The title comes from Shakespeareā€™s Macbeth, Act V, sc v, fatalistically describing the inevitability of death and banality of life:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Lifeā€™s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare has a long history with Trek. Apart from Picardā€™s interest in his plays, the Bardā€™s words have lent themselves to episode titles, including TOS: ā€œThe Conscience of the Kingā€ (Hamlet), ā€œDagger of the Mindā€ (Macbeth), ā€œAll Our Yesterdaysā€ (Macbeth), ST VI: The Undiscovered Country (Hamlet), VOY: ā€œMortal Coilā€ (Hamlet).

In TNG: ā€œThe Defectorā€, Picard performs Henry V, and Data and he do the same in ā€œEmergenceā€. Picard uses the excuse of the away team being actors performing A Midsummer Nightā€™s Dream in ā€œTimeā€™s Arrowā€. In DS9: ā€œImprobable Causeā€, Garak and Bashir debate Julius Caesar. In ENT: ā€œIn a Mirror, Darklyā€ the similarities between Shakespeareā€™s plays between the Prime and Mirror Universe are mentioned. Various bits of Shakespeare are quoted as well, notably General Chang, a Shakespeare aficionado in ST VI and Spock quoting Hamlet in DIS: ā€œPerpetual Infinityā€.

The Stardate is 1581.2, whereas last episode it was 2393.8, and it was stated that 1224.3 was four months prior to that. Pelia says she still has a bunker in Vermont in case this ā€œā€˜no money, socialist utopiaā€™ thingā€ doesnā€™t work out, echoing explicitly for the first time the fan view that yes, the Federation economy is basically socialist in nature. She has a painting she claims is a fake and says the Louvre can stop calling her, indicating that at least the institution and some art survived World War III. Her artifacts have labels identifying them as the property of the Archeology Department.

Laā€™An spars with Mā€™Benga. The doctor was shown to be a proficient fighter in SNW: ā€œThe Broken Circleā€, and actor Babs Olusanmokun is a 2nd-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. On the wall of the gym we see Klingon-esque weapons on the wall, including a few that look like variants of the standard batā€™leth and mekā€™leth.

The dying stranger tells Laā€™An there has been an attack in the past, and shows her a holographic diagram which weā€™ve seen on the main viewer of the 29th Century Federation timeship USS Relativity (VOY: ā€œRelativityā€), using the TCARS interface (as opposed to LCARS). This indicates heā€™s either from the 29th or 31st Centuries, as Agent Daniels used a similar interface in ENT. At some point between the 31st and 32nd Century, following the Temporal Cold War the Temporal Accords included a complete ban against time travel (DIS: ā€œDie Tryingā€).

The blurry ripple that accompanies the change in history is reminiscent of the visual effect used to signal a shift into an alternate timeline in TNG: ā€œYesterdayā€™s Enterpriseā€. The disappearance of the time agent and Laā€™Anā€™s continued existence in this altered timeline is attributed to her holding on to his device.

Kirk is wearing a different badge insignia, and identifies the ship as the United Earth Fleet ship Enterprise. Spock is in command of a Vulcan ship, the Shā€™Rel, so this timeline doesnā€™t appear to have a Federation, and the Vulcans are losing a war with the Romulans.

Itā€™s of note that of Kirkā€™s two appearances in SNW so far, they have both been alternate timelines versions - which still jibes with Prime Kirkā€™s claim in TOS: ā€œThe Menagerieā€ that he only met Pike once, when he took over command of the Enterprise.

Laā€™An says Starfleet has regulations to deal with situations like this. Given the Temporal Cold War impacted at least the 22nd Century, that doesnā€™t surprise me. The Department of Temporal Investigations was first seen in DS9: ā€œTrials and Tribble-lationsā€ and the licensed novels say it was first created in 2270. As we find out later, the DTI doesnā€™t exist yet in SNWā€™s time, but Laā€™An implies that regulations dealing with time travel exist. That means Starfleet acknowledges the existence of the phenomenon, rejecting the 22nd Century Vulcan Science Directorateā€™s determination of that time travel is impossible (ENT: ā€œCold Frontā€).

