Star Trek’s Next Great Villain Has Been Hiding In Plain Sight All Along

Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 1 - "Valles Marineris"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds may have revealed its next great Star Trek villain has been aboard the USS Enterprise all along. Directed by Chris Fisher and written by Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's premiere sent the Starship Enterprise 65 million years into Earth's past.

Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) led Lieutenants La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) on a landing party to what turned out to be Earth in the Cretaceous period. Surrounded by carnivorous dinosaurs, the Starfleet Officers relied on their phasers and wits as they discovered a crashed Dol'drm ship on prehistoric Terran soil.

Meanwhile, the Starship Enterprise is captured by a Martian ship. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) learns that 65 million years ago, Mars had a civilization that was at war with an insect race called the Dol'drm. Pike makes a decision that alters the history of humanity in Star Trek canon while La'an fears her enemy is within.

Is La'an Becoming The Next Great Star Trek Villain?

When she was on prehistoric Earth in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's premiere, La'an punched an attacking dinosaur. What should have been a fist-pumping, badass moment instead terrified La'an, who broke her hand and didn't feel it. The USS Enterprise's Security Chief revealed her worst fears that she is becoming like her evil ancestor, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban).

Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) joked with La'an, asking if she's now going to conquer the galaxy, but the Lieutenant missed the humor and sincerely answered, "I don't know." La'an's dread stems from when she was surgically altered into a Vulcan in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, which Noonien-Singh theorizes activated her regressive Augment DNA.

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 8, "Four-and-a-Half Vulcans," Vulcan La'an behaved more like a sinister Romulan. It seemed the genetics she inherited from Khan manifested into La'an becoming as diabolical as her ancestor. La'an quickly began weaponizing the USS Enterprise and plotting a war that would bring the galaxy under her control.

Interestingly, La'an claims that she has always had heightened strength and reflexes, like Khan. Yet this doesn't bear out with the number of fights La'an has lost, including to a Romulan time traveler named Sera (Adelaide Kane) in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." However, La'an seems to be stronger now in Strange New Worlds season 4.

La'an's Future After Strange New Worlds Is A Big Star Trek Question

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 could very well turn La'an into a supervillain. A potential heel turn has been built into La'an all along because of her shared augmented genetics with Khan, who was stronger, smarter, and more devious than a normal human. Scotty (Martin Quinn) always found La'an "scary," and perhaps the young engineer's instincts are on point.

La'an is one of the USS Enterprise crewmembers who will not join Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) when he takes command. La'an's future has been an open question since her introduction. The seeds have long been planted for La'an to turn and become a threat to the Enterprise, and possibly even the galaxy itself.

However, even if La'an becomes a supervillain, her fate throughout the rest of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is known, as Christina Chong is part of the cast in the fifth and final season. Yet this doesn't mean something can't happen to La'an that twists her into a threat, whether she reverts to the La'an audiences know and love.

Speaking to ScreenRant at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's press junket, Christina Chong teased La'an's "anger, [and] paranoia, and ultimately, it culminates in a journey of self-acceptance down the line.” That journey towards self-acceptance may come after a detour where Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh emerges as an adversary to Captain Pike's Starship Enterprise the way Khan becomes to Captain Kirk.