We're up to the 2nd episode of the 4th season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
The innocuous, mundane title of "The Griffin Incident" belies the intensity, the horror that awaits.
Seriously...
What the hell was that?
On a shuttle trip from a Starfleet conference, La'an, Spock and Jim Kirk happen across the USS Griffin. The Griffin is a bit of a legend in Starfleet, having vanished years prior under mysterious circumstances.
La'an, Spock and Kirk beam over to find out what's what.
Then shit gets weird.
The trio are haunted by various "ghosts" who torment and torture them based on their respective fears.
Kirk is haunted by the persistent crying of a baby which Kirk thinks is his infant son David. Jim is estranged from Carol Marcus and has been feeling bad for missing out on time with his son.
Spock is bedeviled by T'Pring who is threatening to cut out his pesky Vulcan bits. Like lobbing off the tips of his pointy ears.
And there's La'an who has uncovered logs made by Harper, the Griffin’s security chief. Harper was all stressed out that the ship's crew is descending into madness and hurting each other and there's fuck all she can do about. The Griffin's descent into madness feeds Harper's own madness.
And Harper's obsessions become La'an's. To the point La'an brutally stabs Kirk, miraculously not killing him.
After last week's episode where La'an punched a dinosaur, she's becoming concerned her augmented DNA is beginning to assert itself. She is a Noonien-Singh, a line known for it's world conquering tendencies.
Long story made short, the Enterprise is able to rescue the trio and while Kirk and Spock have made it past their respective encounters with their demons of fear and guilt, La'an remains haunted by Harper.
After last week's full on sci-fi geek out with space stuff AND time travel, "The Griffin Incident" is a full tilt journey into horror, a genre that Star Trek has attempted before with varying degrees of unsuccess. This episode of SNW rates, IMHO, as a success.
I for one was horrifed.
SIDE NOTE: the episode was written by Robbie Thompson who knows a thing or two about horror as a writer for Supernatural.
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Since this is the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, that means it's the 30th anniverary of the 30th anniversary.
30 years ago, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine celebrated the 30th anniversary with "Trial and Tribblelations" which saw the DS9 crew integrated into the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
Star Trek: Voyager joined the 30th birthday festivities with "Flashback" which interacted with events from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with Tuvok serving on the Excelsior with Captain Sulu.
Below is a short video that looks back on these two episodes.
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Next week's SNW episode is "Human Best Friend". After the moral quandries of episode 1 and the horrors of episode 2, I hope we're in for something a bit more fun.
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