Once upon a time… Star Trek fans tuned in for the craziest adventures, wackiest costumes, and most creative narratives the galaxy had to offer.
Only recently has it become harder for audience members to remember how fun Star Trek can be.
The Elysian Kingdom holds the key to bringing balance to La’an as she tries to save her friends, the world, and her own identity. Inconceivable, you say? Check out our selection of the best lines of the adventure!
Take a Look! It’s in a Book!
It all began on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 8, “The Elysian Kingdom,” when Dr. M’Benga’s terminally ill daughter brought her favorite book to life with the help of a Boltzmann brain entity she named Debra.
Back then, M’Benga was hiding his turmoil. And his daughter. In the medbay transporter buffer, in fact.
This time out, it’s La’an suffering a crisis of identity on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 9, “Once La’an a Time.”
La’an: There is a side of me some are afraid of. But if I keep her away from my friends, she can protect them whether they realize it or not.
Her friends have noticed. And Pike feels compelled to unpack it as best they can.
Pike: Should we talk about our feelings? People are concerned.
He brings receipts.
Pike: How about the wedding?
La’an: The Orion dignitary was a spy, okay? I prevented an intergalactic incident AND saved a marriage.
Pike: By putting the groom’s face in his own cake and lighting the bride’s dress on fire.
La’an: Right. Yeah, well, that started out as a dance, so I’m sorry about that.
La’an’s in such a state of denial that we can’t even tell if the dance excuse is an attempt at humor.
Pelia. Again. Always.
As ever, Pelia is the first to embrace the idea of the impossible.
Spock: This planet should not exist. It is moving through space on its own power. In defiance of physics and logic, it has gravity, breathable air, and signs of life.
Pelia: That thing looks like it should’ve been painted on the side of my ex-boyfriend’s van! Ha-ha! Oh, you don’t know what a van is.
Although there’s no reason the Chief Engineer would be needed on this away mission, of course Pelia’s there.
Pike: It’s like a storybook come to life. Medieval Times if it were an entire planet.
Pelia: Well, as someone who lived through that era, I can tell you that this place smells 100% less like manure and death.
She also has no reservations about name-dropping whenever it serves to make a point.
La’an: We’re staying? Why are we staying?
Pike: To find out why our magic planet populated with our doppelgangers is floating through space.
La’an: Magic. We’re saying magic is a real thing now, are we?
Spock: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Pelia: Arthur C. Clarke! Well, you know I gave him and Kubrick notes on 2001.
And her peanut gallery observations are always on point.
Pelia: What if Rukiya cast us as certain specific character types because she sensed our deepest desires, thereby revealing our shadow selves!
La’an: Are you suggesting that my shadow self is a pathetic damsel in distress?
Pelia: I’m not, no! Carl Jung, on the other hand…
And then there’s the on-the-nose, tongue-in-cheek, delightfully cheeky nods to The Princess Bride because Carol Kane’s Pelia might as well be a space-traveling Valerie in search of her Miracle Max.
Introduced as Benny Russell, the author of The Kingdom of Elysium, Pelia has the time of her life in gilded servitude to the evil Queen Neve.
Queen Neve: Is it true? You are the author of this tome?
Pelia: Yup. That’s me. And also, I’m a duchess.
Neve’s demands are met with acquiescence worthy of the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Queen Neve: You will begin with the tale of how I destroy the Iron Dragon.
Pelia: As you wish.
While Pelia writes very little, she does enjoy the hospitality of the castle.
Pelia: You know what? If I’m going to die, at least I’ll die eating these delicious scones! Seriously, your chef…
Queen Neve: Max?
Pelia: Miracle worker.
The Princess Bride references don’t stop with Pelia either. No R.O.U.S. make an appearance, but swamps are swamps.
Adya: I’ll join this quest. But the key is no longer in my possession. It now rests in the clutches of a devious, twisted monster that dwells in a horrid, desolate land known only as …
La’an: The Swamp of Infinite Death. There’s no subtext here at all, is there?
Because Pelia joined the Enterprise after their encounter with Debra, she has no doppelganger in Elysium.
