Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode 8’s Romulan Canon Joke Explained
Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 8 – “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans”Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 told a perfect joke about breaking Star Trek canon regarding Romulans. Directed by Jordan Canning and written by Dana Horgan and Henry Alonso Myers, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 8, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans,” is another hilarious Vulcan farce that also works in a sly reference to the Romulans.
Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) are genetically altered into Vulcans, along with Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) and Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding). Pike and La’an, however, pose different dangers to the Starship Enterprise in “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans.”
As a Vulcan, Captain Pike’s logical efficiency becomes an ordeal for the USS Enterprise’s crew, and his girlfriend, Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano). Meanwhile, La’an’s Vulcan DNA unleashes her innate Augment genetics, and she becomes diabolical like her ancestor, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban).
When Captain Pike and La’an encounter each other, however, the two Vulcans commiserate about “certain elements of Vulcan history,” which lets Star Trek: Strange New Worlds hilariously touch upon their mutual secret that both of them know more about Romulans than they can say.
Vulcan Captain Pike catches Vulcan La’an near one of the Starship Enterprise’s Jeffries Tubes in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 8, and becomes suspicious that La’an behaves unlike any Vulcan he’d ever seen. Pike alludes to La’an about “certain elements of Vulcan history” he can’t discuss, and La’an admits she also has her own secret about Vulcan history that she can’t discuss.
Both La’an and Pike’s hidden tales involve time travel, and the two Vulcans hilariously blurted out “Romulans!”, joined by simultaneous raised eyebrows. Starfleet knows about the existence of Romulans in Star Trek‘s 23rd century. Star Trek: The Original Series established that the Earth-Romulan War was fought in the 22nd century with “primitive atomic weapons.”
Technically, no human is supposed to have seen what a Romulan looks like until Star Trek: The Original Series season 1’s classic episode, “Balance of Terror.” Over 5 years after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the USS Enterprise will see a Romulan Commander (Mark Lenard) for the first time, and learn they are offshoots of Vulcans.
Star Trek: Enterprise season 5, if it happened, planned to lay the groundwork for the Earth-Romulan War and reveal that Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) was half-Romulan.
Star Trek: Enterprise danced around Star Trek: The Original Series’ “no human has seen a Romulan” canon. In the 22nd-century prequel to TOS, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) learned about the existence of Romulans. Todd Stashwick also played a Romulan deep cover operative named Talok who posed as a Vulcan in Star Trek: Enterprise season 4.
How Captain Pike Broke Star Trek Romulan Canon
Captain Christopher Pike learned the truth about Romulans in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1’s finale, “A Quality of Mercy.” In Strange New Worlds‘ remake of Star Trek: The Original Series’ “Balance of Terror,” Pike was brought to an alternate future by his doppelganger, where Chris was never disfigured and remained Captain of the Enterprise.
It was Captain Pike, with the help of Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) of the USS Farragut, who faced a new Romulan Bird-of-Prey, which was armed with a devastating plasma weapon and a cloaking device. The outcome of Pike’s version of “Balance of Terror” was very different from Captain Kirk’s reality in TOS, but Pike also saw the true face of his Romulan opponent.
Captain Pike kept his secret that he knows what the Romulans look like ever since, as part of an overall redaction of his experience in the alternate reality future where the United Federation of Planets was mired in a forever war with the Romulans.
How La’an Broke Star Trek Romulan Canon
Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh came face-to-face with a Romulan inStar Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” When La’an is charged by a Starfleet temporal agent to repair Star Trek‘s broken Prime timeline, she time travels to 21st century Toronto with an alternate reality version of Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley).
La’an and Captain Kirk track a series of terrorist attacks on Toronto, and learn they are acts of Temporal War by a Romulan operative named Sera (Adelaide Kane). Sera is forced to pivot her plans and tries to murder Khan Noonien Singh (Desmond Sivan), who is just a child in 21st-century Toronto. Although La’an saves Khan, Sera murders Kirk. La’an exacts revenge by killing the Romulan.
With the timeline restored and La’an back aboard the Starship Enterprise, she is ordered by Starfleet’s Temporal Investigations to never reveal anything about her mission in 21st-century Toronto. Although La’an broke that promise and gave some details to Lieutenant James T. Kirk during Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ musical episode, the Enterprise’s Security Chief kept her word about Romulans.
Both Captain Pike and Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh know the truth about what Romulans look like in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. However, they are honor-bound to keep it a secret – unless they are Vulcans temporarily blurting their shared knowledge to each other in “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans'” clever joke.
Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman
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