What do you get when you take a Star Trek episode and add a generous amount of Ghost Ship, a dash of Event Horizon, and a sprinkle of The Ring? You get this week’s absolutely terrifying episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “The Griffin Incident.”

Prelude

We start by finding James Kirk (Paul Wesley) hitching a shuttlecraft ride back to a ship he doesn’t belong to with his friends La’an (Christina Chong) and Spock (Ethan Peck). We’re at the point in Kirk’s life where he and Carol Marcus have just become parents to bouncing baby boy David, and Kirk is struggling to find a work-life balance between his new family obligations and his Starfleet career.

Meanwhile, Spock and La’an aren’t in the best place romantically, either. After snapping at Spock for being a “back seat sensor reader,” she simply tells Spock that she’s… fine when he asks her if she’s OK. He can’t really blame her for being distracted. She fought a dinosaur with her bare hands and won; she’s probably the only person who can claim that particular honor.

Kirk breaks their awkward silence by asking La’an if she can find the source of the signal that diverted them from their return trip, which happens to be right behind a big asteroid. They clear the asteroid to find another Constitution-class starship, but not the one they were going to. To their surprise, they’ve found the U.S.S. Griffin (NCC-1067), which disappeared and was thought lost with all hands nine years ago. No one knew what really happened to the ship; Captain Taggert sent one last report to Starbase 1, and that’s the last anyone ever heard from them. There was plenty of speculation – everything from a Klingon attack/cover-up to a stellar flare hitting the ship as it went to warp was suggested. Regardless, she was a long way from where she was last thought to be, and no logical (or illogical) explanation as to how or why. Just a constant ping letting the three of them know it was there.

While preparing to leave the shuttle, Kirk reaches into his bag for an extra flashlight (ever the Boy Scout). In the process, a tiny wind-up robot falls out, which he explains is a gift for David. Kirk then admits he blew off spending time with Carol and David to attend the retreat and schmooze with admirals, which did not sit well with Carol. In fact, she’s at the point of ultimatum, forcing Kirk to choose between Starfleet and family obligations. La’an reassures Kirk that David will be thrilled to see it when he sees his father again, but Kirk still has some doubts. After Spock transmits their location and status to the Enterprise, the three officers stow their gear and “boldly go” aboard the U.S.S. Griffin to finally learn what really happened to the mysterious ship.

Act One

As soon as Spock, La’an, and Kirk set foot aboard the Griffin, things are off. Somehow, the ship has gravity. Aside from a nine-year layer of dust, nothing looks out of order, until Kirk hears something oddly sounding like a baby’s cry faintly in the distance. He asks if anyone else heard it, but no one did. As La’an points out, there are none of the typical sounds a starship would make. It’s dead quiet. Spock adds more good news – his tricorder doesn’t detect anything nasty that could kill them and even goes so far as to call the ship “perfectly safe.” We all know what those famous last words mean; the ship is not, in fact, safe at all.

Spock finds the source of the signal that brought them there, but it’s not native to the ship. When Spock tries to figure out what’s powering it, the ship suddenly comes to life. There’s conveniently one hour of life support left (just enough to last for the episode) for them to figure out what happened to the Griffin and her crew.

At first glance, everything seems normal. All of the shuttlecraft and escape pods are gone, but there’s no record of them launching. This leaves the trio to wonder if the Griffin crew used them to escape, or something else took them. As they explore the derelict vessel, Spock very logically suggests that this may be a mystery better solved by “Division 12,” the division of Starfleet that investigates “unexplained” events. Basically, the X-Files of Starfleet. Kirk and La’an both agree that’s a good idea when they come across something they didn’t expect – a survivor. Never mind that there were no life signs detected when they boarded. When La’an calls out to her, she replies by saying, “I’ve been waiting for you,” before disappearing around a corner. They try to follow, but just around the corner is a dead end, and she’s nowhere to be found. Spock’s scans don’t find a trace of anything except some negatively charged ions, which Kirk takes to mean as ghosts. Whatever it is, La’an decides that if they can’t figure out where she went, they should find where she came from.

The negatively charged ion trail leads them to a heavily barricaded door surrounded by phaser blasts. La’an notes that the blast marks aren’t just from Starfleet weapons. She and Spock identify Klingon and Vulcan weapons as well, which means they’re not the first people to find the Griffin. Personally, I take a heavily-barricaded door as a sign that whatever is on the other side of it needs to stay there, but La’an, Kirk, and Spock need answers. While La’an and Spock try to pry open the door, Kirk distinctly hears a baby crying, and he knows who it is, but he can’t imagine how he could be there. La’an snaps Kirk (and us) back to the door to let him know they got it open.

