Strange New Wednesdays - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

0:04 Space the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of Strange New Wednesdays, It's continuing mission to explore episodes of Strange New Worlds to seek out new information and new discussions, to boldly go where no podcast has gone before. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Strange New Wednesdays, where we continue to talk everything about the current season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. Once again, Red alert, please be worn spoilers our heads. If you haven't seen this week's episode, please go back watch it and come back and join us. I'm David Byrne, I'm Scott Hoffman, and I'm Wayne White. Today we are discussing season two Episode three tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Well, gentlemen, I have to say when I learned this to be another going back into time on Earth episode, I kind of rolled to my eyes thinking how many times have we done this in Star Trek. But I have to say I was very surprised on how this episode turned out, especially that twist we get at the end of why what they were there to prevent? But before we discuss

1:34 that, Scott, can you give us a quick recap of this episode? Yeah? Absolutely so. In this episode we get a unique focus on a somewhat unlikely duo, Laon Nunian Thing and James T. Kirk. After a look at a day in Laon's life as chief of Security, she gets a desperate mission from a time traveling agent and sends and finds herself at an alternate reality where Kirk is Captain and the Federation as she knows it is gone. Actually that they travels with Kirk to a time similar to our own, and they team up to stop a Robulan assassin from making disastrous changes the Earth's feature. The journey becomes personal for lat On as she developed strong few things for Kirk, struggles with losing them in various ways, and I expectedly finds herself fighting to save the legacy that continues to haunt her. This episode shares a lot of DNA with classic Original series episodes like The Space Seat and City on the Edge Forever, and quickly establishes itself as another Drek classic. And it does. You know. One of the things I love about the first three episodes of this season is the fact that Captain Pike has taken a back seat to this season. You know, it's it's kind of a rare thing to see that because typically the captain's in the main character and we see them so much. But we are getting to see so many characters shine and see their stories unfold before us. You know, we're getting great character development. And we get that with lay On in this episode, right guys, that's right, Yeah, absolutely, And I think it was very clever in the first episode how he took a backseat, because then that kind of let it kind

3:05 of unfold in a way that we didn't need to have so much that focus. On episode two, we got more of a focus there. I think when we're seeing that continuing episode three, it just it continues to remind me of Next Generation, where it's really a show about the ensemble, and while the captain is a focal point, it's not the only person that can that can do everything in the in the show. So yeah, and we we've already discussed like the chemistry of all of these actors and the characters in this show, and they're all fantastic the other but you know, Lyon's never really has not got to share the screen with Captain Kirk as she did in this episode, and I thought their chemistry was phenomenal too. You know, the people who have casted this show have just gone have knocked it on the park.

3:51 But one of the things that I really like this and Scott you touched on this in your recap is you know, we know lyon in the we know her relationship to con and what he has done, and you know she's living with what he has done, his legacy. We get to see her, you know, build up with all this anger and frustration and all these emotions just bottle up inside of her and clearly they come, you know, boiling out there at the end, which we'll get to that because that's like one of my favorite scenes of this episode. Yeah, same here, But um, you know, I I think we needed this episode with her. You know, we've seen her around the ship. You know, she's in charge of security. I think one of the coolest scenes was there at the beginning when she was dealing with security problems around the ship. I thought that was kind of funny. And getting to see Commander Palia again. I love her. She shines every time every single scene. I mean she doesn't know what two episodes now and barely in those at that, but every scene she's been and she has been awesome. Yeah, she was hilarious. It was great seeing her again and learning a lot more about her. We got to see a little bit of her past that it was just it was a fun scene. Uh. We got to say she she suffers from kleptomania. Um, she stole a painting from the louver. Um, that's just and she uh back in the round our time she owned antique store. It was it was It was great fun. It was but but but Wayne, clearly they are not stolen, that's what she said. But that was a copy,

5:24 that's right. Um. But yeah, Scott, I think you mentioned last episode that we would probably get some of her, didn't you in this episode when they went back in time, and sure enough we got it. I'm pretty sure you've mentioned that and you were right. Yeah. I suspected. Yeah, just because she had kind of dropped that nugget. Um again, kind of reminds me of Guidance character, you know, living in the past and getting little glimpses of it, kind of being connected connection to that when we get the chance to do so. Um. I thought it was a lot of fun that the uh, the door to her to her place in Vermont had archaeology department but she couldn't started it too much in the middle when she started painting it and she had to break it weirdly in the middle of the word a word nerd thing there. But yeah, no, she she absolutely does shine. She does a great job of having that kind of eccentricity, and that mystery continues to unfold because they go expecting an engineer and she's like, what, no, I have an archaeologist. I don't know anything about that, but it does sound interesting. Yeah, and Kara Kane is just so good and everything she does, she just brings such a comedicus great comedic timing in this series. I love her so much. Yeah. What do you guys think about Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk. How do you think he's going I think he's doing fantastic. He's not trying to copy William Shatner. Yep, He's putting his own take. But every now and then a little bit of the original Kirk comes out, you know. You

6:56 hear it in his voice sometimes in his mannerisms, his movements, So he is channeling Kirk but his own way, and we got to see we got to see a lot more of him and some of the things that Kirk does. He loves hot dogs. He's never he's never driven a car, but I will say one thing he learned really quick how to drive that car. Andy. He's an expert of chess, which I don't think that's ever been brought up on kirk sister. I never don't think I remember him ever playing. Well no, wait, he did play it in the pilot episode, play the three dimensional that's right, but I think it lost because he even mentioned that one dimensional chess is super easy or something like that. Yeah.

7:38 Yeah, I think that was a pretty cool then how he went in there just to earn money and wipe wipe them all out. Yeah. Now, I think it's really cool that we haven't necessarily seen this timeline's true Kirk yet, Right, we've gotten the at the end of the last season, we got an alternate Kirk. Here we get an alternate Kirk. I think it's a great way to start to slowly introduce the character by never really revealing the true Kirk yet, because it helps kind of laid the foundation for you know, this doesn't have to be exactly William Shattner's Kirk. Ye, well, it can be its own. It's that's probably a good idea. I don't know how close they want to stick with the continuity. But in um, the original series episode of The Menagerie with the one would that show the scenes for the pilot, Kirk mentioned only having met Pike once or twice before.

8:28 So and I hope that they don't use Kirk too much after all this series. I don't want to see him too much, but I would like to see him again. Yeah, I complete, because I mean, we know Kirk's story. We don't need to go over and over and over and over and again. This is Pike's story in his career, you know. And then I want to keep it that way, and it seems like that's where they're focusing on it. I don't mind him coming back like that from time to time. So and again, Pike didn't see him in this one. It was it was lay on, so you know, it fits perfectly without it. Yeah. Um, so someone let's talk about some other episodes, I mean, other scenes in this episode. What do you think about the relationship between those two, Um, where it was building over the episode. I thought it was a good touch. It wasn't forced. The scene I think where they were in the hotel room and she couldn't sleep and basically got up and walked into the other room to see him on the on the couch and then she walks away, and then he wakes up and looks over and she's gone. I thought that was pretty cool touch. Yeah, I think it's interesting how he's able to, like his personality, is able to draw a little bit more out of her. You know, around everybody else, she's very closed off. She's gone. Yeah, aside from you know, Una and a select few people, you know, and we've we've seen her kind of grow and change, but in this one, he's able to bring a little bit of something out of her that kind of maybe let some of those defenses down. And yeah, that's a great moment when she kind of walks out of the room and you know, I think she might want to talk to him, and then it was just like nope, no, close it down and and back off. Yeah, and you know, allows her

10:03 to have a little bit of fun, you know, when they're when they're stealing the clothes. I thought that was kind of a yeah, an interesting, interesting party, and she brought a lot of emotion to this episode. Jumping to the end when she meets Khan, the younger version of Khan that was incredibly powerful. She just did a phenomenal job at acting that. I mean, you know, she she had the chance of changing everything, of getting rid of all the problems that that name, that person has brought to her. But she knew that she she couldn't kill him. I mean, she couldn't, you know, allow him to be killed by the Romulans, because, you know, even though it was a bad thing, eugenics war had to happen. It had to happen because Earth had to rise out of that, it had to be discovered by the Vulcans, had to become part of the Federation, a golden Age start. Even though it was bad, she knew that this had to happen and she couldn't allow him to die.

