Mirror Mirror (Star Trek TOS - S2E04)

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In this week's episode of Treks and Tangents, we're stepping through the transporter and into the Mirror Universe for Star Trek: The Original Series' iconic episode, Mirror, Mirror. What happens when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura find themselves aboard an Enterprise where promotions are earned through murder, loyalty is optional, and everyone seems way too comfortable carrying knives?

Join Brian and Jaci as they dive into evil Spock's beard, Sulu's surprisingly ambitious career plans, Kirk's struggle to survive in a universe full of backstabbing coworkers, and the question that may determine the fate of an empire: can logic defeat tyranny, or does it take something more?

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Transcript

Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap

0:10

Daily Frequencies Open and welcome aboard Treks and Tangents. I'm your co-host Brian. And I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm the Star Trek newbie who treks off on tangents. And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode. And this week we watched Star Trek, the original series, season two, episode four. Mirror mirror. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of our podcast. Hello. It's exciting. Don't forget to stick around to the end of the episode where we'll reveal what our topic for our bonus Star Note episode is that we'll post on our Patreon. But this one should be super fun. Yeah. As of this recording, I'm not even sure what the topic is going to be quite yet. We'll we generally pick them as we get to the end of the episode, but for an episode as iconic as this, it should be fun. We should like have a lot of suggestions in a bowl and like pick it out like a like answer and a question, question and answer. We'll have to look into that. But thank you everyone for joining. Continue to like, subscribe, uh, comment. Always fun to engage with comments on our episodes and our content. But with that, we'll just kind of jump right into it because I think this is going to be a slightly longer episode than normal. We'll revisit our Turbolift tees from last week. That's where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode. And Jackie, without any other information, tried to guess the plot of this week's episode. So, computer, what was Jackie's guess last week? Jackie's prediction last week was while we are out and about, we find this mirror, and we are able to go through it into another ripple in time. It might just be in the future or super in the past. It is like a random decision. So, Jackie, how accurate do you think your guess was this week? Very inaccurate. Yeah. I mean, if they would have added Snow White in there with like the mirror, maybe I could have got that right, but no. Nope. No crossover between Star Trek and Disney at this moment. So and Disney. A Vulcan princess. Even now, Disney does not own Star Trek. They own the other star thing. Yes, they do. Jackie had to think for half a second to remember what it was. Iconic

Initial Impressions

2:37

episode. What did you think? What were your first thoughts? You know what? I absolutely enjoyed myself while watching this. Okay. From the beginning, even like the first time. Because you know I watch it off a lot. And um I really enjoyed the whole premise. And I I think the actors had a great time rec recording this, also. Yeah. I think the actors themselves enjoyed this episode much in the same way that the actors would have enjoyed uh filming The Naked Time from season one. It's a fun episode. Yes. It gives them the opportunity to play a different style or different character while still playing their character. Yeah, like an extension of uh their box that they're in. Right. This is gonna be one of my favorite episodes too, because it's one of my favorite topics from Star Trek itself, the mirror universe itself. If you narrow it down and you have to pin me down and say top three favorite topics or themes from Star Trek, besides the Q continuum that we've talked about before. You love that. The Mir universe is also going to be one of my favorite parts of the Star Trek universe itself. Because, spoiler, we do revisit the Mirror Universe. Even though a lot of what happens in this episode later gets changed or retconned about the mirror universe in later Star Trek series, it's still just a fun episode and leads to some of the more iconic moments in Star Trek that I really enjoy. And it's just too bad that we didn't get a next generation Mirror Universe episode, but we will get back to the mirror universe when we hit Deep Space Nine. So other than that, it is an extremely entertaining episode to see how Star Trek is able to. I think it's an episode that kind of breaks away from some of the other tropes and other themes that we've seen in Star Trek. The fact that we get the Anti-Federation and Empire. The whole timeline to that to see how things would have turned out differently. And I think they pull it off because even though they're going for an overall arcing theme of opposite universe, they don't stick to that religiously. They don't make everything 1000% opposite. It's like opposite but the same at the same time. Right. So as an example, you mentioned before we started recording the fact that the computer voice on the Mir Universe Enterprise is a male's voice instead of a female voice, exact opposite. But they don't force that rule on everything. Right. Which I think would have ruined it. Totally. It would have been very uh like kitschy and expected. And I think on your thought train, the episodes we've seen before are kind of predictable at times. And this one, I was like, what's happening next? And even the the introduction of the quote-unquote alien technology, sometimes when you get into Star Trek and you're partway through an episode and they just kind of introduce this random thing, this random MacGuffin, to move the plot along, it feels like they're trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. But I think in this case, and I'm referring to the Tantalus field, that little computer that seems to make people disappear, it's a fantastical piece of technology. There's no reference for it leading up to this point. They just kind of shove it in there to kind of explain things, but I think it works. Totally. And the actress, she just like goes to the flow with her Vanna White expressions while she's opening the you know secret hideaway. And then I called it the etch a sketch at first, because sure, you know, but like yeah, it totally like went with the theme of the quote unquote bad enterprise. Yeah. And again, even though they just kind of drop it into the episode, because they do, it's just kind of a boom, here it is. But it resurfaces, it does resurface several times, and I think it just kind of flows and it even it just fits into the episode once they talk about it and move forward with it. The fact that it is the reason why Kirk has his current role as Captain of the Enterprise, how he's able to use it to continue to maintain his power, and so forth. And we'll come to find out how Spock came to use it in later Star Trek series. Oh, that should be interesting, and what his logical explanation would be. Right. Because I I see like this dark cloud following quote unquote bad kirk, like you just press the this thing and your opponents just go away. Like you didn't really do much. Right. And we'll talk about it more when we get to it in the episode, but we find out where we'll at the by the end of the episode we'll have found out where this machine has come from and how it came to be in Kirk's possession and so forth. It it's kind of almost an underrated plot point to the mirror universe in this episode, and it's too bad that they don't expand on it more later on, but I digress. I think