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However, everyone else’s double is running around at full liberty. It takes the Enterprise crew some time to acquaint themselves with their twins’ personas.
Pike: Roth really is a coward.
King Ridley: All who speak in the third person are.
Pike: Oh right. Yes, it is I, Sir Roth with whomst thou speakest.
King Ridley: ‘Whomst’ is not a word.
Did they ever explain why Ridley didn’t appear too kingly in this adventure? Hmm…
Nobody’s Damsel
The Elysian selves tend to lean into traits rarely exhibited by their Enterprise counterparts. Roth’s cowardice. Neve’s power-hunger. Pollux’s subservience.
La’an’s Elysian representative, the beloved Princess Thalia, is known best for her fragile and pampered nature, much to La’an’s irritation.
Crimson Guard: Princess Thalia. You escaped.
La’an: No, I’m… Listen, I mean you no harm.
[Guard laughs.]
La’an: Harm, it is then.
When Jim Kirk’s doppelganger appears as Prince Dashing, a rather ineffective rescuer — and Thalia’s bae — La’an tries to take it in stride.
Prince Dashing: I have been trying to break you out for months!
La’an: How hard were you trying?
Even Sir Adya finds Prince Dashing a bit of a joke, if harmless.
Sir Adya: Well, well, well, if it isn’t our beloved Thalia and her little Runa.
Dashing: Very funny, Sir Adya, but we both know that I am not the princess’s dog.
Sir Adya: Do we?
Dashing: I’m allergic to dogs.
The dog allergy is a nice touch.
Heal Thyself
When “Once La’an a Time” opens, Uhura, Ortegas, and Spock are concerned for La’an’s well-being.
Uhura: So… La’an is… great. She’s really great. Just lately, she’s been a little…
Ortegas: Not. Great.
Spock: It is my belief that she is torn between two sides of herself.
Ortegas: One side won’t even get dressed for a wedding. Who’s gonna win?
Pike and M’Benga try to lighten her mood when Pike takes her for a check-up.
M’Benga: I regret to inform you that Chief Security Officer La’an Noonien-Singh is cleared for duty.
Pike: Do you have anything that can cure acute grumpiness?
M’Benga: If I did, I would’ve given it to you years ago.
But it isn’t until she’s in Elysian, forced to masquerade as the most dependent version of herself, that she begins to face her fear of needing to trust in others.
It’s Dashing who first cracks through her defenses.
La’an: I’m… I’m fine. I would just like a few words with Carl Jung.
So it’s to Dashing that she confesses her deepest anxiety.
La’an: There’s a darkness in me, and I’m afraid sometimes that darkness is all I really am.
Dashing: Then perhaps you should follow your own words. The very words that sealed my love for you. ‘I accept you for who you are, all that you are.’ If only you could do the same for yourself.
Acceptance is the key to healing the rift in La’an’s duality. Dashing’s own duality is the ultimate exemplar of that conflict.
Yas, Queen!
The genius of the narrative lies in how it weaves in La’an’s most cherished memory of dancing for her late father by turning it into the means by which they infiltrate Neve’s castle.
Dashing: The Queen holds a ball each weekend. There will be drink, merriment, some torture of the innocent, but mostly merriment.
Of course, Neve sees them coming and lies in wait. Bringing Thalia and La’an together is the culmination of her plan.
Queen Neve: I see so clearly now. The only way to truly conquer a dragon is to become one.
I really love how every cast member, but especially Celia Rose Gooding, revels in their fantasy character.
I mean, seriously, those costumes are insane.
And for Neve to pivot from emulating the Iron Dragon of prophecy to transforming into the Crimson Dragon?
It’s not only reflected in the magic of the potion, but in her palette.
Between the looks she flaunted and what the wardrobe department came up with for shore leave on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3, “Human Best Friend,” they really pulled out all the stops.
Comedic Effect
We’d be remiss not to acknowledge the solid humor played out by Ethan Peck and Anson Mount’s wizard Pollux and would-be captain, Roth, respectively.