The door winds up leading to the Griffin‘s Sickbay. There are some empty body bags folded neatly at the end of a bio bed, but nothing else seems unusual about the room. Spock offers to check the Sickbay logs to see if they can shed any light on what happened, while Kirk and La’an decide to go to the Bridge to see what the computers up there can tell them. They agree to meet back in Sickbay in 20 minutes, and La’an takes a moment to show Spock some affection, but only when Kirk is out of the room. Nothing wrong there. To add the cherry to the top of the creepy sundae, one of the body bags slides off the bio bed onto the floor after Kirk and La’an leave the room, and it just happened to belong to a Vulcan lieutenant.

During their walk to the Bridge, La’an asks Kirk about Carol and David. After gushing over David like any proud new father would, he admits that he doesn’t know how his brother, Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), finds the time to spend with his family, and it’s weighing on him. Kirk makes it very clear that Carol is not happy and already has one foot out the door. La’an confides to Kirk that Starfleet is her family, so she doesn’t need to worry about finding a work-life balance like the Kirk brothers and, wait, is that a shadow moving in the background? Neither La’an nor Kirk see anything, and there’s nothing on scanners. Must have been their imagination.

Back in Sickbay, Spock is finally starting to find some answers. He’s managed to restore enough functions to the Sickbay computer and has begun asking it what happened to the crew, still under the assumption that the captain was responsible. Spock quickly learns that wasn’t the case; the crew’s fate was at the hands of the Griffin‘s Chief Security Officer, Lieutenant Rose Harper (Sorika Wolf). According to the computer, Harper murdered the entire crew – eight by stabbing, thirteen by strangulation, and 287 were beamed into open space while still alive. Spock immediately flips open his communicator to try to warn La’an and Kirk of what he’s learned, but the Sickbay doors suddenly close, and no one is answering on the communicator. Spock is trapped.

La’an and Kirk have reached the Bridge and are also learning about Lt. Harper and what happened to the crew via her personal logs. She began reporting erratic behavior among the crew; first, to the ship’s doctor, then to the captain himself when she thought the doctor was compromised. She soon suspected the captain of being affected, too, and believed he was blocking her reports to Starfleet. They say you’re only paranoid if everyone isn’t out to get you, but what if everyone is? Kirk and La’an were having a hard time figuring out which was which.

Things are getting weirder for Spock in Sickbay. The once empty body bags are now each on bio beds and somehow have bodies them. Not only that, but there’s blood. Lots of blood. While Spock is still trying to find a rational explanation, one of the bags behind him begins to move. The body sits up straight and begins to open the bag from inside. Spock turns to find the last person he expected to see.

His ex-fiancee, T’Pring (Gia Sandhu).

Things are getting weirder on the Bridge, too. Kirk is still hearing a crying baby, and it’s getting louder and harder for him to ignore. La’an is watching Harper’s personal logs and beginning to feel a connection with her fellow security officer. Like La’an, Harper was passionate about protecting her crew, and as her logs became more and more desperate, La’an began to understand what Harper was feeling to the point where it felt like Harper was speaking directly to her. She’s interrupted by Kirk, who looked out the viewscreen and saw what was left of their shuttle floating by. Spock’s message won’t reach the Enterprise anytime soon, and they already learned that the Griffin‘s shuttles and escape pods are gone.

They were trapped.

Act Two

Things did not end well between Spock and T’Pring, so he is desperately trying to wrap his Vulcan brain around the fact that she was there. On the other hand, T’Pring was behaving like she believed she was in a nightmare and, like Spock, was wondering why her ex was there. Spock explains that this is no nightmare; he was on the U.S.S. Griffin, but while she appeared to be there, that wasn’t possible, so she must be a hallucination. T’Pring doesn’t accept this and tries very hard to convince Spock that she’s real. In her efforts, she recounts a story of when she had a panic attack, something she only told Spock. It reminded Spock of the mantra she used to calm herself, “It (logic) will guide you home.” Spock remains unconvinced, since he already knew that story, so she leans into the hallucination, pointing out that he doesn’t need to believe she’s real for her to help him get the door open.

Kirk and La’an are still on the Bridge trying to figure out how to get off the Griffin. They decide to reroute whatever power they have left to Communications to try to send a distress call. Unfortunately, it means they need to split up even further. La’an goes to Engineering to reroute power while Kirk stays on the Bridge to fix the Communications console. That proves to be more challenging than Kirk thought it would be when he’s distracted by the sound of a wind-up toy much like the one he was bringing home for David walking across the Ready Room floor. It couldn’t be the same one, however, because he’d left it in his bag on the shuttle which was now floating in space. Kirk hears the baby crying again, only much louder and clearer this time. A tiny arm reaches up from the broken Communications console as if to wave for help before it falls back behind. As Kirk begins to desperately dig through the mess of wires and cables, he calls out to the only person that arm could belong to. David.

