Christina Chong hasn't been a Star Trek staple for long, but her work as La'an Noonien-Singh has made a big impression on fans. As we await her return in the upcoming Trek series Strange New Worlds' third season, I was listening to one of the actress' interviews, and was shocked to learn about her initial disappointment regarding Season 2's big musical episode.
The actress, whose La'an is fully expected to appear when new episodes arrive later this year for fans with a Paramount+ subscriptions, appeared on The D-Con Chamber to discuss her career and all things Star Trek. After getting some props for her performance in the musical episode "Subspace Rhapsody," Christina Chong revealed she was let down by her character's scenes when she initially read them. She explained why in detail:
Can you believe I was disappointed with it? When I pitched it, I started pitching this musical idea from Season 1– obviously, Henry [Alonso Myers] and Akiva [Goldsman] are big musical people too, so I think they already had it in their head–I was pushing it. Anyone who would listen, I was like, 'Gorn. Dancing Gorn. Tap shoes. Canes. Hats.' And I'm thinking, 'La'an and the Gorn in tap shoes.' When we got the actual script, I was like, 'Where are the sequins? Where's the razzle-dazzle?' There was none of that.
I can only imagine what the reaction would be from the fandom had Gorn with tap shoes appeared in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. There's been enough conversation already about the Gorn having tails and looking like a different species compared to the ones that appeared in the original series. I'm sure if something closer to what Christina Chong had imagined on-screen was the end result, there would've been some negative reactions among fans more aligned with hard sci-fi.
Sure, "Subspace Rhapsody" had Klingons perform a boy band song, but as Anson Mount mentioned when he defended the dance scene, it was to illustrate their embarrassment of singing something so ridiculous as a proud species. Shaming Klingons is one thing. Glamming up Gorn is quite another.
Christina Chong continued, saying her feelings about the episode obviously changed in the interim. As she put it:
I was so disappointed. Obviously I'm not now, but in that moment, in my head, it was something completely different.
La'an's scenes in the episode solidified her romantic feelings for James T. Kirk, though it was unfortunately a Kirk from an alternate timeline. As such, it's unclear if the Prime Kirk and La'an will ever have a romance. And if we'll only get to learn about what happened if someone sings about it.
What we do know is that Paul Wesley's Kirk is coming back in Season 3, and will appear in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 as well. I would wager that, because of that, the Paramount+ series is invested in continuing to tell that story between the two, as we march closer to the day Kirk inevitably takes control of the Enterprise. While we know what Kirk's path will be in the future, we're still in the dark about what happened to La'an, who has become one of Trek's best characters in just a short time.
Hopefully, we get a sense of where she's headed in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, which is slated to debut at some point in 2025. I'm getting so eager to get a release date for the season, and with First Contact Day rolling up on April 5th, here's hoping we get an answer on when to expect it.
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