Sometimes, you have to talk to yourself if you want to have an intelligent conversation. At least, that’s what they say. Enterprise Communications Officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) has to work with her future self to save Junior Engineer Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn) on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season Four finale, “Tomorrow’s Enterprise.”
Prologue
Stardate 2873.2
Lieutenant Uhura is excited to return to Enterprise from the Starfleet Protocols Refresher Course. The ship is currently assigned to study a unique phenomenon in space — a white hole — and Uhura gets to listen to what’s inside.
She beams back to find Scotty behind the controls and very happy to see her. So happy, in fact, he asks if she wants to maybe get a drink later on.
Wait… Did he just ask her out… on a date?
Uhura dodges the question and heads straight to the Bridge to get to work.
Tuesday
Uhura checks in with Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), who’s admiring the view with their Chief of Security, Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), who wants to hear all about the new protocols.
Mmm… Fresh Starfleet Protocols.
Enterprise First Officer Number One / Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) is also down for some protocol chat.
Sitting next to her at the Helm, Enterprise Pilot Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) calls ’em like she sees ’em: Nerds.
First, they need to do their jobs, which in this case is studying the white hole. According to Chief Science Officer Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck), the theory is that they’re the other side of black holes.
Three white orbs appear out of the white hole and start transmitting some kind of music. Before Uhura can translate, an energy wave shoots from the white hole and damages their warp core. Not only that, there’s a tractor beam holding them in place.
To the crew of the Enterprise, that’s a typical Tuesday.
Uhura regains her composure and starts working on the transmission they received. As she plays it back, she hears Scotty cry out just before a massive explosion. When Nyota calls down to Engineering, however, Scotty’s just fine and complaining about his warp core.
You know, Tuesday.
Uhura took a nasty hit to the head when the energy wave hit, so she requests permission to get checked out in Sickbay.
Poker Face
Enterprise’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), and his assistant, Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), give Uhura a thorough check-up. She doesn’t have a concussion, but she does have a nasty bump on the head.
See? Uhura says she feels great. So great.
Nice try. M’Benga and Chapel can read Nyota like a book, and they know she’s not being honest with them. In fact, she has such a bad poker face, Chapel is dying to clean her out at their next poker game.
That’s not exactly an effective sales pitch. Uhura is relieved to learn that nothing has still happened to Scotty, so she tries to go back to work.
M’Benga and Chapel have other plans. The doctor orders 24 hours rest and relaxation for the lieutenant.
Unable to Discuss
Uhura heads back to her quarters, but she can’t relax yet. She has to figure out what she heard on the Bridge, so she starts scanning the white hole for any more signals.
In the process, she dozes off, but wakes herself up with a start. She needs some advice, so she turns to her fellow former-Vulcan friend, La’an.
They meet in the Port Galley for a cup of tea (and a shameless plug for that beautiful Enterprise china set we first saw in “Orders of Magnitude”).
La’an is very familiar with time travel, so she recognizes all the symptoms Uhura is feeling right now. She’s had a “temporal incident,” so she has to take some precautions.
Good thing she just got back from her Starfleet Protocols Refresher, so she’s up to date on all the time travel regulations.
La’an refreshes everyone anyway. Remember, any changes to the timeline could make things worse, not better. Oh, and time travel sucks.
Since time travel protocols are very specific, La’an tells Uhura that their conversation never even happened, so she never told her exactly where to look for that signal as she walked away from their table.
300th Time’s the Charm
Uhura is nothing if not persistent. After 299 tries, she’s still not giving up.
The 300th time does appear to be the charm. She finds a Starfleet signal and opens a channel.
A reply comes through immediately from… Lieutenant Nyota Uhura?
That’s definitely her own voice talking back to her, but she’s not exactly sure how. Regardless, she has an opportunity. Scotty’s in danger, and they have to work together through time to save him.
Act One
Stardate 2876.2
Enterprise is exploring the inside of a newly-formed black hole that happens to be in the same spot as the white hole they explored about a year ago. Scotty and Uhura are going over their proposal to fly a shuttle close to the black hole for some scans they’re about to present to the captain.
