Star Trek: Shattered Mirror

Episode: "Shattered Mirror"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 20

Original Air Date: April 22, 1996

via Memory Beta

Garak episode!

Mirror Universe (MU) Jennifer comes to visit Real World (RW) Benjamin in his dimension.  RW Jake meets her for the first time and is naturally eager to get to know her.  Unfortunately, Jennifer's motives are not 100% pure.  The plan is to lure Jake back to the MU so RW Ben will follow and help the Terran rebels - now in control of Terok Nor - put the finishing touches on their own Defiant.

As previously discussed (here), I'm not a huge fan of the Mirror Universe.  The original series episode is amazing but the use of the MU in DS9 feels mostly unnecessary.  That said, following up on the "what if Jennifer had lived" angle from Jake's perspective is genuinely meaningful.  

"Shattered Mirror" also brings MU Worf into the story for the first time.  He's is a Regent for the Cardassian-Klingon Alliance and he arrives on the scene determined to take back the station.  He captures MU Garak, the only Alliance official to escape the rebellion alive.  The chemistry between the two characters is wonderful, reminding me the actors hadn't had much previous opportunity to play off of one another.  MU Worf, while clearly a bad guy, is just as obviously a happier Klingon than his RW counterpart.  No conflicted identity baggage.  Just a warrior.  It suits him.

Our child and I watched together virtually.  We were most amused by MU Dax and Bashir's '80s new wave hairstyles,

via Memory Beta

via Star Trek Expanded Universe

bringing this to mind:

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Carlos Carrasco (a Klingon officer) was born in Panama City, April 5, 1948.  He attended Canal Zone Junior College where he discovered acting.  An instructor helped him get an acting scholarship to Stephens College in Missouri where he was one of eight male students at a predominantly women's college.  

Films include Crocodile Dundee II, The Return of Superfly and Speed.  Television credits include Hunter, Angel and Parks and Recreation.  "Shattered Mirror" was his second of four Trek appearances.

Squid Mixes: Southside Cocktail

A Southside Cocktail combines lemons, sugar, mint and gin.  The recipe I found in Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology calls for four lemon wedges muddled with the other ingredients before shaking.  In muddling full wedges, you get a lot of peel which certainly enhanced the sharp tartness of the resulting beverage.  I enjoyed the drink quite a lot.  It's certainly sour - and pulpy - but the sugar and mint bring enough to take the edge off.

Worth noting, other recipes I've seen use limes instead of lemons.  

The drink's origins are unclear.  Is it the South Side of Chicago or the South Side Sportsmen's Club in Great River, New York?  The most colorful theory supports the former, suggesting it may have been a favorite of gangster Al Capone's.

Star Trek: Hard Time

Episode: "Hard Time"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 19

Original Air Date: April 15, 1996

via Memory Alpha

During a mission to Argathra, Chief O'Brien is falsely accused of espionage.  Unfortunately, Argathri justice is swift.  Before Starfleet can intervene, 20 years of prison memories are imbedded in O'Brien's brain and Doctor Bashir is unable to remove them.  Obviously, returning to "real life" after such an experience is brutally challenging.  

Star Trek's fascination with criminal procedures on other planets continues.  The closest precedent is Voyager's "Ex Post Facto" in which Tom Paris is forced to continually relive his supposed victim's final moments.  However, while the previous story focuses mostly on proving Tom's innocence, all of that is beside the point in O'Brien's situation.  Guilty or innocent, for the Chief, the damage is done - just like in the real world.  The difference makes for a far more poignant and compelling tale.

Worth noting: this episode came out only a year-and-a-half after Shawshank Redemption, a film which delves much deeper into the question of what prolonged prison life does to the human psyche.

Acting Notes

via Elm Street Wiki

Craig Wasson played the role of Ee'char, O'Brien's ill-fated cellmate.  Wasson was born in Ontario, Oregon, March 15, 1954.  He graduated from the University of Oregon.  His films include Body Double, Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Four Friends, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination.  Television credits include The Bob Newhart Show, M*A*S*H and Murder, She Wrote.  He's musically talented, too.  In The Boys in Company C, he wrote and performed "Here I Am (in Vietnam)" which became the movie's theme song.

