Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Recap: Fractured Fairy Tales

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Once La’an a Time
Season 4 Episode 9
Editor’s Rating ★★
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This fourth and penultimate season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has seen the series attempting an unusual number of high-concept episodes, even by the standards of a series that hasn’t been afraid to experiment. So far we’ve had a black-and-white episode, puppets, a drunken bacchanalia, and a soap-opera homage. Even the season’s most straightforward (and best) episode, “Off-Hour,” was essentially a ’70s disaster movie in Trek clothing. This season it’s felt like Strange New Worlds’s creative staff has rolled the dice every week, and it’s worked out for the show despite the odds. (Of course, the “Your mileage may vary” warning very much applies as some of these episodes have been quite divisive.) This episode, however, lands a pair of snake eyes.

“Once La’an a Time” revisits the fairy-tale kingdom introduced in season one’s “The Elysian Kingdom,” which found the crew of the Enterprise unwittingly assuming, thanks to an encounter with a conscious nebula, the roles of characters found in The Kingdom of Elysia, the favorite book of Dr. M’Benga’s daughter Rukiya, whom he was keeping in stasis while searching for a cure for her seemingly incurable disease. It was, like the recent “Like Chronitons Through the Hour Glass,” a silly episode that took a serious, emotional turn toward its end. “Once La’an a Time” attempts something similar by returning to the Kingdom of Elysia, which has manifested again on a disclike “planet” that we later learn is actually a ship, and using it as a kind of elaborate therapy session for La’an, who’s been troubled all season. Her time as a Vulcan left her feeling darker and angrier than before, feelings compounded by her checkered genetic background and her time on the Griffin when she attempted to kill Kirk, who was the love of her life in an alternate timeline that only she remembers and toward whom she has deep, unexpressed feelings. (La’an’s life is, to put it mildly, kind of complicated.)

The episode opens with La’an beaming back to the Enterprise with some of its key personnel after helping save a wedding from ending in disaster. She is in a dark mood, leading Spock to comment, “It is my belief that she is torn between two sides of herself,” a diagnosis La’an’s own voice-over more or less confirms. Little does either realize how literally the episode will handle the “two sides” concept.

The adventure begins with Spock explaining they’ve encountered a flat planet moving through space on its power “in defiance of physics and logic,” a condition that extends to its gravity and breathable air. (Any resemblance to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is not coincidental and will only be reinforced by the planet’s high-fantasy environment.) “That thing looks like it should have been painted on the side of my ex-boyfriend’s van!” Pelia notes, to the confusion of everyone else. Obviously, this place needs to be investigated (despite La’an’s objections).

On the surface, they find a castle and, even more surprisingly, M’Benga. Except it’s not M’Benga; it’s his fantasy doppelgänger from Elysia who immediately sets about protecting La’an, whom he calls “Princess Thalia.” From the Enterprise, M’Benga recounts the events of “The Elysian Kingdom” and the roles they no longer remember playing (except Pelia, who wasn’t yet onboard). What’s going on? Nobody can quite explain it (nor do they get around to explaining it in any satisfactory way), but Spock trots out a familiar Arthur C. Clarke quote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Pike decides they should stay, using M’Benga’s copy of The Kingdom of Elysia as their guide, and M’Benga backs him up, suggesting it might be therapeutic for La’an’s “difficult emotions,” which the planet might help her face.

La’an’s reluctant to get into character, but the others throw themselves into the task. Pike assumes the role of the cowardly Sir Rauth, and Spock, with the help of a long, flowing wig, becomes the evil wizard Pollux. (Pelia forms her own identity.) Soon, soldiers of the evil Queen Neve (who looks a lot like Nyota) arrive to bring them to their ruler and her sidekick, Audrey (who looks a lot like Chapel), in hopes of fulfilling a prophecy about an iron dragon (which looks a lot like the Enterprise floating above their heads).

While Pike and the others are taken captive, La’an puts up a fight against Queen Neve’s soldiers, who naturally mistake her for Princess Thalia. So does another character not in the original story, Prince Dashing, a dead ringer for Kirk (which La’an realizes after she punches him, leading him to remove his mask). When Dashing tells her that her friends have been taken prisoner, their quest is set. 