Treking Through the Episode

8:28

we've talked about it enough. Why don't Jackie you walk us through the episode? Alright, so we are opening up on a planet, and it is inhabited by the Halcon race. It's a new race, and they're complete pacifists. Like, if anyone may die, we don't do it. And I also noticed their environment, I mean their planet looks like Earth with purple atmosphere. It's kind of pretty. Yeah, it's fun when we do these planets where it's obvious a set. It's obviously it's it's not one of the ones because there's been times where we've had indoor sets that look very much outdoors. Jumping back to Apollo's home planet, yes, that was m all indoors. Um, and they that pulled off a little bit more of looking more realistic. I don't know if it was because it was a blue sky versus this purple sky, but I always enjoy it, and we see it later on in some of the earlier next generation episodes where they dress up a sound set and they just use lighting to mimic a sky. Yes, this set is super low maintenance. They have like a giant circle podium that's enough to hold roughly five people on a bench, and Ohura is just, you know, laying on it like kin like Captain Morgan, and Kirk is kind of like begging, trying to prove to the leader of this new race. Yeah, his name's Thorne. Thank you. That you have these dilithium crystals, we would love to use them. We are not going to take them from you. W we are we are nice people, we have ethics, we are not like and of course Thorne reminds him, you can just take them from us. But Kirk's like, I'm not going to. But there's a storm coming, and we have to go back home, so maybe we could talk later. And again, Kirk, he wants to prove his prove his ethics while still admiring the how can race ethics. But the Enterprise is being pummeled with the new magnetic storm, and Spock lets them know it's unpredictable and violent, and yes, you should probably come back up. So Kirk, I should probably tell you who the landing party is. We have Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and O'Hura. And as they're beaming up to the Enterprise, we see a we feel some complications. Yep. Transporter accident. We mentioned that in a previous episode about how this is going to become a favorite Star Trek plot point. Transporter accident leads to unpredictability. We saw that in one of the in the previous episode where we got the good Spock or the good Kirk and the bad Kirk. Oh yes. So Spock has gone down to the transporter room on the Enterprise to welcome them home. You know, make sure that they got their safe. And as they are beginning to materialize after they've energized, look at all these words I got. Yeah, big sci-fi word there in your vocabulary. I I'm I'm grabbing them up. And they kind of fade in and out twice. That's odd. And so when they finally do materialize, they find themselves in a different transporter room. This one is decorated with uh a sword, Earth with a sword through it. And everywhere. Yes. That symbol is everywhere. It's not like it replaces a different symbol in our universe. It's not like the Enterprise has the Federation of U planets symbol everywhere or the Starfleet symbol everywhere, but in this universe, they plaster that image everywhere. Like constant reminder. Right. Yeah. Our enterprise is homey and and lovely. This one's like cold and dark. And this Spock has a beard and he's kind of scary. They also notice that they're wearing different uniforms. Original landing party that is now in what we had learned is the parallel universe quote unquote bad enterprise that it called it. Right. And this is going to be one of the facts that gets retconned in later times because it is a transporter accident. That is going to be a common way to access the mirror universe. But we'll jump ahead quickly to we later find out that they didn't just magically transport into the mirror universe themselves, they switched with their counterparts. So in the mirror universe, as a pure coincidence, run the odds, the exact same, their exact same counterparts were trying to beam up from the planet as well, and they switched in that moment on the transporter. So they swapped, but they retained their clothing. Gets a little confusing because in later episodes, when we visit the mirror universe, while we do have transporter accidents, they don't need to occur at the exact same moment that their counterpart is being transported as well. So there are future episodes where people encounter their own mirror universe likeness. And they don't switch clothing. Yeah, I found that really interesting because, like, how did they get the new uniform? Yeah, how did they swap their physical biological selves, but the clothing stayed the same and managed to perfectly fit them and not get fused with their skin? Again, complete just ignore it because it's still a great episode. But it's not a complaint, it's more of just a fun mind exercise. Their uniforms on this uh new cold enterprise is very fantastical, it's very flamboyant. They wear these gold sashes and have knives that are very scary on their sides. Ohura's hair is beautiful, like not that it's not beautiful normally, but she has like extra like victory curls and all these weird pins all across their uniforms that kind of look like flair. Right. Yeah, and you mentioned the hair. I didn't even think about that because yeah, she not only gets the clothing, she they swap hair. Yeah. As well. So then I wonder if did they really switch bodies or did they just switch consciousness? Oh like a freaky Friday. Interesting. Not gonna be what happens later. That's if if it that is if you want to go down that path, that is complete fan fiction. Baby Kirk to big I don't know. Oh, right. And also, as they've materialized, they are welcomed with a crazy weird salute. Like it's right hand across your chest, and then like come forward. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna dispel it. Uh so uh we're not gonna say the name because we don't want to get flagged by the automated bots, but it's from a certain European country that was most popularized and most notably known from the 1940s. We're gonna refer to it as it is commonly referred to in other references, it is a Roman hand salute. Because the Roman hand salute, this is very parallel to the ground, what they do. I see. It is not very often that you see it, they raise it above that parallel. Correct, but they're like the people from the forties. And their palm is forward. Yes. Like a high five. Yep. So slightly different. It is a hand salute that will appear multiple times in our history, but yes, when you see it, you can't help but immediately think of history from the 1940s. True. But it also is kind of where it's leading. Like that's I think that's what we have to have in the back of our mind for this particular enterprise. Yeah, because this is also when this is created, this is 1967 as a TV show. So this is just barely over 20 years after. So that's important to keep in mind. But it does drive home to the viewer immediately upon seeing it, this is different, this is not good, but more subtly, this is also very militaryistic. This is very military-driven or a military-driven society. Exactly. But I forgot to add, O'Hura is rocking the two-piece uniform she has. Her abs are like washboard. Just had to add that in. Yeah, go girl. Girl power. And then I back on the uniforms. Why does Kirk always get to have different uniforms? He wears this weird pajama-looking top all the time. I don't know. It was just me. Alright. So they walk off of the transporter platform, and Spock is mad at the person running said and uh transporter. His name's Kyle. Thank you. They have names. So Kyle is getting in trouble, and presumably every crew member wears this weird thing called agonizer, and it's used against them to cause pain when they've done wrong. Yep. Corporal punishment. So poor Kyle is harmed with his agonizer as he's begging for, you know, I didn't do it on purpose. It was the storm. And Spock also asks to make sure, like, what was the update now that you're back? What happened? We learn that the orders are to annihilate the Halkans if they do not give away their dailithium crystals. And Sulu is instructed to prepare a phaser barrage on all the cities below. Right. And then Spock comments that they just have a desire for suicide. Like, why wouldn't they just give it up? And of course, Nicekirk isn't whore, but he has to keep his cool. Like, okay. We'll see if I'll think about that. So then now we have our opening. That was all the beginning part. Yeah, it's a very long opening to the episode, but I think it works. I think it It catches you. It does. It paints the picture. I don't know that I would have enjoyed anything else because it sets up the fact that the in both universes