2.03 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

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La'an travels back in time to 21st-century Earth to prevent an attack which will alter humanity's future history.

IMDB score: 8.4 Runtime: 61 minutes

 

[ctg]

Here we go again. Star Trek doesn't seem to be able to make a season without involving itself into the Time Travel business. It literally is a business now because it's in every series since the original one. Back then, in the 1960's it was an anomaly as there weren't that many TT shows.

Not even in the nineties, TT were featured heavily, but it became a pattern when NG appeared on the small screen. To me, the Time Travel story has to be impactful, it has to have a meaning for the series and the season, and it shouldn't be shelled out willy-nilly, just because there is a need and TT offers an easy way out.

Bloody hell, Star Trek itself has an agency from 29th to 30+ centuries ST world that is fixed, and it has captured one of the NG characters (Wesley Crusher plus Dr Soong's daughter) to be guardians of the Temporal Harmony. Yet, we never seem them.

Well, let's see how this develops...

I just love the Chief. Pelia claimed, "Once you have lived through every natural disaster and economic calamity in human history without becoming a pack rat, then you can judge me." As if being an 'immortal' horder was an abnormality and therefore something that people should accept in the "no money socialist utopia" thing.

She doesn't really fit in the ST universe, but the matter of fact is that she's absolutely perfect addition to the Enterprise crew. After all, they are not all carved from the same wood.

"Who are you and how did you get on board?" Lt Nooien-Singh shouted as a Traveller appeared on board with a bleeding hole on his side. She didn't even blink that the hole wasn't made by phaser, but a bullet.

"There's been an attack," Traveller gasped. "In the past." Could he not be more vague? "You have to stop it." Then he pulled an old Ericsson clam phone from his pocket and made it to display a holographic temporal map for the event.

No explanation on who he presented, but the dialogue indicates that he was part of the Temporal Agency. It was just when Lt walked into the bridge, it wasn't her crew as on the Captain's chair were James T Kirk from an Alternate Reality.

So the switched must have happened, when the Traveller handed over the device, and it didn't involve an enormous amount of energy or speed. Which in itself is very interesting.

I'm not sure if the Alt Reality is the one the sprouts Discovery's Empress, but seeing that Mr Kirk was up against Vulcan piloted by Spock, I am believing that it's a close branch from that timeline. He claimed that their Enterprise was part of the United Earth Fleet that had carved enough of territory to be on border with Vulcan's, who were in war with Romulus. That was before he stated that UEF wasn't interested in helping them, because they had their own problems with Romulans Empire.

I laughed and hated at the same time on Mr Kirk making a conclusion that Lt Nooien-Singh's 'device' was "a weapon of some kind," when they were discussing her presence in his Enterprise at the ready room. It really intrigued me that he was willing to go and try to grab the device from a red shirt, as if he'd a story shield and fighting the security uniforms is a thing for him.

In the fight, they accidentally pressed the button and travelled to past. The one with the problem. It really surprised me that Alt Reality Kirk felt naked without a phaser, communicator or a tricorder. He had no choice but to follow sec officer to 21st century Toronto. Then he opened his mouth and proved that he cannot read as he said, "Seems to be a New York City," even though they were standing at front of Toronto's Eaton Centre.



Then he revealed that he'd never been to Earth as he was "born in space at USS Idaho," before he stated that his Earth was a ruined battleground. That was all before he revealed to not be able to hack revolving doors. How did he make to be a captain?

The one good quality that speaks loudly on Kirk's is that he was able to hustle street chess players and get them pocket cash for the time being. Why is that all the ST people in the past commit to do some crimes?

One thing that surprised me in the aftermath was Kirk's affection for the hot dogs. If Earth was ruined, did the hot dogs make to be a stable food for the United Earth fleet?

Another thing James shares with other Kirk's is that he was in charming enough for Lt to come to check him sleeping on couch in the middle of the night. I'm certain that if this series hadn't been family friendly, they would have shared a bed together and been happy about it.

The divergence. Apparently somebody is going to blow Toronto's Bridge with photon bombs and that ultimately causes the Alternate Timeline. I don't get it because the Nord Stream Pipe Attacks seemed more likely to cause a big confrontation than a bridge attack. At Canada.

