Mind-Blowing Revelation: Star Trek's Lost Time Travel Story Almost Unveiled 57 Years Ago!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Aborted Time Travel Story: Saving Humanity from Hitler vs Khan Exploring the alternate paths not taken by the iconic franchise
Attention: This article includes spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, titled "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow".
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' latest episode, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," delves into the moral and ethical dilemmas of time travel that were explored almost six decades ago. This classic Star Trek installment pays homage to two beloved films from the original series, crafting a captivating narrative. While the episode presents a complex decision for Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh with far-reaching consequences for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the initial sequences involving La'an and an alternate reality version of Captain James T Kirk (portrayed by Paul Wesley) trying to assimilate into 21st-century society evoke memories of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Star Trek: The Original Series Was Pitched A "Killing Hitler" Story
: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3 presents a challenging moral scenario for La'an amidst the light and breezy episodes of Kirk and La'an engaging in shoplifting clothes and hustling local chess enthusiasts. This time, La'an faces an impossible choice when confronted with a young Khan Noonien-Singh, a notorious tyrant. The option given to La'an is to kill the child, thereby potentially saving millions of lives. This dilemma mirrors the age-old debate of whether a time traveler should intervene and eliminate Hitler as a child. Although Star Trek explores this moral dilemma explicitly for the first time, the concept was originally pitched back in 1966.
La'an's Khan dilemma raised similar themes to an unused Star Trek: The Original Series storyline. In the Gene Roddenberry Archive, there was a story outline that focused on a potential episode. This episode involved a temporal experiment conducted aboard Kirk's USS Enterprise, which unintentionally brought Alois Schicklgruber to the 23rd century. Schicklgruber, who would eventually father Adolf Hitler, presented a moral dilemma for the Enterprise crew. Unsure of what to do with the young man, a Jewish Starfleet officer proposed sterilizing Schicklgruber to prevent him from fathering a child. This storyline was deemed highly insensitive.
Why Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "Killing Khan" Story Is Much Better
Exploring the nature/nurture debate through one of history's greatest monsters just over 20 years after the end of World War 2 seems premature. However, Star Trek: The Original Series did delve into the subject indirectly by portraying a planet influenced by the Nazis in the episode "Patterns of Force." This episode, resembling a war movie, was a better fit for the show's genre-bending, episodic format in the 1960s rather than focusing on a heavy moral debate about killing Hitler. Fortunately, the episode never made it to the screen.
In 1966, if Star Trek had allowed Adolf Hitler to be born, it would have greatly upset viewers who had personally experienced the Holocaust and World War II, as these events were still fresh in their minds. While the moral discussion is intriguing, it was fundamentally wrong for Star Trek back then, and it remains morally wrong for Star Trek today. However, the introduction of young Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds allows for a similar debate without the contentious association with real-life war crimes and genocide.
Star Trek has continuously explored the aftermath of the Eugenics Wars ever since Khan's initial appearance in "Space Seed". This enables viewers to reflect on the moral and ethical implications of the "let's kill Hitler" narrative, avoiding any distasteful and crass portrayal on-screen. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds bravely confronts La'an with her troubling past, compelling her to allow history to unfold naturally. Thus, the show addresses a familiar debate in a refreshing and respectful manner, without resorting to cheap and sensationalistic tactics. Don't miss the streaming of Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds every Thursday on Paramount+.
