Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) says she has used drugs in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, but her startling admittance is also a clever callback to Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 released a first-look clip at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. The five-minute comedic romp shows Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the Starship Enterprise turned into Vulcans – except Commander Pelia.

Commander Pelia became Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2’s premiere. The gravelly-voiced Lanthanite – an extremely long-lived species – replaced the late Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak) in Engineering, and Pelia has become a welcome, if unusual, member of Pike’s crew. Commander Pelia was an instructor at Starfleet Academy but, before that, she lived in Vermont and collected numerous artifacts of historical significance. Pelia claims she has been alive long enough to meet Pythagoras in Ancient Greece, but her admission that she takes LSD in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 may be her most eyebrow-raising.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Commander Pelia Admits To Using LSD

Pelia tries to trip acid

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s first-look clip, which is part of an upcoming episode directed by Jordan Canning, Commander Pelia is the only one among Captain Pike, Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) who is excited at the prospect of turning into a Vulcan. But when Pelia doesn’t sprout pointy ears, Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) wonders if it’s because she’s a Lanthanite. The disappointed Pelia then volunteers:

Honestly, I had the same problem with LSD in the 1960s and the 1990s and last July.

A Star Trek character openly admitting she has tried narcotics is a shocker. One might even suggest it’s conduct unbecoming of a Starfleet Officer. However, what Commander Pelia is really saying is that while she has dabbled with LSD on three occasions, her Lanthanite physiology prevented her from getting high, just as she didn’t transform into a Vulcan, to her chagrin. And while Pelia admits she last tried LSD “last July,” who is to say she wasn’t on shore leave rather than on duty aboard the Starship Enterprise? Pelia was within earshot of Dr. M’Benga, Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), and Captain Pike, but no one seemed bothered by her LSD remark.

LSD Is A Kirk Callback From Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Spock took a little too much “LDS”

LSD was famously mentioned in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and also for comedic effect. The Leonard Nimoy-directed Star Trek IV saw Admiral James T. Kirk and his crew time-travel to 1986 San Francisco to bring two humpback whales back to the future. Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) befriend whale biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks), who quickly grows suspicious of the two weirdos from outer space. To explain Spock to Gillian, Admiral Kirk concocts a cover story:

“Oh, him? He’s harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS.”

Admiral Kirk’s “LDS” line is one of the best zingers in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Of course, the joke was that Kirk bungled the letter sequence of “LSD”, and Gillian, who is no fool, caught it right away. Star Trek has a tradition of finding LSD funny and weaving it into spoken dialogue once in a while. Commander Pelia was living on Earth in 1986, but it’s too bad she didn’t encounter Admiral Kirk and Spock before Pelia joined the Starship Enterprise and met their younger versions in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.