Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 1 – “Valles Marineris”The history of Earth, Mars, and humanity in the Star Trek universe has been retconned forever by the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s premiere. Directed by Chris Fisher and written by Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s premiere sends the USS Enterprise 65 million years into Earth’s past, when Mars had a civilization and was in an interstellar war with an insect race called the Dol’drm.

Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) had to choose whether to stop the Martian Commander Cassell (Saffron Burrows) from destroying the Dol’drm homeworld. Cassell stole one of the Starship Enterprise’s antimatter fuel cells to make a weapon of mass destruction. This would make Pike and the Enterprise responsible for the extinction of an entire world, no matter if they are an arachnid species bent on Martian conquest.

Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), and Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) landed on prehistoric Earth in the Cretaceous period. The USS Enterprise landing party encounters dinosaurs and a crashed Dol’drm ship, which also changes Earth’s history, while La’an discovers something frightening about herself.

Strange New Worlds Changed Star Trek’s History Forever

When Captain Pike decided not to stop Cassell from destroying the Dol’drm homeworld, he started a chain reaction of events that changed Star Trek history. Pike allowed the Dol’drm genocide when he realized that the alien insects’ planet doesn’t exist in the future. Pike made a gut call that proved that the USS Enterprise was at the center of a predestination paradox.

The Dol’drm homeworld was the heretofore unknown fifth planet between Mars and Jupiter in the Sol system. The destruction of the Dol’drm planet meant that its remnants became the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter as it exists today (and in the 23rd century). However, Pike felt guilty that he didn’t have this information when he made his gut decision not to stop Cassell.

The blast wave from the Dol’drm planet’s destruction destroyed Cassell’s Martian ship and shifted Mars’ orbit away from the sun, which is why Mars became a dead world. Instead of outrunning the blast wave, Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) determined that the Starship Enterprise could use its energy to jump forward to the 23rd century, which is how Captain Pike and his crew got back to the future.

However, after the USS Enterprise’s time warp, one of the asteroids from the Dol’drm planet crashed on Earth, becoming the Chicxulub impact meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The Starship Enterprise turned out to be responsible for the end of the dinosaurs and the eventual rise of humanity as the dominant species on Earth.

Mars’ civilization was meant to die, and the Red Planet eventually became barren of life. However, Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) analyzed Cassell and the Martians’ DNA and found similarities to the genetics of many different species. The Martians were able to escape their dying planet and propagate throughout the galaxy, M’Benga determined.

Number One Gets A Long-Awaited Promotion & Makes Earth History

Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley received her long-awaited promotion to full Commander, which brings Number One a step closer to commanding a starship of her own. Una’s promotion came at the request of Captain Pike, who refused a promotion to Commodore to stay in command of the USS Enterprise, with Number One still his First Officer.

Number One was played by Majel-Barrett Roddenberry when the character debuted in 1965’s “The Cage,” the first Star Trek pilot episode. “The Cage” took place in 2254, and Number One was a Lt. Commander and First Officer then. Effectively, Una has held the Lt. Commander rank for nearly a decade in Star Trek‘s timeline, and waited 60 years for a promotion to Commander in real-world time.

Commander Una Chin-Riley is, indeed, one step closer to becoming a Captain, and this promotion could set up Number One’s yet-to-be-revealed future after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ends in season 5. Sadly, despite serving as First Officer for over a decade, Una’s destiny is not to become Captain of the Enterprise. That fate belongs to Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley).

Meanwhile, Una is Illyrian, and coming to Earth in the Cretaceous era makes her the second known alien to have visited Earth. The first aliens to come to Earth in Star Trek history are now the Dol’dm, whose ship was shot down and crash-landed. The Dol’drm and Una on Earth now predate the Progenitors in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Preservers in Star Trek: The Original Series.

Is La’an Becoming Like Khan?

After the Starship Enterprise’s landing party learned that their phasers’ stun setting could fell a Tyrannosaurus Rex, they discovered the Dol’drm crashed ship. At that point, the Starfleet Officers were attacked by a dinosaur (possibly a Velociraptor), but Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh reflexively punched it.

Back in the USS Enterprise’s sickbay, La’an revealed that she broke her hand punching the dinosaur but didn’t feel it. La’an fears that her Augment DNA may no longer be regressive. When Dr. M’Benga quipped, “Are you going to try to conquer the galaxy now?”, La’an missed the joke and fearfully answered, “I don’t know.”

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans,” La’an was transformed into Vulcan, but with the nefarious traits of a Romulan. This unleashed the dormant qualities in her DNA that made her a sinister, genetically enhanced would-be tyrant like her ancestor, Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalban). La’an did plot to conquer the galaxy before her humanity was restored.

However, La’an appears to be changing. Interestingly, La’an also claimed that she always had enhanced strength and reflexes, which seems like a retcon, given the number of fights that La’an has lost throughout Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. La’an didn’t display obvious physical superiority before, but this may now be changing, and casts a shadow on Lt. Noonien-Singh’s future.

Scotty & Ortegas Are Feuding

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4‘s premiere introduced a fascinating feud between Lt. Erica Ortegas and Lt. Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn). As an engineer, Scotty holds Erica responsible for the wear and tear on the USS Enterprise caused by her piloting. In turn, Ortegas resents Scotty installing warnings and incessant beeping that interferes with her flying.

A professional and personal dislike between the Starship Enterprise’s helmsman and engineer is a new development in Star Trek. After all, Scotty (James Doohan) and Lt. Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) didn’t butt heads in Star Trek: The Original Series, nor did Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) actively dislike any of the USS Enterprise-D’s rotating pilots in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Erica’s disdain for Scotty wasn’t limited to her helm console on the Starship Enterprise’s bridge. Ortegas frowns at everything Scotty does, including installing a disintegration setting on their Starfleet phasers. Personal conflict between USS Enterprise crew members is relatively novel, and it remains to be seen whether Ortegas and Scotty will resolve their issues.

Uhura Has A Problem With The New Vulcan Ensign

Speaking of interpersonal conflict in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, Ensign Nyota Uhura’s (Celia Rose Gooding) mentoring of the USS Enterprise’s newest cadet did not go as she hoped. A’Sha (Bianca Nugara) is a Vulcan Starfleet Academy cadet assigned to the Starship Enterprise, and she was not interested in Uhura’s attempts to be her mentor or friend.

Interestingly, Lieutenant Spock is keeping his distance from Cadet A’Sha, beyond helping Uhura speak Vulcan (which she didn’t do well). Perhaps Spock is still wary of his experience when there were multiple Vulcans aboard the Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s divisive episode, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans.”

Uhura was a relatively great success as a new transfer aboard the USS Enterprise. Other young Starfleet Officers, like Ensign Dana Gamble (Chris Myers), didn’t fare as well serving on the Enterprise. Hopefully, Cadet A’Sha won’t meet a grisly fate in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, even if she was rude to Uhura.

Release Date

2022 – 2027-00-00

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman

Directors

Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman

Writers

Onitra Johnson