One of the best things about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is that it refuses to stay in one lane. Every season finds new ways to surprise fans, but Season 4 has taken that idea even further by bouncing between wildly different genres.
We’ve already seen time travel, La’an throwing punches at a dinosaur, and we still have a puppet episode on the way. Then came “The Griffin Incident,” an episode that leaned completely into horror, and I absolutely loved it.
The story followed Enterprise crew members investigating what was essentially a ghost ship. There were eerie hallucinations, poltergeist-style activity, unsettling body horror, and even the wonderfully ridiculous explanation of “negatively charged ions,” which might as well have been Star Trek’s version of saying, “Yep… ghosts.”
What really caught fans off guard, though, wasn’t just the horror. It was the ending. Instead of wrapping everything up with a neat scientific explanation like Star Trek traditionally does, the episode left the mystery hanging.
Whatever haunted the Griffin remained unexplained, and the closing moments suggested the nightmare wasn’t actually over.
That creative decision has sparked plenty of debate among fans, but director Axelle Carolyn, whose horror credits include American Horror Story, Mayfair Witches, and The Haunting of Bly Manor, believes leaving some questions unanswered was the right call.
Speaking with TrekMovie, Carolyn explained: “I understand the criticism about the answers not being given at the end, like the scientific explanation… That was also something we discussed, and I felt like I understand that one of the tenets of Star Trek is we can explore the universe, and science would always bring us home and help us understand what’s going on.
“But I don’t think that it’s saying that by the 23rd century, two humans and a half Vulcan will be able to solve every mystery within the space of 50 minutes, and I really like that there are things that are still mysterious, and they’re not saying, ‘Hey, this is a this is not going to have a scientific explanation.’
“Of course, it’s going to have a scientific explanation. They’re just saying, within the scope of our investigation right now, we can’t solve it. … I can see how it’s it breaks the mold of a lot of Star Trek episodes, but every once in a while, just thinking there are mysteries that are bigger than us and things that are not quite explained yet, I kind of find that good.”
I completely agree with that perspective. One of the reasons “The Griffin Incident” worked so well for me is because it committed to the unknown.
Science is still part of the equation, but the crew simply didn’t have enough time or information to solve the puzzle. That feels more believable than every strange phenomenon conveniently fitting into a single episode.
The installment also introduced one of my favorite new ideas in Star Trek with Division 12, a group of “Starfleet analysts who explore unexplained phenomena.” That’s such a cool concept.
It immediately brought The X-Files to mind, and honestly, I’d watch an entire Star Trek spinoff centered on that division investigating the galaxy’s strangest mysteries.
It’s a fantastic reminder that even in a future filled with advanced technology, faster-than-light travel, and centuries of scientific progress, there are still corners of the universe that refuse to fit neatly into Starfleet’s understanding.
Carolyn also makes a great point about how science fiction often operates. Most stories are designed so the mystery falls just within the heroes’ ability to solve it. They struggle, gather clues, crack the puzzle, and save the day before the credits roll. That’s satisfying, but it also becomes predictable.
Sometimes it’s much more interesting when the characters survive an encounter they simply don’t understand.
Star Trek has certainly explored mysteries before, but there’s usually enough information for the audience to piece together the pseudo-scientific explanation, even if the crew hasn’t figured it out yet.
That’s part of the fun. “The Griffin Incident” flipped that formula on its head. The episode embraced nearly every supernatural horror trope, even teasing a prophecy involving the death of Kirk’s son, while refusing to reveal what was really happening.
That’s probably why the fan reaction has been so divided. It doesn’t feel like a traditional Star Trek mystery. It feels like The X-Files wandered into the Final Frontier, and personally, I think that’s awesome.
I had a blast with this episode because it dared to be something completely different. Strange New Worlds keeps proving that the franchise can still surprise longtime fans by taking creative swings that nobody sees coming.
Whether every experiment lands for every viewer is another discussion entirely, but I’d much rather watch a series that’s willing to take chances than one that simply repeats familiar formulas.
If this is the direction Strange New Worlds continues exploring, I’m all in. And if Division 12 eventually gets its own series investigating the galaxy’s unexplained phenomena, Paramount has my attention already.
