‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 4 Episode 9 Recap: La’An Enters a Fantasyland
There’s only one more Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 episode left after this one, and “Once La’An at a Time” certainly gives us plenty before we get there. A medieval fantasyland, a mysterious self-propelled planet, a prophecy, swordplay, a werewolf, a magical dragon fighting an iron dragon, doppelgangers galore, a villainous queen with a frightening power and dreams of conquest, a castle, two bungling ne’er-do-wells, secrets revealed, a surprising kiss and a story within a story are all ingredients for a truly good Star Trek episode!
I thought this one might become too sappy, and I was impressively proven wrong. A few scenes in, I was hooked and watching a good story unfold. The cast gets to showcase their talents by switching characters and making those alternate personalities believable, while the sets are awesome and the costumes are excellent. It feels like reading a really good fairy tale with a message you don’t realize you’re being taught because you’re having so much fun along the way.
Commander James Kirk and Pelia return, while we also meet Ensign Salazar and the absolutely adorable Runa, played by Christina Chong’s real dog. At the center of everything is La’An, who is at war with herself and needs to figure out how both sides of her personality can peacefully coexist. Her friends aboard the Enterprise, the characters inside this fantasy story and even a little dog all help her get there. I also loved the brief ballroom dance and Nurse Chapel’s fantasy counterpart playing a witch who concocts a brew that causes both realities to collide and helps bring the prophecy to fruition. This is creative Star Trek writing that works.
Great, But Not Great
The episode begins with La’An’s personal log, Stardate 2355.6. The Enterprise has successfully represented Starfleet at the wedding of a Benzite dignitary, but La’An admits there is a side of herself that some people fear. She believes keeping that part of herself away from her friends allows her to protect them, whether they realize it or not.
La’An and the senior officers transport back aboard the Enterprise after the wedding, and she abruptly leaves the transporter room without saying anything. Uhura cheerfully observes that La’An is great, while Ortegas adds that lately she’s also been a little “not great.” Spock believes La’An feels torn between two sides of herself, something he can certainly relate to. He knows it is something La’An ultimately has to face herself, but Ortegas points out that there is one person aboard the Enterprise whom La’An can’t simply ignore: Captain Pike.
Pike finds La’An in the gym absolutely destroying a punching bag and asks if they can talk about their feelings. She insists she has been able to do her job, although Pike isn’t entirely convinced everything is fine. She recently confiscated Sam and Spock’s science experiment after deciding they were behaving like children, and then there’s the Benzite wedding. La’An insists she prevented an intergalactic incident and saved a marriage, but Pike reminds her that she did it by putting the groom’s face into his own cake and setting the bride’s dress on fire. That must have been some wedding celebration.
Pike eventually convinces La’An to get a second opinion, so they visit Dr. M’Benga. He clears the chief security officer for duty, although Pike jokingly asks if there is anything he can prescribe for acute grouchiness. M’Benga replies that if there were, he would have given it to Pike years ago. No-nonsense La’An is ready to get back to work, and fortunately for her, there’s already a very strange new mission waiting.
A Planet That Shouldn’t Exist
Spock presents their latest assignment: investigate a planet that shouldn’t exist and is traveling through space under its own power. The planet defies physics and logic. It has gravity, breathable air and signs of life, but its unusual atmosphere prevents the Enterprise from getting accurate sensor readings. Pelia thinks the whole thing is exciting, while La’An immediately sees danger.
Pike, Spock, Pelia and La’An beam down and discover something straight out of a storybook. There are strange flying lights, beautiful scenery and a castle in the distance. Pike compares the place to Medieval Times if it were an entire planet, while Pelia points out that her actual experience with medieval times involved considerably more manure and death.
Things become even stranger when the group encounters a man who looks exactly like Dr. M’Benga, except he doesn’t recognize any of them. Instead, he draws a sword, pulls La’An behind him and calls her Princess Thalia. Spock scans him and confirms that, despite his appearance, this man is not Dr. M’Benga. Suddenly, the impossible planet has an even bigger mystery.
