Star Trekking: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 4 -"“Once La’an a Time”

 

We've reached the penultimate episode of season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and let the wailing and the lamentations of the Trekker faithful be heard.

It's a damn gimmick episode. 

And it's a sequel to an earlier gimmick episode from Season 1.

Back in season 1, Dr. M'Benga's daughter, Rukiya, was dying of some incurable Trekkian disease. While looking for a cure, the doctor's plan to forestall Rukiya's death was to store in the transporter pattern buffer.  

Some nebula aliens connected up with Rukiya decided to give her a gift: a chance to live out her favorite book, The Kingdom of Elysian. With bonus content: Rukiya had worked out some fanfic in her head and that was folded in. 

Long story made short: the crew of the Enterprise were compelled to adopt the personas and dress of characters from this fantasy novel.  

The episode was called  "The Elysian Kingdom" that aired on June 23, 2022 and if you wanna know more about it click here for what Keith R.A. DeCandido thought about it back then.

That was then.

This is now.

And now for reasons passing very strange and damn near undecipherable, the advanced science that seems like magic is back to recreate the Kingdom of Elysian once more.

Apparently for the benefit of La'An.

Which brings us to “Once La’an a Time” and if you wanna know more about what Keith R.A. DeCandido thinks about this, click here. 

Or cut to the chase and read this statement from Keith: "On this week’s episode, we revisit the Elysian Kingdom, and like far too many sequels, it’s a disappointment."

Do I concur with that? 

I have to say I do. 

But...

There is a lot that's kind of cool about this episode.,

Let's give it up for our girl Christina Chong.

La'An is struggling with her inner darkness and worries that as a Khan, she might give in to impulses for world conquering or something.  

La'An has to pretend to be Princess Thalia and wear an ornate, frilly dress. I could almost hear La'An channelling Worf in my head: "Captain, I must protest! I am NOT a damsel in distress.

Chong has to play La'An, La'An pretending (badly) to be Princess Thalia and finally the princess herself.  

La'An (dressed as the princess) and the princess have a sword fight. That must have been quite a busy shooting day for Christina Chong.  

Great line from La'An.  She meets a stranger in the woods and says "I mean you know harm." The stranger draws his sword and La'An replies, "Harm it is then!" 

I saw Paul Wesley in the opening credits and I'm like, really, Jim Kirk is going to show up again? Look, I think Wesley is doing a fantastic job as the future Capt. Kirk but since Kirk is not assigned to the Enterprise yet, the machinations to make him fit in an episode of SNW can border on the absurd.

But this time, Paul Wesley has shown up to play a role in this Elysian fantasy, as Thalia's love interest Prince Dashing. I guess whatever is creating this fantasy world is picking up on La'An's latent feelings for Kirk she developed in her alternative time line adventure from Season 2, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

Prince Dashing is the heroic and romantic archetype in fantasy fiction, fighting evil and saving the princess.  Except...

He's not really good at it.  

And he's also a werewolf.

What wolf?

Werewolf!

Where wolf?

There wolf! 

Oh, THAT wolf! 

Heads up! Erica Ortegas snogs Una Chin-Riley! 

Hold on! Their Elysian counterparts, Sir Adya and Z’ymira the Huntress, are the ones who kiss.  OK, technically "Sir Adya" is a dude but...

No matter how you slice it:  Melissa Navia shares a big damn kiss with Rebecca Romijn.

Deep dive Easter egg: Benny Russell is identified as the author of "The Kingdom of Elysian". 

Benny Russell was the name of the 1950's science fiction writer that Benjamin Sisko became in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode,  “Far Beyond the Stars."  

I gathered from that episode that Benny was a far better writer than to have written something like "The Kingdom of Elysian".  Well, he did sustain a severe head injury in that episode.

Meanwhile on the Enterprise....

The cowardly Sir Rauth and the wizard Pollux from the Elysian Kingdom board the Enterprise and have to pretend to be Pike and Spock.  

They practice their roles by rehearsing ways to say "Hit it" and "Fascinating" so they can be prepared....

For nothing really.  

Especially when the dragon shows up.

🔥Big damn space dragon time! 🔥

You wanna see the Enterprise fight a giant red fire breathing dragon... in SPACE!  

Oh, you think that can't happen, eh? 

Bring it on, bitch! 

“Once La’an a Time” has a lot of individual bits that are genuinely amusing and there is some serious character growth for La'An.  But do those bits really come together to make a worthwhile whole?  

Sadly I don't think so. Or maybe that's on me for not getting it.

I have to admit to a lot of confusion as to what was happening and why. It was as if the marching orders were "What if La'An could work through her personal shit through that "Elysian Kingdom" fantasy woo-woo we did back in season 1?"  

There is a lot of twisting for the pretzel o' logic to get us into that scenario and I'm not sure it all made sense.

Online there was the expected gnashing teeth and tearing at garments over Star Trek: Strange New Worlds doing yet another gimmick episode.  

While researching "The Elysian Kingdom" episode from Season 1, I noticed this observation from Keith R.A. DeCandido:   

"SNW is sometimes embracing the goofier style of plotlines from Trek history, and I’m down with this. I don’t need all the new Trek shows to dip into this well—for example, this sort of story wouldn’t really work on Discovery or Picard, whereas it’s pretty much all Lower Decks does—but I like that SNW goes for it sometimes."

Keith wrote that 4 years ago.  As for "SNW goes for it sometimes", I think that the gimmicks have become part of the SNW brand now.  I think the gimmicks are not the exception to the rule but are inherent in the rule of what makes Star Trek: Strange New Worlds unique in the pantheon of the Trek universe.  

Next week, season 4 comes in for a landing with an episode entitled "Tomorrow's Enterprise".  A title that calls to mind the TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise": I am be very interested to see if this episode goes where I think it will.

We'll look at that next week. Live long and prosper, y'all!