Star Trek Director Defends Strange New Worlds’ Controversial X-Files Mystery Episode

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 truly is boldly going where even the USS Enterprise has never gone before, exploring a stunning number of different genres. Last week’s episode saw Star Trek go full horror, with three members of the crew discovering a literal ghost ship. We had poltergeists, hallucinations, body horror, and “negatively charged ions” (which apparently is technobabble for ghosts). But, controversially, Star Trek‘s X-Files story episode chose not to explain the mystery at all.

Speaking to TrekMovie, director Axelle Carolyn – noted for working on horror shows such as American Horror Story, Mayfair Witches, and The Haunting of Bly Manor – defended that decision.

“I understand the criticism about the answers not being given at the end, like the scientific explanation… That was also something we discussed, and I felt like I understand that one of the tenets of Star Trek is we can explore the universe, and science would always bring us home and help us understand what’s going on. But I don’t think that it’s saying that by the 23rd century, two humans and a half Vulcan will be able to solve every mystery within the space of 50 minutes, and I really like that there are things that are still mysterious, and they’re not saying, ‘Hey, this is a this is not going to have a scientific explanation.’ Of course, it’s going to have a scientific explanation. They’re just saying, within the scope of our investigation right now, we can’t solve it. … I can see how it’s it breaks the mold of a lot of Star Trek episodes, but every once in a while, just thinking there are mysteries that are bigger than us and things that are not quite explained yet, I kind of find that good.”

Star Trek Should Never Pretend to Have All the Answers

I admit, I found “The Griffin Incident” to be something of a surprising episode. Strange New Worlds Season 4 is experimenting with far more genres than I’d expected; the season’s episode titles promised time travel plots galore, La’an has already punched a dinosaur, and we know there’s going to be a puppet episode. What I hadn’t expected, though, was full horror – complete with a sinister ending where the scientific rationale was never presented, and we had an ominous hint the haunting of the Griffin was still continuing. “The Griffin Incident” was truly chilling, but it definitely felt like a shocking swing for Star Trek.

That said, Carolyn is right. Star Trek has always believed science holds the answers, but why should those answers always manifest in the space of a 50-minute episode? In truth, it’s one of the conventions of science-fiction; the crisis will always just be within the bounds of the protagonists’ scientific knowledge, so they struggle to solve the mystery but figure it out in the end. But the fun comes in mixing things up, in confronting the heroes with something that is truly beyond them, and having them survive it all the same. Star Trek has actually taken that approach on occasion, but there was one crucial difference here.

Usually, the viewers have an idea what’s going on even when the heroes don’t. Star Trek episodes traditionally drop enough clues for us to figure out the pseudo-scientific explanation for the latest shocking twist, giving the plots a sense of dramatic irony that’s quite delightful to see. In contrast, this episode didn’t clue is in at all. The episode leaned into every supernatural convention going, right down to a prophecy of the death of Kirk’s son. I think that’s why the fandom has given something of a divided reaction to “The Griffin Incident,” simply because it felt like a very different kind of story.

I admit, I’m not entirely sure what to make of “The Griffin Incident.” While I watch a little horror, I’m more a fan of science-fiction; I suspect I have that in common with most of Strange New Worlds‘ audience. And yet, for all that’s the case, I’m delighted to see Strange New Worlds dare to live up to the franchise’s promise; this is a show that truly “boldly goes,” experimenting with approaches we never expected to see in Star Trek. The whole creative team is to be commended.