creepiest star trek episodes

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The Scariest Star Trek Episodes

Featuring body horror, Borg, evil clowns, amputated limbs and Deanna Troi as a cake, here are Star Trek’s scariest TV episodes to watch this spooky season

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Looking for some space-based thrills and chills to enjoy this Halloween? Have no fear – or have a lot of fear, actually – Star Trek has you covered! We’ve listed 28 of the scariest episodes from across the franchise in order of just how much they freaked us out, so whether your preference is for deep space exploration, war-torn space stations, or the far reaches of the known universe, there’s something here for you.

This list excludes all of the feature films, which tend to be scarier on the whole as they’re aiming to make an impact on a cinema audience ( Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan and Star Trek: First Contact have some especially terrifying sequences). It also excludes The Animated Series and Lower Decks . The Animated Series is seriously under-rated, but it’s bright, colourful style and slightly lighter tone don’t really bring the scares. Lower Decks features lots of blood, guts, gore, zombies and a giant spider to rival Shelob – and that’s just in the first episode! – but it’s basically satire, so none of it really comes across as scary.

This list is also firmly focused on spooky Halloween chills. There are many, many episodes of Star Trek from across the franchise that deal with torture or moral murkiness. We’re not looking for episodes that will make you question whether it’s possible to be a good person in a harsh universe, but for classic horror movie scares – creepy set-ups, scary scenarios, and spooky chills.

28. The Original Series: season 2, episode 7 ‘Catspaw’

This episode isn’t really all that different from the many The Original Series episodes where some implausibly powerful alien being plays dangerous games with the crew that include a hefty dose of fantasy, but the Halloween-style setting gives it a spooky vibe. Captain Kirk tries to use his sexual allure to solve the problem, of course, and completely disrupts an alien relationship through sheer force of his masculinity. But all is well in the end, though the scene where the villain uses sympathetic magic to over-heat the Enterprise as she dangles a model of it over a candle flame is pretty freaky.

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One to avoid if you’re scared of: Cheesy Halloween set-ups.

27. Voyager: season 5, episode 18 ‘Course Oblivion’

The idea that you might not be who you think you are has a clear existential horror to it, and this isn’t the only episode on this list based on that concept. It’s really more sad than scary as the truth of the situation is discovered about halfway through, and once the entire crew realise they’re not human after all, but recent copies of the original Voyager crew, they’re too concerned with the fact that they’re dying in vast numbers to dwell much on the personal horror of their position. Even knowing they aren’t the original crew, watching these beloved characters die one by one is gut-wrenching, and the final moments are truly the stuff of nightmares – they’re so close to help, but just can’t cry out…

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Disintegration, ship-wide destruction.

26. Enterprise: season 2, episode 4 ‘Dead Stop’

Creepiness doesn’t have to come from old houses, dark streets, and rooms full of shadows. It can also come from bright, white light and empty spaces. Threats don’t have to be immediately obvious – they can come cloaked in what looks like kindness and generosity. With creepy direction from Voyager ’s Roxann Dawson, who also voices the mysterious computer, and the always unnerving theme of a computer killing organic lifeforms, this creates an unsettling vibe without the schlocky Halloween staples. Throw in a classic fake order from a convincing-sounding voice, the apparent death of a regular character (not an uncommon occurrence on Star Trek , it has to be said), and Archer’s desperate plea, familiar to all of us who’ve ever called a helpline, of “I need to talk to a person!”, and you’ve got a pleasantly unsettling hour of television.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Automated telephone helplines.

25. Deep Space Nine: season 2, episode 14 ‘Whispers’

This isn’t the only episode on this list about the horror of discovering you aren’t who you thought you were, or about a family member who isn’t their usual self. But it does offer a different, and equally disturbing, take on the idea. For most of this episode, we follow Chief O’Brien as he returns to Deep Space Nine , only to find the behaviour of everyone around him is just a little… off. The ending is tragically moving, but the bulk of the episode is increasingly disconcerting, with O’Brien unable to trust anyone or to work out what could possibly have happened while he was away. It plays into fears deeper than the fear of things that go bump in the night – the fear that your friends and family might drift away from you, or turn on you, or pull apart from you. And that’s one of the scariest things of all.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Being abandoned, your boss and colleagues turning on you.

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24. Voyager: season 6, episode 25 ‘The Haunting Of Deck Twelve’

Voyager’s Borg children get a campfire story from Neelix addressing the apparently ‘haunted’ Deck 12. It’s a space alien, of course, but it has its moments providing some good scares and another opportunity for the Voyager crew to nearly abandon ship (something they make more of a habit of than they should considering they’re lost in the Delta Quadrant). The campfire ghost story set-up adds a nice sense of Halloween fun to the tale, there’s some nice character work (Neelix’s frequent fear of darkness and nothingness comes up, and his love/hate relationship with Tuvok) and there are some scary moments – after all, how do you outrun a gas cloud?

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Gas, nebulas.

23. The Next Generation: season 7, episode 19 ‘Genesis’

This one is too terrible an episode to get any higher on the list – we really can’t recommend it as an actually good episode of Star Trek. But it’s here because you can’t deny that as the Enterprise crew slowly de-evolve and regress to earlier phases of evolution from their respective species, the effects are genuinely unnerving, as well as occasionally laughable. Voyager ’ s ‘Threshold’ (frequently referred to as the worst episode of Star Trek of all time) similarly includes some effective body horror before it descends into ludicrousness and people start turning into lizards and abandoning their lizard babies, but is too silly to include – this one, however, hangs on just long enough to produce some real scares. It helps that the crew are de-evolving, rather than evolving into an apparently higher form.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Spiders, lizards, lemurs, and terrifying human-animal hybrids.

22. The Next Generation: season 4, episode 17 ‘Night Terrors’

One of several ‘waking nightmare’ episodes, this one is let down a bit by the somewhat unconvincing scenes of Troi flying through a weird green skyscape, but there are plenty of properly creepy moments to enjoy. Dr Crusher’s hallucination of a roomful of corpses sitting up is a standout, but Picard thinking the turbolift is shrinking in on him is alarming too, and the scraps of audio revealing what happened to the late crew of the USS Brattain, who murdered each other in the grip of paranoid hallucinations, are chilling. The science behind the idea, that we need REM sleep to be able to function, is solid, which makes the whole thing even more frightening.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Corpses, insomnia.

21. Voyager: season 2, episode 8 ‘Persistence of Vision’

Over the course of seven years, Voyager did so many episodes in which almost the whole crew were knocked out, suffered from hallucinations, put to sleep in a collective dream or otherwise mentally trapped by aliens, that they made a reference to it in season seven’s ‘Shattered’. This one is a good choice for Halloween, though, thanks to some nicely spooky imagery. It featured Janeway’s Victorian Gothic holo-novel and so her hallucinations include a ghostly little girl in Victorian clothes having a tantrum about cucumber sandwiches, which is particularly unsettling. It also features an unusually ‘evil’ and mysterious villain who has no motive other than being a nasty character and vanishes into thin air, and allows Kes to really shine at the climax, showing off her own considerable powers.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Creepy children, massive boils leaking pus.

20. The Next Generation: season 1, episode 25 ‘Conspiracy’

This episode is remembered for one thing and one thing only – the exploding head. And the alien chest-burster incident that comes right after it. Although the ending seems to hint at a wider threat, it was never officially followed up on within the series, possibly partly because this episode was so much gorier than anything seen on Star Trek up to that date. It also experienced some mutations of its own in development. What was originally intended to be a conspiracy within Starfleet was nixed by then-still-alive Gene Roddenberry as not conforming to his utopian vision. Perhaps this is why, to make up for the less psychologically disturbing conspiracy-by-alien-outsider, the production team went all out on the gore at the episode’s climax. It’s certainly memorable!

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Gore, alien chest-bursters.

19. Voyager: season 3, episode 18 ‘Darkling’

Robert Picardo hams it up gloriously in this homage to Jekyll and Hyde. The idea behind the episode, that when the Doctor patches the personalities of famous people into his program he gets their dark sides as well as their good qualities, is a neat concept and an interesting thought. The actual way these dark sides manifest is a bit bland, being focused mostly on general evil gurning and an obsession with Kes that twists the Doctor’s own genuine feelings for her into something more sinister. There was more subtlety to William Shatner’s Evil Kirk in ‘ The Enemy Within ’. But it does the job of providing some chilling moments, especially when B’Elanna finds herself at the mercy of the Evil Doctor.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Doctors, creepy stalkers.

18. Discovery: season 1, episode 3 ‘Context Is For Kings’

This is only the third episode of Discovery , and the first to be set on the titular ship, so it’s our introduction to much of the crew and to the series in general. At this early point, it looked like Discovery was heading in a very dark and horror-tinged direction indeed. With Gabriel Lorca as Captain, Burnham still a prisoner, and Stamets at his frostiest, the series already promised to be ‘darker’ – and then we find out the grisly fate of Discovery’s sister ship’s crew, turned inside out, their bodies twisted and mangled. The rest of the series so far has gone to plenty of morally and emotionally dark places, but for sheer scares and perhaps a little queasiness, this is the one to watch.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Gore, morally dubious Starfleet captains

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17. the original series: season 1, episode 1 ‘the man trap’.

Star Trek starts as it means to go on – the very first episode to air is one of the creepy ones (and the earlier pilots are both pretty unsettling as well). The main reason it’s remembered as a scary one is the great creature design on the Monster of the Week, the Salt Vampire. The combination of gaping, toothy mouth, drooping eyes and Yeti-like body is impressively inventive. But there’s an emotional core to this episode as well, as Dr McCoy’s ex turns out to have been killed by the creature long ago. Her husband’s willing acceptance of the creature that killed her as a replacement is probably the creepiest thing of all.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Shapeshifters, the Yeti.

16. The Next Generation: season 7, episode 6 ‘Phantasms’

Another nightmare episode, but it’s not originality we’re giving points for here. The plot of this episode is fairly basic and the key concept of seeing nightmares is one we can see plenty of elsewhere – it’s not even the only ‘nightmare episode’ from The Next Generation . But the reason both appear on this list is because, while the concept may not be stunningly original, and the episodes may even be rather cheesy, the bizarre images we see in them are genuinely unnerving. The Troi-cake may be often mocked, but it really is a freaky image, iffy visual effects notwithstanding. Add to that Dr Crusher drinking from Riker’s head and a phone inside Data’s body, and you have a good set of weird images to freak yourself out with this Halloween.

