Hello, everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of Trek Politics.

I'm Mary Trump here with my friend and co-host, Bob Susska.

Hey, Bob, what do we have in store this week?

Hey, Mary.

Well, first of all, spoilers ahead.

This is Mirror Mirror from Season 2, written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Mark Daniels.

In this episode, Captain Kirk, Lieutenant O'Hura, Scotty, and Bones are negotiating a dilithium mining treaty with Tharn, the leader of the Halkin homeworld, a pacifist species that's concerned about Starfleet's long-term commitment to peace.

The negotiations are interrupted by an ion storm, however, which flummoxes the

enterprise's transporters. Consequently, during beam-up, the landing party is accidentally

transported into the mirror universe, an alternate dimension of the multiverse in which the federation

is a militaristic, colonizing empire, and the crew of the enterprise is composed of savage backstabbing fascists.

In the mirror universe as well, Spock has a Van Dyke beard, Chekhov is an ambitious conspirator,

Tulu is scarred and a bit rapy, and the entire crew is dressed in fancier, militaristic fatigues.

Kirk Uhura, Scotty, and Bones attempt to figure out how they ended up in this upside-down dimension

while they masquerade as the evil versions of themselves.

Meantime, the Mirror Universe versions of Kirk O'Hurah Scotty and Bones are beamed onto the

Prime Universe Enterprise and are almost immediately

incarcerated, as it should be. Back in the mirror universe, Prime Kirk stops Spock from destroying

the Hulkins civilization, or at least convinces him to give the Hulkans 12 hours to

relinquish their dilithium. Meantime, Scotty devises a way back to the prime universe,

and the clock is ticking. And then we meet Lieutenant Marlina Moreau, who's in a relationship with

Mirror Universe, Captain Kirk. She offers to kill Mirror Spock before Spock kills Kirk

...