star trek tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow cast

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV Series)

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (2023), full cast & crew.

Directed by 

Writing credits  , cast (in credits order) verified as complete  , produced by , music by , cinematography by , editing by , casting by , production design by , art direction by , set decoration by , costume design by , makeup department , production management , second unit director or assistant director , art department , sound department , special effects by , visual effects by , stunts , camera and electrical department , casting department , costume and wardrobe department , editorial department , music department , script and continuity department , transportation department , additional crew .

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs

Contribute to This Page

• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos
• User Reviews
• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Episode Preview | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Stranded in time, the future of humanity rests with La'An and Jim Kirk!

In the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2's third episode " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ," La’An travels back in time to 21st-Century Earth to prevent an attack which will alter humanity’s future history — and bring her face to face with her own contentious legacy.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

• March 25, 2024 | ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Showrunner Drops Hints For Each Season 5 Episode
• March 24, 2024 | Review: Action-Packed ‘Star Trek: Picard: Firewall’ Reveals Seven’s Compelling Quest For Identity
• March 22, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Digs Into Star Trek Business News And Reflects On The New William Shatner Documentary
• March 21, 2024 | Filming On The ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Streaming Movie Has Wrapped
• March 21, 2024 | Check Out New Posters Celebrating The Final Season Of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Takes Its Time In “Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow”

| June 29, 2023 | By: Anthony Pascale 423 comments so far

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3 – Debuted Thursday, June 29, 2023 Written by:  David Reed Directed by Amanda Row

Buoyed by a standout performance from Christina Chong, Strange New Worlds delivers another classic Star Trek setup with a bit of fun mixed with serious character development as the show takes one of its “big swings” into the past of La’an Noonien Singh.

Everyone remember where we parked.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“This is a fork in the road, your future and mine.”

Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh is having a routine day handling various security issues ranging from missing items to noise complaints (keep it down, Spock!). She has her hands full with Pelia, as the new (ancient) engineer came on board with enough archeological contraband to make Indiana Jones weep . La’an works out her frustrations sparring with Dr. M’Benga, who interjects some counseling into the jiu-jitsu, but she’s more interested in the punching than facing her self-isolation issues. The mundanity is broken by a flash in a corridor revealing a man in a grey suit, and he’s been shot… like with a real gun. The dying man tells La’an there has been an attack in the past and she must “get to the bridge,” and hands her a mysterious device before a distortion wave passes through the ship and he disappears. Spooky. She does as the mystery man suggests, finding the wrong man in the chair… Captain James T. Kirk of the United Earth Ship Enterprise, who’s dealing with Captain Spock’s dire request for aid. His Vulcan ship is in bad shape and the war with the Romulans is going badly. Kirk has his own problems so he denies the request and turns his attention to the intruder: La’an. This Enterprise captain has never heard of Starfleet and is skeptical of her story, demanding she hand over that time gizmo for inspection. She refuses. As they struggle over the device, it activates, landing the pair in a graffiti-filled alley, where repeatedly pushing the red button does nothing. …Bet she is missing dealing with those boring security issues right about now.

They quickly work out they are in mid-21 st century Toronto in old Canada (“You know, maple leaves, politeness, poutine”) and Kirk is peeved to find himself in the past without any of his cool sci-fi stuff. La’an is immediately on mission: Find the attack and stop it before it changes the timeline. But first, they are going to need some local clothes (insert cute shopping/stealing montage) and some local currency (insert fun Kirk chess hustling montage). During this, we learn this Kirk comes from a dark future: He has never even been to Earth, which is a smoldering ruin after a devastating war with the Romulans. (Those guys again!) Despite La’an’s stiff focus, he’s relaxed, taking in the moment to enjoy street hot dogs and a real sunset. In their impressive hotel suite (just how much can you make playing street chess?), La’an is starting to warm up to this casual captain, but they clash over the plan. Kirk’s best move is to do nothing beyond raiding the minibar—or risk erasing his own future. Sure it’s a bit bleak, but humanity found a home in the stars and he has his ship and friends so all this talk of a correct timeline and a federation “utopia” falls on deaf ears. “We don’t need anyone’s help to survive”—sound familiar La’an? She argues he could be more than a soldier fighting a losing war, he could be an explorer. He starts to listen, especially once he learns she knows Sam, a dead brother in his future. As they ponder history, it arrives with a bang… the beautiful bridge outside their amazing hotel suite explodes. Oh, “get to the bridge.” Duh.

Do they have anything in maroon?

“My friend and I are on a mission to protect something beautiful”

Arriving at the bombing site, they realize this can’t be the attack that splits the timeline because they both remember this terrorist incident. However, the eagle-eyed security officer (with the assistance of a helpful local photographer) spots signs of future weaponry. Determined to follow some sketchy guys loading “photonic bomb” evidence into a van, Kirk decides to add carjacking (thanks to a Vulcan nerve pinch learned in a Denobulan prison) to his growing rap sheet, kicking off a car chase and more playful banter. Then La’an learns something crucial to the mission that also hits really close to home: James has never heard of an infamous guy named Noonien Singh . The chase gets interrupted by the Toronto PD and James ends up in cuffs, thankfully the photographer from earlier shows up to livestream the arrest. She starts talking about how the cops are harassing that famous civil rights attorney who crusades against police harassment… so they let him go. Really? Anyway, meet Sera, who is revealed to be a conspiracy theorist tracking evidence to prove the government is hiding how aliens are behind attacks geared to keep humanity fighting itself and not out exploring the stars. Crazy? Perhaps, but Kirk starts listening when she shows him a picture taken by an astronomer of a familiar ship. Of course… Romulans!

La’an is skeptical of Sera, but Kirk points to how close she is to the truth. Plus she has surveillance of one of the sketchy van guys observing the explosion, and tells them about a rumor that there is a secret facility in Toronto full of experimental tech that includes a cold fusion reactor. This is the key difference — as Jim recalls this reactor being destroyed, taking out Toronto in a Romulan first strike and kicking off his dark timeline. Stop the attack, and they fix the future, but without a tricorder, how can they find the reactor? La’an has an idea, remembering she just might know someone close by that could help. Since Pelia’s stuff came from the “Archeology Department” in Vermont, it’s time for a road trip as they track her down in what turns out to be a curio shop full of what she will smuggle onto the Enterprise in a couple of centuries. La’an talks her way in, revealing she knows Pelia’s secret of being a Lanthanite hiding out on earth for thousands of years. But it’s still the 21 st century, where Pelia has yet to take up engineering, noting “I work retail,” so she can’t really help building them a cold fusion detector. After some brainstorming over beers, Pelia has an idea after hearing about how any cold fusion reactor will put off tritium, which she suggests would get the face of an old watch that used tritium to glow… and now they have their detector. The experience has Pelia pondering a predestination paradox of a career change as the pair of future Enterprise officers makes their exit, showing how they make a good team, and can even have a bit of fun along the way, on their temporal adventure. Who can resist James Tiberius Kirk in any timeline?

I just learned this new word… “chill.”

“You can be free of him.”

Back in Toronto, the duo playfully debates over who gets to wear the watch/detector as La’an’s icy shell continues to melt; she even admits she would have never gotten this far without his help. All this fun has her wondering if, after they succeed, maybe the time thingy can bring him to her future. Maybe she won’t be so lonely in the 23 rd century, where “people are usually difficult for me.” This Kirk doesn’t see her genetic baggage, allowing her to let go of the “ scarlet letter ” she has been carrying, opening her up to his charms… and a kiss, of course. The romantic moment illuminated only by the city lights is interrupted by a glow from Pelia’s detector. Back on mission, they find the source and La’an’s own temporal journey starts to make sense as they see the sign for the “Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement.” Using the unique qualifications that had her chosen for the mission, she successfully passes the secure facility’s hand scanner (DNA marker, maybe?) but the moment is ruined… by Sera, with a gun. Yep, her previous appearances at just the right times and places all adds up now. Impressed by facing down the Captain James T. Kirk, Sera fesses up to be the time-traveling Romulan baddie they have been hunting. But she differs from the ones in the Institute who are content to just slow down human progress; she has a more aggressive plan. Kirk is unfazed, saying if she shoots, then security will be alerted, but she doesn’t believe him and tests the theory by shooting him in the chest. OMG! As alarms blare, it’s clear he wasn’t bluffing. La’an tearfully holds the dying man, whose final words are for his brother Sam. Sera gloats over killing the famous captain as she overpowers La’an and pushes through into the facility. F-ing Romulans! Am I right?

With guards alerted, Sera gives up on reactor explosion “plan A,” ominously diverting to the “genetic laboratories” and a hallway full of kids’ drawings and a door with a written-in name… “Khan.” Holy eugenics, Batman! Sera demands La’an use her hand scan thing again to go in because a computer simulation assumes killing kid Khan will stop the needed dark age that precedes the enlightenment that sets humanity on course to forming the Federation and becoming the biggest pain in future Romulan butts. Apparently, Khan is a kind of temporal focal point and even after something changed and stopped him from rising to power in the ‘90s, here he is again. Learning La’an is a Khan descendent, Sera argues the time device will protect her from being erased, so she can kill the kid and live out her life knowing she ended his brutal legacy. Seemingly tempted, La’an then whips around and uses her M’Benga jiu-jitsu moves to disarm Sera. After a struggle which includes the door being opened, she kills the Romulan infiltrator with her own gun. As the time device indicator goes from red to green, La’an has a moment to meet the young and surprisingly sweet Khan Noonien Singh. She assures the frightened child that he is right where he needs to be before activating the device and returning to her Enterprise. Just to make sure, she checks in on the bridge to find Pike and Una dealing with a bulletin over Pelia’s plundered antiquities. La’an suggests they cut the Lanthanite some slack before making a quick exit, not fully explaining why she is very much out of uniform.

Have you considered a future in gardening?

The exhausted security officer returns to her quarters only to find a stranger waiting for her, introduced as an agent from the Department of Temporal Investigations named Emily (actually spelled Ymalay, because she is from the future). La’an has no idea what DTI is because it “doesn’t exist yet,” but sorts out that the dying guy who set her on this whole mission was also an agent. Ymalay is sympathetic over the “harrowing” time La’an has had and thankful she completed the mission, but warns her not to talk to anyone about it before taking the time device back and blipping away, leaving La’an alone, again. Overwhelmed by the emotion of her experience, La’an decides to reach out to Lieutenant James T. Kirk just to see his face alive again, even though she had to make up a story about updating Sam Kirk’s security file. After Jim lays on some charm (including an invite to drinks), she is alone again, with only memories of her Kirk and that wristwatch to remember him by. Brutal.

Finders keepers?

Welcome to Canada

Another week brings another classic Trek sub-genre as Strange New Worlds delves into time travel. A plot about fixing a broken timeline may be familiar; however, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” was still a “big swing” for the show as it used this setup to tell an impactful and emotional story with the focus almost entirely on La’an. It was a risk to hand the bulk of an episode over to just one member of the cast, with help from a recurring guest star, especially as Paul Wesley’s debut as Kirk had mixed reviews. Christina Chong rose to the occasion, even without the comfort zone of the ship sets and shooting on location without any of her regular co-stars. Wesley also was a delight in his second shot at James T. Kirk, creating a relatable and believable alternate version of the iconic character. The script also helped Wesley sell this bit of a mix between William Shatner’s classic Kirk and Chris Pine’s Kelvin Kirk, such as struggling with the car like “A Piece of the Action,” segueing into a Star Trek 2009-style car chase. Like last week’s courtroom episode, the show used a familiar setup to emphasize key Star Trek themes, in this case making the case for cooperation, not just within the infinite diversity of the Federation, but on a personal level as La’an finds a way to lower her guard and let someone in. There also seems to be a welcome and relevant theme emerging for this season of fighting against those who try to sow division in society.

To be sure, the tragic romantic plot combined with time travel rhymes with a Star Trek classic, “City on the Edge of Forever.” Once again, this second season is swinging for the fences with what should be favorable comparisons to one of the franchise’s greatest episodes. The quick relationship between Kirk and La’an was believable as the pair showed fun chemistry, and the choices La’an faced to restore the timeline were brutal, all adding up to a whole lot more depth for the character. Meeting young Khan may have been a bit on the nose for facing her past, but Strange New Worlds earned this moment well, something it couldn’t have done earlier in the series. La’an was faced with the old “Would you go back in time and kill baby Hitler?” moral quandary, but here it was personal, and we can believe she was just a little tempted before she did her duty to save the timeline. Thankfully it wasn’t all galactic stakes and heartbreak, upholding the time-honored tradition of traveling back to contemporary times for some fun fish-out-of-water (“What’s a meme?”) moments, bringing a bit of Star Trek IV- style levity to the proceedings that balanced the episode, along with helping sell the growing bond between Kirk and La’an.

Do you have any old reading glasses?

With the exception of a key arc setup scene with Dr. M’Benga, the rest of the main cast was mostly absent, leaving a lot of heavy lifting to guest stars. Adelaide Kane, perhaps best known for playing an empathetic doctor on Grey’s Anatomy , delivered a solid performance as the Romulan spy Sera, who has gone a bit loopy after being trapped on Earth for decades, with some hints of the crazy version of Captain Braxton from Voyager’ s “Future’s End.” And Carol Kane was back, fleshing out her kooky Pelia, playing her in two different centuries, delightful in both. The city of Toronto also played a bit of a guest star role here, marking this as the first episode in the franchise set in Canada. Kirk mistaking it for New York City may have been a nod to how often Toronto is used to stand in for American cities and maybe another nod to “City on the Edge of Forever.” Strange New Worlds celebrated the city where it (and Discovery ) are filmed with visits to local landmarks, and of course, a taste of poutine.

You can let go now, Captain.

What time is it?

As a vehicle to tell an important character story, the episode didn’t overdo it when it came to temporal mechanics, but the story still fits well into Trek canon, with plenty of nods to Trek’s long history of time travel. The means of time travel was handled simply by future gizmo. In a nice nod to future Trek continuity, the display the gizmo used was borrowed from a TCARS timeline analysis screen used on the 29 th- century USS Relativity from Voyager . La’an being recruited by a temporal agent also echoes Seven of Nine in that same “Relativity” episode, as well as Archer’s work with Daniels in Enterprise . Here, the temporal agents worked for the Department of Temporal Investigation, first seen on DS9 in the 24 th century, but exactly when these agents came from was left vague, which is fine. Things do get a bit more complicated when it comes to Sera the Romulan time traveler and the others disrupting humanity’s progress: It was also unclear when she came from and exactly how she related to the others who ran the Institute and blew up the bridge. While she was an interesting character and her motivation seemed pretty clear, a bit more exploration of her time travel history and Earth disruption plot would have been welcome.

The episode also skirted right on the edge of canon with La’an being the first to accuse Sera of being a Romulan, when she would have no idea what a Romulan looked like, but aliens disguised as humans aren’t a new thing to her. Kirk knowing the connection to Vulcans and pointy ears makes sense due to the war and him coming from a different timeline, but does La’an now know and will keep that secret per the warning from Agent Ymalay? Strange New Worlds also took the opportunity to square the circle when it comes to the Eugenics Wars, making an effort to explain away why the rise of Khan Noonien Singh didn’t happen in the 1990s (as established in 1967’s “Space Seed”). Sera invoking the Temporal Cold War from Enterprise was another nice nod and helped make the case. So does this episode rewrite all of Trek history? Also, did La’an using the time travel device in front of Khan or (rather sloppily) leaving her gun behind in his room, have any kind of impact on little Khan? Could this have been another predestination paradox inspiration on her part? These are the fun questions that arise from good time-travel episodes.

All the squiggly lines look right, so bye.

Final thoughts

While perhaps not as great as last week’s entry, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” was entertaining, emotionally engaging, and thought-provoking. What else could you ask for? Three episodes in, and Strange New Worlds season 2 is going well.

You don’t look a day over 150.

• The episode title comes from a speech from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth .
• The phrase has been referred to in pop culture including the play Hamilton , and it was also the title of a time-travel episode of The Orville (“ Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ”).
• Opens with Security Officer’s Log, Stardate 1581.2
• The Enterprise has a Denobulan Cadet (played by Sean Meldrum).
• The car Kirk steals appears to be a 2022 Dodge Challenger.
• Episode officially established Riverside, Iowa as the birthplace of James T. Kirk. Riverside has proclaimed itself (with Gene Roddenberry’s blessing) as Kirk’s birthplace, along with an annual “ Trekfest .”
• The song playing during Kirk’s chess playing was “ This Is It ” by The Home of Happy, and the car chase song was “ Modern Art ” by The Black Lips.
• La’an correcting Kirk on how no one calls his brother George helps clarify a bit of canon on why everyone on the Enterprise calls his brother Sam, even though on TOS Kirk says he was the only one who did.
• The conspiracy theory Sera crafted included the Chornobyl Disaster , the assassination  of President John F. Kennedy , and the Tunguska Event … all of which were featured conspiracies on The X-Files , so maybe she was a fan stuck on Earth in the 1990s.
• Watches using tritium were a real thing, and some watches still have it.
• Pelia quipped that she learned math from Pythagoras , the 6th century BC Greek mathematization, so just how old is she?
• The episode was filmed in March 2022. After Wesley and Chong were spotted in downtown Toronto , Paramount officially announced he was playing Kirk.

You are not in Iowa anymore.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

Season 2 episodes drop weekly on Thursdays on  Paramount+  in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Season 2 is also available on SkyShowtime elsewhere in Europe. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with premiere dates to be announced at a later date.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

Related Articles

Books , Review , Star Trek: Picard , VOY

Review: Action-Packed ‘Star Trek: Picard: Firewall’ Reveals Seven’s Compelling Quest For Identity

Starfleet Academy , Strange New Worlds

Anson Mount Teases Filming “Something Different” Today For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3

All Access Star Trek Podcast , Discovery , Lower Decks , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Prodigy , Starfleet Academy , Strange New Worlds

Podcast: All Access Goes To SXSW For The ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Premiere

Discovery , Review

Early Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Flies Into A New Adventure In Season 5

I really liked this one and Pelia’s backstory cemented a bit more.

It would be cool if McCoy got Kirk’s glasses from her, but I suppose that would be small universe syndrome.

It’s interesting that Khan’s backstory is somewhat officially moved time wise (I know SNW previously mentioned this). I wonder how this will go over with some.

This is how you “soft reboot” TOS. It has to be with the changes we know there are with TOS.

Except that the events in this episode are completely out of sync with Picard Season 2.

This may be intentional for a story to be revealed later, but when Picard resolves the 2024 issue after season 2, First Contact is just 39 years away. In that time Khan will rise to power, the Eugenics Wars will break out for four years and World War III will follow, lasting over 25 years. That all works with what’s established in Picard Season 2 but doesn’t quite work with the latest episode of SNW which features what appears to be a 10 year old Khan in 2022 who would be just 14 in 2024.

RE: Khan’s backstory. Oh, I imagine a few with loathe this with a passion.

I absolutely love the time move for Khan…

Lot less loathsesome to have the Eugenics War be World War III in the near future than to have Khan kill millions back in the 90s but not of us know about it somehow.

I assume a lot of records were lost in WWIII and it created confusion over when Khan was active. In a few centuries I wouldn’t be surprised if there was debate as to exactly when WWII took place.

True. Khan does, however, say he’s from 1996 in TWOK.

Exactly. You really can’t get away from this tiny, but very important reality lol.

Doesn’t the episode mentions that the Khan etc. timeline has shifted from the 1990s due to previous temporal shenanigans? The (terrible actor playing the) Romulan said she’s been waiting for 30+ years.

Exactly. I don’t really understand why people keep saying it’s shoddy record keeping to explain Khan in this period when they had Sera monologue it was specifically a time altercation that did it. And yet, people keep bringing it up lol.

It’s one of these weird disconnects you see on the internet. The character explained it on screen. She didn’t say or implied she ended up in 1992 because they were following Earth history books that apparently really stupid humans wrote by getting entire dates of crucial history wrong by decades and got screwed in the process.

She made it clear she time traveled to the past to alter history only to realize someone else already altered it before she got there. That’s it. That’s the explanation.

Did he say he was from 1996? As I recall, he said his ship was from 1996, carrying him and his crew in cryogenic freeze.

Maybe the ship was built in 1996, but it wasn’t launched until circa 2050 or whenever. There are other questions that need asked—like, it’s clear that Sera thought the Eugenics Wars started in 1992, but if she was from an alternate future and all of that stuff was changed, why does Spock still refer to it as a ‘90s conflict. Furthermore, he does refer to it as the last world war, which seems to be more in line with the SNW timeline.

I considered the same. I did look up the script and this is what he says in the script:

Never told you how the Enterprise picked up the Botany Bay, lost in space in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-six, myself and the ship’s company in cryogenic freeze?

Ok—so if the dialogue of the script is the exact same as the dialogue from the actual movie, then it would seem to suggest that the ship was indeed launched or at least lost in 1996, not later. Little room for error there. Ugh. They tell us it’s the prime timeline then they do stuff like this. Jeez.

Akiva Goldsman admitted in an interview on another site that they officially changed the dates in Trek canon.

This is a correction. Because otherwise, it’s silly, or Star Trek ceases to be in our universe… By the way, this happened in Season 1, so this is not a Season 2 [issue]. It’s a pilot issue. We want Star Trek to be an aspirational future. We want to be able to dream our way into the Federation as a Starfleet. I think that is the fun of it, in part. And so, in order to keep Star Trek in our timeline, we continue to push dates forward. At a certain point, we won’t be able to. But obviously, if you start saying that the Eugenics Wars were in the 90s, you’re kind of f*cked for aspirational in terms of the real world.

To me this just shows that this guy shouldn’t be writing Trek. Let alone running an entire Trek show.

But dude, you have to admit, this change does explain in a very logical way WHY there are so many differences in the timeline and things people like you been complaining about like running into the Gorn so soon.

Again, I have to stress I still think they should’ve avoided the Gorn just as much as much I think they should’ve avoided the whole Khan stuff, but sadly here we are anyway. But they never given everyone not only an explanation but also a way for the hardcore canonistas to just enjoy the show more.

It’s not a reboot, but it’s probably the closest we’re going to get to one and it does solve a lot of their problems. Again, NOT everything. It doesn’t explain why Chapel is basically a totally different character for example, but it covers the bigger issues IMO.

Just as Star Trek ’09 explained themselves away, too. This is the same thing. I saw that as essentially a decent way to reboot Trek their way while still attempting to appease the few fans who would refuse to accept a reboot. And the producers all but said as much. The way I see it this episode has cemented all nu-Trek as reboots. Their own thing. Which is odd because they have constantly been telling us “this is Prime!” What we are seeing conflicts with what the makers tell us. They really do need to come out and confirm what their intent is. I mean, if they said nothing about where this show is set I strongly suspect nearly everyone from day one of Star Trek Discovery would conclude Secret Hideout shows are all reboots. And rightly so. Honestly they should have kept their mouths shut about it or just flat out admit what they were doing. All of this leads me to the conclusion that Kurtzman & Co really don’t know what they are doing. They are changing things on the fly if you will. With no real plan of any kind.

And even if they flat out admit to all that, that won’t suddenly make the show good. It will only eliminate their canon issues. The other problems remain.

Or perhaps the producers of a fictional show just updated the timeline from a previous fictional show that was done over 60 years ago so that the future could remain possible within the science fiction premise?

Yeah… It feels like it could have been their excuse to “Star Trek ’09” this show into essentially a reboot.

Someone theorized a year ago that this would lead into their own version of TOS and I’m not thinking that poster could be proved correct.

They probably should’ve done this with Discovery and saved them the headaches from the start (but yes DIS had many more problems than just canon issues). But I don’t have a problem how they explained it and it’s not so dramatic as being in a new universe like the Kelvin movies are. It’s more of a middle ground.

Yeah, the timeline change is not that big of a deal, at least for me. Ever since I was a kid watching Assignment Earth and seeing a Saturn V used for a military launch of a nuclear weapons platform, I took the TOS universe and canon timeline with a grain of salt. Obviously, 1996 has come and gone in our universe so IMHO moving the Khan launch sometime into the 21st century doesnt bother me, but I am sure some may disagree. It’s all good!

My feelings on that is that our reality is not the same as the fictitious Trek timeline. There was no Khan for us but there was for them. I find it ridiculous to alter the show’s history to match ours. What are they going to do in 2063 when no Vulcans come? Change that too?

i think for many fans who grew up in the 1960s, we loved watching TOS because in some ways, it represented a possible future for our planet. We conveniently put aside episodes like Assignment Earth as irrelevant, and fantasized that our future in 300 yrs might look like Star Trek. Of course as an adult, that ideal still exists but we cant stick to the notion that the Star Trek universe is our universe’s future at least not specificallly. Conbine that with the countless canon violations we have seen in nearly six decades of Trek that is why I pick and choose what parts of canon I think are important and what parts are not . All the while, whole-heartedly knowing and respecriong those who disagree and want to be more or even less strict when it comes to canon.

I think we all have a personal code for what parts of canon are important and what is less so. Personally, I feel like if a date in Trek history is dished out, that date is set in stone. If a new alien is introduced in a specific episode, that is set in stone as well. The Eugenics wars had a specific date. So for me at least, that date is set. Unless you are a reboot, that date stays put. Yes, there have been a lot of in show violations. But I would argue that nearly all of them are very very small and not enough to ruin the fantasy.

As a youngster watching TOS reruns in the 70’s I very much liked the positive view of humanity’s future ST showed. This was at a time when the bulk of sci-fi centered on apocalyptical/nuclear horrors in our future. Back then, the fact that there was a future show where there was no nuclear war was a welcome and positive respite from that. Even when they brought up the Eugenics Wars it seemed likely it wasn’t nuclear. And although they didn’t say, I figured when they mentioned WWIII that was the Eugenics wars. So there was one last conflict. It wasn’t about political ideology. It was about the last tyrant. And it wasn’t nuclear as far as we could tell. At least, not on the world destroying level other sci-fi was doing.

Then the TNG pilot was aired. And they brought up some sort of “post apocalyptical horror.” I remember thinking, “where the hell did THAT come from?” GR just ruined the hopeful non-nuclear future of humanity Trek hinted at. I was super disappointed and just thought, “well, if they never mention it again, that’s fine.” And if I recall they didn’t until the feature film “First Contat”.

Sorry if that went off topic some. It’s just that your post made me feel like I ought to respond with that.

Exactly, like how Blade Runner 2049 was the future of the 2019 from Blade Runner and not the real 2019.

This means First Contact will happen later and changes Enterprise also.

For those who had been grasping at straws every time Akiva Goldsman said how he was toying with the canon, this episode has resolved more canon inconsistencies and mysteries than any nuTrek episodes ever did, like an episode straight out of ENT S4. It is also apparent that writers in SNW and PIC S2 discussed the Eugenics Wars. You can all breathe now.

I’ve been treating this as a reboot for awhile now. The problem remains… Akiva is still claiming this fits within canon. Why keep claiming that? Why make your job harder?

Because it’s not a reboot. And no amount of saying that it is a reboot will make it one

Unless someone in an official capacity says that it is. Picard Season 3 dropped breadcrumbs (and the U.S.S. New Jersey was practically a loaf of bread).

My point is, they could totally retcon this series as a reboot… if that makes sense.

Maybe he means how they resolved it fits in within the time travel canon stuff and that you can see how the alternate timeline flows from it? It’s probably best not to overthink it too much but I know that’s very naive of me to say. ;)

At this point I can only think the only reason they are saying their show is Prime is just selfishness or arrogance. Perhaps they think their show is better than what came before and therefore it’s their ‘superior’ version that should be prime. So they just keep saying it is.

I’m just trying to come up with reasons they keep saying it’s prime when it so obviously isn’t.

“ At this point I can only think the only reason they are saying their show is Prime is just selfishness or arrogance.”

No shortage of irony here!