Kirk’s digging is interrupted when he hears the familiar tingling sound of a transporter beam. The cavalry arrives in the form of the Enterprise crew. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Lieutenant Sam Kirk, Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), and Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) shimmer into existence to Jim Kirk’s great relief.

As the elder Kirk tries to explain what’s been happening, he’s met with a lot of disbelief and concern from the Enterprise crew, who received Spock’s message and came running. Sam explains to Jim that he couldn’t have heard David; Carol and he had already left for Epsilon V. He’d missed them.

Because splitting up is always a great idea, the Enterprise landing party splits up. Uhura and Ortegas leave to find La’an, Pike and Una look for Spock, and the Kirk brothers stay together on the Bridge. Uhura suggests she might be able to beam everyone back to Enterprise one at a time, so they agree to meet in the Transporter Room.

This allows the Kirk brothers some alone time, so Jim begins to ask Sam how he manages to balance family life with Starfleet. Sam confesses that he really doesn’t; he just does the best he can to make sure his family knows he’s still there. We learn that they never heard from their father much when he was in Starfleet, and they still only hear from him on their birthday. We also learn that Jim is carrying some generational trauma forward when Sam mentions the “tchotchkes” their father would bring home for them. When Sam confesses that he still has a box full of them at home, he admits he’d rather have the memories. Now, Jim is beginning to understand why Carol was upset and sees that he needs to do better.

Once Jim is finally able to think straight again, the brothers start to head down to the Transporter Room to meet the others as planned. The Bridge turbolift doors won’t budge, so they make their way to the Ready Room, but those doors close on them, too. Trapped on the Bridge, Sam begins to panic, believing that all Kirks deserve to die alone in space. Jim tries to console his brother, but he just gets more and more anxious. Asteroids start to hit the viewscreen, causing cracks to form. As Jim tries to calm his brother, more asteroids hit the glass, and more cracks begin to form. Inevitably, a golf ball-sized hole forms, and the explosive decompression blows Sam against the hole forming a human seal. This stopped the decompression on the Bridge but not Sam’s body as he begins to turn inside-out. Just as Jim manages to open the turbolift doors, he sees his brother blown out into space and die a grotesque death.

La’an makes it to Engineering and tries to reroute power, but the console goes black on her, and more of Harper’s log begins to play.

She thinks she hears Spock come up behind her and starts explaining what they found on the Bridge, only it wasn’t Spock. It was Harper telling her that the ship wanted her. As if to prove its point, La’an was suddenly surrounded by the Griffin’s former crew, all staring blankly at her. La’an was beginning to lose herself and tries to get back to the Bridge. That’s not where the ship wants her to go; the turbolift keeps stopping at Deck 17, which leads to Harper’s quarters. La’an finds Harper’s log still playing on the computer, and the line between La’an and Harper is beginning to blur. La’an sees herself in Harper, then begins to see herself as Harper. The Griffin is clearly starting to affect her.

Spock is still in Sickbay with T’Pring, who is still trying to engage with him. She brings up the time when he surprised her with a trip that she didn’t appreciate enough at the time. Unexpectedly, she apologizes to Spock and admits that she was the reason their relationship ended. Spock begins to let his guard down as she takes the blame for not loving him the way he deserved. T’Pring takes advantage of Spock’s distraction and grabs his phaser, stunning him.

Waking up on a bio bed with your ex standing over you holding sharp objects has to be daunting for anyone, and that’s just what Spock woke up to. T’Pring blames Spock’s Vulcan side for getting in the way of their relationship, so she decides to bring out his human side. First, she cuts off the tips of his ears with a pair of trauma shears. Next, she tells Spock that his heart isn’t in the right place (according to Star Trek canon, it’s where his liver would be if he were a human) as she begins to cut into his abdomen. Fortunately for Spock, Pike and Una show up and are able to get him out of there. Unfortunately for Spock, they take him right back to Sickbay and strap him back down on the bio bed, where T’Pring is waiting to perform surgery. Spock tries to convince Una to fight whatever effect the ship has on her with her Illyrian blood, but she claims it’s her Illyrian blood that’s held her back all these years. Una grabs a scalpel and cuts a deep gash into her abdomen as if to excise the Illyrian from her blood as she passes out. Pike would rather be the “head chef” when he takes a kitchen knife, chops vegetables, then begins chopping his own fingers off before he, too, passes out.

Fortunately, Uhura and Ortegas find La’an in Harper’s quarters. La’an, relieved to see them, jumps up and immediately hugs Uhura, which lets Ortegas know just how bad things are. They run to the Transporter Room, where Uhura explains their plan to La’an, who is more than ready to get off the Griffin. Ortegas eagerly volunteers to go first, but when La’an engages the transporter, something is wrong. Ortegas begins screaming in pain. When Uhura takes over, she sees that La’an tried to beam Ortegas into herself, so she quickly stores her pattern in the buffer (this is becoming a common trick). La’an tries to explain, but Uhura is terrified of her and runs from the Transporter Room. La’an catches up with her and tries again to reassure Uhura, but Harper is there as well with the dagger from her quarters and slashes Uhura’s arm.