The rest of the episode plays out in three strands. In the first, the real Pike, Spock, and Pelia meet the real Princess Thalia (and her dog, Runa), whom they immediately sense is the opposite of the La’an they know. Queen Neve, who’s had a chance to read The Kingdom of Elysia, immediately susses them out as imposters. Pike offers up their true identities except for Pelia’s, whom he claims to be “Benny Russell,” the book’s author. Only “Duchess Benny Russell” interests Queen Neve, who turns the others into paintings. (Don’t worry; they’re fine.) As Pelia sets about penning a new adventure where Neve controls the Iron Dragon, Audrey reveals some more details about the prophecy and the role to be played by doppelgangers, specifically Thalia and her “shadow.”

Meanwhile, Pike and Spock’s doppelgängers, Rauth and Pollux, find themselves beamed aboard the Enterprise, where their scheming ways and Pollux’s talent for magic (presumably actually an advanced technology that looks like magic) lead them to attempt to gain control of the ship by disguising themselves as Spock and Pike. This is easier said than done. Though no one at first figures out they’re dealing with imposters, “Spock’s” easy smile and “Pike’s” not-quite-right hair raise some questions. It also takes them a while to make it to the bridge because of the “tavern” they pass along the way.

In the third, La’an and Dashing make their way to the castle to retrieve “Thalia’s” memory, which La’an improvises as being imprisoned within a necklace. Along the way, Dashing professes his love for his companion, a gesture she can’t help but find moving. Soon they encounter the brave Sir Adya (Ortegas’s doppelgänger), who takes them to the cabin of a “twisted, devious monster” who lives in the midst of “the Swamp of Infinite Death.” They press on. Or most of them press on anyway. Something about the appearance of a full moon spooks Dashing, who claims to head off in search of a dangerous werewolf (a claim that later proves to be at least half true). In the cabin, the monster arrives and is revealed as Z’ymira the Huntress, Una’s doppelgänger and Sir Adya’s estranged lover. (Well, not that estranged, as it turns out.) When Dashing joins them, Adya and Z’ymira send La’an to the castle without them in order to retrieve the necklace. 

Upon their arrival, the plot strands start to wind around each other, including La’an’s struggle with the darkness inside her, as she and Dashing don disguises for a masquerade ball. Trailed by Audrey, Neve enters the ballroom, bringing with her a full moon that reveals Dashing as the werewolf. She’s closely followed by Princess Thalia (the real one), who surprises La’an with the revelation that she loves Dashing, even with his dark side. This sets off a lightbulb for La’an, but she barely has time to process it before both she and Thalia become part of a spell that transforms Neve into a dragon and sends her toward the Enterprise.

When they wake up, La’an and Thalia engage in a sword fight that further emphasizes they’re two complementary aspects of the same personality, a recognition sealed by drinking a potion. Aboard the Enterprise, “Pike” and “Spock” struggle to fight the dragon. Ultimately, a combination of “Spock’s” magic above and La’an and Thalia’s actions below forces the dragon to revert back to Queen Neve’s form.

In the aftermath, everyone is freed from the paintings and the Enterprise crew sneaks away as Thalia reunites with Dashing. Aboard the Enterprise, La’an has found her smile again as Pike informs her that Pelia has decided to stay behind to help pilot the planet home. Later, La’an learns that Princess Thalia has left her dog in the care of her doppelgänger, a development she welcomes. And, in another welcome development, she goes on a proper date with Kirk, one in which she opens up about the complex feelings she’s been experiencing and her desire to find some long-overdue happiness of her own. As the episode draws to a close, they start to dance.

As I stated at the top of this recap, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has released a fair share of divisive episodes, almost all of which I’ve enjoyed. I’m sure this episode will have its defenders, but it played to me like a twee retread of the last Elysian episode, which stayed just on the right side of cutesy. It remains fun to see our heroes playing extremely different characters, and “Spock” and “Pike” in particular have some real comic highlights, but the episode largely felt exhausting. What’s more, La’an’s inner struggles have served as a running subplot all season only to be ended by what’s essentially her decision not to worry and be happy. It’s a minor conclusion to what had been depicted as a major problem (though it’s still nice to see Kirk and La’an having a nice time together). Still, it’s been a strong season overall. With luck, next week’s finale will end it on a high note.

Hit It!

• The production team didn’t have to go far to find the dog actor to play Runa. That’s Christina Chong’s dog. She even has her own Instagram account.