“Resurrection”

Sadly I was bored to tears by this episode. I could care less about Kira's relationship with Berial (a relationship which caused my apathy towards the Vedek) and quite frankly after coming off the epic-sweeping 6 part story arc and the fun "You are cordially invited.." it really doesn't stand up. The only plus in this episode is the evil Kira, a character which walks on a tightrope with some of the disturbing connotations and body language she gives off. Nana Visitor deserves praise for that. All that said this outing is probably one of the most pedestrian and possibly downright dull stories DS9 has done in a while.

One thing that I really liked about this otherwise mediocre episode is the Quark-Kira dynamic. Before the Dominion War, Kira still had fairly undisguised contempt for the Ferengi, but here, even when Quark attacks someone Kira's very attached to, she listens attentively and even trusts Quark's judgment enough to confront Bareil. She also doesn't have that usually snippy attitude toward the barkeep. I like how they show this subtle consequence of Quark's heroism during the War, though I would have liked some greater acknowledgment of it from the other characters. Here's hoping that the writers don't forget and have Kira contemptuously dismissing Quark again in the future...

Well if you think about it, it's really because of Quark (with Ziyal's assistance) that the Federation was able to take the station back. Kira surely can't ignore that.

I just watched this episode today and even if this episode had a point it still would have deadly dull.

I would rate this as *. Abysmal.

1) The story was pointless. It didn't go anywhere. You had 2 choices; 1) he was going to try and become the new "replacement" Vedek Bareil; or 2) he was going to pretend-to-get-better-but-still-really-be-a-thief. They chose #2 but since the episode moved at a glacial pace it just dragged out the expected ending that this was a cliched bottle show.

2) Without Nana Visitor this episode would have been a total loss. She was terrific in both roles, but I know I am in the minority but i felt Philip Anglim's performance was stiff as he did not intrigue me at all.

3) This episode seemed incredibly dis-jointed especially with the war going on. It had me thinking this episode was planned when they were going to conclude the war after "Sacrifice of Angels" but never changed it. Sure, we got the mention that there was no Dominion activity, but it just sort of ruined the momentum that this season created.

4) Security. How did the Intendant get on board? Sure security is not like the Enterprise or Voyager because it is a station, but come on. How did she beam in and not be detected? This episode makes Odo's security operation look inept, especially with the new security procedures that were mentioned!

5) The stock shots. It struck me as odd that they were using old stock shots from previous seasons that didn't show any Federation or Klingon ships until the end. They could have re-used the station shots from last week.

6) I know that I am discussing a lot of filler and technical elements because there is not much here in this episode. It was absolutely pointless. It would have been interesting had they kept him around as a foil to the Kira/Odo romance perhaps....or something. I just didn't see the point of bringing him over and not show his "true colors" until the very end.

7) I just don't understand that with the entire Alpha Quadrant at war we got this Mirror Universe show. The previous Mirror Universe shows were really good (especially "Crossover"), but it seemed they were absolutely devoid of ideas. "Statistical Probabilities" would have been a better choice to air. Here is where the problem began of "There is a war going on out there" that proved so frustrating to me during the sixth and seventh season.

All I want to know is when Kira visited the Mirror Universe?

Her line "I know I been there" I dint think she visited there

Please ingore previous comment that was my mirror universe self that had no knowlage of all things ST

Since Kira cut Shakaar loose merely because the prophets said so, shouldn't she have scampered off to an orb to make sure this relationship was kosher?

Anglim's performance was beyond stiff, it was plain bad. The best scene he ever acted on DS9 was when Bareil was near death and the only thing left of him were the "positronic implants" that Bashir conjured up for him. And that's only because it wasn't much of a stretch for a brain dead actor to play a nearly brain dead character. If that sounds harsh, it's because it is.

I also think there's something about male Bajoran characters - they're boring. I don't know why, but they just are. Shakaar was no different. Even Frank Langella was a total bore. The only one I can recall liking was Richard Beymer, but even that performance hade its problems because it was like watching Ben Horne in space (Twin Peaks reference).

This reminds me of a Trek convention I attended back in 1996 in New Jersey. A rather socially inept fan was handing out flyers from the "Friends of Bareil," and she wanted people to sign her petition to the writers of DS9 to bring the character back. I guess she got her wish with this episode.

So after "Bareil" struns "Kira" at the end, Kira just tells Bareil she'll kill him when they get back. Uh...why didn't Kira call for security to take "Kira" into custody? They were here to steal an orb, but off they go at the end?

This was a real 'who cares?' episode for me. Mirror's been done to death by this stage.

Usually, I like the Mirror episodes a lot. This was OK, that's about it. But after the six-story arc, we're used to more.

As others said, Nana V saved the episode.