11:03 But you put yourself in her shoes at that moment, and the things that are running through your head on all the things that you can prevent if you just assassinated him right then and there, or you allowed the Romulans to assassinate him right then and there. That's a lot to deal with. But you're right, Wayne, I mean, you had to let all that happen. And she realized that you know, it's unfortunate all the lives that are going to be lost because of him, but you had to make that choice because you know how things are going to turn out, and you couldn't let that happen. And you see that a lot in time travel series. It's the classic go back in time and kill Hitler. Yeah, it sounds like a great thing to do and prevent all the deaths during World War two, but just think of what happened after War two, how the world has shaped and formed after that. You know, doesn't mean that the changes will be good.

11:58 Yeah, well, I can't tell you. I don't know what you guys, But them to assassinate Khan was not on my radar on how that was going to happen. So when that happened, that are you kidding me? They caught me by surprise on that one. You know, they had me so geared towards this terrorist attack that about the bridge and all of that stuff, and then going after them what was the not an engine but the reactor, the reactor. Yeah, they were going after the reactor, and so they had me so focused on that, which is exactly what their intention was in writing this. And then when you discovered that the Romulans are not there to kill let me destroy, that they're gonna kill Khan. I'm like, what that was a twist, great twist. Yeah. So, I mean, I think when I started watching this episode, there was a moment where I watched the recap of last episode and saw all the things that she's saying, and then I stopped to watch those two episodes that I mentioned before, Space Seed and City on the Edge Forever before watching this, and it was interesting having to kind of east Kes they dropped in there and having a kind of notes that kind of called back. But in watching that, just thinking about that scene where she has the length of a long haulway to think about what's happening and to consider that decision. You know, it's not just kind of like a decision she's presented at the end of the door. She knows what's probably about to happen. She has some time to think about it, and I think she wrestles with, you know, the morality of the decision of killing a little kid, and you know, knowing that it will

13:33 not save her future, it will just create a worse one. Because she knows that killing the monster doesn't kill the ghost. She'll continue to be haunted by that, she won't be able to reconcile it. She'll just know that she's basically running away from it by allowing it to collapse. I think that was a very smart decision. It made me want to kind of look at that map when it said the reactor is this way and genetics is this way. I was like, well, what else is in't here? This is a fascinating place explorer. But um, yeah, that was a That was a great emotional moment for her, knowing that even when she's standing in Khan's room holding the gun and I don't think she has any intention of shooting him, but she's like, you know, Harry, I'm meeting this person with for the first time, with a you know, with a weapon with an symbol of violence. So a very interesting scene and a great twist on this because they were building up to like it's got to be a big explosion, a big exact or a big thing, and then nope, let's try this.

14:33 So so interesting it really was, and you know, um, we can go ahead and talk about some of her favorite moments. I'm gonna I'm gonna jump ahead of you guys on this one. But um I mentioned earlier about the ending, which is one of my favorite scenes of this episode, and you know, that's uh, when Leon finally breaks down. You know, she's in her quarters and she is obviously missing Kirk, you know, of what had happened. You know, she saw him die, so she you know, reaches out through the Kirk and her reality and you know, he answers and stuff like that, and she just makes up the story that you know, she was checking on some security reasons for her brother or his brother, excuse me, and you know, and then as soon as she hangs up that communication, that's where we finally get to see her breakdown, you know, crying just uncontrollably, you know, her her shell has finally come down. Yes, she's by herself, but we get to see all these emotions that have just built up that she's you know, guarded herself from everybody, that she finally just has to release it all and we get to see the truly on right there. And I love that scene so much.

15:37 I mean, I know, so much stuff happened in that episode. There's a lot of good scenes, a lot of great moments, but for me, that right there defined her. It really did. Yeah, I think she I noticed that she cries in a very specific way, or at least the way that I was interpreting it. You know, that's the you know, I've I've had those kind of breakdowns before, and it's those moments when you've been holding your breath for so long, you've been holding it in for so long that it's not just you know, an extended session of like I open up the gates and I finally start. It was a lot of like catching breaths and a lot of deep breaths and things like that when it's kind of like Okay, I can finally let go and I can finally take a breath, but I'm still a little bit guarded. I still don't want to let all of it out at once. Yeah, that that sense of relief that both of them that are alive, that the timeline is intact, but also just you know, it even starts with that scene with Ambenga, which I thought was a great little nugget when they're starring and he's like, can't you just let this out? As your doctor, I'm letting I'm asking you to do so, and she's like, no, I'm not going to buy and here's a moment when she finally allows herself to just a little bit, but not all the way. I think it was really well done. Yeah, way about you. Well, you know, time travel episodes are a very important part of Star Trek. They've all had them, they all have

