The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," now streaming on Paramount+.
Star Trek is no stranger to time-travel adventures in present-day -- and Strange New Worlds puts its own twist on this trope in Season 2. La’an Noonien-Singh finds herself in the 21st Century after a detour to an alternate timeline, leading her to take on point on restoring history and Starfleet’s existence. Fortunately, Noonien-Singh is not alone; she's joined by a familiar face in James T. Kirk, albeit not the version of Kirk that most Star Trek fans may recognize from The Original Series.
Noonien-Singh is stressed out by the latest set of tedious tasks as part of her job as Chief Security Officer -- a development noticed by Doctor Joseph M’Benga. But before she can adjust, Noonien-Singh finds a dying man in the halls and temporal fluctuations transport her to an alternate timeline in which the Enterprise is commanded by Kirk. As Noonien-Singh tries to regain her bearings, the Enterprise is contacted by Spock, now a commander in the Vulcan military, as the Vulcans are in the middle of a devastating war against the Romulans.
While arguing with Kirk in his office about what has just occurred, both Noonien-Singh and the captain are transported to 21st Century Toronto by a strange device Noonien-Singh received from the dying man. After stealing contemporary clothes and gaining money from Kirk’s aptitude for chess, Noonien-Singh and Kirk find themselves growing closer as they ponder why they were teleported to this particular point in time. Kirk contemplates that correcting the timeline would erase his own -- but he and Noonien-Singh witnesses a terrorist attack on a public bridge and notice that the blast appears to be caused by futuristic technology.
Kirk and Noonien-Singh meet a local alien conspiracy theorist who suspects there is more to the attack, showing them security footage of a shady man observing the bridge before the bombing. This reminds Kirk of a development in his timeline: time-traveling Romulans destroying an experimental cold fusion reactor and Toronto along with it. Noonien-Singh realizes that Pelia, the eccentric slow-aging extraterrestrial officer on her Enterprise, is living in Vermont during this time period -- prompting her and Kirk to visit Pelia to compare notes.
After briefing Pelia, Noonien-Singh and Kirk develop a device to track tritium -- an element used by the fusion reactor -- before returning to Toronto. Noonien-Singh also offers to bring Kirk back with her, leading the two to romance each other before they continue searching for the reactor. Breaking into the facility where the reactor is located, the duo are confronted by the conspiracy theorist, who reveals herself to be a physically altered Romulan from the future.
The conspiracy theorist kills Kirk before taking Noonien-Singh hostage and deciding to assassinate Khan Noonien-Singh to prevent the Eugenics Wars: the cataclysmic event that inspires humanity to rebuild itself as the United Federation of Planets. Though eliminating Khan would spare La’an her infamous family history, she kills the theorist and consoles her ancestor -- who is just a child at this point -- before returning to her timeline. An operative for Starfleet’s Temporal Investigations privately visits her afterward, reclaiming their time-travel device and reminding her not to tell anyone about her adventure. La’an agrees before contacting the Kirk of her timeline, quietly devastated that he’s not the man she knew on her trip to the 21st Century.
Created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.