Couldn’t possibly be because it’s their intent that it takes place in the Prime timeline, no siree Bob.

There is actually a great shortage of irony in the comment. I’m not out there saying what I produce is 100% in line with what others have done without their established boundaries. They are.

Could their intent be that it takes place in the Prime? Sure. But that’s not what we are seeing. No siree bob. So what is the logical conclusion when someone says the car they made has a 6 cylinder engine but when we open the hood and look it is only 4? Are they incompetent? Are they lying? What?

It’s mentioned in this episode that myriad temporal attacks have shifted the timeline, but certain key events keep happening. So, this is a tweaked version of what we know (of an entirely fictional universe rife with years of inconsistencies). I think it’s a fairly elegant solution.

The prime timeline has been subject to temporal alterations. Have you not seen the TOS episode the “Naked Time”. The Enterprise episode “Regeneration” DS9 Past Tense Parts I and II and the list goes on.

Respectfully, are you serious? It is the Prime Timeline. 900 years in the future Burnham watched the historical record of an older Spock and Picard.

In the finale from season One Spock used the term “Prime”. Emperor Georgiou used the term “Prime”.

Why are so many fans having a hard time accepting the changes? JJ to his credit created an entirely new universe and fans were still upset. Come on. That episode pretty much answered all of the canon shifts and alterations in every series and I appreciate it.

With due respect, the concept that there are so many temporal alterations essentially means that nothing means anything and show runners are fee to do what they want. It also questions the existence of the temporal investigations division. If they are fine with time line changes of this magnitude then what are they there for? I see it as merely an excuse to get away with not being handcuffed to the rules of the show. It means the writers aren’t up to the task of operating within the existing parameters of the show. Which means they shouldn’t be working on the show to begin with.

The Naked Time didn’t change anything. Neither did Regeneration. I wouldn’t rely on anything said or done in nu-Trek as evidence either. Too much of what they do ignores the rules for anything they do to be considered valid. The KU films were essentially reboots. They came up with a nice explanation for it but quite frankly it wasn’t needed. It was a reboot. Period. I have no issues with anything that they did in those films as they were their own new thing. If some fans had issues with it that is their own issue for not liking the concept of rebooting Trek to begin with. This episode didn’t answer for anything except provide an explanation for why they aren’t following the rules. Their solution is to copy Trek 09. Make their own thing. Everything Secret Hideout has made has had the earmarks of reboot written all over it in every single way but one. The producers have yet to say so.

Well said. I could not agree more.

The timelines presented in Picard don’t line up with this episode. It’s another example of how the writers are not actually communicating with each other. TrekCulture actually addresses this in this weeks Ups and Downs.

Resolved? THE CHASE resolved longstanding Trek stuff, an in a clever fashion. This one just steamrollered over things temporal, though I do give credit to the actress having to spout all that chrono-babble for bringing her A-game (and second week in a row, guest cast is having to do awfully heavy lifting, even though ‘kirk’ doesn’t have the muscle for it.)

This is the first time I wasn’t totally satisfied with the security chief’s acting, though some of that may just be due to the writing, which as usual I found far from compelling. When watching AkivaTrek, I often find myself paraphrasing Pike’s line from the end of THE CAGE,”What are we running here, a cadet writer’s room?’ The utterly empathy-free Kirk evinced here when he blows off that Vulcan commander’s request for help is alien to me.

In the main I just found the episode to be a genuine bore, squandering a lot of screen time on ‘banter’ that was flat as a plate of piss (though the VFX folk must be happy with all the unnecessary screen time accrued since editorial kept going back to views of the destroyed bridge in a manner I would describe as ‘time and again.’ (noticed a couple of shots in the early going where editing didn’t perform match-cuts and was distracted by that as well, since it wasn’t for any apparent effect, just sloppy work.)

The fight scene between the sec chief and the rom was perhaps the lousiest I’ve ever seen on Star Trek, and that covers a LOT of painful territory. Couldn’t tell one character from the other and the frequent changes in perspective only worsened that.

Cosmetically, the fact that the altered timeline ship looked the same seems utterly absurd. Even as a matter of money, it doesn’t track, because so much of the thing is LED driven, so they should have been able to play with a DMG lighting board like a jazz piano and create a much different look for the bridge. And they could have shrunk the ridiculous corridors down to human dimension as well, since that ‘verse’s ENT apparently doesn’t include 8 ft tall critters.

The show did maintain continuity with one decades’-old Trek tradition: Kirk got yet another lousy death. Though in this case I wish it had happened sooner.

One last observation: Anson Mount can’t save an episode unless he actually has a substantial appearance in it. That is becoming nearly as true here as it was with DISS.

2nd episode in a row where I can say I don’t think you are wrong.

This episode has helped me decide the Kurtzman era is not canon

I think it is impossible to see these current shows as prime. I’ve been thinking that for years but this episode pretty much cements it. My main beef is that the producers just come out and admit it. Either admit they lied from the start and knew it was reboot when they said it wasn’t, or admit they originally intended it to be prime but soon realized they didn’t have the talent or creativity to make Trek under the Trek universe rules so they shifted gears and decided “this is why it’s all reboot”.

Not terrible.

The good: 1) good character work, 2) a twist on elements from City on the Edge of Forever (Kirk has to die) + Future’s End (the Sarah Silverman character is the villain), 3) Kirk’s a good driver in this timeline, 4) Carol Kane got to play Miracle Max, 5) attempt at a canonical explanation for why the Eugenics Wars didn’t take place in the 1990s (although not really since the later date would have been in the Space Seed history tapes and First Contact etc. unless you head canon more timey-wimey shenanigans that reset it).

The bad: 1) another alt timeline episode and alt Kirk so close to the S1 finale? and 2) ripoff of the Enterprise episode Carpenter Street and the Xindi scheme, which it at least acknowledges.

The truly messed up: the argument that humanity needs its genocidal monsters to make progress.

Yeah, the “genocide has its upsides” argument (or, as I call it, the “even mushroom clouds have silver linings” philosophy) was problematic to say the least. At least it was a villainous Romulan computer that came to that conclusion, so if you’d like you can headcanon some butterfly effect where killing Khan makes some other worse thing happen from which humanity doesn’t recover.

Germany has prospered post ww2. The idea is sound,at least in most western cultures that after a massive conflict society typically prospers and makes progress

i for one welcome our genetically engineered over lords XD

LOLOLOL!!! The Simpsons, right? :D

lol Kent Brockman, classic. Should have made the aliens Kudos and Kang :p

kang and kodos in the simpson were already named after star trek characters.

This episode was good (SNW is still my least favorite of the current shows) i enjoyed having an episode with La’an as the lead in the story as she is my favorite character in the show but i still don’t like Paul Wesley as Kirk. Maybe if we actually see Kirk and not an alternate timeline version of him it might change my opinion of him.

Not much to say really about the episode other then that i again enjoyed it but i wished we got more with what the Romulan’s were doing in the past.

I’m sure some people will be going back and forth with the ‘retconning’ of the Eugenics wars happening later then claimed in TOS (In Space Seed it was mentioned it started in the 90’s) but to be honest it doesn’t bother me as there was some stuff in past shows that contraindicated the date anyway. So if the SNW show-runners want to give a concrete date that future shows can use then that is fine by me.

Spock does say that he thought it was that time, but the records were fragmentary. and we also dont know if the Temporal Cold War changed any of this, but it certainly seems so since this Romulan agent had been on Earth “since 1992”. so maybe someone did in fact change the timeline, which is certainly possible.

That doesn’t, for what it’s worth, explain Khan mentioning 1996 on CA5 (now, he also recognized Chekov…)

You’re reading it wrong. Space Seed was before the temporal wars. After the Romulan agents messed with the timeline, things shifted.

This episode basically is saying that all are the same timeline and any inconsistencies are due to the temporal wars. Smart move.

Except that they haven’t said that. It’s just made up fan canon. Not saying it doesn’t or can’t work as an explanation.. but that hasn’t been established at all outside of fan circles.

They said it through the dialogue of the episode. Come on… If it applies to Khan, then it applies to everything. There is no the Temporal Wars did not impact the timelines in the past and the future.

The Red Angel story? Come on.

There’s some assumption of facts not in evidence.

I’m not reading anything wrong, I’m simply pointing out that the historical records thing doesn’t hold up because Khan himself is fairly specific.

That whole “assumes facts not in evidence” thing? I got not problem with the TCW explanation.

“This episode basically is saying that all are the same timeline and any inconsistencies are due to the temporal wars. Smart move.”

I don’t think it works that way. You can’t be in the same timeline if one person are in fact born in different time periods as these two Khans were. What the Romulan was saying was the past she jumped into was inherently a different past altogether. Yes it was caused by the Temporal War but it’s now a separate timeline from TOS and the others due to it.

RalphDataLore is correct.

Sera says “time is like a black box. It’s too complicated to leave to intuition, so, we built computers that will tell us the results of, uh, certain changes. […] Khan becomes a brutal tyrant. I mean, maybe humanity needs the brutal dark age that he brings in to usher in their age of enlightenment… or maybe it’s just random. Doesn’t really matter though, because if I kill him, the Federation never forms and the Romulans lose their greatest adversary. But yeah, so many people have tried to influence these events, you know, to delay them or stop them. I mean, whole temporal wars have been fought over them. And it’s almost as if time itself is pushing back, and events reinsert themselves. And all this was supposed to happen back in 1992, and I have been trapped here for 30 years trying to get my shot at him. I’m not gonna stop now. So open the door.”

TOS’s version of the 1990s happens… then there’s a time war with people fixating on the Khan moment, which somehow pushes his birth 40 years (she says 32 but the kid looks to be 8-10), but Khan still emerges in Earth history because “time itself is pushing back.”

But I’m still having the issue when Kirk finds the Botany Bay in TOS, is he talking to Khan who ruled until 1996 or is he talking about this new alternate version a-hole that will apparently rule sometime post-2020s or when he becomes a full adult? Or are we suppose to now believe the events will still exactly fall like they did in Space Seed, just with a different year attached? And if things are pushed 50 years farther ahead for Khan, wouldn’t that (technically) just push all the other events decades out as well if not change a lot of those events completely?

That’s what I don’t understand? Are you suggesting SNW is just overwriting everything that happened in TOS? I just don’t think they want to go down that road lol.

Now I understand things can get course corrected, but I don’t think to the level that nothing feels out of place either. The Kelvin movies made that explicitly clear. Sure Kirk still ended up as Captain of the Enterprise, but did it 10 years earlier while changing Pike’s fate completely along with the loss of his father and apparently sans a brother. But yeah, he and Spock still get to be besties though.

Wouldn’t that be the same issue here? I just don’t understand how it keeps canon to everything in TOS if nothing still aligns with TOS? This is why I just think it’s better to leave some things alone, it’s only going to confuse people when you try to tell them history has changed but the far future somehow stays static which is obviously never the case in Star Trek.

When Kirk finds the Botany Bay in TOS, he is talking to Khan who ruled in 1996.

I’m not suggesting that Strange New Worlds is just overwriting everything that happened in TOS. The show is saying that the Temporal War is doing that.

For our purposes (as in, geeks who’ve watched every iteration and every episode of Star Trek), that means events first presented in Enterprise are rewriting everything that happened in TOS.

The big step back and deep breath everyone needs to take is that Star Trek history has been and is being rewritten all the time, whether we like it or not and in defiance of however we try to rationalize it. Personally, I’m okay with it because of the Temporal Cold War explanation. I never dug the Temporal Cold War idea, but I think it’s okay to use it to drive a hole through canon. Long-time Trek fans know what has been “changed” by the future and Enterprise and Sera’s monologuing gives geezer fans like me that justification/excuse to do that. It’s an out that serves old fans and new, bigots and IDICs: Trek’s fake history can all be canon, none of it be canon, some of it be canon, whatever, take it or leave it.

As a general note, the implication is that history — or, at least, Star Trek’s history — is being rewritten all the time. We don’t have to like it, but that’s what a plain read of the show’s text indicates.

I don’t mind it being rewritten, I’m only saying unless there is a reset button of some kind (which fans love…not) then it implies that what originally happened obviously doesn’t happen if people have been going back in time and messing with those events like in the TCW.

Maybe you didn’t read my review post, but I’m all for the idea temporal incursions have changed things up; but I strongly believe we’re just getting an alternate timeline to these events. Not quite at the level of the Kelvin movies, but different. I’m only saying it just doesn’t make sense that the events in TOS (and the other shows) happen as we saw them if we know specific events were changed like with Khan. But yes if it explains things and make canon a little smoother I’m fine with it.

And although I never cared that they moved the events of the Eugenics wars, it does make episodes like Voyager’s Future Ends actually fit now since they arrived in 1996 in that story and no one even mentioned the name Khan in it. To this day I’m still angry about it lol. Again I understand why but it’s like they are afraid to just admit that this is all actually fiction lol. But it makes that episode feels much more believable now at least.

I still liked that time travel story more than this one though.

Are you suggesting SNW is just overwriting everything that happened in TOS? I just don’t think they want to go down that road

I actually do think they want to go down that road.

Well I’m sure some would but maybe I should say Paramount themselves don’t want them to go down that road. And especially after all the moaning the Kelvin movies got over it when people literally thought that’s what those films were doing at the time.

Khan being genetically engineered makes it seem entirely plausible to me his embryo was stored prior to being implanted, and so perhaps he was simply implanted later in the revised timeline. Same Khan born 30 years later. I noticed they didn’t nail down the exact year so I would say this episode could pass for any time in the 2010s or 2020s either side of the pandemic restrictions.

yeah it (TCW) did. without siliks intervention, the nx01 would have exploded early.

The date is not so concrete now. The Romulan agent did say there had been a lot of tampering with the timeline going on and that time itself seemed to push back and reinsert the events that had been delayed or stopped. Plus, with all the temporal tampering that has occurred throughout all of the shows, it is reasonable to assume there could be changes to what we consider the Prime timeline. It doesn’t bother me at all either.

Maybe the hand scanner wouldn’t work if it didn’t detect blood flow (at least in the absence of an official in-universe explanation, this works for me).

I’m assuming your post was meant as a reply to Tiberius Mudd. Your explanation as to why the Romulan agent didn’t shoot La’an makes sense though. :)

Does blood immediately stop flowing if someone is shot? I mean, Sera could’ve shot La’an once they got to the second door. I don’t actually question your explanation, I question the integrity of the dramatic situation presented. Pointing a gun at someone is pretty boring. Since we can’t use the “h” word when describing the writing, I’ll just point out that it was AI quality.

Why didn’t the Romulan agent just shoot La’an, too, and use her hand print? It couldn’t have been that she’d have to drag her dead body down the tunnel as the show went out of its way to show she had super strength.

It’s called dramatic license.

Usually that’s invoked when something mundane is made exciting. This sequence was no more dramatically exciting than a mugging.

I loved this episode- a great arc for La’an, who benefits greatly from a fantastic performance by Christina Chong.

I like Paul Wesley’s take on yet another alternate timeline James Kirk. I loved his line: “That old-fashioned two-dimensional version? That’s basically idiot’s chess.”

I think this episode played like a mini-movie in terms of scope, emotions, action and concepts. And I like how the disparities in canon get a basis here, the Temporal Cold War and other alterations to the timeline make sense. And a delayed start to Khan’s reign of terror is a nifty update to the timeline. This is near or at the top of my favorite episodes of SNW.

You brought up the Temporal agency. Seems to me they didn’t do their job. Khan was supposed to happen in the 1990’s. Yet they were happy it would be delayed perhaps 50 years?

Here’s another thought… Before TNG it was assumed that the Eugenics Wars were the WWIII that was mentioned on TOS. Yet TNG said there was indeed some sort of “post atomic horror”. For some time I just figured it was their own, albeit disappointing, take on the Eugenics wars. Making them nuclear. But then they suddenly shifted to moving it to the mid 21st century for some goofball reason. I always found this a bit contradicting. But delaying Khan’s attempt to take over by at least 50 years could be a way to merge the two together again.

Seems we now have two versions of pre 2063 timeline now. Ugh. I just wish they would tell us up front this is all a big reboot to avoid all this.

shhh… those are details that get in the way of good storytelling, don’t you know! lol

“You brought up the Temporal agency. Seems to me they didn’t do their job. Khan was supposed to happen in the 1990’s. Yet they were happy it would be delayed perhaps 50 years?”

Yeah I admit, that is really confusing. The DTI agent seems happy that the Romulan didn’t wipe out the Federation (whew), but she’s not concerned that history has been alternately changed in a huge way? But that’s also problem with time travel. How do you really know you’re not just living in an alternate timeline which was a joke in Trials and Tribble-lations. But as we saw in this episode and ‘Relativity’ Starfleet has developed technology that can detect these changes and literally live outside of them, so it is a plothole. And a pretty big one IMO.

But this is probably the best they can explain it without going down a rabbit hole of temporal mechanics insanity lol.

True that. But I still think it is their way of legitimizing their own mistakes. Which is fine but it sure would be nice and bring closure to a ton of fans if they come out and say that is exactly what they were doing. ST09-ing SNW.

In time they may just come out and say that. I’m guessing this isn’t going to be the last time travel episode they do obviously.

And I think they knew they were only making bigger problems for themselves and why this came so early in the season. They wanted to establish it as soon as they could….and give us a cameo of kid Hitler in the process. (sigh)

But this will make a lot of the people who hate this show and other modern shows a little happier…I think. ;)

I kinda think it would save them a ton of grief if they just came out right now and confirmed what we are all seeing.

But I have to tell you this show is a little like Star Trek Discovery to me. Even if it was officially stated to be 100% reboot then even though all the canon problems disappear all the quality of the show problems remain. Granted it’s still better than Star Trek Discovery. No denying that. I don’t expect the writing to be on par with TOS. They had real Sci-fi writers and I think that bar is high enough that its an unfair comparison. But the quality of the writing just isn’t up to par with even Berman Trek. And it’s not even close. I feel like the episodes are talking down to me. Sorry but that’s how I’m seeing it. I’m not a professional writer so I can’t explain what it needs. It’s just the vibe I’m getting from them as a viewer.

Man you really don’t like this show lol. But I know you like it more than Lower Decks, so that’s a positive. ;D

I do like it as you know but I agree with people who says it could be a lot stronger as well. I like that it’s light on one hand but I wish the writing went a bit deeper at times too. It doesn’t harness the sci fi stuff on the level the older shows do. And for a show called Strange New Worlds, we’ve seen very very little of that so far.

It’s a fun show but it’s not really doing anything innovative or new either. It just feels like its copying so much of what the classic shows did but not trying to stand out in any meaningful way. But this episode was the first to do something big and regardless how you feel about it, it’s finally taking real chances. We also know this is the season of ‘big swings’ they said over and over again and this was a good example of one. So this season may change my mind on that, especially with episode 9.

But overall I like SNW because it is comfort food in so many ways and does feel like TOS and the Berman era shows. I still don’t like it more than any of those either, but it’s still very early of course. It is the first live action show since Voyager I really liked its first season. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s doing more things right than wrong but we can agree to disagree on that.

I think we can agree it’s light years better than Discovery at least. ;)

We can agree on that. :)

And just a reminder… I was impressed with Prodigy. The front half, at least. I found the back half to be a bit of a quality drop. Was a bit bummed it got the axe. But it wasn’t totally unexpected.

I agree. Mine too. Still like the debut episode best though. A mini-movie it certainly was and for a Toronto (nearby) resident it was great seeing all the location stuff actually being situated in Toronto. We’re always New York or London or Moscow – lots of films shot here.

I liked the fact that the two-hander between La’an and Kirk through most of the episode reminded me a bit of a romantic drama like Before Sunshine. Mixing up the genres again.

I’m a bit mixed on this one overall. However the Khan-troversy (forgive me) seems much ado about nothing. Yes, Space Seed cites the year 1996. SNW writers have said something to the effect of records from The Eugenics Wars were unreliable due to the chaos and turmoil of that period in human history. I’ve it alleged in other threads that this is an f*** you to the fans and just another example of the powers that be not giving a crap about canon a la the Gorn and Nurse Chapel issues. I’m not a big fan of those two examples but don’t think the Khan bit is the same. It would make sense after a cataclysmic event, such as the way WW3 is depicted in Trek, that there would be gaps and errors in the recorded history immediately preceding it. More importantly, Khan’s own words in TWOK seem to back up the assertion that his rule was actually in the 21st century. Simply put, TWOK opens with the famous IN THE 23rd CENTURY. Later in the film Khan says “On Earth, two hundred years ago, I was a prince with power over millions”. I’m gonna say the genetically engineered man of superior intellect and the subject of the debate is the most reliable source here.

He also said in WoK that his sleeper ship was from 1996. I’d say that was pretty definitive and even if records are “spotty” they wouldn’t be so spotty they would be off by FIFTY YEARS!

But ML31 is right, Khan himself literally says 1996 in TWOK. That’s why the answer that Matalas tried to give that Spock was just ‘confused’ on the dates or that the war misplaced things when he was discussing Picard season 2 was total BS. I’m pretty sure Khan himself wasn’t confused on what year he left Earth in and which as you said is the most reliable source. But I guess they forgot that line in the movie. Sigh.

But yes oddly enough Khan also says it happened 200 years ago and not 300 years ago but I guess you can say he was just speaking in general (or just really horrible at math lol). But the fact is he establishes himself he was from 1996.

I think it’s just better to go on what the evil time traveling Romulan said and that history was altered due to things like the Temporal Cold War. Because even the Romulans expected to find Khan in the 90s and why she had been on Earth for 30 years (but man Romulans apparently age pretty good lol).

But that’s why this makes sense this is just an alternate timeline because now you have Khan born in literally two different time periods. What else could it be BUT that?

You could bomb mankind back to the Stone Age today and there would still be people who know when the Second World War took place. Children have learned about it in school, there are books, monuments, eyewitnesses or at least children and grandchildren who have heard stories. It’s just a poorly thought out excuse for a rather unnecessary change to have Khan in the series. The people who make Star Trek have been obsessed with Khan for ages, and I wish they would finally let him go.

The people who make Star Trek have been obsessed with Khan for ages, and I wish they would finally let him go.

This. This. And more this.

What is so asinine about this (and I’m not talking about Bill Murray but the writers who came up with this idiocy) even if you can believe ONE country can’t keep their records straight, it’s ridiculous to believe all the others wouldn’t have better historical accounts.

Khan didn’t rule over just one country. He ruled over forty. 4-0! And you mean to tell me out of all of those none of them could get the keep record straight with one of the biggest invasions in world history since WW 2? The irony about this is it’s usually the world events like a war that is the most documented. And something that big would be studied over and written about for decades, regardless if an even bigger war overshadowed it.

Just ridiculous and silly.

This episode does not re-write Star Trek history. It nearly establishes that the show takes place in a different universe. Khan existed in the 1990s. That is the timeline for classic Star Trek, and all the 24th century shows in the Berman era.

The season two finally of Picard implies that Soong didn’t start working on Khan’s genetics until 2024.

The event of the Europa mission is what caused the deviation in the timeline for Picard. So either Picard being a follow-up to TNG, which has the Eugenics war take place in the 21st century is the prime timeline.

Thus TOS is the alternate timeline, or vice versa.

I think the only thing that can be safely concluded is that everything made by Secret Hideout, including all seasons of Picard, are the reboot. Or alternate, if you will.

i prefer to think that TOS is the alternate timeline, or the historians got the date wrong.

the war being in the 1990’s is only stated once in TOS

It’s mentioned in Wrath of Khan too. I doubt with all the way to record events that the decade of a war that decimated 1/4 of the planet would be wrong. We know the years when wars from 500 years ago took place. Sorry. I don’t buy that.

It’s fair that you don’t buy that, it’s just easier to change a date in a fictional show that doesn’t really affect the canon. At least this time the casting department got Khan’s ethnicity correct.

It’s actually easiest to just say it’s a reboot. Then they don’t have to follow any of the rules that came before.

And I really don’t care about the ethnicity of the actor playing Khan. I don’t have a problem changing such things in reboots. Be it mermaids or power mad augments. That’s a very very small issue compared to the larger fictional universe rules.

it’s also easier to accept a new four digit number than it is to accept a universe.

I’d wager that more people would find it easier to accept reboot than would accept “The Eugenics wars never happened in our reality so we are just going to move further down the road 50-60 years” because… Um…. Time travel technobabble.

To this day, I am still flabbergasted that nobody at Bad Robot thought “hang on, Khan is supposed to be from the Indian subcontinent, why have we cast a pasty white guy from Britain?”

They literally whitewashed the character and nobody said anything.

Noonien-Singh did say “we” so he himself implied that there was more than one person that took the world. So who says that the guy played by Benedict Cumberbatch wasn’t in fact a different person.

“nah, we’ll say it was plastic surgery in the comic book, we’ll Michael Jackson him!”

My head cannon is Cucumberpatch was Joachim. They kinda look similar other than being white.

“i prefer to think that TOS is the alternate timeline, or the historians got the date wrong.”

So are you suggesting Khan himself got the date wrong too?? I mean even if historians got it wrong centuries later, I’m guessing the guy who was actually from that century and those events remembers.

And because I know this is going to be the new talking point, here is the clip from TWOK that makes it plainly obvious Khan is from 1996 .

https://youtu.be/d7bExIrjxRc?t=130

I’ve seen this movie more times than I can count at this point but not everyone will remember every line; but it can’t be any clearer. Seriously.

But this is feeling like STID again when fans defending the movie was saying Khan didn’t really know what country he came from. Now apparently he can’t remember what year he tried to take over the world either. This is another reason why I hate prequels. ;)

And now Star Trek had given us THREE prequels.

Don’t remind me, sigh. We wouldn’t haven’t any of these arguments if they just continued going forward.

Agreed, 100%.

i was thinking about this this morning, Star trek fans wouldn’t be arguing about this if Harve Bennet chose a different original series episode for Wrath of Khan.

The Wrath of Mudd, The Wrath of Garth is my personal favorite.

Very good! But specifically I would like to see the Wrath of STELLA Mudd! …the android version of her, of course.

the Wrath of Baris, or The Wrath of Cyrano Jones could be fun

There is no Lake Ontario Bridge in Toronto in 2023. This means that the SNW timeline is different from ours. So you have a point, I think.

Yeah, but there’s multiple references from other time travel episodes and movies that don’t correspond with our reality. Star Trek is an extension of our history, so I’ve always forgiven the creative liberties taken – either due to copyright or just because they didn’t want to get too specific.

On La’an outing Sera as a Romulan spy, I think it was simply a matter of her putting two and two together. She knows the Romulans were warring with Humans and Vulcans in the altered timeline, so she didn’t really need to know what they looked like to make the connection.

Goood episode, but I really disliked the Sara actress. She came off like a crazy ex girlfriend and not like a Romulan spy. I’d give it 7/10 total.

C’mon, she knew just how to fit in.

Athough if she was a little less crazy, it could have been interesting to see a Romulan on the make for Kirk, and Kirk having to make up his mind how far to take it, and thereby challenge or reinforce our stereotypes of him. ((The marriage line was a sure thing the writers must have contemplated this whole thing.))

I’m just criticizing the acting, I think she was OK at the beginning but absolutely horrible when she revealed her hammy evil real persona at the end of the episode. Some C level acting at best, especially compared to Christina Chong and Paul Wesley who were both great this episode.

She has a pretty good resume, and I bet she could have played it any way. I am sure it was the direction. I mean, this episode also featured a car chase out of the A Team.

I saw it as she had to play up the kooky persona as cover to believably win over La’an and Kirk, and suppress her true wily, snarky Romulan spy self. I was genuinely surprised when she revealed her true identity.

Yes, even after she was exposed there was NOTHING Romulan about her. That was just a bad choice.

