Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
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But first, the episode offers a glimpse of Laan Noonien-Singhs everyday duties as chief of security.
Its not a boring job.
(Did no one notice she was bringing all that aboard?)
This is not an ordinary occurrence, even on theEnterprise.
Something is clearly off, and we see justhowoff after the credits roll.
Kirk meets Spock, here a Vulcan captain who unsuccessfully pleads for Earths help in fighting the Romulans.
Ortegas and Uhura are there but dont recognize their friend.
To his credit, Kirk treats her theory as plausible.
(Unless, of course, shes crazy, which he does not rule out.)
But when Laan presses the button on the odd gear, theory becomes practice.
In a blink, she and Kirk are transported to 21st-century Toronto.
Their mission might be urgent, but they need their rest.
That, however, will have to wait.
Laans counterargument is, in short, that his timeline sucks.
Hes supposed to be an explorer, not a soldier.
Then the newly constructed bridge outside their window blows up.
Sothatswhat Get to the bridge meant!
So whatwerethey supposed to do?
Whatever happens in the diverging future, Khans life assuredly takes a different course.
When Kirk tells her that his wife was once abducted by aliens, they form an alliance.
(Or so Kirk and Laan believe.)
And its this detail that allows them to figure out what they have to change.
In Kirks timeline, Romulans destroy an experimental cold-fusion reactor, wiping out Toronto.
In Laans, none of this happens.
Time to save the reactor!
But first, theyll require a tricorder, a piece of future tech theyll need an engineer to create.
The catch: Pelias no engineer, at least not yet.
In the 21st century, the Lanthanite runs a (somewhat suspect) antiques shop.
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.
Kirk wasnt bluffing, though.
They fight, and Laan wins, saving the future in the process.
(You havent heard of us because we dont exist yet.)
After a brief conversation, Laan breaks down.
What she just experienced never happened, but it still left its mark.
Christina Chong certainly rises to the occasion.
Shes well matched by Wesley, whose Kirk gets more screen time than ever before.
Hes deftly comic without losing Kirks essential gravity.
Will we see more of him?
The episode lets those questions linger.
Hit It!
Im 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 funDeep Space Nineepisode Trials and Tribble-ations.
(It was also the focus of someStar Treknovels.)
The DTI agents in thatDS9episode 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.
