The Mirror Universe Star Trek podcast

Episode 19: Federation and Empire

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 12:59:31 GMT

This podcast about Star Trek takes a break from Star Trek to talk about...Star Wars? Yes, we have our reasons! Whereas Star Wars used to be primarily a movie series and Star Trek a TV series, the two have blurred the lines heavily, especially in the last few years, with the launch of a bunch of live-action Star Wars shows. The best of these is Andor, the show about the early days of the Rebellion, and the most sophisticated and political Star Wars has ever gotten. In this way, it's surprisingly close to a Star Trek show, so it seemed worthy of examination as a lens to talk about the two biggest pop culture Sci-Fi franchises, their similarities ad differences, and what they say about the world in 2024. It's the Andor episode of Mirror Universe!

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Episode 18: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 21:42:27 GMT

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...

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Episode 17: Exploring Strange New Worlds...Again

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 20:56:53 GMT

Hey all! We apologize for the delay in subspace transmission, Adam's been busy with other projects, and we've had a couple of episodes sitting in the can waiting to be edited. But with the spare time over the holidays we're now ready to publish, so enjoy the first new episode here on Acast, where we're joined once again by Dylan Roth to share our thoughts on Strange New Worlds' excellent second season!

More episodes are available right now for early listening on Adam's Patreon!

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Episode 16: After the Fall

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 12:00:00 GMT

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.

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Episode 15: I’m Not A Miracle Worker, Captain!

Sun, 05 Mar 2023 17:06:04 GMT

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?"

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Episode 14: Voyager vs. Enterprise

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 17:23:00 GMT

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....

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Episode 13: Especially the Lies

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 16:41:27 GMT

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!

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Episode 12: Exploring Strange New Worlds

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 22:50:35 GMT

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.

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Episode 11: Beneath Lower Decks

Wed, 18 May 2022 01:24:34 GMT

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.

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Episode 10: The Masterpiece Society

Sun, 12 Dec 2021 22:43:36 GMT

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!

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Episode 9: "...And Sky's the Limit"

Mon, 24 May 2021 12:10:00 GMT

All Good Things must come to an end...even Star Trek. But as of this moment the future still looks bright for our favourite sci-fi franchise, with many more Trek shows in production. In this final episode (for now?) of Mirror Universe we look at what the future may hold for this story of the future, what's likely to change and what hopefully never will. And Douglas talks a lot about Kpop for some reason.

Just a reminder, if you're enjoying the show, please like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/The-Mirror-Universe-Podcast-Reflections-on-Star-Trek-111015344416673 . It would also really help if you'd write us a review on your podcatcher of choice, particularly on iTunes, which is where podcasts get noticed. Thanks all, and live long and prosper!

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Episode 8: The Savage Curtain

Mon, 17 May 2021 12:00:00 GMT

As we may have mentioned a few times on this podcast, Star Trek is a TV show. That means that its concerns, themes, and storytelling have been heavily shaped by the medium of television, and that's one of the things that sets it apart from many other science fiction stories. In this episode we look at how Star Trek makes use of the medium of television, or whatever other medium it happens to find itself in, and take a meta-look at how Trek itself is bolted together...

Note: we're going to be updating every Monday for nine weeks, but you can listen to more episodes RIGHT NOW by subscribing to Adam's Patreon!

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Episode 7: Infinite Diversity?

Mon, 10 May 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Star Trek is the most progressive Science Fiction show of all time! Right?

That's certainly how it presents itself, and it may be true, but Trek's supposed progressiveness has run into bumps from time to time. While it's certainly a mostly well-meaning show, and it certainly has accomplished some significant milestones from a left-wing perspective, there are plenty of issues that come up over the course of a fifty-year-long franchise, as there would have to be. In this episode we look at the progressive nature of Star Trek and its failures and successes in that regard.

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Episode 6: The Planet of Hats

Mon, 03 May 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Aliens! They're a big part of the reason we watch SF shows in the first place, and some of the most iconic aliens in pop culture reside on Star Trek. But Trek has a very specific approach to its aliens, one that provides both opportunities and limitations. In this episode we look at Trek's approach to building alien cultures and their relationships with humanity and the Federation.

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Episide 5: Tomorrow Is Yesterday

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 12:00:00 GMT

We've talked about how our history impacted Star Trek. But what about Star Trek's own history? The multiple Star Trek series have outlined a future history spanning over a millennia, and that arc is just as contradictory and conflicting as anything else about Star Trek. In its way, though, the rough, awkward, ill-fitting narrative Trek has created for the future touches on some surprising truths about history, and how it progresses...

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Episode 4: Commercial Enterprise

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Star Trek is a show about big dreams, that looks to the best and purest impulses of human nature, and a future without material needs...but it's also a owned by a major studio, and its artistic impulses are tempered by capitalism as much as anything. In this episode we look at how Trek has struggled with the demands of being a major, big-budget franchise that's owned by a corporation, and how the movies in particular have always attempted to be "Trek's big break" but never quite got there (and maybe that's for the best).

Note: we're going to be updating every Monday for nine weeks, but you can listen to more episodes RIGHT NOW by subscribing to Adam's Patreon! The entire run of the show will be available there within a week or two (as soon as we finish editing them).

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Episode 3: 'Watch Your Futures End'

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 12:00:00 GMT

In this crucial episode we take a look at the Rick Berman and JJ Abrams eras of Star Trek and how they were shaped by the politics of the era. The end of the Cold War brought a new age of supposed peace and stability, neoliberalism, and political stagnation that had a major impact on Star Trek's worldview during the peak of its popularity. Then 9/11 threw all of its assumptions into turmoil, and Trek has struggled to find its feet, thematically, ever since.

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Episode 2: A Trek For The People

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 12:00:00 GMT

This week Douglas and Adam tackle one of the most fascinating aspects of Trek, the fact that so much of it--even more than most genre fandoms--was and is kept alive by the fans. In particular, the decade after the cancellation of the original show saw an explosion of fascinating digressions and ideas added to Trek from fanzines, RPGs, comics, spinoff novels, and helped shape our idea of what Star Trek was as much as any of the "canonical" movies and TV shows.

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Episode 1: Through A Trek, Darkly

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:52:00 GMT

In our first episode, we look at the origins of Star Trek, the competing voices that went into creating and shaping it (of whom Roddenberry was just one) and what it was intended to be vs. what it became. The original series was shaped heavily by the era--the 1960s--in which it was created, and that had an impact on its politics, its views towards society, and even its format. We look at "The Cage" and what it may have said about Roddenberry (and the rest)'s intentions, and how it reflects the classic take on SF, vs. how Trek adapted itself to new views of genre and American storytelling as it went on. Plus how Trek reflects ongoing conversations (some might say, arguments) among its various writers and creators.

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