Despite Kirkā€™s identification of being in New York, mid-21st Century, theyā€™ve landed in Toronto, specifically Yonge Dundas Square. Kirk claims never to have been to Earth at all, having been born in space on the USS Iowa. His counterparts were born in Iowa, USA, in the Prime Universe 2333 and on the USS Kelvin in the Kelvin Timeline. Kirk says in his time Earth was a battleground, occupied and now a ruin. Earth is filled with clouds of ash that wonā€™t clear for a thousand years and has underground lunar habitats.

Kirk says indignantly to Laā€™An asking him about revolving doors, ā€œIā€™m from space.ā€ In ST IV, when Gillian Taylor asks Kirk if heā€™s from outer space, he replies, ā€œNo, Iā€™m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.ā€

Kirk hustles chess for cash. Kirk has been established to be an excellent chess player ever since TOS: ā€œWhere No Man Has Gone Beforeā€. Kirk beat Spock regularly at 3D Chess (he calls the 2D version ā€œidiotā€™s chessā€), and in this timeline he also kept beating his XO, a woman.

Kirk points out that if they fix Laā€™Anā€™s timeline, theyā€™ll destroy his, which is consistent with the model of the Trek timeline as a palimpsest - overwritten rather than branched.

Addressing Kirkā€™s worry that he wonā€™t even exist in Laā€™Anā€™s timeline, she says sheā€™s heard stories about Kirk from his brother Sam (who was still a member of the crew last time we checked). Kirk and Laā€™An both remember the bridge explosion - one of the longest in the world destroyed soon after completion - from their timelines, so this isnā€™t the nexus point. The bridge seems to be fictional, as I canā€™t identify a real world bridge in Toronto that resembles it.

Laā€™An identifies the charring on the wreckage as that left by a photonic bomb, a technology that wonā€™t be developed for at least a century. Photonic technology was first seen in ENT: ā€œThe Expanseā€ as a precursor to photon torpedoes, using variable yield antimatter warheads, so the timeline is consistent.

(Continued in comments)

  • khaosworks@startrek.websiteOPM
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    (Continued from post)

    Kirk says he spent 6 months in a Denobulan prison with a Vulcan cellmate, and learned to make plomeek soup (TOS: ā€œAmok Timeā€) in the toilet. Kirk was a terrible driver in the Prime timeline as well (TOS: ā€œA Piece of the Actionā€). Kirk says his middle name, Tiberius, was his grandfatherā€™s, same as in the Kelvin Timeline.

    Kirk says that Sam is his brotherā€™s middle name (George Samuel Kirk Jr.) and most people call him George. Laā€™An scoffs and says nobody calls him George. In TOS: ā€œWhat Are Little Girls Made Of?ā€ the android duplicate of Kirk notes that only Kirk calls his brother Sam. Kirk mocks Laā€™Anā€™s name as ā€œNoonien-Soongā€ who was, of course, Data and Loreā€™s creator (TNG: ā€œDataloreā€).

    Kirk has never heard of the Noonien-Singh name, which is telling (we find out why later). While in TOS: ā€œSpace Seedā€ he didnā€™t recognize Khan by sight and he was briefed by Spock once it was apparent who Khan was, we donā€™t see anything in the episode to indicate he didnā€™t know the name.

    Sera, the girl who helps them, is streaming it on an iPhone 14 Pro. The restaurant they talk in is the real-life Lakeview Restaurant. She believes the bridge was blown up by aliens who want Earth to remain disunited and to slow down human progress. One of the pictures she shows them is a TOS-era Romulan Bird of Prey which Kirk recognizes. Laā€™An doesnā€™t, because it will be about 6 to 7 years before the Romulans emerge from their space with that ship (TOS: ā€œBalance of Terrorā€). In Kirkā€™s timeline, a few days from now, a cold fusion reactor will destroy Toronto, a Romulan first strike.

    Kirk says they need to find an engineer from the ā€œstone agesā€ to help them build a cold fusion detector. In TOS: ā€œThe City on the Edge of Foreverā€ Spock tries to build a mnemonic circuit from what he sarcastically calls ā€œstone knives and bear skins.ā€

    True to her story, Peliaā€™s bunker as the words ā€œThe Archeology Departmentā€ graffitied on the door. Pelia says she has a terrible memory for faces, which may explain why she doesnā€™t remember meeting Laā€™An.