I agree, but if she really had been on Earth for centuries (which is apparently possible somehow), she may have just really blended into the culture. Maybe a stretch of an explanation, but there are people in our own world who either forget where they came from or just choose to adapt to a new country/state/city.

The really big mistake in this episode was not showing that Khan, as a child, is manipulative and smart as he is as an adult. Like, what if La’an wants to kill him just because he is an annoying brat? And what if it was played for comedy — then the episode could be called, “Bad Babysitter.”

That kind of fits with how La’an, Una and Bashir from DS9 are portrayed though. It seems that the popular conception among people in the Star Trek universe that genetic engineering turns people bad may be a prejudicial myth, and in reality Khan and other evil augments were a product of multiple factors. I’m not sure if one could go back and meet Hitler, Stalin or Putin as children one would necessarily find any different.

Interesting! Although I was mostly joking, I also was thinking that if she found child Khan’s behavior beyond her patience, it might show some unexpected emotions of her own that she had to overcome to deal with him.

I thought it was absolutely brilliant of the writer to have La’an meet Khan as a child and have him be a scared little kid, just like other little kids. Here’s the evil person who’s helped to make her life hell … and he turns out to be an actual person, not a monster. That’s a classically Trekkian message!

Inert drama in a show that continues to reduce its adult characters to children.

The canon stuff was the most interesting part of it, but those were just details tossed out to fill time. They couldn’t start the story with La’an grappling with her Noonien-Singh-ness (an anniversary, some reminder of her family’s legacy, etc.) because that would’ve stepped on the final act reveal, but that also works against the story because then it’s not really *about* anything. The new shows frequently do this because they don’t want to mess with their big twist(s); this leads to (frequently) emotionally muddy arcs for whoever the episode is about. I’m not someone who thinks “actor screen time” = “character development,” but I admit that I’m alone in this opinion.

They did the same thing with Sera that they did with Angel, with the villain reveal suddenly making the character this mustache-twirling monologuer. Glad people love writing like that. I don’t.

Sadly, I suspect that the “Eugenics Wars – 1990s or Not?” canon arguments will prove to be every bit as tiresome as the episode itself. (That is, apart from Carol Kane, as always an absolute delight.). Too fluffy and insubstantial to be a modern “City on the Edge of Forever;” too somber to be a romp; and too wrapped up in its canon-jiggering to have much of anything else to say, I have no idea who this episode was made for. It definitely wasn’t for movie audiences who heard Ricardo Mantalban in 1982 talk about being lost in space in 1996, laughed, and moved on.

That’s 1-3 you’re batting at this point, SNW. Not where I was hoping to be.

For me SNW is batting 1 for 13.

*Yawn* Yeah, as if anyone could have failed to notice. Which would be okay, if you had any fresh and interesting criticisms to make.

Every episode seems to make for fresh criticisms. Whether they are interesting or not probably depends on how one views the show to begin with.

Also, what makes you think yours are more interesting than anyone else’s?

If every episode makes for fresh criticisms, then why don’t you make them?

As for “interesting” — well, that is of course up to the reader. Endless complaints about canonicity and the Gorn, et cetera, endlessly repeated, may indeed be of interest to some.

With every new episode seems to come with a new batch of issues. If you don’t see that it’s only because you don’t want to because it undermines your false belief.

Regarding the prevailing issues that keep coming up, sure. I repeat the Gorn and other such issues. When relevant to do so. Further, there are others who repeat ad nauseum their same opinions far more often than I do. People who appear in every thread saying essentially the same thing. Yet you decide to single me out. Which tells me it is not about repeating a few issues. It’s obviously something else. Only you know what. But that’s your problem. Not mine.

And yet, for all those “new issues” that crop up with every episode, you seem to repeat the same complaints on an endless loop. Strange, that. As for me denying their obvious reality — really?! What “false belief” would that be? Seems to me that I’m pretty tough on this show (and all Trek series) when I think it’s called for, including on this very thread.

And yes, there are a number of people here who, on the whole, don’t much care for SNW. Sometimes (as with you) I agree with their criticisms; oftentimes I don’t. But they don’t continue to make those same criticisms over and over and over again, which is really just trolling.

Except I’m not. With each new episode they create more issues. If you don’t see that, again, that’s your issue. You WANT something to be true so you decide to believe it is. Again, that’s your issue. Not mine. Sure some get repeated when necessary but to say I do that more than anyone else is a bit of a fixation. It happens all the time with the regulars. It’s not even about opinions of SNW. It’s about opinions that are constantly getting repeated in general. Over and over again. Yet you choose to pick on me for it. I see others do it but I don’t cry and moan about it as you are. If you hate is so much just ignore it. It’s very easy. In this case, I just said SNW’s batting average was .077. I’ve never said that before. Yet that was the comment that triggered you to get all huffy.

Whatever, Sparky. Get your last word in. I’m ignoring you in this thread now.

He doesn’t. ML31 is just here to troll and stir the pot with contrarianism.

That’s right. Anyone who says something you don’t like is a troll and a “contrarian”.

LOLOLOL!!!!

That is an inaccurate distortion of what I said.

No. It’s an exact definition of what you said.

If that wasn’t your intent then rephrase your comment to reflect your intent.

Did the time travel device not remind some of us of the Omni from “Voyagers,” circa 1982? “When the Omni’s red, it means history is wrong ….” Hmmm ….

Perhaps the most seismic shock to Star Trek cannon is the revelation that Khan was Canadian. Eh! And it’s interesting that Canada doesn’t seem to exist in even the utopian 23rd century…

Yeah.. What is it called in the 23rd Century? I’m not a fan of that. It’s obviously done for the audience but it makes no sense for the characters to say it. The dumbest line in TMP was “…disappeared into what they used to call a black hole.” Why would they say that? Yes, for the audience but it makes no sense to the characters. My first thought when it’s done is always “what do they call it now?”

I was implying a connection between Khan’s country of origin and the possible reason why that country ceased to exist…

That, or all their forests burned down and they just gave up.

Michael Eddington was Canadian though

Don’t look at me. I’m not the one who wrote La’an’s line about Toronto being the largest city “in what used to be called Canada.”

And I was reacting to you bringing up that Canada is now called something else in the Strange New Worlds world. I brought up a similar thing Trek did before.

The TMP line makes no sense in-universe, but at least the line about Canada makes more sense given that the characters are in the correct time to call it Canada.

Actually neither make sense even if characters decades down the line still refer to it as Canada. Admittedly it’s a small thing. Just something I’ve noticed and this line brought it up for air briefly. It’s really not that big a deal to me.

Of course he was Khan-adian…

I khan’t take these puns any longer…

I don’t know if he was from Canada, he could’ve just been relocated there. But I’m fine that he is since there are plenty of Indians from there either way.

And remember America no longer exist in the 23rd century either. Pike said it to Spock in the premiere episode: “Are you familiar with the United States of America Spock?”

We know Earth becomes a one world government in the 22nd century but I still don’t understand why some countries like France and Nigeria seem to still exist (or be called that) in the 23rd century but apparently others no longer do although all the cities are still named as before. My only guess is maybe North America gave itself one united name or something.

Yeah exactly. He was probably just relocated there when he was brought in for the experiments.

I mean he wasn’t exactly living in a house with a family. It was a sinister lab so yeah he could’ve came from anywhere.

“ warns her not to talk to anyone about it”

Why doesn’t this series just stop pretending that it exists in the prime timeline and commit to being in it’s own? It’s getting irksome when the writers keep changing so many established events and characters while also resorting to the “keep it a secret” schtick over and over again like that makes it still set in the prime timeline? I never bought into it before and I’m certainly not buying into it now. If this show didn’t keep resorting to “in hindsight” story telling it’d be so much better.

Is that supposed to be their “big twist” for later? Like the resolution to Bobby Ewing in the shower? (reference for all the old fans out there)

TI no doubt has the ability to erase memories, but the writers of this one couldn’t do that because it would negate whatever inscrutable emotional point they were trying to make.

I very much ENJOYED this episode and its clever twists and turns. Looking forward to how the seeds planted here develop.

Hey, I didn’t love this one, but I’m glad it exists.

I didn’t quite connect with the La’an-Kirk romance. It just didn’t quite add up to me. I know that it’s classic Trek to have someone fall madly in love with someone over the span of a single episode, but it just didn’t click with me. I think if the two of them had to overcome an interpersonal challenge between the two of them, I’d buy into it more. It seemed that Kirk was willing to give up his future really quickly, and if that had been delayed by an act it would have landed better. More tension between the two beforehand would have led to a better payoff.

That said, I enjoyed this. I like that we’re getting episodes focused on different core characters. To me, that’s the greatest strength of SNW. You can’t do an episode of Picard without Picard, or Discovery without Michael, but (small appearances aside) this one demonstrates you can make an episode of SNW without most of the main cast. Sure, I’d love it if there were a B-plot with another character, but it’s not essential.

I’m on the fence about Kirk. During most of the episode, “this guy isn’t Kirk” was going through my head, but then again, he’s not Kirk. At least not the one we know. But when she called him at the end, and we got young Kirk Prime, I kind of thought “oh! This guy IS Kirk” and the performance landed. It’s a really tough ask for an actor no matter what. I still would like a little more 60s-thespian out of him, but that’s just my taste.

The timey-wimey handwaving about Khan and the dates of WW3 / Khan / the Eugenics Wars (which I’ll just call the “Great Conflict”) was really deft writing. Honestly, that “it was supposed to happen in 1992” line from a time travelling agent did SO MUCH heavy lifting in a clever way.

Writing in the 60s, warning about potential great wars coming soon, made so much sense. It seemed reasonable that maybe there’d be a big dustup in 30 years (after all, WW2 had ended within living memory). There was a real sense we’d be on Mars by the end of the 70s, and with the breakneck speed of advances at the time, sure we could send out sleeper ships.

But now that we’re living in that time, to keep Trek relevant (and to let it speak to issues of now ) we’ve got to make sure that the future we’re imagining remembers the present that we currently live in. Handwaving canon with more canon isn’t just alright, it’s essential. (If we don’t meet Vulcans in 40 years, I may reassess this stance).

The timey-wimey handwaving about Khan and the dates of WW3 / Khan / the Eugenics Wars (which I’ll just call the “Great Conflict”) was really deft writing. Honestly, that “it was supposed to happen in 1992” line from a time travelling agent did SO MUCH heavy lifting in a clever way.

Well put, I agree. This takes care of the issue for me, I’m not obsessing over it. The analogy I I like to utilize, in my own mind at least, is that original Trek from 60 years ago is like a very old low-res photo, where many of the details are grainy and fuzzy, and as technology improves over time the resolution becomes sharper, and details become more delineated, so that smooth-surface starships now have more details visible, so that Klingons’ forehead ridges are now visible, so that Gorns look less like a rubber suit, etc. In my mind these things were always there, it’s the same Trek as before, except that now we have a sharper, fuller image. To me this applies to dates, uniforms and character details as well. It was a bad cassette recording before, and now we finally have clear sound. So that’s why all the stuff that others get upset about (as is their prerogative) doesn’t really bother me.

Personally, I feel that simply calling this or that series a reboot would divorce the show from any sense of emotional resonance or consequence. By and large fans care about these shows because they lead into or arise from the Trek universe that we’ve previously enjoyed, they’re about the characters we know. They all validate each other. If one is labeled a reboot so that the writers can do anything they want that week without it needing to relate to anything in any previous series or film, then why should we care about it? A character dies? No problem, he lives in a different time line. Nothing really matters, it’s all ephemeral and transactional … I care about SNW because I know that somehow its supposed to lead into the TOS that I know. And TOS leads into TNG. If they suddenly say, oh this isn’t that Star Trek, its a different Star Trek, then I’m less invested. So while some canon is certainly being bent, I think that the producers are wise not to label this a reboot.

Not that some deviations in Trekdom aren’t so extreme that even I think they go too far. But I’m not encountering any of those in SNW. Just my two cents…

I’ve read comments from some people here and on different websites/social media platforms and they bring up how this episode proves that SNW is not set in the Prime timeline even though it is.

I would like to say this remember that TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, DSC, PIC and PRO which are all set in the prime timeline/all canon and all have done time travel stories. Prodigy is/was deep in a time travel story arc which involved Chakotay being stuck in the future and even some of the movies with The Voyage Home & First Contact also had time travel stories too.

Every time characters from these shows/movies time traveled they must of changed history/timeline in some fashion even though we never really actually got to see these changes.

One point I’m trying to make is SNW retconned the date of the Eugenics wars/rise of Khan and some people consider this proof of SNW not being Prime/Canon. Then surely all Trek shows with their time travel events can also be seen in the same light and these events can be used to decanonize them all as well right?

I hope people can see where I’m going with this if not then my main point is some people in the fandom try and dig really deep into shows to try and de-canonize certain Trek shows they don’t like because of visual/canon differences.

Yet what they are doing could also be used against the older Trek shows and show they aren’t in the same timeline/canon as others even if we don’t see any changes to history/the timeline. So it’s silly imo making arguments about what is and isn’t prime/canon to past shows because they all have altered history as some point so the whole prime/not prime argument is pointless at this stage.

Agreed. When Archer and T’Pol went back in time, did they return to something other than the Prime timeline? The same with Janeway and crew, and also Sisko. Sisko’s image was in the historical record for the Bell riots. Sisko and crew were also involved with the events of the TOS Tribble episode. Did they return to the Prime timeline after that? I would like to think so, even though they are not seen in the original Trouble with Tribbles episode.

No commenter is ever wrong for pointing out that Star Trek fans are terrible, but your very valid comment about how awful fans are for wanting to “de-canonize” the shows they don’t like still elides the very real, factually correct data point that the people making Strange New Worlds are wanting to “de-canonize” the shows they don’t like. Now, the makers’ reasons for not liking the other shows is different from why certain fans don’t like certain shows, but it’s true that there’s a lot of desire to de-canonize on either end of the Trek spectrum.

The irony to me is that there are a lot of Trek fans who are really enjoying SNW. But the whole Kahn timeline it messing it up for a lot of us who can’t just forget that TOS and TWOK happened. The truth is that, in my mind, I’ve already “de-canonized” SNW just so that I can enjoy it! I’ve already removed it from the “Prime” timeline in my head, and I think if that was made official by the power that be, a lot more people would feel better about the series. But, for now, as long as they continue to claim that this is the direct lead-in to TOS, I just think the criticism will just get worse.

And, for what it’s worth, even with the other time travel episodes, pretty much none of those changed canon on the level of what is happening in SNW. Archer and T’Pol didn’t time travel and interact with other characters from a different version of Star Trek. Sisko and company may have interacted with TOS characters, but they didn’t do anything to change what actually happened before – even if they displaced a few people who originally took on similar roles (like fighting in a brawl or standing in a line-up for Kirk). And even Discovery’s interaction with Pike was plausible, but we can just agree to disagree that Spock ever had an adopted sister.

But “The Trouble with Tribbles” and “Trials and Tribble-ations” can’t both exist at the same time on the same timeline. Tribble-ations replaced Trouble on the timeline. For both to exist, that would have to mean that Tribble-ations caused a branching off from the Prime timeline since Sisko and crew did in fact interact with Kirk and crew when they originally didn’t. It may not have had any universe altering butterfly effects, (not until a writer or showrunner decides if it did or not) but it did change the Prime timeline and did replace the original episode. Sisko, Dax, Bashir and O’brien should all be edited into “Trouble” if that episode is still in the Prime timeline.

Spock never told Kirk he had a brother until it was necessary to do so. Why is it difficult to believe he would also fail to mention an adopted sister? Why was the introduction of Sybok accepted but not Michael as well?

My interest is also whether any of these timelines are supposed to be OUR timeline. If Lake Ontario Bridge doesn’t exist in 2023 let alone 2022, then the SNW timeline isn’t ours.

Well, the good news is it wasn’t as destructive as some eluded it would be. The bad news is, while there was a decent idea embedded there overall it was extremely poorly executed. Too many weak plot contrivances and ridiculous comments. But in the end I really saw zero need for a story like this. Did they have trouble coming up with 10 story ideas? Are they really that creatively bankrupt?

PS… I wonder what Canada is called in the 23rd century? And why when it seems every other place retained their names was Canada the weird hold out? That’s a small one but it’s on a very long list of oddball decisions.

I wonder what Canada is called in the 23rd century?

A Few Acres of Snow.

That would be “Quelques arpents de neige” as Voltaire was French…

But I’m not French and my universal translator is malfunctioning. Ain’t that just the way?

Sure np. It’s just that I’m French (Canadian) and I’ve heard this famous expression in French all my life to describe our wonderful country, the Great White North!

Interesting. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I took it that Voltaire was being snarky about Canada. So has it eventually turned into an expression of pride among Canadians?

I believe you’re right about Voltaire’s snark (but you know, those French…). He was referring to Quebec’s (then known as Nouvelle-France) limited economic value as a colony. I don’t know about pride, but with time this expression has been ingrained to represent the Quebec frontier. Similar to the Wild West is an expression representing the American West in the 1860s. This particular expression was referring particularly to Quebec, as Canada had not been founded yet.

Ah, I see. Thank you.

It’s still called Canada. Michael Eddington was Canadian.

That’s true. Unfortunately he never found his Loonie…

If SNW is prime, and find it difficult to believe it is, the only explanation would be it changed name to something else. Then at some point changed it back.

Full disclosure… This sort of thing in the grand scheme of things doesn’t really bother me much at all. It just stands out more when it is yet another on top of a bunch of other really big screw ups.

Didn’t the ensign in “Lower Decks” (the TNG episode, not the series) ask Riker if he was from Canada?

Maybe. I don’t recall.

Regardless of this episode (because I don’t think it’s the only one), I TOTALLY agree with the argument about 10 story ideas/10 episodes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: With ONLY 10 episodes to fill, this is the best you can offer?

And even more than that, we’re three episodes in with Pike having almost no screen time and little to no influence on the storylines – other than hiring a lawyer. This is the first Trek in history to sideline the captain/commanding officer for a THIRD of the season!

From Toronto (nearby actually – Mississauga). Great to see our city so beautifully on display. The “Archeology Department” is about 3/4 of a km. from where we live. I pass it almost daily and we saw the assemblage of trucks, crew etc. when they filmed the exterior of the location! It really is filled with a lot of old crap… er antiques. I like they way they inserted Vermonty mountains into the deep background. Actually down the street is a Dairy Queen and across the street is a bank and a hardware store! Well done SNW’s. Mt favourite by far of all the ST iterations. One last comment, I was wondering if Pelia suddenly “remembered” La’an when she saw her on the Pike Enterprise bridge

This was an amazing episode. I loved it. I also loved that they have finally addressed the proverbial elephant in the room. That line of dialogue about the “Temporal Wars” changes everything. They have untied their hands a little more. They are honoring the past but “adjusting” the future. I Love Strange New Worlds.

They are creating an alternate timeline, not “adjusting” the future. The changes they are making are no less history altering that Kirk’s Dad dying at the hand of a Romulan from the future. Except this time, Kirk himself died at the hands of a Romulan who came from the future to basically get revenge on a species they don’t like. Oh wait, even that part is pretty much the same….

for me this episodes firmly places tos in a alternate verse timeline while ent,dsc seasons 1-2,snw,tas,tmp films,tng,ds9,voy,tng films,lds,pro,pic,dsc seasons 3-5 are all prime verse timeline which works for me as tos has always been the one that does not fit visually or continuity wise for me and as such is number 10 on my favorite to least favorite trek series list

TAS takes all of its visual cues from TOS and directly follows the original series.

TNG features schematics of both the original series Enterprise and the refit as well referencing events from TOS.

Scotty recreates the bridge from the Enterprise in “Relics” with Picard saying. “Constitution class. There’s one in the fleet museum.” He immediately recognizes what Scotty has recreated.

DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-ations” which throws the Defiant back in time, placing Sisko and his crew on Kirk’s Enterprise in an original series episode.

“Star Trek: Enterprise” reveals the fate of the Defiant and how a vessel from the Prime timeline was responsible for the Empires dominance in the decades that would follow.

“Lower Decks” has numerous visual callbacks and references to TOS.

Picard S3 also seems to go out of its way to prominently feature the U.S.S. New Jersey but not a single vessel from Star Trek Discovery or SNW.

TOS is the beginning of the Prime timeline and TNG and DS9 further cemented its influence and place in Star Trek canon, with Picard S3 bookending it all.

For Star Trek, writers can make adjustments to canon that viewers will accept and run with. They also know that viewers would accept that Discovery and SNW are placed in different timelines.

Sorry the New Jersey design was a tos Easter egg reference nothing more terry said as much he knows the constitution class ships did not actually look like that in the prime verse tos is cheep cheesy dated and unfuturistic visually and does not fit between visual look of enterprise and tmp era also the names of races and other info in tos episodes do not ever get used or heard again also it is good to make that series a alternate timeline it means they can remake tos in the new ascetic that looks futuristic and fits better between ent and tmp era and as for tas it is a cartoon a cheaply made one at that that used tracings of stills from the show for the ship and reused sounds and artwork both for secondary human characters from other shows that animation company made As for the enterprise episodes that was all in the mirror universe non of it from the prime so that defiant came from the alternate timeline tos is all alone in No images of the tos designed 1701 was seen in tng only the tmp refit was seen in computer entries from the naked now episode and I do not accept the wall of ships named enterprise in the ent-d’s conference room canon to the ships designs as the ent-c design was wrong from how it looked when it appeared and the ent-b design was also wrong as it is depicted as a standard excelsior class when it was a excelsior refit and most of the lds references are for tas not tos only one episode even referenced a tos episodes events Only a small percent of the fanbase mainly self entitled crybabies who are mad that the new shows aren’t made the way they want them to be made and egged on by the even smaller loud vocal toxic minority of all fanbases know as the fandom menace made up of the racist sexist homophobic and transphobic people who have YouTube channels or big Twitter pages are the only ones who think that the new shows are a alternate timeline when the the majority of the fanbase either does not care or sees tos as being the outlier of all the series cause it does not work with any of the other shows or even the first 6 films

Wow, just wow. Without TOS, your post wouldn’t exist. And without all the self entitled crybabies who were around to keep Star Trek alive in the 70’s and 80’s none of the shows that followed would exist. If you have no respect for the original than you don’t understand the underlying meaning of Star Trek. Good science fiction is not about how things look, sorry to see you are fixated on that.

Sometimes this site really needs a block or mute function, if it does already I apologize for not knowing.

so what the past is the past let the past die kill it if you have to i love alot of sci-fi star trek,star wars,b5,the 3 stargate series ,warehouse 13/eureka,12 monkeys series, andromeda,modern doctor who,modern lost in space

Your response saved me a lot of time. For that, I thank you.

“Sometimes this site really needs a block or mute function.”

Get in line…get in line.

First contact and Enterprise is the start of the prime timeline followed by dsc seasons 1 and 2 snw and tas then tmp films then tng,ds9 voy and the tng films then lower decks then prodigy then picard and bookendin for now with dsc seasons 3-5 and the soon to be made Starfleet academy series

Temporal Cold War also the reason tos as it was is no longer part of the prime timeline which is good thing which is even better then my idea which was tos was a alternate timeline we’re computer tech did not evolve past mid to late 60’s level or have tos have bookends added to the start of each season with jake and quark jake goes to quark to have a holo recreation of kirks time as the captain of the enterprise made and quark cut corners to save on the gold pressed latinum each season he cuts even more corners to save more latinum and jake and him get into it about how none of it looks like how it actually looked from the uniforms to the tech to the bridge to the exterior of the ships look to even how the crew of the enterprise looked being not right and quark said it was the best he could do

Temporal Cold War was a cheap, cheesy (your favorite words) way of writing. Proved the writers couldn’t come up with new, exciting, compelling stories.

temporal cold war story as well as time travel is a great writing tool to do retcons and explain changes

I tend to agree. Also, the only reason it exists is because UPN wanted something more futuristic on Enterprise. So they brought that in ONLY because they were forced to. They didn’t WANT to.

In fact, the original concept was for a potential show Braga (I think) had dreamed up that sounded like a fun series concept the way it was described. So they altered it and incorporated it on Enterprise. They really weren’t that into it. There weren’t many episodes that focused on it. And Coto killed the story immediately upon taking over.

They had no idea what that wrought down the line.

Agreed. TOS-VOY belong in a bin timeline (because it’s not possible to detach TOS from TNG, DS9, and VOY for very obvious reasons) and only ENT through now is Prime Timeline.

I don’t have a huge problem with this idea but wouldn’t TOS-VOY be the prime timeline? And ENT-DIS-SNW, etc be the alternate one?

I’m just following michelle’s salient point that everything new is good and everything old is bad. Since so much of the old is tied to TOS, better just to chuck it all.

LOL, I gotcha now! ;)

yeah tos is easily detatchable if you idgnore two episodes one of tng and one of ds9 there was no episodes with any tos stuff in voy only a tmp era one

How are you able to detach the actors from the visuals? Why would you? Also, isn’t picking and choosing eras just personal preference no different than people who discard Disco? I thought you were making a point about trying to approach objectivity.

cause i have attactment to the orginal show my first trek series was enterprise i was 7 when it came out i did not even know about any other trek series or films till 09 when my local walmart had dvd complete series box sets of tng,ds9,voy in the clearance section for 30 dollars a for each complete series and all 4 tng films on dvd in the 5 dollar movie bin i found out about tos and tas and the 6 tmp films in late 2014 when cbs all access came out but did not watch till 2016 that same local walmart had a dvd complete series box set of tos and of tas in the clearance section tos was 25 and tas was 15 ans they had each of the 6 tmp films on dvd in the 5 dollar movie bin then i watched them and it is not hard for me to to detach the actors from character and only see the character not the actor otherwise i would have a hard time watching andromeda and fast and furious films from 5 onward and the mandalorian due to the fact i do not like sorbo, gina cause of their political views and the rock cause of his his horrible acting and line delivery he is only good at physical acting and chessy one liners i can’t get into a scifi show unless it looks visually good which tos, original lost in space and old doctor who does not and if it is set in the future it has to look futuristic which tos does not and if it is part of a multi series franchise like trek it has to visually fit together which tos dos not visually fit between enterprise and tmp era while dsc and snw do

I hadn’t thought of it that way. In any case, you’re right!

As someone MUCH older than you and don’t agree with your position on TOS at all, I don’t disagree with your overall point too much. In fact this is probably why it would’ve made sense just to reboot the franchise completely with Discovery if they were actually serious about getting new and younger subscribers to watch Star Trek.

But the fact that all these new shows is just following canon of 30+ year old shows really does prove these new shows are geared to older fans first and foremost, and I mean people who started watching Trek in the 80s or 90s at the latest.

If they wanted, they could’ve rebooted it and then the Eugenic wars could’ve happened in 2100 and no one would blink. Khan could also be British, Japanese, Nigerian, it wouldn’t matter. It honestly frustrates me in a way because while I know they are appealing to people like me and why they keep 55 year old canon around, they seem to fear that too many people like me would also reject anything really new and innovative and they don’t give us enough credit like we’re too old and stuck in our ways. Maybe some of us lol, but I think most would love a completely new direction if they tried it.

