The Trouble With La'an In Strange New Worlds!

Comments · 207

• CH

  @CharleyZulu75 · 6 days ago

  I missed the TOS episode where Kirk and Spock are playing 3d chess while kicking back, having a brew and comparing notes about that hot chick they both were banging back on Pikes Enterprise. Man Kirk and Spock really are best buds, they share everything.

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• MA

  @matthewgaudet4064 · 7 days ago

  Did we need a Khan relative, any more than Michael being Spock's sister. People will go and say, well what about Sybok? To explain the Kurtzman era's stupidity.

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• NI

  @Nic2C · 6 days ago

  I completely agree with your assessment. The thing I dislike most about SNW and Discovery are the frequent decisions to mess with established canon.

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• BE

  @Bern1808 · 7 days ago

  Christina Chong is a huge talent, but her character has been developed poorly from the start (writers and producers at fault).  Even if they wanted the character to be a descendant of the infamous Khan Noonien Singh, something she struggles with and desires to keep secret, why would she (the character) continue to carry that uncommon surname?  How many "Hitlers" are listed in Germany (phone registries) presently?  The answer is one, compared to an estimated 2,000+ noted in records before the end of WW2.  This is due to widespread voluntary name changes because of stigma, something that would almost certainly have happened to Khan's lineage in a realistic world.  Keeping her heritage a private "dirty" family secret (apprehension of discovery) would have added depth to her character, but I guess they wanted that storyline for Una (so that character had anything at all interesting about her).  This is the type of stupid, unforced error that plagues modern Trek over and over.

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• GA

  @garytwinem5275 · 7 days ago

  She's just Alara Kitan from the Orville.

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• PC

  @pchow6829 · 2 days ago

  You are absolutely correct about the need to relate her to Khan.

• HE

  @Henry-by1un · 3 days ago

  I'm really curious to how Strange New Worlds will address her fate since Kirk and crew will eventually face Khan in TOS in universe. There's got to be a reason why she's never brought up. I'm talking in-universe that is, and that's really hard to reconcile when it comes to canon.

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• MO

  @MoonjumperReviews · 3 days ago (edited)

  La’an is arguably my favorite character in the show, but as you point out, she is something of a walking continuity error when she didn’t have to be. &nbsp;Although, it’s not entirely for the reason you suggest (and this is where I respectfully disagree just a bit…)<br><br>You mentioned (and I’ve heard others say essentially the same thing) that Kirk and crew were unfamiliar with Khan Noonien-Singh in “Space Seed.” &nbsp;That’s not actually true. &nbsp;They just didn’t immediately know that the man they encountered was HIM—and why would they? &nbsp;When they first came across the Botany Bay, all they knew is that they had happened upon some random 20th century popsicles. &nbsp;When asked, this mysterious man refused to give them anything other than his first name, “Khan.” &nbsp;Kirk pressed him, Khan what? &nbsp;“Just Khan,” he said. &nbsp;Khan is a rather common Indian name—and there were no records of Khan Noonien-Singh having been launched into deep space. &nbsp;All that was known is that his regime had fallen centuries ago and there was no reason to immediately associate this random guy with no last name with one of the most infamous regimes in history. &nbsp;It was Marla McGivers who realized who he was—and once revealed, Kirk and crew were &nbsp;immediately familiar with his history. &nbsp;They even expressed a certain admiration for him as something of a quasi-benevolent tyrant, more like Caesar than Hitler. &nbsp;They knew exactly who he was. &nbsp;They just didn’t immediately realize who it was they had randomly encountered in deep space—because, as I said, why would they? &nbsp;Khan Noonien-Singh should have died long ago. &nbsp;<br><br>The issue with La’an isn’t that her name shouldn’t be known, it’s that it absolutely should! —and yet, what a typical SNW coincidence that the same ship carrying largely the same crew who had served with a direct descendant of Khan Noonien-Singh (from a family that coincidentally never changed their infamous name as other families of infamous dictators often have, historically), what are the odds that this very same ship and crew should just happen to come across Khan Noonien-Singh himself and the name of their former crewmate strangely never gets mentioned? &nbsp;That seems extraordinary to me.<br><br>But you are absolutely correct about her history with the Gorn—the single biggest continuity disaster in this entire canon-averse series. &nbsp;“Arena” doesn’t just “feel like a first contact” situation, it was specifically stated as such. &nbsp;Somehow the same ship with largely the same crew has never heard of the Gorn, despite the Federation (and this specific ship and crew) having been in full blown open warfare with them only a few years prior. &nbsp;<br><br>But like all canon-violations in the Discovery-verse, they’ll probably just say it’s all classified and tell everyone to pretend like she never existed—for, you know, reasons. <br><br>Excellent video!

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• EX

  @exastrisscientia8656 · 2 days ago

  I thought the same thing when the Gorn are first mentioned and Star Fleet apparently has all this information and many of the bridge officers are familiar with them. It didn&apos;t occur to the writers, or they didn&apos;t care, that in &quot;Arena&quot; Kirk and crew (Spock and Uhura) apparently have no knowledge about this unknown attacker even after the Metrons tell them the attacker is called the Gorn. The SNW Gorn appear in multiple episodes, but in the very near future no one knows a thing about them? <br>Did Star Fleet have all records and memories erased? Wait . . . no, it was a massive Section 31 cover up to protect the Federation. &nbsp;<br><br>This isn&apos;t some vague reference to &quot;Cybernetic Beings&quot; made by Zephram Cochran with no actual name to identify them, as in ST: Enterprise. This is detailed files and first hand experience. <br>This is about writers that just want to say &quot;See, who and what you thought you knew about the future has already been met and done in the past and to hell with continuity. We don&apos;t give a frack about it!&quot;

• CL

  @CleverHandle2026 · 6 days ago

  Too many think Khan is to Kirk as Joker is to Batman.

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• VO

  @vonVile · 7 days ago (edited)

  The problem with La&apos;an is she isn&apos;t a character, but a plot device. She is an all purpose tool the writers need to make their story work. Whatever the situation just plug-in La&apos;an.

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• GE

  @Gerardo-p3w · 4 days ago

  Tos was elegant in its simplicity. Modern writers have overcomplicated and overintelectualized old fashioned entertainment.

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