Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Christina Chong on La’an and Kirk’s Twin Flames (Exclusive)

The latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ second season sent La’an Noonien Singh, played by Christina Chong, back through time in a team-up with Paul Wesley’s Captain James T. Kirk. SPOILERS follow for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds La’an finding herself in an altered timeline was surprising enough. Finding herself falling for Captain Kirk’s signature charm might be even more surprising, especially since fans know that, years from now, La’an’s ancestor, Khan Noonien Singh, will become Kirk’s nemesis. The episode then concludes with a significant alteration to Star Trek’s timeline and La’an having to make a difficult decision about her lineage.

ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak to Chong about the episode, including how she pulled off the emotionally raw ending and how she feels about La’an’s choices. Here’s what she told us:

Jamie Lovett, ComicBook.com: What was your first reaction when you got the script for “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” and saw that you’d be doing a star-crossed lovers story with Captain Kirk that also involves time travel and a “Would you kill baby Hitler” style dilemma?

Christina Chong: They told me that my main episode was going to be episode three, “You’re going to be two-handed with Paul Wesley.” I hadn’t met Paul. I had one brief conversation with him in season one, so I didn’t really know how fun it would be. I just knew that it was a challenge, and it was going to be cool, something I’d never done, but I didn’t realize I was actually going to be in every single scene.

So when I got the script, I was like, “Oh, wow, okay, this is exciting, but also pressure.” And then seeing the ride of emotion she goes on and ending with the scene on the bed, and the first time I read it, I teared up, because that’s how good Dave Reed’s writing is, and the same when I did the Zoom readthrough, because we were still in COVID at that time, still doing the readthroughs on Zoom. I hadn’t done hardly any work on it at that point, and I couldn’t not. I just felt her so much, and I feel like at that time, in a way, I was going through similar things as La’an, so it just helped to bring that humanity to her.

I wanted to touch on that scene on the bed at the end because it’s striking and raw. What was it like prepping for that scene and shooting it?

So that scene was a long scene because she comes into the room, she sees the agent, and then the agent leaves, and then she’s on her own, and then she goes to the bed, and then that’s where it ends. But it meant there were a lot of setups. I knew that I wanted to go there, but as an actor, it’s hard to plan that. It either happens or it doesn’t. You can do preparation, but if it doesn’t work in the moment, it doesn’t work.

And so I’d asked Amanda [Row], the director if I could shoot it a certain way, but we miscommunicated with each other, and it ended up not being the way that I thought was going to be most conducive to getting that end result. We were filming it a few times, that last bit, and it wasn’t coming, it wasn’t coming, and I was like, “Oh.” Amanda must have said something or something happened and I was like, “Okay, one more time, let me go one more time.” Because I knew that was the performance I wanted to get.

And then it just happened, and Amanda caught it in the perfect way. Like I said before, it was very close to something I was going through at the time, so that’s why it felt real for me in the moment and felt, I guess, easier for me to do. So I personalized it, basically, personalized La’an’s journey and what she’s going through.

You mentioned that you were going through something similar to La’an. I don’t want to get into your personal life, but I know last time I talked to you, you talked about the single you put out, “Twin Flames,” and the story behind it. Are those both connected to the same something that you were going through?

Oh, yeah. And it just happened. It was funny, this single was about my twin flame, who is somebody that I’m not with anymore, but we were told we met in several lifetimes, we’ve been together in several lifetimes, and the last one was in the 1800s in Sicily somewhere, so it’s very similar, and that’s crazy that I wasn’t thinking about La’an and Kirk when I was writing that song, but it just happened.

That was the last song of the EP that I wrote, actually. I didn’t know which song was going to go out first, and this one just felt more me. I identified with that song the most out of all of the EP that we had, and so we thought, “Let’s put that out first.” But it went out with the first episode, and then we were like, “Hang on a minute, this is perfect,” because La’an and Kirk are essentially twin flames. They’ve met in another lifetime, and it didn’t work out, and that’s the whole thing about twin flames. Somebody once told me they meet every four lifetimes, but it’s often that they can’t be together because one’s a runner, one’s a chaser, and one has to do work, and if they end up doing enough work on themselves, then maybe they can be together, but it just was so perfect. I didn’t plan it like that, but it works.

How keen do you think La’an is on taking the time agent’s advice regarding keeping what transpired a secret?

I think that is super hard, and I think that’s what really hits her, the fact that she has just been on this incredible, insane journey of love and loss and adventure, and she can’t tell anyone. It makes her feel more alone than ever, and that’s her whole thing, right? La’an feels alone because she doesn’t have family. She finds it hard to connect. So it’s like her biggest insecurity and her biggest desire, the need to connect, is upfront and personal with her at that moment on the bed.

Toronto gets to be Toronto in this episode, which feels rare. It’s notorious for playing everything but Toronto, especially New York, so Kirk’s line where he thinks he is in New York is funny if you’re aware of that. How was it for you to be out in Toronto for a change?

Oh, that was so cool, to be at Dundas Square especially, and I think Dundas Square was the first thing we did, on or near the alley off of Dundas Square. I didn’t realize because I hadn’t seen Paul’s work before — I knew he was in a thing called Vampire Diaries, but I hadn’t seen it — and so suddenly we are there shooting in Dundas Square, and at the end of the scene, there’d be these crowds surrounding. I was like, “What is going on?” There are all these fans. After every scene, there’d be a swarm of fans waiting at the end for wherever Paul was, to the point where by the end of it, we had security guards following us around for the whole shoot whenever we were outside.

I didn’t realize that’s what they were at first. I was like, “Who are these lovely gentlemen following us around?” And then I was like, “Oh, and they’re taking me to the toilet and everything.” And I was like, “That’s very weird, but okay.” And then Paul’s like, “Oh yeah, there’s the security.” I was like, “Oh my God.” Because people were seeing him from all the condos in Toronto, they’re just everywhere, and they were seeing him from the 10th floor of a condo and coming down to say hello. I very quickly understood how famous Paul Wesley is.

La’an has to make a big decision regarding Khan in this episode. It’s a version of a classic sci-fi philosophy question, which is usually hypothetical but not for her. What were your feelings about La’an’s decision, how she made it, and why? How did it sit with you?

I mean, listen, I don’t judge the character. I go with what they give me because they’re the people who know best. So I go with what is on the page. But for me, it’s that thing of acceptance, and bad things happen, but there’s power in accepting it and looking for the good in it so that you can move forward and move on. That was the key moment where I think La’an was finally like, “Do you know what? That shame that I felt for being judged for all these years, yes, okay, I am related to him, but I’m not him, and I’m showing that I’m not him by not killing this little boy, and saving this little boy.” It’s acceptance. I think that’s the word. Acceptance.

How to watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La’An Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M’Benga. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 also brings back special guest star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and adds Carol Kane in the recurring role of Pelia.

CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment produced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers are co-showrunners. Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Henry Alonso Myers, Aaron Baiers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 debuts new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. The second season will stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with a premiere date still to be announced. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is also streaming on Paramount+. It is also available as home media on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4k UHD.