It wouldn’t just be a handful of episodes. There are too many intertwined threads with references that touch almost every corner of Star Trek, including Lower Decks (which is littered with a ton of TOS references) and Prodigy (“All the World’s a Stage” is practically a valentine to TOS).

lower decks only has one direst tos episode connection and that is with landru it has far more tas references and ent and tmp and tng ds9 and voy references then tos and that prodigy episode was showing making fun of how cheap and silly tos was

there is only one episode of tng with the tos bridge in it that and one early episode it connects via a similar issue to what happened in a tos episode other than those two instances there was no other tos in it and there was only one ds9 episode was a pointless tos easter egg episode and that is trials and tribble-ations it did not add anything major to the ds9 story arcs or trek in general i do not get nostalgic over tv shows or movies or music or the way things were as none of it i have any control over or direct involvement with in my life i only get nostalgic over certain things food dishes i loved and wish i could still have made by family members that are no longer on this mortal coil

First, Christina Chong. Wow. Best performance yet as this character. She’s amazing, and I’m crushing hard on her as L’aan now. I honestly got some Kirk / Edith Keeler vibes, but from her perspective toward Kirk. Wesley’s Kirk still does zero for me, but once again, it’s ok that he’s not the Kirk we know. But I buy the attraction between the two, for sure, and it makes the forthcoming ‘You guys have an energy’ comment make sense. Yeah, it’s cheesy, but at least I buy that there is some lasting effect of this episode. There is some good stuff here. Unfortunately, what I don’t like about the episode, I despise. Yep.. it’s the absolutely blatant canonical stuff related to Khan that is completely removed from the show’s history. But like Akira said, they’re just “body checking” it. I even like the interaction the two had. I guess we now see why they had to have a descendent of Khan on the show. I thought it’d hate this episode completely, so I was pleasantly surprised at what works. Like STID, if you take the fan service stuff out, this could have been something much more compelling.

On Khan Noonien Singh:

TOS: From the Northern India area, I’d guess. SNW: Nope. He’s Canadian.

TWOK: I was a Prince, with power over millions. SNW: Nope. Canada already has a King.

ENT: Khan was a great leader, but he made one mistake, he ran from his enemies instead of face them. SNW: Because he didn’t have a gun. He has a gun now. An adult left it in his childhood room.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold. Eh? Go Maple Leafs!”

Thinking that Khan will be a Leafs fan… The Nucks are right there

to answer these: 1) they could have been going off of his general ethnicity, back when it was written the population wasn’t as diverse (factoring immigration)

2) he was a Conqueror/Khan-queror he can give himself what ever title he so chooses

3) when there is a revolution after a point the leaders either die or give up and run.

4) Khannys got a gun The whole world’s come undone From lookin’ straight at the Son (camera zooms into the barrel of the gun in a james bong opening like manner)

A. He could be from Canada or could’ve just been relocated from India and carry on the project there. It’s clearly a global one since we see Soong a part of it in America in 2024.

B. The point is they invaded the world. Khan didn’t become a Prince through the usual channels, the literally conquered countries and made himself one.

C. I’m guessing someone found the gun later and took it. I don’t know how this is relevant to that quote?

Yeah, because we all know that people from India would never immigrate to Canada.

A touch of car nerdery.

The car they take isn’t just any Dodge Challenger. It’s a 2022 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody. A monster with 707 horsepower and a banshee wail from its supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8.

It is also Canadian. Assembled in a plant in Bramlea, Ontario. So it’s a local product for Toronto.

Such a Canada episode.

Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody, supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8…

I’m not even a “car guy” but just that description is giving me goosebumps.

It’s the sovereign class ship of Dodges

The only piece of Canadiana missing from this episode was Kirk blasting The Tragically Hip on the Challenger’s stereo.

It is a rule that every Trek go back in time to the time and place where the show is made. It usually results in a light and fun episode or two, and “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” is no different…in the first half. The show then suddenly switches gears into a heartfelt, soul-examining drama. The transition isn’t perfect, but it largely works. 

La’An is first sent to an altered version of the timeline where the Federation never formed, Earth destroyed, Vulcans on the verge of extinction, and Kirk head of United Earth’s Enterprise. Then they’re sent to 21st century Toronto, and the next 20 minutes are reminiscent of Star Trek IV. It’s delightful, and here are a few of my favorite quotes: “I am your superior officer and I am ordering you to have a hot dog” “I’m going back to get one more” *whispered*”What’s a meme?”  “I guarantee you this is going to be insane”

Then suddenly the episode switches gears into a thrilling spy drama with lots of emotion. It ends with a twist that should’ve come earlier, but works well nonetheless. La’An has to save Khan Noonien Singh, murderer of millions, as a boy. 

Some thoughts: I have a feeling this episode will be divisive, but it really worked for me. The running gag that Pelia stole art was hilarious, seeing Kirk struggle in a revolving door and chase the bad guys in the conspicuous car ever was definitely worth it. The explanation that the temporal war moved Khan to the mid-21st century as a way to explain the 90s worked for me. 

In all, I really liked this episode. 8/10, with two taken off because of the abrupt transition and the twist should’ve come earlier. 

“ So does this episode rewrite all of Trek history? ”

No, that happened two decades ago on ENTERPRISE. After the Sulliban and other groups kept messing around with time, the resulting timeline was never the original one again. That would have been impossible after all the changes. This episode just pointed it out.

Exactly. But I will say the difference is we didn’t know anything about the 22nd century, Archer or anything that took place leading up to the Federation other than the Romulan war of course. But we have to assume the TCW had changed things in a major way even if it all still stayed on course enough to the Federation forming. But the entire Xindi story line was never suppose to happen. It’s not like the Romulan war, it was manipulated through temporal agents and TCW, so that was a pretty big red flag time was altered. And the other thing is they never resetted it. It wasn’t like a Year in Hell, it has now become part of history and the effects of that has been flowing ever since JUST like when Nero showed up from the 24th century in the Kelvin universe destroying Vulcan. The irony is it’s the same thing . We just look at the Xindi conflict differently because it happened in a time period we knew zip about and didn’t know what were suppose to happen to those characters. But Trip would still have his sister in an unaltered universe. He may have even lived to 100 himself. We just don’t know.

But the problem is when we get to the TOS timeline and beyond, we already know everything that is suppose to happen. So when it DOESN’T happen as we saw originally it obviously just feels out of place. But yes, you can certainly argue history was being rewritten in the 22nd century which had an effect on the 23rd century. That lines up fine IMO. And I watched another YouTube video discussing this episode that made an interesting point that while TCW changed things in the TOS timeline for SNW, but by the time we get to the 24th century and TNG era, time has corrected itself enough for those events to follow basically what we saw during that era.

It really does work, but sadly we had to wait all this time to actually incorporate what started in Enterprise in these new shows.

Butt the events of Enterprise, including those of the Temporal Cold War, occur and are resolved decades before the events of TOS so that doesn’t quite line up.

I’m going to push back on this one because we have seen things established for literally centuries like the Federation itself. I think the TCW story line works because as I said, we didn’t know anything about the 22nd century and that probably shaped things that was suppose to happen in Starfleet’s original history but never knew about it. I would probably argue the Xindi attack along with the Romulus war would probably make the Federation and Starfleet more militaristic than what we got in TOS for example and not less by the time the Federation rolled around. But that’s when reality collide with Roddenberry’s hippie values and couldn’t go that far as Beyond made clear.

Let me put this another way, if America wasn’t attacked on Pearl Harbor and we never entered WW 2, how different do you think the country would be today? It might be pretty much the same today but it wouldn’t be exactly the same either. Now imagine if it was done through some time traveling Romulan who knew America not entering WW 2 or another big event like slowing down the Russian and U.S. space race would have some profound effect in the future. It could change things for decades. Maybe nothing dramatic, but different.

As Janeway said about time travel, it all gives me a headache. SNW adjusted events by decades with this episode which doesn’t even line up with the loose rules of time travel established in Star Trek.

It’s just getting a bit sloppy. “Enterprise” and the temporal cold war storyline made a further mess of things and it worked against a series that didn’t hit its stride until after they abruptly put said storyline to rest.

I love a good time travel story and some have worked beautifully over the years but many have inadvertently unraveled threads that they hadn’t intended to and created even more questions without providing any real answers..

OK, fair enough. And yeah we’ll have to see how all of it is handled on this show. I love time travel stories but I certainly can’t argue they can make things a complete mess lol.

If true then the Temporal Affairs Division is utterly incompetent at their jobs. Makes one question why they even exist. They don’t ever “fix” anything.

DS9 pretty much handled Temporal Affairs as a joke – obviously a continuation of the very light and fun mood of the episode “Trials and Tribble-ations”. It’s obvious that Sisko and his crew weren’t just hiding during their jump into the TOS timeline and CLEARLY had some level of effect given that they interacted directly with members of that timeline. Sisko’s retelling of the story doesn’t seem to cover that up at all. A true “Temporal Agent” would know that any interaction can mess things up (a.k.a. the butterfly effect), but they finish up giving Sisko a stern look but also acknowledge a bit of jealousy from getting to see that period of history.

From that point on, no matter what show Temporal Affairs appears on, it’s pretty clear they are pointless. Maybe they can’t change anything, but you would think they would at least try to do something to prevent the same thing from happening again. Maybe some better training of Starfleet personnel?

That makes sense. But they kept coming back. Which sort of legitimizes their existence as more than a mere joke. That agent in this episode was as serious as a heart attack.

I loved this episode, although I am not a big fan of the choice of actor for Kirk. Still, I’d rank this as one of the top episodes of Trek. Seriously.

On a show full of characters that I love, La’an may be my favorite. She has a very spiky outer shell of self-protection and a gentle inner core of caring for others, and Christina Chong rides that equilibrium very elegantly.

Strange New Worlds has a good balance of humor and action, like TOS and DS9 did.

Better episode than the last 2..

My wife noticed that Kirk says in the episode “ My God, what have you done”. A nod to Kirk’s quote in ST3, “My God, Bones…what have I done”? – when the Enterprise goes down in flames?

I think this is the best episode of the show so far. And compared to last week’s it is an enormous improvement in writing and story.

There’s a quote, something to the effect that, “After an excellent performance, the audience applauds enthusiastically, but after a SUPERB performance, the audience sits in silence, because they are stunned.”

I’m stunned.

And you know me — I have something to say about everything. :-) But I feel as if I have no words equal to what we just saw.

Christina Chong was excellent, and the writing was so affecting. Before the episode, I thought I’d be grinning after a fun little time-travel romp. Instead I am crying, because La’an went through so much and can’t even TELL anyone about it, and she has so very much buried trauma already. I so wanted to hold her while she was crying.

OK, not a shock what everyone is talking about! ;D

I suspected the ending was going to be a big deal based on what a few YouTubers who saw it in advance basically suggested it creates an alternative timeline and boy did it. And overall I’m fine with it. People have been suggesting for literally decades now that you can blame any major canon changes on stuff like the Temporal Cold War, the events in First Contact and so on and someone just finally said that. It was a very deliberate choice because they obviously want to just tell their stories without 50 years of canon butting in everything and this is probably the closest they will get to a reboot without it being a being a reboot. So, yeah, whatever. It’s still all fiction end of the day.

But my review of the overall episode was that it was good, but not great. This was the second episode I was most excited about outside of the LDS crossover and that was before I knew about any of the crazy changes we got, I would’ve been happy with just a fun trippy time travel story since I love time travel stories so much, especially in Star Trek. Overall it was fun but it dragged in some places. When I saw it was literally an hour long, I really got excited but halfway through I thought they could cut down a few scenes. I get it was to build on La’An and Kirk’s relationship and that stuff was fine, but I’m still having trouble with this guy being Kirk. I did like him a little better in this episode but he still just feels off to me. But I saw the Ready Room episode and the actor said as it progress we will see Kirk come out more, so I’ll have to take his word for it and hope that’s the case.

But I LOVED Pelia in this episode. THAT’s how you subvert expectations lol. We were all waiting for the big scene where the find her living there knowing she was an engineer and was going to solve their problem and be part of the team just to find out she didn’t know crap. I laughed so hard. This is something that happens in Lower Decks but a fun scene overall. I also love she’s pulling a Quark and basically stealing antiques. Oh and I’m happy someone finally just came out and said Star Trek is socialist lol. Again, finally ! I think I’m going to really love Pelia, but that seems to be a divisive view. ;)

Also I was a little confused why the time agents ended up being the Department of Temporal Investigations from DS9 and not the time cops from the 29th century? They were more like bureaucrats and not the field agents like we saw the other organization in Future’s End and Relativity in Voyager, but not a huge deal.

Overall it was fun but could’ve been more interesting but it was clear it was really about showing kid Khan and while the whole thing is still eye rolling to me, they got Khan in some way, so whatever. And I don’t think it’ll be the last we see of him either. But this show is basically operating in an alternate timeline now and they were already setting it up at the end of Picard season 2 so can’t be too surprised.

As a confirmed lefty I don’t at all know for a fact that it would be accurate to describe the 23rd century earth economy as being ‘socialist,’ though I took real pleasure in Carol Kane’s Pelia offhandedly calling it that while standing in front of her stolen booty. Given the available evidence going back to 1966 you could just as easily call it ‘anarcho-capitalist,’ though I’d argue that the most relevant term would be ‘post-scarcity.’ Capitalism is still alive and well in TOS episodes like “Mudd’s Women” and “The Trouble With Tribbles,” but it’s obviously been moved to the margins as a means of allocating resources, either due to social reform, better technology, or both. Which, frankly, strikes me as a good idea we don’t need to wait 300 years to implement.

As to canon, if this handwave of an explanation makes it easier for some fans to enjoy the show, then by all means have at it.

No, I don’t think it’s truly socialist since last time I checked, they still use money in that system too. ;)

But it’s probably the closest that can be described in Star Trek. It’s a new form of government and economics. Yes I’ve heard people define it as a post scarcity system in the past and that seems to work too.

And for the record, I’m also a liberal lefty but I don’t think capitalism is evil. And in Star Trek if everyone still used money and had to work for a paycheck like us primitive 21st century knuckle draggers do, that’s fine too. I don’t care either way because I think as I told you I never watched Star Trek for how ‘utopic’ it is. I LIKE it, but I never watched specifically for that either. Especially when I started watching it at 6 years old and I assumed Kirk and the crew got weekly pay checks like everyone else in my time did. But they say Earth is no longer a society without money, then it’s a society without money. Fine. It’s fiction, whatever.

Of course I would love to live in the 23rd or 24th century where everyone is just apparently given free houses and rely on replicators to cook or make anything they need to live. But the Borg is still around too so I’ll pass. ;)

I don’t consider capitalism to either sacred or evil. It’s very good at promoting technical progress, but not so good at fostering healthy communities or social cohesion. It’s an economic system, with its virtues and weaknesses, and one that will ultimately be supplanted sooner or later, like anything else created by the hand of Man.

We definitely agree on capitalism, unfortunately it’s just the best system we have for now or at least one that can benefit most of society as most of us here are probably typing our points on thousand dollar phones or computers. But yes I would like to think in the future (not necessarily Star Trek’s future) something better will replace it. But my guess is there would have to be a global paradigm shift for that to ever happen. It literally took world war 3 in Star Trek to do that lol.

I never considered capitalism to be evil. I’m not a fan of it really but it’s not evil. I’m not able to work and as such I’m not able to transition because it costs a shitton of money to do that even if you can afford to jump through all the hoops you have to jump through to even be able to start the process. I can’t work so I can’t have my name legally changed. I can’t even get the medications I need. Even if I could work I would never earn enough to get those things.

I’m sorry for your troubles, and wish you every happiness. Whatever its underlying economics, for my money any civilization worth its salt has an interest in helping its members to become their best selves. I’m sorry that’s not true in your case, but we’re going through a rough period of transition right now where, as Bradbury once noted, the gargoyles are running the cathedral. We can hope for better times to come, while doing what we can. Peace.

I feel for you, my friend!

Agreed! Much good, but much bad too and like Tiger2 says, it is the best system we’ve got… at least for now. I won’t be around when a new and better system comes along, but let’s hope the catalyst isn’t WWIII. Maybe it will come from the stars.

Regarding Pelia… I admit it was something I did not see coming. Not her appearance in the episode. But her not knowing any engineering stuff at that point in her very long life. I do like it when I get tripped up like that.

Still don’t know why the Temporal affairs department would be OK delaying the Eugenics wars by 50+ years. But, c’est la vie.

Yeah I really loved that. And it’s also why I see SNW as a more light hearted and comedic show. I can’t really imagine a scene like that happening in TOS or TNG for example. It can just have fun with itself a lot.

I fully agree with you about Department of Temporal Investigations and actually responded to you about it. It’s very odd they don’t care OR maybe they decided since the events didn’t wipe out Starfleet or the Federation they can live with it. But it’s funny how much crap they gave Sisko when he traveled back in time during the Tribble incident to save Kirk and they actually kept the timeline completely on track. But I guess it still has to be recorded.

Because there may not actually be a delay of 50 years and that the timeline still has some course corrections to make. Only Temporal Affairs knows what it to come.

But if it was SUPPOSED to happen in ’92 then why didn’t they fix it? Is this something that takes place before it was fixed then a decade later it does? That would invalidate their own show.

I seem to remember Bob Orci saying that in the Kelvin timeline, the timeline would eventually repair itself and that may be what we’re seeing playing out here. The timeline in this episode is out of synch with Picard season 2 BUT the events of Picard season two don’t occur until 2024 whereas this episode takes place in 2022.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that this child is not really Khan at all and that he was an intentional misdirect. We saw present day Toronto (2022) in this episode but there is no indication of what is happening elsewhere in the world at this time. In Picard Season 2, Project Khan is indicated as 1996 but was that the literal birth of the project or a point in time of the project? Khan could be 26. He could be a bit older but we know that by the end of the decade things will take a turn for the worse and that by the time of First Contact, the Eugenics Wars and third world war have already played out. The timelines have shifted but it still fits.

Yeah Orci talked a lot about ‘course correcting’ in the first Kelvin movie and that helped explain how all the original characters still ended up together on the Enterprise. He used that term a lot in interviews and exactly what is supposedly happening here. Sera made it very clear, time HAS changed, but never enough for them to get rid of the Federation. But then of course it’s funny because episodes like City on the Edge of Forever and Past Tense wiped the Federation out without even trying based on micro events from the past like Edith Keeler living or Gabriel Bell being killed too early. So the butterfly effect can go to from mild to the extremes.

But you’re also right, the events from this timeline is a bit out of sync with Picard season 2. And I noticed you watched TrekCulture and I did too where they made the OBVIOUS example that you had a Watcher on Earth for decades and a Romulan at that and she doesn’t know other Romulans also there for decades are operating there trying to take the Federation down? That was a big miss, especially because Goldsman were running both shows. How do these things happen? The host in the video said this what happens when shows don’t talk to each other. Um, no, in this case this what happens when the guy running both shows don’t talk to himself lol. Yes its a lot going on canon wise and all of that, but no one told you to make multiple time travel stories homeboy and stick them literally two years apart from each other on the same continent.

And it could be a misdirect, but I really hope not because I just want to mooooove on, but my guess is season 3 will probably have a 3 part episode running into a grown up Khan and even more time travel shenanigans so your theory could happen.

Ha! Doesn’t talk to himself. “I wrote that? Oops. We need that guy at Lucasfilm who keeps track of all of the Star Wars stuff. My bad.”

Everything Khan related just keeps making everything a mess.

Dear showrunners: “TWOK” is “The Empire Strikes Back” of this franchise. Stop trying to top it. It’s never going to happen.

Really good episode. He’s no Bill Shatner, but I’m ok with this guy. Just not as the lead. Christina looks amazing. Love the romance. I love cheap Trek when done right.

I had a ball with this one. The preview made me think the initial time-traveler in the suit was one of the Gary Seven/Wesley “watchers.” Temporal Investigations works just fine, though.

Thinking about it. North America probably also got the Africa treatment. It all became one unified county in the future.

Country…

People may have still kept the nationalities as part of their sense of identity and the cultures and cuisines of the nations also still exist as well as the languages.

As a Canadian I’m deeply offended by this theory. Just kidding. I agree and I think this would be the case for every country on the planet. They would keep their cultural identities (I dearly hope so) but the political divisions, meaning country borders, would no longer exist.

Scotty, the character, certainly illustrates that.

I’m increasingly aware of just how poorly thought-out the scenario of this episode was. Alt-Kirk’s reality has the earth in ruins and on a war footing with aliens, yet the corridors and bridge of his Enterprise look exactly the same outside of a dedication plaque? “Yesterday’s Enterprise” managed to totally sell its alternate version of the ship, and on a much smaller budget.

I’m just being honest here (and I like SNW) but TNG just had muuuuch better writers, especially by season 3. So I agree, it doesn’t make sense. Kirk sounds like his life was hell and that it was a struggle in a centuries old war and yet the Enterprise still looks like an immaculate cruise ship. That said, not a big deal either.

And maybe it was just me, but did you get the sense that Kirk was actually living through a Eugenics war history if Khan and others actually won? I really thought that’s where they were going and we were going to hear how that timeline played out and THAT was going to be what they needed to stop before we realized Kirk never even heard of Khan.

I think it would’ve been more interesting if the twist was that humans attacked Romulus first following Khan’s philosophies but I guess it would’ve felt too much like the MU. And I guess Kirk would have to be evil in that universe if they are the ones attacking first, even the asshole aliens, so OK, I take everything I said back lol.

To each his own, I think Yesterday’s Enterprise is one of the most overrated eps in TNG. Denise Crosby is truly awful in it, and I laugh every time I see how well a little Bird of Prey fares against the Enterprise D. And there are too many one-liner quips in it for my taste. I think the problem was that they had two many writers in the kitchen for that ep.

Crosby is probably the weakest link in the ep, but that is because the guest cast from the E-C crew is so good by comparison. We have no idea what size the BoPs were there, since they seem to scale up and down even in what I guess we are now supposed to call the prime universe, depending on the century.

I think the show’s success rests on that ‘the federation is losing the war’ revelation from Picard, where Stewart for once really brings something special to the table (I seem to only dig Stewart when he seems to up his game for certain guest stars, or in his pre-TNG roles, all of which I liked.) The whole thing pivots on that for me, so once again, Ron Moore for the win (and more importantly, the salvage of what could have been a ‘miss’ but was not..)

I hear you! It’s not in my Top 10 TNG eps, but I do know a of other fans rate it near the top.

I haven’t seen the episode in a while, and I can still recall the emotion I felt the first time I saw Picard jump to the back of the bridge to take over on weapons. The look on his face in that moment, along with the meeting you’re recalling where he talks about losing the war really sold the premise of the whole thing in a way we rarely saw in Star Trek to that point. It was VERY DARK, and maybe the darkest episode we saw concerning Starfleet and the Federation until DS9 got into its mid-series stride. But it was also a chance for Stewart to span the emotions from hopelessness to something to fight for.

I think hindsight is always 20/20, but I think it’s a questionable argument that it’s overrated based on Crosby or a pretty small detail in regard to the fate of the Bird of Prey. There’s been better Trek since Yesterday’s Enterprise, but in context of TNG, it was a bold episode that really pushed the boundaries of the production design and execution at that point in Star Trek history. Not many other episodes ever did a near full-redress of the bridge, noticeable uniform changes for the main cast along with a whole other set of uniforms for a guest cast, another bridge and starship model to fill-in a missing piece of canon, and the return of a previous lead cast member that many fans never thought they would see again.

Yesterday’s Enterprise is prime 1990’s Trek, and helped set the bar higher for the series. The script might not have been perfect, but I think the story concept and the effect it had on canon and even the last few seasons of the series (e.g. Sela) put it in rare company in terms of Star Trek episodes that hold that much weight in their respective series.

What I think is really amazing when you look at all of this in hindsight is that the classic shows were making episodes 26 times a year with a limited budget and time to make these episodes and we still got amazing stories out of them.

Then we have these new shows which only makes 10 episodes a year, given weeks to make an episode with a bigger budget and yet most of the stories are still not anything amazing. Certainly some solid stories but should still be a little stronger given all the time and money they can devote to a story. There is really no excuse the Enterprise in this episode couldn’t get even a slight redress to make it clear it’s really in a different timeline the way the older shows pulled it off.

So many other things wrong with this show, but yeah, the matter of not even redressing or dimmer-boarding the hell out of the bridge is criminal neglect given the changes in timeline.

WOW! What a fantastic episode! Every Trek series has had an episode like this and they all rank in my top ten. 11:59, Carbon Creek, The City on the Edge of Forever, etc. this one definitely deserves to be placed among them and is one of my favorite episodes of SNW so far. Christina Chong was wonderful and that final shot of her was as cathartic for the audience as the character. Paul Wesley is definitely growing on me as Kirk and I think it’d be cool to see Paramount eventually remake the entire original series with these actors. I continue to wonder what the alternate reality where Star Trek was brought back with SNW from the start might look like. The series just keeps delivering what I want from the franchise and I hope it continues for several more years!

Yeah I always love when we get past Earth episodes too if its time travel or just flashbacks like Carbon Creek and 11:59. I always love seeing what Earth’s history is like from Star Trek’s POV and it’s fun to find out what aliens are secretly living there lol.

Christina Chong has now firmly placed herself at the top of the list of “hottest” women in the Trek franchise for me. I’m not just talking about her very good looks, She has made La’an the perfect blend of action bad ass and vulnerable human being. Unlike Seven of Nine or T’Pol she’s allowed to play with a full range of emotions. Unlike Uhura or Troi, La’an has lots of things to do as part of the crew. A lot of it is of course the writing of the character but kudos to Chong in giving this character so many layers with her performance, I felt her pain at the end of the episode and I suspect we may see more of La’an and Kirk. Speaking of which….

I didn’t think much of Paul Wesley’s first appearance. I found him stiff and lacking the swagger of the familiar James T. Kirk. I felt like I was watching Kirk this time. It wasn’t an imitation of Shatner or even Pine. Wesley found a way to make Kirk the guy we’re familiar with but put his own spin on him. He was the charming, heroic roguish Captain we’ve loved for over 50 years. I realized though that Wesley looks a lot like Rob Delaney which made me laugh thinking about Delaney as Kirk.

Really good episode that Christina Chong and Paul Wesley knocked out of the park. Now then……I love Carol Kane but if Pelia were to fall down a turbo shaft and never be seen again I’d be good with that.

Go back to the Corby episode and watch the scene with the android double again.

First, we know that Kirk intentionally “poisoned” his double’s brain with false opinions on Spock in order to tip off his crew to the double.

Also the quick look exchanged between Kirk and Chapel after the double says only Kirk calls him Sam.

SNW simply made official what was obvious. Kirk used his brother’s name to test that his false thoughts had worked. He is the one who asked the android “Who is Sam?”. Chapel knew it was fake which is why the look between them and why she very clearly stops herself from saying anything.

If the android had said “George Samuel Kirk Jr., everyone calls him Sam” then Jim knows his plan has failed, and try something else, and only Chapel has any clue he even has a plan.

Ok, let’s count up the number of evil asshat aliens so far who traveled to past Earth to do something sinister.

Xindi in 2004 Detroit

Borg in 2063 Bozeman

Devidians in 1893 San Francisco

Na’kuhl in 1944 New York

Romulans in 2023 Toronto

No offense but Starfleet’s future Temporal organizations seriously needs to beef up its staff.

Temporal Cold War

Only one of these had anything to do with TCW, the Na’khul from Storm Front. The others were just being assholes.

The only one known to be connected is the Nah’khul, but I submit we do not know everything about the Temporal Cold Wars or even how they are defined. To someone in the 32nd century all of these and more may be included in what is defined as the “Temporal Wars” that lead to the Temporal Accords banning time travel.

For all we know the Davidians were there for much more than just feeding. Same with the others, aside from the Borg, and even the Queen’s entirely independant actions may be viewed as part of the whole from a future perspective.

True, but do you think the Borg gives a damn about the Temporal Cold War? They don’t exactly play well with others.

But yes I guess you can argue the others were a part of it and each played a motive in it even if it’s not that obvious. Actually the Xindi WERE acting on the pat of the Sphere Builders who were directly part of TCW but just didn’t know it then. So that’s actually a great point now that I’m thinking about it. This is all going deep down the rabbit hole and my headache grows bigger the longer I read this thread lol.

Davidians? Which branch?

If the show writers read these boards, THIS episode is exactly how you should be doing nuTrek. This episode worked as a fun time travel adventure for newbies, and also worked on a whole other level for the initiated. Not too mention the “City on the Edge of Forever” ending.

