Mir was the real thing. It was the first permanently manned off-world base the human race ever had.

Here in a beautiful picture, Mir hosts the American Shuttle Atlantis. The station had outlived its lifespan (it was 15 years old when terminated in 2001).

It was interesting politically as well. It hosted cosmonaut Krikalyov, the "last citizen of the USSR," who was left for nearly a year on the station while the Soviet Union collapsed and the Russian Federation was born. Welcome home, by the way...