A Fairy Tale Comes to Life
Back aboard the Enterprise, the real M’Benga has an unbelievable explanation. The planet resembles the story his daughter Rukiya used to read, and the Boltzmann Brain they previously encountered once brought characters from that story to life using members of the Enterprise crew. Everyone’s memories of that experience were wiped except M’Benga’s.
Pike played the cowardly Sir Amand Rauth, while Spock was the evil wizard Pollux — definitely not the role Spock would have guessed for himself. La’An was Princess Thalia. Pelia, meanwhile, hadn’t joined the Enterprise yet and is disappointed that she apparently missed all the fun. The bigger question is why this mysterious planet is now populated with doppelgangers of the Enterprise crew.
M’Benga believes the answer may be La’An. The last time these characters appeared, the nebula sensed M’Benga was struggling with difficult emotions and gave him a way to process them through a story. Now La’An is the one struggling, and this planet may be offering her the same opportunity. La’An thinks the entire idea is ridiculous, but figuring out what’s happening means playing along.
She is handed a princess costume and expected to step into the fairy tale alongside the others, and La’An wants absolutely no part of it. Unfortunately for her, this strange world has its own plans. There are plenty of mysteries waiting for the crew, including Queen Neve and the frightening power she possesses, a prophecy that immediately worries Pelia, an iron dragon and a mysterious Key of Consequence. There is also Prince Dashing, who is hiding a secret, and the rather entertaining question of just how convincing Spock can be as an evil wizard.
Then comes another important discovery: the real Princess Thalia actually exists, and she has an adorable little dog named Runa with a surprisingly ferocious bark. Queen Neve proves to be a genuinely frightening threat. With the snap of her fingers, she can create living artistic portraits, and she forces Pelia to write the next chapter of the story exactly the way she wants it.
Doppelgangers, Dragons and the Key of Consequence
La’An, Sir Adya and Prince Dashing eventually head to the Swamp of Infinite Death in search of the Key of Consequence, which will give them access to the castle. Meanwhile, the fantasy versions of Rauth and Pollux have plans of their own aboard the Enterprise. The fantasy story unfolding in the Kingdom of Elysian and the events aboard the ship become increasingly intertwined, with potentially devastating consequences if the villains succeed.
This elaborate story is incredibly enjoyable as it unfolds. There are plenty of funny moments, some deliberately nonsensical ones and others that simply defy logic, yet underneath all the fantasy, the episode has something meaningful to say about accepting the parts of ourselves we would rather push away. That message sneaks up on you because the episode is having so much fun getting there.
Sir Rauth is completely ridiculous, and it’s amazing Ortegas doesn’t immediately report him when she encounters Rauth and Pollux pretending to be Captain Pike and Spock. Anson Mount and Ethan Peck had me laughing out loud during several of their scenes. The episode keeps piling on the fantasy elements, including monsters, dragons, secret identities and even a surprising kiss between the doppelgangers of Una and Ortegas.
The costumes, sets and overall production quality are exceptional, and the cast clearly has fun getting to play such wildly different versions of their characters. Secrets are revealed, the different sides of La’An collide and a monster creates yet another challenge when it takes on the iron dragon in space. Somehow, all of these seemingly ridiculous ingredients come together.
Eventually, the truth behind the mysterious planet becomes clearer. The planet is actually a ship, and Pelia plans to study it and pilot it home. More importantly, La’An finally confronts the emotions she has been avoiding and finds a way to accept her true self rather than continuing to fight against it. She also gains an adorable new little friend in Runa along the way.
By the end, La’An is ready to start over with James T. Kirk despite their complicated and painful history. After an episode spent exploring the battle inside herself, it feels like a promising new beginning. Her journey works because the fantasy adventure ultimately leads her toward something very real: accepting the different pieces of herself instead of treating one of them as something that needs to be locked away.
I found “Once La’An at a Time” very good. It delivers an important message without forgetting that Star Trek should also be entertaining, funny and imaginative. What could have become overly sentimental instead turns into a well-written story within a story, filled with memorable performances and some genuinely beautiful production work. And yes, Runa is absolutely adorable.
Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
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