Something seems… off. Uhura is sporting her classic uniform and hairstyle from Star Trek: The Original Series, and it looks like Scotty has an extra rank stripe on his sleeve.
And did he just slip his arm around Uhura’s waist?
He goes beyond that and gives her a peck on the cheek. Giggling like a schoolgirl, she reminds him that they haven’t gone public with their relationship yet (to Scotty’s disappointment).
They compose themselves when they reach the Enterprise Bridge and hand their proposal to Captain… James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley)?
A quick scan around the room reveals a lot has changed. Spock is still at his Science station, but everyone else is gone.
Including Dr. M’Benga. His “temporary replacement” (“Off-Hour”), Dr. Phillip Boyce (Brian Markinson) joins them on the Bridge, where they discuss last night’s poker game. Apparently, Uhura cleaned house with her talented bluffing.
Uhura, who lies about as well as a Vulcan.
Kirk has looked over his officers’ proposal and likes it. Unfortunately, no one on board has the piloting expertise to pull it off. Don’t worry; Kirk assures them he’s invited a pilot who’s more than qualified to fly their shuttle.
With all their boxes checked, Captain Kirk approves their mission.
Ch-Ch-Changes
Clearly, a lot has happened on the Enterprise. As Scotty and Uhura cross the shuttlebay, they wonder who will ultimately wind up with the CMO job. Dr. M’Benga has been studying on Vulcan and will probably stay there. Dr. Boyce is only a temporary replacement, so he won’t be staying on the ship.
It looks like Dr. “Bones” McCoy will get the job.
The officers reach their shuttle and meet their guest pilot, Captain (?) Erica Ortegas. Their friend and former Enterprise Pilot takes half a second to realize there’s something going on between the Engineer and Communications Officer.
Fly the Friendly Skies
Ortegas, Uhura, and Scotty take off from the shuttlebay and head toward the black hole. Scotty reminds them that he’s modified the shuttle’s shields to better withstand the gravitational shear coming from the black hole, but that means they’re going to have to beam out one at a time in the event of an emergency.
In the meantime, please keep your tray tables closed and seats in the upright position at all times. We know you have plenty of choices when it comes to your airline, so we appreciate you choosing ours. Enjoy your flight.
Ortegas takes a moment to catch up with her friends and starts by asking about their relationship. Uhura explains that, with all the changes happening so suddenly, they gravitated toward each other.
And they say romance is dead.
Ortegas does her usual fancy flying and compliments Scotty’s work by slipping into her version of a Scottish accent and doing another reasonable impression, right down to calling the shuttle a “bucket o’ bolts.”
Scotty is less than amused.
It’s back to business when three mysterious orbs appear from the black hole and begin transmitting what sounds like music. Uhura believes it may be a language and tries to translate. Before she has a chance, sensors detect an energy wave about to hit the shuttle. Knowing the shuttle doesn’t have a chance at surviving, he orders an emergency beam-out for Uhura first.
Uhura materializes in the Transporter Room just as the wave destroys the shuttle. As she staggers off the pad, she yells for them to beam the rest of them back.
Rest of who? Ortegas and Scotty, of course!
That’s going to be difficult. Ortegas hasn’t been on board for months, and Scotty died a year ago.
That’s not how Uhura’s day started, though.
Sickbay, Take 2
Uhura finds herself back in Sickbay, where Dr. Boyce is busy taking scans. He doesn’t find any signs of a concussion, just a nasty bump on the head. That sounds familiar.
Channeling her inner Majel Barrett, Nurse Chapel brings a PADD over to Uhura. She’s called Ortegas to reassure her friend that she’s just fine. To convince Uhura even further, Kirk plays back the mayday Scotty sent from the shuttle, only it’s not Scotty. That’s Uhura’s own voice calling for help.
Since Uhura seems a little disoriented, Dr. Boyce orders 24 hours of rest for the lieutenant.
