Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 1 – “Valles Marineris”Number One (Rebecca Romijn) just missed making Earth history 65 million years ago in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s premiere, and it’s a shame. Directed by Chris Fisher and written by Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, from a story by Myers and Alan B. McElroy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 kicked off with a canon-altering, time-travel mind-bender.
A stellar squall sends the USS Enterprise 65 million years into Earth’s past in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s premiere. Among the shocking discoveries in prehistory is that there is a heretofore unknown fifth planet in the Sol system, and its insectoid inhabitants, the Dol’drms, are at war with Mars, which is a lush world with a space-faring humanoid population.
Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley leads a landing party to prehistoric Earth, where she and Lieutenants La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) encounter a Jurassic World of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous era. Una, La’an, and Ortegas also make a monumental, history-making discovery.
Number One Just Missed Making Star Trek History 65 Million Years Ago
In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4‘s premiere, Una, La’an, and Ortegas discover a crashed Dol’drm ship on Earth. Erica theorized that it was shot down, likely by the Martians. Although the Dol’drms aboard were dead, assuming no other spacecraft previously arrived, this makes the Dol’drms the first aliens to visit Earth in Star Trek canon.
Unfortunately for Una, the Dol’Drms beat her to that honor. Number One appears human, but she is an Illyrian, an alien race that practices genetic augmentation, which is illegal in the United Federation of Planets. This makes Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley the second alien to visit Earth in Star Trek canon.
La’an Noonien-Singh and Erica Ortegas are both human. However, La’an inherited recessive augment DNA from her genetically engineered ancestor, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban). Technically, this makes La’an the first augmented human, and Ortegas the first human being to walk the Earth. Notably, all three are women, which is also historic.
However, Una does have a claim to fame from her visit to prehistoric Earth. Number One became the first and only humanoid to knock a Tyrannosaurus Rex out with a phaser blast. Meanwhile, La’an is also the first human ever to punch a dinosaur and live to tell the tale. Thankfully, none of these timey-wimey transgressions changed history.
It was Captain Pike and the USS Enterprise who changed the course of history. Or, rather, did what always was, thanks to a predestination paradox. By not stopping the Martians from destroying the Dol’drm homeworld, Pike enabled one of the planet’s remnants to become the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, allowing for humans to evolve into Earth’s dominant species.
Star Trek Gave Number One A Different Record After 61 Years
Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley, the second known alien to ever visit Earth, also ended a Star Trek record: the longest wait for a promotion in franchise history. Thanks to Captain Pike, Una received a promotion to full Commander.
It took 61 years for Una to jump up a rank to Commander.
Though Una doesn’t know it in-universe, the character of Number One has held the Lt. Commander rank since 1965 when Majel Barrett-Roddenberry played her in Star Trek‘s original, rejected pilot, “The Cage.” Amazingly, it took 61 years for Una to jump up a rank to Commander.
In-universe, Una has held the position of USS Enterprise First Officer, earning the sobriquet “Number One,” for about a decade in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ timeline. “The Cage” happened in 2254, while Strange New Worlds season 4 is set in the early 2260s. It’s about time that Strange New Worlds corrected Una’s shockingly low rank.
Commander Una Chin-Riley is now one step closer to becoming Captain of her own starship. Curiously, Number One has yet to express whether she wants to succeed Pike as Captain of the Enterprise. Of course, that’s Captain James T. Kirk’s (Paul Wesley) destiny, not Una’s, which is another thing Number One will miss out on when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ends.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 streams new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.
- Release Date
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2022 – 2027-00-00
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman
