User Reviews

There's plenty to criticize here; The continued obsession with the character of Khan, which is symbolic of Paramounts' failure to accept and promote Star Trek as its' own thing, distinct from more action-oriented science-fiction like 'Star Wars'. Also, there's another "humans from the twenty-third century driving an automobile in the twenty-first century" gag (that old chestnut), but this time it's set to modern pop/rock music! It gave me severe J. J./Star Trek '09 flashbacks.

However, my thoughts on this episode are mostly positive. Obligatory attempts to appeal to modern 'Fast & Furious' audiences aside, I think it has a good time-travel premise AND execution, but the dynamic between La'an and an alternate universe version Captain Kirk really elevates it into something else. There's a bit of a tragic love story in there that's surprisingly sweet and well executed and adds a bit more depth to La'an. The comparisons to 'City on the Edge of Forever' are obvious, but I think it works well here.

Even the moment with Khan, who I now view as one of Trek's most overhyped and annoying characters, actually kind of works in THIS story, where it feels gratuitous in other stories (Picard season 2, Into Darkness), because it is significant to La'an's character in a deep and personal way. I mean, it IS still gratuitous, you could even say the entire character of La'an is an overly-indulgent Khan reference, but at least they managed a decent story out of it for once.

The inclusion of the 'Temporal War' characters and concepts is interesting as well.

Another time travel episode but nicely plotted and written, with just a few anomalies that have to be glossed over (other than that actual time travel thing of course...)

The episode is based around the troubled origin of La'an's family tree and poses the most personal of dilemmas for her character - would you go back and assassinate your ancestor who you know will be responsible for mass murder and the eugenics wars as leader of the augments - and thereby forever cast a pall over you and any descendants?

Given the episode is only an hour long the scene has to be set quickly and the plot moved along at a brisk pace. This usually doesn't leave much time for scene setting but there are some nice touches and undeniable chemistry between La'an and her (rather more famous!) companion...

What could have been a bit ho-hum is lifted way above the ordinary by that chemistry and the beautiful acting by Christina Chong.

Another winner from the SNW.

For those of us who have been with ST since ST:TOS. This episode was more than just "another time paradox".

No, this episode was a homage to "City on the Edge of Forever"; an episode, let's say the first episode that truly opened up the world of time paradoxes.

The original Kirk is sent back to New York during the depression, which why new Kirk "mistakes" Toronto for New York.

La'an's timeline no longer exists, just like original Kirk and Spock but unlike the original series, they do not have the equipment to learn what event they need to interrupt to restore the timelines.

The script also parallels the stealing of clothes in order to blend in and there's even a reference to Romulan ears (to mirror the covering of Spock's ears in COTEOF).

The ironic twist here is that Kirk has to watch his new romance (a certain Joan Collins) die whereas here, La'an has to watch Kirk die.

So before all you bored millennials, who demand "action" all the time get on your high horse about how slow the plot was, just remember that this episode goes DEEP into the Star Trek canon and reproduces a classic, award-winning, episode, slotting it right into Strange New Worlds eloquently and sublimely.

It really was true 100% Trek.

Granted it is another time paradox episode as another user has mentioned but this one was brilliant. Quite a bit of action in it, La'an and Kirk were brilliant and the chemistry between them was fantastic, the romulan on earth in the 21st century was brilliantly done, this story could make way for more story telling. Strange New Worlds has brought back real trek at long last, after the tragedy of Discovery was its about time they did some real star trek, not quite there just yet but getting there big time. I have big hopes for season 2, season 1 was brilliant but this season looks to be promising, which im looking forward to.

This episode is a stand-out episode for La'an that manages to put her face to face with the troubled question of her ancestry. Christina Chong really excels here and she has good chemistry with Paul Wesley. I also liked that the time travel target was not an American city but the Canadian Toronto.

However, the episode falls short in terms of narrative. There are just too many convenient plot developments that are just illogical. La'an and Kirk track the cold fusion reactor by meddling with a watch in order to turn it into a primitive tricorder. This sounds more like a MacGyver Gadget than having a scientific basis. Also, they just wander around Toronto and by accident they find the location of the reactor. This is very convenient and illogical. Moreover, the episode employs too many cliches that have been used (too) often in Hollywood and time travel episodes: Wandering around aimlessly, stealing clothing, characters from the future not knowing how to drive a car (we had that same joke in both Star Trek Enterprise and Picard). Kirk's death was also unnecessarily melodramatic and constructed.

In the end, the performances are great but the narrative itself is mediocre at best, especially in comparison with the excellent previous episode.

I cannot believe it, but we have now had two good episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in a row? This is absolute madness and definitely not something that I saw coming, but we got another good one here as we tackled time travel in a way that was fun and entertaining, but also impactful.

I do not care about timelines at all because it is so easy for sci-fi shows to re-write them and change things on a whim, but they did a decent job of making us care about it tonight.

Had me entertained from start to finish and let's hope the show can keep this momentum going next week to make it three good episodes in a row.

Spoliers ahead

So initially I was like, this is interesting, since I love time travel plots, but was even more interested when a certain person is met and the dynamic of the two was actually s breath of fresh air, no one way power dynamic, a nice gel of two people trust into a situation where they were equally taxed to come up with ideas to sleuth a situation and without giving too much away, we see the 'old guard captain' and the initial time traveller sent back in time and caught up in an attack, which covers the genesis of one of the best 'bad' guys in Star Trek rearing their head, not to mention a certain person dying.