there's a mission to this planet to speak with the inhabitants to get the dilithium crystals. It establishes the stark differences between the two universes. And so yeah, I don't know that I would change this opening to try to shorten it down. So you start back again in the transporter room, and our bad Spock tells Scotty there was some damage that he needs to fix, and McCoy has injured crew people in sick pay waiting for him. And of course, the landing party doesn't move. They like, okay. And while this is happening, this is also when Kyle explains how the power beam jumped, and Spock wants to know, are you guys feeling okay? And then Kirk's like, oh yeah, we are kind of dizzy. McCoy probably should, you know, check us out. Right, finally finding an excuse to get away from the situation because I think he's quickly realizing he's running out of runway. At this point, he's managed to give answers that have not aroused suspicion. But I think Spock is, you can tell Spock is still slightly suspicious and trying to figure out what's going on. This is also a universe where everyone is suspicious of everyone 24 hours a day. It's like a prison almost. And as they leave, Kirk tells Spock uh to check on the transporter circuits to make sure this doesn't happen again. Also, I think because Kirk is very quickly realizing that it has to be the transporter that brought them there, duh. So he's now planting the seed of thinking, how do we get back? And probably gonna be the transporter, so let's start gathering as much information as we can without admitting that something is wrong. In the hallway, the four landing party are talking very excitedly, loudly, asking what's wrong. And then Kirk is like, quiet, we have to, you know, play this part until we get to where we can speak privately. And then, of course, as they walk through the hallways, every single person is doing this crazy salute. And Kirk's like, uh-huh, back at you. Right. He's not doing it very excitedly, he's not doing it very excitedly. So now we're in the you know, the new sick bait, and McCoy is like, everything is out of place. This is awful. Oh, it looks like it's a mess. Like the discs are all over the table, but then he sees on one of his lab tables there's an acid spot. I spilled acid there a year ago. And then this is kind of when Kirk's like, hey, it's this has to be a parallel universe. And then he uses the word transposition. I'm like, oh, that's a good word too. So similar but not exact opposite. Again, leads to a stronger episode and a stronger outcome. So then there then he realizes, oh, our counterparts must be on our enterprise. And it's like, oh no. Right. So now it's just like more rushed. We have to get home. And also we have to save the Hulkins from being obliterated. I don't know. Okay, so this is kind of one of the things that I have a problem with Kirk's thinking. Kirk needs to get back to the Enterprise and he needs to get his crew members back to his enterprise, back to their universe. Is it necessary to try to save the Hulkins in the mirror universe, in the bad universe? Or do you just let it go and get the hell out of there? I think this is why more eyebrows are being raised, and especially how Spock kinda is catching on cool quickly, more quickly than normal. So it probably would have made it easier for them to get done what they needed to do to get back to their correct universe if they had just allowed things to proceed and allow the Enterprise to destroy the Hulkins. Because again, I mean you can make arguments of if they destroy the Hulkins in this universe, does it destroy the Hulkins in the real universe? Probably not. If they destroy the Hulkins, does the Enterprise immediately leave? And is that going to make it harder for them to beam back? Maybe. But in any case, I think it's just kind of weird to prioritize saving the Hulkins in the bad universe, the mirror universe, instead of just throwing all your efforts into getting back to the correct universe. Side thought. Kirk tells Scotty to mess with the phasers as if the storm harmed them. And then also he has to learn the new technology so they can get out of there. And Ohura has to go to her post on the bridge, like everything's normal. But Kirk wants her to give him the orders for the day. Like, what did I need to do? And are there any options? Yeah. What what give me more information so that I can continue to play act this part and not arouse suspicion. And she's all gung-ho, but as she turns around, she's like, I'm, you know, she's gonna say I'm scared. And then Kirk, you know, like wanders over and is like, you're the only one who can do it. You can do it, girl. But yeah, and then she goes back to the off to her post. And Kirk and McCoy stay and go through all the library tapes that are thrown across the desk so that they can learn. On the bridge, it's very, very naughty on the bridge. Uh we have Sulu as the chief security officer, and he has this nasty, gigantic scar on his face. Really bad makeup when you've cleaned it up and you've restored the footage. It's bad makeup. Yeah, like a big lump. Yep. But you also notice he's had a security, so what color uniform is he wearing? Red. Instead of his normal yellow. Or gold. Gold. But Chekhov is wearing gold also back to he's wearing his gold. Everyone has new things. Alright. And uh for some reason this Sulu is very, very confident in himself, and he has the hots for Ahura. Remind you of the naked time? Mm-hmm. Very much so. So he like saunters over to her, and she's like trying to get what Kirk told her to get, and he like takes her chin, is like, no one's here anymore. Do you still, you know, you love me, you like me, let's go somewhere. Yeah. And there's no superior officers here to stop me, so I can be subordinate, I can not pay attention to my duties, I can try to take you by force. Cause yes, welcome to the mirror universe. And I love her because she's all you're away from your post, mister. Yeah. Because she's again, I think she's trying to play act, but she's using the only context that she knows, which is how the enterprise operates in her universe. I mean, she does a good job, and so she like slaps him away, and then that's when Kirk appears on the bridge, and you know, Sulu has to scatter back to his post. Kirk pops over and asks about communication update from O'Hara. She's like, Oh, everything is fine. No nothing bad has been reported, and then like under her breath, you're supposed to annihilate the Hawkins, and there's no choice. FYI. Right. And so Kirk's like, okay. And of course he has to do all these weird salutes back to everybody because they're just salutes everywhere. Crazy. He goes to his chair. And did you notice anything different about his chair? It's gigantic. It's like a throne. That is exactly, I think, the purpose. And that's how it's referred to everywhere else, is the difference is it's now a throne as opposed to his regular captain's chair. It looks very similar. Yes, it does. The same style, but it is now a throne. Again, leading credence to this idea of the change, the new universe, the captain's chair is less of a leader and more of a dictator or ruler. Exactly. And I did chuckle because he had a hard time getting in and out of it when I watched multiple times. It is higher up than the old chair. So when he sits down, Sue lets him know that he has his phasers locked and ready on their first target, and he can fire whenever. And then Kirk tells them to stand by. Excuse me? Scotty at this time is trying to report back to what he found, and he is not granted access to the bridge like normal. It's not the bridge that he's denied access to. He's denied access to the weapons control room where the phaser systems are. Oh, that makes more sense now. Yeah. So, because he's I I don't he's going in to see if the systems are working. I also think he would try to sabotage the systems to try to prevent the destruction of the inhabitants of the planet. But unlike the Enterprise in our universe, there is an armed guard just inside the door. The door opens and he's standing there facing the door. Like some people do when they get on an elevator and they stand two inches away from the elevator door. This guy is literally standing on the opposite side of the door facing the door, waiting for it to open. But yeah, there's no chance that Scotty can get in. Yeah, he has to have special security permission from Security Chief Sulu. But it does give the information to Scotty that everything appears to be in order in that systems room. And so he lets Kirk know via the intercoms that there's no damage. Sorry, dude. Now our bearded Spock in the mirror universe enters the bridge. And since Kirk has had Sulu, you know, stand by with the phasers, Spock notices that the targets are changing. We're not