This is the best AND most “Trek-like” episode of SNW yet. More of this!

I’m sorry but this was a ‘no’ for me. This was easily the worst episode of the series. The first half was plain boring. The humor didn’t land. Really… a second alternate Kirk?! I really didn’t like it. Last week was a 10, this one a 5.

Apology accepted — thanks!

I liked the episode, but I admit on my second rewatch it slowed down even more.That was already my biggest complaint why I didn’t love as much as I wanted to but the rewatched proved it. But I still think it’s good overall, but yeah reading and watching other reviews on it, there are things that makes it messy for sure.

I am so sick of the moronic whining about Khan and the Eugenics War being moved to the mid-21st century.

Star Trek was always science fiction that represented a possible future for us today — something that showed us what might be our possible future. As such, we know that their was no Eugenics War and no Khan in the mid-1990’s, so of course they needed to update that.

It’s not Akiva’s fault that the originators of the series picked dates that were too soon such that they would get retconned.

Gene L Coon was great for TOS, but he botched the dates he wrote concerning Khan’s origin in Space Seed. It’s his fault, not Akiva’s.

Like, DUH !!!!!

Thanks, Akiva! Always happy when you chime in

Hey Midnight’s Edge — you outed me!

Great journalism and accurate sources once again — congrats!

Akiva, when you scream at your assistants because they got the wrong dressing, do you recycle the same rant or change it up each time?

Andre and Tom, you should report that on your web show as breaking news.

At least we get that we’re YouTubers. You’re an Academy Award winner taking a swipe at a speed freak who died in the 70s and is known only to 50+-year old geeks of a niche North American IP. You’ve gone from Oscars to Transformers to this! What a fall! Next you’ll be competing with us for subscribers.

I’m an acquired taste. If you don’t like me, acquire some taste.

I honestly don’t even have a problem with it. My headmate from Trek (the augment one that’s I guess technically an oc) said earlier “it’s always nice to be getting younger instead of older.” He’s thrilled that his birth year is now 2018 instead of 1970. He’s also thrilled about being moved to Toronto because his home city was Vancouver.

Love it! :-)

It was unnecessary to adjust dates to address events that don’t line up with our history since Star Trek isn’t our actual history. Much like “2001: A Space Odyssey”, which presented technology and a future which seemed very much within the realm of possibility when Arthur C. Clarke wrote it, shifting priorities and actual history got in the way, It was all speculative. When he wrote “2010” in the 1980’s, it was apparent to him that the future he had envisioned wasn’t going to pan out but it was written as if it had.

Yeah it’s not needed, it’s fiction. No one is calling for a remake of Back to the Future 2 since it’s 2015 looks absolutely nothing like the real thing. But NuTrek has gone so far with this stuff and playing with the dates they knew they had to come up with some explanation to stop hate mail from flowing in and this will probably satisfy a lot of people. Not all, but hopefully enough.

But I just don’t get it, we had 40 years of Trek before and Khan and the Eugenics wars was maybe mentioned about 3 times outside of the two stories he was in out of 700 episodes and 10 movies. It was in the 90s, just leave it there like the real 90s. NuTrek shows up and Khan is constantly being brought up and even shown in the most cringe worthy way possible. If you just IGNORE the guy and come up with new stuff and not follow 300 year old canon, no one would care. I just don’t get the weird obsession with this character.

All that and more, my friend.

I really think the way to satisfy the bulk of the nay-sayers is to just admit all nu-Trek is rebooted. Sure, some will still moan but more will be OK with it than opting to overwrite what was done before because of TCW technobabble.

Man you’re a wiener. Time travel changes and reboot aren’t the same thing

Lose the attitude, chief.

I never said all time line changes are reboots. It depends on the context. Time line changes CAN be a reboots. They aren’t inherently reboots.

Same here. What a small universe in this writer’s room. ‘I know, let’s use Khan again!’ Ugh.

Wrong, GR intended it as a possible future history for all of us, meaning THIS TIMELINE WE ARE IN.

That was his intention but it’s not our reality. 2024 is lurking and disconnects once again from where we are today. The events portrayed in Picard Season 2 are just a year off and our reality and the future portrayed will once again diverge.

They can’t keep pushing dates because our present keeps catching up with a fictional future.

Sure they can. If we can have Lower Decks sitcom, juvenile BS as canon, then they can certainly update the future timeline every 40-50 years as new versions of Trek come out. Like you said, it’s fiction.

Lower Decks is awesome, you’re crazy

Everyone is entitled to have a different opinion on shows. You can certainly disagree, but no one is crazy because they don’t like something you do.

I’m not sure what you mean by this. Roddenberry couldn’t have intended Trek as a possible future history because he didn’t take the show at all seriously as a possible vision of the future. How do I know this? Because I was there, at his ’70s college lectures, when he plainly said so. A number of times, in fact.

Maybe we saw different takes from Gene then, because I was part of a futurist convention group where several of us hosted Gene in the summer of 1979 for a weekend — and in the speech get gave at the conference, plus in a couple of really cool group/drinks informal talks several of us had with him (and I was in the car that picked him up from Dulles airport!), he was most definitely tying Star Trek to a possible future for mankind.

Or you could try not going out of your way to make a mess out off things just to warm up old ideas over and over again.

Bold to say that when one startet this topic with “I am so sick of the moronic whining”

Boldly going , my friend. :-)

So this essentially canonizes the idea that TOS and SNW are not in the same universe/timeline. And I’m 100% fine with that.

It doesn’t, but it needs to. It would be great if the next episode would explore that even the world that La’an returns to is different, giving us reason to really believe that things have changed. But until the power then be come out and say it, it still doesn’t count. At this point, they just love taking “big swings” in the “prime universe”.

This episode was a huge improvement. Honestly, I could watch a series with just Kirk and La’an.

I loved the time travel device they used. It reminded me of the omni from the time traveling series Voyagers. The omni also turned red when something was wrong with the time stream and turned green and allowed the time travelers to leave when they fixed things.

I also enjoyed watching Adelaide Kane playing the Romulan Sera. Her acting was next level compared to her role on Grey’s Anatomy.

I do not like this move away from the central focus being on Pike. He has been practically iced out of 2 episodes. Also what is up with replacing the main cast members with a guest star? This week Kirk, last week the lawyer.

Anson Mount’s wife had a baby at about the time these episodes were filmed. Crying babies keep new parents up all night, making it difficult for them to DO anything. I think the showrunners wrote small roles for Pike in the beginning of S2 so that Anson Mount would have an easier time of it while his baby was a newborn.

Oh my god, people’s biggest complaints are that modern Star Trek does not have the same character development as it used to. This can’t be…a Star Trek series that is actually focusing on other main characters to build a connection with fans, and people still complain. Oh the irony. Star Trek doesn’t focus on the characters enough….waaa. Star Trek focus too much on a character…waaaa!

I’m waiting for SNW’s Treachery Faith and the Great River. I’ll be waiting forever but at least in the meantime I can watch that episode and enjoy it for the focus on characters that aren’t Sisko, and especially enjoy seeing Weyoun 6.

How can it be doing that when two episodes have excluded the vast majority of the cast for guest stars? Remember there are only 10 episodes, so there is no room to play around.

I’m sorry was the second episode of the season not focused on Una? And this one on La’an?

To the virtual exclusion of the rest of the cast in favour of guest stars. That is very poor treatment of your main cast.

The example from DS9 I mentioned earlier… Rene Auberjoinis and Jeffrey Combs was the A plot and the B plot was Colm Meaney and Aron Eisenberg. The rest weren’t in it much.

That’s fine if you have 26 episodes…

Wah! Wah! Wah! Somebody please change baby’s diapers.

Sheesh, lol

So you have no argument, point or clue. Your response is simply trolling. Oh and it nappies.

Sorry if my humor was over the top. Nothing personal, but your comment was just hard for me to take seriously, that’s all.

Streaming series don’t tend to run long, I’m okay with other cast members getting fleshed out a bit. More so with an episodic format.

He’s really been iced out of all 3. Even Una’s episode doesn’t really count since 90% of his interaction in the episode was watching a view screen.

Baby or not, with only 10 episodes, I don’t see how you just keep him out of a substantial role for a THIRD of the season. Pike/Mount and Spock/Peck are the main reason SNW even exists.

Given all this talk of time travel … has anybody seen the pictures from the Martian surface that show a donut shape on the ground? Very guardian of forever …

(and no, I haven’t seen the ep yet.)

Yeah, I saw that. That’s something some advanced interstellar race wouldn’t want to leave hanging around this solar system….

Things you buy through our links may earn  Vox Media  a commission.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Recap: Back From the Future

Star trek: strange new worlds.

It would be hard to guess where “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is headed from its opening scenes, which play a bit like the  Star Trek  equivalent of the classic Richard Scarry children’s book  What Do People Do All Day?  By the episode’s end, we’ve had time travel, scenes of a budding romance (albeit one nipped before it can really blossom), and a variation on a classic moral dilemma. But first, the episode offers a glimpse of La’an Noonien-Singh’s everyday duties as chief of security.

It’s not a boring job. La’an has dealt with squabbling officers, a noise complaint against Spock, and a visit to Pelia’s quarters that suggest she has a felonious habit of appropriating precious artifacts for her personal collection, including at least one painting wanted by the Louvre despite her claims of it being a fake. (Did no one notice she was bringing all that aboard?)

That glimpse of Pelia’s quarters is a funny gag that will later (or, more accurately, earlier) play a crucial part in the time-twisting outing. So will the sense established by these scenes that La’an is (a) quite good at her job and (b) pretty stressed out. Dr. M’Benga says as much during their sparring session, but any self-care will have to wait after La’an encounters a stranger in the hallway: a man in 21st-century garb who’s been grievously wounded by a bullet. This is not an ordinary occurrence, even on the  Enterprise . Nor is what happens next: As he dies, the stranger gives La’an an unusual device and tells her she has to “get to the bridge.” She follows what she believes to be his advice by going to the bridge of the  Enterprise  only to find it helmed by … Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley)?

Something is clearly off, and we see just  how  off after the credits roll. Kirk meets Spock, here a Vulcan captain who unsuccessfully pleads for Earth’s help in fighting the Romulans. Ortegas and Uhura are there but don’t recognize their friend. La’an immediately susses out she’s been transported to an alternate timeline, her own having been wiped out by some event she now has to prevent. To his credit, Kirk treats her theory as plausible. (Unless, of course, she’s crazy, which he does not rule out.) But when La’an presses the button on the odd device, theory becomes practice. In a blink, she and Kirk are transported to 21st-century Toronto.

Episodes that draw  Star Trek  characters back to our present (or thereabouts) are a tradition (and a budget-friendly one at that), and  Strange New Worlds  finds some fun twists on the device. Kirk has never been to Earth at all (it’s pretty unpleasant in his timeline), so it’s more than just time travel that throws him off. But he’s pretty good at shoplifting (thanks to La’an’s trick) and he’s  really  good at (“old-fashioned, two-dimensional”) chess, which allows them to pick up enough pocket money to keep the hot dogs flowing and pay for a nice hotel room. Their mission might be urgent, but they need their rest.

It’s there that it becomes obvious to both that the contentious chemistry they’ve had since meeting might be more than just a flirtation. That, however, will have to wait. They have a timeline to save even if, as Kirk quickly realizes, saving it will mean wiping out the timeline he knows as reality. La’an’s counterargument is, in short, that his timeline sucks. He’s supposed to be an explorer, not a soldier. When Kirk learns that his brother, Sam, is still alive in La’an’s timeline, he seems on the verge of being persuaded. Then the newly constructed bridge outside their window blows up. So  that’s  what “Get to the bridge” meant!

They weren’t, however, supposed to save the bridge, which was fated to be destroyed in both their timelines. So what  were  they supposed to do? Photos taken by a photographer at the scene — we’ll later learn her name is Vanessa (Adelaide Kane) — offer a clue in the form of some distinctive charring that La’an knows is from the future. After discovering that Kirk’s skills include mastery of the Vulcan nerve pinch and good-enough driving skills to allow them to trail the van carrying the bridge wreckage, La’an also discovers that Kirk has never heard her infamous last name. Whatever happens in the diverging future, Khan’s life assuredly takes a different course.

Pulled over by the Toronto police while still in pursuit, Kirk and La’an only avoid arrest because Vanessa shows up on the scene to film the arrest and threaten a scandal. It’s enough to scare off the cops and for them to start to trust Vanessa, who’s also  quite  interested in what’s in the van — and who has some thoughts about meddling aliens, international cabals, and other conspiracy-theory staples. When Kirk tells her that his “wife” was once abducted by aliens, they form an alliance. (Or so Kirk and La’an believe.)

La’an suggests their new friend is “unhinged,” but then she shows them what appears to be a legit picture of an alien spacecraft that Kirk recognizes as Romulan. And it’s this detail that allows them to figure out what they have to change. In Kirk’s timeline, Romulans destroy an experimental cold-fusion reactor, wiping out Toronto. In La’an’s, none of this happens. Time to save the reactor!

But first, they’ll require a tricorder, a piece of future tech they’ll need an engineer to create. Fortunately, La’an remembers that Pelia lived in Vermont years ago and, as a skilled engineer, she  should  be able to help. The catch: Pelia’s no engineer, at least not yet. In the 21st century, the Lanthanite runs a (somewhat suspect) antiques shop. Over beers, they concoct a plan to create a makeshift tricorder, or at least a doodad capable of finding a hidden reactor made from an ’80s watch.

Doing so involves taking a romantic nighttime walk through the streets of Toronto where Kirk reveals he’s now fully onboard with saving La’an’s timeline at the expense of his own; La’an suggests maybe he could join her in her timeline, and both realize they can’t hide that they’re into each other anymore, a realization sealed with a kiss. When the watch begins glowing, however, the moment is cut short.

Putting duty first, they sneak into the building housing the reactor. There they discover the headquarters of the Noonien-Singh Institute. But before they can step inside, they’re confronted by Veronica, who’s  not , it turns out, a paranoid conspiracy theorist but a Romulan from the future sent to keep them from altering the timeline. She means business. When Kirk tells “Veronica” to call his bluff after saying that shooting them would alert security and foil her plan, she shoots him in the chest, wounding him fatally.

Kirk wasn’t bluffing, though. Veronica’s assault alerts security, but she remains undeterred, forcing La’an to help her at gunpoint by pushing her down to the building’s genetics lab, which is also home to young Khan Noonien-Singh. As it turns out, killing Khan will  also  prevent the Federation from forming, thus making the future far more Romulan-friendly. Veronica tempts La’an with the pleasures of killing the ancestor whose bad reputation has haunted her her entire life, but it’s a no-go.

They fight, and La’an wins, saving the future in the process. Still, La’an is drawn to visit young Khan, but if the moment echoes the classic theoretical question “Would you kill baby Hitler?” La’an never even considers it, telling the frightened future tyrant, “You are right where you need to be.” Then, with some regret, she zaps herself back to the  Enterprise , which is now the  Enterprise  she remembers — and where Pelia is still arguing that she has every right to her cache of treasures.

In her quarters, she’s visited by Agent Ymalay (Allison Wilson-Forbes), an agent from the Department of Temporal Investigations. (“You haven’t heard of us because we don’t exist yet.”) Ymalay swears La’an to secrecy, retrieves her device, and disappears, leaving a shaken La’an behind and still wearing her ’80s watch. This inspires her to reach out to Kirk with the flimsy excuse of needing to know Sam’s place of birth. After a brief conversation, La’an breaks down. What she just experienced never happened, but it still left its mark.

Another strong episode in a so-far terrific season, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” mixes a neat time-travel story mixed with fish-out-of-water comedy, gives La’an a spotlight episode, and introduces a potential romance that could play out alongside Spock and Nurse Chapel’s ongoing pas de deux (unless it’s limited to this episode).

Christina Chong certainly rises to the occasion. La’an’s default mode is all business, but she leaves the episode looking like a much more complex character than we’d previously seen. She’s well matched by Wesley, whose Kirk gets more screen time than ever before. He’s deftly comic without losing Kirk’s essential gravity. His Kirk doesn’t always closely resemble the Kirk we first met in the original series, but he definitely feels like Captain Kirk. Will we see more of him? Will La’an? The episode lets those questions linger.

• “I’m from space” is actually a pretty good excuse for not being able to use a revolving door.

• The Department of Temporal Investigations was first introduced in the fun  Deep Space Nine  episode “Trials and Tribble-ations.” (It was also the focus of some  Star Trek  novels.) It’s put to a more serious purpose here and in a way that suggests we haven’t seen the last of the DTI.

• The DTI agents in that  DS9  episode had names that were rough anagrams of “Mulder” and “Scully.” Is “Ymalay” similarly an anagram? I keep staring at it without coming up with one.

• This episode was directed by Amanda Row, who helmed last season’s “The Elysian Kingdom,” and written by David Reed.

• star trek: strange new worlds

Most Viewed Stories

• Ariana Madix Buys $1.6 Million Bachelorette Pad
• Cinematrix No. 21: March 25, 2024
• Cassie’s Lawsuit Against Diddy, Explained
• Late Night with the Devil Made $666,666 at the Box Office
• A Gunshot in the Courtroom
• The Real Housewives of Potomac Season-Finale Recap: Much Ado about Nothing
• Who’s the Most Overdue for an Oscar Right Now?

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

• The Original Series
• The Animated Series
• The Next Generation
• Deep Space Nine
• Strange New Worlds
• Lower Decks
• Star Trek Movies
• TrekCore on Twitter
• TrekCore on Facebook

In case you missed it, here’s a preview clip released from Paramount+ as part of last week’s episode of The Ready Room with Wil Wheaton.

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW — La’An travels back in time to twenty-first-century Earth to prevent an attack which will alter humanity’s future history — and bring her face to face with her own contentious legacy. Written by David Reed. Directed by Amanda Row.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns with “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” on Thursday, June 29 on Paramount+ in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

• SNW Season 2
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Related Stories

Weekend star trek news roundup: section 31 wraps, new regional conventions announced, new merch, and more, new sfx magazine features star trek: discovery spotlight interviews, plus: captain rayner’s species revealed, weeklytrek podcast #244 — alex kurtzman shares updates on the star trek: starfleet academy series, search news archives, new & upcoming releases, featured stories, our star trek: discovery season 5 spoiler-free review, star trek: discovery’s final adventure begins in april 2024, interview — star trek: lower decks’ mike mcmahan on moopsy, creating the orion homeworld, tuvix, and much more.

TrekCore.com is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with Paramount, CBS Studios, or the Star Trek franchise. All Star Trek images, trademarks and logos are owned by CBS Studios Inc. and/or Paramount. All original TrekCore.com content and the WeeklyTrek podcast (c) 2024 Trapezoid Media, LLC. · Terms & Conditions

• The A.V. Club
• The Takeout
• The Inventory

Strange New Worlds Got Its City on the Edge of Forever

"tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" put a modern spin on star trek 's most iconic time travel tragedy—and sold it in a storming performance by christina chong..

Strange New Worlds is always going to be playing with fire when it brushes up against a legendary episode of the original Star Trek . The nature of its place in the series’ timeline, its wheelhouse in remixing spins on classic tropes, the comparisons will always be there. Last season, it proved it could play in those spaces . This season, it’s already proving it can go toe-to-toe.

If “A Quality of Mercy” was Strange New Worlds going right into perhaps the greatest original Star Trek episode of all time , “Balance of Terror,” then just three episodes into its second season “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is the show making its own version of the other greatest original Star Trek episode of all time, “ City on the Edge of Forever .” And there, it might just eke out “Quality” as Strange New Worlds ’ best episode yet , because instead of simply taking that classic story and mixing up a few characters, here we get a modern spin on “City” that smartly advances one of the series’ most fascinating original characters: Christina Chong’s La’an Noonien Singh.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” opens with a pretty sharp veer sideways: La’an, going about her duties, suddenly finds a dying temporal agent bleeding out in a corridor of the Enterprise in front of her. Given a mysterious device before he perishes, she not only finds herself bef ud dled by the event but immediately thrust into an alternate timeline: one where Earth’s space forces stand alone in the galaxy, the Enterprise is unwilling to help Vulcan ships (even one captained by Spock)… and Paul Wesley’s Jim Kirk is in the c aptain’s chair, not Pike. This guy can only show up in parallel realities!

This immediately puts La’an and Kirk together in a pairing that Chong and Wesley mine for all its worth, immediately bickering like kids with each other as they try to figure out whatever temporal weirdness has put them together. One fight later brings the duo through time to the location of the problem they need to solve: their very own 21st century city on the edge of forever… better known to us as Toronto, Canada. I mean, it’s not quite as romantic as ‘30s New York, but hey, it’s local to filming, which in and of itself is a very well-worn Star Trek trope.

Anyway, as La’an and Jim acclimatize to our modern Canada—from clothes shopping to hot dogs, and a bit of c hess-based money acquisition—we get to see more of the charming spin Wesley has on the legendary Captain Kirk, but it’s one that’s touched by a tragedy that the actor excels at communicating behind his swagger. This isn’t our Kirk, but an alternate who se history has shaped him into something askance of the man we know. In this Jim’s history, Earth is an irradiated wasteland, torn apart by wars that have le d the remnants of humanity into the solar system not out of curiosity but out of survival, untrusting of the other races of the galaxy. To La’an, 21st c entury Toronto is a playful historical curiosity at first, but to Jim it’s a past he never knew, a home he could never touch. It disarms his braggadocio in such a way that makes us, and La’an in turn, immediately connect to him on a level she rarely connects to people in the timeline she desperately wants to get back to.

It’s only as this connection flourishes, as the duo try to figure out just why they’re in Toronto in the first place—it turns out blowing up a bridge with future tech is just the start of an increasingly unhinged conspiracy theory full of supposedly mad believers, nuclear reactors, and a Romulan or two—that the real emotional heart of the episode hits you. If this is to be Strange New Worlds ’ spin on “City,” then someone has to be Edith Keeler. And it’s not La’an, because, well, of course it’s not going to be, even if Strange New Worlds has already showed it won’t back away from bumping off a main cast member. It has to be Jim, and the fact you can peg it well before La’an can just adds another twist and tragedy to their fateful, burgeoning relationship.

Which is why what works in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is Jim’s “shock” death, rather than the other “twist” of an already twisty episode. With a little help from the Pelia of this time (a cute payoff to the nods that her long-life has seen her hiding out on Earth for centuries before Starfleet was a thing for her), La’an and Jim figure out that a secret n uclear facility is the source of the t emporal disturbance they have to prevent to fix the former’s timeline—a fact the latter has come to accept, warming up not just to La’an but the promise of a better future her utopian present offers compared to his own. Only, of course, twist! The conspiracy theorist that led them in that direction in the first place is none other than a Romulan temporal agent, who has been waiting decades to access the other secret facility alongside this fusion reactor: a Noonien Singh- operated research institute the Romulan is there to infiltrate.

So suddenly, the tragedy of the episode—that one way or the other La’an and Jim’s burgeoning relationship is going to be dramatically cut short, either by the destruction of his timeline or, as we end up getting, the Romulan agent calling his bluff and shooting him dead—that would’ve made “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” an all- timer instead of simply great is burdened with another layer of trauma for La’an. The loss of her romantic connection to another person isn’t enough; apparently, she has to confront the real temporal mission: protect a young Khan Noonien Singh from being baby Hitler’d.

It shouldn’t work—especially as, after doing so and being returned to her in tact timeline, we get to hear La’an rightfully and furiously articulate to a waiting temporal agent just what an extremely messed up thing this was to do to her. And that’s even before you acknowledge that this late game “twist” in the episode dramatically undercuts the actual emotional tragedy that takes up most of its runtime, setting up and then breaking apart the La’an/Kirk relationship. But even though it’s played fast and loose (so fast and loose that, uh, La’an leaves a loaded gun in kid Khan’s room at this facility he’s being experimented on in??? That’s bad opsec, Chief of Security!), this sideswipe of a reveal is saved by a barnstorming performance by Christina Chong. This episode was already La’an on a level we’ve never really seen her before, even when she’s been in the spotlight in similarly tragic circumstances given her history with the Gorn in season one . W e get to see emotional sides to her that she’s previously closed off from the people around her, and we then get to see her deal with having that trust taken away from her cruelly by circumstances of fate.

Chong sells the fury, the confusion, the innocence, and the sadness of it all, whether she’s cradling the dying Kirk or trying to comfort the ancestor she knows will one day cause unspeakable pain to the entire world. We see it in the aftermath when she’s back aboard the Enterprise , furious that she was used in such a way but also deeply, emotionally compromised as she tries to make a brief connection with “our” Jim Kirk, only to realiz e he truly has no idea who she is. It feels like a wall has come crashing down for La’an as a character that we in turn as an audience will see her emerge from behind in new and more interesting ways.

It’s in Chong that “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” saves itself from its own shortcomings to deliver what is, even with some caveats, a more than worthy Strange New Worlds spin on an all time Trek classic. And it’s in Wesley’s Kirk too—I joked earlier that all we’ve gotten to see of him in this legendary role is through the artificial lens of alternate reality versions of Kirk. But maybe that’s the best space Strange New Worlds can play with this part of its own inevitable future right now. It lets Wesley be Kirk on his own terms, and lets the show explore the character on its own terms—and more crucially, lets it explore Kirk through Strange New Worlds ’ own original characters, to further explore them through their relationships with him, rather than falling under the shadow of his place in the canon.

Even if “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tommorrow” stumbles at the climax, if Kirk’s presence in Strange New Worlds means more episodes like this and “A Quality of Mercy,” I’m willing to put aside those minor stumbles along the road, at least.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

• Lower Decks
• Short Treks
• Strange New Worlds
• Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek: Picard
• The Next Generation
• The Original Series

BREAKING – Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Is Out Now In France!

Star trek: section 31 wraps production, star trek books 2024, breaking: ‘star trek: section 31’ now filming, star trek’s william shatner partners with identify sensors, review – star trek #18, new series – sons of star trek, review: star trek: picard ‘firewall’, review – star trek: defiant #12, review – star trek: picard’s academy #6, star trek: discovery’s plot hole needs filling, new tone & cameos for star trek: discovery season 5.

Strange New Worlds – “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” Easter Eggs

Star Trek Time travel episodes are always fun, right? That’s what I love about Strange New Worlds . One week it can be a serious courtroom drama, and here it’s an entertaining (if imperfect) time travel adventure. But whenever a show goes to the past, it’s certain to look to its past. Especially with Captain Kirk ( Paul Wesley ) in this week’s Strange New Worlds “ Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow “ . There were tons of nods and references to the franchise’s past.

Join me today as we dissect the “ Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ” Easter Eggs, and get some potentially massive hints as to where the rest of the series could be headed. Plenty to talk about and no time to waste!

A Normal Archaeologist

The “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” Easter Eggs begin from the very first scenes! New engineer Pelia ( Carol Kane ) is found with centuries of priceless artworks. We learn that as a Lanthanite, she probably collected it all herself. Her age is a bit of a mystery, though. She mentions learning from Pythagoras. Assuming that’s not a joke, that would make her at least 2700 years old on the USS Enterprise. She’s clearly led a very long varied life. Between maths, art collecting, and being an engineer aboard a starship, she really has done it all.

By the time we meet up with her on the Enterprise, she’s managed to acquire quite the collection! Among the paintings is an actual stolen artwork – Johannes Vermeer’s “The Concert”. It’s perhaps the most valuable missing item in the world, and Star Trek implying that Carol Kane is responsible is very funny. A big missed opportunity was not including the other artworks stolen in the same heist, which would just make it even funnier.

Another painting we can see is The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil by Edouard Manet. This one’s currently safe and sound in New York. So perhaps Pelia’s thieving habit wasn’t quite over after the events of this episode. Speaking of her lifestyle changes, we don’t know what made her want to become an engineer again, but there is a chance it was her encounter with Kirk and La’An ( Christina Chong ).

