show that Fields had a hand in writing. The other two both worked on dozens of episodes of this show.

This is the eighth of 17 episodes of this show that David Livingstone directed. The fourth episode he directed was 2.07 Rules of Acquisition.