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One to avoid if you’re scared of: Being eaten, being drunk from.

15. Enterprise: season 3, episode 16 ‘Doctor’s Orders’

One of two episodes on this list directed by Voyager ’s Roxann Dawson , who clearly has a good eye for a creepy set-up. The plot has something of a connection to Voyager as well, as it’s essentially a re-tread of the Voyager episode ‘One’; most of the crew are put to sleep for medical protection while one or two, immune, crew-members are left to roam the ship alone. The earlier episode featured a longer period of isolation and a more vulnerable crew-member (former Borg Seven of Nine, who had a terror of being alone), but this one just edged it onto the list thanks to a few details. It has some welcome comedy beats breaking up the repetitive nature of isolation (Phlox wandering around naked is a nice touch) and Phlox consciously refers to the situation as a ‘haunted house’ for a reason, as it deliberately draws on classic tropes like rattling chains, dark shadows, and strange noises. Also this one includes a cute dog. A spooky story can always be enhanced by throwing in a cute dog.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Haunted houses (or spaceships), giant insects.

14. Deep Space Nine: season 3, episode 26 ‘The Adversary’

This was the third season finale, and it opens with Sisko recording “my final Commander’s log” – that’s because he’s been promoted to Captain, but it creates a sense of finality, of the closing of a door, from the start. It makes the subsequent paranoia-inducing hunt for an enemy who could be disguised as any member of the crew – a Changeling – even more tense. Odo says no Changeling would ever harm another, so you know what’s going to happen by the end of the episode, but it’s well made; claustrophobic, with echoes of The Thing and body snatcher themes (without the actual snatching). No one knows who to trust and everyone is getting trigger-happy – foreshadowing the increasing violence that would become a feature of the series as it moved towards a war storyline in the future. And Sisko has barely been Captain five minutes when he gets to play with the auto-destruct, as all Starfleet Captains love to do every now and again.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Sleeper agents, clones.

13. Deep Space Nine: season 5, episode 5 ‘The Assignment’

A lot of the episodes on this list take a classic horror fantasy trope and give it a science-fiction mask – ghosts that are gaseous aliens, witches that are telepathically powerful aliens, vampires that are after salt rather than blood. This one is a science-fiction take on demon possession, as poor Chief O’Brien is told that his wife has been taken over by a malevolent entity, but he can’t tell anyone else without risking her life and his daughter’s. Key to the whole thing is a great performance from Rosalind Chao, whose manner and bearing through the whole thing is definitely that of a new character who is not Keiko.

One to avoid if you’re scared of : Demon possession.

12. Enterprise: season 2, episode 10 ‘Vanishing Point’

There are a number of Star Trek episodes where various crew-members think they’re dead and wandering the ship’s passageways as a ghost (and one slightly odd episode of Voyager , ‘Cathexis’, where Chakotay literally does so). Most focus on the impact of the apparent loss on the other crew, contemplations of the afterlife, and so on. In this episode, though, Hoshi first experiences unsettling body horror as birthmarks move and her translation skills fade, then seems to be becoming a ghost slowly, unable to touch things properly and even starting to vanish entirely. It’s far more spooky and freaky than the usual ‘out of phase’ storyline. And here’s an extra dose of horror – all this seemed to happen to Hoshi during the 8.3 seconds she was in the transporter buffer. So what exactly did Scotty go through when he ended up stuck in there for 80 years in The Next Generation ’s ‘Relics’?!

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Turning invisible, matter transporters.

11. The Original Series: season 3, episode 4 ‘And The Children Shall Lead’

Before we get to the opening credits of this episode, we’ve already seen a group of children dance around happily singing a strange version of ‘Ring a Ring a Roses’ at the site of a mass adult suicide. Do you need to know more than that?! Later on, they all move round in a circle chanting a call to a ‘friendly angel’ which produces a green, translucent being wanting universal control (as usual) and they set about driving the crew of the Enterprise mad using bizarre hallucinations including premature ageing, planets that aren’t there, and so on. I mean, if that summary doesn’t creep you out, you’re either a sadistic small child or a power-mad translucent green alien yourself. As a bonus, it has a genuinely affecting ending, too, as the full horror of what happened to their parents hits the children.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Creepy children, children in general.

10. Voyager: season 3, episode 15 ‘Coda’

This episode is another “I’m dead!” fakeout, in which a crew-member – in this case Captain Janeway – appears to have died and seems to be watching their friends mourn them as a ghost. This one has a couple of twists though. There’s a time loop element with Janeway experiencing repeated deaths of different kinds in different loops. And then, just to really freak us out, a sinister alien tries to convince Janeway to follow him to the afterlife, even implying that he is waiting at the point of death for her, and everyone else, whenever and wherever she eventually dies. It seems far more likely he’s just a creepy Delta Quadrant alien trying to harvest something, somehow (a soul eater? does he eat life force?) but it’s still a deeply disturbing concept.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Death and dying.

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The Borg were first introduced in the episode ‘Q Who’, and they were fairly terrifying then. Their total lack of interest in anything they don’t perceive to be a threat ironically makes them so much more frightening than they would be if they attacked others on sight, while their cybernetic implants and collective consciousness give them a ghoulish creepiness. But however terrifying they seemed at first, they became so much scarier again when their main method of conquering was introduced – assimilation. Even in this episode, there’s not a whisper of it for most of the story – until the captured Captain Picard turns to face Beverley (and the camera) to reveal a face full of Borg technology . “He is a Borg!” as Worf exclaims. On first viewing, with no idea it was coming, it was a serious shock, and seriously scary.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Cyborgs, Oxo cubes.

8. Deep Space Nine: season 4, episode 24 ‘The Quickening’

We had to include this one, in which Dr Bashir desperately tries to help people suffering from ‘the Blight’, a fatal illness caused by a biological weapon long before the story starts. It’s not an infectious disease, but it is passed from mother to child through the generations, and society has completely reformed around it, developing a system of ritualised euthanasia as the only method they have for dealing with it. I trust there’s no need to spell out exactly what is so scary about this scenario. It’s also extremely depressing. There’s some hope at the end, for Ekoria’s baby at least, but it’s small comfort after the harrowing grimness of the rest of the episode. To be honest, we’re not sure we’d entirely recommend watching this episode right now, unless you’re in the mood for some serious wallowing. But it is definitely scary. Very, very scary.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Biological weapons, plagues.

7. Enterprise: season 3, episode 5 ‘Impulse’

Often, the scariest or most impactful episodes have the shortest cold opens. This Enterprise episode drops us straight into the action with a screaming T’Pol brought into sickbay, clearly out of control – and cut to credits. Now that is the way to unsettle an audience from the start! Jolene Blalock puts in a great, unhinged performance and the shaky camerawork all adds to the feeling of horror, so by the time we flash back one day to find out what’s happened, we’re prepped for horror. The rest of the episode plays out in classic space horror movie style, all darkness and noises and flashing lights, everyone running around looking filthy and sweaty being chased by Vulcan zombies while poor T’Pol descends further and further into madness. A 45-minute mini horror movie.

One to avoid if you’re scared of : Your own strong emotions, zombies.

6. Deep Space Nine: season 5, episode 24 ‘Empok Nor’

This one is another horror movie in miniature. You know things are going to go seriously wrong when a handful of regular characters go on a mission with a collection of character who, if they were in The Original Series , would probably be wearing red shirts. This episode, in which our heroes go scavenging on Deep Space Nine’s abandoned sister station and discover some unhinged Cardassians, has got dark corridors, a diminishing cast, a regular character under the influence of psychotropic drugs becoming dangerous, and the odd jump scare. It gives Andrew Robinson as Garek an always welcome chance to play the more sinister side of the character, and keeps the tension running high throughout.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Dark corridors, slasher movies.

5. The Original Series: season 2, episode 14: ‘Wolf in the Fold’

A number of original series episodes are scary in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons. Despite Star Trek’s overt efforts to combat sexism in its own way, it was still a deeply sexist show made in a sexist time, and could be outright misogynistic on occasion (the very last episode, ‘Turnabout Intruder’, is probably the worst offender). But ‘Wolf In The Fold’ blends the rather less enjoyable creepiness of women being objectified with some properly horrifying chills. It’s implied through much of the story that Scotty might be a serial killer, which is genuinely unsettling, as it plays into the very real fear that anyone around you, someone you feel you know well, could be hiding a dark secret. While the eventual reveal that he has somehow been possessed by Jack the Ripper (who was an alien life form possessing a human, of course) offers some comfort there, the idea that a Victorian serial killer entity has been travelling around killing women for centuries is certainly frightening.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Serial killers, Scotty.

4. The Next Generation: season 6, episode 21 ‘Frame Of Mind’

Poor Riker . He’s just finished performing in a play in which he plays a man kept locked up, drugged, and experiencing a mental breakdown, and he gets abducted by aliens who keep him locked up, drug him, and force him to question what is or isn’t real, provoking a mental breakdown. What were the chances, eh?! Jumping between his usual role on the Enterprise and being a patient in a mental institution who has committed some horrible crime, it becomes increasingly difficult to work out what’s ‘real’, and in the end, just about none of what we saw was real at all – except for Riker’s very real imprisonment by a hostile alien. Jonathan Frakes puts in a wonderfully frazzled performance in an episode that will make your head spin, leaving the audience as confused as Riker is.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Mental institutions, being imprisoned.

3. Voyager: season 4, episode 7 ‘Scientific Method’

This is the one where an alien race who keep themselves invisible use the Voyager crew as test subjects for their lab experiments. The initial mystery is intriguing, but it’s after the reveal that things get really alarming. What was a frustrating and extremely familiar medical problem for Janeway, recurrent headaches, becomes a terrifying visual as we see the aliens surrounding the oblivious Captain, sticking enormous needles into her brain. Then, in one of the more chilling and uncomfortable sequences of television you’re likely to see, Seven of Nine, the only person able to see them, must then ignore them completely while they probe her as she takes the turbolift. Luckily Janeway puts a stop to it by flying right at some binary pulsars, and these aliens are so scary that actually seems like a good idea.