I don't like the Mirror apisodes at all. The idea that those mirror persons can just hop to our universe and screw things up whenever they feel like it seems like a huge securty risk to me. Sisko or the Federation would've taken steps to (genetically) identify them or prevent them from transporting to DS9 by now.

I liked this episode but thought it could have ended better. Also I was hoping to see some static with Odo since he and Kira seemed to be getting closer.

The mirror universe is an annoyance at this point. The real universe is more interesting.

4/10

Ok, the little twist in the middle of the episode is a bit enjoyable and as always, mirror-Kira is always funny/fun to watch.

But really, is it becoming that easy to travel between universes just going to the corner's bar to buy a snack? It is Star Trek - Fringe, not DS9. It is ridiculous, it is lazy.

Not to mention what Kotas has perfectly said above: the mirror universe is just less interesting than the real at this point.

I didn't care for the Mirror Universe episodes, and this was no exception. I would have liked them better if there had been some sort of arc in the Mirror Universe, or if it tied in with the larger story in the "real" universe, but they just go nowhere. It would have been interesting if Bariel had stayed and joined a monastery. The MU characters should be something our characters were capable of becoming, and vice versa. Could mirror Bariel learn to follow the same path his counterpart did? Another interesting idea would to have mirror Kira look into the orb. It might make her look at herself differently.

I think the mirror universe had potential that was unexplored to shuffle the deck. The humans could have been the mirror universe's version of Barjorans. Sure, sure, the Barjorans and humans are similar in that they are (or were) oppressed people, but there is no equivalent of the Federation. Here, everyone is against the humans. In my mirror universe, the Federation would have fallen to the Klingons, and the Cardassians would become the allies of the humans.

The ability to beam between this universe and the mirror universe would have been a major tactical advantage in the Dominion War. It would let you bypass enemy defenses: you beam over to the mirror universe, go to the target, beam back to our universe and attack.

Plodding pedestrian snoozefest. Although the idea of the mirror universe was pretty good (and characters from it) - this episode wasted all the good oportunities, full of pointless filler and slow lumbering by-the-numbers formulaic development of a very uninteresting romance, very very predicatble. The script absolutely stunk and I am not a huge N Visitor fan anyway, but her depiction of the Intendant Kira was laughably over-acted to the point of inducing winces, Anglims performance was bad as well, but they didn't have much to work with. Good scene with Quark was the only clever piece of dialoge in the entire episode, the conclusion of this episode was slapdash and perfunctory.

What a stinker - half a star.

I actually like this episode a little better now than when I last saw it. Which I believe was when it first aired. That doesn't mean I actually "like" it now just that I understand it a bit more for what it is. I especially enjoyed a few of the smaller scenes like the dinner one with Worf and Dax and the scenes with Quark.

Ultimately, though, it is overall a bit mundane and the last five minutes was predictable to a fault. Nothing here played to DS9's known strengths which is a shame considering the plot elements and characters involved.

2 stars.

I detest the DS9 "mirror" eps.

Is there anyone on the planet that thought Bareil was really defecting?

Didn't Kira tell Odo he couldn’t have an "orb experience" because it "doesn't work like that, faith must come first" ... and here she just gives mirror Bareil a viewing at the earliest convenience. “KIRA: No, actually it was his. He's curious about Bajoran spirituality. It's a new concept for him.”

Am I the only one that thought Kira was having "grudge sex" with Bareil because of Odo's conduct in the previous episodes?

.5 stars. (normally a skipper for me)

I find it a bit interesting that I agree with basically all of Jammer's complaints about this episode, especially about how slow and ultimately pointless it feels. It also doesn't make a lick of sense to me why the dude feels he HAS to go back, and why Kira doesn't, oh I don't know, ARREST the bad Kira.

The result is that I really don't get Jammer's star rating on this one. The few 'nice' moments he mentions feel way too inconsequential to boost the score this high.

Also, if Quark was the one who decided to put those flashing lights outside of his bar, he should be shot out of a docking bay. Worst background visual ever. At one point I wondered if they were supposed to be some kind of visual cue that the audience's warning bells were supposed be going off (duh) even though Kira's weren't.

The star rating on this episode is indeed too high. It should be lower, and I'm willing to concede that.

I didn't mind the middle part of the story - particularly the scene with Worf and Dax. Not that I wanted to see Odo pine for Kira with a new Bareil, but this episode doesn't even have THAT going for it. It just happens and then it's over - completely pointless. Bareil's excuse for not staying is asinine, cliched nonsense.

Once an episode falls under 2 stars it's just a matter of how unbearable it is to watch. It's not as unwatchable as "Meridian" or "Distant Voices", so 1 and a 1/2 stars, I guess. I think I'd rather re-watch "The Muse."

I dunno, I liked it!

