These 2 Star Trek Episodes Aired Almost Exactly 19 Years Apart & Used The Same Twist

By Daniel Bibby

Published Jan 23, 2025

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The Star Trek movies. Although certain installments take place away from the Prime Universe, they remain part of the franchise's multiversal canon. Crossovers between these different realities aren't all that common, but they do happen.

Of all the series' alternate realities, Star Trek's Mirror Universe is the most widely visited by its characters and is well-known among fans. Although it shares many similarities with the Prime Universe, the Mirror Universe is also far darker than the saga's primary setting. Instead of reaching out to the galaxy with an open hand of friendship, humanity has instead swept through space and established a dominant empire - known as the Terran Empire - that is incredibly xenophobic to alien life and generally villainous. Not every show visits the Mirror Universe, but it's exciting when they do.

Two Different Star Trek Episodes Involved 23rd-Century Constitution-Class Ships Swapping Universes

The USS Defiant & ISS Enterprise eventually changed places

Star Trek: Enterprise's season 4 two-parter, "In A Mirror, Darkly," and Star Trek: Discovery season 5's, "Mirrors," both aired in April 2005 and April 2024 respectively. Enterprise's Mirror Universe story was largely standalone, but it also included a powerful connection to Star Trek: The Original Series in the form of the USS Defiant - which had last been seen in 1968's "The Tholian Web." The Prime Universe vessel had been pulled into the Mirror Universe and salvaged by Scott Bakula's Captain Archer and the crew of the ISS Enterprise, which was an exciting turn of events for The Original Series fans.

The USS Defiant was far more advanced than Captain Archer's 22nd-century Mirror Universe ship, whereas Captain Burnham's USS Discovery was upgraded to 32nd-century standards and was therefore superior to the ISS Enterprise in "Mirrors."

19 years later in the real world (but centuries later in the Star Trek timeline), Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the USS Discovery experienced something that would have been exactly the same if it weren't also the exact opposite. Just as the Terran Archer discovers the USS Defiant, Captain Burnham stumbles across the abandoned ISS Enterprise in "Mirrors," which debuted in Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, episode 4, "Mirror, Mirror." So, both 23rd-century Constitution class ships canonically swapped universes.

"In A Mirror, Darkly" & "Mirrors" Show One Of Modern Star Trek's Biggest Changes

Star Trek: Discovery updated the look of the Constitution class (& Star Trek: Enterprise didn't)

Burnham and Book walking down the corridors of the ISS Enterprise in Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Enterprise was the last franchise TV show before the space opera took a lengthy break between 2005 and 2017. When Star Trek: Discovery rebooted the saga, it had a completely different aesthetic - despite keeping all the canon of the classic era intact. So, although Discovery began as a prequel to The Original Series, all the ships and technology looked and acted in a far more advanced manner. It created an odd sort of dissonance within the lore, but it was a necessary compromise for Star Trek to thrive in the modern age.

Custom Star Trek image of Scott Bakula as Captain Archer, Doug Jones as Saru, and Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway

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So, the USS Defiant and the ISS Enterprise are depicted very differently in their new universes. "In a Mirror, Darkly" shows the Defiant exactly how it would have looked in Star Trek: The Original Series, which allows for a direct sense of continuity between the ship's appearances. Inversely, the ISS Enterprise in "Mirrors" is just the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds set repurposed. Strange New Worlds' take on Constitution-class starships is far more modern, and although it looks far more sleek than its Original Series counterpart, the look had to be updated to adhere to Star Trek's modern ethos.