In Some Other Lifetime, Captain Kirk

The big drawcard for this episode was the first non-cameo appearance from Captain Kirk in the series. We’ve all been waiting in anticipation to see what they’d do with him, and there’s not enough here for me to see Paul Wesley as Kirk yet. I feel we need to spend more time with him, in the prime timeline, to care. On the bright side, the United Earth Fleet is hardly the Terran Empire, and there is a little common ground.

For starters, Kirk’s still not a great driver. We first saw his inability to drive a car in “A Piece of the Action” , and we get a small callback to that as he again puts the car in reverse here. Before he gets into the car, he also does the iconic Vulcan nerve pinch, which doesn’t feel right without a Spock ( Ethan Peck ) in his life. However, we remedy this with a reference to time spent in a Denobulan prison with a Vulcan cellmate. This is where referencing Sybok wouldn’t have gone amiss for me, making the most of an alternate timeline.

We also see Kirk briefly interact with Spock at the beginning, but it’s clear these versions aren’t familiar with one another. This other Kirk also mentions serving with a female first officer, who I assume was Number One (Rebecca Romijn), but this is not specified. Together, Kirk and this mystery first officer played 3-D chess. We were first introduced to Kirk and Spock playing chess together in “ Where No Man Has Gone Before “, in the first scene of the first episode.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” Easter Eggs didn’t have as much to say about modern society as Deep Space Nine’s “Past Tense”. Outside of a short scene about police issues, which was far better done in the second season of Picard, there’s not much in the way of social commentary. It does, however, have quite a lot to say about the increasingly complex Star Trek timeline, trying to rewrite some of the history we’ve learned over the years.

The 1990s are over, and we’re now in the 2020s. There has, as of yet, been no World War 3 or Eugenics Wars. All of this is supposed to be happening around now. So Strange New Worlds is using time travel to move these events forward. While we don’t know exactly when Kirk and La’An landed, it looks to be around now, and Khan is now a child. The debate around killing baby Khan, as well as the utopia that would grow from the ashes of his reign of terror, is perhaps the most Star Trek thing in the episode.

The whole thing makes for some lovely character moments for La’An. She’s an intriguing character, and her connection to her ancestry has made for some cool viewing in the past. It’s obvious from her attitude in the sparring scene at the start (where you can actually see what looks to be a Federation issue Bat’leth!) that she’s bothered and feeling isolated. I hope her decision not to protect the young Khan here has gone some way to help her accept all of who she is.

Temporal Investigations

New Trek is no stranger to time travelers. We’ve had Time Crystals in Discovery and earlier episodes of Strange New Worlds. Season 2 of Picard also featured the Travellers, the same group as Gary Seven ( Robert Lansing ) in The Original Series. The time traveler at the start of this episode ( Christopher Wyllie ) is dressed similarly to Seven. However, he’s got a holographic device that tells us he’s connected to something far deeper.

And more great “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” Easter Eggs in the shape of the TCARS system, similar to the LCARS operating system. This was first seen in an episode of Voyager called “ Relativity “. Given the USS Relativity from that episode was based in the 29th century, it follows that these agents are from around that era as well. I really wish we got more specific timeframes of when Kirk and La’An landed and where the agents are from.

At the end of the episode, these agents are revealed to be working for the Department of Temporal Investigations. Like TCARS, they also have their roots in 90s Trek . This time though from Deep Space Nine in “ Trials and Tribble-ations “. Given the appearance of Agent Ymalay ( Allison Wilson-Forbes ) at the end and the lore dump that followed, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them again.

A New Temporal War?

While we don’t know if this is the same war from Enterprise , as I mentioned earlier, it’s not explicitly mentioned when these agents are from. I would love some eventual closure on Future Guy from earlier episodes of the series. While the showrunners have since stated that the intention was for this character to be Archer ( Scott Bakula ), this never materialized onscreen. It’s entirely possible, if this is the same war here, that Future Guy is a Romulan.

The inclusion of the Romulan Sera ( Adelaide Kane ) here was an interesting one. I’d love for this character, despite her disintegration, to hopefully get a little more depth. When dealing with time travel, anything’s possible, and this is definitely a plotline worth keeping an eye on. Interestingly, her killing of the alternate Kirk could be read as a mirror of the “ Balance of Terror “. Where despite Kirk’s attempts at diplomacy, he is killed, as opposed to the eventual respect earned between Kirk and the Commander ( Mark Lenard ) in TOS .

It’s worth noting that Kirk is set to have a recurring role this season, and there’s no real place for prime Kirk on the Enterprise as it stands now. We got a small glimpse of him at the end of this episode, but the writers have to be very careful to keep continuity when it comes to using him. What if this temporal war is eventually fought over him becoming the captain of the Enterprise? This could also feed into the series arc of Pike’s looming fate as well, perhaps becoming overwritten slightly.

Looking Forward to “ Among the Lotus Eaters “

This week’s new episode looks to be playing with memory, which could lead to some interesting character moments for the away team. Speaking of the away team, the costume design for them really looks next level. It’s a bit more realistic than the more fantastical costumes we got last season, but it’s a breath of fresh air compared to the regular Starfleet uniforms.

There’s something about a castle as well, with the Starfleet insignia as well. Just what Starfleet has to do with the events here raises a lot of questions. We know that Reed Birney is guest-starring as Luq. He could be the ghost from Pike’s past mentioned in the synopsis. I’m not sure how it all blends into an hour of television, but it looks like an absolute delight.

That was everything I noticed in the latest episode of Strange New Worlds “ Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow “. While it was imperfect, with an underdeveloped romance and unrealized potential for social commentary, it was more than watchable. What did you make of the episode? Was there anything I missed? I’m looking forward to talking about next week’s episode a lot. Playing with memory and a medieval-style setting is bound to be a lot of fun.

Where to Watch

Season 2 of  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  airs on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+. New episodes drop weekly on Paramount+ in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Latin America, France, Germany, Brazil, South Korea (via Tving), France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland & Austria. As well as CTV Scifi / Crave in Canada, and TVNZ in New Zealand. It also airs on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.

More From Trek Central

📰 – REVIEW: Strange New Worlds: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”

🔥 – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – ‘Ad Astra per Aspera’ Easter Eggs

🔍️ – Star Trek Library Collection: Volume 1 Review

Join the Star Trek conversation via our social media platforms:

• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TrekCentral
• Instagram – https://instagram.com/TrekCentral
• Twitter – https://twitter.com/TheTrekCentral
• YouTube – https://youtube.com/TheTrekCentral
• Mastodon – https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]
• Discord – https://discord.gg/fF2heMbfW8
• Twitch – https://Twitch.tv/TrekCentral
• Easter Eggs
• Star Trek Strange New Worlds
• Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 2

more star trek 🖖

the latest 🚀

• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy

Trek Central is not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated with ViacomCBS / CBS Studios Inc or the STAR TREK Franchise. All STAR TREK trademarks, logos and images © CBS Studios Inc.

© 2019–2023 Redwood Media LTD

Hi, what are you looking for?

TREKNEWS.NET | Your daily dose of Star Trek news and opinion

New Star Trek: Discovery posters revealed ahead of final season premiere

Revisiting “The Lost Era: Serpent Among the Ruins” Retro Review

Star Trek: Discovery’s final season begins April 4

Star Trek: Section 31 production begins, cast revealed

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 to premiere in April + watch a brand new clip from CCXP

Revisiting “Star Trek: Legacies – Captain to Captain” Retro Review

‘U.S.S. Cerritos Crew Handbook’ Review: A must-read Star Trek: Lower Decks fans

‘Making It So’ Review: Patrick Stewart’s journey from stage to starship

The Wrath of Khan – The Making of the Classic Film Review: A gem for your Star Trek reference collection

Strange New Worlds director Jordan Canning talks “Charades,” the versatility of the series & Star Trek fandom

‘Star Trek Online’ lead designer talks the game’s longevity, honoring the franchise, and seeing his work come to life in ‘Picard’

Gates McFadden talks Star Trek: Picard, reuniting with her TNG castmates, InvestiGates, and the Human Condition

Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating talk ‘Enterprise’, their relationship with Star Trek in 2023 and their first live ‘Shuttlepod Show’

John Billingsley discusses what he’d want in a fifth season of Enterprise, playing Phlox and this weekend’s Trek Talks 2 event

57-Year Mission set to beam 160+ Star Trek guests down to Las Vegas

Veteran Star Trek director David Livingston looks back on his legendary career ahead of Trek Talks 2 event

ReedPop’s Star Trek: Mission Seattle convention has been cancelled

56-Year Mission Preview: More than 130 Star Trek guests set to beam down to Las Vegas convention

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 trailer teases Burnham & crew’s final mission

2023: A banner year for Star Trek — here’s why [Op-Ed]

54-Disc Picard Legacy Collection, Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Complete Series Blu-ray box sets announced

Star Trek: Picard series finale “The Last Generation” Review: A perfect sendoff to an unforgettable crew

‘The Next Generation’ cast is back on the bridge of the Enterprise-D in new ‘Star Trek: Picard’ photo gallery

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds arrives on Blu-ray, 4K UHD and DVD this December

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Hegemony” Review: An underwhelming end to the series’ sophomore season

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 finale “Hegemony” preview + new photos

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 209 “Subspace Rhapsody” Review: All systems stable… but why are we singing?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody” preview + new photos

Star Trek Day 2021 to Celebrate 55th Anniversary of the Franchise on September 8 with Live Panels and Reveals

Paramount+ Launches with 1-Month Free Trial, Streaming Every Star Trek Episode

Paramount+ to Officially Launch March 4, Taking Place of CBS All Access

STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS Season 2 Now Streaming For Free (in the U.S.)

[REVIEW] STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS “Children of Mars”: All Hands… Battle Stations

New photos from this week’s Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 finale

Star Trek: Lower Decks “The Inner Fight” Review: Lost stars and hidden battles

New photos from this week’s episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Prodigy begins streaming December 25th on Netflix

Star Trek: Prodigy lands at Netflix, season 2 coming in 2024

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 sneak peek reveals the surprise return of a Voyager castmember

Star Trek: Prodigy canceled, first season to be removed from Paramount+

The events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture to continue in new IDW miniseries “Echoes”

Star Trek: The Original Series “Harm’s Way” Book Review

William Shatner’s New Book ‘Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder’ Review: More of a good thing

Star Trek: Infinite release date + details on Lower Decks­-themed pre-order bonuses

‘Star Trek: Infinite’ strategy game revealed, set to be released this fall

Hero Collector Revisits The Classics in New Starfleet Starships Essentials Collection

New Star Trek Docuseries ‘The Center Seat’ Announced, Coming This Fall

Star Trek Designing Starships: Deep Space Nine & Beyond Review: a Deep Dive Into Shuttlecraft of the Gamma Quadrant

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Illustrated Handbook Review: Terok Nor Deconstructed in Amazing Detail

Robert Beltran Is Officially Returning to Star Trek as Chakotay on ‘Prodigy’ + More Casting News

Robert Beltran Says He’s Returning to Star Trek in ‘Prodigy’

John Billingsley Talks Life Since Star Trek: Enterprise, Going to Space and Turning Down Lunch with Shatner and Nimoy

Star Trek: Enterprise Star John Billingsley Talks Charity Work, Upcoming TREK*Talks Event

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 203 “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” Review: A strong character study hindered by a weak plot

Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”

The third episode of this season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a double-edged sword, as “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” offers too many eyebrow-raising plot contrivances to tell a story set on modern-day Earth, but otherwise offers one of this show’s most fascinating new characters a chance to shine.

The angsty La’an Noonien-Singh ( Christina Chong ) is walking the corridors of the Enterprise when a man with a bullet wound suddenly appears in front of her. The man warns of an attack in the past, and after cryptically telling La’an to “get to the bridge,” gives La’an a device that, when activated, takes her into an alternate reality. In this reality, James T. Kirk ( Paul Wesley ) commands the Enterprise , and the Vulcans and Romulans are at war. It’s a different timeline, for sure, as Starfleet doesn’t even exist, which leads to some irritation between La’an and Kirk about the veracity of La’an’s story and how to proceed.

In trying to wrestle the strange timeline-changing device from La’an’s hands, Kirk accidentally shunts the pair back in time – modern-day Toronto, Canada. Trapped in the past without useful tools like tricorders, communicators, or phasers, the duo must find why the device sent them to this place and time, while La’an wrestles with why the mysterious time-traveling man visited her in the first place.

The two must make their way through 2020s Toronto, and they actually get by fairly well. Kirk, the skilled multi-dimensional chess master he is, makes some money by winning regular two-dimensional chess. This affords the pair food and a hotel, and it’s during this initial time in Toronto that the hints of a romance start to form between La’an and Kirk. It’s no surprise the ever-desirous Kirk can attract even the most hardened security officers, right?

“I’ve seen your timeline. You’re at war. Your Earth is in ruin.” “We’ve made the stars our home. The moon, Mars, Venus, Europa.” “In my timeline, humanity has spread across dozens of worlds. We’re part of a Federation of species.” “We don’t need anyone else’s help to survive.” – La’an and Alternate-Reality Kirk.

Do you know what really kills the mood? A massive bridge explosion, which is what the pair witness from their hotel room. La’an realizes the time-traveling man who told her to “get to the bridge” was likely referring to the ill-fated Lake Ontario Bridge, the destruction of which is a commonality between La’an’s and Kirk’s respective pasts. After inspecting pictures taken by a nearby photographer of the damage, La’an deduces (unbelievably) the explosion was caused by a photonic bomb, something no one should have access to in the 2020s. The pair witnessed a piece of blasted debris from the bridge being taken away in a mysterious black vehicle, and they follow it.

Their pursuit of the debris leads to a car chase, which we’re sure everyone loves to see in Star Trek . It’s what made Nemesis such a great movie, after all. After being stopped by the cops, Kirk and La’an are saved by Sera ( Adelaide Kane ). The conspiracy theorist claims to be tracking the same people as Kirk and La’an and claims the bridge explosion was a targeted attempt to keep humanity fighting each other rather than the true threat: aliens. So, the trio temporarily team up.

Importantly, Sera claims there is a fusion reactor somewhere in Toronto, a result of some partnership between Earth governments and aliens. According to Sera, Earth governments get advanced technology in exchange for help keeping humans out of intergalactic affairs. A key point La’an and Kirk deduce from Sera’s material is that the Romulans played a role in the bombing of the bridge, which clearly doesn’t sit well with the two officers. After parting ways with Sera, Kirk alerts La’an there is indeed a fusion reactor in Toronto because, in his timeline, the Romulans destroy it as a preemptive attack on Earth.

To find a fusion reactor, La’an and Kirk realize they need an engineer with more advanced knowledge of chemistry and explosives than who is available at this time. Luckily, La’an knows someone who is super old and has, at least potentially, such knowledge. However, the appearance of Pelia ( Carol Kane ) in this episode throws a wrench in the plot.

Let’s consider what happens to get La’an and Kirk to Pelia’s home and back: La’an happens to see a news report on TV mentioning Vermont, which gives her the idea to seek out Pelia. La’an only had that idea in the first place thanks to Pelia mentioning earlier in the episode that she used to live in Vermont. It’s pretty lucky the basically immortal Pelia lives in Vermont at this moment in her long life, isn’t it? Then, La’an and Kirk, without passports, driver licenses, or deep pockets, travel across the Canadian border – apparently bribing some border guards and avoiding undoubtedly heightened security in the wake of the bridge explosion – and make their way to Vermont. Kirk and La’an then make their way ­ back to Toronto with a watch in hand that will illuminate when a specific chemical related to fusion is nearby. And perhaps most unbelievably of all, the pair do detect the chemical in their small part of the massive city; even if they were walking around for hours, as Kirk asserts, that’s still mighty lucky. Taken together, it seems like the writers knew where these characters were supposed to be, but didn’t care how they got there. That really grinds our gears.

“We are maybe hours away from losing [our] future entirely. You are the only person I can trust to help us.” “We both have brain-melting secrets’ is I guess a good enough reason to help someone.” – La’an and Pelia.

Thanks to Pelia’s help, La’an and Kirk return to Toronto to find the reactor. After a brief romantic interlude, the pair do find a building – the Noonien-Singh Institute (gasp!) – that houses the reactor. The pair are met by a familiar and now unfriendly face: Sera, who must have been waiting forever for La’an and Kirk to show up at the Institute’s doorstep. Thinking his cavalier attitude will win the day, Kirk tries to play down Sera’s threat, but the woman kills him, much to La’an’s surprise and heartbreak. It turns out Sera is an undercover Romulan from the future and has been on Earth for 30 years or so awaiting a key opportunity to slow human progress in a big way. That opportunity is now.

Making their way through the facility, La’an figures Sera must want to destroy the reactor, but instead the Romulan opts for a different plan. Soon enough, La’an and Sera arrive at a door labeled simply “Khan,” and Sera describes her plan to kill the Khan Noonien-Singh to usher in damaging changes to the timeline. Interestingly, Sera rants about how hard it is to predict and change moments in time; she has been waiting since 1992 for an opportunity to kill Khan – which is generally the timeframe we know Khan rose to power in the Prime Timeline – but this particular timeline has the genetically altered tyrant merely a boy in the 2020s, so Sera has certainly been waiting a while for her shot.

Despite the brief allure of living in a future where the name “Khan” doesn’t bog down her family and its history, La’an wises up and attacks Sera. The security officer shoots Sera, and the agent triggers her own demise by disintegrating herself, which leaves La’an with a momentous meeting awaiting her. Entering the room, La’an finds Khan himself, played here by Desmond Sivan . Khan is just a boy, which certainly makes for a striking meeting with the person who would become a mass-murdering despot. Wrestling with history in her grasp, and firm in her conviction, La’an chooses not to harm her ancestor, and with her mission to the past fulfilled with the thwarted assassination attempt, she can return to her time.

Arriving back on her Enterprise , La’an makes her way to the bridge and sees the familiar sight of Captain Christopher Pike ( Anson Mount ) in the center chair. Despite being dressed in 2020-era clothing and sporting an expression born from her recent ordeal, La’an opts to say nothing to her commanding officer and makes her way to her quarters. Being the time-traveling tricksters they are, there’s a Department of Temporal Investigations agent waiting for her, who explains the man La’an met in the beginning of the episode was from the DTI. La’an, of course, is sworn to never discuss the events of her mission. More heartbreaking for her is the memory that a person she was falling for, the alternate reality James T. Kirk, is dead, so she calls up the Prime Universe Kirk, who is still a lieutenant, just to acknowledge his existence.

We appreciate this episode greatly for what it allows Christina Chong to do. She’s in literally every scene. La’an’s emotional spectrum runs the gamut here, and her experiences in this alternate reality will undoubtedly color our perception of the character for episodes to come. We’ve seen La’an vulnerable before, such as during her trials with the Gorn, but having the character come face-to-face with love and loss, and with Khan himself, are certainly fascinating developments.

La’an’s status as a descendant of Khan has always been danced around, brushed upon in the events of “Ad Astra per Aspera” and other select episodes. So, we’re thankful “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” lifts the veil on that dark part of her family history and explores the implications of her heritage. As such, we appreciate the theme this episode is presenting to its audience: You can power through a struggle to come out on top. Earth does it even after the disastrous events of Khan’s reign. La’an does it despite her tortured family history.

Welcoming message aside, we found too many faults with this episode’s script to make it a great entry in Strange New Worlds ’ typically strong narrative lineup. We’ve already remarked how the circumstance around La’an and Kirk getting to and from Vermont is a problem. Moreover, small plot holes pop up too frequently, such as:

• WHY did the Toronto police let Kirk go? He didn’t have a license and was clearly driving erratically. No matter what Sera says to them, they should have arrested Kirk.
• Why wouldn’t the DTI device take La’an exactly where and when she could be of most use to stop the past from being altered, such as just outside the Noonien-Singh Institute’s entrance? As it stands, the device takes them to Toronto a day before the explosion, and it’s through luck (more or less) that the pair find their way to the facility at all.
• Why would Khan’s room be unguarded for so long during an intruder alert?
• Why was La’an the one DTI needed to recruit to get the job done? All they really needed was someone who could enter the Noonien-Singh Institute, which only required a specific genetic marker. Other people clearly had that marker and could have entered the facility.
• Why wouldn’t La’an immediately report to Pike her experience in an alternate reality?

As you can see, not Strange New Worlds ’ best narrative outing.

However, we do appreciate how Strange New Worlds is able to radically alter its tone based on the episode. The first three entries of the season have been markedly different. The first featured some political intrigue and heavy action; the second featured no action and dialogue-heavy, character-driven performances; and now this episode is a character-driven time-traveling adventure with a dash of romance, all influenced by one of Star Trek ’s most notable villains. We dare say no other current-era Star Trek show has that kind of versatility, even if we aren’t always enamored with the results.

In the end, we didn’t walk away from “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” feeling as good as how “Ad Astra per Aspera” left us, but we were pleasantly pleased with Chong’s powerhouse performance. We hope other main cast members get to show their chops as Chong does here, and as Rebecca Romijn did last week.

Stray Thoughts:

• Would a Vulcan lute create so much noise through the ship’s walls as to generate a noise complaint?
• Of course, Spock is the Vulcan who Kirk meets on the viewscreen in the beginning of this episode, because how else would the audience know we are in an alternate reality?
• We generally think SNW ’s Kirk doesn’t resemble William Shatner’s Kirk, which is okay, although we did note Wesley sometimes tries to add Kirk’s. Stilted. Manner of talking. Into his speech, and we appreciate that.
• The alternate reality Kirk does share with his counterpart Iowa as a birthplace – at least in name only. This episode’s Kirk was born on the starship Iowa , whereas Prime Timeline Kirk was born in the state.
• How much money was Kirk able to make from beating people at chess? He and La’an bought food, a hotel room, transportation to and from Vermont, and bribed a border agent, among whatever else the pair needed to pay for.
• It’s funny how Kirk can render an innocent civilian unconscious and steal his car in broad daylight, surrounded by police, rescue workers, and civilians.
• Kirk makes a crack about La’an’s strange last name and accidentally says “Soong” instead of “Singh.” Soong is a well-known name in Star Trek canon, as it’s Data’s creator’s last name.
• The Lakeview in Toronto, the restaurant where Kirk, La’an, and Sera grab a bite to eat, is a real place.
• Sera must have been practicing with firearms for a while, as she has perfect aim while traversing the Noonien-Singh Institute while holding a captive.
• The other genetically modified people Khan has pictured on his wall likely include those who we end up seeing in “Space Seed” and The Wrath of Khan .
• La’an simply hits a couple of buttons and Kirk ­immediately appears on her screen. Did she have him on speed dial or something?
• Khan’s (non-canonical) rise and fall are detailed in the excellent The Eugenics Wars trilogy by Greg Cox.
• We would have bet money on Adam Soong’s work with Khan being mentioned in this episode, considering the mysterious tease handed to fans on a silver platter in the final episode of Picard season two . Such a reference would have been some great synergy between the two shows.

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Lower Decks , Star Trek: Prodigy , and more.

You can follow us on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram .

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending Articles

With the launch of the final season of Star Trek: Discovery right around the corner, Paramount+ has released an official trailer for the series’...

Back to the Stars: Rediscovering Star Trek’s Legacy with Captain to Captain – A Retro-Review There are near-countless Star Trek novels out there. Unlike...

Production has begun on Star Trek: Section 31 The 14th Star Trek film has now begun production, as Paramount+ announced the start of production...

Rediscovering The Lost Era: Serpent Among the Ruins – A Retro-Review Captain John Harriman, seen only for a brief period in Star Trek: Generations,...

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3 Log entries
• 4.2 Cast and characters
• 4.3 Production
• 4.4 Continuity
• 4.5 Apocrypha
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Special guest star
• 5.3 Guest starring
• 5.4 Co-starring
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 Stunt doubles
• 5.7 References
• 5.8 Meta references
• 5.9 External links

Summary [ ]

As the USS Enterprise travels to her next mission, La'an conducts her business as chief of security . First, she is forced to step between a Denobulan cadet and transporter chief Jay , the former accusing the latter of using the transporter to steal a ring given to him by his matriarch. Then she informs Spock of an anonymous noise complaint as he practices with his Vulcan lute , and he promises to practice "less vigorously". Finally, she confronts Pelia about the provenance of a number of priceless artworks and artifacts she is bringing aboard, some of which are marked "property of the Archeology Department". Pelia waves it off by saying she used to work there, and tells La'an to live through the calamities of Human history without becoming a " packrat " before she judges her, commenting that she maintains a bunker in Vermont in the event the Federation 's "no money, socialist utopia thing" turned out to be a " fad ". She notes one particular work as a fake – so she suggests La'an tell the Louvre to stop calling her about it. La'an tells her she can take it up with Captain Pike .

La'an spars with Dr. M'Benga

Afterward, she engages in a furious sparring match with Dr. M'Benga in the ship's gym . The doctor clearly sees something is on her mind, telling her to ease up before she takes his head off. He tries to reach her as her physician, but she pointedly replies he's not there as her physician; he amends by saying as her sparring partner, he advises her to talk to her physician. As she rushes at him, M'Benga uses her own energy to hurl her to the floor. He points out that she didn't attend the party for Una in the captain's quarters the previous evening. He can see what whatever she's dealing with alone seems to be "lonely", and it doesn't need to be. La'an doesn't reply, simply saying she would see him the next day.

As she patrols the decks, a strange light catches her eye, followed by a grey-suited Human staggering to the deck. As she demands to know who he is, she sees the bloodstain, and recognizes his injury as being from a bullet rather than a phaser . The grey-suited man says there has been "an attack" in the past, and urges La'an to stop it. He hands her a device from his pocket and tells her to get to the bridge , after which he dies. A wave of energy causes his body to disappear, followed by the klaxons signaling red alert . She makes her way to the bridge, approaching who she assumes is Captain Pike. But the man who turns in the chair is unfamiliar to her – and she to him: " Ma'am, not to be impolite, but who are you, and what the hell are you doing on my ship? "

Act One [ ]

Uhura reports that the nearby Vulcan ship is hailing them. The captain orders a channel open, identifying himself as James T. Kirk of the " United Earth Fleet ship Enterprise ". La'an is surprised to see Spock on the viewer, identifying himself as captain of the Vulcan vessel Sh'Rel , and requesting assistance from the Earth vessel. Vulcan is in a losing war with the Romulan Star Empire , and quotes the Human adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Kirk replies that it was not the case here, as the UEF had its own problems with Romulus and could not afford to fight a war on two fronts. Spock pleads with him that without their aid, the last of the Vulcan fleet would be destroyed, and their homeworld would be defenseless. Kirk is apologetic, but is firm that there was nothing he could do, before having Uhura close the channel. All eyes then turn to La'an, who suggests she and Kirk should speak in private.

In the conference room , Kirk is incredulous at the idea that La'an is from some kind of alternate timeline , though he admits scientists have said the idea was possible. More likely, he thinks La'an is insane, except there is no record of her in the ship's database. La'an tries to explain about her own Enterprise , and her encounter with the grey-suited man who gave her the device and told her to go to the bridge. She suspects the man wanted Kirk to help her in some way, and points out Starfleet 's protocols for dealing with such things. Kirk, however, has never heard of Starfleet, and demands she give the device over to be studied by UEF Command . La'an refuses, and Kirk attempts to take it from her. She activates the device, taking both of them off the ship.