I like how it was slow-paced in sharp contrast to how most of Season 6 has been going thus far. At least the actor who plays Bareil got another crack to erase that horrid show where everybody was trying to get into each other's pants in season 2 or whatever haha.

"It also doesn't make a lick of sense to me why the dude feels he HAS to go back, and why Kira doesn't, oh I don't know, ARREST the bad Kira."

Hahaha, good point! Actually my 13 year old said near the same thing at the end. WHY let basically Mrs. Hitler go back and kill more people? Hasn't she committed crimes against the real universe? I think they'd probably want her in jail at the least.

I agree with the comment rating this episode abysmal. I know others praise Nana Visitor for her performance as "Intendant Kira", but I just find it outrageously overplayed and annoying. I feel the urge to shut down the TV every time that character's on screen. (And I do love Visitor's work with "our" Kira).
Aside from that, the plot was completely transparent. The minute this mirror guy was there and crossed eyes with Kira, plot elements "there will be feelings between these two but alas they must tragically part before the credits roll" were certain. I thought he would die, but it ended up being even more boring than that.
I did like the scene where Worf had his weapon stolen off him, and the short exchange between Kira and Quark. That's it.

One of my least favorite episodes of DS9, would not watch again. So incredibly boring, is this Star Trek or Days of Our Lives?

^Neither. It's DS9, which is the equivalent of a cross between Star Trek and Days of Our Lives.

Yeah, I think this episode is terrible and misguided from the get-go. Probably the single worst decision the episode has is to put the focus on *mirror-Bareil* rather than on Kira, which becomes increasingly the case as the episode wears on. This would not, in itself, destroy the episode if mirror-Bareil was an interesting character (he isn't), but I think it goes to show the mistakes in the thought process behind the episode. This universe's Bareil was never really even the focus of his own episode when he was alive, his story being almost entirely told through Kira's (Sisko's in "In the Hands of the Prophets") POV, with the exception of some Orb experiences in "The Collaborator." The mirror Bareil is not even the same guy, given that he has nothing in common with Vedek Bareil from what I can see -- so that the "Yesterday's Enterprise" model of giving focus to an alternate universe version of a dead main character also falls through. (The Tasha in "YE" was very similar as a person to the Tasha in our universe.) In any case, (a) Bareil being back alive is important *for Kira*, and if the episode were to happen at all the focus should be primarily on Kira's perspective of him, whether she trusts him, how she deals with him being the same/different from the man she knew. The episode lets that drift into the background to focus on Bareil feeling guilty that he's a pathetic thief instead of a Vedek, which is maybe abstractly interesting but requires significant investment in a totally new character. Even then, Anglim can't play Exciting Rogue! to save his life, and the episode seems confused as to whether he's a low-ante thief as seems to be most of how he's portrayed, or consort to (as people observed above) Space Hitler (the Intendant, worse with each passing MU episode). When he says that he can't stay with this Kira because he only deserves the Space Hitler one, it's as if we are meant to see that his thieving ways really do mark him for life as only deserving to be loved by, if anyone, a mass murdering dictator, which is a pretty bad fudging of scale. And to the extent that Bareil's religious conversion has any impact, the episode blunts it by not showing the damn orb experience.

Kira is the person on whom the episode should have focused, and there are vague outlines of what the story is supposed to be -- Sisko and Quark basically tell her the problem, before and after it happens, that she wants to see the good in this Bareil because she misses the other one blah blah. But frankly every step of her relationship with Bareil -- with the possible exception of the mek'leth action at dinner with Worf and Dax, which I admit was somewhat charming -- is pretty unbelievable. Most of what she and Bareil bond over is that he's not like that other Bareil and talking about the Prophets, which more or less should have rung bells for Kira about weirdness -- while I don't think she forced religion on him or anything, spending all her time with this Bareil having him basically becoming a convert is a way for him to become more and more like Vedek Bareil. I've also got to say that I found her attitude toward Bareil and religion to be pretty annoying -- in particular, I laughed out loud in derision when Kira explain that he shouldn't talk about his Orb Experience, because heaven knows that it's wrong to talk about the life-altering experience that Bareil undertook partly to share with Kira, and wrong for him to talk about his experience when he is clearly deeply troubled, and apparently has just been running from his life from a traumatic dystopia. The way she tells him to stop talking about his orb vision is meant to show us something about how Kira holds this all holy, but the condescension with which she adds that he should probably go sleep and leaves, as if she is pissed off that he breached that social etiquette rule he had no way of knowing about, really makes it hard for me to believe that Kira was all that interested in this guy's feelings. (It's also the last time she talks to him before she finds him trying to steal the Orb.) It would be bizarre enough for Kira to sleep with this Bareil without fully sorting out her feelings for him vs. the other one, or even seeming to acknowledge openly that she has to do that, but it seems to go further than that, in that she talks about how she had just believed that she wanted to be alone, etc., as if she really expects that she and this guy from another universe she just met who looks like her dead ex have some sort of future together. It's like Kira really seems cool with everything that happens, and her big problem is that she didn't notice that Bareil is still a shady guy because, uh, she just wanted to believe in his redemption story so much / she wanted to date a guy who looked like her ex.

If the episode ditched the romantic element, or at least kept it much lighter, this could have worked. In some broad strokes, this episode is a little like "Legacy" from TNG, where the crew, especially Data, find themselves trusting Ishara much more than they should because she is Tasha's sister. While that episode is no classic, that mostly did work for me because there was enough plot (or semblance of plot) to justify all the time the crew spent with Ishara, as well as the trust they placed in her, Data was a good choice for the naif to be taken in by Ishara, and while the emotional (or, perhaps not *emotional* in Data's case, but...) reaction to Ishara was obviously clouded by feelings for Tasha, no one actually did anything that would be unbelievable if Ishara was not Tasha’s sister—her being a Yar slightly altered the dynamics, which made it easier for her to manipulate them, but they did not totally change who they were over her. Kira has always struck me as someone very reluctant to trust and is reluctant to date besides. She has a certain attraction to rogue elements (Shakaar, Tom Riker) but for the most part her relationships are taken Very Seriously; when she felt a little a-flutter over Riker, it only culminated in an end-of-episode kiss. In any case, unlike “Legacy,” there is no plot to speak of in the middle portion of the episode, which makes the episode pretty damn boring, but also prevents there from being any activities between Kira and Bareil that would make a gradual building attraction seem believable. Kira just buys that this guy who held her hostage is a great guy whom she should spend all her time with and trust completely, after betrayal after betrayal that she has gone through, with Odo’s being so fresh on her mind? The episode ends with Kira seeming saddened that she and this Bareil couldn’t make it work, but what I think was really needed was some acknowledgment that she must have been projecting her feelings for the real Bareil onto this guy, otherwise why did she attach to him so fast when it takes a while for her to warm to people usually? The ending curiously just rules out Kira/MU Bareil without really dealing with those left-over feelings for the real Bareil that, I feel, should be the whole (only) reason this episode should exist in the first place. That Kira blithely says that fortunately, this Bareil and hers were nothing alike and then the rest of the story seems to be about how she is shocked, shocked to find that the untrustworthy rogue on a road to redemption is not really on the road to redemption is just more evidence of the fundamental error in terms of where the focus of this story is placed.

To put it another way, would this episode work if Kira were taken in by a rogue from another dimension who *didn’t* look like Bareil? Or just any kind of ex-thief? The reason that “A Simple Investigation,” while no classic, largely worked is that the femme fatale was pretty tailored to Odo’s character and experiences. Nothing about “former thief, now in a better situation” seems particular to Kira’s character. The only one-episode romance for Kira before this episode was Tom Riker, which was kept mostly low-key, and much of the character interaction was about…terrorism, and about to what extent a good officer could be a terrorist (with Kira having experience as both terrorist and officer). Kira tends to be moral absolutist and to distrust people, so short of Bareil actually proving his worth to her somehow (which obviously did not happen), I don’t see her changing her liking this guy to the point of bringing him along as a date. So obviously to the extent that it is believable at all that Kira dated him, it must be that he looks like Bareil, which Kira never really seems to acknowledge is the central factor it obviously is. Nothing seems to be learned and what little material here is really substandard romance-novel fare.

I guess I should make some allowances for the fact that this is an episode *about religion*, and that by having an atheistic, MU Bareil come in and be introduced to Kira and the Prophets at once, while he's planning on basically becoming fake Vedek Bareil (new king or something?) in the other universe. (One neat detail is that Quark really did zero in on the specific plan Bareil might have had—he suggests that Bareil pose as a religious leader to trick people, which is more or less what Bareil’s plan was.) And here is the part where the outline of what this episode was maybe supposed to be again becomes clear: nonbeliever con artist pretends to be “good man, leader of community, religious icon” in order to steal religious status. In the process he meets a true believer (Kira) and starts to feel a little of what it means to be close to the gods, and realizes the error of his ways. In that sense, some of my response to this episode may be my own biases, which I cop to. Still, even though I’m not religious, there are plenty of stories that involve religious salvation that I respond to, and this is not it. The religious ceremony depicted here appears so boring, what little we see of it, and we mostly only get the vaguest, most meaningless pronouncements from Kira, and shutting Bareil down when he tried to talk about the personal transformation that was taking place within him because of the Orb. This is probably the element of the story that almost works the most, but it has very serious flaws.

