10 Horror-Themed Star Trek Episodes

 

            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.