La'an and Kirk emerge into downtown Toronto

Kirk and La'an materialize in unfamiliar territory, the captain jabbing at the device again trying to activate it, but it does not respond. He suspects it might be broken, but La'an thinks it brought them precisely where they needed to be – to stop the attack the grey-suited man had warned her about. Neither of them have any devices to aid them – no tricorder , communicator , or phaser – so La'an elects to scout ahead. It soon becomes clear they are on Earth ; Kirk thinks they are in New York City in the 21st century , but La'an corrects him by pointing out that they were in Toronto , the largest city of what was known as Canada , known for "maple leaves, politeness, poutine ". Kirk confesses he has never been to Earth, and that it was nothing like this in his timeline; he had been born in space aboard the USS Iowa , and Earth had first been a battleground, then occupied territory, and was now a ruin. Kirk shivers, wondering if it was always so cold on Earth. La'an is unfazed, saying it was not that bad for Canada, but it would get colder at night, and they had to change clothes before they froze.

La'an and Kirk go into a clothing store and find suitable attire to allow them to blend in, but discover that they still used money in this time, and would be caught if they tried to leave without paying. Kirk asks if La'an is a fast runner, but La'an has a better idea; taking an item from a nearby shelf, she slips it into the bag of a customer, who trips the alarm when she goes to leave. As the security guards take her to the side, La'an and Kirk make their exit. As they dispose of their uniforms, she warns they couldn't do that again, and Kirk suggests getting some money, asking if La'an had any marketable 21st century skills… before he spots something that gives him an idea. He engages in a series of chess matches, and proves to be a formidable player, earning a considerable amount.

As they walk away with their winnings, La'an is surprised, and Kirk can guess why: she doesn't think him a "thinking five steps ahead kind of guy". He admits he used to play with his first officer until she got tired of losing and has been looking for an opponent ever since. He finds the three-dimensional chess of his era more challenging, calling the standard two-dimensional board "idiot's chess". He then spots a hot dog stand and buys two, offering one to La'an, who refuses. He tries to make it an order, but she points out she is not part of his "United Earth Fleet". She is concerned with the circumstances, particularly given that they had nothing to go on. Why the two of them, why that place, and why that time? Kirk, however, is momentarily distracted by watching the setting sun; from the videos he saw, Earth was coated in a cloud of ash that wouldn't clear for a thousand years, and people lived on underground lunar colonies with no view of the Sun . He advises her not to skip on a good hot dog if she can help it, and she finally relents. As he takes a bite of his, Kirk enjoys his hot dog and suddenly feels the need to buy another.

La'an and Kirk witness the destruction of the Lake Ontario Bridge

That night, set up in a hotel , La'an is unable to sleep, looking out in the living room where Kirk is sleeping on the couch; he awakens when he realizes she is there. She seems to have something on her mind, but is unable to voice it before returning to bed. The following morning, La'an is attempting to put together a list of what she remembers of 21st century Earth history, but Kirk is nonchalant about it. He has a vague understanding of temporal science , knowing that they were at a fork in the road: repairing her timeline would end up destroying his, erasing his entire existence. While Earth is a ruin in his time, Humanity has settled on the Moon , Mars , Venus , and Europa , just to name a few. La'an wonders why he should be content with simply surviving; where she came from, Earth still had sunsets, and Humanity had spread out across dozens of worlds, part of a greater Federation. She concedes that 21st century Earth history was bad in her timeline too, but after first contact with the Vulcans, Earth became a paradise. She thinks him as being nothing but a soldier in a losing war, when he could be an explorer. Kirk wonders if he even exists in her timeline at all, but La'an knows that he does, having heard stories about him from his brother Sam . Kirk is stunned to hear that Sam is alive in her timeline. As this sinks in, the bridge over Lake Ontario suddenly explodes. La'an realizes this is what the grey-suited man meant by "get to the bridge".

Act Two [ ]

First Responders converge on the scene of the ruined bridge. Arriving, La'an realizes that this scene is familiar to her, and realizes it happened in her timeline. Kirk knows it happened in his, too: the largest suspension bridge ever built, destroyed just after it was complete. This was not the event they were sent to prevent, but La'an sees something from a piece of wreckage that gets her attention. Borrowing a camera from a nearby onlooker, she is able to see for herself. She tells Kirk the damage was from a photonic bomb , a weapon not supposed to be developed on Earth for at least another century . She suspects the bridge collapse may indeed be the work of the assassin they're hunting. The Toronto City Police load the chunk of rubble into a van, and Kirk knows they would not be able to follow on foot. La'an points out that vehicles in that era had private ownership , but Kirk is well aware.

Coming up to the driver of a Dodge Challenger Hellcat , Kirk applies the Vulcan neck pinch to disable him and takes the man's keys. La'an wonders where he learned to do that; Kirk replies he had spent six months in a Denobulan prison with a Vulcan cellmate, cheerfully adding that he could also make plomeek soup in the toilet . Unfamiliar at first with the 21st century vehicle's controls, Kirk eventually gets the hang of it and follows the van through Toronto as snow begins to fall. She urges him to drive slower, and more discreetly; he replies that "discreet" was basically his middle name, even as he drifts through the streets. La'an, however, has seen his personnel file, and remarks that "Tiberius" was probably the "least discreet middle name" she had heard. He defends it by saying it was his grandfather 's name. He points out she does not have the most subtle name either – mistakenly referring to her as "La'an Noonien Soong ." After correcting him, La'an is silent for a moment as she realizes he doesn't recognize her last name, remarking on her "infamous" lineage.

As they reach a police detour, the van suddenly turns without warning, forcing Kirk to take a "scenic route" through the city to intercept it. The high-speed pursuit earns the attention of the police. The van escapes, and the police apprehend Kirk for driving without a license and breaking traffic laws. Kirk protests that his license was in his "other pants". Meanwhile, the photographer from the bombing scene suddenly arrives, streaming the arrest live from her cellular phone as evidence of "police brutality". Just then, the police dispatcher calls for more assistance at the bomb site, and the police let Kirk off with a warning. La'an and Kirk introduce themselves to their rescuer, La'an using the name "Vanessa", while Kirk sticks to "Jim". The photographer, Sera , spoke out because she was also in pursuit of the van with the bombing evidence. It becomes clear to La'an and Kirk that Sera is some kind of conspiracy theorist, who believes the bridge attack was intended to force Humanity to back off from its plans of international cooperation instead of fighting extraterrestrial threats. Kirk tries to bluff by saying that his "wife" had been abducted. La'an, playing along, says she has, and has seen evidence of advanced technology beyond anything Humans possessed. She looks incredulously at him when Kirk outright asks about the photonic bomb.

As they proceed through the streets, Sera goes on with her belief that an international cabal is responsible for hiding evidence of alien attacks in order to steal their technology. She believes there is a facility somewhere in Toronto where they keep their stolen technology, powered by a cold fusion reactor, and that attacks had been going on for years intended to slow Human advancement. As they stop at a restaurant , La'an is uncertain what to make of Sera, thinking she is "unhinged". Kirk, while indulging a plate of poutine, is more understanding, pointing out that this was an era where Humans thought aliens were science fiction , but Sera knew in her gut they existed, and were not friendly. Sera returns a moment later, bringing her digital tablet, showing pictures of what she had uncovered. Kirk's attention is immediately seized by one picture, captured by an astronomer attempting to get a picture of the International Space Station . She also obtained surveillance footage from a hookah parlor near the bridge explosion site, showing a man in a dark suit waiting nearby, fifteen minutes before the blast… like he knew it was going to happen.

After they part ways, La'an admits to feeling sorry for Sera, being so close to the truth but without the proof she needed. Kirk, however, knows Sera was closer than she thought, pointing out the ship in the picture as a Romulan vessel, a Bird-of-Prey . He recalls what Sera had said about the cold fusion reactor in the city, because in a few days, it would be destroyed in a Romulan first strike that wiped out Toronto. They had to find it first. La'an concedes it would be trivial with a tricorder, and Kirk pointedly agrees that it would be, if someone (i.e. La'an) hadn't brought them back in time without one, and wonders if she learned any engineering courses at the Academy that would help them build one… and an engineer who wouldn't ask questions. Seeing a news report about unseasonable temperatures in Vermont, La'an recalls a conversation she had, and tells Kirk she knows one there.

La'an and Kirk arrive at " The Archeology Department ", an antiques shop. Kirk is unsure what to make of it, but La'an asks him to trust her. Knocking on the door, the sound of breaking glass heralds none other than Pelia, who tells them in a sing-song voice that the store was closed. La'an tells her that they had driven all day, having to bribe a border guard and take several modes of transport to get there. She then surprises Pelia by identifying her by name, adding she was aware of her secret.

Act Three [ ]

La'an knows that Pelia is in fact a Lanthanite , not a Human at all, and that one of the paintings in her collection was in fact stolen from the Louvre. She had thought when Pelia had told her she worked at the "Archeology Department", it was at a university, but then discovered the antiques shop (Kirk remarking that someone at the Apple store had taught him to use " DuckDuckGo "). Without giving too much about herself away, La'an tells Pelia that they shared common knowledge that would break most people's perceptions about reality, and that she and her friend were on a mission to protect something "beautiful": the future of Humanity, something Pelia would know was incredibly fragile. Pelia concedes that "brain-melting secrets" were a good enough reason to help someone. But when La'an says she needed an engineer, Pelia is taken aback, remarking that she hadn't taken a math class "since Pythagoras made the crap up", and thought that cold fusion was fiction, like Bigfoot and lasers . Kirk points out that lasers were real, earning another rant from Pelia about how she couldn't keep up with Earth's scientific achievements. Kirk is bemused that this is the person who in two centuries would be the chief engineer of the Enterprise . La'an assures Pelia that they didn't need to understand cold fusion to detect its biproducts – excess heat, neutrons , and tritium . Pelia knows that tritium was used in diver's watches from the 1980s and may have some in the back. Kirk is convinced that whatever Pelia comes up with is bound to be "insane".

Examining the watches, La'an knows tritium gives off small amounts of radiation, and that the dials of the watch were coated in a reactive material, like phosphor . Kirk also knows tritium has a short half-life, so it would decay. La'an pries off the glass casing covering the watch in her hand, as they both realize that if the reactive materials of the watches were exposed to tritium, the hands would glow. La'an thanks Pelia for her help, thinking her more of an engineer than she thinks. Pelia is inspired by this, thinking it would be nice to have an honest living – not that any of the items she had were stolen, she adds firmly.

La'an and Kirk return to Toronto, where they have been wandering the streets for hours, with no sign of anything glowing. Kirk wonders why he couldn't have worn the watch, thinking it was a "man's watch"; La'an jokes that he just wanted to be in charge. She admits that if she had been in his place, she would not have gone along with it, and believes it was better with him there. Kirk concedes that if there was one timeline that could be saved, he'd like to live in hers instead, though he knows that was not how temporal mechanics worked. But La'an wonders, what if he could? Kirk is not so sure, thinking one timeline would not be big enough for two of him, but La'an is serious, wondering if perhaps the device could bring them both back to her timeline. She confesses she finds people "difficult" and admits to being lonely. She has felt the weight of her heritage her entire life, and thinks she is letting that go; it helped that Kirk had never even heard of the "scarlet letter" she had carried her whole life, before explaining about The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne , a story about a woman marked her whole life, like the mark of Cain . When he again shows incomprehension, she is incredulous, before he reveals that he has read Hawthorne and the Old Testament of the Bible . He then kisses her, and after a moment, she returns it. He then points out the hands on her watch were glowing; they were close.

Entering a nearby building, they are certain the reactor is close by, moving out of a sight when a man approaches, using a handprint scanner to access a nearby locked room. Kirk wonders if they should wait for someone to approach or come out, and force their hand onto the scanner, but La'an sees a sign that indicates they might not need to: the Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement . Taking a gamble, La'an places her hand on the scanner, and it unlocks the door. She suspects a marker in her DNA grants her access to the building's security.

A gun cocking behind them heralds the arrival of Sera, who now looks deadly serious. She chides herself for taking so long to recognize Kirk. While she was not behind the bridge bombing, everything she had said about slowing Human advancement was true – her people had been doing so for many years. Kirk realizes Sera is a Romulan and compliments her on the "hell of a job" she did on her disguise. Sera admits she wasn't quite used to the ears, before ordering them to take her inside. Kirk refuses, saying that if she shot them, the building's alarms would go off, and security would seal the building. Sera thinks he's bluffing. " Try me, " is Kirk's reply. Sera shoots him in the chest, and he collapses to the floor. As he predicted, the alarms go off. La'an pleads with Kirk to stay with her, but as he dies, he tells her to say hello to Sam for him. Sera concedes it was impulsive on her part, but it was worth it to be the one to kill James T. Kirk. When La'an rushes to attack her, Sera grabs her by the throat and pushes her through the unlocked door.

Act Four [ ]

Sera pushes La'an through the corridors, shooting down any who try to stop her. La'an points out that security would not allow her to get near the reactor now, but Sera has changed the plan. Destroying the reactor was "plan A", and now they were going to "plan B", heading towards the building's genetics labs. As they reach a nearby locked room, La'an is stunned to see the nameplate on the door, as well as child's drawings on the walls. La'an realizes that Sera intends to kill Khan Noonien Singh and demands to know why. Sera replies, without irony, that a computer simulation told her to, explaining that time was too complex to leave to intuition, so the Romulans had built computers to calculate results of changes in the timeline. She points out that Khan becomes a brutal tyrant , though perhaps Humanity needed the "dark age" he brought in to reach its own enlightenment, or perhaps it was just random. Either way, Khan's death would ensure the Federation would never form, and the Romulans would lose their greatest adversary. Sera rages that entire temporal wars have been fought trying to change these events; she herself arrived in 1992 trying to eliminate Khan, and she has been trapped on Earth for thirty years – and now she is taking her chance. La'an tells Sera her real name, that Khan is her ancestor, and that his legacy was genocide , torture … and La'an herself. Sera points out that the device in La'an's pocket protected her from changes in the timeline; if Khan died now, she could live whatever life she wanted, and never hear Khan's name again.

La'an turns, as if to approach the door… then whirls, disarming Sera, and engaging her in hand-to-hand combat. The Romulan's strength is greater, and she forces La'an's hand onto the scanner. But as the door opens, La'an re-engages, until she is able to get hold of Sera's gun, shooting her twice. Falling to the floor, Sera presses a point on her neck, and her body disintegrates, leaving no trace she was ever there. The device in her pocket activates, which would allow her to return to her own time… but curiosity sets in, and La'an enters Khan's room, finding drawings of advanced equations and cityscapes on the walls. A fearful voice asks if she was going to kill him, and La'an finds herself face-to-face with her infamous ancestor, Khan Noonien Singh, who appears exactly as he was at that time: a scared child. La'an assures him that she would not hurt him, and asks if he was alone, or if there were others like him. Khan gestures to a photo on the wall of himself and other children. He then asks if she was going to take him away. La'an tells him that it may not make sense to him, then or maybe ever, but he was where he needed to be.

La'an steps outside Khan's room as security approaches, and activates the device, which takes her back to the Enterprise . She returns to the bridge, finding it as familiar as she expected; as La'an had earlier told her to do, Pelia is speaking with Pike and Una about the Louvre's demand for the return of its artifacts, saying the statute of limitations had long run out. Una wonders if there was a statute of limitations on "plundered antiquities". Seeing La'an, Pike wonders if Starfleet Security might want to weigh in on the topic. La'an, somewhat wrong-footed after her recent experience, says she would let this one slide. Pike notes she was out of uniform and asks if something was wrong. La'an replies nothing was wrong, that she had needed to check on something, and now she had.

As La'an returns to her quarters to change, someone else is there: Agent Ymalay from the Department of Temporal Investigations , a Federation agency monitoring changes in the timeline, who thanks her for her assistance. La'an likely hadn't heard of them because they didn't exist yet in the 23rd century. La'an produces the device given to her by the grey-suited man, whom Ymalay confirms was a DTI agent. She emphasizes that La'an is not to reveal any of what she experienced to anyone, not even Captain Pike. La'an is upset at the idea of having gone back to protect a mass murderer, having had to kill to protect him, and watching a friend die. Ymalay calmly tells her that none of that was supposed to happen at all and points out that she had protected the timeline in a way no one else could have, asking if she was willing to undo that. La'an admits she wouldn't. Ymalay again thanks her for her assistance, before asking for the device to be returned to her. As she takes it, she examines the time stream, before she departs.

Sitting alone in her quarters for a moment, La'an removes the watch she had taken from Pelia's shop, before moving over to her bed and opening a communication to the USS Farragut – the ship where James T. Kirk was serving as a lieutenant . She identifies herself as the security chief on the Enterprise , leading Kirk to wonder what his brother Sam had done this time. La'an bluffs by saying she was trying to get some biographical data for Sam's security file, saying she was a stickler for keeping an orderly security record. Kirk offers the "real dirt" on Sam if she buys him a drink next time that they're at a starbase. After signing off, La'an breaks down in tears.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" May I inquire as to who filed this noise complaint against me? " " It was anonymous. " " I shall make every effort to practice less vigorously going forward. "

" Ma'am, not be impolite, but who are you and what the hell are you doing on my ship? "

" Do you have a tricorder? " " No! Or a communicator or a phaser! Thanks for that. "

" Seems to be New York City. Mid-21st century. " " What? " " What? " " It's Toronto. The biggest city in what used to be called Canada? You know, maple leaves, politeness, poutine. "

" That old-fashioned, two-dimensional version, though, it's basically idiot's chess. "

" Just so you're aware, this is streaming live . Say hello to the entire, very judgmental Internet. "

" Wait, poutine has gravy? This is amazing! "

" I haven't taken a math class since Pythagoras made the crap up! "

" OK, a little impulsive on my part but maybe worth it to be the one to kill James T. Kirk. "

" Are you gonna kill me? " " No, of–of course not. I… you don't need to be scared of me. Come here. You're just a little boy. "

Log entries [ ]

• " Security officer's log, stardate 1581.2. Nobody told me when I took this assignment just how many friends it would make for me. It is a well-known fact that people love it when you bring them bad news. And quite frankly, who doesn't find having their belongings searched endearing? "

Background information [ ]

• 22 June 2023 : Title publicly revealed by Wil Wheaton on TRR : " Ad Astra per Aspera "
• The title comes from William Shakespeare 's Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5. The title of TOS : " All Our Yesterdays " comes from the same monologue. A part of this monologue was also quoted by Q in TNG : " Hide And Q ".

Cast and characters [ ]

• Jess Bush ( Christine Chapel ) does not appear in this episode and is not credited in the opening credits.
• Paul Wesley plays a second alternate version of James T. Kirk following his appearance in SNW : " A Quality of Mercy " before appearing as the prime Kirk in the closing scene, marking that version of Kirk's first actual appearance in the series (and chronologically first true appearance in the Trek franchise).

Production [ ]

• Photos of Paul Wesley and Christina Chong filming this episode on location in Toronto were leaked to the press in March 2022 . [1] [2]
• Paul Wesley was appreciative of the choice to have the episode be set in Toronto itself, saying: " Oftentimes, you're filming in Toronto and they're like, 'We're gonna pretend it's New York City.' Well, they actually landed in Toronto, which is awesome. " [3]
• Showrunner Akiva Goldsman revealed that the episode was initially supposed to be set in NYC, when originally conceived: "We wrote it for New York, right? We were gonna do this giant spectacle and take the show to New York, and we quickly realized we could not afford it. So then we went through the process of doing that thing that everybody does, which is, well, how do we make Toronto look like New York? And then we sort of thought, 'Huh, why don't we just let Toronto be Toronto?' And that was fun for us and probably lower impact on the city than you might imagine. So, you know, I don't think it was like trying to film 'Star Trek' in Times Square ." [4]
• Graphic designer Timothy Peel has revealed that none of the animated advertisements or news feeds seen in Toronto were rooted in real world products or events. " We had to replace any signage that could be a legal issue. We do this for many ad filled locations that feature wide establishing shots, like Times Square, Piccadilly, or Shibuya. Star Trek is no exception… Fun times creating fictional CP24 style news feeds…:) " [5] However, many fixed signs advertising real-world businesses or institutions are visible in the location shots, including for Toronto Eaton Centre , the Royal Alexandra Theatre , the Harbourfront Centre, Ryerson University (since renamed Toronto Metropolitan University), CIBC, Dollarama, and several more. The Roots clothing store in the Eaton Centre, identifiable on screen by tags on the clothing being sold, was also used for filming.
• The filming of the car chase was accomplished using AR walls and a stationary car. Wesley and Chong recalled experiencing motion sickness due to the disorienting effect of the technology. [6]

Continuity [ ]

• The alternate timeline Kirk being born on the USS Iowa is likely to be a reference to the original plan for the alternate reality Kirk to have been born on a ship by the same name before ultimately being changed to the USS Kelvin . [7]
• The male agent from the Department of Temporal Investigations shows La'an a holographic TCARS interface, similar to the one first seen in VOY : " Relativity ".
• La'an indicates that Canada is no longer referred to as such by the 23rd century, despite references in other shows that refer to Canada by name (e.g. TOS : " The Trouble with Tribbles " and TNG : " Lower Decks "). However, she may be referring to the fact that Canada, as part of United Earth , no longer exists as a nation state , meaning that the name is likely still be used as a geographical signifier.
• This version of Kirk's proficiency for chess becomes instrumental for getting them access to local currency. According to this version of Kirk, his proficiency is derived from his familiarity with Three-dimensional chess , a skill that was often displayed with the Prime Timeline version of Kirk in the TOS episodes " Where No Man Has Gone Before " and " Charlie X " where he would often beat Spock.
• La'an shows disapproval at this version of Kirk's methods of driving. This is similar to how in TOS : " A Piece of the Action ", Spock was shown to be equally critical of Kirk's driving skills. In Star Trek , a young Kirk is also pulled over by police for reckless driving.
• Aaron Waltke , executive producer of Star Trek: Prodigy , had previously offered a similar explanation for the confusing placement of the Eugenics Wars, saying that " the ripples of the Temporal Cold War [shifted] the prime timeline in Enterprise . " [8]
• This supports (and explains) the reference to the Eugenics Wars and World War III being the same conflict as indicated in the episode " Strange New Worlds ".
• Retroactively, and in a more profound sense, the fact the timeline has shifted due to incursions also serves to explain character and technological differences seen over the years in the various prequel series, plus the fact that in the original "Space Seed", no one seems familiar with Khan, despite his own descendant having been an Enterprise officer who served (or shared adventures with) Kirk, Spock and Uhura and episodes of SNW indicating the Khan name is well-remembered.
• In a similar vein, La'an chronologically becomes the second Starfleet officer after Pike to knowingly come face-to-face with a Romulan. However, beyond making a reference to having altered her ears, Sera's Human disguise prevents La'an from becoming aware of the Romulan/Vulcan physical similarity.
• Kirk assumes at first that he and La'an have landed in New York City . Prime Kirk later finds himself in the real New York City in TOS : " The City on the Edge of Forever ".
• A change in the timeline results in a sudden personnel change on the Enterprise – most notably the fact Spock is no longer a crew member. ("Yesteryear")
• Similar to in PIC : " Penance ", the change occurs in the 2020's and results in the United Federation of Planets no longer existing.
• Kirk and La'an find themselves in a public place dressed in uniform and realize quickly that they need to obtain modern-day clothes. They do so by stealing them. ("The City on the Edge of Forever")
• Kirk and La'an encounter law enforcement and attempt to explain themselves (only unlike Kirk and Spock in "The City on the Edge of Forever", Sera assists).
• Kirk and La'an find themselves at a "fixed point in time" that must not be altered. Both cases required a World War to proceed as history recorded ("The City on the Edge of Forever")
• This also resembles Jean-Luc Picard meeting his ancestor Renée Picard in PIC : " Fly Me to the Moon ".
• La'an's newfound romance with Earthfleet Kirk is cut short by his death, much as Kirk lost Edith Keeler ("The City on the Edge of Forever")
• Although without any apparent impact to the timeline, at least two humans are killed by Sera in the past; in "The City on the Edge of Forever", a 20th century man dies when he accidentally shoots himself with a phaser , but this has no apparent impact on the timeline, either.
• In addition, the idea of seeking out a long-lived crewmate who is expected to be on Earth in the past parallels how Guinan was utilized in both TNG : " Time's Arrow " and Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard .
• This is also the first of two times that Kirk has been one half of a doomed relationship because of time travel that ended in the death of one partner, in this case, the male (Kirk).