    Kirk says someone at the Apple Store taught him to use DuckDuckGo, which is a search engine designed to maintain privacy of searches. Laā€™An is being very cagey about her origins, perhaps to maintain the Temporal Prime Directive. Pelia claims she (in this time) is not an engineer and hasnā€™t taken a math class since Pythagoras made it up (about 1500 years prior to the present). Pythagoras is often called the father of mathematics.

    Tritium does indeed make phosphor glow through beta decay, and has a limited half-life. Tritium based phosphor lighting lasts for about ten years. Iā€™m not sure that this particular detection method with the watch would work, though.

    Laā€™An suggests Kirk can live in her timeline. In ā€œYesterdayā€™s Enterpriseā€ the alternate Tasha travels to the Prime Timeline and survives the erasure of her timeline to eventually birth Sela (TNG: ā€œRedemption IIā€), so there is precedent for this.

    The cold fusion reactor is housed in the Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement and Laā€™Anā€™s DNA opens the door. Sera is from the future, and her people - the Romulans - have been slowing human progress, but she wants to go further and for once, a Kirk bluff doesnā€™t work the way he intended.

    Seraā€™s target is the child Khan Noonien-Singh, and for the first time this firmly retcons the timeline of the Eugenics Wars and Khanā€™s era as being pushed up to the 21st Century instead of 1996. Sera says that she was told to do so because of a computer simulation, much like Ziggy from Quantum Leap calculated changes in history. If Khan dies, the Federation never forms - and that explains why Kirk doesnā€™t know the name.

    Seraā€™s explanation that this was ā€œsupposed to happen in 1992ā€ and time itself is pushing back against attempts to change it, events reinserting themselves, now provides an explicit mechanism as to why the chronology of the Eugenics Wars has changed. This also now implies that the Project: Khan file dated 1996 that was in Adam Soongā€™s hands (PIC: ā€œFarewellā€) may be related to this current Khan, or the product of another altered history.

    As she is fatally wounded, Sera activates an implant and turns to dust. The light on the temporal device turns from red to green, perhaps indicating that the timeline has been restored. Older viewers like me will remember the time travel series Voyagers! from 1982, whose protagonists also used a handheld device called an Omni that had red/green light indicators to show if something was wrong with the timeline.

    The child Khan, appearing about 8-10 years of age, seems to be of South Asian heritage as the actual Khan would be. He is part of a cohort of at least 6 other children of various ethnicities, likely all genetically engineered.

    A lingering question is what happens to the alternate Kirkā€™s body. If we take the idea that a person out of time is protected from timeline changes like the alternate Tasha was, then alt-Kirkā€™s body would still exist, a mysterious John Doe. For what itā€™s worth, Laā€™An is still wearing the now anachronistic diverā€™s watch.

    Agent Ymalay from the DTI introduces herself, and confirms the stranger was a DTI agent, cautioning her against discussing what she just experienced lest she undo the timeline.

    Laā€™An calls Prime Kirk, who is at this point still a lieutenant and confirms his birthplace as Riverside, Iowa. In reality, Roddenberry never established where in Iowa Kirk was born, so the town of Riverside just claimed it as his future birthplace. This is the first time itā€™s been established on screen.

    • Zizhou@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      hasnā€™t taken a math class since Pythagoras made it up (about 1500 years prior to the present)

      Small note here: this should be 2500 years prior, unless this episode is taking place around the year 1000 CE.

    • khaosworks@startrek.websiteOPM
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      Kirk says that Sam is his brotherā€™s middle name (George Samuel Kirk Jr.) and most people call him George. Laā€™An scoffs and says nobody calls him George. In TOS: ā€œWhat Are Little Girls Made Of?ā€ the android duplicate of Kirk notes that only Kirk calls his brother Sam.

      So what gives here? Precisely why Jim Kirk seemingly insists both here and in ā€œLittle Girlsā€ that most people call his big brother George while itā€™s clear that everyone calls him Sam can have a few possible explanations.

      One is the easy out: temporal war shenanigans.

      Two is that Jimā€™s in error - heā€™s never been the only one who calls George ā€œSamā€, and that erroneous belief is what the android picked up.

