We have been waiting for a battle royale in Star Trek: TNG — Through the Mirror, and that’s exactly what writers Scott and David Tipton along with artist, Debora Carita, gave us here in this final chapter of this summer’s first Mirror Universe saga… as the crews of two starships Enterprise square off for a climactic showdown!

When we left the story last week, the Imperial Terrans have managed to lure the USS Enterprise to the Martorelles Array, where they plan to beam the entire ship over to the Mirror Universe. It’s an ambitious plan, but  Mirror Picard clearly overlooked the fact that if he could conceive of this plan, his counterpart from “our” universe would be able to figure it out too — and sense that there was a trap lurking in the shadows.

Through the Mirror #5 picks up right from last week’s cliffhanger ending, with the crews of each Enterprise staring down their counterparts, phasers at the ready. When the battle begins, both crews scatter and the entire story is one big fight scene with some interesting one-on-one clashes.

However, during this battle, I did happen to notice a few discrepancies — for example: when the two sides are arrayed opposite to each other, in one panel, the Terran Imperials were weaponless. Yet just a few other panels later, they were armed with not just hand phasers, but phaser rifles. I don’t know where they hid them, but it must have been a pretty imaginative place!

Dr. Crusher and Inquisitor Troi were in the “order of battle” too. While it’s clearly within the realm of reason that they would have made themselves scarce as non-combatants, I think I would have liked to have seen them leave. I’m not a stickler for great detail, but every now and then, the occasional one catches my attention and stays with me.

This brawl isn’t the end of the story in this book, though — the story of the Mirror Next Generation crew is far from over. The grand scheme didn’t go off as planned for the ISS Enterprise crew, and their story ended with open storylines to fill a Galaxy-class starship.

Case in point: Reg Barclay, everyone’s favourite poster boy for insecurity, is actually the diametric opposite in the Terran Empire, an hotly aggressive officer willing to take risks and claim dangerous situations for himself. The Mirror duplicate of “good old Broccoli” manages to slip past the crew of the ‘good’ Enterprise, and stows away on the Federation flagship — setting up the launch of Star Trek: TNG — Terra Incognita, the forthcoming sequel story to Through the Mirror.

Also, I love that the parting words between the Picards were clear foreshadowing of future encounters. It’s obvious that IDW likes what the Tiptons have written here, and that they’ll be more from this duo in the future.

The second tale that’s been woven through this five-issue story, “Ripe for the Plunder,” is somewhat truncated in this issue, fighting for page count with the big battle in the primary presentation. Despite its brevity, though, it’s still a source of pure fascination for me.

Even though Data has now found Emperor Spock, we still don’t know what happens between them during their encounter. It is apparent that Data managed to get the information he needed — learning the existence of ‘our’ universe from the former first officer of the first ISS Enterprise — but while things look fairly dire for the elderly Vulcan, the possibility that he still lives remains.

While this is the end of this short tale, I’d like to think that this is also the starting point for a possible future storyline in which we will see some more of J.K. Woodward’s incredible art. Call me an optimist, but there’s more that can be written out of this and I’m sure the Tiptons are up for more.

The covers for this issue are fairly remarkable.

• Cover ‘A’ is the final entry in J.K. Woodward’s spectacular panel piece of reflection. The two Doctors Crusher are facing each other on this cover, with Worf and the Mirror Barclay beneath them. This is definitely my favourite cover, and I would give my eye-teeth to collect all of the panels.
   
• Cover ‘B’ is an epic one-on-one fight between Mirror Data and our Captain Picard. This is by the interior artist, Debora Carita and it holds itself well, if it was a cover to attract the attention of the casual passer-by in a local comic shop. It hints at the conflict within and to see Commander Data, with his Borg attachments strangling Captain Picard is a fairly striking image.
   
• The retailer-incentive ‘A’ cover is a stock photo of the Next Generation cast from the sixth year of the television series. It’s been seen so many times that its familiarity actually detracts from the adventure of the story (at least, in my opinion).
   
• Peter McKinstry provides the art for the retailer-incentive ‘B’ cover, and as I’m seeing more of his work, I like it even more. It’s a stunning image of the alternate Riker, complete with a biker beard and scarred, dead eye. This Riker is a complete bad-ass, and I think McKinstry has captured the attitude of this character perfectly.
   
• Finally, the convention-exclusive cover (not pictured) is a black-and-white version of the main cover by Woodward. I’d love to get all of these myself, so I hope that my next convention has all of them in stock!

While this is the end of this marathon of weekly books, this isn’t the last of the battles between the two crews. Unlike some other Mirror Universe tales, the storyline that began with last year’s Mirror Broken and continued with Through the Mirror is just start of these two crews actively planning to encounter each other in the future.

The challenge for the Tiptons is to think of a tale that will take into account that each side is, at least theoretically, evenly matched. It will be the environmental factors that will decide whether one side succeeds or fails, and I can imagine some stories which might let one side have the clear advantage for an entire story arc… and we won’t find out the outcome until the next one.

Still, this will be a challenging series to continue, but I’m sure that Scott and David Tipton will be up for the challenge when the six-issue Star Trek: TNG – Terra Incognita story begins this August.

Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek comic news and reviews — including my take on the final entry in the Star Trek: Discovery – The Light of Kahless story, coming soon!