17:08 their great episodes. But what I liked about most about this episode was not so much a certain scene, but and this is what surprised me the most, is that they really made the effort to connect this episode, this series to the past series, especially Star Trek Enterprise. I mean the Usually you don't see these new series wanting to connect to the Burman era of Star Trek, but this episode was just packed full of references and continuity instances. Right at the beginning, the fight with the Transporter Chief that lawn was breaking up, the one the Transport chief himself was a new a Danubelian. That's was what doctor Flox was is the same alien race from Star Trek Enterprise. And then of course we got quite a few mentions to the temporal Cold War, which was a huge storyline in Star Trek Enterprise as well, which they never really finished that storyline. They never were really able to conclude that because the series was canceled, so I actually have a feeling that this is the first act of what we're going to see more of, more of this. They're going to try to maybe close out a little bit of that story, maybe not follow what they originally wanted to do, but bring it out. And then plus, you know the time Traveler that went was jumped into the future where Lan got the device from the time travel device that used the interface, the t car's interface that was actually designed for Star Trek Voyager when they were

18:41 they because that's where they told the temporal cold War really started. That's where we first saw the first bits of it. And bravo to the production designer this series of actually going back and making sure it connects and looks just like what they did in Voyager. And then of course, you know, at the end, we got to the Apartment of Temporal Investigations. They appeared in Deep Space nine and uh, they were investigating Captain Cisco when he went back in time and messed with Kirk and the Tribles. It was a great episode, yeah, but there were there were so many great little little bits connecting it to the whole Star Trek and we got to hear. I think this is the first time that Kirk's hometown was actually ever mentioned on screen. I think it was mentioned in the books, but on screen, Um, what was it? Riverside? Riverside? Yeah, yeah, some of those easter eggs I didn't catch Wayne, So wow, fantastic job on that. Yeah, that makes me want to watch Enterprise a little before. This is something too. It also brings back from to the last episode, and this actually rather surprised me. Um, you know, on our last podcast, I had mentioned about the eugenic swar. I told you about the eugenicy swar that and it happened in the nineties, from ninety ninety six. Well, here in this episode they referenced that it happened somewhere between the twenty thirties and the twenty fifties, and I was wondering, you know, there that's some difference.

19:57 I mean, we know sablished fact that it happened in the nineteen nineties, but now they're saying that waves from the Temple Cold War have has actually altered history and has changed the time that the eugenic sport happened, has moved it about fifty years. I guess that that brings it from now. It's no longer in our past, is now in our future, so they can kind of even pans out to the way stuff looks today. Interesting. So the Easter egg that I caught, which I don't know if it's an intention for an Easter egg, but um, and I'm not sure it's not for Star Trek, but for a fan of an eighty series TV series called Voyagers. The time traveling device that Lion has reminds me of the Omni, which feenis bug used to travel through time. Oh yeah, you know when and when the Omnis read it means history is wrong, it's right. I like that. Yep. As soon as I saw, like, oh hey, look at that Voyagers, so so go ahead. I thought that was an interesting point to mention. And when in Sarah's speech how she says it was supposed to happen in the nineties and she's been trapped there for thirty years, I think that that's a cool callback. Having just watched the Space Seed and having them talk about you know, this happened in the ninety two and also the kind of stuff, but it helps to kind of explain, you know, again, this is a slightly different timeline so there are some variations that we can just you know, accept and move on. But they're they're taking care to kind of tidy up some of those things, which was I think

21:32 it's a really well, really smart way to go about that. Yeah, and it doesn't surprise me with the all the ships and all the captains that keep traveling back in time. It's it's surprised. It doesn't surprise me at all that time has changed a little bit, right, right, right, it would have to. I'm sure I'm probably gonna know the answer to this question. But which characters shine the most in this episode? For you guys, Wayne, Oh wait, this is Lawn's episode. So we continue the trend of centering an episode for each character. We get spot. We have Una now it's it's line. Um. She spent ninety five percent of this episode with con Or with Kirk, and Um, I just I've not seen this type of emotion come from this actress in this series. It's so great to see these characters now finally getting the time to shine and the time to act their socks off. And she really did. Yeah. He kind of taking me aback with her performance in this because you're right, she hasn't had really an opportunity to just take over the screen like she did in this episode.

