Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - S2 E3 - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
June 29, 2023
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: All's Fair in Love and Time Travel
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" is both a thrilling time travel story and a heart-pounding romantic drama.
By Samantha Coley
After knocking it out of the park with "Ad Aspera Per Aspera," which is being widely lauded as one of the best episodes of the series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds does it again with "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." The third episode of Season 2, written by David Reed and directed by Amanda Row, delivers a story that is both humorous and heartbreaking. When La'an (Christina Chong) is contacted by a temporal agent, she is first sent into an alternate timeline — in which James Kirk (Paul Wesley) is already captain of the Enterprise — and then sent back in time to stop someone from changing history forever. The only problem? She's sent back with a Kirk from a timeline that cannot exist if she does what she's sent there to do.
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" stands out for many reasons — not only is this episode a thrilling time travel story and a heart-pounding romantic drama, but it's also an episode of Star Trek that, despite being in a prequel series, feels like it could not have existed without every Trek series that came before it. All this to say that this episode reads as both a beautiful love letter to the franchise as a whole as well as an incredible standalone story within Strange New Worlds.
Carol Kane's Pelia returns in the most delightful way in this episode as we get a deeper look at her very, very long life, and Reign star Adelaide Kane makes a captivating appearance in a guest role that keeps the audience on their toes. Chong and Wesley both deliver phenomenal performances that highlight their ranges and their unexpected chemistry. Strange New Worlds also finally calls the Star Trek future we're all striving towards a "socialist utopia" and then embraces its shooting location with "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," letting Toronto be Toronto instead of passing it off as New York.
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*Cough* I know from last week that you guys liked that one, but I still give it a big old 'meh'.
Anyhoo, I liked this week's offering, even though the time-travel-to-save-the-timeline thing has been done to death.
I thought having Romulans trying to slow humanity's progress was an interesting plot point, but I can't help wondering how the Watchers missed that one.
I'm not yet understanding the timeline ret-con thing La'an mentioned about Khan and 1992 (or was it 1990?). I need to watch that scene again. I got the impression he was shown as a child in the wrong year, something like 30 years too late. I dunno.
Looks like La'an has a thing for Kirk now, even though the one she fell for was from an alternate timeline that no longer exists.
And, oh! I think they missed a GREAT opportunity to have fun with a classic line. Remember Kirk saying in Star Trek IV that he's from Iowa, and only works in outer space? Well, here's how I think the revolving door scene should have gone in this episode...
First, scratch the whole thing about him being born on the USS Iowa. Just let him be from Iowa like normal.
–Kirk has trouble getting through the door–
La'an: "Never seen a revolving door before?"
Kirk, incredulously: "I'm from space."
La'an: "No, you're from Iowa. You only work in space."
Kirk, smirking: "I'll have to remember that."
Haha. That would have been great, even with the alternate timeline thing, right?
Hey Dig, Love that dialog you have there. It's perfect!
I really liked this ep. It doesn't bother me that they revisit old themes. In fact, I actually like it, since I think it adds continuity.
You may be right about the age thing with Khan. He seemed so sweet as a little boy.
I am still unclear about La'an's DNA. If she is a descendant of Khan, then she must be an augment, which means she should be banned from Star Fleet, right?
Maybe the ban is only on those whose own DNA has been modified, rather than whose ancestors had their DNA modified. Depending on how many people survived the Eugenics Wars who hadn't had genetic modification, it may have been difficult to find humans who didn't descend from augments.
I was wondering about that, too. I bet you're right.
I really liked this one. Yes, it borrowed pretty heavily from The City on the Edge of Forever, but there's a reason that one is a classic.