We’ve definitely heard that before.
No Rest for the Weary
It’s already been established Uhura doesn’t do rest and relaxation, especially when something’s on her mind. She’s in her quarters trying to figure out how her day took such a hard left turn. No matter how many times she asks the computer, it keeps telling her that she was the only person in that shuttlecraft.
Refusing to let a computer gaslight her, she continues scanning the black hole, hoping to find some sort of clue as to what happened. She’s in luck; she finds a Starfleet signal and opens a channel. It’s a hail from… Lieutenant Nyota Uhura?
No, she’s Lieutenant Nyota Uhura.
Wait, she’s had this conversation before, only on the other end of the comm channel. Somehow, the black hole and white hole have created a bridge between her past and future selves.
Act Two
Cause and Effect
The two Uhuras figure out that the energy waves are messing up time somehow. Each time one hit them, everything changed. A year has passed between them, and a lot has changed, including Uhura’s feelings for Scotty. Her future self encourages her past self to acknowledge her feelings and just go with it.
They have to make sure he doesn’t die first.
Uhura and Uhura figure out that the theory behind black and white holes being two sides of the same coin is sound. The energy pulses created a quantum entanglement between them, but they don’t know how long it will last. What they do know is that they have a year between them. If Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure taught us anything, it’s the unique relationship between cause and effect.
OK, and “Through the Lens of Time” may have mentioned something about it last season, too.
Find Spock
Both Uhuras make their way to Engineering to find Spock. Their plan is to ask Spock for help to calculate a reverse pulse that could counteract the original pulse and put everything back the way it was.
Past Uhura approaches the Vulcan, who is busy repairing their warp drive and weapons. She asks him about the possibility of creating that reverse pulse. He tells her it’ll take about a year to figure it out, and he’ll work on it when he has more time.
No problem.
Future Uhura approaches Spock and reminds him about that reverse pulse equation she asked him about. A visually annoyed Spock lets Uhura know she should’ve come to him sooner.
Uhura apologizes; she didn’t intend to upset her friend and colleague. Spock, however, is suspicious. Is she sincere, or is this another one of her infamous bluffs?
No bluffing, Spock. Uhura sincerely apologizes.
He has the equation, but it’s incomplete. To generate the reverse pulse, they need a dilithium diamond, one of the rarest substances in the galaxy. They have the right materials to synthesize it, but it would take a year to form.
Again, not a problem. What would we need to synthesize it?
What’s the Anti-Matter with You?
Past Uhura needs anti-matter to synthesize a dilithium diamond, so she goes to see Scotty about getting her hands on some. Of course, he’s curious as to what the communications officer needs antimatter for.
Maybe they could discuss it over a meal? Or a drink? A snack?
Oh, Scotty. You flirt with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
Future Uhura is listening to their entire conversation and encouraging her past self to say yes to the eager young engineer. Past Uhura just wants to focus on the task at hand and save his life. She can worry about dating him later.
As past Uhura places the pre-synthesized dilithium diamond into its storage locker, her future self retrieves the experiment from the same locker.
It worked. Future Uhura lifts a perfectly-formed dilithium diamond from its case. Before Future Uhura can celebrate, Nurse Chapel walks in. Uhura takes a moment to ask her friend if there’s anything she would change about her past given the chance.
If Uhura is referring to Chapel’s relationship with Spock, Chapel has no regrets. She’s eager to marry Dr. Korby, but she still appreciates the time she spent with Spock.
Match My Pitch
Past and future Uhura has what she needs to send the reverse pulse and save Scotty. Now, Future Uhura needs to beam the dilithium diamond into the black hole, while Past Uhura convinces Captain Pike to send the reverse pulse.
The catch: They have to do it from the Bridge, and both Uhuras have been ordered off duty.
It’s not a problem for Future Uhura; she’ll just bluff her way through.
That’s not so easy for Past Uhura. She’s not that skilled at bluffing yet.
