Space, the final frontier… is freakin’ scary sometimes! Star Trek is well-known as the bright and shining vision of what humanity’s future could be. Travelling to the stars and building an inclusive society that doesn’t need money or hate. Yours Truly admits to being a super fan and having seen every episode of every series and every movie many, many times.
But… there is a dark side. Not of
the force (oops, wrong franchise), but of the soul. Trek doesn’t just
flirt with horror, it downright embraces it. Every series has episodes that evoke
any and all genres of the macabre, from hauntings to monsters to slashers. On
this list, I’ve collected ten of the best offerings, two each from the five
legacy shows – The Original Series to Enterprise – showcasing all
the greatest thrills and chills from my favorite franchise. Honestly, rating them
against each other was pretty damned hard, because there are so many that are
soooo good. Anyway, without further ado…
10
Horror-Themed Star Trek Episodes!
10)
“The Thaw” – Voyager, Season 2: Episode 23
Let’s dive right into the one with
the clown. God, I hate clowns. Janeway and the crew happen across a group of
colonists in stasis deep under the surface of an asteroid. Turns out they’ve done
it to themselves in order to survive a radiation disaster. In a bid to make things
less boring, they created a neural-link virtual reality they could all share while
in cryo-sleep. The problem is… a sadistic clown program has made himself their captor
and he literally scares them to death if they get out of line… with a
guillotine. Genuinely unsettling, even if Janeway out-clowns the clown at the
end.
9)
“Doctor’s Orders” – Enterprise, Season 3: Episode 16 / “One” – Voyager,
Season 4: Episode 25
Okay, so… you know horror and
remakes? Star Trek did it too. While in the Delphic Expanse, Archer and company
have to cross a radioactive nebula that requires all of them but Dr. Phlox be placed
into a coma to avoid synaptic damage. It takes days, so Phlox (who, as a
Denobulan, isn’t used to being alone) must care for the unconscious crew and
the ship by himself. He starts to hallucinate due to the isolation and we get
all sorts of creepy happenings. Voyager did the episode first, if
slightly less effectively, with Seven of Nine instead.
8)
“Schisms” – The Next Generation, Season 6: Episode 5
It seems odd that Star Trek
hasn’t done more alien abduction plots, doesn’t it? That’s essentially what
this episode is. Riker, Worf, Geordi, and stock crewman #7 among others are
experiencing lost time and strange medical problems. They eventually figure out
that extra-dimensional aliens are abducting them at night and performing
invasive experiments on them! The creepiest scene of the episode involves
Counselor Troi taking the victimized crew members to the holodeck to attempt
and recreate their hazy memories, resulting a terrifying operating table and
noises in the dark…
7)
“Revulsion” – Voyager, Season 4: Episode 5
Voyager answers a distress
call from someone who turns out to be a homicidal hologram! A murderous
manifestation! A piquerist projection! The Doctor and B’Elanna must fight off
this psychopathic subroutine in a dark, deserted ship where the program in
question has killed his entire crew and possesses a carefully-nurtured hatred
for “organics”. It’s half haunted house, half slasher and it’s surprisingly
intense. Featuring a typically fantastic guest performance by character actor Leland
Orser.
6)
“The Devil in the Dark” – The Original Series, Season 1: Episode 25
When I was a kid, I called the silicon-based
alien in this episode “The Pizza Monster”. In spite of that, this is the first
episode of Star Trek ever to flirt with horror themes. What else do you
call an underground creature attacking miners and acid-digesting them to
nothing more than a smoking stain on the cave floor? Kirk and Spock arrive on
the scene, lose a few red shirts, and ultimately find out that the creature (called
a Horta) is just trying to protect her babies from being murdered by the
thousands. In the end, the humans and the Horta agree to stop killing each
other and work together. Friendship!
5)
“Conspiracy” – The Next Generation, Season 1: Episode 24
Here we have one of the most
infamous (and most censored) episodes in Trek history! If it was just a
bit better in the writing department, it might rate higher on this list…
Anyway, brain slugs have taken over high-level members of Starfleet Command and
Picard is the only one who can stop them, as per usual. There’s some creepiness
and intrigue, but the real draw here is the climax that features a shocking amount
of blood and gore! One of the best effects of the franchise, in fact. If only
it wasn’t a Season 1 episode, it might have turned out a bit more solid on the
story end. Still, there’s enough gruesomeness, suspense, and shock value to help
it crack the Top 5!
4)
“The Doomsday Machine” – The Original Series, Season 2: Episode 6
The Planet Killer! The Enterprise
must contend with a massive, ancient weapon from another galaxy that is systematically
destroying and consuming entire planets. The stakes feel real in this life-or-death
struggle, and Kirk’s intensity as he battles the behemoth is palpable. The design
of the planet killer is simple, yet terrifying. Quite frankly, it’s hundreds of
times scarier than The Death Star in Star Wars and seems nearly
unstoppable. Unlike the Empire’s technological terror, this devourer of worlds
seems to have a mind of its own as it carries out orders from a long-over
conflict from far beyond our galaxy. Classic Trek.
3)
“The Assignment” – Deep Space Nine, Season 5: Episode 5
We finally come to Deep Space
Nine! Well, it is a ranked list, so you have to wait to get to the best,
right? The Assignment concerns demon possession and domestic abuse when
Keiko O’Brien returns from Bajor and is not quite herself. In fact, she’s been taken
over by a Pah-Wraith and her body is held hostage to make Chief O’Brien do what
it demands. What follows is a superbly written and well-acted script that
examines the realities of abusive relationships while also dabbling in classic
possession horror tropes. Everyone involved is firing on all cylinders, and it’s
thrilling to watch.
2)
“Impulse” – Enterprise, Season 3: Episode 5
Zombie Vulcans! In one of the best
episodes of the best season of the series, the Enterprise crew happen across a
derelict Vulcan ship in the Delphic Expanse while searching for the compound
Trellium-D to shield themselves from crippling spatial anomalies. On board, they
find that the same compound has had a degrading neurological effect on the Vulcan
crew, turning them into violent, homicidal ghouls reminiscent of… well…
swarming walking dead. Archer, Reed, and a few commandos have to fight to
survive the night in the ghost ship, all the while trying to get an infected T’Pol
to sickbay. It’s harrowing, thrilling, terrifying, and just plain fun. One of
the best horror-themed episodes in all of Star Trek.
1)
“Empok Nor” – Deep Space Nine, Season 5: Episode 24
Star Trek does a slasher movie in one of the best-written, best-produced, best-acted episodes of all time. In order to replace much-needed parts on the station, O’Brien, Nog, Garak, and an engineering team must travel to DS9’s abandoned sister station Empok Nor. Once there, they inadvertently awaken a couple of Cardassians left behind for security, hopped up on psychotropic drugs to make them more hostile. Garak is affected as well, and soon, the bodies are piling up! The denouement is supremely creepy, with the bodies of the killers’ victims strung up on the derelict station’s promenade as O’Brien marches to his final showdown with a simple, homicidal tailor. He’s more than a hero, he’s a union man.