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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 has set up the perfect spin-off - but what exactly is Division 12?

It's not the first time Division 12 has been mentioned...

Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and Dan Jeannotte as Sam Kirk in Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 2

Paramount+

Published: Thursday, 30 July 2026 at 2:00 pm

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Star Trek loves to get a bit freaky these days and that's especially true in Strange New Worlds.

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Throughout this series alone, the crew of the starship Enterprise have faced everything from interdimensional tricksters to forced musical theatrics. And as recent trailers already teased, a muppets-style transformation is soon on the cards as well.

Things can get weirder though still, as hinted at in the latest instalment of Strange New Worlds season 4.

Titled "The Griffin Incident," this episode amps up the horror when crew members find themselves on a haunted ship full of very real terrors. Spock (Ethan Peck) even gets his signature ears cut off at one point, so you know they're not playing with this one.

But in an episode that revolves around life after death, there's also a scene that hints at the future for Star Trek as a whole, beyond the end of Strange New Worlds.

Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3

Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Marni GrossmanParamount+

As the Griffin ship is towed away, crew members subjected to its horrors reflect on their experience, discussing how Division 12 will deal with the ghosts from now on.

Division 12? This is the second time that such an agency within the Federation has been name-dropped following mention of it last season when Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) was stranded in the episode titled 'Terrarium'.

Essentially, this division is responsible for dealing with the stranger elements of interplanetary travel that regular crews aren't equipped to handle. So they're akin to something like The X-Files, but in a Star Trek setting.

There's no outright explanation of how this works just yet, but that's actually for the best, because people don't usually go out of their way to explain concepts already familiar to other crewmates. And crucially, this leaves the door open for going deeper into what Division 12 might be in future episodes or perhaps even a spinoff.

The X-Files in space… kind of sounds like a perfect idea for a new Star Trek show, right?

"Weird is part of the job," after all, as Captain Janeway once put it.

With Strange New Worlds ending after its fifth season and Starfleet Academy ending after its second, the future of Star Trek currently sits in limbo on the small screen. The sets for these two shows are even being torn down, which suggests that Paramount may be moving away from this franchise, or at least putting it on hold for now.

That would be a shame, especially when new ideas like Division 12 are crying out for a spinoff of their own. Commissioning this would also mean that fan faves from the likes of Strange New Worlds could return too in cameo roles, collaborating with Division 12 officers to deal with whatever freaky thing comes their way next.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is available to stream on Paramount+. Sign up to your seven-day Paramount+ free trial.

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Authors

David OpieFreelance Writer

David Opie is a freelance entertainment journalist who writes about TV and film across a range of sites including Radio Times, Indiewire, Empire, Yahoo, Paste, and more. He's spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and strives to champion LGBTQ+ storytelling as much as possible. Other passions include comics, animation, and horror, which is why David longs to see a Buffy-themed Rusical on RuPaul's Drag Race. He previously worked at Digital Spy as a Deputy TV Editor and has a degree in Psychology.

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