A few weeks back, Star Trek: The Next Generation alum Jonathan Frakes commented to a convention crowd about what seemed to be a big spoiler: that Star Trek: Discovery would be taking on the Mirror Universe in an upcoming story for the series’ first season.
While the extent of how that comment would translate to Discovery was unclear, series producer Alex Kurtzman finally confirmed that rumored development at Saturday’s New York Comic Con event.
When asked by ComicBook.com if the USS Discovery‘s experimental spore drive engines could lead to stories about “classic Star Trek plots” like time travel or alternate universes, Kurtzman both referenced and confirmed Frakes’ earlier statements:
Well, it sort of leaked that we are gonna be en… doing some episodes about the Mirror Universe, yes. We will absolutely be paying homage to the original.
This development is one that is certain to be controversial to some fans, with our known first Starfleet contact with the alternate universe set in TOS’s “Mirror, Mirror,” referenced specifically as “the first crossover” in DS9’s “Crossover.”
Viewers of Star Trek: Enterprise, however, will remember the 2005 two-parter “In a Mirror, Darkly” took place entirely within the confines of the Mirror Universe without any contact with the Federation.
That being said, Lorca and the Discovery already have some secrets on board thought not known until the classic Trek days, so it’s possible contact with the Mirror Universe may be added to that collection.
Some eagle-eyed fans following press coverage of the series may also have noticed that the USS Discovery‘s dedication plaque, first seen clearly in promotional imagery for “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry,” is different from the one seen in photography from Variety magazine back in the summer.
With a different insignia, upper-section text, and “ISS” designation, it certainly appears to be from the dark side of the galaxy, following in the naming scheme for Terran Empire starships first used in “Mirror, Mirror.”
We’ll have to wait and see to what extent the Mirror Universe plays a role in the rest of Star Trek: Discovery‘s first season.