Future Uhura reassures her past self and tells her, “Match my pitch,” which gets a chuckle out of the younger lieutenant. She’s been saying it since season one (“Children of the Comet”), and it looks like she still is. When Future Uhura reaches the Enterprise Bridge, Captain Kirk wants to know what she’s doing there. Uhura relies with a perfect poker face that she’s been cleared by Dr. Boyce to return to duty. Kirk looks skeptical, but he ignores his doubts and tells her to take it easy.
Past Uhura doesn’t do as well. When she reaches the Enterprise Bridge, Captain Pike asks the same question. However, Past Uhura stammers some excuses and fools absolutely no one. She decides to come clean and tells Captain Pike what she needs him to do – send out a reverse pulse.
They’re too late. Before Uhura can carry out her plan, another energy wave hits the two Enterprises, past and future, causing another change in time. The latest wave didn’t just connect Uhura with her past and future selves; it swapped them.
Dazed, Future Uhura finds Pike standing over her and accidentally refers to him as “admiral.” Since he hasn’t been promoted yet (he turned it down in “Valles Marineris”), he orders Uhura to, you guessed it, Sickbay.
Act Three
Another Night in Sickbay
Uhura wakes up in Sickbay (again) to find Chapel standing over her, wondering when Uhura had time to go back to her old look.
”Old?” What’s old about it? Chapel seeks a little validation from Dr. Boyce, but the bald physician claims not to have noticed the lieutenant’s hairstyle choice. If that isn’t weird enough, James Kirk comes in to check on her, and he’s wearing Captain’s stripes.
This is a lot for the young lieutenant to take in. She does her best to convince everyone she’s OK, but they can clearly tell she’s bluffing. This isn’t the Uhura who cleans house at poker every week. Captain Kirk sees this and orders her to get… more rest.
I wish I got orders like these when I was in the Navy.
You’re Not You When You Time Travel
Past Uhura has some catching up to do, so she heads to her quarters. The first thing she notices is that her taste in decor has changed a lot over the past year, especially her choice to hang an ancient tablet on her wall.
Captain Kirk enters Uhura’s quarters without knocking (rude) and confronts Uhura. He recognizes her as Uhura, but she’s not his Uhura.
She can’t lie to save her own life, but his Uhura can bluff with the best of them. He knows, because he taught her how when they were stuck on Starbase 6 for five days with nothing to do but play poker with Ortegas and Jenna’s step-brother, Gary Mitchell.
Losing at poker was the least of Gary Mitchell’s worries, but he didn’t know that yet.
Past Uhura comes clean and admits who she is. Kirk’s response is to echo La’an’s sentiment: Time travel sucks.
When Uhura mentions the security officer, a dark expression comes over Kirk’s face. Something bad obviously happened, but he doesn’t talk about it.
Just a Little Crush
Back in the past, Future Uhura heads back to her quarters as well, determined not to break the space-time continuum. On the way, she bumps into Scotty and instinctively gives him a warm hug, which totally makes the junior engineer’s day.
Scotty was coming to find her to show her a signal he found coming from the white hole, but it looked like only half of it was coming through. Since this was Uhura’s wheelhouse, he brought it to her.
Uhura expresses her gratitude with another very warm hug, making Scotty’s cherubic face about as red as his uniform shirt. As he walks away, Scotty stops just short of clicking his heels. He’s having a great day.
Captain Pike just happened to be in the same corridor at the same time and witnessed this unusual display of affection from his communications officer, and he decides to investigate.
You’re Not You When You Time Travel, Part II
Captain Pike confronts Future Uhura in the corridor and asks her what’s going on. She doesn’t often call him “admiral” and hug her shipmates. Pike knows a thing or two about time travel himself, so he asks Uhura an impossible question, “What should I know that you’re not telling me?”
Not knowing how to answer him, Future Uhura does her best to lead her former CO to what she wants to say. Eventually, she has to come clean. Scotty’s going to die, and he’s not supposed to. She has half the answer, but the other half is in the future with past her.