firing. What's happening? So we all Spock tells Sulu we need a secondary city. And then okay, but isn't that Kirk's job? But that was in my head. And then Kirk though tells Ohura to try to contact the Halkin leadership so we could chat some more. And Sulu don't shoot anything. Because they keep asking, Are you sure? Are you sure? And Kirk's like, I have my reasons, just wait. Right. And this is gonna, of course, continue to arouse the suspicion of Spock because of course this is not standard operating procedure. If anyone resists the Empire, as it is known, instead of the Federation in this universe, the response is then we just destroy you. And Kirk also explains that this is a new race, they probably have other things of value, like give it a chance. But again, that's still like, what do you mean? So the councilman is ready to talk, and because Kirk is trying to keep them alive, obviously, and he then gives them twelve hours to think things over, or else then he will come kill them. Like, that's a new thing. I mean, Spock even says it's unprecedented. Yeah, completely unprecedented, completely against the normal way of doing things, completely against the orders that the high command of the empire has given to them. So if it's not treason, it is as close to treason as you can get. And of course, the Halcon respond and say, look, it's either doesn't really matter how much time you give us, we're not going to cave. In this universe, the Halkans seem to be the exact same version as their counterparts in our universe: peaceful, nonviolent, and that's why they're not giving up the Dolithium crystals or access to the Dolithium crystals on their planet for the exact same reasons. And they're sticking to their guns. And so Kirk Finn goes, I'm gonna be in my quarters. But Ohora, you and the others meet me there. And we are back, we go to the turbolift, and Chekhov is waiting in the turbo lift, you know, ready to go to deck five where the quarters are. And before the doors close, Spock does tell him this is a grave situation and I must report you. FYI. Yep. So in the turbolift, our evil Chekhov is like, here you go, Captain. And then when the doors open on deck five, Chekov like hits him and he's trying to assassinate him because we have learned with this that officers can assassinate each other as so they can grow in rank. Yes. And I would argue that this is also revealing this is not just a way to earn a promotion. It is probably one of the primary ways that these s empire officers are advancing in rank and gaining power is through assassination. And I mean, who would question the assassination of a captain who disobeyed prime orders, right? Which then kind of gives the explanation of it's not just willy-nilly where Chekhov could have turned around from his console on the bridge and shot the captain. It has to be that would not be accepted. It needs to be secretive. It needs to be cunning. It needs to kind of be, you have to kind of give a reason for it. So there does seem to be some loose set of rules. But as we later learn, it doesn't stay secret because it becomes common knowledge. Yeah, I assassinated him. And it's not just Chekhov and Kirk fighting. Chekhov has like buddies that he employs to beat Kirk up. Right. Because again, you have to imagine some of these we'll call them underlings, but people would attach themselves to others as hey, if this assassination attempt is successful, Chekhov then moves up in rank. He'll then reward us for being loyal to him. And someone actually hurts Chekoff so that hopefully Kirk will employ him and give him a better position other than like a chief option. And Kirk's like, oh, that's cool, and then like hits him. Right. We have now we have two, I guess, normal allegiance crew members, and they offer to take Chekhov to the quote unquote booth. Yeah, I wouldn't call them normal. I would say that they're loyal to Kirk. Okay, I will go with that too. Everyone seems I would say that all everyone on the bri everyone on this enterprise is going to be attached to an officer. All of the crew members are somehow going to have an alliance with someone. Even though they have their own duties, even though they'll work with other people, secretly they all have some sort of alliance to a higher officer with the hopes that the person that they're backing will gain ranks and they'll be rewarded. This sounds like an episode of Survivor or Big Brother. It sounds an awful lot like like uh Game of Well, a lot of fantasy books like Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time. I haven't read those, so I I just went with reality TV. Yeah, we're gonna I don't know that we'll do a book review on the Wheel of Time. So we're now in Kirk's quarters, and Kirk is, I'm assuming, looking forward to going to his quarters so he can at least sit down, breathe, think about where he is, what the heck is happening, how are we gonna get home? And McCoy and Scotty meet him in the quarters, and McCoy's like, What's that on your lip? And Kirk's like, it's called blood. And he tells him how no watch your backs, they kill people here. FYI. And so, and we also learn that this craziness is also happening in sick bay, and we hear how poor McCoy's assistants are betting on how bad someone's pain level tolerance is before they pass out. Yeah. Like, oh my. And Scottie reports that there's minor changes into the in the instruments, but he can handle it. The star readings are exactly the same. Everything is the same, but we are here, not them. And again, they're not forcing the rule of everything is opposite. So the control there, it's mentioned that the controls are different, but familiar enough for Scotty to utilize it. The practices in the sick bay are include these sadistic games that the assistants and the nurses are playing, but it's still a sick bay, they're still caring people and so forth. So they decide to learn more while they're there. And so Kirk is able to use the computer, which, as we mentioned previously, has a male's voice instead of a female's voice. Basically, it uses the computer to run through some computations and asking it questions, and Kirk very quickly puts together with the computer confirming that the transporters are able to transport someone to a parallel universe. It was probably caused by the interference from the Ion Storm that they beamed through originally, and that with all that information, it is possible to recreate those conditions so that they can use the transporters, create a similar power surge type situation, and return back to their own universe. And then Kirk has the computer record the procedure, and then Scotty has to go make sure he could do it. Scotty says, Of course I could do this, but I need help. Kirk can't help. So McCoy, you're the lucky man. And then of course he's like, I am a doctor, not an engineer. Yeah. Surprise. And then McCoy's like, from what we've seen, what kind of people are we here? Like, this is kind of creepy. And then we'll let's ask the computer again. And so this is where we learn that Kirk got to be captain of this universe by executing Captain Pike and then just continuing continuously executing thousands and thousands of people. Yeah, confirming that the Kirk from this bad universe, this Mirror universe, is not a good person. He is like everyone else, he assassinated his superior to gain command, and has been following through on the Empire's directives to just execute people who stand in their way. Fun fact, it'll be revealed later that Kirk not only assassinated Pike, but used the Tantalus device to assassinate Pike. Oh, so. Naughty. Alright, so Scotty comes back after they learned their fate, and he could totally do it. But another caveat, Sulu's board at the bridge is going to light up that there's changes happening. So Ohura is going to need to create a diversion so that he misses that. And then everyone run to the transporter room. And then again, McCoy goes, I wonder what's happening on our Enterprise. And then ta da! We're back at the good enterprise. And we see Spock is ordering these four crazy people into the brig. Kirk is fighting his security personnel that is dragging him. He's trying to ask, I'll give you power. I'm gonna kill you all. So many threats. He's like, Spock, where's your beard? What kind of uniform am I in? What's happening? I I think it's a great inclusion to the episode to give us this one sneak peek into the question that's probably was probably on the minds of viewers of like, are the mirror universe versions on our the real enterprise? Are they doing some kind of sabotage? Are they running amok? Are they trying to do the same thing and get back to their own universe? So it gives us the entertaining moment. We get to see them, we get to see Kirk and Scotty and Ohura and McCoy acting as their quote unquote evil mirror selves. But we also get the question answered, no, they didn't cause any trouble. They were immediately discovered by Spock, they were immediately locked up in the brig. And if I recall correctly, this is the only time that we really get to see the Enterprise in our universe until everyone swaps back. So it's not overdone, it's not jumping back and forth multiple times trying to carry on two plots. Another strength to the episode, I think. 