Another problem for the Kirk's and divergence is that the Alt Reality Jimmy doesn't know how to drive cars. But like other Kirk's he was fast learner and able to drive perfectly in a winter condition. All while his first car was a muscle model with more than enough of horses under the hood.

It wasn't long before they were pulled off for speeding and driving recklessly without a licence. Which in Kirk's books is another feather in the cap. But they couldn't go endless with the foolishness the pair was saved by a blogger activist, who ultimately believed that the attacks were done by the

He even had pictures and footage that set the pair on the right track. And Kirk was able to put in another piece, an experimental fusion reactor, which explosion wiped Toronto in his Alt Reality.

For not being able to use the internet, their next port of call was Chief Pelia in the past. In her shop, full of antiques. Except she wasn't an engineer. Just a very resourceful lady.

Back in Toronto Lt admitted that she was into James, because he wasn't judging her by relationship to the Great Khaaaaaaan. And then this happened. She even asked him to come to Enterprise with her, as if being a time-traveller's wife was a thing.

So the next thing was they ended in Toronto's University at Noonien-Singh's Institute, where Alt Kirk took a bullet from a Romulan Traveller. One who claimed that humanity was to become a big problem in the future.

The Romulan plan was to kill Khan. She explained that in the future they've invented computers that "can predict certain changes." The problem for the Lt was the Grandfather Paradox. She refused to give Romulan access to Khan. When she double tapped the agent, TT device turned active and Lt met her grandfather, the Great Khan as a little boy.

Not long after, she returned to her timeline and met a Temporal Agent, who told her to keep everything secret. She handed over the equipment, pined for her lost man. She even placed a call to Jimmy and then shed some tears, because she couldn't confess her love. Poor woman.

--

Acceptable TT episode.

 

[Dave]

"born in space at USS Idaho,"

He said he was born on the USS Iowa. It's a reference to Star Trek: The Voyage Home when he tells Gillian, the Whale scientist, "I was born in Iowa, I just work in outer space!" Sorry, but I can almost quote the whole of that script. This is the Mirror Universe, so it's the exact opposite. He was born in outer space, but still born in/on Iowa. That's why La'an asks Kirk where Sam was born at the end. She knows things have returned to normal because he replies, "Riverside, Iowa", which must please the people of Riverside, because they've made a big deal of it being Kirk's place of birth, with lots of tourism, but I don't think that was actually canon until now.

I thought it was also a very clever way to point out that this was the Mirror Universe. This was the first ever visit by SNW there, but also the first "ever" visit there, because this is the point where the fork in the timeline was actually created. Without this there would be no Empress Philippa Georgiou!

I thought the whole idea was very clever writing, and I couldn't poke holes in the timelines, though there probably will be something that doesn't add up somewhere.

Though I do agree with you, the destruction of that bridge, or even the blowing up of the Cold Fusion reactor at the Noonian Singh facility, they don't seem to be enough of a pivot to change the timeline so much. Still, it's the butterfly effect, I guess.

If Earth was ruined, did the hot dogs make to be a stable food for the United Earth fleet?

Yes, of all the things to survive the apocalypse, Hot Dogs seem the most unlikely.

If Mirror Kirk knows about Romulan spacecraft, then the Romulans never withdrew after the Earth-Romulan War. Romulan individuals had never been seen until the first season of TOS. In the Mirror Universe, they are clearly at war with Vulcans and have been for some time.

their next port of call was Chief Pelia in the past. In her shop, full of antiques. Except she wasn't an engineer.

I was surprised that she wasn't an an engineer too. Again, I thought this was such a clever way to write her back-story, as an alternative to a huge info-dump. I've been thinking about Lanthanite Immortals though - why don't their ears and noses keep growing like they do in other humanoids?

Alt Kirk took a bullet from a Romulan Traveller.

And then Strange New Worlds brings back Star Trek’s greatest and most iconic villain with a twist - he's a child! Though the Romulan Agent said she had been waiting around to kill him for thirty years since 1992. This is their explanation of why the Eugenic Wars haven't taken place yet, but it doesn't explain much - was this postponement a different timeline fork? What has postponed them? Why is Khan still a young boy?

She even placed a call to Jimmy and then shed some tears, because she couldn't confess her love.

Kirk has that same effect on all females! Unless he has to teach them "the meaning of love!"