22:33 Scott and Yugreen. Yeah, absolutely. I mean this actress has shown a lot of range. Like it keeps bringing me back to the storybook episode where she was a very indifferent character. But no, she really stands out in this one very powerful performance and you know, at the same time a lot of fun. Um, you know, I was I was thinking that the time travel episode would be a little bit more fun, which I think it was. But it was a nice balance of not making it completely you know, um kind of poking fun with time travel, but making it having it have some serious implications, you know, to the timeline, but also some some growth for her character. So I think it was very interesting.

23:18 I'll be interested to see what happens when she meets Kirk next, even though it might be another alternate version of him, It's going to be awkward a little bit. Um, If you could be any character in this episode, who would it be and why? Scott, I'm going to go with one of the security officers cataloging Pelly's collection, Just gonna go with a random there, But um, I'd like to see what else what else is in there? And you know what you know, not only kind of like, oh, that's an interesting item, but the story that she has behind it, or the story she makes up about it, whether or not those things are fakes. And yeah, oh Opelia. I mean look at her. She's she's having a great time on Earth. She gets to spend three four hundred years watching some of the best events ever happened in Earth's history. And um, and she's stealing paintings and collecting things. I mean, what's better than that? You know, I really think it's fantastic. I'll tell you what's better than that being James T. Kirk and sharing a kiss with lay On.

24:26 That's what that would be my choice anyway. No, but good, good choices, Scotten Wayne, very good choices. I like those. Um so um. Next episode. Episode is at four right, yes, yes, among the lowest eaters. What do you think this is about? Looks like another self contained story. What do you think do you get the cast back? The at least majority of the cast seem to be in it. Looks like a very very intense episode and very special effects heavy. So I'm expecting a lot of action, a lot of a lot of fun. It's We've had two episodes that we've been very light on visual effects. Ye, so this is gonna be a big one. I think. I think this is probably going to be an important episode for the series. Yeah. I think in one of the scenes that I saw from the load of theaters, they Pike mentioned something about Spock bleeding out or something. Yeah, I'm like, WHOA, what's going on? Yeah, what's going on here? So yeah, it looks like there's some serious stuff going on for sure on that planet that they're on. Yeah. So m so I was thinking around a little bit and apparently it's Rachel seven. It has some kind of connection to Pike's past. It might be something that we see before Bearded Pike that would be at the beginning of season one. Maybe wrong, but Rachel seven.

25:53 I believe that was where in the cage the very first episode star Trek. I think that's where he went and he thought some monster. We did see scenes of him on that planet. Just should be interesting. That's interesting, and I guess a little bit of not to spoil anything, but we were to get a spoiler when I looked up Lotus Eaters because I was trying to see it does that have some kind of connection to Star Trek, not that I could find, but apparently in Greek mythology it was a race of people that were living on an island, and apparently after they ate the lotus, they'd forget their home and their loved ones and long to stay with the fellow lotus eaters. So apparently it's something that hasn't I was thinking it would be something with amnesia, so we'd get you know, like it seems to focus on Pike and Archtagas specifically, so maybe they'd kind of forget who they are and maybe we'd get a little bit more into their kind of raw personalities.

26:48 But it might be that it's not amnesia, it's more of um, you know, apathy, like with Spock bleeding out, if you know, kind of like the the Serenity movie where they just kind of, you know, start kind of giving up and just letting things happen. SOE like it would be very interesting, definitely action packed. Yeah it does. We can see more Pike looks like, so yeah, welcome back Pike. Yes, all right, So, uh we're gonna open up a channel and go give us your thoughts, your predictions and questions on social media. If you want to leave a comment, discuss what's next, or even has suggestions, you can find us at www dot film by podcast dot com, a film by podcast at gmail dot com, a film by Podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Until next time, Thanks everyone, Thanks see a lot fur