Star Trek EPs Officially Confirm Kirk’s Enterprise Timeline Change In Strange New Worlds Season 4 Finale

Published Sep 24, 2026, 8:07 PM EDT John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises. Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4's Finale - "Tomorrow's Enterprise" Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' executive producers confirm that the timeline of the USS Enterprise's future seen in season 4's finale was changed from the original plan. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's finale, "Tomorrow's Enterprise," is partially set on the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley). Kirk's Enterprise is set one year in the future, with Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) switching places with her one-year-younger self from Captain Christopher Pike's (Anson Mount) Starship Enterprise. However, this wasn't the original timeframe of the finale during filming. Image via Paramount+ Speaking to TV Guide about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's finale, executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers confirm changes made to "Tomorrow's Enterprise" in post-production when asked about their favorite Easter eggs. Read Akiva and Henry's quotes below: Akiva Goldsman: “So the reason I'm not going to answer that question is I will mix it up with what we did for episode 6 in next year! Because, as we've all said, it's Kirk's first day on the Enterprise, so we made a series of modifications and planned a series of modifications for the finale that you just watched, because we thought that was going to be the final episode; then during the break, we discovered we had six more. We reversed modifications, pulled out a bunch of things that were definitive because they were definitive in a rushed way in order to solve what seemed to be an emergent problem, and then put them back again in Episode 6 next year. So it's a long way of saying I'm too old to remember!” Henry Alonso Myers: “At the time when we broke the episode, we thought this was going to be the end of the show and that we need to find a way that would be both open and optimistic and satisfying and then suggested that there's a future that they're heading into. But as we were working on the script, that was right around when we found out that we were going to get a season 5 and a chance to end it. So there were things that we had kind of put in the script initially that we altered because we wanted to save something for what we knew to be the ending of the show.” Celia Rose Gooding confirmed to ScreenRant that the Kirk's Enterprise scenes in "Tomorrow's Enterprise" were originally set 3 years in the future. This lines up with the canonical Star Trek timeline: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 took place in 2262, and Kirk becomes Captain of the Enterprise in 2265. The final version of the finale changed it to one year in the future, meaning Kirk's Enterprise in "Tomorrow's Enterprise" is in an alternate timeline where Kirk became Captain early. As Goldsman and Myers explained, "Tomorrow's Enterprise" was written as a potential series finale since Paramount+ wanted to cancel Star Trek: Strange New Worlds after season 4. When the series got a 6-episode season 5 renewal, "Tomorrow's Enterprise" was changed to be a possible future that still offers a glimpse of what life on Captain Kirk's Enterprise would be like. The 'real story' of how Kirk becomes Captain will be the focus of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5. Intriguingly, Goldsman hints at "reversed modifications" where they "pulled out a bunch of things that were definitive because they were definitive in a rushed way." Akiva says what was removed from "Tomorrow's Enterprise" will be seen in "episode 6 next year," which is the series finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that will depict Captain Kirk's first day in command of the USS Enterprise. Image via Paramount+ One of the "definitive" changes that will be seen in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' series finale is Thomas Jane joining as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Kai Murakami playing Lt. Hikaru Sulu. In "Tomorrow's Enterprise," Bones was mentioned in dialogue by future Uhura and Scotty (Martin Quinn), who said that he was going to officially take over as Chief Medical Officer. It's fascinating that "Tomorrow's Enterprise" was intended to show what Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was leading to. Looking at season 4's finale now, it could also be seen as a proof of concept and backdoor pilot for Star Trek: Year One, Goldsman and Myers' proposed Captain Kirk spinoff. Although, Akiva laments that Year One probably won't happen. Since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has a fifth and final season premiering on Paramount+ in 2027 (that will not have gimmick episodes, Goldsman says), that will be the real story of how Kirk becomes Captain of the Enterprise, and lead into the beginning of Star Trek: The Original Series. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming on Paramount+ Release Date 2022 - 2027-00-00 Network Paramount+ Showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman Directors Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman Writers Onitra Johnson Franchise(s) Star Trek Creator(s) Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet