Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 9, “Once La’an a Time,” sends La’an Noonien-Singh into a very familiar kind of strange new world: a flat, mobile planet that turns out to be a real-world echo of the fantasy setting from Season 1’s “The Elysian Kingdom.” The penultimate episode is bright, silly and packed with costumes, a dragon and just enough character work to turn its fairytale detour into a meaningful stop for La’an.
A Planet That Should Not Exist
The Enterprise finds a planet that has no business being where it is—or behaving the way it does. It is moving through space under its own power, carries breathable air and signs of life, and is flat. Pike, Spock, La’an and Pelia beam down to investigate and find a lush, medieval-looking world complete with a castle and fairies.
The first major clue arrives with an alternate version of M’Benga, who identifies La’an as a kidnapped princess. It does not take the away team long to recognize the setting: this is another version of the Elysian Kingdom, the storybook realm created in Season 1 when a powerful consciousness built a fantasy world from the material of a children’s tale.
That recognition opens the door for the episode’s main pleasure. The crew’s fantasy counterparts return, with Anson Mount playing both Pike and the nervous chamberlain Rauth, while Ethan Peck gets to switch between Spock and the dark wizard Pollux. Christina Chong has the biggest challenge of the hour as guarded La’an is pressed into the role of Princess Thalia, a character who wears every feeling on the surface. Carol Kane’s Pelia has no preexisting fantasy double, so she invents one for herself—children’s author Benny Russell—in a delightful Deep Space Nine-flavored nod.
La’an and Princess Thalia
“Once La’an a Time” is ultimately about the part of La’an she has learned to keep locked down. Her Augment DNA and the changes it has triggered have been one of Season 4’s few continuing concerns, leaving her afraid that something monstrous may be waiting under the control and discipline that define her. The fairytale setting translates that conflict into something literal: La’an and Thalia are two emotional halves forced to see each other clearly.
There is a useful looseness to the premise. The real La’an has to perform sweetness and vulnerability; Thalia has to understand the anger and fear that come with protecting oneself. Chong makes the exchange work because neither woman becomes a cartoon. The comedy comes from the contrast, but the story lands when each recognizes qualities in the other that are not weaknesses to be discarded.
The episode also gives La’an a dashing romantic foil: a prince-like version of Kirk whose advice is more emotionally direct than the real thing usually allows. The relationship is deliberately storybook, right down to the revelation that he is secretly a werewolf, but it offers La’an a simple idea she is not accustomed to hearing—she does not have to love only the edited, controlled version of herself.
Storming the Castle
While La’an and Thalia work through their mirrored identities, Rauth and Pollux make their way aboard the Enterprise and attempt to imitate Pike and Spock to escape Queen Neve’s wrath. It is a broad comic subplot, but Mount and Peck have a terrific time playing fantasy characters who are then trying, badly, to play the Starfleet officers we know. Their rehearsed catchphrases and uneasy command presence are exactly the sort of low-stakes character comedy the series can make feel effortless.
The two threads converge when the fantasy-world inhabitants and the Enterprise crew have to stop the queen and save the day. The episode does not pretend that its science is airtight; the explanation for the planet and its ongoing consciousness is more magical than technical. That is a reasonable trade in an hour built to deliver a castle, a masquerade, a werewolf, a dragon and a crew wearing the kind of costumes convention-goers will want to recreate immediately.
Still, the story is strongest whenever it narrows back to La’an. The season has sometimes treated her physical and emotional changes as a different genre problem every week. Here, the fairytale machinery at least gives that material a single image: the stern officer and the sentimental princess are not enemies. They are both La’an.
Pelia’s Possible Goodbye
The hour also appears to send Pelia in a new direction. Rather than returning to the Enterprise, she chooses to stay behind to study the extraordinary flat planet and its engineering, while a new life—and a romantic connection—waits in the Elysian Kingdom. It is a charming fit for Pelia’s eccentric curiosity, even if it leaves the departure feeling a little abrupt for a character who has brought so much comic energy to the bridge.
Final Verdict
“Once La’an a Time” is a colorful, knowingly ridiculous fairytale that works best as an acting showcase. The mythology is fuzzy and the resolution comes a little too easily for the weight of La’an’s ongoing struggle, but Christina Chong sells the emotional core, while Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Carol Kane make every trip to the castle worthwhile. It is not as emotionally potent as “The Elysian Kingdom,” yet it is an affectionate and visually inventive reminder that Strange New Worlds is at its happiest when it lets the crew play.
A Fairytale Detour Lets La’an Open Up
“Once La’an a Time” returns to the Elysian Kingdom for big visual fun, a strong Christina Chong showcase and a welcome chance for La’an to embrace every side of herself.
Rauth and Pollux trying to pass as Pike and Spock aboard the Enterprise.
Christina Chong, balancing La’an’s reserve with Princess Thalia’s openness.
The fantasy production design, the crew’s comic doubles and a clear emotional idea for La’an.
The explanation is fuzzy, and La’an’s breakthrough comes a little too easily.
Once La’an a Time Ending Explained
The episode’s happy ending is less about solving a new technical mystery than about La’an accepting a fuller version of herself. By living as Thalia and allowing Thalia to experience her own fear and anger, La’an stops treating softness as a liability or her difficult feelings as proof that her Augment heritage defines her. She returns to the Enterprise more open to connection, including a real date with Kirk.
Pelia’s choice to remain with the Elysian Kingdom is the other major change. The episode leaves her studying the world’s impossible engineering rather than resuming her place aboard the Enterprise, setting up Scotty’s larger role as the crew heads toward the franchise future.
How to Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+. Season 4 Episode 9, “Once La’an a Time,” premiered Thursday, September 17, 2026. The Season 4 finale, “Tomorrow’s Enterprise,” arrives Thursday, September 24, 2026.
Thomas Miller is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Seat42F, covering television, movies and streaming entertainment. He launched Seat42F in 2007 and has spent nearly two decades covering the entertainment industry.