On the Road: Pennsylvania and Maryland

I made my annual journey to the Tree Farm (see here) in Pennsylvania this past week.  I traveled on my own this year as both wife and child had to work.  So, it was just my parents and me in the cabin.

The Tree Farm doesn't change much from year to year but the people in the community do.  There was a new baby this year.  And, of course, there are those who have passed away since we were all last together.  The rest of us just get older.

Most of my visit was quiet and predictable but I did go on one side adventure to Camden Yards in order to see my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles.  It's a three-hour drive from the Tree Farm but still considerably closer that from home.  The Colorado Rockies were in town for a three-game series.

Those who follow Major League Baseball (MLB) already know it's been a horribly disappointing season for the O's.  With two consecutive playoff appearances and a young, talented player core, expectations were high for more of the same in 2025.  It hasn't worked out.  The injury list has defied belief and it has impacted every facet of the game.  Just one example: the O's have already used six catchers this year, tying a team record.  And we still have two months left to go.

So Sunday's tilt was a matchup between two bad teams.  As miserable as my Birds have been, the Rockies have been much worse: 30-81 as I write this on August 4th, by far the worst record in the big leagues.  Still, a game is a game.

Fortunately, the Orioles have been much improved over the past couple months and they won Sunday's game easily, 5-1.  Japanese right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano was the winning pitcher: a quality start with 8 Ks, 2 walks, 4 hits and 1 earned run over six innings.  Sugano, a highly decorated ace in Japan, has been a mixed bag in his first (and likely only) year in Baltimore but unlike nearly every other pitcher on the staff, he's stayed healthy.  So far.  It was nice to see him do well.

Sunday was a big day for Japanese baseball in general as Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York,

Watching a game between two bad teams in late July, the looming trade deadline means quite a lot of the players on the field will be in different uniforms within a few days.  Sure enough, five Orioles who played in the game I saw were gone by Thursday...

Cedric Mullins, CF, traded to the Mets

Ryan O'Hearn, 1B, Padres

Ramon Laureano, PH/RF, Padres

Andrew Kittredge, RP, Cubs

Seranthony Dominguez, RP, Blue Jays

Dominguez was also traded two days later between games of a doubleheader to the team in the opposite clubhouse.  Starting pitcher Charlie Morton was traded to the Tigers.  Utility infielder extraordinaire Ramon Urias was traded to the Astros.  

Eutaw Street

A mural devoted to pre-integration baseball

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful stadiums in MLB.  For a devoted fan such as myself, it also feels a bit like a museum with statues devoted to the Orioles' undeniable pantheon of six legends from the glory days.  You scoff?  The Orioles were the American League's dominant team from 1966-83.  Go ahead, check the numbers.  These six, each enshrined in Cooperstown and each with a retired number in Baltimore, were essential to that success:

Cal Ripken, Jr., shortstop, The Iron Man, now co-owner

Frank Robinson, outfielder, probably the single best player in franchise history.  Alas, he played more of his career with the Cincinnati Reds.  He was also the first black manager in the Majors.

Brooks Robinson, third baseman, The Human Vacuum Cleaner, 16 Gold Gloves - the most by a non-pitcher, widely considered the best fielding third baseman ever.  Worth a Google.

, 

Eddie Murray, first baseman, owner of the greatest sideburns in baseball history.  When I was old enough to start paying attention, he was the man.  "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie..."

Earl Weaver, manager

Jim Palmer, starting pitcher, Jockey underwear model, still one of the color commentators for the team

Star Trek: Rules of Engagement

Episode: "Rules of Engagement"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 18

Original Air Date: April 8, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Worf is in big trouble.  When the Defiant is attacked by Klingon Birds of Prey, Worf accidentally fires upon a civilian transport just as it decloaks, apparently killing all on board.  The Klingon wants him extradited to Qo'noS to stand trial.  The episode revolves around the extradition hearing with Sisko serving as defense counsel.