Also, I’m not positive here, but why did Bareil enter the universe and hold Kira hostage, and then date her, and so on, in the first place? Wasn’t there an easier way to get to the Orb than to hold Kira hostage on the off chance that she would probably later on let him have an Orb experience because he looked like her ex, or whatever that crazy plan was supposed to be? The Intendant’s plan to have Bajor fight the whole Alliance because of one Orb is similarly ludicrous. But okay, most MU stuff hasn’t made sense in a while. At least other MU stories had stuff happening; this was incredibly boring pretty much throughout while also still not making any sense. 1 star.

You know, there was actually quite a decent story in here if we had just focused on Mirror-Bareil and Kira. I actually rather enjoyed the subtleties in Bareil's performance. Quark's role is also enjoyable.

But it all goes in the crapper when the Intendant arrives and everything then plays out very much according to the book. Even as a fan of the Mirror Universe episodes this is pretty dire. 1.5 stars.

I've said before that the defining characteristic of the Mirror Universe episodes is "diminishing returns." With each trip we take into the MU the episodes get steadily worse and worse. "Resurrection", however, is the one that bucks that trend.

It is true that this is no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still a fairly enjoyable and entertaining outgoing. Credit for that needs to be placed in no small part on Philip Anglim. He does something here as Mirror Bareil that he either never or almost never did as Vedek Bareil - actually emote! I get that Vedek Bareil was supposed to be a very calm, centered person, but Anglim always came across as overly and needlessly stiff in his delivery. His performance as Mirror Bareil proves that he's capable of delivering a fine performance. So, I can only lay the blame for that on the directors of those earlier episodes, not the actor himself.

We also get a nice examination of Mirror Bareil's character - his strengths, his weaknesses, his doubts and his ultimate nobility - something that was decidedly lacking in the previous two Mirror Universe episodes. And that can probably be attributed to the number one praiseworthy element of "Resurrection" - the fact that it doesn't take place in the MU. Since the action takes place entirely in the "normal" universe, we are oh so thankfully spared all the silliness that has come to define the MU. There is no nonsense like the attempted titillation of virtually all women being either lesbians or bi-sexual, no unfunny running gag of a Ferengi character being killed and (thank the Lord!) no creepy homo-erotic BDSM role-playing between Mirrors Garak and Worf. Everything is allowed to be taken at least reasonably seriously. Even the Intendant is toned down considerably from her previous two appearances, although the over-the-top nature of the character is still present (did anybody else notice that when she gets stunned that she falls in a "sexy" manner?).

Finally, there's the wonderful scene between Kira and Quark where Quark informs her about Mirror Bareil's intentions. My, oh my... how long a way these two characters have come since the early seasons! In the first few seasons, I complained about virtually every scene these two shared together. But here, instead of Kira throwing her weight and authority in Quark's face for no good reason (or just outright threatening him for shits and giggles), they actually display a relationship of mutual respect. I guess all it took to finally fix that problem was throwing the two of them into the middle of a totalitarian occupation and having Quark save Kira's life, but I'll gladly take it. :-)

7/10

I hope this is it for DS9's mirror universe episodes. TOS had the good sense only to go there once, and Enterprise's mirror universe two-parter took an original approach. This was just too much 'whatever' for me. I hope it's over now.

I agree that this was entirely predictable, but I don't think it was entirely pointless. It brought to the fore Kira's non-existent lovelife, and also the role of the prophets. These are important to the larger arc of the series.

Also, I loved Quark in this. When Berial called him a money-grubbing louse, or whatever, we know that he is so much more. At first I was wondering if the writers were falling back on old cliches, but once again Quark came through.

I know we are supposed to accept the mirror universe episodes on faith, but the essential lack of logic drives me nuts. After the episode in TOS, it's not going to be a mirror universe any more. It was a mirror universe for that moment in time. After that different people die and therefore different children are born. Even the idea that the mirror characters would have the same haircuts or even body types is just stupid.

Quarkissnyder, consider first that the Trek reality is really a vast multiverse (as shown most fully in "Parallels"). Then, recall that the original "Mirror, Mirror" transference happened at a moment of particular symmetry between those two particular universes. It seems reasonable to guess that other bridgings are more possible/likely where other symmetries exist. In other words, it's not a coincidence that the universes/timelines our characters find their way into oddly resemble the one they came from.

Few minor anecdotes:

In the opening scene, the look that Major Kira gives Jadzia (and vice versa) as the door of the lift closes... Priceless!

Avery Brooks's acting when he talks about "the other Jennifer Sisko," is something I could have lived without..

Worf offering Bareil bloodwine after realizing that he was a better thief then he thought he was.. Not a great moment for writer Michael Taylor. It does not even fit Worf's character (maybe Quark may have done that).

Bareil says he had no idea where he would end up when he "activated the device".. And he ends up in the "other" DS9 out of million possibilities? Come on..

