Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 9 “Once La’an a Time”
La’an finally gets some emotional closure as a fairytale helps her reconcile her two competing halves.
As the Enterprise wraps up an assignment representing the Federation at a Benzite wedding, La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) is still feeling angsty. While she’s medically fit for duty, there are clearly two parts of her at war with each other — the human half and the augment half. How long before the augment half takes control?
It’s no coincidence, then, that the Enterprise stumbles upon a planet flying through space. The away team finds the planet part of The Elysian Kingdom, a fairy tale book authored by Benny Russell and brought to life by the Boltzmann brain, as seen in the memorable season one episode “The Elysian Kingdom.”
On this planet, each member of the main cast have doppelgangers who inhabit the fantasy landscape: La’an has Princess Thalia, Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) has the cowardly Sir Amand Rauth, Spock (Ethan Peck) has the wizard Pollux, Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) has the evil Queen Neve, Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) has Sir Adya, and Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) has Z’ymira the Huntress — all of whom were in the aforementioned season one episode.
“Are we all on drugs, or do you see a castle over there, too?”
– Commander Pelia to the landing party.
Added to the fantasy playbill now is Pelia (Carol Kane), who is quickly given the moniker Benny Russell in an attempt to gain leverage with Queen Neve, while James Kirk (Paul Wesley) has Prince Dashing as a doppelganger, Doctor M’Benga has one of the Queen’s ex-henchman, and Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) has Lady Audrey. Everyone has a part to play in the fantasy world that is sprung into existence thanks to La’an’s need to sort out her emotions.
Reconciling Emotions
After landing on the planet, the away team except La’an are arrested and brought to Queen Neve’s castle. La’an, meanwhile, is paired with Prince Dashing, and they aim to infiltrate the queen’s fortress. Dashing isn’t satisfied with La’an’s explanation of rescuing her friends, so she lies about needing to get her prized heirloom necklace, which is hidden in the castle and holds cherished memories. To access the castle, they need the Key of Consequence, of course. As they begin their quest, it’s clear Prince Dashing harbors strong feelings for La’an, but the security chief tries her best to keep things neutral.
They soon cross paths with Sir Adya before crossing into the Swamp of Infinite Death, where La’an continues her lie about the necklace by telling Adya and Dashing that it was given to her by her father after one of her dance recitals. It’s not too hard to see La’an is pulling this tale from a real cherished memory. Things get more tense when Dashing distracts an off-screen werewolf so Adya and La’an can escape into Z’ymira’s hut. For their trouble, Z’ymira gives them the key so they can finally enter the castle.
Once in the castle, La’an and Dashing need to go incognito, so they dress up for a masquerade ball. It’s here La’an opens up a bit to Dashing — although she doesn’t tell him anything we don’t already know. She’s worried the darkness within her will consume her, but Dashing says he doesn’t care, and that he loves her the way she is. That’s just what the struggling La’an needs to hear.
“I accept you for who you are — all that you are — if only you could do the same for yourself.”
– Dashing to La’an.
Their connection is interrupted by a full moon appearing thanks to Queen Neve, which causes Dashing to transform into a werewolf before being banished into a painting. The real Princess Thalia is in the castle, too, and the respective energies of La’an and her doppelganger are combined into a potion Queen Neve drinks to transform into a dragon which attacks the Enterprise.
While that dazzling battle is happening, La’an and Thalia fight it out, with each woman representing one half of La’an’s conflicted emotional state. They soon realize, though, that if they stop fighting and embrace each other’s differences, they can be better than the sum of their parts — a realization that settles La’an’s emotions and helps her come to grips with the darker side of her personality.
The purpose of this fantasy land is complete, and the La’an that arrives back on Enterprise is one who is at peace. We learn the necklace she referenced during her time on the planet is real, no surprise, a gift from La’an’s father before he died. Moreover, her experiences with Prince Dashing mean she is comfortable taking an important step — going on a real date with James Kirk. Who knows where this romance might lead?
Strangers in a Strange Land
While La’an is on the fantasy planet making her way to the castle, two fantasy folks, Pollux and Sir Amand Rauth, find themselves on the Enterprise, thinking the “Iron Dragon” could be their ticket to ruling the kingdom. Anson Mount and Ethan Peck give us the heartiest chuckles of the episode; Rauth, who is incredibly out of his depth pretending to be Captain Pike, struggles with navigating the ship, its people, and, eventually, the fight with the dragon, while Pollux sports a mane of lustrous hair and amusingly tries to nail Spock’s signature “fascinating.”
The pair are eventually caught when Pollux is forced to use a psychic blast to defeat the dragon, but at least the coward Rauth gets a good chance to show some bravery before the jig is up.
Escaping the Fairy Tale
With La’an’s arc this season seemingly at an end, we can’t help but feel a little disappointed. After telling us over multiple episodes that she has an inner demon brewing inside her, to not see that demon manifest in any climactic way is a letdown. There was no climactic event that forced La’an to reckon and make peace with her human half and augment half.
What we get instead is a visualization of that conflict — the fight between La’an and Thalia — that is settled fairly painlessly. The promise of real, dire conflict was there following the events of “The Griffin Incident,” but it seems stabbing James Kirk ended up being the most severe consequence of La’an’s inner turmoil. Our disappointment in this resolution is heightened because of La’an’s family history. Having her be of Khan blood — you know, the guy who brought war to Earth over genetics — was always an alluring concept, but ultimately that part of La’an’s lineage never proved to be much more than an emotional dilemma.
“Once La’an a Time” serves as a visually creative and emotionally resonant chapter for La’an, offering strong performances and playful double-roles for the cast. However, by choosing a relatively gentle fantasy framework to settle her deep-seated inner turmoil rather than a high-stakes, dramatic confrontation, the episode leaves her long-brewing augment conflict feeling somewhat anticlimactic.
Stray Thoughts:
- The visual of a flat planet flying through space is striking. Why didn’t we ever get an establishing shot of it as the away team was beaming down? In fact, we barely see the planet-ship at all, besides it being in the background of the dragon fight.
- In one of her more amusing anecdotes, Pelia claims she helped Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke with 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Pelia apparently stays behind with the planet-ship to help get it home, wherever that is. Will we see her again this season? Doesn’t sound like it.
- In their conversation at the end of the episode, Kirk relates how he and La’an have a history, including something that, as far as he knows, is “classified.” He is referring to “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” the events of which La’an is barred from sharing.
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