Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 2, “The Griffin Incident”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds foreshadowed James T. Kirk’s greatest tragedy over 20 years before it happens in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Directed by Axelle Carolyn and written by Robbie Thompson, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 2, “The Griffin Incident” sends Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck), Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), and Lt. Commander James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) to the missing ghost ship, the USS Griffin.
James T. Kirk’s Starfleet career is replete with achievements and triumphs, but he has suffered great losses, as well. Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) truly faced death for the first time when he lost his beloved best friend, Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy), in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Kirk and his USS Enterprise crew risked their careers to bring Spock back in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
One could argue that Kirk’s greatest tragedy is his own death in Star Trek Generations. Reemerging in the 24th century thanks to the Nexus, Kirk teamed with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to save the Veridian star system. However, Kirk suffered a personal loss in Star Trek III that he would likely feel outweighed his own life, and James was given a hint of it two decades before it happened.
Strange New Worlds Foreshadowed Kirk’s Son’s Death In Star Trek III
The malignant entity that infected the USS Griffin in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 2 preyed on Kirk, Spock, and La’an’s fears. The Griffin took possession of La’an, who stabbed James in the midsection. When Kirk confessed that what keeps him going is his young son, David Marcus, La’an dropped a prophetic truth bomb:
“Your little boy is going to die just like you. At the end of a blade. Bleeding out in a dark corner of space.”
David Marcus (Merritt Butrick) indeed dies “at the end of a blade… bleeding out in a dark corner of space” in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Kirk’s son is fatally stabbed by Klingons at the order of Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) on the doomed Genesis Planet. Kirk, who was aboard the USS Enterprise, could do nothing to save his son.
Of course, Kirk has no idea that La’an’s prediction will come true over 20 years after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It isn’t akin to how Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) was shown his dark future of being disfigured and confined to a wheelchair, a destiny that he cannot avoid and came to accept.
At this point in Kirk’s life, he is torn between wanting to be a father to David, his dedication to his Starfleet career, and honoring the wishes of David’s mother, Carol Marcus, who doesn’t want their son taking after his father and gallivanting around the galaxy. It’s likely that Kirk dismissed La’an’s threat since she was under the thrall of whatever was haunting the USS Griffin.
Why David Marcus Is A Star Trek Tragedy
David Marcus embodies unfulfilled potential and symbolizes the life that James T. Kirk could have had and always secretly regretted giving up. Kirk had only just begun to connect with David in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but he never saw his son again after that movie. David died senselessly, a victim of Klingon malevolence, and the loss of his son was the deepest pain James carried.
Before David’s death, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock revealed that David was a risk-taker like his father, but his selfishness and poor judgment proved tragic. David secretly used protomatter in the Genesis Device matrix, which made it unstable. To David, the ends of the Genesis Device ‘working’ justified the means, but the young scientist’s hubris led to countless deaths, including his own.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will reportedly bring in David Marcus, who should be about 2 years old, and perhaps his mother, Dr. Carol Marcus, as well. Kirk told La’an that Carol had just been approved for her “dream project,” which must be Project Genesis, Carol’s bid to end galactic hunger and overpopulation by terraforming dead planets.
The context that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is adding to Kirk, David, and Carol will ripple forward to give nuance and depth to Star Trek II and III. Audiences know what will become of David, and how wounded Kirk will be by his son’s death, but in the early 2260s, Kirk is more concerned with not being there for David, just as he will fail to be decades later when Klingons murder his son.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s new episodes premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.
- 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