The only part which I thought was a bit weird was the clone of the tva and tva plot dynamic, but as long as you haven't seen loki you wouldnt of seen the likeness.

Overall stunning acting especially from Noon-Singh and I cant mention 'the old guard' without blowing a massive spoiler....let's keep the momentum with this show, the equal power and screen time of characters and pure entertainment minus anything too preachy and I'll be happy to buy this box set hands down.

First, I love time travel. ST has some of the best. City on the Edge of Forever, Tomorrow is Yesterday, Year of Hell, Past Tense. All great episodes. Now this one. Tremendous. But before I move on, let me be honest: I have a lot of trouble with the back story to what I feel is an alternate universe Star Trek. First, with Earth's fears, which they've passed on to the Federation (being a founding member has its privileges eh?) and it's fear of genetic manipulation, which even effects alien races like the Illyrians, how the hell did a descendant of Khan get into starfleet? Another is the size of the crews quarters. Ridiculous. On the original enterprise, one could fit ten officers in quarters the size of this ship. But, I'll let that go. It's a tie as to who should be arrested for stealing this episode, Christina or Paul. This is the first episode I've really liked Noonien-Singh (why didn't she change her name?) But again, the way they've misused the Gorn which they aren't supposed to know about until Kirk is in the center seat-is annoying. I'll let this go as an alternate universe, especially since Kirk drives like a pro. Paul is coming off as a great Kirk. He's not as bulky as shatner, but he has everything else down. I loved that the used the old UEF, United Earth Fleet from TOS. A great easter egg. But, Christina was also great. Especially the end when she contacts Lieutenant Kirk. Real, raw emotion. I'll call this a tie, but I took points off for, like Enterprise, giving the Romulans higher tech than they should have. Please don't tie this into the temporal cold war from Enterprise. That, along with the Xindi, were terrible ideas. As for the Romulan's having a lower tech than the Federation, go to Timescape in TNG. Their computers are behind the Federation. Over all the second best episode of the series and season. Bravo!

Time travel tropes have been done many times (excuse the pun) in the Star Trek universe. Sometimes well, like in in TOS and TNG, and sometimes poorly, see Discovery and Picard. SNW handled it in a smart and interesting way. They gave us the action and the high stakes, but also were able to weave in a bit of romance that was not over the top and contributed to La'an's character development. We also got to see her conflicted with making the choice between saving her universe and another where she could have prevented mass murder. The only criticism was that the Romulan character was a bit overdone which led to them not being believable. Otherwise an excellent episode.

This episode for me really hit the Star Trek formula. It had drama, a twist, some humor and character development. I don't understand the poor reviews that bemoaned an episode that had little happening in space. Did they watch DS9 or TOS. It included a romantic connection that didn't reach fullfillment due to time paradox (very much a star trek theme). How episode 2 ended up with a higher rating I don't understand. That episode bordered on boring and preachy (did a writer from ST Discovery slip in the script for that one). I would have given this a higher score but I always like to leave some wiggle room for epic entertainment.

Kirk mistakenly thinking he's in New York City is an inside joke in show business because Toronto is often used as a filming location for TV shows and movies set in the Big Apple. It was cool to see some familiar landmarks. It might be nice to honor William Shatner's birthplace of Montreal by filming some outdoor Star Trek scenes there, but I digress. I thought the "kill baby Hitler" trope was well written in this time travel episode that takes us back to Khan's childhood. Baby Khan survives, but maybe because of the influence of time travelers, he won't get rejected from art school. I would have given this episode a higher rating, but that whole scene in the antique shop was ridiculous. Tritium doesn't do what they claimed it does.

So far, I've enjoyed the 1st and 2nd season of Strange New Worlds, but this episode...This is the stuff that B movies are made of. James's money making scheme in the first act, when James and La'an first arrive in 21st century Toronto, was hardly believable. But okay, not a big deal. It gets worse. The scene where they somehow acquire a seemingly expensive and beautiful hotel room with no state issued ID, no credit/debit card, and very little cash money on hand, was eye rolling. I get it, the characters needed a view of the explosion in order to progress in the story, but it could have been done in a more realistic setting. It gets even worse. The scene where James is arrested, and the photographer talks the police into lettering him go...Just awful. The terribly lazy dialogue and story progression in this episode was mediocre at best, cringe at worst. I'll leave it at that and let you judge the rest yourself. By far the worst episode yet.

I'm not sure what to make of this episode.

I love the idea of sending Kirk and Noonien Singh to a place where only the two of them are and have to eliminate a threat, including all the potential of a love story between them.

However, it has to be said that this potential of an absolute top episode is repeatedly prevented from really unfolding by the way the story is staged here.

Only rarely do I really feel for La'an, let alone Kirk, in this way, to be really emotionally involved.

There are so many scenes that should be interesting, but are not transmitted in such a way that they are really touching, and I am especially dissatisfied with the two death scenes in the episode.

It was clear from the beginning that they HAVE to happen, and that's good, but it's just too clumsily written and staged for me.

On the other hand, I really like the chemistry between Paul Wesley and Christina Chong, I like the scenery and how the 21st century is portrayed, of course also the humour and as I said at the beginning the story actually has the potential to be really outstandingly good.

But what remains is the impression of having squandered these possibilities and that really hurts.