Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Tomorrow’s Enterprise Review

I’ve been hard on Strange New Worlds this season, trying to hold the show to the high standards it set in its first two seasons. And I’ve probably sounded a bit like a broken record, complaining about the “very special episodes” that did nothing to advance either the plot or grow the characters, the really smart central ideas that were fumbled in truly disappointing ways, or the choice to try to throw a host of comedic moments at the wall and see what sticks. Out of ten episodes this season, I would consider only three of them to have been successful in getting across what they were trying to convey – La’an’s trip to the ghost ship (where her fears were eventually wiped away with the truly horrible fairytale journey last week), “Off-Hours” which told the most traditional Star Trek story of the season and allowed everyone a chance to shine, and this week’s Uhura-centric time travel tale, which had some issues (which I’ll get to) but was a really strong character piece that helped build Uhura a bit closer to the confident character she’ll become on Kirk’s Enterprise.

I have to say, I was thrilled that the season finale ended up as one of the season’s best outings, as it gives me a bit of hope that the final six episodes to come in the truncated final season will be more in this vein (since it appears we’re going to be taking this version of the show and transitioning it into a version of the one Uhura saw in the future – one which, it should be noted, does not include Bones as CMO, doesn’t mention where Una ends up, and might involve something particularly tragic happening to La’an*). If the final run of episodes has this level of commitment to character and story, I’m certainly excited to see what is to come.

*While the future shown here isn’t set in stone – that’s one of the key tenets of all time travel narratives, after all – this is where I once again point out that there are a few characters on Strange New Worlds who don’t appear in The Original Series. Pike and Una are only in the scrapped pilot, and we know what fate awaits Pike (no matter how much he has tried to avoid it in his own brushes with time travel and alternate futures). Una is a wild card, but I suspect her own command is coming – or perhaps a job teaching at the Academy. We learn this week that Ortegas remains on Enterprise when Kirk takes over before leaving, while remaining the best pilot in the fleet – something I suspect won’t change. And then there’s La’an, whose future made Jim Kirk tear up. Is she dead? Did she leave Kirk brokenhearted? Did she just plain leave? Kirk very much didn’t want to talk about it, which tells me the worst might be coming for La’an. I would love for her to have a happy ending, but if there was one character who would sacrifice themselves for the greater good, it’s La’an. And considering the borderline character assassination the writers performed on her this year, well, a heroic death might be the best possible ending for a character with so much promise that was squandered through uneven writing.

But I’m getting ahead of myself and not taking the central lesson of the episode to heart: Don’t chase the future, just live in the present. It’s the message La’an was given last week and it’s the same one that Uhura hears from multiple people in the past, present, and future this time out. And it’s a great lesson for us all. Uhura doesn’t need to become the confident, poised, sociable person she’ll be under Kirk’s command right now – she’s got time to grow up and into that woman. Sure, she could stand to take a bit more time to get out and about*, but that’s the case for most of the characters on the show not named Ortegas and Chapel. It is, however, nice to see the trajectory of Uhura from the start of the series – where she was a nervous cadet who had heaps of talent but was so unsure of how to use it – to who she is now. The Uhura of season one would never have had the guts to disobey a direct order and tangle with the Andorians. The Uhura of season one wouldn’t have had the confidence to work through the temporal issues and make the choice to disconnect from the ship and jump into a black hole, potentially sacrificing herself to save everyone she loved. That’s the kind of character-focused writing I wanted to see throughout this season.

*If there’s one overarching complaint I have over the past few seasons it’s that when a character is told they need to get out more or stop working so hard, the writers immediately throw them into a romance. I’m not anti-romance, but it’s become such a crutch for the series. Chapel has jumped from triangle to triangle. As has Spock. As has La’an. And, let’s not forget that Uhura was having a heck of a party on the planet where everyone lost their inhibitions. So, she’s clearly been getting out plenty – but the show doesn’t seem to remember that. I will say, I was happy that Ortegas and Scotty’s friendship remains intact and never moved to a romance – although that could be because Ortegas is not straight? We’ve never had that confirmed officially.

I also love that Celia Rose Gooding has gotten the chance to really stretch her work throughout the season. Uhura hasn’t been the most prevalent character over the series, rarely getting much screen time outside of an occasional spotlight episode here and there, but when Gooding has gotten the chance to take center stage she’s absolutely been spectacular. And this episode was no different. She’s such a talented, expressive actor that can convey key emotional beats with a simple look. And when tasked with playing two versions of Uhura with only some minute differences (outside of their look), she was able to clearly delineate between the pair with how she held herself, spoke, and her overall confidence. It was a master class and some truly exceptional work.

I’m so glad that season four ended on a high note, especially after so many painful episodes that failed to hit their mark. This is the type of storytelling the show was doing consistently in the first two seasons and I’m so disappointed that the writers couldn’t manage to give us consistency in this area this season. As I said above, I’m hopeful that this quality of writing can carry through into the final six episodes in season five – we know the cast is capable of rising to the occasion, they just need to be given scripts that ask them to. I’m even willing to forgive the use of a deus ex machina to wipe away a dead Scotty (who we all knew wasn’t going to stay dead) to wrap up the story when it got away from them. It’s a small price to pay for a story that lets a character show us who they are and what they can become.