WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow."Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brings back Starfleet's Department of Temporal Investigations after they were last seen debriefing Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", a fatally wounded time traveler materializes aboard the USS Enterprise and asks Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) to help him complete his mission. Something has gone wrong in the past, creating an alternate timeline where Earth never founded the Federation and is at war with the Romulan Star Empire.
La'an's mission brings her into the orbit of the alternate timeline's Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) who is in command of the USS Enterprise several years early. Sent back in time together, Kirk and La'an attempt to navigate their way around 21st-century Toronto as they attempt to halt a catastrophic change to the timeline. At the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", it's revealed that La'an and Kirk were inadvertently working for the Department of Temporal Investigations, who had previously investigated Captain Benjamin Sisko for another mission involving the legendary Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner).
Department Of Temporal Investigations In Strange New Worlds Explained
Starfleet's Department of Temporal Investigations needed La'an for a very specific purpose - to save the life of Khan Noonien-SIngh (Ricardo Montalban). It's not made clear until the climax of the episode, but there are many hints of the plans to assassinate Khan scattered throughout the episode. For example, Kirk was unaware of the notorious tyrant and the subsequent Eugenics Wars. The hints of Khan's erasure from history tragically pay off in a tense scene where Romulan time agent Sera (Adelaide Kane) offers La'an the chance to save the lives of thousands and also live her life free of the stigma of being related to Khan Noonien-Singh.
Instead, La'an kills Sera and allows Khan to live, identifying that he's "just a child" and not yet the mass-murdering tyrant he'd become. The Department of Temporal Investigations officially revealed itself when Agent Ymaly (Allison WIlson-Forbes) appeared in a furious La'an's quarters to thank her for saving the life of her ancestor, the young Khan Noonien-Singh (Desmond Sivan). On Twitter, Jörg Hillebrand pointed out that the interface that Ymaly is seen to use is the same as the one used by 29th-century Starfleet officer, Lt. Ducane (Jay Karnes) in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Relativity". This implies that Agent Ymaly is from further in the future than her fellow agents in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
What Is The Department Of Temporal Investigations In Star Trek DS9?
In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", Agent Dulmur (Jack Blessing) and Agent Lucsly (James W. Jensen) arrived at Deep Space Nine to interrogate Sisko about his time travel mission on the USS Defiant. In the 24th century, the Department of Temporal Investigations agents were more like bureaucrats who audited Starfleet officer's usage of time travel. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the 29th-century version of the Department take a more hands-on role in maintaining the correct flow of time.
Hilariously, when Sisko revealed that he had taken the USS Defiant back in time to meet the crew of Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the two agents exchanged looks of horror. Apparently, Kirk had the Department's largest record of temporal violations, totaling 17. Clearly keen to avoid adding another violation to the list, the Department decided that Sisko had acted correctly in saving Kirk's life from a time-traveling Klingon assassin. However, La'an's watch and her knowledge of the alternate timeline in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds suggest that there could be another temporal violation added to Kirk's record later in season 2.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.