One to avoid of you’re scared of: Scientists, needles.

2. The Next Generation: season 6, episode 5 ‘Schisms’

There’s a recurring theme to a lot of the scariest episodes in this list – body horror. It’s what steps the Borg up to becoming even more terrifying than they already were, it’s what makes ‘Scientific Method’ so incredibly chilling, and it’s a big part of what makes ‘Schisms’ one of Star Trek’s all-time most unsettling episodes. The revelation that Riker has had his limbs amputated and re-attached is simply horrifying. Combine that with a classic alien abduction story and the incredibly unsettling, insect-like clicking noise the abductors make, and you have a properly scary alien abduction horror story to rival The X-Files (one of the biggest shows on television at the time it aired).

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Alien abduction.

1. Voyager: season 2, episode 23 ‘The Thaw’

Ranking these episodes in pure terms of how freaking terrifying they are, this instalment easily comes out at number one. Coming out shortly before The Matrix , this episode features a similar premise, that if the brain is hooked up to a virtual environment, a lethal shock within the virtual world might kill the person. But it’s taken in a very different direction, for the friendly aliens who initially went into the virtual environment to while away a long time in stasis have been taken hostage by a virtual clown and his circus troupe, the manifestation of their fears run amok. So basically, they’re trapped in an unending nightmare, kept in a state of constant, perpetual fear by a garish collection of unnerving characters. The entire episode is one terrifying set-piece after another, with a fantastically energetic performance by Michael McKean as the Clown. It’s all so scary it’s downright uncomfortable. Thank goodness for Janeway’s last minute insight into what Fear really wants – to be conquered.

One to avoid if you’re scared of: Clowns.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

The Original Series: season 3, episode 12 ‘The Empath’

A number of Star Trek episodes deal with torture, and we’ve tended to leave them off this list as they’re really more upsetting, disturbing, or tragic than chill-down-your-spine scary. This one is pretty freaky, though.

The Original Series: season 3, episode 7 ‘The Day Of The Dove’

Much of this episode is a fairly standard early Klingons episode, albeit with a mysterious glow cloud (all hail!) floating around and swords appearing out of thin air. But when Sulu tells Kirk that the dead brother Chekov has been talking about all episode long never existed, we realise something stranger is going on.

Voyager: season 4, episode 25 ‘One’

Pretty similar in concept and execution to both ‘Persistence of Vision’ and ‘Doctor’s Orders’ (and coming right between the two). Still a scary concept, though.

Discovery: season 2, episode 12 ‘Through the Valley of Shadows’

Pike’s willing acceptance of his fate – and the fact we know it’s accurate from The Original Series – is heroic, tragic, and chilling all in one.

Picard: season 1, episode 6 ‘The Impossible Box’

Think about what happens at this episode’s climax from Soji’s point of view, as the person she trusts the most reveals that she’s not even human and then tries to kill her, and recoil in horror.

Lower Decks: season 1, episode 1 ‘Second Contact’

As mentioned above, this episode features plenty of classic horror tropes including blood, guts, gore, vomit, zombies and a giant spider. Watch it for some light relief after you’ve worked your way through the rest of the list!

(Dis)-honourable mention: The Next Generation: season 7, episode 14 ‘Sub Rosa’, aka The One Where Bev Boinks A Ghost. It’s too ridiculous to be properly scary, but there is a half-decent ghost story buried in there somewhere.

Juliette Harrisson | @ClassicalJG

Juliette Harrisson is a writer and historian, and a lifelong Trekkie whose childhood heroes were JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. She runs a YouTube channel called…

22 Scariest Star Trek Episodes of All Time

From alien abductions, to menacing cyborgs, to ghost spaceships, these are the franchise's most unsettling chapters.

The popular space opera franchise Star Trek has been going strong since 1966, spawning 13 films, eight live-action TV shows, and three animated series , not to mention the 10-episode short-form companion expansion, Short Treks . It has won countless accolades, including Best Dramatic Presentation, Pop Culture Award, Top TV Series, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing, Outstanding Costume Design, Outstanding Art Direction, and Best Sound Editing. That is to say the Trek universe is not devoid of captivating characters, complex storylines, and visual treats. It was also one of the first in the entertainment industry to boldly present racial, gender, and cultural statements in periods when they were still controversial.

Both canon and recent Trek explore dark and intricate themes and elements, from political intrigue, to war, to xenophobia, religious fundamentalism, and PTSD. While in the series, some episodes are lighter than others and provide a much-needed respite from all the drama, other chapters border on chilling thrillers and science-fiction horror .

From hellish viruses, to alien abductions, menacing cyborgs, ghost spaceships, and terrifying hallucinations, these are the most unsettling Star Trek episodes.

"Genesis" (The Next Generation)

In Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s season-seven episode, " Genesis ," several crew members aboard the USS Enterprise start exhibiting strange behaviors and abilities, including memory loss, beast-like viciousness, prey paranoia, and venom spraying. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) suggests it is a virus that revives ancient dormant genes. Meanwhile, they must also deal with the malfunction of a new test torpedo system. Per a user on IMDB , Genesis is “A well-executed change of atmosphere, well-directed build-up, and just a unique, Twilight Zone-esque journey through some space silliness that, at the very least, is a joy to watch.”

Data: You have also been infected by the intron virus. Picard: How long before I begin to change? Data: According to my calculations, within the next twelve hours you will begin to exhibit the first signs of your eventual transformation. Picard: And what will that be? Data: I believe you will also de-evolve into an earlier form of primate - possibly similar to a lemur or pygmy-marmoset. Picard: Well, before I begin swinging through the ship looking for breakfast, we'd better find some answers. How do we reverse the process?

"Monsters" (Picard)

Centering on one of the franchise’s most beloved crew leaders, Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart), Paramount+’s Star Trek: Picard took an overall gloomy and introspective turn as a whole, and one of its darkest and most intimate episodes was " Monsters ," in season two. As the retired admiral has slipped into a coma, his Romulan friend, Tallinn (Orla Brady), penetrates his subconscious mind to help him out and witnesses his inner child face some unresolved fears. Even after so many years, Picard still hasn’t come to terms with his mother’s mental illness and subsequent confinement and demise. This chapter wasn’t well received by fans of sci-fi action because it was more of a hellish, introspective psychological thriller filled with the symbolic hallucinations of a repressed mind that is still trapped in the past.

Related: How Each Season of Star Trek: Picard Fared Among Diehard Fans

"Context Is for Kings" (Discovery)

A prequel to TOS , Star Trek: Discovery ushered in the era of new Trek on television when it premiered in 2017. It follows Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), a Starfleet mutineer who triggers a war between the Federation and the Klingons. In its suspenseful third episode, " Context Is for Kings ," Michael is a prisoner serving a lifelong sentence, when she suddenly finds herself aboard the Discovery starship, captained by the mysterious Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs). Her explorations will lead her to determine the gruesome fate of the crew aboard Discovery ’s abandoned sister ship, the Glenn .

"The Man Trap" (The Original Series)

Because Star Trek: The Original Series aired from 1966 to 1969, its special effects usually seem lacking by today’s standards; however, it succeeded in building tension and sometimes spooking its viewers in a manner previously unseen on television. Season one’s first episode, " The Man Trap ," features Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew visiting an archeological research station on planet M-113 to conduct medical check-ups on the residents: Professor Robert Crater (Alfred Ryder) and his wife Nancy (Jeanne Bal). Strangely, Nancy appears differently to each visitor: a beautiful young woman to Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), a past blonde flame to Darnell, and her actual self to Kirk.

After Darnell (Michael Zaslow) is found dead with red mottling on his face and a plant in his mouth, the examination shows that his body was completely drained of salt. Soon, more crew members are found dead in the same manner, and a nightmarish creature with ashen skin and shapeshifting abilities turns out to be the culprit. In his confession, Professor Crater concludes, "It doesn't trick me. It needs love, as much as it needs salt. When it killed Nancy, I almost destroyed it, but... it isn't just a beast. It is intelligent, and the last of its kind."

"Dead Stop" (Enterprise)

“I believe that someone, or something, has abducted Ensign Mayweather and left this facsimile in his place.” - Dr. Phlox

Neither Star Trek: Enterprise nor its Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) fare as well as the other shows and team leaders, and yet, this underrated series boasts quite a few intriguing moments. In season two’s " Dead Stop ," at a time when starships weren’t yet capable of high-warp speed, the USS Enterprise , reeling from an encounter with the Romulans, stops at an isolated and seemingly highly advanced, machine-operated repair station. Little do they know that it is as sentient as it has sinister motives.

According to M0vie Blog , “The slow pacing allows suspense to build. Archer’s gut feeling mirrors the unease of an audience seasoned enough to realize that things that seem too good to be true usually are. The production design on the space station evokes 2001: A Space Odyssey , with its brightly-lit sterile white corridors. Roxann Dawson’s hauntingly emotionless voice recalls not only HAL, but also the sorts of computers that hassled Kirk so frequently.”

"And the Children Shall Lead" (The Original Series)

In TOS ’ " And the Children Shall Lead ," from the third season, the Enterpris e receives a distress call from a scientific exploration team established on the planet Triacus. Upon landing, the crew is shocked to find that all the adults died from apparent mass suicide, while their children are still playing around without a shred of care, worry, or grief. Once the kids are brought aboard and examined, the doctor determines that they all suffer from amnesia. Then, tension escalates as they summon a glowing entity called Gargon, take over the ship’s bridge, and control the crew by instilling fear and illusion.

“Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the Angel, we will go. Far away, for to see, friendly Angel, come to me.”

"Persistence of Vision" (Voyager)

In deep space, starships often encounter hostile aliens and disturbing space anomalies, and in Star Trek: Voyager ’s season-two episode, " Persistence of Vision ," the crew members, stranded on the other side of the galaxy, pass through the territory of a psychic being that telepathically attacks them, causing them to suffer from disturbing delusions and hallucinations. Even Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) isn’t spared, as she begins “seeing” her ex-fiancé and “witnesses” characters from her period holodeck program, inspired by Jane Eyre , come to life.