Pollux: I have detected the iron dragon’s magic on our soil. Within these objects. Maybe these frocks and magic clam will allow us to control the beast.
Roth: I shall… uh… open the magic clam and see how it can help us.
In what might be a violation of General Order 1, they bumble their way onto the Enterprise where they are clever enough to play the parts of their doubles, despite having never met them.
Salazar: Sir, this is Ensign Salazar. Do you wish to return to the Enterprise?
Roth: Ah… hail fellow, well met and all commendations! Yes, we would like to enter the prize.
I’m not sure I’m okay with Una playing the clueless bystander, but it serves the scene.
Roth: A dragon must see the ground to steady its flight.
Una: How do you know that?
Roth: I … like books about dragons. Can’t get enough of them, really. Especially the ones with romance.
Pollux: Captain.
Roth: Flying amongst the stars would cause them great difficulty. Erratic, evasive maneuvers! And keep firing!
I’m sure she and Ortegas would be fascinated by their Elysian selves’ relationship.
Facing Her Shadow Self
Whether La’an or Thalia is the “shadow” self in question is debatable. What is clear is that they see and experience the world very differently.
La’an: Do you feel this love and emotion I’m feeling all the time?
Thalia: Do you feel angry and ready to kill all the time?
Neither woman — whether blinded with rage, or distracted by affection — is stupid, though.
La’an: Maybe if we stop fighting ourselves, we could be more than the sum of our parts.
And neither shirks the necessary risks needed to save the day and right wrongs.
Thalia: The light and the shadow are combined in this cauldron. It would give us the strength Queen Neve took from us, putting us back in balance. Perhaps putting the entire world in balance. And removing from her what she’s stolen from us.
La’an: And possibly turning us into dragons.
Thalia: You say that like it’s a bad thing.
The climax of their struggle is fittingly dramatic and unified.
La’an: To love.
Thalia: To anger.
La’an: And everything in between.
I can’t predict whether this adventure will completely solve La’an’s inner turmoil.
We can only hope that, moving forward, she will continue to accept her softer self, recognizing that love also brings strength.
The best indication that things have changed significantly is her meeting with Jim Kirk in the aftermath.
La’an: The truth is… I’ve been running for a very long time. And one part of myself did everything I could to get away from the other part of me. Y’know, the monster. But, in a way, that other part started to… follow me. Which is why I had to face… this. It was a painful reminder of losing my father. But also where we came from. Before my father died, he was happy. So, lately, I’ve been wondering if I could be too.
Jim seems open to the change.
In his own way, he allows himself to be vulnerable too.
Kirk: To be honest, I’m nervous too. I mean, we have a lot of history. Singing. Stabbing. Stunning. Some other stuff that’s apparently classified. Yet here we both are.
And Nyota notices the difference too.
Uhura: You feel different.
La’an: I might have left something behind.
And in possibly the most relatable, non-La’an-centric moment, she asks the question we all would given the chance.
Uhura: You didn’t happen to get to know the queen at all, did you?
La’an: I did. I like you better.
She had to ask, especially after seeing Queen Neve in the flesh after she’d attacked the ship as a freakin’ DRAGON.
Ortegas: Uh, Nyota? Is that you?
[Queen Neve’s unconscious body floats past the viewscreen.]
Uhura: Yeah… I look GOOD.
You certainly did, Nyota. You certainly did.
Speak the Words, Make the Magic
Of all the film homages this season, “Once La’an a Time,” proves that the message and the medium can work together to best effect.
Yes, there were a lot of plot holes to patch, and we are left wondering if this was Pelia’s curtain call, but in no other context could La’an address her inner conflict so directly.
Unless Dr. Chivers had a month to devote to her therapy, we haven’t seen her since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 7, “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass,” but she must still be on board, right?
With one episode left in the season, did “Once La’an a Time” leave you feeling magical? What line felt truly spellbinding to you?
Would you watch a series based in the Kingdom of Elysian? What do you think Starfleet is going to do with that ship and all the doppelgangers?
Hit our comments with your thoughts and theories, Fanatics!
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