When Bareil and Kira are talking on a table after the former's Orb experience, the camera angle could have been better. It makes it look like the blue bubbles behind in the decor are coming out of Bareil's head..

For the rest, I agree with most of Jammer's review.

Fun 45 mins. Evil Mistress Pain Intendant Kira-bitch fun to watch as usual (that attitude of hers seriusly makes my pants tight to bursting lol). Mirror Bareil is a let-down, he is just so... passive. At the end, why didnt he just vaporize the Evil Kira, and not put her to sleep? Big fucking risk for him to take, I assume when she wakes up she would be more then a little pissed off at him. Wuss...

2.5 stars.

I thought that this episode was making subtle allusions to the fact that Kira is, for want of a better word, very much preoccupied with appearances, or what we would refer to as shallow. At the beginning she and Jadzia were having that discussion about the captain with the transparent skull, which has become something of a running gag between her and Jadzia: either Jadzia's dating someone whom Kira doesn't find attractive on a visceral level, or trying to set Kira up with someone whom Kira finds plain ugly. Then of course Kira jumped into bed almost immediately with someone who looks exactly like her old boyfriend, but is not him in the least. Bear in mind that this was someone who had held her at gunpoint and threatened to kill her, but gets a free pass and nearly becomes her boyfriend again - JUST because he happens to look identical to her old one.

I was pleasantly surprised at how handsome Bareil was in this episode, by the way. Never found him attractive as Vedek but the AU version of him is quite dishy.

Spoiler alert: Mirror universe episode. Can skip entire thing.

TIL: DS9 allows any jackass to beam into ops with a weapon.

2 stars. Thumbs down

If you're going back to standalones after the riveting Occupation arc at beginning of the season you need to do better than doing yet another mirror universe episode featuring a recurring character that held little appeal previously couples with a very ho hum plot

Wow, this episode sucked. Talk about boring, slow paced, predictable and with a couple of characters that I personally can't stand (Bareil and "Mirror Kira"). The other thing I don't like is overuse of the mirror universe -- DS9 is more than guilty of that.

I was never a fan of Bareil -- the actor playing him is so stiff and the prior romance with Kira was tedious, for me. Only so much weight Nana Visitor can carry in that sub-plot. Here when Bareil arrives from the mirror universe, you just know he's up to no good. He oozes shadiness.

The first part is entirely forgettable as Kira falls in love all over again and Bareil's interest in starting a new life is hardly believable. But he sees the orb and is changed somewhat.

The episode picks up at the midway point when "Mirror Kira" shows up -- and now we know why these 2 are on DS9 in our universe. But the plot is just way too simplistic and we have to deal with so much filler material between "Mirror Kira"/Bareil and Kira/Bareil.

The ending with Bareil phasering "Mirror Kira" came as no surprise but then I was glad when he decided to go back to the mirror universe thus sparing us more Bareil in subsequent episodes.

Maybe the most intriguing scene was with Quark and Kira -- here Quark actually served a useful purpose suggesting to Kira what Bareil was up to. Can chalk it up to his listening skills as a barkeep.

1 star for "Resurrection" -- kinda pointless episode with visitors from the mirror universe, boring, slow-paced. DS9 S6 got off to a great start but is falling back to Earth.

The best thing about “Resurrection” is the scene where Bareil slices a large pink dessert resembling a bavarois into four neat quarters with a mek’leth.

Personally, having viewed this episode on my lunch break, I would have liked to be there to enjoy this dessert.

This episode certainly isn't good by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't think it's entirely unsuccessful either. There are just enough solid moments in this episode for me to call this mediocre instead of downright terrible.

2 stars.

Not a neutral episode, just a bad one. The narrative's bad, the soundtrack is bad (how can I evoke emotion and spirituality? ...whatever, just get the pan pipes again!), Mirror Kira is as bad as always. Nana Visitor is great at being Major Kira but she's shit at being mirror Kira. Only Alexander Siddig is even worse at being evil Bashir.

DS9 mirror universe episodes aren't good, and this is no exception. However the others at least had some trashy action stuff - arguably even stories - going in their favour, this episode on the other hand is just pointless BS.

1 star.

Eh.

Held my interest at first. Alternate Bariel was kinda fun, so much more interesting than the wooden Vedek.

So, I was happily watching - until I saw mirror universe Kira, which made me groan. I like Nana V, but she just takes that prancy-nancy portrayal a step too far. The ep went from "huh, I wonder where this is going?" to totally predictable from there on out.

Not a true stinker, but below average.

I just wanted to add, that I enjoyed two things especially about this ep:

-Jadzia's crazy dating suggestions to Kira. A funny riff on the bff who's always suggesting strange guys to you. I've had experiences like it, though the suggestions never involved a transparent cranium or extra eyes. Extra hands, maybe.