"Night Terrors" (The Next Generation)

Season four of TNG features a spooky episode called " Night Terrors ." Trapped near a derelict starship in a space rupture that absorbs mechanical power and instills confusion, paranoia, memory loss, and hallucinations, no one aboard the Enterprise is able to reach REM sleep, except for the telepathic Councilor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). She keeps having nightmares filled with symbols, while hearing the words, “Eyes; in the dark; one moon circles.” Could this be the key to the crew’s salvation?

"Miri" (The Original Series)

Yeoman Rand: That little girl... Mr. Spock: ... is at least three hundred years older than you are.

One of TOS' and the franchise’s most underrated and creepiest episodes is season one’s " Miri ." Following a distress call, the Enterprise lands on a planet that is strikingly similar to Earth and is only inhabited by aggressive children . After an experiment to extend their lifespan had gone wrong, all the adults were killed, and the kids they left behind contracted the ensuing virus; they might age very slowly, but one by one, they are fated to die as soon as they reach puberty. Due to close contact, the landing party is now infected and has less than a week to come up with a cure.

"The Adversary" (Deep Space Nine)

In the season-three episode " The Adversary ," a Changeling infiltrates the USS Defiant to sabotage it, and the crew doesn’t understand at first where all those strange sounds are coming from and why so many devices and engines onboard are suddenly malfunctioning. Witnessing a fluidic and fast-moving being shapeshift into your likeness and take your place can be very disturbing, and the Changeling species, the most threatening antagonists on Deep Space Nine , have that ability and often use it to kill and instill chaos and fear.

Odo: Captain, there's something you need to know. The Changeling… Before he died, he whispered something to me. Captain Sisko: Go on. Odo: He said, “You're too late. We are everywhere.”

"The Best of Both Worlds" (The Next Generation)

The Borg, an army of cybernetic humanoids linked by a collective hive mind controlled by a power-crazy Queen, are some of the franchise’s most fascinating antagonists. In TNG ’s nerve-wrecking two-part episode " The Best of Both Worlds ," Captain Picard is abducted by them, assimilated, and turned into an emotionless and threatening emissary named Locutus.

“I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service... us.”

"Whispers" (Deep Space Nine)

“The way they were acting… They might have been trying to pull off one of those surprise parties that I can't stand. Only, my birthday's not until September; and believe me, as it turned out, I had nothing else to celebrate.”

Is there anything more frustrating than when your loved ones and colleagues suddenly start acting suspiciously? This is the case in DS9 ’s season-two episode, " Whispers ." Right after he returns from an away meeting, Engineering Chief Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) notices his wife Keiko and daughter Molly’s unusual behavior and attitude. He sees Keiko and Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) in a closed meeting, but they lie about its purpose. He then witnesses his subordinate work on a security project he hasn’t been informed about, as technical problems start pouring in and keep him conveniently busy. When he voices his suspicion, he is sedated and locked up. It turns out the Paradan aliens have created a Miles clone to thwart peace talks.

"The Assignment" (Deep Space Nine)

The fifth season of DS9 features an unnerving episode called " The Assignment ," where Keiko returns from a work project on the planet Bajor and confesses to her husband Miles that she has been possessed by a Pah-wraith, an evil non-corporeal being in Bajoran folklore. The latter then taunts him into doing his bidding, threatening to kill Keiko should he not comply.

Per Jammers Reviews , “This is a great situation for inducing frustration and claustrophobia. What do you do when the most valuable person in your life depends on your carrying out actions with consequences you are not at all certain of? In a scene set in his quarters, O'Brien must pretend (at his own birthday party with a dozen guests, no less) that he's having a good time and things are perfectly normal. He breaks a glass in his bare hand—a rather nice touch to display his stress. And the subtle scene where the Keiko-alien calls Miles on the view screen while brushing Molly's hair—and pulls Molly's hair intentionally to send a message — is a rather potent little highlight. The alien displays plenty of subtle villainy through the episode.”

"Course: Oblivion" (Voyager)

“For all we know, the real Voyager has been destroyed, and we're all that's left. For all we know, we're supposed to be living their lives.”

In Voyager ’s fifth-season episode " Course: Oblivion ," while on an accelerated course back to Earth, thanks to the newly enhanced warp drive, the now-hopeful crew starts experiencing inexplicable technical and medical disasters. One by one, they perish in horrific circumstances, until the remaining members realize they are not the original officers, but their replicas left behind on another planet.

"Impulse" (Enterprise)

Vulcans are not exactly the friendliest alien species, with their suppressed emotions, superior strength, and mind-melding ability. Imagine the repercussions when Vulcan crew members become zombified drones on a stranded and derelict ship, in Enterprise ’s fifth episode from season three, " Impulse ." The culprit? An asteroid field filled with a substance called Trellium, which affects the brain.

"Frame of Mind" (The Next Generation)

In TNG ’s 21st episode from season 6, " Frame of Mind ," Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) finds himself locked up in a mental institution and has a hard time distinguishing illusion from reality. It turns out he has been captured by aliens who have been probing him for information on the Federation, while his subconscious mind struggled to reject them.

"The Thaw" (Voyager)

In Voyager ’s " The Thaw ," season two’s 23d episode, the crew finds a planet plagued by an ecological disaster, as well as five stasis pods. Two of the individuals locked inside had succumbed to a heart attack, while the remaining three are still waiting to be reanimated. Because all the pods are connected to a central computer, two Voyager officers volunteer to momentarily replace the deceased, so that the other three can be revived without suffering brain damage. In doing so, the officers find themselves trapped in a creepy circus phantasmagoria, led by a sadistic and telepathic clown.

"Conspiracy" (The Next Generation)

In season one’s penultimate episode of TNG , " Conspiracy ," Picard and Data investigate suspicious deaths within Starfleet, only to discover that a bug-like parasite is controlling the bodies and minds of high-ranking officers. The gruesome scenes of exploding and melting flesh and bones earned this episode an Emmy for Outstanding Makeup.

"All Those Who Wander" (Strange New Worlds)

Alien meets Predator in season one’s ninth episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , titled " All Those Who Wander ." A shuttle crew is stranded on a cold and technology-dampening planet and has to battle both a Gorn-breeding colony and inner demons.

"Schisms" (The Next Generation)

In TNG 's 131st episode, " Schisms ," after several crew members complain of insomnia and physical and emotional discomfort, holographic simulations and medical tests trigger their memories of being abducted and probed, and their limbs dismembered and reattached by terrifying aliens.

Related: 21 Ways Star Trek Predicted the Future

The 12 Scariest Episodes of Star Trek

After this week's strange new worlds gave us alien heebie-jeebies, here's a few more slices of boldly ghoul-ing that gave us a fright..

This week’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds delivered what might just be the closest Star Trek has ever gotten to an episode of genuine horror. Jump scares, tension, blood, gore, and lots of screaming, it had it all—but it’s far from the first time Trek ’s trended terrifying. Here’s a few more of our creepy favorites.

“Genesis” - The Next Generation

Is “Genesis” a good episode of Star Trek ? Absolutely not. Is it still kind of petrifying when you get to see the entire Enterprise crew devolved into the schlockiest, gross-out monster makeup mashups around? Absolutely. Shout out to Spider-Barclay, the scariest member of the Spider-Verse ever.

“Impulse” - Enterprise

Although Star Trek already has the Borg for its zombie riff, the franchise has never really come close to doing a zombie episode quite like this one. After the NX-01 crew comes across a marooned Vulcan vessel, it turns out a sinister toxin has rendered the crew a bloodthirsty, flesh-craving horde.

“Catspaw” - The Original Series

Our standards for spooks may have changed since the time of the original Star Trek , but there’s both a retro Halloweeny charm to this episode—it’s even penned by Psycho author Robert Bloch!—and some genuine tension, as Kirk and Spock face a mysterious wizard who wants to ensorcel the Enterprise crew.

“The Thaw” - Voyager

Clowns. Why’d it have to be clowns?

“Night Terrors” - The Next Generation

This episode’s a bit more horror-light than full- on horror—but it’s got some genuinely good creepy moments, as the Enterprise -D crew finds itself afflicted with the same insomnia-driven hallucinations that tore apart the crew of a Federation starship they come across. Dr. Crusher being in sickbay as row after row of corpses slowly sit up behind her is good, but it’s Picard imagining the turbolift shrinking in on him that’s arguably the most chilling moment of all.

“Empok Nor” - Deep Space Nice

A ragtag team of DS9's finest take a trip to the station’s abandoned Cardassian sister-station, Empok Nor... only to find that it’s very much not abandoned. A classic things-that-go-bump-in-the-dark tale, and one made brilliant by the fact it’s essentially shot on the normal Deep Space Nine sets, just lit for a dark horror movie.

“The Wolf in the Fold” - The Original Series

Once again, times have changed when it comes to scare standards, but hey: this is the episode where Scotty gets possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper . It’s wild, but it’s also genuinely creepy how much of the episode, before that twist, paints Scotty as a potential serial killer.

“Context Is For Kings” - Discovery

Before this week’s Strange New Worlds , this is closest modern Trek had gotten to a whole bunch of creepiness—not just when the newly freed Michael Burnham finds herself on a peculiar U.S.S. Discovery filled with things and people that seem like they’re up to something, but when the episode truly devolves into alien movie horror as Burnham and a small A way team pay a visit to Discovery ’s seemingly abandoned sister ship, the Glenn . Who knew tardigrades could be so violent, or so... large?

“Schisms” - The Next Generation

Hoo boy, this has it all—body horror, paranoia, alien abduction. The Enterprise crew finds itself the subject of a bizarre, horrifying experimentation experience, with some genuinely great tension building before the big reveal.

“Whispers” - Deep Space Nine

Poor Miles O’ Brien goes through absolute hell on Deep Space Nine so often that it’s almost worth just putting “O’Brien’s life” as an entry here. But “Whispers” is another great example in a long line of “ Star Trek hero comes back and starts realiz ing something is different” thrillers, when Miles returns to Deep Space Nine only to find everyone behaving strangely.