Some have been critical of plot holes but I'm always up for Worf development.  While Worf is on the witness stand, Ch'Pok torments him with the predictable "Are you truly Klingon?" taunts and just as predictably, they work in provoking our man.  The interesting, though unstated, revelation for this particular installment is that Worf, despite his outcast status within the Empire, is still symbolically important to the Klingons in power.  Obviously (to the viewer), they framed him in this particular instance.  They did so for broader strategic reasons but also because they still see Worf as a threat.

"Rules of Engagment" is a good O'Brien episode.  We learn a little bit more about his military record - 22 years of service, 235 combat encounters, decorated 15 times - and also about his regard for Worf, his longtime colleague aboard the Enterprise.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Ron Canada (Ch'Pok) was born in New York City, May 3, 1949.  He graduated from Columbia University.  His path to acting was unusual.  He started in broadcast journalism, first in Baltimore, then in Washington, DC.  He won both a local Emmy and an AP award for his work in DC.  In 1985, he moved to New York to pursue a stage career.  Films include Cinderella Man, Wedding Crashers and Lone Star.  TV credits include One on One, The Shield and The West Wing.

Squid Flicks: Fantastic Planet

Title: Fantastic Planet

Director: René Laloux

Original Release Date: May 11, 1973

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Humans, known as Oms, live as pets and pests for the much larger Draags on a strange planet.  In our tale, based on the novel Oms en série by Stefan Wul, Terr (based on the French word terre - translation: Earth) is young Tiwa's pet.  Tiwa dearly loves Terr but her parents insist she put a controlling collar on him.  Terr eventually manages to escape and join a band of untamed Oms.  The story that unfolds is an allegory for the relationship between the powerful and the powerless in our own world.  

Fantastic Planet was the Grand Prix jury prize winner at Cannes in 1973.  It generally does well on best animated films lists.  It's also widely considered one of the trippiest movies ever made.  With the psychedelic visuals and the invented vocabulary, it's unlikely to disappoint you if you're looking for an accompaniment to a chemically-induced experience.  Not that I condone such things...

Star Trek: Innocence

Episode: "Innocence"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 22

Original Air Date: April 8, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Tuvok and Ensign Bennett crash land a shuttlecraft on one of Drayan II's moons.  Sadly, Bennett dies.  Not long after, Tuvok encounters three Drayan children, apparent survivors of a recent crash themselves.  While awaiting his own rescue, he promises to help and protect them, for which they are grateful.

As a rule, Star Trek stories about children are terrible.  But most rules have exceptions.  "Innocence" is wonderful, drawing out extraordinary dimension for Tuvok.  Surprise surprise, the stoic Vulcan is an excellent father figure.  As ever, he professes a lack of emotion, yet the devotion he expresses regarding his own children is genuinely moving, whatever the motivations.  Highlights include a Vulcan epic lullaby and this line: "My attachment to my children cannot be described as an emotion. They are a part of my identity, and I am… incomplete without them."

Back aboard Voyager, Janeway and company must contend with the Drayan leaders.  Their society lives in isolation, eschewing contact with other worlds and their typical fascination with technology.  Trek, whose entire premise is dependent on super-tech, generally takes a patronizing view of such cultures.  And yet as I write this, the leadership of my own country is flexing hard, way too impressed with themselves.  Fear, distrust, even disgust with what the world has become are all understandable reactions.  Maybe the Drayans aren't so crazy.

Acting Notes

via Space: Above and Beyond Wiki

Marnie McPhail played the role of Alcia, First Prelate of Drayan II.  "Innocence" was the first of two canon Trek appearances for McPhail.  

McPhail was born in Columbus, Ohio.  Her professional career began on Canadian television.  At 14, she was cast in The Edison Twins.  Moving back to the States brought regular cast roles on Generations and Days of Our Lives.  Films include Star Trek: First Contact, Sugar and The Greatest Game Ever Played.