- Directed by Chris Fisher
- Written by Henry Alonso Myers and Robbie Thompson
- September 24, 2026
- Paramount+
- Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Episode Cast
- Captain Christopher Pike-Anson Mount
- Commander Una Chin-Riley-Rebecca Romijn
- Lt. Spock-Ethan Peck
- Nurse Christine Chapel-Jess Bush
- Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh-Christina Chong
- Ensign Nyota Uhura-Celia Rose Gooding
- Lt. Erica Ortegas-Melissa Navia
- Dr. Joseph M’Benga-Babs Olusanmokun
- Lt. Montgomery Scott-Martin Quinn
- Dr. Philip Boyce-Brian Markinson
- USS Enterprise Computer (voice)-Alex Kapp
- James T. Kirk-Paul Wesley
When Enterprise is sent to study a white hole, an accident occurs allowing Uhura to encounter her future herself who reveals a warning.
A continuing issue is that Strange New Worlds regularly puts characters with serious plot armor in danger. We know a significant portion of the series cast makes it past this show limiting those that can feel to be put in true jeopardy. I count three main characters for whom we know nothing (Ortegas, Una, La’An) beyond what this show provides despite what an altered future here may show. So who is in jeopardy in Tomorrow’s Enterprise and who must do the saving? Scotty (Martin Quinn) is in peril and Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) must reach across time to herself to save him.
Those characters (if any) that go beyond the run of the newer show are never truly in danger. Star Trek: Enterprise avoided that while SNW cannot. In a series whose cast of characters makes it to TOS or further, genuine stakes are hard to create. The only out for that would be to (yet again in Trek) create a new timeline but I had no illusions they would this late in the game. But it possibly gets worse.
SNW has had no fear alluding to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier though I am baffled why. I enjoy it but as a general rule the core Trek audience does not embrace it and considers it the worst film in the original crew run. In Tomorrow’s Enterprise we are dropped into the Scotty/Uhura romance Shatner tried to introduce. In the episode’s present Scotty is trying to flirt or ask her out while in the future they are a couple. In V not only was it new but there was no appearance of anything beyond a professional connection between the two in the decades of material before that.
It is like the writers (once again) googled something to insert rather than created or found something that would appropriately fit. The appearance of the Scotty and Uhura romance, which never appeared in TOS, was completely out of left field. Some seeds needed to be planted earlier in the season before they jumped into it. This is a series more interested in bed hopping than storytelling.
In the episode the superficial lesson of Uhura’s story is to live in the moment and have fun so she can grow into a badass. That’s a combination of what both Uhuri (plural for Uhura here on out) said to others. Go with the flow and date Scotty rather than wait on a good thing. Be free. Uhura was a professional! This seems like they’re trying to push her to be more of a party girl.
Remember Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure when they played with causality by having the future Bill and Ted do things that aided their past selves. That somewhat happens here as the Uhuri hatch a plan to save Scotty. Future Uhura learns info which Past Uhura implements and vice versa (knowledge-wise). Given other homages that have occurred this season it would not surprise me if this was another.
The current crew is portrayed as being inappropriately close, so it baffles me when the Uhuri switch periods and NOT A PERSON notices the change in hairstyles. It could be forgiven if the pair had switched while in their respective quarters, but it happens while both are on their bridges. Either in the future characters are all willing to accept that in the space of a few seconds somebody change their appearance or they were not paying attention when she walked onto the bridge. It’s a convenient lack of observation.
Tomorrow’s Enterprise is a space baby episode. There have been a few of them over Star Trek’s very long history where a creature is born or a being evolves into a new form. Nothing wrong with those. What I don’t understand is why Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) is helping with the space baby. She’s a nurse and not an experienced physician or a xenobiologist-all of which are present on a starship. Dr. Boyce (Brian Markinson) is on the ship but I do not recall him ever being consulted. He delivers SOME dialogue, but none related to the problem.
Chapel is probably the least likely person to be consulted on how to birth a child of any type given her low rank and generally just being a nurse and not a doctor despite being treated like a member of the senior staff in this show. But she also creates the special probes designed to help the space baby be born. Where did she get this engineering expertise? You could not maybe have a line saying engineering built them?