Whenever I hear mention of the transparent cranium, I always hope we see him someday. That would be so funny for the series finale. But mostly, I ask myself, would I date a man with a transparent cranium? Call me uptight, but the answer is no.

--Quark reading Bareil like a book, and the way he conveyed his impressions, so effectively, to a smitten Kira.

But he has a wonky eyeball.

Its the only thing I can see in every scene.

MU eps in DS9 are still better than the dreadful offerings in every other incarnation of trek, but I would agree that its ground already well mined and unworthy of further visits, unless they are going to use it to gain some tactical advantage over the Dominion. After all, I assume there's a wormhole and changelings in the MU? Something tells me we'll never know. Shame we had to pull away from the excellent dominion arc for this.

Sorry Zefram Cochrane, I just went full warp while skipping through this episode. it was so boring.

Another "character" episode - I'm guessing they were still paying off the special effects bill from the earlier part of the season.

And sadly, it's just as weak as the other post-station-reclamation episodes.

Bareil still isn't an interesting character, regardless of which universe he hails from. And while Kira looks very fetching in her PVC BDSM-lite outfit, her mirror-universe character remains a basic "evil dominatrix", with no attempts to flesh out or explore her character.

To be fair, there's a reason for that: she's part of the Mirror Universe, and is therefore meant to be a caricature. But this setup just doesn't work as well when she's transplanted over into the normal DS9 universe.

It's a shame, as there is some potential in the idea of MU Kira stealing an orb to try and gain an advantage in her universe. After all, the Prophets and Pah-Wraiths exist in the MU as well, albeit they presumably have inverted characteristics. It would have been interesting if she'd been able to get the orb back to the MU, only for her to face the evil Prophets...

The plot of this episode is very weak. Alternate Beriel shows up at the perfect moment when Kira is there. What if Kira were at Quarks or on vacation or literally anywhere else on the station? He would've taken someone else hostage, they would see his weapon was faulty, disarm him, and they would question him / send him back to the alternate universe.

Now the glaring plot hole in the episode. This guy held an officer hostage, gets let go, is revealed to have a history of lying and and stealing, but is still allowed to freely explore the station. To top it all off, he looks exactly like Vedek Bariel. All the Bajorans on the station stare at him like they've seen a ghost. That's a dangerous thing to unleash onto the station.

Personally, I’d give this 1 star: 1/2 star for Nana Vistor’s always entertaining evil Kira, and 1/2 star for the scene where Bereil steals Worf’s sword. Other than that, this episode has 2 downfalls that no Trek episode should have: being boring and being forgettable.

Also, I detected nearly no chemistry between Kira and Bereil. In fact, I think Bereil was the only character who has a mirror universe doppelgänger even more boring than his original self. On top of that, everyone in Ops knew about Bereils transport from the mirror universe, but nobody detected Kira? That’s a big plot hole. Also I’m willing to give Kira bearing the crap out of Damar a couple episodes a pass since Kira has had a life of fighting and security work, but mirror Kira has led a pampered life, and I find it difficult to believe she could knock out a security guard with 2 hits. I thought 1 Star was generous, but to each his/her own I suppose.

I can't believe Jammer gave this boring, goes-nowhere story 2.5 stars. 1 star at best from me.

Just what was wrong with the DS9 writers and producers here? They killed off Vedek Bareil in a previous season, a character with far more potential than the two-dimensional Kai Winn, and an actor far more charismatic than Louise Fletcher, and now they brought him back for 5 minutes to taunt and torment the main character, Kira, ad if she were a scripting plaything. No. Just no. It's a maddening decision and I've been furious about it ever since I first watched it, and now rewatching it I'm even more furious.
Thank God for the Gul Dukat/Marc Alaimo episodes to save their collective reputation.
Philip Anglim is a grossly underestimated and underrated actor.

@Icarus32soar

Interesting take on Anglim as an actor and comparing him with Fletcher. Personally I feel the opposite -- I always thought Anglim was too stiff in his portrayal of Bareil. Off the top of my head, he had one good scene much earlier in DS9's run with Sisko on Bajor where he danced around his motives (episode title actually escaping me here...) There's a way to do understated acting well and I think a terrific example of this is Keating on ENT as Malcolm Reed.

And despite not liking the Kai Winn character, one can appreciate her motivations and the added conflict she brought to DS9. I think Fletcher did a pretty good job in this role and I believe she's a better, more accomplished actor than Anglim.

But this episode "Resurrection" was putrid -- just terrible. Filler garbage that should not have been made. DS9 has a few of these kinds of episodes ...