100%. And I mean Spock's like, I have no answers for you. And he just like walks away. And then Kirk is still calling. What can I do? And you know, we have that famous word that he uses all the time. Fascinating. Now we're back at our bad enterprise. And Spock, who has a beard in that world, confronts Kirk. And he's like, Good job of not being dead. You know, that was that was some skill you got there. Right. He's referring to Chekov's assassination attempt. Yes. And as they're walking and talking, they walk by the booth that was mentioned, and we learn that it's called the Agony Booth. Basically, like the agonizer, but like it could kill you. Yeah, I uh that's a good point. I I think you're correct. I don't necessarily think the agonizers have the lethal ability, but yes, absolutely, this booth, quote unquote, punishment booth, has the lethal ability. It has the ability to kill someone, whether intentionally or just the levels of pain that it exposes a person to can eventually become lethal, depending on how strong the subject is. Because Spock wants to know how far do you want this to go? And uh Kirk's like, I haven't decided. Did we mention it was Chekhov in the booth? Yes. Okay. Or hi, Chekhov's in the booth in pain. And then and then while they're walking, I noticed that Kirk has a guard behind him, and Spock has his own guard, and that's a Vulcan. Yes. Is it the same Vulcan that we saw in a previous episode and that little glance on the bridge? No idea, but let's pretend it is. And of course, this Spock is always there to remind Kirk, you've gone against all of these commands. You are not doing what you normally do. Right. And if you don't start falling in line and doing what you need to do, I'm eventually not going to have a choice. I I he's telling he's telling Kirk, hey, I don't want to assassinate you. I don't want to be the captain. I enjoy being the science officer. It's what I enjoy doing, it's where my it's where my interests lie. I'm not the prime target. No one messes with me. But if you don't shape up, I'm eventually going to be told that I have to remove you from command. I'm going to have to kill you. I'm going to have to take over as being captain. I don't want the job, but if I don't, they're just going to kill me and then kill you. Kirk goes back to his quarters and he sees a woman sleeping in his bed. Apparently they had a rendezvous in a Kim Lab and it was amazing. And so she wanted to stay. But she's kind of like super aggressive, and she even emasculates him about Chekhov and his assassination attempt. But they're like flirting. It's kind of weird. And she's able to have I haven't seen this before. She pushes a button and a door opens and she has two drinks ready. That would be the replicator. I love it. I want one. It's the same thing that we saw that we laugh at in that was in the transporter room when they made the meal for the guard that they beamed on board when they went back in time. This is I like these things. Yeah. This again, this is where they get their food. At this point, they've transitioned away from a standard cook in a kitchen and they're getting their food replicated. I like it. And so she has the drinks and she's just like picking his brain. She wants to know what his plans are, and her aspirations are to be the wife of the Caesar, because Kirk is like, I'm just gonna go high, high, high up in power. While that's happening, Spock calls Kirk and he just wanted to let him know that he received a private message. From Starfleet Command. And uh by doing this, Spock is breaching regulations, but he wanted to give Kirk a heads up. If Kirk does not do as he's commanded, Spock has to kill him, and then continue on with annihilating the Hawkins. The woman and Kirk toach Spock, you know, he's such a good guy, he has a great brain. Too bad he's gonna die. And she still wants this woman is just wanting to know everything, and Kirk has no answers. Then she suggests, would you like me to bring up the tantalus field? So you can monitor Spock. You want to know where he is, right? And Kirk's like, sure. And this is where we get the introduction of the tantalus device, where she reveals it in this hidden wall panel. And to break it down, it seems they don't give a exact scientific explanation, but it is explained briefly that through the little television monitor, they can pull up and look at anyone, they can spy on them, they can hear what they're saying, but then also it can target someone and immediately vaporize them. She makes little comments, some of them it's slightly derogatory, but talking about, oh, what would everyone say if they knew that the all-powerful Captain Kirk, all of his power comes from this spy device that uh was looted from some unknown alien. So we'll talk about that more later. But it implies that Kirk isn't going around stabbing and shooting people. He runs back to his quarters and he uses this little hidden device and just makes them vaporize, and he does so in a way that leads to this legend that he is all powerful and no one can mess with him, and in a way it is, but at the same time, he's extremely weak because if anyone were to discover this device, they just take the device away from him and he's done. And she even threatens to take Spock out right then and there. Right, but Kirk, of course, this is not the Kirk she knows. This is our soft-hearted Kirk from our universe, and so he says no. And then like she runs off to another room because she wants to get she wants, you know, have fun with Kirk while this is all happening. While she's away, Kirk calls Scotty for an update. We have three hours, or else I'm dead. So let's what's this what's the plan? And Scotty's like, well, we have 30 minutes because of all this uh weather timing, or else we're stuck for a whole century. It's interesting to point out if Kirk wasn't so soft-hearted, again, if the whole idea for the goal of their mission is to get back to their own universe, Kirk absolutely could have used this device. He could have killed Spock, he could have killed Sulu, he could have killed pretty much everyone on the damn ship, leaving the four of them, and then beamed away, and yes, it would absolutely screw up the other universe, but this isn't a time travel situation. They would just be able to go home. They're all evil, they're all bad. They could have done it, they could have set their own, they could have programmed the ship after they beamed away to blast off and fly into a sun somewhere and destroy itself. Would have made it a lot easier. But that would have been too easy. Would have would have it I wouldn't say it was gonna lead to a bad episode. It would lead to a different episode. It might be a good episode, it might be a good episode to have Kirk have all of those deaths on his conscience. Oh, I like that. And then check back later. Now we are in Spock's quarters, though, because he notices there's a lot of computer action going on in the engineering section. And so he asks his computer, What's happening? And of course he learns that it's all locked by voice index for Kirk and Scotty only. Then there's like another light that's blinking. Spock calls Sulu, why are you monitoring my usage of communications? And Sulu's like, Oh, I was just trying to let you know about that extensive computer usage that you obviously know about. Right. Not that I'm listening in and trying to gain favor for myself. And this is where they're thinking that Kirk is either planning an escape or devising something else. He thinks Kirk is he thinks Kirk is trying to like run away from the situation instead of dealing with all that's happening. And then Sulu, of course, reminds him that if you fail, that's on my head. And you know, Spock has to like, I don't want to be the captain. Stop, stop doing that. But Sulu, if you kill me, I have operatives that would avenge his death, and some are Vulcans, and then scared face from Sulu. Yeah. So then we're back with Kirk in his quarters, and Marlena has changed into this night attire, and she's like, come on back with me, you know, don't worry about ship business. And Kirk, of course, like wants to like keep her entertained, but still needs to focus on escaping. And then Marlena's like, Fine, if you don't want me, Commander Kenner will take me. It's like she just wants to like ping-pong