30th June, 2023: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.
Yes: it IS Friday.
And?
Yes: I’m doing fish and chips, again.
And wondering what on Earth inspired Adriano Celentano to write and perform Prisencolinensinainciusol.
Quite what that’s about, I don’t know.
But?
It’s catchy.
~≈🖖≈~
At any rate?
It’s Friday, I’m going to be having dinner …
And, if you’re reading this when it’s published?
You’ve possibly skipped ahead to the review of the next episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
I hope you enjoy it!
1st July, 2023.
Episode 3 — “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” — opens with a summary of season one: highlighting key points of La’an Noonien-Singh journey.
Then shifts: to show us the Enterprise’s Head of Security doing her job.
Calming an argument in the Transporter Room.
Dealing with a noise complaint.
And, finally … ?
Talking with Pelia, about some very suspicious art the Chief Engineer doesn’t have receipts for.
It’s only when La’an heads back to her quarters?
That she finds she has a problem.
As a complete stranger is hurled backwards into the corridor she’s walking down, then collapses against the wall …
And, before he dies — of an old fashioned, and extensive bullet wound — tells her she need to get to the bridge, and talk to the Captain.
Which she does: after the dying man gives her a small device and vanishes before her eyes.
La’an’s only problem … ?
Is finding Captain Pike is no longer in charge of the Bridge: and the ship’s actual commander … is Captain James Tiberius Kirk …
Post titles?
We find La’an in the office of Captain James T. Kirk of the United Earth Fleet’s UEF Enterprise: desperately trying to explain who she is, why she’s here … and exactly what she knows of the gadget she’d been given by a mystery man who’d died on her version of the Enterprise.
The only explanation she can give the bewildered Captain?
Is that something in the past has caused his time line to branch off from hers.
And whatever that event is?
Desperately needs correcting.
And, when Kirk insists La’an give him the device, so that his Chief Engineer, and Science officer can examine it?
La’an refuses.
And, in the ensuing struggle?
Hits the thing’s trigger.
Where they end up … is not where they started …
~≈🖖≈~
Now … what did I make of “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” … ?
What indeed … !?
What we’ve got, here, is a very well written time travel story.
We’re shown — right from the start of the episode — an alternative history that has to be avoided: one where the Federation doesn’t exist, and what’s left of it — the alternative Kirk’s United Earth Fleet — battling the Romulans, and distanced from the Vulcans.
Then shown a pair of sympathetic central characters coming to terms with an unfamiliar world, with no idea what’s caused the unwanted time-line: and having to decide how to get to the ‘right’ history, La’an’s history.
We get shown exactly who’s right and who’s wrong, and who get’s a tragic ending …
~≈🖖≈~
So, yes: the writing is good.
The writing is very good!
And also gives us a very good dilemma.
The changed timeline hinges around one simple little thing.
That time travelling Romulans have worked out exactly how to alter Earth’s history: so that their enemy, the Federation, no longer exists.
All they have to do?
Is kill one major figure.
Just as a bit of background for non-fans?
La’an Noonien Singh, the Christina Chong character, is a distant descendant of Khan Noonien Singh: the villain of a Star Trek: The Original Series episode called “Space Seed”, and its movie sequel, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.
The Ricardo Montalbano-played character?
Is the Star Trek franchise’s equivalent of Hitler. Of Pol Pot. Of Joseph Stalin.
And, in a reverse of the situation in “The City of the Edge of Forever”, where Kirk has to let the morally good, Christine Keeler die, to save Earth?
La’an has to let Khan — the ancestor whose existence had caused untold deaths on Earth, and whose existence had made her childhood a misery — live.
If you’ve seen the Fourth Doctor’s “Do I have that right?” speech in episode six of Genesis of the Daleks?
You’ll know exactly the dilemma La’an faces.
A decision she faces, after she sees the death of a man — James T. Kirk — she’s come to love.
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is one hell of a piece of writing.
And one that sees not only a superbly written script: but some superb performances, as well.
I have to confess to not being completely impressed by Paul Wesley’s performance as Kirk in “A Quality of Mercy”, in Strange New World’s first series.
I wasn’t as convinced by his performance, as I was by William Shatner’s: or, indeed, Chris Pine’s.
I wasn’t convinced by his work in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, either.
Up until Kirk kissed La’an.
Which is when I paused the episode, and laughed.
He’ll do!
Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of Paul Wesley’s version.
~≈🖖≈~
Which leaves me with Christina Chong’s performance as La’an Noonien Singh.
First things first: and something of a side note?
I’ve heard actors with very good speaking voices.
Avery Brooks and George Takei spring to mind. As does Tom Baker, and Joanna Lumley.
Christina Chong’s another, I think: it’s only improved since the last time I saw an appearance of hers: as Lorna Bucket, in the Matt Smith Doctor Who episode, “A Good Man Goes to War”.
That’s a minor point, I think.
As a second point?
It’s not often we see one of Captain Kirk’s romances told from the woman’s point of view: but that’s what we’ve seen here.
The writer’s scripted it well …
And Chong’s performance is superb.
Nope, scrub that: her performance is just plain fantastic.
Her performance, with its heartbreaking coda at the end of “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, and that final shot of a broken watch … ?
I wrote, last week, that I hoped “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” would be a stronger episode than “Ad Astra Per Aspera”.
I needn’t have worried.
It is.
~≈🖖≈~
“So,” I hear you ask, was “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” worth watching?
Oh, good lord, yes!
I did not think it was possible to improve on “Ad Astra Per Aspera”, last week’s episode.
But?
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is definitely an improvement!
Does that mean I’ll be watching the next episode?
Yes.
And yes: I don’t know if that next episode, “Among the Lotus Eaters”*, will be on a par with “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.
But frankly?
I would love to find out.
I’ll be watching “Among the Lotus Eaters” on Friday, 7th July: and posting my written and video reviews on the 8th.
In between now and then?
I’ll be watching Chapter 23 of The Mandalorian, “Guns for Hire”, on 3rd July, 2023: and giving you my written and video reviews on the 4th July.
I will, hopefully, see you then!
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”★★★★⁺
* It is.
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