Star Trek’s Greatest Episode Set Up By Strange New Worlds Explained

Published Sep 13, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 8, Admiral Reeger assumes command of the USS Enterprise while Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is off-ship. Reeger names Kirk, the ranking commander present, as his First Officer. It soon becomes clear that Reeger is hellbent on revenge against an unknown cloaked enemy ship that massacred five million people, including Simon's family.

When Admiral Reeger invokes Starfleet General Order 24 to annihilate the five thousand inhabitants of Argus II to destroy his mysterious adversary, Kirk commits mutiny to stop him. James has Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) declare Reeger medically unfit to command. To pull this off, Kirk used a familiar compound first introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series' "The City on the Edge of Forever."

How Strange New Worlds Set Up Star Trek’s Greatest Episode

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "Orders of Magnitude" begins with James Kirk visiting the USS Enterprise for medical treatment. Dr. M'Benga injects Kirk with cordrazine, which he says is a "new" chemical stimulant. Kirk later spikes Admiral Reeger's coffee with cordrazine, which induces paranoia in large doses. Reeger becomes unhinged and threatens to kill Kirk, which gives M'Benga cause to relieve the Admiral of command.

At the start of Star Trek: The Original Series' "The City on the Edge of Forever," Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) stabilizes an injured Lt. Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) with cordrazine. Bones then accidentally injects himself with a full hypspray. The cordrazine drives McCoy insane, and the doctor leaps through the Guardian of Forever, altering history and requiring Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to time travel to 1930s New York and set the timeline on its proper course.

Lt. Commander Kirk used a smaller dose of cordrazine on Admiral Reeger than the amount that caused McCoy's mental breakdown, but it was still sufficient to drive Reeger mad. The Admiral became maniacal, admitting that he doesn't "give a damn" about killing innocent lives as long as he gets revenge for his wife and daughters. Reeger even pulled a phaser and threatened to "blow a hole" in Kirk's skull before Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) stunned and incapacitated the Admiral.

"Orders of Magnitude" takes place roughly 4 to 5 years before "The City on the Edge of Forever," when cordrazine was still a relatively new treatment, and it establishes the dangers of the drug that Dr. McCoy later experiences.

William Shatner’s Failed Strange New Worlds Guest Appearance Would Have Gone Back To Star Trek’s Greatest Episode

Had fortune favored Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, William Shatner would not only have guest-starred, but his episode would have harkened back to "The City on the Edge of Forever." Strange New Worlds executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers attempted to bring William Shatner back as Captain Kirk in every season. Despite meeting with Mr. Shatner, it sadly never came to be.

Goldsman and Myers' concept was to return to "The City on the Edge of Forever," but in an alternate reality where Captain Kirk stayed with Sister Edith Keeler (Joan Collins). Edith was always fated to die to reset Star Trek's Prime Timeline to its proper course, but Strange New Worlds would have posited a different outcome so that Kirk never lost his greatest love.

The Guardian of Forever reappeared in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, where, in the 32nd century, the sentient time portal was in hiding after the galaxy's Temporal Wars. The Guardian manifested a human identity named Carl (Paul Guilfoyle) and judged the Mirror Universe's former Emperor, Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), to have changed enough from her evil nature before sending her to the 24th century.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's "Orders of Magnitude" is now retconned as the first appearance of cordrazine in Star Trek's Prime Timeline, leading into "The City on the Edge of Forever" and future instances of cordrazine in the 24th century, when the compound is in wider use and less dangerous than it is in the 23rd century.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's new episodes premiere Thursdays on Paramount+