between officers so she can be a kept woman. That's exactly what her role is. Whether she's accepted it or not, she's chosen it. So we finish up in Kirk's quarters where the two of them kind of have a back and forth about Kirk trying to convince her that she's not just a captain's woman, is not just a kept woman. She can be other things if she wanted to, if she's unhappy. But he ends up leaving. And then we get a couple quick shots of the plan being put into motion. We see that Scotty and McCoy are putting the final touches on the adjustments to the ship's systems for the transporter to execute their plan to get back home. We get a prolonged scene where we see Ohura distracting, like we talked about, where she flirts with him for a minute to keep him distracted from his console. Then, of course, when she sees that the change has been made and she doesn't need to flirt with him anymore, she goes back into badass woman mode and pulls the knife on Sulu to end the flirtiness, so to speak. And calls him Mr. Again. We also get a scene where Kirk is trying to put his final touches on the control panel in the transporter room. He gets interrupted by Spock, who is revealed that he has pretty much figured out the entire situation. That Spock recognizes that the four of them are from a different parallel universe, and Spock ultimately leads Kirk by Phaser Point to Sickbait to reconvene with everyone. So everyone is waiting in the Sick Bay, and Spock is there to just stop them, and he starts fighting with them. It's a fantastic fight scene, if I say so. Yeah, it's one of my it's I made it in my notes. It's 10 out of 10, it's fantastically choreographed, it's it's um definitely better than some of the other fight scenes that we've seen. And everyone is involved, like all of them, and yeah, it's it's wonderful. It is like a dance. And they finally Ohura passes like a skull to Kirk and he bashes Spox head and Spox lights out. But McCoy, being the doctor that he is, must make sure that Spock stays alive. Yeah, it's interesting how the rest of the episode plays out as they juggle where everyone is. This is definitely, I think, contrived so that at the end there's a reason for them to delay because it causes another scene uh to play out. So it it's interesting how all these events are happening to kind of force people to be in certain places of the of the ship. And so McCoy is like, I only need a minute. Let me just save him and then I'll be there. And as he's working on Spock, evil Sulu pops in with his dudes, and he's like, I have such a great plan, you know, because both you and Spock will die, Kirk. Like, it'll just be a great fight to the death, and I'll be the one that, you know, gets to be captain. Yeah, I will frame it so that Kirk kills Spock and then I killed Kirk in retaliation, and then I become captain and I'm free and clear. And as this is happening, our girl Marlena is still in Kirk's quarters, and she has that tantalus field up watching, and she just like dials in on all the goons behind Sulu and is like click, disappear, click, disappear, click. Yeah. So now it's just Sulu and five people. Also important to note that in this moment, she now knows as well that this is not her Kirk. This is Kirk from the parallel universe, our universe. Yes, she's heard the entire thing about we have to save him, then we'll go, and she's like, Okay. But she has a really good idea, you know, in her head, so that's why she kills all those people. And so we have another great fight scene, and Sue is knocked out, and McCoy is able to heal our cold Spock, who wakes up and basically attacks McCoy and is like, What is happening? And he's just like backing him up into the wall, and then he starts his Vulcan mind meld and learns what is in Dr. McCoy's brain. Up until this point, he knew that something was amiss. Yeah, probably didn't know the exact parallel universe type thing, but definitely knew something was wrong. Now fully understands that they come from a different universe. Side note slash tangent. The soundtrack part on this is phenomenal. That bass. Yeah, it's a good moment. Sorry. Alright. So now we're back in our teleporter room, and guess who's there? Marlena is waiting. She wants to go with them. Take me with you. Cause she knows all that's happening, right? But Kirk can't let her go because Scotty has already balanced everything to allow the four of them, the original four landing party members. Right. And then Marlena's like, well then I'll just kill someone because she has a phaser. And then we have a girl fight because O'Hara like gets the phaser from her and is like, stand in the corner over there. Right. But again, if we didn't have the moment where Spock was knocked out, forcing McCoy to stay behind to save him, not only would we not have Spock coming to the full realization of what's happening, we wouldn't have this moment and this confrontation. And then Scotty notices that the power has been cut on the main board. And so that means someone has to stay behind and push the buttons. And then in walks McCoy, escorted by Spock. Right. And of course, Spock knows everything. He's like, I was the one that cut off the power. I'm the one that needs the time to talk to you because I know everything now. Yes. So he connects the power back, and I think he's glad to finally be like, I know it's happening. Please go away, you weirdos, and bring my savage barbarians back. Correct. And so he kind of goes with it. And the four of them, well, sorry, McCoy, Scotty, and O'Hora are on the teleporter, and Kirk is still trying to get Spock to not kill the Hulkins. He's like, I have a minute. We can talk about it. Let's be logical. And Kirk, Spock's like, can you just uh go now? Like I think the question though that Kirk has is Spock, what is the logical region? What is the logical reason for killing the Hulkins? Like that is like the biggest question that Kirk has. And Spock doesn't really have the answer. But as time dwindles, Kirk goes back to the pad, and he also lets Spock know about the device in his quarters that can make him invincible. Yes, and this is a well it's not obvious to the moment, but this is a tantamount moment because this is what this moment shapes the mirror universe going forward, and directly is the reason why we find the mirror universe in the state that it's in when we revisit it again in Deep Space Nine. Giving Spock the power of that device and telling Spock, hey, this literally can promote you and propel you to such a position of power that you can influence change, you can bring about logic and order, and it doesn't have to be this chaos that you're experiencing. And we will find out how that impacts the mirror universe later. And I think Kirk always has to like leave like a major situation with this like motivational quote of some kind, and before they energize out, he's all there's always one man that has a vision, and then Spock's like, all right, bye. Yeah, see ya, thanks. And then they materialize back into our enterprise, as they call it, and the original Spock without the beard is just waiting patiently for them, like about time, and like ends super fast because now we're back on the bridge and everyone is just cool and collected and calm. And Kirk and McCoy want to know, Spock, how did you figure out our counterparts so fast? I mean, like, we no one figured it out until we left. And Spock reminds them that civilized men can pretend to be barbarians, yet barbarians can't really pretend to be civilized men. Then McCoy has to make a jab that, hey, a beard on Spock might be a nice change. It adds character. He could be a pirate. Yes. But Spock, you know, he always throws it back. He's like, that reminds me. I was able to see the full beauty of real humanity. And I think it was refreshing. And then Kirk's like, I don't know. I think we were insulted there. Yeah. And then as they're ending their little chat, in walks, guess who? Marlena. The one character who we had no reference to her s what her character was in our universe. And so she pops in, she's prim and proper, takes a clipboard to Kirk, please sign. And Kirk's like, uh uh uh uh. And she's like, I was transferred last week. Oh, good to know. And she walks away, and of course, Kirk is still Twitter pated, and Spock's like, Do you know her? Of course not, you know. She just seems like a lovely girl. We could be friends. Yes. But also, again, pointing out that's going to be probably the biggest divergence because if she's only been on the Enterprise for a week, her mere universe self has been on the Enterprise for how long? Quite a while. So kind of again, fantastic that they don't force the rule of everything has to be exact but opposite. There's some flexibility to the telling of it. Beautiful. But that's the episode. Roll credits.