After seeing the terrified and confused look in Uhura’s eyes, La’an realizes that it wasn’t really Harper at all; she had taken the dagger from Harper’s quarters. She was the one who injured Uhura. As Uhura runs in terror, La’an closes her eyes, heaves a sigh, and gives herself to the Griffin.

She’s home.

Act Three

Kirk catches up with La’an in the corridor and tells her they need to find Spock and get off the ship immediately. La’an disagrees but doesn’t use her words; instead, she impales Kirk with Harper’s dagger. She explains to Kirk that she’s given herself over to the ship and suggests that he should, too. After all, the Griffin needs a captain, and who better than a Kirk? That’s not quite how Kirk wants to get to the Captain’s Chair, though, so he declines her offer. When La’an asks him why he’s fighting against the ship so hard, Kirk simply replies, “David.” Kirk knows he needs to put in the effort, and he wants the opportunity to be a better father to David than his father was to him and his brother. La’an doesn’t buy it, though, and she raises the dagger to strike one more blow. She’s stopped, however, when a transporter beam grabs both her and Kirk and returns them to the safety of the Enterprise, creating a very awkward moment in the Enterprise‘s Transporter Room.

The Enterprise crew never beamed aboard the Griffin. Ortegas wasn’t in the buffer. Uhura wasn’t injured. And Sam was alive. It was all a hallucination.

Spock, still restrained in Sickbay, finally realizes how to fight back against the Griffin. To Spock, T’Pring represents many things, but she primarily represents his logic, which he tries to reestablish by using her own mantra against her. Spock repeats the mantra, as if calling his logic back to him. Suddenly, as if a fog is lifted, Spock opens his eyes and sees the Griffin for what she truly is – a tomb holding a crew that went mad and massacred each other. He also realizes that he cut off his own ears when he sees the green-bloodied shears in his hand.

Back on the Enterprise, La’an, Spock, and Kirk are all recovering from the experience. Kirk’s wounds were severe, but he’ll be physically all right in a couple of days. La’an is dealing with the guilt and shame of being found trying to murder a fellow officer and what might have driven her to do that. Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) makes a house call to treat Spock’s ears. He understandably isn’t ready to go back into Sickbay yet, and Chapel explains how she completely understands. Chapel (also Spock’s ex) asks Spock why he believes he saw T’Pring aboard the Griffin. Spock replies that he was only interested in her logic, nothing else. There was no emotional attachment.

Once Kirk physically recovers, he asks Uhura to see if she can find a way for him to reach Carol and David. His experience on the Griffin shook him deeply. They all truly thought the Enterprise crew had come to rescue them. Kirk believed he’d seen his brother killed in one of the most horrible ways imaginable. He wanted to put in the effort like his brother did and try to make family life work. Not only did Uhura bring him a PADD already routed to contact Carol and David, she also brought a plate of cookies to comfort him in the same way he did for her once (see Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 206, “Lost in Translation”). Uhura steps out to give Kirk some privacy, but when Kirk makes his call, there’s no answer. Carol and David are alive and well, but they’re also gone.

Final Report

‘The Griffin Incident” is a perfect example of a Star Trek horror episode.

• I saw little callbacks to episodes like “Catspaw” and “Night Terrors.” Say what you will about “Catspaw,” it’s still creepy.
• I have one more item to add to my “Horrible Ways to Die” list: Getting turned inside-out while acting as a human pressure seal.
• Was Harper really losing her mind, or was she losing her mind by watching everyone around her she cared about lose their minds?
• The damned crew was wearing the wrong uniforms. If the Griffin disappeared nine years ago, that would put them in the Star Trek: Discovery-era uniforms.
• In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, we learn that Kirk had a son whom he never saw but never really knew why. All we knew what that Carol didn’t want Jim in David’s life because she didn’t want David to turn out like him – a Starfleet officer. David knew who Jim Kirk was (“… that overgrown Boy Scout you used to hang out with”), but he never knew Kirk was his father. “The Griffin Incident” paints Kirk not as an absentee father, but a father who learned his mistakes too late, and it cost him his family.
• There is no single formula for making a family work. You do your best and show up when you promise to. Everything else gets figured out as you go along.
• None of them could possibly be expected to be OK after an incident like that, but Spock, La’an, and Kirk all say they’re fine when they obviously aren’t. On the other hand, episodes like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon” show their crew admitting when they’re not OK. No one really believed them when they were fine. It’s OK not to be OK.
• Never, ever, ever split up when you’re in a group, especially when you’re exploring the creepy derelict you just found.

Watch season four of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds every Thursday on Paramount+ through September 24.