"Resurrection" (season six, episode eight; 17 November 1997): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: "Resurrection" is a rarity, an episode I like better now than I did in the '90s. It is also an oddity, the most straight-laced of the Mirror Universe episodes. There was real pathos in "Through the Looking Glass" & "Shattered Mirror," as Benjamin & Jake Sisko deal with first encountering & then mourning Mirror Jennifer Sisko, but those episodes were still madcap Mirror Universe fun. "Resurrection" is a melodrama, as Kira encounter Mirror Bariel, the doppelganger of her deceased paramour, Vedek Bariel. Partially because of that earnestness, partially because it is set in the regular universe, "Resurrection" is the least successful of the Mirror Universe episodes.
One thing I appreciate now is the performance of Philip Anglim, who played Bariel. Vedek Bariel was a placid character, so placid as almost to be vacant. I'm sure that's what the directors & producers told Anglim to do, but it didn't do Bariel any favors as a character. The only time Vedek Bariel showed any life was in "Fascination" (season three, episode ten; inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream), under the influence of Lwaxana Troi's projected emotions. In "Resurrection," Mirror Bariel evinces a greater range of emotions & a good bit of humor.
The tragedy of "Resurrection" is that it followed after the six-part epic of the Dominion occupation of Deep Space 9 & the Federation reconquest, & then the splendor of Jadzia & Worf's big fat Klingon wedding, a small, personal story like "Resurrection" felt out of place, even jarring. Look back lo these many years later, "Resurrection" isn't a great episode, but it never deserved the scorn I used to heap upon it.
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