I honestly don’t understand what Anglim was doing with his portrayal of Verdi Bareil. He played him so unbelievably stiffly. It’s weird because he does not play Mirror Bareil that way at all. He’s much more natural and smooth. And I’ve seen the man in other works. He’s not a bad actor.

Did he simply think that when the director said “be calm and serene” that that meant “be robotic”?

Not much to say about this one. It has a good gimmick to make the viewer tune in (maybe I should say a "just ok" gimmick), but then they sit there and barely do anything with it. I can understand them having Bareil not tell Kira his vision (due to Kira telling him it's inappropriate to share them), but not showing it to us was the turning point in the episode where it seemed like the writers had lost any semblance of cohesion in the narrative.

This episode doesn't know what it's doing, and it meanders through 45 minutes of a plot that just sort of says "eh, whatever." Snore.

I don't like that they can just beam back and forth from the mirror universe now as easy as going to the corner grocery store. There would be a flood of refugees crossing ever every day, millions of duplicate people, it would be chaos. They should have ended the whole mirror storyline in the last one, this episode was pointless filler.

@Liam

I agree that the DS9 mirror universe episodes were pretty lame which is a shame because I really enjoyed TOS/Enterprise mirror universe episodes and also Voyager's "Living Witness" + "Author Author" where the actors get to act out of character.

Having an easy way to cross over does bring up plot holes. Wouldn't there be a war between the universes? How many dimensions are there any way, is it like that episode of Futurama where there lots of them or is it just the two?

@EventualZen
Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 4:23pm (UTC -6)

"How many dimensions are there any way, is it like that episode of Futurama where there lots of them or is it just the two?"



TNG Episode 7x11, "Parallels," demonstrates that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, some with slight differences and others that are vastly different. Pretty good episode. You should check it out. Here's Jammer's review: https://www.jammersreviews.com/st-tng/s7/parallels.php

Visitor does a good job playing the mirror Kira. I do believe these are very different people.

Her "And people say that I have a large ego" after Kira implies Bareill has fallen for her is pretty funny.


But these mirror episodes are so boring to me. It's hard to care at all, particularly the way DS9 does it, as a mix of zany and deep.

This episode demonstrates (once again) why the true star of Deep Space Nine was Nana Visitor. One might think that the show is about Captain Sisko, as other shows have focused on whoever is in the role of "the Captain," but in DS9, time and again, the focus rests on Major Kira and the exceptional talent of Ms. Visitor.

She definitely had the most interesting arc.

So, I'm on the third minute and...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

...oh, whaddaya know, it's minute 44. I must have dozed off. Wha'd I miss?

*reads Jammer's synopsis* Keera... Parallel universe... Romance...

Well... Okay, then.

Having this movie drop during the Dominion War, it occurs to me how cool it could have been if the Dominion had allied themselves with the mirror universe, and the Federation and her allies would have had a heckuva fight on their hands.

And what if the mirror universe Dominion had come in on the side of the Federation?

*episode, not movie

It's a good question, honestly: once easy back and forth travel with the Mirror Universe is established, why doesn't it quickly become more entangled with the regular plotlines? The answer, of course, is that the writers don't really want this; they want to keep the Mirror Universe episodes cordoned off.

For me, the Mirror folks should be enjoyed as interesting characters in a plot, period. In all Sci Fi shows, movies and novels, many of us really interested in the story and enjoying it, so we re-watch and reread and keep enjoying. Either right away or eventually we spot some boo-boo. This version of Star Trek has some great episodes. With the Mirror stuff - they dig into it more than any of the other series. Each one of them, to me, should be looked at in sequence to see if it has any screw-ups. Also - being able to go back and forth should have been made almost impossible, not fairly easy as when Cisco and Dax went back to the "trouble with tribbles" OG episode Enterprise. With focus on either Cisco and his Mirror WIfe, or Kira and her Mirror Dreamboat man, I tolerate it and wait for non-focus on romance to turn up. I long ago learned that with many shows and movies.

well I liked it, mostly.

tbh, the worst aspect was Mirror Kira, really tired of that character at this point.

NV and Anglim were really good as far as Regular Kira + Mirror Bareil, though. too subtle for most, I guess - like, each character's subtle disquiet was what made the episode.

an episode doesn't have to be a big deal to be good.

I found it believable that Mirror Bareil seriously considered staying in "our" universe for maybe 5 minutes. But he was too wrapped up in his thief identity. He couldn't have been a thief on the station - too easily caught and too little incentive in a moneyless economy- or on Bajor - with everyone staring at him - and where else would he go?

There could have been a storyline where he just sent the Intendant back, stayed on the station, and pursued the Bajoran religion further and actually committed to it, becoming a new Vedek Bareil (possibly using a new name). That would have been quite interesting IMO, but it would have required a much better actor. Anglim was better as a thief, but he still wasn't great.