 

[ctg]

I thought it was also a very clever way to point out that this was the Mirror Universe. This was the first ever visit by SNW there, but also the first "ever" visit there, because this is the point where the fork in the timeline was actually created. Without this there would be no Empress Philippa Georgiou!

You say fork, I'd say it has been there forever, but the writers had the confines of the script, so they couldn't endlessly spam info. It's just they didn't seem to be fighting against everyone. Remember, their Earth still had sunsets, before it all went wrong. So the divergence isn't that great at Toronto's bombing. After that event it starts to become greater, but we don't know much about the past before that point.

I've been thinking about Lanthanite Immortals though - why don't their ears and noses keep growing like they do in other humanoids?

I don't know because I don't get immortality or rather impossible longevity. It just doesn't make sense, and thinking it gives me a migraine.

What has postponed them? Why is Khan still a young boy?

Because the Eugenic Wars hasn't happened yet. I'm more interested on who was the old man, whose face they didn't show?

 

[Dave]

Because the Eugenic Wars hasn't happened yet. I'm more interested on who was the old man, whose face they didn't show?

Yes, but my Star Trek Chronology book (which was being used as a writer's bible during the late TNG/DS9/VOY years) says that the Eugenic Wars took place following 1992. This actually fits with the 30 years that the Romulan time traveller said she had been waiting (though she didn't look old enough either.) I understand that the Eugenic Wars haven't happened yet, but I thought that Khan should have grown 30 years older within that time. (When they got sent to Ceti Alpha V they were aboard a sleeper ship and didn't age for a hundred years.)

I didn't catch an "old man, whose face they didn't show" but he would be the father - the actual scientist who performed the genetic enhancements of the children to create the race of genetically-engineered superhuman augments. (Hence, the picture of other children.) He would be the very first Noonian Singh of them all. I guess, that the Romulan time traveller has at least been successful in delaying his work on augmentation, and that is the reason the the children weren't born until later, and so are still young.

You say fork, I'd say it has been there forever

It was they who mentioned a "fork," in the script, not me. La'an and Jim Kirk discussed it.

You are correct though, that in one theory of parallel universes within a multiverse, everything that can possibly happen, does happen. So, they didn't change anything to those existing paths, they only created a lot more extra different paths. (Which begs the question of what these Temporal Agents are doing when they "right" the timeline?)

The "Mirror Universe" is a important divergence though, and one that has been visited in every live action Star Trek series, often several times. For that reason, I think it is of particular interest to see here how it all began. Personally, I would have expected it to have split from our reality at a much earlier point than in 2022.

 

[REBerg]

Essentially a throwaway episode, but fun to watch.

 

[ctg]

Essentially a throwaway episode

Why do you say it was a throwaway when they fleshed out Great Khan's past?

 

[Dave]

Essentially a throwaway episode, but fun to watch.

Why do you say it was a throwaway when they fleshed out Great Khan's past?

I agree. "Throwaway" isn't a word I would use for this. Even if you thought it was "fluff," trivial and superficial, it explains why the Eugenic Wars have been delayed, and in addition, as I explained in my last paragraph, they have provided an Origin Story for the "Mirror Universe" for the first time, which has been the subject of two or three episodes in every other series, and arguably, several seasons of Star Trek: Discovery.

 

[REBerg]

Why do you say it was a throwaway when they fleshed out Great Khan's past?

Maybe "throwaway" was a bit harsh.
It was a pleasant enough side trip. It did add depth to La'an's character, which might be further developed if she actually has that drink with Capt. Kirk some day.
I'm not a fan of the time cop aspect of the franchise. Going back in time to change the future, to me, always evokes an "oh, no, here we go again" reaction.

 

[Dave]

I'm not a fan of the time cop aspect of the franchise. Going back in time to change the future, to me, always evokes an "oh, no, here we go again" reaction.

As discussed above, how can "protecting the timeline" or "changing the future" or "altering the past" actually mean anything if the universe is part of a Multiverse where every possible action creates another different universe? (And Star Trek has frequently shown that the show is supposedly set within such a Multiverse rather than "Linear Time".) So, what does a Starfleet Timeship and it's crew actually do? They can't wipe out timelines because they all will always still exist. All timelines are equally valid. The Mirror Universe, The Kelvin Universe, and the Universe of the majority of TV series, are all valid.