Apocrypha [ ]

• By coincidence or by design, this episode bears some similarities to the 1985 novel Killing Time , which also features Romulans attempting to prevent the existence of the Federation through means of temporal sabotage. In that telling, the Romulans circa 2269 dispatch android agents to assassinate humans who were crucial to the founding of the Federation in 2097 , but Vulcan still ended up founding the Interstellar Alliance of Planets, including humans as members and holding the Romulans' ambitions of conquest at bay. The Alliance fleet's counterpart to the USS Enterprise is the VSS ShiKahr , commanded by Spock, with Kirk as a disgraced ensign. When the Romulan project is discovered to threaten the unraveling of spacetime, Spock and Kirk travel back in time to ensure the correct course of history.
• This episode also shares some similarities to the novella "A Less Perfect Union", part of the 2008 anthology Infinity's Prism . In that story's parallel reality, John Frederick Paxton successfully attacked San Francisco in 2155 , prompting United Earth to withdraw from the Coalition of Planets , whose members instead go on to form the Interstellar Coalition. The Romulans decline to wage war against the weaker Coalition in the 22nd century, instead taking action a century later when Earth is finally on the verge of the joining the Coalition. Spock does not exist, but in 2264 , Pike commands the UESS Enterprise , with Kirk as XO.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Anson Mount as Christopher Pike
• Ethan Peck as Spock / Alternate Spock
• Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh
• Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura / Alternate Uhura
• Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas / Alternate Ortegas
• Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M'Benga
• Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley

Special guest star [ ]

• Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk / Alternate Kirk

Guest starring [ ]

• Adelaide Kane as Sera
• Carol Kane as Pelia

Co-starring [ ]

• Dennis Barham as Chess Player #1
• Noah Lamanna as Chief Jay
• Caeden Lawrence as Security Ensign
• David Leyshon as Chess Player #3
• Luke Marty as Police Officer
• Sean Meldrum as Denobulan Cadet
• Brian Quintero as Store Security Guard
• Robin Schisler as Woman in Store
• Randy Singh as Institute Guard #1
• Desmond Sivan as Young Khan
• Mish Tam as Chess Player #2
• Allison Wilson-Forbes as Agent Ymalay
• Christopher Wyllie as Grey-Suited Man

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Kyle James Butler as Noonien-Singh Institute Agent
• Amy Szoke as Police Officer #1
• Unknown actor as Police Officer #2

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Josslyn Farrow as stunt double for Adelaide Kane
• Laiko Foroughi as stunt double for Christina Chong
• Mike Joseph as stunt double for Babs Olusanmokun
• Kaanchana Kerr as stunt double for Christina Chong
• Unknown stunt performer as stunt double for Paul Wesley

References [ ]

& Juliet ; 166 Pearl Street ; 1932 ; 1980s ; 1992 ; 1999 ; 2022 ; 21st century ; 22nd century ; 9-1-1 ; Adidas ; alley ; American ; Anubis ; Apple ; archaeology department ; Archeology Department, The ; artifact ; assassin ; astronomer ; Atlantic, The ; attack ; attorney ; Audi Q7 ; augment ; axe ; axe murderer ; Bay Street ; Bible ; Bigfoot ; blood ; Blood Train ; bollard ; bridge (location); bridge (structure); brother ; bullet ; bunker ; bunny suit ; cadet ; Cadillac Fairview ; Canada ; Canadian dollar ; Canon ; captain ; captain's quarters ; cardboard box ; Casablanca Tobacconist, The ; cement mixer ; Chelsea Hotel ; Chernobyl ; chess ; Chevrolet Cruze ; CIBC ; Cineplex ; civil rights ; CN Tower ; cold fusion reactor ; Concert, The ; Constitution -class ; cotton candy ; crap ; Croissant Express Cafe ; Denobulan ; Denobulan matriarch ; Denobulan prison ; Department of Temporal Investigations ; dial-up ; DiCharri Brandy ; directory ; divers' watch ; doctor ; Dodge Challenger Hellcat ; Dodge Grand Caravan ; Dollarama ; Dr. Keeler ; DuckDuckGo ; Dundas Street ; dumpster ; ear ; Earth ; economic calamity ; Empire Sandy ; engineer ; ensign ; Entera ; Enterprise , UEF ; Enterprise , USS ; equipment ; Europa ; explorer ; fad ; Farragut , USS ; FDNY ; Federation ; fire extinguisher ; first contact ; Foot Locker ; Ford Crown Victoria ; Ford EcoSport ; Ford Escape ; Ford E-Series ; Ford Focus ; Ford Taurus ; Freshii ; friend ; Gain ; genomics ; Gettysburg Address ; gift ; glass ; graffiti ; grandfather ; gravy ; Greater Toronto Newscast ; H&M ; half-life ; hand grenade ; handheld time travel device ; Harbourfront Centre ; Hawthorne, Nathaniel ; head ; hell ; Hitachi ; Honda Civic ; hot dog ; Human history ; hybrid ; Illyrian ; INS Market ; International Space Station ; Internet ; Iowa ; Iowa , USS ; iPhone 13 Pro ; jersey ; JFK ; John Street ; Jump ; Kajama ; Kerathanol ; Kingston ; Kirk, George ; Kirk, George Samuel ; Kirk, Tiberius ; Kirk, Winona ; Kirk's Vulcan cellmate ; Lake Ontario Bridge ; Lakeview, The ; Lanthanite ; law enforcement ; lieutenant ; lieutenant commander ; Lincoln, Abraham ; Louvre ; Luna ; Luna Shipyards ; lunar habitat ; ma'am ; maple leaf ; Mark of Cain ; Mars ; math class ; matriarch ; meme ; Mercedes-Benz GLK 350 ; Metro Centre ; Metro Hall ; Milestones Grill and Bar ; Milky Way Galaxy ; minibar ; The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil ; Montpelier ; Montreal ; natural disaster ; neutron ; New York City ; noise complaint ; Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement ; Northern Spirit ; Old Testament ; Ontario ; op-ed ; Ottawa ; pack rat ; pallet ; parents ; past ; Pearl Street ; phaser ; phosphor ; photonic bomb ; physician ; Pilsner ; pistol ; Plomeek soup ; Popeyes ; Princess of Wales Theatre ; Propritrolix ; provenance ; poutine ; Pythagoras ; Quebec ; radiation ; RBC ; revolving door ; ring ; Ritz-Carlton, The ; Riverside ; Rogers Centre ; Romulan ; Romulan Bird-of-Prey ( unnamed ); Romulan Star Empire ; Romulus ; Roots ; Royal Alexandra Theatre ; Ryerson University ; Samsung ; scalpel ; scarlet letter ; Scarlet Letter, The ; security officer's log ; shower ; Sh'Rel ; Simcoe Street ; Singin' in the Rain ; socialist ; Sol ; sonic shower ; space ; sparring partner ; Spring Sushi ; stardate ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet uniform ; streaming ; Subaru Outback ; superior officer ; Tampax ; temporal mechanics ; Tenor, The ; Three Eyed Goat IPA ; Ticonderoga ; Tim Hortons ; time travel ; toilet ; Toronto ; Toronto City Hall ; Toronto City Police ; Toronto Eaton Centre ; Toronto Fire ; Toronto Maple Leafs ; Toronto Odyssey ; T'Plana -type ; traffic light ; transporter buffer ; transporter room ; tricorder ; tritium ; Toyota Tacoma ; Toyota RAV4 ; Tunguska ; UEF Command ; Underbelly Bourbon ; United Earth Fleet (aka UEF ); United Earth Fleet uniform ; utopia ; UPS ; Venus ; Vermont ; Vermont Taxi ; video ; Volvo ; Volvo XC90 ; Vulcan (planet); Vulcan (species); Vulcan lute ; Vulcan uniform ; Walking On A Cloud ; Walrus Pub & Beer Hall ; wallet ; watch dial ; Wellington Street ; Winners ; wristwatch ; year ; Yonge Street

Meta references [ ]

Black Lips ; Home Of Happy, The ; " Modern Art "; Molly ; " This Is It "

External links [ ]

• " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow " at the Internet Movie Database
• " "Discovering Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 2 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)
• 3 Star Trek: The Next Generation

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 Review – ‘Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow’

June 28, 2023 by Chris Connor

Chris Connor reviews the third episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2…

Strange New Worlds has further cemented its place with the opening couple of episodes of its sophomore season going in some unexpected directions and focusing on its ensemble cast. Episode three is structured in a similar fashion to the finale of the opening season with an alternate version of James T. Kirk front and centre.

Christina Chong’s La’an Noonien-Singh, a highlight throughout the show to date, here takes centre stage alongside the alternative Kirk. Thrust into a timeline in which Starfleet doesn’t exist and none of her crew are aboard the Enterprise, La’an has to find a way to correct the timeline before it is too late and a major catastrophe occurs.

The alternate timeline brings with it some fun variations on Trek canon with Spock not acquainted with Kirk and Kirk born in space rather than Earth. The bulk of the episode takes place on 21 st Century Earth, offering a fun fish-out-of-water scenario for this Kirk and La’an, similar in a fashion to The Voyage Home with the original crew.

The episode builds on the reoccurring theme of La’an’s heritage, descended from the classic villain Khan from The Original Series and The Wrath of Khan film sequel. Chong captures La’ans disdain for her heritage but also desire to do good and protect those she cares about.

Paul Wesley reprises his role as Kirk from the first season, funnily enough, both alternate versions of the character, and while he is not quite the spitting image of William Shatner, he is solid in the role.  The interplay between La’an and Jim does much of the work in this episode with the pair sharing fine chemistry and La’an’s knowledge of Earth, funnily juxtaposed with this Kirk’s lack of it.

The core concept of the episode plays out almost like the classic Doctor Who serial Genesis of the Daleks and the idea of stopping a monster before they go on to commit atrocities. It offers some clever moral questions and again takes the series in some new directions, making it all the better for it.

‘Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow’, is another stellar episode in Strange New Worlds ’ second season, largely a two-hander between Paul Wesley and Christina Chong who make it constantly engaging as with previous episodes it never feels its runtime with and is an incredibly enjoyable watch. Again there is a welcome focus on other members of the enterprise crew and Paul Wesley continues to impress as Kirk, who we can only assume will have a meatier role in future.

The moral questions raised are handled delicately and the Earth and 21st Century settings help differentiate from previous Trek adventures, while Christina Chong once again proves how effortlessly she has captured La’an’s psyche and internal conflict.With such a strong run of episodes fans will surely hope season 2 is able to maintain this high quality level for the remainder of its ten episode run.

Chris Connor

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Demonic Horror Movies To Send Shivers Down Your Spine

The Best Modern Horror Films You Might Have Missed

The 1990s in Comic Book Movies

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective – The zany Jim Carrey comedy at 30

Ten Essential Films of the 1940s

House of the Dragon: What Happens to Alicent Hightower in the Book?

Sirens from Space: Species and Under The Skin

House of the Dragon: All the Important Houses in Season 2 and Who They Fight for Explained

The Essential Horror-Comedies of the 21st Century

Robin of Sherwood: Still the quintessential take on the Robin Hood legend

• Comic Books
• Video Games
• Toys & Collectibles
• Articles and Opinions
• About Flickering Myth
• Write for Flickering Myth
• Advertise on Flickering Myth
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds News
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Reviews
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Guide
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Quotes
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Pictures

Follow Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star trek: strange new worlds season 2 episode 3 review: tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Oh, the layers of meaning and nuance on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 are truly impressive.

For an offering that could easily be written off as a buddy-romcom time travel side adventure, there is a plethora of character development for La'an and multiple on-ramps for future plotlines, including the intriguing potential of a La'an-Kirk romance.

Bringing the Temporal Wars into the mix is a ballsy move; as we all know, messing with the space-time continuum always leads to shenanigans.

The timing of La'an's adventure is awfully on the nose, seeing as she's still struggling with Una's revealed identity as an Illyrian, a perceived betrayal in light of the name La'an carries.

Her sparring session with M'Benga underscores the emotional baggage she can't unload, while her personal logs indicate her isolation in her role as Chief Security Officer.

Where Hemmer and Uhura had a lot of bonding time on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 , with Hemmer providing Cadet Uhura with guidance and the opportunity to find her direction, Pelia could be the catalyst for La'an's emotional breakthrough this season.

With her extreme longevity and unique perspective on humanity's development over the centuries, Pelia affords a particular wisdom unlike any La'an is ever likely to run across again.

Once you have lived through every natural disaster and economic calamity in human history without becoming a packrat, then you can judge me. Pelia Permalink: Once you have lived through every natural disaster and economic calamity in human history...

Furthermore, she's had to hide her identity for nearly all of her existence. With Una and La'an, she forms a type of triumvirate of identity and disclosure.

Una is Illyrian and hid it until she couldn't. La'an has lived her entire life with the specter of her genocidal ancestor as public knowledge. Pelia has concealed her identity for much longer than either officer has been alive, but, in her case, disclosure carries no punitive consequence.

I love that Pelia is both a brilliant engineer and a pragmatic hoarder. I'd defend her liberation of Louvre artwork as an extreme devotion to souvenir collecting. Just my hot take, but don't bother fighting me on it.

Needless to say, Carol Kane is a fantastic addition to the crew, interested in the work but, even more so, interested in the people.

Well, both having brain-melting secrets is I guess a good enough reason to help someone. Pelia Permalink: Well, both having brain-melting secrets is I guess a good enough reason to help someone.

Pelia's natural curiosity and willingness to lean in when the call to adventure comes is probably why she seeks out the new and novel with such enthusiasm. It's an elegant balance to La'an's analytical and cautious approach.

Kirk: You’re … not an engineer. Pelia: I work retail. Does this look like an engineer’s engineering place? I haven’t taken a Math class since Pythagoras made the crap up! Permalink: I work retail. Does this look like an engineer’s engineering place? I haven’t taken a Math...

It's amusing that La'an's reluctance to trust Sera because of her conspiracy-theorist roots doesn't extend to Pelia despite the Lanthanite's even less reliable resources.

However, as with most organized packrats, Pelia has what they need when needed. And La'an is able to track her down because of a seemingly innocuous comment about Vermont when she's searching Pelia's belongings on the Enterprise. And DuckDuckGo.

Come to think of it, the shape of the narrative is a thing of beauty. Everything relevant to La'an's mission is seeded into the opening scenes.

It is a well-known fact that people love it when you bring them bad news…. And quite frankly, who doesn’t find having their belongings searched endearing? La’an Permalink: It is a well-known fact that people love it when you bring them bad news…. And quite frankly,...

Mind you, I don't think anyone expected Toronto, Canada, to play such a large part in Star Trek history.

And I'm skeptical that a bridge across Lake Ontario will ever be necessary. I'd really like to know where it goes to. Rochester? Oswego? Besides the symbolism, what would be the point?

A couple more semantical questions: How much money did Kirk win at chess that they could afford that hotel room, pay for the busses to get to Vermont, AND have enough to bribe a border guard? Also, they had to get back to Toronto using the same route, and Canadian Border Services are way bigger sticks in the mud, so how'd they manage that?

Kirk: Seems to be New York City. Mid 21st Century. La’an: What? It’s Toronto. The biggest city in what used to be called Canada? Y’know, maple leaves, politeness, poutine… Take it you’ve never been. Permalink: What? It’s Toronto. The biggest city in what used to be called Canada? Y’know, maple leaves,...

Space-born Kirk is now the second alternate Kirk we've seen Paul Wesley portray, the first being on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 10 .

His initial response to La'an's explanation for her presence on his ship seems reasonable.

Kirk: So you’re telling me that there’s an alternate timeline where I’m not the captain of this ship. La’an: All I know is that ten minutes ago, I was on my ship with my captain and now I’m here. Kirk: And everything’s changed. La’an: Yes. Kirk: Our scientists have theorized that such a thing could be possible. A far simpler explanation is you’ve lost your mind. Permalink: Our scientists have theorized that such a thing could be possible. A far simpler explanation...

Time travel shenanigans abound. They not only shoplift their clothes and steal a car, they leave their clothes from the future (but presumably not their com badges?) in a trash bin. They illegally cross an international border TWICE and shark many chess players. And then, there's Kirk's dead body left lying in the lobby of the Noonien Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement.

All this happens before the fork in the timeline, so it's now history. Unless, of course, Temporal agents go around collecting the clothes and retconning everyone La'an and Kirk interact with. And maybe dematerializing Kirk's corpse.

La’an: In my timeline, humanity has spread across dozens of worlds. We’re a part of a federation of species. Kirk: You don’t need anyone else’s help to survive. La’an: And just surviving is good enough for you? Kirk: Oh, and I suppose you come from some sort of a utopia? La’an: My Earth still has sunsets. Permalink: My Earth still has sunsets.

It's curious that Agent Ymalay remembers to take back the Temporal Agency equipment but doesn't feel the need to take La'an's watch or shoplifted clothes.

That final focus on the watch solidly foreshadows that the timey-wimey stuff isn't gone for good.

La’an: Never seen a revolving door before? Kirk: I’m from space. Permalink: I’m from space.

The title, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," refers to Shakespeare's Macbeth and a soliloquy that Q infamously appropriates on Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Episode 9, when he and Picard debate the futility of the human existence.

In La'an's case, it seems more fitting to recall that "all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death" as it accurately describes Sera's demise. Also, would space-born Kirk then be the poor player with his hour upon the stage, to be heard no more?

La'an's time with space-born Kirk reminds me of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 2 when Seven wakes up and discovers she is Annika, having never been assimilated.

Spending time with someone who has no idea who Khan Noonien Singh is lifts the weight off La'an, just as Seven finds freedom in life without the stigma of being an X-B.

People are usually… difficult for me. There’s always been a barrier and it can get lonely. La’an Permalink: People are usually… difficult for me. There’s always been a barrier and it can get lonely.

Perhaps, now that La'an's experienced that spiritual liberty, she'll remember how it felt and look for a way to free herself again back in her own timeline.

My real name is La’an Noonien Singh. My ancestor is Khan Noonien Singh and his legacy is genocide, torture, and ME. La’an Permalink: My real name is La’an Noonien Singh. My ancestor is Khan Noonien Singh is Khan Noonien Singh...

Or maybe, having met Khan as a young child and choosing to let him live, she is more accepting of the idea that his choices do not mean that she'll make the same ones or that she must continue to pay penance for his sins.

Sera: Time is like a black box. It’s too complicated to leave to intuition, so we built computers that will tell us the results of certain changes. La’an: And this was your answer? Sera: Khan becomes a brutal tyrant. Maybe humanity needs the dark age that he brings in to usher in their Age of Enlightenment. Or maybe it’s just random. Doesn’t really matter though. See, if I kill him, the Federation never forms and the Romulans lose their greatest adversary. Permalink: Khan becomes a brutal tyrant. Maybe humanity needs the dark age that he brings in to usher in...

La'an is confident in her skills, ability, and knowledge as a Starfleet officer, but under that veneer of polish and protocol, her insecurities as a person are immense.

Will the bud of romance that sprouted between space-born Kirk and her affect how she and the Earth-born Kirk get to know each other? And, really, do we want it to?

Now that she's in the know about Temporal agents, will she be tapped again when needs must? How will that watch play into the next mission?

La’an: I’ve been carrying something around for a long time, something in my heritage. Kirk: You come from a long line of ax murderers? La’an: Oh, no. We never use axes. Permalink: Oh, no. We never use axes.

The possibilities are vast, and because our tomorrows are not written yet, La'an could use her new experiences to take any number of paths.

Will it make her wiser? Softer? More understanding? Or will she seal herself off even more than before?

Hit our comments with your best guesses and biggest takeaways!

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Review

Diana Keng was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X .

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 Quotes

Once you have lived through every natural disaster and economic calamity in human history without becoming a packrat, then you can judge me. Pelia Permalink: Once you have lived through every natural disaster and economic calamity in human history... Added: June 27, 2023

It is a well-known fact that people love it when you bring them bad news…. And quite frankly, who doesn’t find having their belongings searched endearing? La’an Permalink: It is a well-known fact that people love it when you bring them bad news…. And quite frankly,... Added: June 27, 2023

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 Photos

6/29/23 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review: All Our Yesterdays
• February 2024
• January 2024
• 2023 Archives
• 2022 Archives
• 2021 Archives
• 2020 Archives
• 2019 Archives
• 2018 Archives
• 2017 Archives
• 2016 Archives
• 2015 Archives
• 2014 Archives

© 2024 TV Fanatic | About Us | Copyright Inquiry | Privacy Policy | Contact Us

© 2024 TV Fanatic

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Information.

© 2023 Paramount Global

Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

Internet Service Terms Apple TV & Privacy Cookie Policy Support

'Edge of Tomorrow's Grueling Journey to the Silver Screen

• Edge of Tomorrow almost starred Brad Pitt, but Tom Cruise ended up being the perfect choice for the lead role.
• The lengthy shooting schedule of the film saw the director and cast facing challenges, including reshoots and intense fight sequences that caused injuries.
• Despite behind-the-scenes struggles, Edge of Tomorrow remains a science fiction success worth watching even a decade later.

Edge of Tomorrow is a movie that continues to impress a decade after its release. It carries some impressive star power in the form of Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt and boasts one of the more inventive premises for a science fiction story. When a race of alien invaders attacks the Earth, Major David Cage (Cruise) is conscripted into fighting said aliens. But during the fight, he is coated in alien biomatter that allows him to relive that same day whenever he dies. While Cage uses his newfound ability to try and turn the tide of the war, the behind-the-scenes work of shooting Edge of Tomorrow dwarfed any conflict on the big screen. Those issues included rewrites, a different choice for the leading man, and a stressful shooting schedule.

Edge of Tomorrow

A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.

Release Date June 6, 2014

Director Doug Liman

Cast Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Emily Blunt, Tony Way, Jonas Armstrong, Tom Cruise

Rating PG-13

Runtime 113 minutes

Main Genre Action

Genres Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Writers John-Henry Butterworth, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Jez Butterworth, Christopher McQuarrie

Studio Warner Bros. Pictures

Tagline Live, Die, Repeat

'Edge of Tomorrow' Almost Starred Brad Pitt Instead of Tom Cruise

Edge of Tomorrow traces its origins back to the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill , which was optioned by 3 Arts Entertainment shortly after VIZ published the English language translation. Shortly after this, Dante Harper was tapped to pen the script. But when Cruise and director Doug Liman boarded Edge of Tomorrow, other screenwriters ended up re-working Harper's script . Those writers included Joby Harold ( Obi-Wan Kenobi ) , Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci ( Star Trek ), and Simon Kinberg (who previously wrote the Liman-directed Jumper ). The final version of Edge of Tomorrow comes courtesy of Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Christopher McQuarrie — but even then it wasn't easy, as McQuarrie struggled with the ending scene.

Thankfully, Cruise had a solution for him: lean into the comedy of it all. After all, there's something darkly humorous about a man who's constantly dying in pursuit of saving the world — Cruise even compared it to Wile E. Coyote ! "We really struggled to deliver what the movie needed to be emotionally. I know the ending was somewhat controversial, with some people who didn’t like it. I think the only way to make those people happy would to end the movie in a way that wasn’t happy. We weren’t interested in doing that. It needed to end in a way that wasn’t harsh,” McQuarrie told Film School Rejects following Edge of Tomorrow' s release.

But Edge of Tomorrow could have turned out far differently because Warner Bros wanted Brad Pitt in the lead role . Pitt ultimately declined, leaving Warner Bros to go to Cruise as its next choice. The result delivered Edge of Tomorrow in its final form, and nearly all parties involved reaped the reward. Cruise and McQuarrie, who'd previously worked together, went on to collaborate on the recent run of Mission: Impossible films . Cruise also recently struck a deal with Warner Bros. to star in and produce films for the studio.

Why Havent We Gotten an 'Edge of Tomorrow' Sequel?

'edge of tomorrow' had a lengthy shooting schedule.

Even with a completed script and the right cast, Edge of Tomorrow still had some issues while filming. Part of that was due to Liman's approach to filming, which saw him overrun budgets and butt heads with his talent. The Los Angeles Times ran an interview with Liman, where he recalled an interaction with Blunt that left everyone on set shocked. "I was a little under pressure and I snapped...And Emily said, 'Easy, I've never made a movie like this before!' I fired back, 'Well, neither have I!'" Liman said. "My producer Erwin Stoff told me later it was the most incredible thing he'd ever heard anyone say: The director telling the stars of the movie that, basically, he had no idea what he was doing."

Even with Liman admitting that he may have been in over his head, his choices while filming would have directors of all stripes scratching their heads. On the second day of filming, he wanted to reshoot everything from the first day. That was nothing compared to filming an intense fight sequence on a beach set, which marks the point of the film where Cage is locked into the time loop. This shoot, which was planned for two weeks, ended up lasting three whole months — and put the actors through hell, with Blunt almost breaking her nose during a stunt . Despite this, she praised Liman for his "refreshing" honesty. "He has no filter when it comes to being honest,...you can waste so much time with politeness and diplomacy on set. That's what's so refreshing about Doug. He's honest when he's not happy with something and very honest when he is happy with something. He's confident enough to try anything and carve out new space for every moment that is in the movie." Blunt told the Los Angeles Times .

Looking at all the behind-the-scenes struggles, from the constant rewrites to the long shooting schedule, it's a miracle that Edge of Tomorrow managed to be both a critical and commercial success. But the end result delivered a science fiction spectacle that's still worth a watch 10 years later.

Edge of Tomorrow is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

Watch on Apple TV+

'The Bachelorette' 2024: ABC Reveals 28 Potential Contestants with Early Look Photos

Who Won 'The Bachelor' 2024? Joey's Winner Finally Revealed During Season 28 Finale!

Paul Mescal & Ayo Edebiri Rom-Com Casting Rumors Addressed by Author

Timothee Chalamet Films Late-Night Scenes for Bob Dylan Biopic 'A Complete Unknown' in NYC

Cillian Murphy to Star in 'Blood Runs Coal,' Based on a Thrilling True Story!

Cillian Murphy has booked his next movie role!

The 47-year-old actor recently won his first Oscar ! Cillian emerged victorious in the category of Best Lead Actor for his performance in Christopher Nolan ‘s Oppenheimer .

On Monday (March 25), it was reported that Cillian will star in an upcoming film titled, Blood Runs Coal !

Keep reading to find out more…

The movie will be based on the Mark A. Bradley book Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America , which details real-world events in 1960s Pennsylvania.

The story focuses on Jock Yablonski, a coal miner who advocated for better working conditions with the United Mine Workers after a mine explosion killed his father. Jock was eventually murdered by his corrupt union president Tony Boyle.

According to Deadline , who announced the casting news on Monday, Cillian will portray Chip Yablonski, Jock’s son who became a labor attorney to achieve justice for his father.

The script for Blood Runs Coal will be written by Edge of Tomorrow duo Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth .

Cillian is also attached as a producer.

If you missed it, Cillian Murphy will officially return to one of his most iconic roles!

JJ: Latest Posts

• Halle Berry Opens Up About Mistaking...
• Joey & Kelsey Talk Life After 'The...
• Brian Tyree Henry Shares His Thoughts...
• 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' Actor Says His...
• Anne Hathaway Reveals When She Last...
• 'The Bachelorette' 2024: ABC Reveals...
• Rebecca Hall Joins Brian Tyree Henry,...
• Julianna Margulies & Cole Escola...
• Christina Ricci Reveals How Filming...
• Daisy Kent Explains Why She's Not the...
• 'The Bachelorette' 2024: Jenn Tran...
• Dua Lipa & Boyfriend Callum Turner...
• Sydney Sweeney Wears Pink Jumpsuit for...
• Who Won 'The Bachelor' 2024? Joey's...

Just Jared Jr.

• Get to Know 10 Fun Facts About 'Davey...
• 'Wizards of Waverly Place' Sequel...
• Jenna Ortega Stars In First...
• Former Nickelodeon Stars Jayden...
• 'Davey & Jonesie's Locker' Star...
• Tanner Buchanan Rocks Speedo In 'How...
• 'Wizards of Waverly Place' Casting...
• © 2005-2024 Just Jared, Inc. ||
• Accessibility
• Privacy Policy
• Manage Cookies
• Return to Mobile

Screen Rant

Dc’s legends of tomorrow original plan for major scrubs reunion revealed by showrunner.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow considered an exciting casting choice that would have brought to life a major Scrubs reunion in the Arrowverse.

• Legends of Tomorrow considered having Zach Braff voice Skeets alongside Donald Faison's Booster Gold.
• The show introduced Booster Gold in Season 7 finale, but as the series was canceled, he only made one appearance.
• Donald Faison's Booster Gold will be replaced in a new Booster Gold DCU series, with Glen Powell as the fan-favorite to take on the role.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow had plans to bring two stars from Scrubs together in the Arrowverse. While Arrowverse series like Stephen Amell's Arrow and Grant Gustin's The Flash focused on individual heroes, Legends of Tomorrow was a true ensemble show. As such, many exciting characters passed through Legends of Tomorrow . One of the latest additions to the series was Booster Gold , and the show had ideas for a major Scrubs reunion around the DC hero.

Booster Gold was introduced in Legends of Tomorrow 's season 7 finale. As the show was canceled, the hero only made one appearance in the Arrowverse.

Speaking on The Showrunner Whisperer , Legends of Tomorrow showrunner Keto Shimizu revealed that Scrubs ' Zach Braff was considered for the voice of Skeets, Booster Gold's robotic companion . That would have reunited him with Scrubs co-star Donald Faison, who played Booster Gold in the DC series.

According to Shimizu, it would have been easier to get Braff to voice Skeets alongside Faison's Booster Gold in Legends of Tomorrow than have to work the series' budget to include him in a physical role. Braff had previously been rumored to play Ted Kord's Blue Beetle. Check out the full exchange below:

Interviewer: At some point, you must have asked, 'You know what we could also do? We bring in Zach Braff' and have him play someone close to Booster, that must have happened?

Keto Shimizu: [Laughs] Of course, of course, we love Zach! We thought about him maybe being the voice of his little robot.

Interviewer: Skeets?

Keto Shimizu: Yeah! We thought about that because that would have been an easy way to get Zach in there and have him do the voice as opposed to trying to finding money to pay for him to actually be on the show, [laughs] so that's what we were throwing around.

Why Legends Of Tomorrow Was Canceled Before Season 8

How booster gold will continue after legends of tomorrow, donald faison makes way for a new actor.

While Faison's version of Booster Gold in Legends of Tomorrow was short-lived due to the series getting canceled, the character will soon be making a live-action return in a major way. During the announcement of the first projects in the new DC Universe, it was revealed that a Booster Gold series is in development for Max . At the time of the reveal, an actor was said to be in talks for the role.

Since then, no casting has been announced for Booster Gold in the DCU; however, there is a clear fan-favorite for the role. After electric turns in Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone but You , Glen Powell has become the most popular name to take on the role of Booster Gold . The actor has succeeded in giving life to characters who look arrogant and self-centered but have a heart deep down, like Booster.

Adding to that, Powell was recently announced to produce, write, and star in Chad Powers , a series about a talented college football quarterback who throws his career away due to his bad behavior. Before becoming Booster Gold, Michael Carter was a star quarterback at Gotham U , which makes Powell even more of a great fit for the DCU's Booster Gold. It stands to be seen who will succeed Legends of Tomorrow star Faison as the next live-action Booster Gold.

Legends of Tomorrow

Source: The Showrunner Whisperer

Key Release Dates

Joker: folie a deux, superman (2025), the batman part ii.