- Directed by Axelle Carolyn
- Written by Robbie Thompson
- July 30, 2026
- Paramount+
- Based on Star Trek Created by Gene Roddenberry as envisioned by Alex Kurtzman
Episode Cast
- Captain Christopher Pike-Anson Mount
- Lt. Spock-Ethan Peck
- Nurse Christine Chapel-Jess Bush
- Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh-Christina Chong
- Ensign Nyota Uhura-Celia Rose Gooding
- Lt. Erica Ortegas-Melissa Navia
- Dr. Joseph M’Benga-Babs Olusanmokun
- Lt. Montgomery Scott-Martin Quinn
- Commander Una Chin-Riley-Rebecca Romijn
- Lt. George Samuel ‘Sam’ Kirk-Dan Jeannotte
- T’Pring-Gia Sandhu
- Chief Security Officer Rose Harper-Sorika Wolf
- USS Griffin Computer (voice)-Cathy Cavadini
- James T. Kirk-Paul Wesley
Spock, La’An and Kirk board a long missing Federation ship and find themselves in a strange fight for survival.
With The Griffin Incident, SNW engages in one of the most overtly horror episodes of Star Trek to date. It just was not necessarily creepy Star Trek. I felt like it was continually acknowledging horror movies like (or mostly) Event Horizon or any number of others. Often these seasoned and presumably well-trained characters engaged in the worst possible decisions (ala ‘80s horror) like splitting up once they realized there’s something weird going on. It’s contrivance and not intelligence.
Another is travelling into a tight debris field and leaving their shuttle free floating rather than getting into the Griffin’s docking bay or taking advantage of the limited protection offered by connecting to an airlock. I’m just thinking of things that have occurred in other Trek episodes where they found mysterious or abandoned vessels that they investigated. Rather than download the ship’s logs or other data they stay there are read and watch on a ship with an hour or so of power left. Does whatever is on the Griffin make them dumb?
There’s an episode of TOS called Catspaw. It was the closest thing they ever did to a Halloween episode though not the original series’ most unsettling episode. The point was in the episode aliens took what was in the psyche of the crew associated with the frightening and the supernatural and tried to imitate it. If that were the point of this episode I might buy the plot a little better than I did.
With over one hundred member planets and many more colonies and a sizable fleet, somehow James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) finds himself once again hangin’ with a few members of the Enterprise crew before he ever canonically takes command. Talk about a small galaxy! Wesley-as-Kirk looks confused most of the time like he (Kirk) is not sure how he got there or what he is supposed to do.
But there is greater sin going on here. Kirk is portrayed as a dad trying to stay connected to his young son despite having a job that takes him all over the quadrant. He is almost desperate to not be like his father who was not around much. This seems to directly contradict Wrath of Khan which portrayed Kirk as an absentee father largely at the behest of his ex Carol Marcus because she wanted him to stay away. He was so not around that David not only had the last name of ‘Marcus’ but didn’t recognize Kirk at all when they met. Not the first time SNW contradicted lore because they only did lazy Google searches. Poor dialogue aimed at maybe mitigating issues makes it so much worse.
When the script is not focusing on ongoing storylines but rather the story of this episode, it’s okay. The atmosphere is good and helped to make the derivative moments entertaining. Those moments of ongoing storyline tell us like a wiffle bat to the head who the big bad will be and what will cause it with an overt hint of the emotional meat. Why am I playing coy? It all probably involves La’An (Christina Chong).
Often La’An talks about how Starfleet or the Enterprise crew is her family and all I could think of was Dominic Toretto in the FF movies. My greatest hope would be that somebody somehow edits in some FF footage or uses one of those AI programs to add Dom into those moments. The thing is found family should not need to be stated repeatedly in a script. Once maybe for an emotional moment but in a better written series the viewer knows.
I found this increasing predictable making The Griffin Incident one of the most telegraphed episodes of television I have ever watched. Like when Pike (Anson Mount), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Ortegas (Melissa Navia), Una (Rebecca Romijn), and Sam (Dan Jeannotte) showed up it was clear that they were one more in a line of hallucinations. That callback to TMP with Ortegas was another strike in a lack of creativity for this story.
The force on the ship (or the ship) is making each experience something they fear or are having trouble with. Kirk is worried about being an absentee parent like his father. Spock is conflicted over being mixed species. La’An is afraid of her Augment DNA and becoming a conqueror.
On the plus side the episode does not really explain what is happening. The away team is saved and treated for their assorted injuries and the effects of the experience but what is going on with the ship and what happened to its crew never gets an answer. Instead it is handed off to the secretive Department 12 which is probably connected to the season threat.
Spock (Ethan Peck) leans on his logic to save himself but it is not a moment that aids the others. His ordered approach never benefits his compatriots which feels like a waste. The point of the episode becomes we are all afraid of something and not logic/a level head can save the day. It is a small idea in a franchise once about big ideas.
There is plenty of blood with the only gore being the tips of Spock’s ears getting snipped. Rather trite horror. The hallucinations are mostly noises or the Griffin crew looking like the reanimated dead. There is an art to keeping the lights down in horror to up the scares. Director Axelle Carolyn failed that art class. This gets hard to watch with so little light. Zack Snyder would say “Turn the lights up!”
I can only give The Griffin Incident an okay and not great or frightening. I wasn’t scared because of the predictability and the moments where they decided to deviate into the personal character storylines rather than larger ideas made this an exercise over entertainment.
Warren Watched A Movie 