Once again Chapel mentions Roger Korby in a way that demonstrates the writers never paid very close attention to or even watched TOS. Christine mentions in the changed future loving Roger Korby as if he is still around. In What Are Little Girls Made Of?, which introduced Roger Korby, it’s alluded to if not outright stated that she joined Starfleet hoping to stumble across him wherever he was on his random mission. That was her big plan. There’s the implication that she took a lesser position than she had the credentials for just to join Starfleet. And don’t get me started on the age difference at least when it comes to the actors that one could presume would translate to their characters to an extent. The SNW writers made it a little less trashy.
As a series that should pre-date Star Trek: TOS there was a lot of informality in the future set scenes not shown in TOS. That’s not uncommon in the Kurtzman Era. Uhura keeps calling Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley) ‘Jim’. When did we ever see her go ‘Jim’? It was always ‘Captain’ or ‘Sir’ because she was a professional. Spock in private moments or when trying to drive home a point would use ‘Jim’. The same with Dr. McCoy. Such a casual nature was never present between the two.
Then there is Uhura having a special relationship with Pike (Anson Mount). Future Uhura thanks him for making her everything she is. Why then if this were ever the case did she not get a scene with the wheelchair bound Pike in The Menagerie or a line hinting at such? You can fall back on something similar to the Chekov being on night shift argument that was used to justify Khan remembering the character despite Koenig not being a cast member during Space Seed. That was a mistake that can be attributed to how TOS was being watched at the time and a lack of research.
Anson Mount was excellent in the scenes with Celia Rose Gooding. Despite this deep relationship never being implied in TOS, there is an authenticity to their performances that made this new bit of lore very believable. There was some quality acting going on between the two. You get a sense Pike wants to give Uhura more guidance but understands how dangerous that might be.
There is a serious issue with some of the science used in this episode implying these shows do not use a science adviser or the writers do not engage in necessary research. Not the messing with space and time which often happens in Star Trek but in the future, they are in front of the only black hole with no gravitational pull. If they had noted that such a strange thing was occurring or that it wasn’t actually a black hole it would’ve explained some of the strangeness.
Somehow Uhura is able to stand on the saucer section of Enterprise without getting sucked in along with being able to send probes in without them being torn into an into subatomic spaghetti. How strong are her gravity boots? Signals are able to move in and out of this black hole allowing Uhura to manipulate them and the crew to monitor their activity but they never get sensor data. It is very selective. All things that cannot happen in science and nothing that even the weakest science fiction ignores.
In the SNW period Uhura is not a skilled pilot and requires assistance to analyze the white hole. In the one year later (altered) period she is piloting the shuttle herself. In a year, she became capable enough to not only fly a shuttle but run all the equipment to study the current phenomena? If a little thought had been put into this, she would’ve had two other crew members with her. Two randos to replace the people that went out with her originally.
When did the TOS crew ever play poker? The TNG crew certainly did but near as I can tell while the Enterprise bridge crew liked and respected and were loyal they didn’t hang out and have buddy buddy time in their off hours outside of the leisure area or gym shown in TOS. It only looks like Kirk, Spock, and McCoy hung out to an extent but the whole bridge crew? Not so much.
In a solid example of a Trek revelation, we learn that all problems are the result of a misunderstanding with some aliens that exist nonlinearly. It is a little more thoughtful (in a DS9 way) than I might otherwise think this staff capable of but in hindsight I am having trouble understanding why help was required or if the help was even help. Did it do anything or did the aliens have it under control the whole time? Were they manipulating time to make the baby be born or fix the damage done by their warning to stay away?
There’s some interesting editing when it comes to indicating timelines/eras. It adds a certain style to this that Trek often lacks largely because it can’t do it under normal circumstances. Lighting changes enough to communicate when we are watching.
As has been the case in much of this show or Current Trek in general, this episode ignores canon to create new and illogical lore to tell a story with characters in a fictional world where very little is debatable. It also ignores logic or the most basic of science to create drama or cool visuals. With some thought and the use of other characters this could have been much better.
In an act of disrespect to the current series, much of this is set in the TOS era in what amounts to a preview of/backdoor pilot for a Year One series. It is selling a new product over advancing the story of the current. Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Melissa Navia, and Christina Chong along with their characters are all pushed into the background while Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel, Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura, Paul Wesley as Kirk, and Martin Quinn as Scotty with an honorable mention to Ethan Peck as Spock (all TOS) play a greater role.
Tomorrow’s Enterprise is an effort harmed by a lack of thought and a focus on a cast that will never be. It involves two characters with serious plot armor and it neglects certain facts that Trek would not ignore or would explain away.