“Conspiracy” - The Next Generation

“Conspiracy” is a little more schlocky thriller than genuinely spooky at some point, but existentially there is something quite horrifying about just how close a maniacal parasite came to completely upending the Federation as we know it. And once again, if you love a good gross-out gore moment, this delivers when Picard and Riker infamously turn their phasers all the way up to blast the infected Lieutenant Commander Remmick to pulpy bits.

“All Those Who Wander” - Strange New Worlds

And then, of course, the penultimate episode of Strange New Worlds ’ first season has to be on here, because it is by far and away the scariest Star Trek has ever been. Alien with Gorn babies? Good god.

The 13 Creepiest, Bloodiest, and Creaturiest Star Trek Episodes

By rebeccah wright | oct 26, 2017.

Let that eerie glow of the terrorvision set embrace you in its sinister shroud, and lose yourself in 13 of the scariest Star Trek episodes this Halloween.

Episode three of Star Trek: Discovery , “Context is for Kings”, was appropriately creepy viewing in time for Halloween season – or, as it’s known by others: October.

A mysterious captain, strange occurrences, and a creature running amok and twisting people into grotesque, pink and red pretzels. “Context is for Kings” had it all.

While this is possibly the closest Trek   has ever come to sci-fi horror, it’s teased us with it before.

In horror honor of Halloween season, I present you with a list of the creepiest, the bloodiest, and the creaturiest (if Doctor Frankenstein can create a monster, surely I can create a word?) episodes to grave grace our screens.

Settle now, deep in your sepulcher. Let that eerie glow of the terrorvision set embrace you in its sinister shroud, and lose your soul yourself in 13 Scare Trek episodes.

The Cage   (TOS 1×01)

Image: Screen Capture

“They had never seen a human. They had no guide for putting me back together.”

There’s a lot of horror in “The Cage”, most of which is in the dialogue directed at Pike’s Number One, and in Vina’s reasons for wanting to stay on Talos IV.  But there’s also a creep factor in the Mars Attacks-like bulging brains of the Talosians, their mind-reading abilities, and the Frankenstein’s monster meets the Hunchback of Notre Dame appearance of Vina herself.

Catspaw   (TOS 2×07)

It wouldn’t be a Halloween list without “Catspaw”, which originally aired October 27 th 1967.

Curses, castles, cats, mysterious mist, wailing witches, and “very bad poetry, captain” . This is the episode you watch with the lights out.

Skin of Evil   (TNG 1×22)

A seemingly innocuous oil slick turns out to be remorseless killing machine in season one’s “Skin of Evil”. Tasha’s death by Armus was horrific enough, but throw in the way it toys with Troi, and then scares the life out of us by sucking Riker into its dark depths, and this becomes an anxiety-filled episode with a meaningless death that leaves us all a little empty, sad, and angry. Not unlike Armus himself.

Conspiracy   (TNG 1×24)

Data’s forced laughter at Geordi’s joke might have been the scariest thing about “Conspiracy”, had the last few minutes not happened. Paranoia, slimy parasites, and exploding heads (and it’s as messy as it sounds). You’d be forgiven for wondering if you were watching an eighties horror instead of an episode of Star Trek .

Seriously. Just go watch that scene again. It’s a gruesome moment of chunky beauty.

Phantasms  (TNG 7×06)

Bodies are losing cellular cohesion and are on their way to collapsing “into nothing but a few pounds of chemicals”   thanks to organisms attaching themselves to people and feeding off them.

Slowly being eaten alive by invisible creatures? I’d call that scary, and so “Phantasms” makes my list.

It gains extra Halloween points thanks to the bizarre cellular peptide cake in the shape of Troi, and Beverly sucking Riker’s brains out through a straw. “Do you want some?” she asks. “It’s delicious.” Um… Pass, thanks.

Sub Rosa   (TNG 7×14)

The haunted house episode, “Sub Rosa”, makes us all cringe – for the wrong reasons. It’s almost unanimously considered to be one of TNG’s less finer moments. To me, it’s a bit like riding an amusement park ghost train as an adult and realizing how lame the rickety ride really is. Meanwhile, it’s a dark and stormy night, the ghosts are trying to bone you, and those plasma-based candles you’re carrying are actually energy receptacles… You know what? Every good list needs one episode you watch ironically. This is it.

Genesis   (TNG 7×19)

Synthetic T-Cells devolve the crew after hypochondriac Barclay gets a shot of them to stimulate a dormant gene. And that’s when the fun really begins in “Genesis”.

Soon Worf is spitting venom like one of Jurassic Park ’s Dilophosaurs, Troi’s suddenly related to the Creature from the Black Lagoon , Riker’s a stereotypical ancestral hominid, all while the Enterprise is drifting like a ghostly house of horrors in space. But the best part is the moment when spider!Barclay pops up and scares the ever-living Earl Grey out of Picard.

Empok Nor   (DS9 5×24)

An abandoned station, dead Cardassians, and a team being picked off one by one. There are no strange creatures here, but psychotropic drugs amplifying xenophobic tendencies makes for a dark, tense atmosphere aboard the “Empok Nor”.

Macrocosm   (VOY 3×12)

An eerie buzzing, like blowflies in summer, is the haunting score throughout “Macrocosm” that’s bound to get stuck in your head – long after the macrovirus has hatched from your neck. The  giant bugs are replicating at an exponential rate. But don’t worry, Janeway’s there, channelling her inner Ripley, crawling through Jefferies tubes and saving the day.

The Haunting of Deck 12   (VOY 6×25)

There’s a gremlin in the system, and if that alone isn’t terrifying enough, it’s affecting the coffee .

During a planned power outage Nelix tells the ex-Borg kids a scary campfire story about the entity that’s responsible for “The Haunting of Deck 12” – but is it fiction?

Dead Stop   (ENT 2×04)

“Dead Stop” is unsettling, and it reminds me more of a Doctor Who episode than Star Trek . The fully-automated repair station that welcomes them in is amazing, fixing the Enterprise quickly and at a good price (just a couple of hundred liters of warp plasma. A bargain!). But the hidden cost turns out to be higher than the crew could ever imagine. What makes the station so effective? What enhances its processing power? Why, that would be the brains of the unconscious people hooked up to it in its core – of course.

Impulse (ENT 3×05)

Zombies, zombies, zombies, zombies.

Really, that’s all I need to say here.

Context is for Kings (Discovery 1×03)

The crew have gone through the looking glass, onto the tulgey atmosphere of The Glenn, and what they’ve found there is reminiscent of the Jabberwocky. The once lively Glenn is now a dark place, and its corridors are littered with bodies mangled by a creature that soon earns a fitting name from Michael.

An intriguing, macabre episode, “Context is for Kings” has a foot planted firmly in sci-fi horror territory, and left me highly anticipating episode 4.

Next: 7 Star Trek actors who have done voice acting

Do you like scary Star Trek episode s , Sidney? What’s your favorite scary episode?

10 Terrifying Star Trek Episodes To Watch After This Week's Strange New Worlds

This week's episode of " Star Trek: Strange New Worlds " is, essentially, the show's take on "Alien." A crew of officers, trapped in a downed starship, must face a species of vicious, poison-spitting lizards that incubate their young inside host bodies. It's a straight-up monster movie in miniature. It's tragic — several characters die — and it's scary.

" Star Trek " fits under the banner of several genres. Primarily, it is a science fiction show, yes, specifically a pioneering space Western; Gene Roddenberry initially pitched it as "'Wagon Train' to the stars" in reference to the hit 1957 TV series. Secondarily, "Star Trek" is a workplace drama, following a crack team of diplomatic experts on their job-related struggles; when "Star Trek" begins delving into the minutiae of management styles and command structures, this Trekkie's little heart sings. Tertiarily, "Star Trek" may be deemed a military show, focusing on formality, uniforms, and respect of the captain's good judgement. Although not about necessarily tactical prowess or military might, the wartime technicals of ships and weapons play a large part on every Trek series. 

Quaternarily, however, "Star Trek" could easily be described as a horror show, especially the 1966 series' first season. Many, many horrible things happen to Enterprise crewmates in season one. So many, in fact, that a critic may be forgiven for comparing it to " The Twilight Zone ." Over the years, Trek has revisited terrifying space monsters time and again, highlighting that the cosmos, while often filled with interesting and exciting new cultures, is still vast and cold and horrifying. 

Below are the vastest, coldest, and most horrifying episode of "Star Trek." 

" Catspaw " first aired on October 27, 1967, making it a proper Halloween episode of "Star Trek." In it, the Enterprise encounters a mysterious medieval castle on a distant planet, occupied by a pair of mysterious sadists named Korob (Theo Marcuse) and Sylvia (Antoinette Bower) who seem to possess infinite power. Sylvia occasionally turns herself into a black cat, and seems to hold power over the Enterprise itself. When she dangles an Enterprise-shaped medallion over a candle, the ship begins to heat up in orbit. 

These sadistic Halloween creatures were presaged by a chorus: Outside the castle, a trio of Macbethian witches gave Kirk (William Shatner) grave warnings about what is to come. By the end of the episode, Kirk and crew learn that Korob and Sylvia are in fact cosmic entities with facial tentacles, like Elder Gods out of an H.P. Lovecraf t story. They can shapeshift, and Sylvia can appear as a giant cat. The special effects aren't terribly sophisticated, but they are incredibly effective. 

Eventually Kirk smashes the widget the Elder Gods required to manipulate reality, their castle vanishes, and the day is saved. To highlight their defeat, Kirk and company see the aliens' true form: They are miniature blue fluff creatures — little marionettes — who die and disintegrate when they come into contact with air. Elder Gods, perhaps, but no longer vast. There is a tragedy in watching the little critters die.

Wolf in the Fold

Not to be outdone by "Catspaw," "Star Trek" continued apace the following Christmas with "Wolf in the Fold," which aired on December 22, 1967. In the episode, it appears that Scotty (James Doohan), while putting the moves on a young lady (Tanya Lemani), went insane and stabbed her to death in a foggy alleyway. There are immediate echoes of Jack the Ripper , and Scotty is apprehended for murder. Scotty, claiming not to remember what happened, is connected with a medium who holds a séance (!) to read his mind. The medium begins ominously mentioning an ancient evil with a hunger that cannot be sated. Kirk, through some investigation, finds that there is a noncorporeal entity in their midst, and that it can possess people and force them to commit murder. It's, for lack of terms, a demon. Oh yes, and this demon once lived on Earth as ... Jack the Ripper. 