Final Thoughts

1:00:03

So, Jackie, what did you think about season two, episode four, Mirror Mirror? Like I said earlier, I loved it. It was exciting, it was fun. I learned lots of new words. And uh, I'm assuming the Halkins are still alive on both sides of the plan of the universe. Well, they're certainly alive in our universe. I don't know if because Spock we'll spoil it. Spock eventually brings change to the mirror universe. He uses the Tauntilus device to rise in power, and yes, he takes Kirk's advice and starts to bring about change to the Empire, they become less ruthless and so forth, to the detriment of the Empire. By the time we come back to the Mirror Universe, we realize that the Empire has become peaceful, they have lost all of their, not all of their, but they have become a weaker force in the universe, and they then can be taken over by the Klingon Cardassian Alliance, who have no qualms, don't give a damn, and they enslave the members of the Empire. So they kind of get what they gave. Correct. But is Spock able to do that immediately, or is it a gradual change? And if it's a gradual change, do the Harkins escape their fate or not? Not quite sure. But I also really liked the episode. Uh again, it's the Mirror Universe. It is so drastically different from so many of the other episodes that we've seen, and leads to the foundation of what becomes some of the better Deep Space Nine episodes, I think. Again, I really wish there was a Mir Universe episode for the next generation, but they never revisit it then. And ultimately it's just entertaining. I don't really find a whole besides the some of the things that get retconned about how they probably could have had a funnier scene or devoted a moment to show the Mir Universe people being returned. We could have had the opportunity for a fun moment to see Mir Universe Kirk and R. Kirk having a conversation. That could have been fun and interesting. But none of that really takes away from the overall episode and how entertaining it is and what it does. So I really like it. But before we give our quotes, we'll just quickly tease our Star Note bonus episode topic over at our Patreon, patreon.com slash Trexandangents free for everyone, where we just dive deeper into one or two topics for the episode. And this week's topic or question is going to be Did Kirk convince Spock with logic or with hope? But we'll dive into that further over on the Patreon. Tune in when you're done listening to this episode. Jackie, why don't you give your favorite quote from the episode to round it out? That's really weird that you took that that is our star note, because I have my quote as I submit to you that your empire is illogical because it cannot endure. I submit to you that you are illogical to be a willing part of it. And that's Kirk talking to the Mirror Spock about, I mean, the future of his empire's demise. I just think it I mean he poses the question to Spock and how he is so proud of his logical thinking, but yet when they have their discussion about like the future, why would you want to be part of the demise of your own community? Okay. Uh on a similar topic, again, because I think that's going to be the overarching theme to the episode, or one of them, but my quote is going to be Spock and Kirk. I should clarify, mirror Spock to our Kirk. And Spock says, and this is at some point they're discussing the whole logicalness of destroying the Hawkins and the Empire demanding that they be destroyed, and S Kirk kind of pushing back slightly against it and and trying to justify his actions to give them more time. And Spock says, terror must be maintained or the empire is doomed. It is the logic of history. And Kirk responds with conquest is easy, control is not. So again, just kind of my favorite quote for the episode because it again kind of really puts into context the Empire and how it exists and is it sustainable?

