“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season 4 Episode 2 Recap/Review – “The Griffin Incident”

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.” 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 a...