With the crew of Pike’s USS Enterprise now revealed for Strange New Worlds, what do we currently know about some of the crew?
Some characters are complete mysteries, but their ancestry might tell us more!
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
At Star Trek Day earlier this month, we got a promotional video for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the new live action star trek series coming in 2022,
featuring the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike aboard the USS Enterprise.
This video showed us not only the cast of the show, but who they would be playing.
From Anson’s Mount’s Pike all the way to Christina Chong playing La’an Noonien Singh.
In this video we will be breaking down what we already currently know about the Noonien-Singhs, and what we might expect from this new character in the series going forward!
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So as stated, we don’t know anything about this new character “La’an Noonien-Singh”, but we have met a Noonien-Singh before, so let’s start there!
Noonien-Singh was the surname of the infamous trek villain, Khan, who was an eugenically augmented human who came to prominence during the late 20th century on Earth.
Khan became the absolute ruler of a quarter of the world's population.
Khan was a ruler for roughly 4 years, before the forces of man drove him and his augmented followers in a period of time known as the Eugenic wars, and eventually Khan and his followers fled into space, on-board an interstellar sleeper ship known as the SS Botany Bay.
What is interesting is that the records of the period are vague, and presumably a lot of information was destroyed by the fleeing Augments.
Surely if Khan sired children, and left them behind on Earth when he and his cadre of augmented brothers and sisters fled on the Botany Bay, they would have gone into hiding, or assumed other identities.
But if they did assume other names, then why is our Noonien-Singh still possessing that surname.
Obviously Starfleet as a whole, cannot find out about La’an’s genetically engineered past, if she is indeed a descendant of Khan.
We know from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, that known genetically engineered individuals are kept confined at facilities.
Strangely enough, the Noonien-Singh name is not wholly unique in Star Trek, as we know of another very well known family with a remarkably similar name, the Noonian Soongs,
otherwise known as the family that eventually created the Soong-Type androids, with Data being one such android.
This could mean that, with this style of name being so similar in the Star Trek Universe, La’an could just be a random person who coincidentally has the same name as Khan.
But as this is a written show and not history, surely it is intentional that they have the same name, and it means something.
Out of universe, the reason why we have a Noonien Singh surname and a Noonian Soong name is actually a fascinating story.
During the second world war, which Gene Roddenberry took part in, he befriended someone called Kim Noonien Singh.
So Gene decided to include his name in Trek, in order to eventually find his lost friend.
He wouldn’t only do it with Khan, but with Data’s creator as well, changing his name ever so slightly, but still keeping the same structure in hopes that the Noonien-Singh Gene knew, to notice and find him.
Unfortunately it seems that Gene Roddenberry was never able to find his long lost friend.
Now that we have got behind the surname of La’an, and its history, what could this mean for the story, and what role could La’an play on the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.
La’an seems like the right fit to be chief of security of the USS Enterprise.
Not just because of her possible genetic augmentations, but the other red shirts seen in the character reveal for Strange New Worlds do not seem to fit the bill of Chief of Security.
Hemmer, the Aenar played by Bruce Horak, comes from a race of pacificts and is blind.
Obviously he could be the one Aenar that isn’t pacifist, but I doubt he would be the chief of security.
Then we have Lt. Erica Ortegas, who from the character video seems to take the position of Helmsman of the USS Enterprise.
Though what should be pointed out, is that there wasn’t really a position of Chief of Security during The Original Series, and it was somewhat mixed with Sulu’s position as Helmsman of the Enterprise,
so they could be melding the jobs together to get Strange New World’s closer towards The Original Series as time progresses.
However during Discovery, where we last saw the Enterprise, there is the position of Chief of Security.
The previous Chief of Security of the USS Enterprise was Commander Nahn, the Barzan seen in Season 2 of Discovery, but she stayed aboard the USS Discovery as it was sent to the future, leaving the Enterprise without a Chief of Security.
If La’an is chief of security, then I can definitely see a situation where, if she is an augment, she uses her augmented strength to save Captain Pike,
and confides in Pike that she is a descendant of the Augments.
Knowing Pike, he wouldn’t report this to Starfleet command or put it in his Captain’s Log in order to protect one of his officers, leaving the history Noonien-Singh name to be shrouded in time before being uncovered by Kirk’s Enterprise years later.
Going off this point, we also need to talk about Spock.
If Spock is serving with a Noonien Singh, why doesn’t he recognise the name during the time of The Original Series.
Obviously Spock could at first think it is just a common name, or a coincidence that is not worth mentioning.
If Noonien-Singh is a common name in Trek, Spock mentioning La’an during The Original Series when they first meet Khan, would be akin to someone mentioning that they served with a Smith once.
After Khan’s identity is revealed, Spock could realise the connection and simply keep it to himself.
What use would telling people “I served with this evil leader's descendant 10 years ago” when said evil leader is currently in possession of your ship.
This could even be said by Spock to Kirk between episodes, after the Khan is dropped off on Ceti Alpha V.
There is precedent for Spock not saying things which, as fans, we wonder why he never says, but storywise it is only logical he doesn’t say them.
Such as his familial relationships with Sarek, Amanda, Sybok and Michael all being a mystery to Kirk.
Going back to La’an’s roles on the enterprise, she could also be the Chief of Engineering. Khan was able to understand the workings of the Enterprise by looking at technical schematics within a matter of hours from a late 20th century understanding of ship mechanics, so imagine the capability of La’an if she was the Chief Engineering Officer.
She would have a full comprehension of a ship and its systems and be able to fix issues and do diagnostics with ease.
Whatever we might see from La’an Noonien Singh in Star Trek Strange New Worlds, augmented or not, we are definitely excited for this new character and what they might do to cement their own legacy in the Star Trek Universe.
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central! You can also follow us on social media, or join our Community Discord Server!
For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!