The TV Cave Performer of the Week: Christina Chong Finds a New Side of La’An on ‘Strange New Worlds’

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has spent four seasons putting La’An Noonien-Singh through enough emotional trauma to make a weekly therapy appointment aboard the Enterprise feel completely reasonable. She has survived the Gorn, wrestled with the weight of her family name, fallen for a James Kirk she couldn’t keep and spent much of Season 4 wondering whether the darker parts of herself might eventually take control. This week, Christina Chong finally gets to let La’An confront all of that, and she does it while wearing a princess dress.

For her performance in Season 4, Episode 9, “Once La’An a Time,” Christina Chong is The TV Cave’s Performer of the Week.

The episode sends the Enterprise crew into a real-life version of the Elysian Kingdom, where familiar faces once again have fantasy counterparts. La’An finds herself connected to Princess Thalia, a character who initially appears to be everything La’An isn’t: emotional, romantic and much more willing to embrace the softer parts of herself. Chong has the tricky job of playing both women without simply turning Thalia into “La’An, but happier,” and that distinction is where the performance starts getting interesting.

Chong has spent years making La’An’s restraint part of the character’s language. A tightened expression or slightly guarded delivery can tell us plenty before La’An ever admits what she is feeling, which makes watching Chong loosen those restraints as Thalia especially fun. The episode eventually flips those emotional dynamics, allowing Chong to bring La’An’s gentleness closer to the surface while giving Thalia access to the anger her counterpart has carried for so long. A.V. Club specifically highlighted how Chong keeps the two characters distinct even as their personalities begin crossing over.

The fantasy setting could easily have swallowed the actual character work. There are castles, costumes, doppelgängers, a werewolf and enough fairy-tale nonsense happening around La’An that the episode occasionally feels like it raided the Enterprise costume closet and refused to give anything back. Chong, however, keeps the emotional story grounded because La’An’s real battle isn’t against a fantasy villain. It is against the belief that some parts of herself make her undeserving of happiness.

That becomes clearest when La’An and Thalia stop treating each other like opposing forces and recognize that neither side needs to disappear. The episode visualizes La’An finally accepting the emotional pieces she has spent years trying to contain, which tracks directly with what Chong told The TV Cave ahead of the episode. She described La’An’s journey as learning to accept and love all of herself, including the anger, paranoia and fear she once viewed as problems to overcome.

Chong also has to sell the romantic side of that breakthrough through La’An’s interactions with Prince Dashing, played by Paul Wesley. Their scenes work because Chong doesn’t suddenly erase the guarded woman we know; she lets La’An test what vulnerability feels like before finally deciding she might be ready to try again with the real James Kirk. By the episode’s closing moments, even something as simple as La’An letting her hair down carries meaning because Chong has spent so much time showing us why that openness does not come naturally to her.

The episode itself isn’t flawless, and its resolution of La’An’s Season 4 struggle may feel easier than the buildup suggested. That actually makes Chong’s work more impressive. When the writing takes a relatively simple route toward self-acceptance, she supplies the emotional history underneath it and makes the destination feel earned.

For showing us La’An’s anger, vulnerability, humor and long-buried softness without losing the character we’ve known all along, Christina Chong is The TV Cave’s Performer of the Week.

Honorable Mentions

Cynthia Watros — General Hospital Nina Reeves had one hell of a Thursday, and Cynthia Watros made sure we felt every second of it. After Nina was confronted with evidence tying her to Jack Brennan’s disappearance, Watros took her from fury to fear as Nina realized the WSB wasn’t merely questioning her — they were taking her away. Michael Fairman TV specifically singled out Watros’ performance in the September 17 episode as Nina became the center of the story.

Aaron Pierre — Lanterns Yes, our inaugural winner almost got himself another mention at the top. “Lights Out” forces John Stewart to finally obtain the Green Lantern ring he has spent his life preparing for, only to discover that getting exactly what he wanted leaves him feeling empty. Pierre is particularly strong in John’s final reckoning with that dream, after the episode forces him to make increasingly ugly choices to reach it.

Paul Wesley — Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Prince Dashing could have been nothing more than a very funny Kirk gag, but Wesley commits so completely to the fantasy version of the character that he becomes an important part of La’An’s emotional breakthrough. His deliberately over-the-top romantic hero also gives Wesley and Chong a completely different chemistry to play than the restrained Kirk/La’An dynamic aboard the Enterprise.