History Recap / StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E03TomorrowAndTomorrowAndTomorrow

* TimeCrash: A variation. This episode finally provides an in-universe explanation for why the history of the Eugenics Wars has become so inconsistent and contradictory since "Space Seed". There have been so many attempts, both benign and malignant, to [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise meddle with humanity's development]] -- and ''especially'' the pre-First Contact years -- that the entire original timeline's been shot to hell (with the Wars now being part of the catalyst for World War III).

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the wildly divergent history, most of the crew of ''Enterprise'' were still born and wound up on a version of the ''Enterprise''. Even Spock is in contact with them, despite Earth being more isolationist in this timeline, though he joined Vulcan's space fleet rather than Earth's. The two differences are Sam Kirk is no longer alive, and the Noonien-Singh line has been wiped out, stunting humanity's progress into the stars. Knowing his brother survives in La'an's reality motivates Kirk to help her, as that plus the objectively better nature of her timeline is worth sacrificing his own.

* TrappedInThePast: Sera is a Romulan time traveler who has been stuck on Earth for three decades.

* AmbiguousSyntax: The time traveler that passes his device to La'an instructs her to "get to the bridge"; she assumes it's the bridge of the Enterprise, but then a bridge in 21st-century Toronto blows up. While this happens in both timelines, La'an seeing it first-hand causes her to realize that it uses technology from at least the 22nd century.

* BittersweetEnding: La'an saves the timeline, in the process saves her murderous ancestors. The alternate Kirk she bonded with dies. Starfleet Department of Temporal Investigations forbids her from sharing what she went through, meaning she has to live with the trauma of killing someone, feeling responsible for saving Khan, and losing Kirk on her own. She calls her timeline's Kirk, on the pretense of having questions about Sam, and breaks down crying when the call ends.

** The solution which Kirk, La'an, and Pelia discuss, but ultimately don't use, is using a tricorder to find the temporal disturbance — the same solution Kirk and Spock will use several subjective years later (and a chronological century or so earlier) in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever The City on the Edge of Forever]]".
** At the end of the episode, La'an gets a visit from [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations the Department of Temporal Investigations]] to retrieve the time travel device and tell her to keep quiet about the events of the episode. Apparently they still haven't been formed yet.
** The Starfleet Department of Temporal Investigations is present. [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations In the first episode where they appear]], they make a reference to James T. Kirk being one of their most prolific offender. Guess who time travels this episode and adds to his gigantic case file?

* TheConspiracy: Sera, a human who Kirk and La'an meet in the 21st century, claims that there's a global one to stunt the progress of humanity and hide the existence of aliens; it turns out that Veronica is actually ''part'' of that conspiracy, and is a Romulan in disguise from the future who's attempting to prevent humans from ever making First Contact.

** Kirk's lack of familiarity with La'an's last name foreshadows the real divergence point between their timelines: The death of Khan Noonien-Singh.

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the wildly divergent history, most of the crew of ''Enterprise'' were still born and wound up on a version of the ''Enterprise''. Even Spock is in contact with them, despite Earth being more isolationist in this timeline, though he joined Vulcan's space fleet rather than Earth's. The two differences are Sam Kirk is no longer alive. Knowing his brother survives in La'an's reality motivates Kirk to help her, and La'an herself, since Khan's death is the diverging point in the time line.

* OhCrap: La'an is horrified when she sees crayon drawings hanging in the hallway, and the horror only grows when she sees Khan's name-in childish handwriting-on the door.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Downplayed. It's never been quite clear in canon how Khan Noonien Singh's name breaks down; one popular (although not uncontested) way of interpreting it has been that "Noonien" is his given name, "Singh," is his surname and "Khan" is a title. This episode establishes it as a given name with a two-part surname, "Khan Noonien-Singh" (like "Una Chin-Riley").

* WouldHurtAChild: To change the future, Sera resorts to killing a very young Khan.

* BittersweetEnding: La'an saves the timeline, in the process saves her murderous ancestors. The alternate Kirk she bonded with dies. Starfleet Department of Temporal Affairs forbids her from sharing what she went through, meaning she has to live with the trauma of killing someone, feeling responsible for saving Khan, and losing Kirk on her own. She calls her timeline's Kirk, on the pretense of having questions about Sam, and breaks down crying when the call ends.

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: Double subverted. Upon seeing the hand scanner, Kirk initially suggests waiting for someone to enter/exit and then force their hand onto the scanner. Then La'an sees "Khan Noonien-Singh" on the wall and realizes she can use the scanner, as it actually checks for a DNA marker she possesses despite being several generations removed. It's then played straight when Sera forces La'an to activate the scanner to Khan's room.

