- Directed by Sydney Freeland
- Written by Onitra Johnson
- September 17, 2026
- Paramount+
- An insult to Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Episode Cast
- Captain Christopher Pike, Sir Armand Rauth-Anson Mount
- Commander Una Chin-Riley, Z’ymira the Huntress-Rebecca Romijn
- Lt. Spock, Wizard Pollux-Ethan Peck
- Lady Audrey-Jess Bush
- Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh, Princess Thalia-Christina Chong
- Ensign Nyota Uhura, Queen Neve-Celia Rose Gooding
- Lt. Erica Ortegas, Sir Adya-Melissa Navia
- Dr. Joseph M’Benga, King Ridley-Babs Olusanmokun
- Commander Pelia-Carol Kane
- James T. Kirk, Prince Dashing-Paul Wesley
- USS Enterprise Computer (voice)-Alex Kapp
Enterprise finds an improbable world where their doppelgängers exist as characters in a fantasy world.
Here we are at the penultimate episode of Season Four. Once La’An a Time is a story that boldly goes where Strange New Worlds has gone before. This is a sorta sequel to the Season One episode The Elysian Kingdom here with a focus on La’An (Christina Chong) and some aliens helping her working through some emotions over being an augment. In the end it is another episode where the cast gets to act goofy rather than as competent Starfleet officers.
Part of the problem here is we’ve already done this. The assorted characters have already been played in this particular scenario. It was a once and done story that didn’t require a sequel of any type. It’s not like the episode was even a highlight of season one. M’Benga dumped his daughter on some aliens and I believe this is the closest we have come to getting a mention of her since though I could be wrong. Maybe I just explained why he never made a report. In execution The Elysian Kingdom was to clean up the messy plot idea of a daughter stored in a transporter buffer neatly that the writers realized they could not handle.
Rather than the cast come to realize the point of it all is to help La’An, that is essentially stated from the first bit of strangeness undermining one potential surprise. Enterprise is taking a whole mission to help La’An deal with her feelings. It strains believability that such a thing would be done. From the looks of it they are not initially trapped so they could just leave since what is going on is linked to a single crewmember. The logical move would be to call Starfleet to send another ship.
One thing that gets me is that we learn M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) never made a report on events in The Elysian Kingdom. Based on what we see he kept it close to the vest until just now. This was not something that happened just to him but affected the entire crew. We do need a brief recap but treating it as new information was a bad move. Nobody is bothered that he never informed him they were controlled by outside forces.
Paul Wesley makes yet another appearance on SNW though not as James T. Kirk-at least not for the whole episode. He plays Prince Dashing who helps La’An because he thinks she is his love Princess Thalia. Paul Wesley can be viewed as doing a riff on, well, Wesley from The Princess Bride though this story is not a direct homage to that unlike A Case of Chiaroscuro was to The Maltese Falcon. Actual Kirk DOES make an appearance on the show to go on a date with La’An. He’s not even on the ship! How does it make sense for him to get leave from wherever to take a trip for a date?
Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) finally shows up in an episode having been absent from stories. I know she is supposed to be quirky but often she comes off as stupid or alarmingly incompetent. Her handling of the situation when the crew gets captured borders on criminally negligent and worthy of a court marshal. He arc in the story serves as a way to get this deadweight off the ship though her motivation is largely to bang a cook with Pike’s full permission.
Though Kirk who was NOT in the episode gets Prince Dashing, Pelia does not but she was never important to the plans of the show. Since (nearly) everyone has a double, that means Pike and Spock have a parallels that get into shenanigans. Their doppelgängers of Sir Armand Rauth and Wizard Pollux seek to take control of The Iron Dragon (Enterprise) because of a prophecy. How do they make it on the ship? Because the crew left their stuff laying around after changing into more appropriate clothing rather than transporting it back to the ship. Why? Not sure. Maybe I missed something but it certainly makes things move faster rather than requiring the characters to think or be creative.
Putting the crew in appropriate attire to blend in is fine. What is not fine is they leave their clothing lying in the forest to be found. That strikes me as a bit of a contrivance to make the next part of the episode happen. A distinct oversight if you’re trying to blend in and not break the Prime Directive or get discovered. They couldn’t call the ship to beam the clothing up? If it was a matter of getting a lock couldn’t they hand stuff to Pelia who didn’t have a counterpart in the prior episode and that was something they ALL acknowledged? Are these writers even trying anymore? Did they ever try?
Star Trek has never been a hard science world, but it does have a logic that it follows and there is very little in this sequence. Spock and Pike in a ship with a compliment of around 400 crew (per varying info in TOS) are the best known on there. EVERYBODY on any ship recognizes the captain yet nobody questions the different mannerisms or different hair. This makes no sense in a universe where alien doubles are known to occur. It is like the crew is selectively incompetent to make things happen in this story.
They movie about the ship only marginally impeded. While directly confronted by a transporter tech and M’Benga, no crew they pass ever go “They don’t look/act right.” The pair makes it all the way to the bridge with those they work closest with never indicating some suspicion until Pollux casts a spell to defeat a dragon in space. After goofing around the ship and not acting like Pike or Spock it’s hard to believe they made it that far. Between the voices and incongruous look it strains credibility.
Where does the dragon come from? Princess Neve (Celia Rose Gooding) casts a spell that requires the two versions of La’An though I am not exactly sure why beyond forcing the characters to meet. Suspension of disbelief is called into question once again because now magic is real and we’re supposed to just go along with that. These aren’t advanced beings or higher dimensional entities. They are just copies of mortals now wielding magic.
If you pay attention, you’ll catch the Benny Russell reference which harkens back to the DS9 episode first seen in Far Beyond the Stars which was eventually revealed to be a bit of a hallucination caused by the Pah-wraiths later in the series to sow doubt in The Sisco. While originally a bit of an Easter Egg, here he is made into a real author undermining much of the premise of the first appearance much like the appearance of the typewriter did in SA. I’m curious if somebody just came across the name and didn’t think too much through when they tossed it in.
Once La’An a Time is an episode that was one more pointless gimmick in a season filled with gimmicks. A bad sequel that nobody wanted. After Orders of Magnitude, this is a serious drop in quality.
Warren Watched A Movie 