The demon feeds on fear, and, in the episode's climax, possesses the Enterprise's computer, scaring everyone on board. Luckily, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) is on hand to administer what is essentially marijuana, causing the crew to mellow out and not be so worried, man. And since the demon is now part of a ship's computer, he strains the demon's brain by asking it to calculate pi to its final digit. The demon flees into a person (John Fiedler), Kirk beams him into space, and the mystery of Jack the Ripper comes to a close. 

The first half of "Wolf in the Fold" is an exciting serial killer thriller with ghostly elements. Kirk's solution makes the monster seem all the less terrifying. Logic and clear-headed thinking will defeat even demons. 

Trekkies all agree that the best episodes of any series are the ones wherein a mold of Paul Newman's head, stuffed with meat, is blown up. 

That was certainly the case with the " Star Trek: The Next Generation " episode "Conspiracy" (May 9, 1988), the penultimate episode in the show's first season. Throughout the season, there were several scenes of Starfleet Admirals confiding to Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) that there may be a conspiracy at play in the upper echelons of the Federation. The conspiracy came to a head (heh) when several shadowy officers attempt to induct Picard and Commander Riker (Jonathan Fakes) into their ranks. It turns out that humans are playing host to large, pink, mind-controlling stag beetles that live in their throats. When a host is killed, the beetle exits and climbs into the mouth of its next host. 

The episode climaxes with one of the most violent scenes in "Next Generation" history. A character named Remmick (Robert Schenkkan) reveals himself to be the host of the queen parasite, and Picard and Riker, with the utmost diplomacy, blast his face open with phasers. When a big slimy screaming arthropod emerges from Remmick's gloppy, tattered abdomen, they blast that too. Yes, the mold for Remmick's exploding head was indeed formed using an old mold of Paul Newman's head left in the Paramount props department. The explosion of Remmick is less a "Star Trek" moment, and more like something out of a Universal monster movie. No child watches the scene without being marked. 

Night Terrors

Handily one of the scariest episodes of any Trek series is NextGen's "Night Terrors" (March 18, 1991), an episode about hallucinations and madness. In it, the crew of the Enterprise find a derelict ship with only one survivor, a seemingly comatose psychic who seems locked in a perpetual state of speechless fear. The ship then becomes gravitationally trapped near a binary star system that eerily begins robbing the crew of their ability to reach R.E.M. sleep. No matter how long they are unconscious, the crew is never rested. They don't dream. Without rest, they become fatigued and begin hallucinating snakes in their beds, shuffling noises, phantom doorbells. 

In the episode's most chilling scene, Dr. Crusher ( Gates McFadden ) hears movement in a cargo bay filled with dozens of dead bodies on gurneys. She looks around and sees that the bodies, wrapped in translucent body bags, are sitting up on their own. Not menacing her. Not speaking. Sitting up is enough. Dr. Crusher has to take several deep breaths, reminding herself that the visions aren't real. 

Eventually Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Data (Brent Spiner), both immune to the effects of the binary stars' effects, are able to decipher a nightmare Troi had been having about a whispering space tunnel. By the end, the crew is restored, but not before a nap. Everyone is rattled, including the audience. Don't watch this episode late at night by yourself. 

People who were fans of both "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and of " The X-Files " in the mid-1990s (and we were legion) were distantly miffed that the Enterprise never encountered the famed alien " Greys " frequently mentioned in true-to-life accounts of alien abduction. Maybe it was because "Star Trek" is fiction, and alien abduction is ... gulp ... very much real. Maybe? For those unfamiliar with the lore, short, spindly, large-eyed space aliens have been known to visit Earth, float Earthlings out of their bedroom windows at night, and take them aboard their ships to perform odd medical experiments on them. The humans would be returned, sometimes miles away, with no memories of the events. These things were accepted as common facts in the early '90s.

"Next Generation" did feature their own version of alien abduction in the episode "Schisms," another Halloween episode that aired on October 19, 1992. Various random crew members begin having strange, fearful reactions to everyday objects. Worf (Michael Dorn) is startled to see a pair of hairdresser's scissors for instance. Troi, the ship's shrink, finds that said crew members are experiencing similar memories, and they convene on the holodeck to recreate a monstrous medical torture table they recall being strapped to. Eventually, the crew finds that they are indeed being transported off the ship by hooded, mysterious insect aliens and are indeed being subjected to medical experiments. Their motives are never determined. 

Frame of Mind

It seems "Next Generation" was generous with their scares, perhaps a reaction to TV trends at the time — " Tales from the Crypt " and its many knockoffs were running concurrently with NextGen. Horror seemed to be a popular TV genre at the time. One of the more notable fright fests from the show's final season was "Frame of Mind," an episode about a mental institution, shattering layers of reality, and madness. In "Frame of Mind" (May 3, 1993) Riker has been getting a little too deeply into character for a play he has been roped into performing. He is playing a man committed to a mental institution who is dogged by fantasies and hallucinations. Riker himself soon beings having hallucinations, specifically of one alien crewmate (David Selberg), and eventually wakes up in an institution. He is told that "Riker" was the hallucination, and that he is, in fact, a convicted murderer being treated for severe mental illness. 

Such episodes always resolve themselves well — "Star Trek: The Next Generation" wasn't suddenly going to become a hospital show — but they can be damaging to our personal sense of perspective. When Riker finally comes back to reality, he is unhappy with how easily his mind unraveled, even if it was at the hands of malevolent alien intrusion. We leave off with our world a little shaken. 

" Star Trek: Deep Space Nine " was typically too busy mucking about with heady sociopolitical themes and the implication of war to delve into the fantastical (the season 1 episodes "Move Along Home" and "If Wishes Were Horses" notwithstanding). When the show did introduce a fantastical story line — certain characters became inhabited by malevolent alien consciousnesses called Pah-wraiths — it was widely derided by even the most devout Trekkies. But on at least one occasion, "Deep Space Nine" indulged in a proper "haunted house" episode with "Empok Nor" (May 19, 1997). 

In the episode, several members of the DS9 crew led by Chief O'Brien (Colm Meany) have to trek to a distant station — in the same design as theirs, allowing for reused sets — in order to salvage parts for engineering reasons. It turns out that the abandoned station is not only heavily booby-trapped, but there are elite cryogenically unfrozen soldiers stalking the corridors, high on drugs that make them even more hateful and xenophobic than they had been previously. The killers cannot be reasoned with, making them more similar to Michael Myers than to the Dirty Dozen. 

Not so much supernatural as cautionary, "Empok Nor" is still chilling.

Handily the best episode of " Star Trek: Voyager ," "The Thaw" (April 29, 1996) involved facing fear — quite literally. 

The episode was about the Voyager crew finding a matrix of interconnected cryo-stasis tubes where a small group of people have been suspended for many years. To keep their minds active, their brains were wired into a simulation that would allow them to interact as if they were conscious. Sadly for them, a glitch in the simulation created an entity — an evil sadistic clown played by Michel McKean — built of their fears. When several Voyager crewpeople enter the simulation themselves, they find they cannot leave, doomed to be tormented by a fear clown until they die. McKean, best known for comedy roles, handily makes the Clown as terrifying as possible, able to out-think anyone who would stymie his torture games. 

Ultimately, Captain Janeway has to ask the ultimate philosophical question: What does Fear want? Why are biological creatures hardwired with it? What does it expect us to do? The answers she arrives at will push Fear into the darkness. Thoughtful, heady, and scary, "The Thaw" is a highlight of the show.

The Haunting of Deck Twelve

The "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" (May 17, 2000) is a little frustrating as horror stories go, as the events in it may or may not be fictional. At this point in the show, the Voyager crew has taken several recovering Borg children on board, and are teaching them to rediscover their humanity. In "Haunting," the Borg kids wake up in the middle of the night, and the jolly Neelix (Ethan Phillips) tells them a scary bedtime story to get them back into bed. In the story, a certain deck on the ship became mysteriously haunted, with electrical discharges attacking the crew. Eventually Captain Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ) surmises that the discharges are being caused by a rogue noncorporeal entity — effectively a ghost — that moved into the ship when it passed through a nebula. The ghost ends up forcing the entire crew off the ship, leaving Janeway behind to punish her and suffocate her for accidentally destroying its nebula home. 

Was it true, or did Neelix make it up? If Neelix made it up, he essentially spends the episode engaged in a pitch meeting with Paramount executives. While there's nothing terribly original with noncorporeal ghosts infecting a ship (see "Wolf in the Fold" above), "Haunting" tries to tell the story in a spooky, shadowy fashion. It's not the scariest thing, but it will do as a bedtime story. 

Since " Star Trek: Enterprise " took place a century prior to the events of "Star Trek," there were a lot of technologies that viewers had taken for granted. Transporters were not safe for human use, there were no tractor beams (they had grappling cables), no shields (they polarized the hull plating), and ships didn't necessarily protect the crew from more dangerous cosmic rays. In "Impulse" (October 8, 2003), the ship's crew learn that an upcoming area of space called the Delphic Expanse requires extra shielding. The substance the Enterprise uses for the shield, however, contains a subtle neurotoxin that only affects Vulcans. It degrades their brains, and essentially turns them into mindless, violent zombies. Yes, dear reader, it is about zombie Vulcans. 

"Impulse" — a play on words, as the ships on "Star Trek" use impulse engines — is filmed like a zombie movie, with Vulcans snarling and attacking like any of the fast runners from "28 Days Later." Chillingly, the Enterprise crew is unable to help the zombie Vulcan, barely escaping with their own hides in tact. When Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) learns that the shielding minerals will affect his Vulcan first officer, he elects not to use it. It is the decent thing to do. 

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A guide to the scariest star trek horror episodes.

Horror…engage! The very best episodes of Star Trek to give you frights this Halloween season.

