La’an Noonien-Singh has always been standoffish when it comes to people. Her ancestor, Khan, killed people, including Spock, upon a trip to the future. A time traveller arrives in the Prime Timeline, gives La’an a device and dies. She goes to the Enterprise bridge but finds Sam’s brother, Jim, in the chair instead of Captain Pike.
Summoning Jim, La’an tells him she’s from another timeline and doesn’t know how she got to his. The Federation was never founded, and the United Earth Fleet was set up instead, but why is unclear. As they continue their adventure through Toronto, Canada, on 21st Century Earth, they appreciate each other and develop feelings.
Alternate Jim is killed during the mission, and why La’an was selected becomes clear. The assassin was looking to kill La’an’s ancestor, the extremist Khan Noonien-Singh as a child to prevent his atrocities. While this might be a good thing, it prevents the formation of the Federation from being founded.
Upon her return to her timeline, La’an contacts the real Jim, whom she has never met and comes up with a bogus excuse to hear his voice. She pretends she needs information on his brother, Sam, for his security file. Getting the intel and ending the call, she cries tears of joy.
Trek Easter Eggs
The episode has a ton of Easter eggs to The Original Series and to the Kelvin Timeline films.
- Alternate Jim mentions that he was born on the USS Iowa and had never seen Earth. Prime Timeline Jim was born in Iowa on Earth.
- Alternate Jim references that his brother is dead. This might refer to Sam never existing in the Kelvin Timeline films.
- Regarding the Kelvin timeline, the kid that child Jim speeds past in his stepfather’s stolen car about a decade after his father George’s death on the Kelvin was meant to be Sam, but the dialogue was changed in post-production.
- Also, Sam in the Prime Timeline does eventually die. He dies from being infected by a deadly insect. The only time we see him in TOS is when Jim sees his corpse in the episode Operation: Annihilate!
- It’s revealed in this episode that Jim has no idea that those who know his brother also refer to him as Sam. Alternate, Jim says that everyone he knows refers to Sam by his first name, George. La’an tells him that everyone in her timeline refers to him as Sam.
- Jim is the only one who refers to George Samuel as Sam.
- Pike refers to Sam by this name [Sam] in the Strange New Worlds series premiere.
- Jim is serving on the USS Farragut in the Prime Timeline, a callback to the ship Uhura was assigned to in the 2009 Star Trek before she ordered Spock to change her assignment. The Farragut in the 2009 film is later destroyed.
- When SNW occurs, Prime Timeline Jim is a Lieutenant. This is the same rank as Sam, indicating they entered Starfleet Academy and graduated around the same time. Or they could have graduated at separate times but became officers simultaneously.