* TheConspiracy: Veronica, a human who Kirk and La'an meet in the 21st century, claims that there's a global one to stunt the progress of humanity and hide the existence of aliens; it turns out that Veronica is actually ''part'' of that conspiracy, and is a Romulan in disguise from the future who's attempting to prevent humans from ever making First Contact.

* CanadaEh: When explaining to a Kirk whose never been on Earth what Canada is, La'an goes through several stereotypical Canadian things.

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the wildly divergent history, most of the crew of ''Enterprise'' were still born and wound up on a version of the ''Enterprise''. Even Spock is around, despite Earth being more isolationist in this timeline, though he joined Vulcan's space fleet rather than Earth's. The two differences are Sam Kirk is no longer alive. Knowing his brother survives in La'an's reality motivates Kirk to help her, and La'an herself, since Khan's death is the diverging point in the time line.

* WhamShot: La'an sees the proprietor of the building where the fusion reactor is kept: the Khan Noonien-Singh Institute.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sera's politics are not quite internally consistent (she films cops to prevent police brutality, which is left-wing-coded, but she proposes a conspiracy theory about an alien invasion being covered up by an international cabal, which is right-wing-coded). To a 21st-century observer, this could be a sign that something is off. Since Jim and La'an both know for a fact that aliens ''will'' try to invade Earth, they don't notice the discontinuity.

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the wildly divergent history, most of the crew of ''Enterprise'' were still born and wound up on a version of the ''Enterprise''. Even Spock is around, despite Earth being more isolationist in this timeline, though he joined Vulcan's space fleet rather than Earth's. The one difference is [[spoiler:Sam Kirk is no longer alive. Knowing his brother survives in La'an's reality motivates Kirk to help her]].

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the wildly divergent history, most of the crew of ''Enterprise'' were still born and wound up on a version of the ''Enterprise''. Even Spock is around, despite Earth being more isolationist in this timeline, though he joined Vulcan's space fleet rather than Earth's.

-->''"You know, Maple Leaves, Politeness, Poutine..."''

** Kirk as he appears in this episode is an expert chess player, consistent with his portrayal in Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries, where he was near-on-par with the near-perfect Spock.
** While this alternate timeline Kirk has never been on Earth, he was born on the USS. Iowa. The Kirk we all know and love was born in Iowa.

* ContinuityNod: Kirk as he appears in this episode is an expert chess player, consistent with his portrayal in Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries, where he was near-on-par with the near-perfect Spock.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Overlaps with CaliforniaDoubling. Kirk identifies the city that he and La'an arrive in as New York City; it's actually Toronto, a city which doubles for NYC in visual media more often than it appears as itself.

** As in [[Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction A Piece Of The Action,]] Kirk's ability to drive leaves something to be desired.

** At the end of the episode, La'an gets a visit from [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations the Department of Temporal Investigations]] to retrieve the time travel deice and tell her to keep quiet about the events of the episode. Apparently they still haven't been formed yet.

--->'''Kirk:''' You come from a line of axe murderers?
--->'''La'an:''' Oh no, we never use axes.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sera's politics are not quite internally consistent (she films cops to prevent police brutality, which is left-wing-coded, but she proposes a conspiracy theory about an alien invasion being covered up by an international cabal, which is right-wing-coded). To a 21st-century observer, this could be a sign that something was off. Since Jim and La'an both know for a fact that aliens ''will'' try to invade Earth, they don't notice the discontinuity.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Peila justifies her taking artifacts like a packrat with a "just in case" justification that the Federation's "no money utopia" is just a passing fad.

** Kirk recklessly drives a red sports car, which his younger self did in his first scene of ''Film/StarTrek2009''

* TimeForPlanB: When her plan to sabotage the reactor is ruined, Sera switches to Plan B: kill Khan Noonien-Singh.

* UnexpectedCharacter: While the PreviouslyOn contains a number of quotes about genetics, they all look like they're referring to La'an, who "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E02AdAstraPerAspera Ad Astra Per Aspera]]" established was an Augment. Khan (Desmond Sivan) isn't hinted at or referred to until he shows up in the last ten minutes of the episode.

* CallForward: As in [[Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction A Piece Of The Action,]] Kirk's ability to drive leaves something to be desired.

* WouldHurtAChild: To change the future, Sera resorts to hurting a very young Khan.