Welcome to another installment of 31 Days of Halloween ! This is our chance to set the mood for the spookiest and scariest month of the year as we focus our attention on horror and Halloween fun. For the month of October we’ll be sharing various pieces of underappreciated scary books, comics, movies, and television to help keep you terrified and entertained all the way up to Halloween.

Star Trek is a show that outsiders seem to think is nerdy and boring, but they couldn’t be further from the truth. A quick look at the uniforms the main cast wear, the lack of starship battles, and a deep focus on philosophical problems certainly sound stuffy, but watch any five episodes and you’re bound to run into a horror spectacular. The truth is, Star Trek is one of the most genre-bending TV shows in existence, especially Star Trek: The Next Generation . In many respects, the show is similar to The Twilight Zone , with unnerving plots, mysterious monsters, and confusing problems that seem to have no solution.

In fact, many of the episodes are as scary as any horror television program you’ve ever watched.

There are many scary episodes and this show does not hold back. It brings it all, from creepy music to monsters, and plenty of disturbing themes. That’s why we’ve thrown together the ultimate list of horror episodes in the Star Trek universe. Much of this list was provided by Reddit user Tom_Dynamite who graciously let us use his list. Scroll down below to find some of the spookiest, scariest, and most spine-tingling episodes of TV ever made.

Below you’ll find a short spoiler-free description of each episode and why it’s a good horror episode prime for Halloween viewing.

Star Trek: The Original Series

1×08 Miri : Kirk and a landing party discover a replica Earth trapped in the year 1960 and inhabited only by children. After learning that a plague has wiped out all the adults, the crew fear that they will become the next victims of the disease.

1×10 The Corbomite Maneuver : When the Enterprise encounters a mysterious spacecraft, Captain Kirk is forced to bluff his way out of a dangerous situation.

1×25 The Devil in the Dark : Captain Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet Janus IV following a distress call and discover that more than 50 workers there have been hideously slain by an unknown monster. When an important piece of machinery goes missing, Spock becomes convinced they are not dealing with a mindless beast.

2×07 Catspaw : Captain Kirk faces double trouble when the USS Enterprise becomes trapped in a cosmic cauldron and a landing party sent to Pirus VII become the “guests” of Korob and Sylvia, weavers of magic spells.

2×14 The Wolf in the Fold : Victorian England meets futuristic space travel when three women on the planet Argelius are apparently murdered by Jack the Ripper – in the form of the Enterprise’s chief engineer. With Scotty in the dock, the crew of the Enterprise finds their own lives are at risk from an evil being feeding on the epidemic of fear and panic.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

1×25 Conspiracy : Picard receives a warning from a colleague about a potential conspiracy within Starfleet. Upon investigating the crew notices that something strange is going on. A very atmospheric episode that reminds me of the movie They Live . Probably has the goriest scene in all of Star Trek.

2×12 The Royale : Investigating the discovery of a piece of metal bearing the United States Air Force Insignia, the Away Team finds itself trapped in the world of The Hotel Royale , a novel come to life.

2×16 Q Who : Q claims that mankind is not ready for the dangers that lurk in the unexplored space and sends the crew far away from where they meet a new foe. Some of you might be surprised by this entry but the build-up, the suspense, and the eerie atmosphere are really well done. Mild recommendation for episode 1×26 because it sets up this episode.

4×05 Remember Me : Crewmembers on the Enterprise start disappearing but no one seems to notice with the exception of Dr. Crusher. Classic Twilight Zone -esque set up.

4×17 Night Terrors : The Enterprise is trapped in an unknown part of space where they find a federation ship with most of the crew dead. Soon the crew of the enterprise starts to be affected by whatever killed the crew of the federation ship. They start to act differently and hallucinate. My personal favorite scary episode that I highly recommend.

4×18 Identity Crisis : Something urges a former away team that La Forge was a part of a planet they investigated years prior. Their new investigation finds that they weren’t alone on the planet. Very intriguing set up and has some chilling scenes!

6×05 Schisms : Some crew members suffer from exhaustion and suddenly react oddly to various objects that seem to trigger post-traumatic responses. Meanwhile, a mysterious subspace pocket appears on the enterprise. Also one of my favorite episodes that has a great build-up.

6×21 Frame of Mind : Riker loses his mind when he keeps switching between being on the Enterprise and in an alien hospital. He starts to question what’s real and what’s fake. Classic horror set up about what happens when our reality might be a delusion.

7×06 Phantasms : Data developed a dream program but suddenly he starts having bizarre nightmares. Some freaky imagery makes this a really good Halloween episode.

7×14 Sub Rosa : Beverly attends a funeral and encounters a ghostly figure. This episode is often ridiculed for being one of the sillier episodes but I had to include it for being a classic ghost story.

7×19: Genesis : After Data and Picard come back to the Enterprise all the crew changed into different creatures. A bit on the silly and trashy side, but it’s a fun monster horror episode.

Star Trek: First Contact (the movie) : The evil Borg travel back in time to prevent the Earth from making contact with alien life. Captain Picard and his crew try to stop them from carrying out this plan. Cyber zombies trying to turn humanity into one of them, what’s not to love?

Star Trek: Deep Space 9

2×14 Whispers : After returning from a mission Miles notices that the crew and his family don’t act the same. He starts to think he’s in the center of a conspiracy. Very good suspenseful episode.

3×04 Equilibrium : Jadzia starts having frightening hallucinations that make her question her past lives. Some of the hallucinations make for a scary episode.

5×05 The Assignment : After coming back from Bajor, Keiko is possessed by a Pah Wraith that forces Miles to do as it says, or else Keiko will die. Very creepy episode and Keiko’s actress does a good job portraying the evil Pah Wraith.

5×11 The Darkness and the Light : Members of Kira’s former resistance group are assassinated and Kira looks like she’s going to be the final victim. Good psychological thriller episode!

5×24 Empok Nor : O’Brien, Nog, Garak, and some of the DS9 engineers are forced to scavenge the abandoned Cardassian space station Empok Nor for replacement parts. They soon find out that they aren’t alone and Garak starts to act strangely. Very good survival episode and my personal favorite Halloween episode of DS9.

7×13 Field of Fire : A serial killer is murdering people on DS9 and Ezri is investigating the case with the help of a past life. Good suspenseful episode.

Star Trek: Voyager

1×14 Faces : An alien species abducts B’Elanna and others to use their bodies in experiments. A good body horror episode.

2×10 Cold Fire : The crew encounters new hope of returning home when Ocampa colonists lead them to a mysterious female entity who may have the ability to help them.

2×15 Threshold : Paris manages the first warp 10 jumps but once he’s back his body slowly starts to change. Silly episode but some really gross and effective makeup that makes it almost a must-see!

2×23 The Thaw : The crew tries to help a group of comatose aliens whose minds are trapped in a computer program that operates on fear. Some creepy imagery and scary concept.

3×12 Macrocosm : A virus grows to a frightening size and starts attacking the crew. Janeway and the Doctor try to find a way to take back the ship. If you want an episode where Janeway goes all Ellen Ripley, this is it!

4×05 Revulsion : When investigating a distress signal, The Doctor meets another sentient hologram on an abandoned alien ship. Soon he learns that there’s more to the hologram than he first thought. An amazingly creepy episode and a great performance by the hologram.

4×07 Scientific Method : An invisible alien species of scientists perform cruel experiments on the crew. Very scary concept and an overall good episode.

4×13 Waking Moments : The crew starts having nightmares. However, they soon discover that the same alien appears in all their dreams. If you like dream horror, this is for you.

4×25 One : After the entire crew has to be put into a coma to fly through a part in space, Seven is the only crew member awake to keep the ship flying. However, she soon struggles with the loneliness and strange things start to happen. Very scary concept of being alone on a spaceship in an unknown part of space.

6×25 The Haunting of Deck 12 : During a power outage Neelix is telling the children a ghost story. Self-explanatory, it’s a classic ghost story episode.

Star Trek: Enterprise

1×04 Strange New World : Some of the crew decide to camp on a newly discovered and uninhabited planet only to get trapped and suspect they might not be alone and that T’Pol is connected to the mysterious inhabitants. Very good mystery episode about paranoia.

2×10 Vanishing Point : After the scared Hoshi has to use the transporter she slowly starts to think she’s becoming invisible to others.

3×05 Impulse : The Enterprise finds an abandoned Vulcan ship only to discover the crew has become bloodthirsty and violent. The closest you will ever get to Star Trek doing a zombie episode!

3×16 Doctor’s Orders : The crew has to be put into a coma with Phlox being the only crewmember who can stay awake. Soon he starts to suspect there’s intruders on the ship. Similar to VOY episode One though I personally like it better.

Star Trek: Discovery

1×03 Context is for Kings : Burnham finds herself aboard the U.S.S. Discovery where she quickly realizes things are not as they seem, including the mysterious Captain Gabriel Lorca.

With such a long list of horror episodes of Star Trek , it’s highly likely anyone who sees this list will watch a few episodes during the spooky season! You can find most of these on Netflix currently, but for posterity, it might make sense to purchase the box sets, which aren’t too expensive when you consider how many hours of entertainment you’re getting.

You can grab the box sets on Amazon at these links:

Star Trek: The Original Series Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Star Trek: Voyager Star Trek: Enterprise Star Trek: Discovery

What do you think, did we capture every Star Trek horror episode? Let us know in the comments!

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The scariest ‘Star Trek’ episodes ever, ranked

Got an itch to explore strange ghoul worlds? To seek out new frights and new shiver lizations? To boldly go to the bathroom in your pants?

Then you’ve come to the right place, nerds. We’ve compiled here a list of some of the scariest episodes of Star Trek in the franchise’s nigh-on 60-year history. We even left out the TNG story where Doctor Crusher gets haunted by her horny grandma , and that’s terrifying in its own right – if that episode isn’t on this list, then where is it? It could be right behind you.

6: “Conspiracy” – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1, episode 25

All on its own, there’s something bizarre and borderline horrific about Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s debut season to begin with. The series hadn’t found its footing. Rewatching it, everything feels a little bit wrong, like when you go back and watch early The Simpsons episodes and remember that the characters used to look all squidgy. 

