TW rewatches Star Trek SNW Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

copyyright Paramount Pictures

The lovely Christina Chong comes to the fore in this episode when she is sent back in time to stop an attack that will destroy history as she knows it. She’s having a bad enough time dealing with her genetically altered ancestry as well as who her infamous ancestor is; Khan Noonien Singh himself. The stakes are higher than any Trek episode that has tampered with this scenario when La’an finds herself stuck in the altered history which says she doesn’t exist with the new captain of the USS Enterprise….James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. She has no choice but to go back as not even Starfleet exists here.

We can assume that the fatally wounded time traveller that comes for La’an is either a member of Starfleet’s temporal division as seen in Trials and Tribblations. Or he could be one of Gary 7’s associates as encountered as our James Kirk in the original series Assignment Earth.

La’an’s story is met with disbelief by Kirk who accidentally sends them back to the present. This is a great chance to see a previously unknown Kirk adventure and indeed aspects to a Kirk whom we only know because of his face. This Kirk was born in space, his brother Sam is dead, Earth is an uninhabitable ruin, and he has never seen a sunset. On the flipside he is still the cocky confident chess playing man we know ready to jump right in to save the day. Given La’an has never met the real James Kirk in her history, it gives her a chance to form a real relationship here even falling for him. Given the fact Kirk is Khan’s greatest foe, it is as if fate is having a laugh teaming La’an up with him. This Kirk’s past is dark but he deals with it in a humorous manner like how he makes Vulcan soup and where he learned to nerve pinch. La’an sees in him someone she can relate to and be open with as seen in the scene where her name means nothing to him. His tragic past is something she can identify with given her history especially with the Gorn (again fate having a bit of fun given Kirk is the first to see what a Gorn looks like in Arena).

Both do what they do best; they have no tricorders or weapons so use their wits and abilities to steal clothes and get some money. They frame a woman for shoplifting then Kirk plays chess to hustle some cash.

After a car chase there is a nice commentary on our world now when an on-looker, Vanessa, forces the cops to release Kirk after a car chase due to social media pressure. It is the same woman whom they spoke to earlier when a bridge (which happens in both timelines) is destroyed by photonic charges. Vanessa is a conspiracy theorist tracking government activity and claims aliens are the big threat. She shows them photos which Kirk realises show a Romulan ship. They now know a cold fusion reactor will explode in a few days triggering Kirk’s future as La’an has never heard of it.

New chief engineer Pelia, played by Carol Kane, is alive and well in the 21st century given her species the Lanthanite lived in secret on Earth for centuries. However, this version of Pelia is not an engineer yet but a nice Voyage Home moment as La’an triggers Pelia’s engineering career. Indeed, the ghost of Star Trek 4 The Voyage Home is sprinkled throughout as Kirk learns of hotdogs, hot showers with water, memes and the Apple store.

Such is their connection La’an hopes to being Kirk back to her timeline as she admits he is special as she opens up about her heritage. Her speech about being marked as different as seen in the Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne. This is the first person La’an has met that takes her for who she is and not what her name of lineage represents. As seen in the scene in the hotel, she almost tells him in the middle of the night . She is torn and Christina Chong plays it perfectly. You can feel her agony at opening to, literally, a complete stranger.

However, fate chose them for this mission for a much bigger reason. The real target is not a cold fusion reactor but Khan. Vanessa is really a surgically altered Romulan that has been trapped on Earth for 30 years. The Romulan plan to slow mankind’s progress has not achieved the results they wanted and should have happened in 1992 so if they kill Khan, the Eugenic Wars never happen and man does not reach the stars. Vanessa calls Kirk’s bluff and shoots him dead in an unexpected twist but we always knew he could never come back to La’an’s reality. There is an echo here of Edith Keeler’s death in City on the Edge of Forever when Kirk had to stand by and let her die to ensure his future. La’an declares Khan and his dark legacy for what it is and that she is a product of that same legacy. After a vicious fight, Vanessa is shot but self-destructs ending their threat. Despite our hope it will be a CGI appearance by Ricardo Montalban, we discover this Khan is a mere child along with others being kept secure by the government. There is the thought of would you kill Hitler as a child here in the background. La’an knows what he will become but also knows the good that will come out of it. With Khan safe she returns to her restored timeline where she is instructed by Temporal Investigations to keep what she has just been through.

She is furious that she was sent back to save a mass murderer and having to kill to do it. She is furious she lost Kirk in the process but realises it had it be done to keep her reality safe. In the final scene La’an contacts Kirk who is the Kirk she has never met. Speaking to him, it rams home that the version she has fallen for and trusted is gone forever. He may have the face of the only man she trusted to open herself too, but he is not him. She breaks down completely alone just as she has always been due to the mark of Khan.

This episode is a tour de force for Christina Chong and her character as get to see below the layers that make her so rigid in her duties. We thought her tales of being trapped by the Gorn were heart wrenching but here it delves into her very soul. A classic.