Captain Pike gives her some not-so-subtle advice — Only you can tell you what to do.
Department of Temporal Investigations
On the future Enterprise, Nurse Chapel knows her friend well enough to figure it out, too. She barges into Uhura’s quarters (manners, people!) to find out where “Other Uhura” is from.
She guesses alternate dimension. Nope. Time travel.
The past. A year ago.
Chapel celebrates and mentions a brief period when she dated a woman from something called the “Department of Temporal Investigations,” which she dismissed at the time. She’s also finally able to explain what happened to Scotty. A console he was standing next to exploded while they were studying the white hole there a year ago. He practically died in Uhura’s arms.
She has to save Scotty, but she only has half the answer. That’s when she realizes that tablet on her wall is more than a decoration. She left herself the other half of the answer hanging there for her to find. With all the pieces of the puzzle finally together, Uhura is able to translate the message coming from the white and black holes: ”We are the Midwives. The baby is breeching. Please stay clear.”
Baby???
It’s a paradox. The Space Baby was conceived when the black hole formed in the future, and the white hole they studied the year before is its birth. And the energy waves are the contractions. But if the baby’s in breech, that means there’s something wrong. The Midwives need some help with the delivery, and Uhura is the only one who can do it.
Act Four
Space Baby?
Both past and future Enterprise crews need to perform some cosmic obstetrics if they’re going to turn the Space Baby. Chapel may have the experience, but it’s the Uhuras who are trapped in a quantum entanglement, so it has to be them working in tandem.
Nyota dons an EV suit and space walks to the end of the Enterprise‘s saucer section. The Midwives emerge from the black hole again, but now, Uhura can communicate with them. She lets them know she’s there to help, and the Midwives retreat back inside the singularity.
Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are monitoring her from the Bridge, when even Spock points out that this is really weird. Why, exactly, is Lieutenant Uhura out there?
Sorry, Spock. That’s need-to-know.
What Spock doesn’t know is that Uhura is going to launch three drones into the black hole which will attach to the Space Baby. She’ll then use gloves remotely connected to the drones to turn the Space Baby into the proper position for birth. Piece of cake, right?
Uhura launches the drones into the black hole and watches her screen for them to attach. Once they do, Nurse Chapel guides her through turning the Space Baby.
This wouldn’t be Star Trek if everything went according to plan. One of the drones falls off, and there’s no way to reconnect it remotely.
The only way for this to work is for Uhura to jump into the black hole and reattach the drone herself.
Author’s Safety Note: Seriously, kids, do not try to jump into a black or white hole. It won’t end well.
Mazel Tov!
Future Uhura experienced the same problem on the past Enterprise and did the same thing her past self did on future Enterprise — entering the white hole to reattach the errant drone.
As she does, the white hole emits another energy wave/contraction, slamming into the past Enterprise. As prophesied, the console next to Scotty explodes, sending shrapnel through the young engineer’s skull.
Against every law of physics in the known universe, past and future Uhura meet inside the cosmic phenomenon. They work together to reattach the drone and turn the Space Baby into the proper birthing position.
And… push!
You’re Doing Great
The two Uhuras find themselves on the Bridge of the Enterprise, but it’s not their Enterprise. The Midwives created the artificial construct to communicate with the two Uhuras. Because neither Enterprise understood their warning in time, they held them in a tractor beam to keep them at a safe distance. The Space Baby is actually an interdimensional being that lives outside of space and time.
Oh, great. Another one.
The Midwives feel bad about messing up the Enterprise crews’ timelines, so they promise to put things back the way they were. That was really nice of them.
Uhura is given a rare opportunity to give her younger self some advice, so she does, simply telling her, “You’re doing great.”
The Midwives press “Rewind” on the universal remote and send the episode all the way back to the beginning. That is, they send Past Uhura back to the moment she beamed on board the Enterprise from her refresher course.
Dénouement
Reset
Future Uhura also rematerializes on the Enterprise transporter pad, except this time, she’s not alone. Ortegas beamed back ahead of her, and Scotty is right behind, complaining all the way.
