I always felt that Star Trek: The Next Generation was always missing a Mirror Universe episode. To me, it was a bit of a disappointment that Captain Picard and Commander Riker never got to experience inverted versions of themselves.

There are a number of reasons why I am unabashedly enjoying this series, but I’d like to just focus on two for now. We’re up to the third chapter of TNG: Through the Mirror by David and Scott Tipton, along with artists extraordinaire, J.K. Woodward and Josh Hood.

The first reason why I’m loving this series is that it’s a completely accurate rendering of not only the mirrored characters, but also their motivations. These are the characters that I would expect to see had a televised Mirror story in the TNG setting been created.

Let’s look at Picard. Picard is calculating, motivated by the security and welfare of his ship. He expects complete efficiency from his crew, holds their respect and is a cunning strategist in battle. What’s great about this description is that it can apply to both Picards on either side of the dimensional divide, but that only adds to its accuracy. From the Mirrored side, Picard ensures that his ship is secured through brutal raids, preying on passing ships unawares and, as we have seen in the previous two issues, is now extending that method of resourcing to the other universe.

Riker, on the other hand, instead of being the loyal and supportive first officer we know, intent on protecting his captain, the alternate Riker is a strong-armed thug who is clearly waiting for the right opportunity. He knows the captain will eventually make a mistake that he can exploit for himself.

My shameless favourite though, has to be Inquisitor Troi. Maybe I’m just hopelessly smitten by ‘bad girls,’ but this Troi is far from the sensitive and caring empath we know. The Mirrored version we meet in this series is deceitful and subversive, fully capable of employing her empathic abilities for not only personal gain but to render enemies helpless. She is a brilliant accomplice to Picard’s plans and her character is definitely my favourite character in the Mirror Universe.

It’s the guileful extrapolation of these character personalities that really holds my attention and it’s completely fair to say that the Tiptons’ interpretations of them are exact and perfectly fit my expectations.

My second reason for loving this series is its structure. Divided into two sections, the ‘A’ story looks at the after effects of the incursions from the ISS Enterprise crew (from the perspective of the USS Enterprise crew). It’s a larger story than its ‘B’ counterpart, drawn by Josh Hood this time. The last two ‘A’ stories were drawn by Chris Johnson.

We see the progression of the USS Enterprise crew making minor discoveries: a duplicate crewman in the first issue, security footage of their doppelgangers in the second issue and then, the third issue deals with a cunning plan to actually infiltrate and lure the USS Enterprise to prearranged location to presumably capture it for further replacement parts.

Their intelligence on the USS Enterprise is slight out of date, which gives rise to questions about how they obtained their information in the first place. With my curiosity piqued, I was perfectly primed for the encounter between Inquisitor Troi and Commander Riker from the USS Enterprise. (Hands down, the best three pages of the book.)

Story ‘B’ shows us Data’s continued hunt for Emperor Spock, set a few months earlier from the first story. It’s a slower pace and it has less pages, so it has a constantly interrupted feel to it — but it’s painted by J.K. Woodward, which means that all is forgiven.

It’s a good guess that this story explains how the crew of the ISS Enterprise know about the alternate universe. It makes sense as we know Spock would still be alive by the time of The Next Generation, and I’m very curious to hear what his rationale for self-imposed exile is and what happened after he lost the throne.

The covers this time around are more thematic and appeal to me, given my favourite part of the book.

• Cover ‘A’ is a pair of parallel portraits of Riker and Troi. I especially love the nuance of sinisterism in Troi’s face. J.K. Woodward is a master of emotional expression and it almost looks as if Mirror Troi is staring daggers at her ‘sweeter’ twin.
   
• Cover ‘B,’ drawn by Josh Hood, almost has the same exchange of emotions. Inquisitor Troi is staring around a corner at a happy Deanna and Will. There’s a sense of jealousy and hatred in this image and it’s wonderfully evocative of the exchange we see in the story.
   
• The retailer-incentive ‘A’ cover is just a photo of Worf. I’ve said my piece about photo-covers in the past and I don’t want to repeat myself.
   
• The retailer-incentive ‘B’ is by Peter McKinstry, and is a gorgeous rendition of Counselor Troi. Again – Troi is clearly the dominant theme in this book and that makes me very happy. McKinstry’s art is definitely awesome. I’d love to see him add to the interior pencilling in a future issue to get a sense of his story development skills.
   
• Finally, there’s another Convention Exclusive cover (not pictured), which is simply a black and white version of Woodward’s ‘A’ cover.

This is a marathon of Trek comics. With an issue coming out every week, it’s a real testament to the creators of this book that they can manage to maintain a story of such high quality and, well, Trek-ness.

It comes down to the characters. It’s clear that both David and Scott have the measure of the characters from TNG well understood, as we can relate and appreciate not only how they react in this story but also how their mirror versions do. That’s an accomplishment of merit, to be sure.

Like I said, I always felt that TNG was missing a Mirror episode, but thanks to the Tiptons, J.K. Woodward, Josh Hood and all the other creators involved in the production of this series, I don’t feel like that any more.

Watch for my review of Star Trek: TNG — Through the Mirror #4 next week!