Tribble Tidbits

1:04:38

With that roundup, I do have some triple tidbits or interesting facts for the episode. And why do we call them triple tidbits, Jackie? Because they are the best, of course. Because they can sometimes be fun and cute and cuddly and other times not. First airing October 6, 1967, the actress Barbara Luna, who played Marlena Monroe, got strep throat very shortly after filming for the episode began. So they couldn't delay the filming of the episode, so they had to restructure everything. And so the scene where her and Kirk kiss in their quarters shortly before they part for that last time in their quarters had to be delayed by three weeks so that she could get over Strept Throat so that she wouldn't pass it on to William Shatner. The original outline for the Mirror Universe called for it to be not evil, but just backwards. So people walking backwards, people talking backwards, the ship would have moved backwards. Very, very different. That sounds complicated. And just doesn't fit. Glad they didn't go with that. George Takai, we mentioned, wears a red uniform in this episode because it matches his position as security chief in the Mirror universe. His normal uniform is gold, as we covered. And then in the episode where No Man has gone before, he was at the moment playing an astrophysicist. That was his role, and he later changed to Navigator. Don't look too deeply if it was a real thing or just an error on their part. But regardless, there's a legitimate explanation for him wearing blue. So it is the first Star Trek actor to wear all three uniforms for legitimate purposes and not just because of costuming mistakes. We mentioned that the computer voice on the Enterprise in the Mirror Universe was a male voice instead of a female voice, and that male voice was James Duhan, who plays Scotty. The Mirror Universe Enterprise is different slightly if you look at it compared to the Enterprise that we see in our universe, not only to represent the fact that it is a slightly different universe, so it makes sense that there would be some differences to the ship, the deflector dish, or so forth, but it's also because they in making that decision, it was easy. They didn't have to go make a brand new model, they just used the same model that they used from the failed pilot episode, the cage, because they still had it. And then I think my favorite fun fact for the episode, it's not explained, but the and it's kind of a minor point to the episode, the tantalist field, that device, where did it come from? What is it where is it? They mentioned that it came from an unnamed scientist alien, and in fact, it's never explained in the show. But if you read the novel, the Star Trek novel Dark Victory, it is confirmed that it was plundered from Baloch, from the Carbamite Maneuver, his mirror universe counterpart. He was still the representative from his organization of civilizations, and it in fact was plundered from uh Baloch from Pike, Captain Pike. Pike wanted to conquer his civilization and his group of um people. He ended up killing Ballock, he ended up looting his laboratory, he took the Tantalus field. Kirk then used that same device against Pike and killed Pike and took it over. It's also of note that uh in the killing of Ballock and the plundering of his laboratory, Balok's body was actually preserved and displayed as a trophy. Again, all from the book, but I think just a fun little offshoot from the canon that makes sense. But those are going to be your triple tidbits.

Episode Ranking

1:08:56

Finally, we'll give our episode ranking to this week's episode. We'll pretend that this episode is a member of our fictitious starship crew, and we'll assign it a Starfleet rank. A higher rank means that we found the episode not only more entertaining as we watched it, but we find the episode to be a more valuable member of our crew. A lower rank, of course, means the opposite. We didn't find it very entertaining, and it's a more disposable member for our crew. All of our enlisted ranks at the bottom can have an unlimited number, starting with ensign, lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant, and then for our officers, we limit the number that we can have in those ranks. Lieutenant Commander 7, Commander 5, Captain 1, and then the Ultimate Pinnacle episode, a perfect episode of Admiral. We can have one. Jackie, for your starship, the USS Luminaria, what rank do you give this week's episode? I'm just gonna go for it. I am giving it a captain. Nine out of ten. Captain. Okay. And why are you gonna give it that rank? This is like the first episode I've seen where I was entertained. I learned lots of things, and it all made sense to me from watching it the first time, but then of course, you know, watching it more, I learned even more. So that's why it's going to be in the captain. I don't know if there's something coming down the road that might be better. Okay. So I'm also gonna rank this equally as high for my starship, the USS Comet. This is going to be my Admiral for the season. Ooh. This is again, not just because of how entertaining the episode is, it absolutely is entertaining. But the fact that it is the foundation for the mirror universe in Star Trek, fantastic episodes and fantastic topic to Star Trek, it has to rank all the way up at the top for an admiral. This is going to be my perfect episode for the season. Looking over at IMDB as the time of this recording, Mir Mir is ranked 9.0 out of 10. I think this is the top rated, yeah. This is gonna be the top-rated episode of all the original series, only coming second to The City on the Edge of Forever, according to IMDB, which comes out at 9.2 out of 10. Both fantastic episodes. So this is like in the middle of all our episodes that we have to watch. I'm hoping the next episodes stay. There are going to be some bombs. There are going to still be some very entertaining episodes. Okay, good. I don't necessarily say that this episode is the peak of the original series because there are still going to be entertaining episodes. I I don't know that Mir Mir is going to be the best episode, but it's certainly, I would say, top five for sure. I look forward to seeing the others. Not that the top ten episodes are bad. Of course. And of course, if none of the ranking made any sense, as I forgot to mention at the top of the segment, you can find a graphical representation of our rankings over at our Patreon, patreon.com slash treks and tangents. Free for anyone to view, and we'll post that on Wednesday, the day after this episode comes

Turbolift Tease

1:12:24

out. We'll be back next week to trek through another episode, but before we go, we'll give our turboliftees or elevator pitch to next episode's plot. I'll give Jackie the title of next week's episode, and Jackie with no other information will give a brief pitch to that plot. Jackie, next week's episode is entitled The Apple. So the Enterprise has sent a landing party down to the planet to do research because our sensors are telling us to check it out. And as Sue is walking by, one of the merchants, because they happen to be in like a like a farmer's market, and someone throws something into Lu's pouch. What could it be? And tune in next week to see how accurate Jackie's prediction is. But that's gonna do it for us this week. If you want more show information, you can find and directly support our podcast on Patreon, patreon.com slash treks and tangents. Again, as a reminder, we post our bonus star note episode for all who follow the Patreon graphical representation of our ranking system. For our supporters, we also dive into the animated series. We have all of our test episodes that we've recorded. You can binge through and listen to just how far we've come as content podcast creators. But you can also follow us on x at x.com slash treks underscore tangents. We're also on Instagram, Blue Sky, Trex and Tangents. Jackie, where can people find you? And what are you up to? Oh, a lot's been happening with me. You can find me on Instagram at Jaboom, J I B B O O M. I'm just posting all the time now. I got a new hip. Whoop whoop. Yes, for those who couldn't tell, the last three episodes were batch recorded uh one after the other so that we could stack them up a little bit so Jackie could go away and get her hip replacement so that we wouldn't have an interruption to the publishing schedule. And now she's back and she's got a new hip. Yay! And so we're working on that recovery so I can get the other one done. It'll be fun, fun, fun. See you there. All right, and you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv slash piratepoundtown. Hopefully I'll be able to get back more into that now that Jackie's in recovery mode and we're not in surgery prep or surgery full recovery mode. So join me over there on YouTube. I'll post video game and other random content on my main channel, PiratePoundtown. Also on YouTube, I have all of my coin collecting and hobby content at Pirate Treasure Hunting. I post socially on Blue Sky at Pirate Poundtown, and I'm still trying to get better about figuring out how Instagram works. I am the old man. Technology has caught up to me, and I don't understand how it works, but I'll keep trying. But you can find me at Instagram on as Pineapple Cannibal. Links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning in to this episode. We hope you had fun like we did, and we will see you all next week.