      Three (and my preferred explanation) is to remember that after Korby smugly says that Android Kirk canā€™t be outthought, Kirk says ā€œThere are some interesting differences.ā€ Kirk at this point has tried to implant a racist thought in Android Kirkā€™s head so Spock will realize itā€™s not really him. The idea that he is the only one who calls George ā€œSamā€ is another implant, and one Kirk is using as a control question to see if a lie could be incepted into the androidā€™s memory. So the error confirmed to Kirk that his racist suggestion would likely have been implanted as well.

      I also like this because it clears up another inconsistency - the android says Sam has 3 sons, but in TOS: ā€œOperation: Annihilate!ā€ he appears only to have one. In this context this would have been another checksum Kirk used to verify that his false statements were incepted.

      • majicwalrus@startrek.website
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        undefined> Two is that Jimā€™s in error - heā€™s never been the only one who calls George ā€œSamā€, and that erroneous belief is what the android picked up.

        I like this explanation. I like the explanation that James had always called his brother Sam because he had a hard time saying ā€˜Georgeā€™ when he was little. And so James has established himself as 'the only person who calls him ā€˜Samā€™ and that may even have been factually true for some time.

        But at some point, perhaps when joining Starfleet. George got tired of being associate with that other George Kirk and he missed his brother calling him Sam and so he got a new posting on a new ship and the first time they asked ā€œnameā€ he said ā€œSam.ā€ And now everyone calls him Sam. Something that James Kirk might know about, but also doesnā€™t consider it valid because only James calls him Sam even if that isnā€™t technically true - itā€™s true enough for James and therefore true enough for the Android to pick up on.

    • Tiarzel_Tal@startrek.website
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      undefined> As she is fatally wounded, Sera activates an implant and turns to dust.

      Thus keeping up the rule that the first time anyone from the federation learns of the appearance of a Romulan is the Balance of Terror.

  • JohnnyDelirious@startrek.website
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    ā€œKirk claims never to have been to Earth at all, having been born in space on the USS Iowa. His counterparts were born in Iowa, USA, in the Prime Universe 2333 and on the USS Kelvin in the Kelvin Timeline.ā€œ

    Alt-Kirkā€™s ship is identified as the UEFS Enterprise when Laā€™an first enters the bridge, but I also heard his place of birth as being the USS Iowa.

    Does that imply that humanity has multiple military space fleets? Or maybe that unification of Eartherā€™s governments didnā€™t happen until after Kirkā€™s birth in this timeline?

    • khaosworks@startrek.websiteOPM
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      Technically, he doesnā€™t say his ship is the UEFS Enterprise. He identifies his ship as the ā€œUnited Earth Fleet Ship Enterpriseā€. Why am I splitting this particular hair? Because we hear lines like ā€œthis is the Federation starship Voyagerā€ all the time and we never think that it should be the FSS Voyager.

      Which is a roundabout way to say that it is entirely possible that itā€™s the United Earth Fleet Ship USS Iowa/Enterprise and no extra fleets or unification history need apply.

      • JohnnyDelirious@startrek.website
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        Rewatch the scene where Laā€™an enters the bridge, and keep an eye on the dedication plaque to the left of the turbolift.

        It identifies the ship as the UEF Enterprise.

        • khaosworks@startrek.websiteOPM
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          Good catch!

          A script slip that made it past continuity, then, is the Doylist explanation. Watsonian I would then prefer it to be that the USS Iowa be a civilian ship distinct from UEF ships rather than a different military fleet or pre-unification one.

  • greatnebula@startrek.website
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    In TNG: ā€œThe Defectorā€, Picard performs Henry V, and Data and he do the same in ā€œEmergenceā€. Picard uses the excuse of the away team being actors performing A Midsummer Nightā€™s Dream in ā€œTimeā€™s Arrowā€. In DS9: ā€œImprobable Causeā€, Garak and Bashir debate Julius Caesar. In ENT: ā€œIn a Mirror, Darklyā€ the similarities between Shakespeareā€™s plays between the Prime and Mirror Universe are mentioned. Various bits of Shakespeare are quoted as well, notably General Chang, a Shakespeare aficionado in ST VI and Spock quoting Hamlet in DIS: ā€œPerpetual Infinityā€.

    No love for Picard reciting a sonnet in TNG: ā€œMĆ©nage Ć  Troiā€? :) Or were you just specifically listing references to Shakespeare plays?