Entertainment
‘Strange New Worlds’ Just Found the Perfect Way to Reinvent ‘Star Trek’ Sci-Fi
Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 2.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been a standout in the Star Trek franchise thanks to its ability to play with different genres. Over the course of four seasons, there have been episodes that took place within a fantasy realm, a murder mystery, and even a full-blown musical. Season 4 takes this up a notch with its latest episode, “The Griffin Incident,” where members of the U.S.S. Enterprise stumble across a Starfleet vessel that mysteriously disappeared years ago. They soon learn that the ship isn’t as abandoned as they thought, and suffer a series of psychological torments before being rescued. Strange New Worlds is no stranger to horror, but “The Griffin Incident” is on a whole other level.
It’s the final moments of the episode that prove to be the most interesting. After the Enterprise rescues Kirk (Paul Wesley), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and La’an (Christina Chong) from the Griffin‘s clutches, a section of Starfleet known as “Division 12” is contacted to study the haunted ship. According to Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Division 12 is a group of “Starfleet analysts who explore unexplained phenomena,” and this isn’t the first time he’s been in touch with them. The idea of a Starfleet division that explores the mysteries of the universe is ripe for a spinoff series and the best way to push the Star Trek franchise forward.
A Division 12 Series Could Explore Hidden Corners of the ‘Star Trek’ Universe
If Division 12 got its own series, it’s a chance for Star Trek to further explore some of its biggest mysteries. There are still a lot of mysterious figures within the franchise, most notably the reality-bending Q (John de Lancie) and the other members of the Q Continuum, or the Guardian of Forever, who was first introduced in the iconic Star Trek: The Original Series episode “City on the Edge of Forever.” Revisiting those characters could touch on different aspects of beloved Star Trek series, and give Trek fans a deeper appreciation of the overall franchise. There’s also the matter of the other times that Division 12 has crossed paths with Pike, which begs the question: what did he find too strange for the Enterprise to explore?
Division 12’s mission to explore the unexplained also brings another iconic science fiction series to mind, namely The X-Files. That series featured FBI agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) delving into cases that featured paranormal phenomena, and even spawned a franchise of its own. One episode of The X-Files revealed that there was a government division known as the “Majestic 12,” which operated out of Area 51 after the infamous Roswell Incident. It’s not a stretch to imagine that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brought in Division 12 as a homage to that same group.
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Continues A Tradition Set By Other ‘Star Trek’ Spinoffs
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds isn’t the first Star Trek series to reveal a hidden part of Starfleet. That’s been a tradition stretching back to other Trek spinoffs, most notably Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and its revelation of the secret intelligence organization known as Section 31. Star Trek: Enterprise introduced the concept of the “Temporal Cold War,” and Starfleet agents who fought to preserve the timeline. Deep Space Nine writer Ira Steven Behr, who penned the episode that introduced Section 31, said he was inspired by a line Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) says in the series about “being a saint in paradise” and wanted to further explore what that meant:
“Why is Earth a paradise in the twenty-fourth century? Well, maybe it’s because there’s someone watching over it and doing the nasty stuff that no one wants to think about.”
That same approach should be applied to a potential Division 12 series, if it ever comes to fruition. Though next year will mark the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “The Griffin Incident” just introduced a unique way to continue the franchise on television.
- Release Date
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2022 – 2027-00-00
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman
- Directors
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Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman
- Writers
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Onitra Johnson
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