Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) made a mistake in Star Trek’s first-ever musical episode that could threaten Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Written by David Reed and directed by Amanda Row, Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” saw La’an fall in love with an alternate reality Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) on a mission to protect Star Trek’s Prime Timeline. Strange New Worlds’ musical episode, “Subspace Rhapsody,” written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, and directed by Dermot Downs, follows up La’an’s story when she confesses her doomed romance to Lieutenant James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley).
La’an and her Captain Kirk shared a unique ordeal in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” Kirk and La’an’s mission uncovered a Romulan plot to alter Star Trek’s Prime Timeline, with La’an stopping a Romulan temporal agent named Sera (Adelaide Kane) from assassinating a young Khan Noonien-Singh (Desmod Sivan) in 21st-century Toronto. But Sera murdered Kirk, who died in La’an’s arms. Although La’an saved Khan and set reality back to its proper course, she was emotionally bereft from losing James.
La’an Broke A Promise And Told Kirk About Her Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Time Travel
La’an was warned.
At the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” Agent Ymalay (Allison Wilson-Forbes) from the Department of Temporal Investigations ordered La’an never to divulge what happened when she time-traveled to anyone. No one aboard the Starship Enterprise can know Romulans are interfering with time, and that La’an reversed an incursion that already changed reality. Ymalay was satisfied when La’an said she would not risk undoing her protection of the timeline, despite La’an’s despair that she can’t reveal her heartbreak to anyone.
Kirk was alarmed, telling La’an, “I don’t love rules, but I’m pretty sure I’m about to break a big one.”
However, in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ musical episode, La’an broke her word to the Department of Temporal Investigations and told Lt. James T. Kirk that she met an alternate version of him. Even Kirk was alarmed, telling La’an, “I don’t love rules, but I’m pretty sure I’m about to break a big one.” To La’an’s credit, she was mum about the time travel details, and only talked about how much she liked how her James Kirk saw the real her. La’an also only told Kirk that her James was “gone,” never specifying that he had died at the hands of a time-traveling Romulan But did La’an still make a huge mistake?
Why Telling Kirk Was More Important To La’an Than Protecting Star Trek’s Timeline
La’an wants to change.
Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh did her duty as much as she could and protected the timeline during her confession in Star Trek’s musical episode, but even then, La’an felt she had to tell Kirk. Partly because Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) advised her to, but really because keeping the James T. Kirk she loved and lost a secret was a burden La’an could no longer endure. La’an had to know if what she had with her Captain Kirk could happen again with Lt. Kirk.
But even beyond La’an learning that Kirk can’t reciprocate her feelings, despite also feeling their mutual “connection,” La’an had to share her feelings with Kirk as a crucial first step toward her true desire. La’an wants and needs to be a more open person who lets other people in, as opposed to the “barrier” La’an faces because of her shame that she’s descended from Khan Noonien-Singh. La’an wants to shed the “scarlet letter” she carries, and coming clean with Lt. James Kirk had to happen so La’an could “change her paradigm.” But what does this mean for Star Trek’s timeline?
Is Star Trek’s Timeline In Danger In Strange New Worlds Season 3?
La’an telling Kirk could have ramifications.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has made Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh important to Star Trek’s timeline because she was chosen to protect it, first through her actions in 21st-century Toronto, and then through her silence. La’an did honor her commitment, and what she told Lt. James T. Kirk was centered on her feelings. While La’an was admirably careful, she still told Kirk things he shouldn’t have known. James now knows there was another Kirk in another reality La’an has been to, which means he now knows about Star Trek’s multiverse.
Most of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is top-secret, though some details have been revealed like the USS Enterprise crew becoming Vulcans and Jonathan Frakes directing a “Hollywood murder mystery.” But Strange New Worlds has also been gradually rewriting Star Trek’s timeline, changing the dates of World War III and when Khan became a threat to Earth. Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh may now be inextricably tied to Star Trek’s timeline and her mistake of telling Lt. James T. Kirk about her Captain Kirk could lead to greater jeopardy for the timeline in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3.