Relieved to see Scotty alive and well, Uhura ditches any pretense and gives him a huge kiss in front of everyone.
If they didn’t figure it out before, they know now.
Reflect
In both the past and future, Lieutenant Uhura reflects on her recent experience. She was lucky enough to get a glimpse into her own future and all the changes that are about to happen, but she realizes she’d rather not know what’s coming.
She’d rather live in the moment and appreciate those around her.
Final Report
Season Four’s finale, “Tomorrow’s Enterprise,” is a powerfully emotional episode. Not only does it allow Nyota Uhura a glimpse into her future, it allows us, the audience, a glimpse into Star Trek‘s potential future.
Let’s take a look at what may be in store for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ final season and beyond:
- Change of Command – Captain Pike is going to finally accept that promotion to admiral and turn over command of the Enterprise to Jim Kirk, who’s always there, anyway. Seriously, did he spend any time on the Farragut after “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail?”
- Dr. M’Benga – M’Benga pissed off an admiral (“Orders of Magnitude”), and that’s never a good career move. He’s been wanting to move on, and it looks like he does it by starting his internship on Vulcan (“A Private Little War”). Is it a choice or a punishment?
- Dr. Boyce – After being drowned in obscurity for 60 years, the character of Phillip Boyce is getting new life in the franchise. He’ll be taking over from Dr. M’Benga, but he’s still only temporary. He’s training another familiar name, Dr. McCoy, to be his permanent replacement.
- La’an – Something really bad/tragic is going to happen to her in Strange New Worlds’ last season. Since almost everyone who kisses James T. Kirk dies, this doesn’t look good for her.
- Pelia – While we don’t see Pelia in this episode, that doesn’t necessarily mean she won’t be in any episodes in season five. However, they could choose to use the end of “Once La’an a Time” as a write-off for the character. Personally, I hope we get more Pelia in season five. We were promised a Pelia/Amanda story in season two (“The Broken Circle”) and still haven’t gotten it.
- Una / Number One – The only character whose fate isn’t specifically mentioned is the Enterprise First Officer, Commander Una Chin-Riley. We’ll have to wait and see what’s in store for her in season five.
- One of the aspects of this episode I particularly enjoyed was the use of color tones to distinguish between the past and future Enterprise. “Past” Enterprise was shown with warm tones to make everything look antiqued, while “future” Enterprise was shown with cooler tones to make everything look clean and new.
- I also enjoyed how the actors and production team were able to recreate the looks from Star Trek: The Original Series. When “future” Nurse Chapel walked into Sickbay for the first time, I could’ve sworn I was watching Majel Barrett.
- Martin Quinn is absolutely brilliant in the role of young Montgomery, Don’t-Call-Me-“Monty,” Scott. He’s like the little brother everyone else in the family can’t help but love. He may not have been on this season’s promo art, but he totally owned his scenes in “Human Best Friend” and “Off-Hour.” And I’ve never met Declan Milder, but I hate him, too, Scotty.
- Seriously, I can’t stress this enough: Don’t jump into a black hole, kids. According to all the physicists as NASA, the gravity is so intense that our bodies would stretch out like a spaghetti noodle as we’re pulled toward the massive center of ultimate entropy. It’s not a swimming pool. Star Trek usually gets their science stuff right, but this depiction of a black hole is worse than the Disney movie.
Massive OSHA violation aside, I give “Tomorrow’s Enterprise” a solid “A-.” It’s a classic Star Trek season finale and transition episode not only into Strange New Worlds‘ final season, but also the heavily-rumored spin-off, Star Trek: Year One. Unfortunately, Paramount still hasn’t made any official announcements regarding the franchise’s future, so Star Trek: Year One is still just a rumor. With a prematurely-canceled Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and a shortened final season for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, executives are running out of time if they don’t want any interruptions in their spin-offs.
Watch all episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds now streaming on Paramount+.
