Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Keeps Bringing Up Division 12, But What Is That?

The "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" episode "The Griffin Incident" might quickly earn the nickname of "The Event Horizon episode," as it mirrors the plot and the tone of Paul W.S. Anderson's 1997 sci-fi horror film pretty closely. In this case, the USS Enterprise has come upon the USS Griffin, a ghost ship that had disappeared without a trace nine years earlier. Because they like spooky places (I presume), Spock (Ethan Peck), La'an (Christina Chong), and Kirk (Paul Wesley) all beam over to investigate, while a plot contrivance prevents the Enterprise from sticking around. They are left alone on a ghost ship. What could possibly go wrong? 

Naturally, the ship is haunted. The three characters begin seeing/hallucinating phantoms throughout the ship, most of them culled from their own subconscious minds. Spock sees a ghostly version of his ex-girlfriend, T'Pring (Gia Sandhu), who will end up strapping him to a table and medically torturing him. Things just get more violent and spooky from there.

Unique about "The Griffin Incident" is there isn't much in the way of pseudoscientific explanation for the ghosts. There is a line about "negatively charged ions" (the actual scientific term is an "anion"), but the script never defines what the ghosts are. As far as we know, they're just ghosts. At the end of the episode, Captain Pike (Anson Mount) mentions that the Griffin will be towed back to the headquarters of Division 12 for investigation. He mentions that he's called upon Division 12 six times in his career.

Division 12? What's that? In the context of the episode, Division 12 is typically called in to investigate eerie space phenomena when no other scientific explanation is possible. Division 12, it seems, is an in-universe paranormal division in "Star Trek" — the space version of "The X-Files." 

In "The Griffin Incident," it's implied that Division 12 is very secretive, and Captain Pike notes that no one knows where exactly their headquarters is located. Of the six cases he referred to Division 12 in his tenure as a starship captain, only four came back with rational, scientific explanations. The others had none. It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to accept "unexplained phenomenon" in the "Star Trek" universe, given that there have been scientific explanations for the strangest things. This is a universe with Lovecraftian castle-dwelling super-creatures (see: "Catspaw"), Pah-wraiths (see: the worst episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), the Vezda, and even anaphasic ghost-like aliens that live in candles and feed on the orgasmic energy of Beverly Crusher's family (see: "Sub Rosa"). For a phenomenon to be "unexplained" in "Star Trek" would require a heck of a lot of spookiness. 

But for just such occasions, Division 12 is there. They're like Special Unit 2 from "Special Unit 2" or the cops from "Ghosted." They are the Mulder and the Scully of "Star Trek," but given that "Star Trek" is a very science-based series, it might be safer to assume that they're all Scullys. That is to say, they're probably all skeptics. 

Division 12 was first mentioned in the episode "Terrarium" from the show's third season. In that episode, Lieutenant Ortegas (Melissa Navia) says that the Enterprise is going to explore a portion of space where the gravity is extremely wonky. She says that stories have long been told about this region, leading to tall tales of ghost ships and the like. "This region is legendary for its tales of strange phenomena," she says. "The kind of thing Division 12 usually looks into. Ghost stories at sea." 

Naturally, one's imagination is inflamed by Ortega's speech in "Terrarium," and by the ending of "The Griffin Incident." Division 12 is a ghost-hunting division of Starfleet? And they have a secret headquarters somewhere? They have access to the best scanning equipment in the galaxy, and they still think ghosts might be real? It doesn't take a lot of postulating to envision a spin-off series called "Star Trek: Division 12" wherein viewers follow a secret cabal of scientists who delve into the parts of the galaxy that, even in the distant future, we cannot understand. But it would be a wrinkle in the very fabric of all "Star Trek" if it was ever stated explicitly that the supernatural exists. That would fly in the face of the show's secular, scientific worldview. 

There have been other secret divisions in "Star Trek" before, of course. In the episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" called "Much Ado About Boimler," Boimler (Jack Quaid) is half-beamed "out of phase," kind of turning him into a ghost. He is sent to Division 14, a special medical facility that helps with extreme and strange medical problems. And, of course, a lot of hay has been made of Section 31, which is Starfleet's murderous spy division, dedicated to hunting down super-villains and stopping doomsday weapons on the down-low. "Star Trek: Section 31" came out in 2025. (It's very bad.) 

Because of the weird state of "Star Trek" right now, though (no new shows are currently in production), it seems unlikely that we'll be getting any more spin-offs anytime soon. Still, even if the idea of the supernatural is antithetical to "Star Trek," I would watch the hell out of a series about Starfleet's paranormal investigators.