So, all that a Time Cop can do in the past is to create some extra timelines that never existed before. They cannot alter anything that has already occurred or will already occur.

 

[BAYLOR]

As discussed above, how can "protecting the timeline" or "changing the future" or "altering the past" actually mean anything if the universe is part of a Multiverse where every possible action creates another different universe? (And Star Trek has frequently shown that the show is supposedly set within such a Multiverse rather than "Linear Time".) So, what does a Starfleet Timeship and it's crew actually do? They can't wipe out timelines because they all will always still exist. All timelines are equally valid. The Mirror Universe, The Kelvin Universe, and the Universe of the majority of TV series, are all valid.

So, all that a Time Cop can do in the past is to create some extra timelines that never existed before. They cannot alter anything that has already occurred or will already occur.

I tend to view Star Trek Strange New Worlds and Discovery and not being the Prime timeline Trek , They can't be for alot of obvious reasons.

 

[Dave]

I tend to view Star Trek Strange New Worlds and Discovery and not being the Prime timeline Trek , They can't be for alot of obvious reasons.

Then you are simply creating yet another universe, but not altering what I said. I actually said "majority of TV series" because of DIS* but yes, there are a bunch of things about SNW which are different from TOS (I'll just throw the uniform badges out there to begin with, but in TOS, the Eugenic Wars clearly happened in 1992 and now in SNW they didn't.)

*We should keep this discussion away from events in DIS, because the rules of these Forums were/are that you only talk about this episode and what has happened before within this episode thread. That becomes rather hard when this series is a sequel of a prequel that then went to the far future, whilst also being a prequel in it's own right. It isn't really surprising that no one can tell you what is canon and what isn't canon any longer.

 

[Vladd67]

Kirk must be from a new different timeline. If this was the Mirror Universe then Kirk would be captain of the ISS Enterprise in the Terran Empire, but here he is captain of the USS Enterprise in the United Earth Alliance. Obviously the death of Khan led to changes in the timeline but did not lead to the Terran Empire.

 

[Dave]

But this is ten years before Kirk is captain of the ISS Enterprise in the Terran Empire, which never happens because Khan doesn't die...

Confused yet?

 

[ctg]

One of the most important markers of the Trek timeline has been the Eugenics Wars, the massive conflict that led to the Federation outlawing augments and chasing Khan Noonien Singh away on the SS Botany Bay. In the classic Original Series episode “Space Seed,” Spock dates the Eugenics Wars as beginning in 1992, something that the rest of the franchise followed. That is until the Strange New Worlds episode “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” where Kirk and La’an visit the 21st century and encounter a young Khan, still yet to wage the Eugenics Wars.

Within the episode, Romulan agent Sera blames the discrepancy on the Temporal Cold War, as depicted in Star Trek: Enterprise. But according to co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, the shift has more terrestrial origins.

“This is a correction,” Goldsman told CinemaBlend. “Because otherwise, it’s silly, or Star Trek ceases to be in our universe.” Indeed, that’s always been the struggle for Star Trek after it continued past its original three-season run at the end of the 60s. When “Space Seed” aired in 1967, the beginning of the Eugenics Wars was still 25 years away. But it’s now 2023 and obviously our real-life history has played out a bit differently than the one imagined by Gene Roddenberry and his writers.

Thus, post-Original Series shows have had to make choices at times about to how to handle the ways Star Trek resembles or diverges from our own history. At times, the shows have either ignored the events of our past, but they’ve also ignored their own canon as established in TOS, as with Voyager two-parter “Future’s End,” which saw the crew arrive in a 1996 that seemed untouched by war. According to Goldsman, Trek creators will have to continue making decisions about what to retcon so that this franchise about a utopian Earth society from the future can continue to comment on our present.

“We want Star Trek to be an aspirational future,” explained Goldsman. “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***ed for aspirational in terms of the real world.”

Goldsman also points out that the series already hinted at changes in the timeline during season one, as the pilot episode (written and directed by Goldsman) includes footage of the attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2021. But with “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” makes explicit what has only been implied by other series.

This change will give writers some latitude as they continue working on the show, at least until they need to update the timeline again in another 100 years.

Star Trek Showrunner Defends Major Canon Change

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds may have majorly updated the franchise's timeline, but co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman says it's all a part of keeping the hope in Star Trek.

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