Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 2 Review: The Logic of Terror

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 writers’ room clearly had Sam Neill (#RIP) on their minds with their first two scripts

On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 1, they had Una and the away team take on dinosaurs, à la Jurassic Park.

And what better chaser to that Sam Neill classic than Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 2, their take on his 1997 sci-fi horror cult hit, Event Horizon?

And it’s much more than an “inspired by” narrative.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 2 is a full-out homage to Event Horizon, from encountering a ship deemed lost nine years earlier with a mysteriously missing crew to the shockingly horrific imagery.

But the core of Event Horizon’s horror is the ship’s ability to read the fears of those aboard and manifest them in a way that elicits the most emotional and dramatic reaction.

The Griffin differs in its articulated mission to “free” the individuals it targets and tortures. One suspects that whatever entity has taken control of the Griffin feeds off the energy generated by its victims’ emotions.

In Event Horizon, the ship had traveled through a Hell-like dimension, was changed by it, and became a conduit for the evil it had encountered. Its mission became to return there with the souls it harvested from the Lewis & Clark.

Everyone Faces Their Fears on Star Trek: Strange New Worldsss

As a trio, La’an, Spock, and Jim Kirk are a virtual smorgasbord of internal conflict just waiting for some malignant intelligence to exploit.

La’an’s concerns with her seemingly activated Augmented trait were introduced in the season premiere.

Spock’s been struggling with his identity all his life. It’s basically been his entire arc since Star Trek: Discovery Season 2.

Jim Kirk’s fatherhood situation may have slipped our minds, considering how many versions we’ve had to juggle.

There have been alternate timeline Kirks on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 10, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3.

And let’s not forget his William Shatner-esque turn on the proto-holodeck narrative on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode 4.

So yeah, he’s got a kid, David, and he’s trying to be a good dad. (Yes, this changes the canonical record where James T. Kirk had no contact with David until the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Deal with it.)

He shares his concerns with La’an as they explore the Griffin as a refresher for us before the Griffin takes that paternal love and twists it into panic and paranoia.

On Event Horizon, it was the medical technician, Peters, who had her parenthood weaponized.

While we never physically see Kirk’s David on the Griffin, Peters hallucinates her son on the Event Horizon and, in trying to save him, she falls to her death.

Kirk’s sense of David is more insidious, beginning as the faint sound of a crying child.

When he tries to rig up a way to broadcast a call for help, the ship projects an image of the baby inside the communication array, causing him to tear it apart.

Jim sees his brother, Sam, as a role model of fatherhood, so, of course, the Griffin brings him over with the rescue team, because it makes total sense to send a xenobiologist to a ghost ship.

But the Griffin’s ability to accurately judge the absolute pinnacle of grief it can cause is breathtaking.

Yes, it would’ve been devastating for Jim to experience losing his son, but David’s a baby whom he’s only seen a handful of times.

On the other hand, to lose his big brother, after bonding over their shared childhood memories and fatherhood, in a gruesome and hideously painful manner? That’s Trauma with a capital T.

(One should note that Griffin Sam’s grisly death is a direct callback to one of the Event Horizon casualties.)

La’an’s tendency to lean into her violent primal instinct to dominate has been hinted at throughout her development.

Her rigid control and discipline has been, from the beginning, a way to deny the nature she has always feared.

When her Vulcan transformation on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode 8 resulted in a far more Romulan persona than expected, the message was clear.

She’s unique among this crew.

Furthermore, her struggle to let go of that warlike nature spoke to how right that felt to some part of her psyche.

Her potential for savagery is limited only by her own vigilance and the connections she made to her Starfleet family.

Onboard the Griffin, she sees her Security Chief Officer self reflected in Rose Harper, the Griffin’s SCO, who failed to protect her crew and now haunts the ship. Literally.

The Griffin’s first attempt to break her fails when she refuses to hurt Uhura after the cadet accuses her of trying to kill Ortegas with the transporter.

But the Griffin ultimately succeeds in freeing La’an, and she briefly embraces the bloody and brutal impulses that drive her to not only attack Jim Kirk physically but with deliberately cruel words, promising that David will die a lonely and violent death.

To Be Fair, T’Pring Has Always Been Terrifying

Spock’s lone experience in the medbay of the Griffin is a truly alarming level of horror.

Using another Event Horizon image, T’Pring emerges from a body bag and begins a spiraling struggle of wit and wiles.

A personification of his self-doubt and self-loathing, she stuns, then restrains him, and proceeds to cut away his Vulcan self (ie., ear tips), all the while expressing the many conflicting feelings he has about his identity.

The really scary thing is that, until he purges her through a meditative logic exercise, the possibility that it was the real T’Pring was always non-zero.

Horror, Done Well

I am no fan of body horror. In fact, I’m probably one of the most squeamish sci-fi fans you’ll ever meet.

So Griffin Pike chopping his fingers off? Griffin Una bleeding herself out? Never need to see that again. Seriously. And Griffin Sam being disemboweled by the vacuum of space via his anus? OMG. No.

That all being said, and having watched Event Horizon as reference homework, I recognize that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds not only did right by the genre, they might’ve improved on the source material. Yeah, I said it.

The astronomical term “event horizon” is a point of no return, the outer boundary of a black hole where nothing, not even light, can escape.

And the failure of the movie Event Horizon is that two Lewis & Clark crew members do escape.

Meanwhile, the mythological griffin symbolizes strength, courage, and guardianship. La’an, Spock, and Jim Kirk are perfect examples of those qualities.

Yes, the USS Griffin is a ship of ghosts and a scientific anomaly, but it is also the crucible in which the trio was tested.

As Pike points out to La’an — when she understandably wonders why her nearly killing Jim Kirk didn’t make it into his report — it’s not about what she’s been through or what she did, it’s the fact she survived.

Of course, if he’d included her attack on Jim, he would’ve had to include Spock’s self-mutilation and Kirk’s destruction of the coms array. Pike’s way is much simpler for everybody.

One might argue sending the Griffin off with Division 12 is also a simple shorthand for, “We didn’t have a good explanation, so it goes in Starfleet’s X-Files until we do.” One would be right.

So will La’an, Spock, and Jim Kirk’s experiences on the Griffin matter in the long run? What’s the fallout from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 2?

Will Jim ever be able to share his concerns about David with La’an again with her words ringing in his ears?

Can La’an forget the feeling of stabbing another human being out of a desire to kill?

What will Spock’s next meeting with T’Pring be like? Will he ever step into the medbay again?

Over to you, Fanatics! Hit our comments with your thoughts on this foray into horror.

Did it give you nightmares?

Which scene made you cover your eyes?

Don’t forget to rate the episode too!

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