All of which adds to the already haunting story from “Conspiracy,” the first TNG episode to require a content warning and recuts for international broadcast. Like all great sci-fi, it challenges its audience with questions they might not have thought to ask on their own, like “what if giant sea monkeys climbed into a guy’s mouth and took over his brain, and then Captain Picard and Commander Riker used their phasers to peel back every layer of his flesh before exploding his head?”

5: “All Those Who Wander” — Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, episode 9

Strange New Worlds found an audience by boldly going back to basics, offering fans the optimistic, brightly-colored adventures that they’d so sorely missed during the franchise’s grunge period.

Then, sideswiping its viewers with a sudden tonal shift, it gave them “All Those Who Wander,” the season one episode that mixed the plot of Aliens, the character pathos of Firefly, and the monsters of Aliens again. The result was a previously unimaginable world where we, the devoted fans of Star Trek, were unexpectedly scared of the Gorn for the first time ever .

4: “Schisms ” – Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 6, episode 5

“Schisms” might not be everyone’s favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it’s in the top five for anyone who’s ever thought “man, Riker doesn’t get his arm cut off in his sleep as much as he deserves.”

3: “The Thaw” – Star Trek: Voyager, Season 2, episode 23

Star Trek has long offered a safe place to break ground, but nobody could have called the revolutionary move pulled by the franchise when it aired “The Thaw,” back in 1996: introduce a scary clown, then make him the second freakiest thing on the screen.

Flying in the face of the relatively-boilerplate existential horror inherent in trapping crew members in a Matrix- esque nightmare ruled by a sadistic jester, “The Thaw” hooks you by playing with your expectations of a group of campy, original-series-looking bad guys. Then it ends by reintroducing you to, in hindsight, the most terrifying character of the series: Captain Janeway, a woman who will stare into your eyes, whisper calmly, and smirk while you die. Call it foreshadowing for the next episode on our agenda:

2: “Twovix” – Star Trek: Voyager, Season 4, episode 1

The Borg? The Phage? The slick new Gorn that can actually move around? None of them — not one — is as frightening as Janeway was the week that she met a fun, put-together dude, and decided that he’d be better off executed. No, that’s not true – what was scarier was watching said dude flail desperately across the bridge of Voyager, begging for help from a group of uncaring officers, whom the show cynically labeled “protagonists.” Just remember, kids: Even in a post-scarcity utopia, the people around you will wordlessly tear you in half if it means having a halfway-decent chef around to make them grilled cheese sandwiches.

1: The majority of Miles O’Brien’s life, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

There is no circle of hell, no Jigsaw torture basement, no Camp Crystal Lake weekend vacation package so horrifying, so devastating, as being Miles O’Brien. 

For interested parties, here’s the scoreboard: He’s been kidnapped and replaced by a malicious double, missed a family vacation while he was on trial for alien terrorism, been granted repeated visions of his violent death, had his wife possessed by a trans-dimensional demon, watched his daughter grow up to be a time-displaced feral woman, been chewed out by Captain Kirk, spent 20 years in a simulated brain prison, and been friends with Bashir. 

5 Star Trek Episodes That Cross Into Sci-Fi Horror

These Star Trek episodes dive deep into the horror element on top of the Sci-Fi action.

As one of the oldest and most popular science fiction franchises of all time, Star Trek has offered a lot of content since its first release in 1966. Even though it continues to be primarily a science fiction story, it has also repeatedly dipped its toe into other genres, making it all the more varied and unpredictable for it.

RELATED: Underrated Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes

Some Star Trek episodes used the well-known notion that the horror genre and the sci-fi genre fit well together. They offered an intense, atmospheric story that no horror movie would be ashamed of. Each of the five original live-action Star Trek shows has episodes that cross into sci-fi horror and prove that even in the primarily optimistic future of this fictional universe, fear still continues to prevail sometimes.

5 The Original Series: Wolf In The Fold

The Original Star Trek series has primarily focused on the three main characters Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, but several of the episodes put emphasis on the supporting characters. Wolf in the Fold gives Scotty, the ship's chief engineer , the chance to shine. Sadly for Scotty, he's accused of a murder he didn't commit, and it's up to him and his friends to crack the case, and find out what happened before there's another victim.

The episode keeps the audience guessing what happens next and builds an intense atmosphere, especially when it seems like the killer is about to strike. It has an interesting link to real-life events that will surprise the viewers if they hadn't seen the episode before. An interesting fact is that the episode was written by Robert Bloch, none other than the author of Psycho , popularized even more by Alfred Hitchcock's iconic 1960 movie.

4 The Next Generation: Conspiracy

The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation was still finding its footing, and as a result, some fans consider it the weaker part of the series. However, even the first season offers several excellent episodes. Conspiracy is easily one of the scariest parts of the series, if not the scariest one. In the episode, Captain Picard investigates a mystery and faces an unexpected enemy.

RELATED: Underrated Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes

The episode has clear Alien overtones, and it builds just as impressive an atmosphere as its predecessor at times. Just like some of the best Star Trek scary episodes, it connects the detective and horror genres. It was considered so drastic at the time of its release that, for example, the BBC removed certain footage from the episode before airing it. It has components of body horror , unlike other Star Trek horror stories that use supernatural and ghost themes instead.

3 Deep Space Nine: Whispers

Some of the greatest fears people face in the horror genre is finding out that their friends and loved ones have been replaced by something strange... something alien. It's the basis of multiple excellent sci-fi horror movies, most notably Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) which happens to be starring Star Trek alumni, Leonard Nimoy. Whispers center on Miles O'Brien who comes back to the station and begins to suspect there's something wrong with all the people around him.

Whispers are one of the episodes with a surprising plot twist, and as O'Brien's paranoia and fear increase, so does the atmosphere of the story. Some fans pointed out that the episode bears similarities to Philip K. Dick's work, and the likes of Blade Runner , which is one of the best recommendations any sci-fi story could ask for.

2 Voyager: The Haunting Of Deck Twelve

As an episode that even has the world haunting in the title, it's impossible to leave out this story when looking for the scariest Star Trek: Voyager episodes . Neelix tells a story about the haunted deck twelve... and to the surprise of the ship's crew, it turns out the deck is indeed haunted. Except for the fact that nothing is as it seems. After all, ghosts and spooks in space can often have a scientific origin. This one turns out to be the same in the end but not before scaring the characters, especially Neelix.

RELATED: Underrated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episodes

It's interesting to confront Neelix's fear of the dark with Tuvok's primarily logical approach, which is something that causes tension between the two men. The episode offers more than one scary moment, making it an ideal watch for all fans of Star Trek . What adds to its atmosphere is also the knowledge that the crew is trapped in the Delta Quadrant, and they have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, as their ship is their only home.

1 Enterprise: Impulse

For the deeply logical Vulcan race , nothing is scarier than losing control of their base impulses, and their emotions. The third-season episode Impulse is a Star Trek homage to the topic of zombies as it features out-of-their-mind zombie-like Vulcans which makes for impressive (and scary) imagery. To make matters even more frightening, the episode starts with one of the most memorable opening scenes, featuring screaming T'Pol.

Since she's usually calm and composed, the viewers immediately understand something bad is happening, and it keeps them hooked from the start right to the finish. Another aspect that makes the atmosphere even scarier is the fact that the characters are trapped in a relatively small space, so there seems to be nowhere to run from the threat. Impulse is a space zombie horror at its best, something that's still rarely seen.

MORE: Underrated Star Trek: Enterprise Episodes

8 Scariest Star Trek Horror Episodes

I f you're a fan of Red Letter Media (and trust us, you should be), you may be familiar with Mike Stoklassa's theory that Star Trek: The Original Series was more of a horror show than anything else. While we don't fully agree with his thesis, the truth is that the shows everyone thinks are about warm and fuzzy space exploration has managed to churn out some of the scariest hours in television history. Just in case you're ready to "boldly go" into some nightmares tonight, we've rounded up the scariest Star Trek horror episodes in the entirety of the franchise.

8. “The Man Trap” – Star Trek: The Original Series

The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Man Trap" is the earliest franchise dips into horror (it's literally the first episode of season one), and after all these years, it's still more than a bit spooky. The plot concerns a creepy salt vampire that can easily stalk and kill its victims because it can change shape at will. What follows is a tense episode where the killer could be anywhere and even any one , and the ingenuity of Captain Kirk may be the only thing standing between the entire crew and a very grisly demise.

7. “Schisms” – Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is certainly not a show known for its horror episodes, but when we get one, the writers and directors always knock it out of the park. This is certainly true of the episode "Schisms," where the crew begins to realize they have all been having similar dreams (nightmares, really) about an operating table and mysterious alien noises from creatures they can't see at first. Eventually, they realize aliens have been abducting the crew and performing bizarre experiments on them without anybody knowing…such as poor Commander Riker, who is horrified to notice that his arm was severed and then reattached without him ever knowing.

6. “Frame of Mind” – Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek has told many different types of horror stories over the years, but the franchise is arguably at its best when exploring psychological horror. In The Next Generation episode "Frame of Mind," Riker suddenly finds himself navigating two different realities: one in which he is about to star in Dr. Crusher's big play and another in which he is a murder suspect that has been tossed into an alien asylum. His very survival hinges on figuring out what's real and what's not, and at every turn, he must fight back against the growing suspicion that he has simply lost his mind out on the far reaches of space.

5. “Empok Nor” – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

If you're still not convinced that Star Trek can do horror well, you need to check out the Deep Space Nine episode "Empok Nor," which was written by future Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller. The plot involves what is meant to be a simple supply run to Empok Nor, but it doesn't take long for Garak to run afoul of mysterious drugs that have also driven a small group of remaining Cardassians violently insane. The drugs help him channel his inner murderous spy, and we are left with an amazing showdown between this killer tailor and Chief O'Brien, whose quick wits are all that can keep him and Nog from certain death.

4. “All Those Who Wander” – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the modern love letter to The Original Series , and that meant it was only a matter of time before we got a throwback horror episode. That came in the form of "All Those Who Wander," an ep that helped transform the Gorn (who were once the face of Star Trek's penchant for goofy costumes) into horrific monsters that our intrepid heroes barely know how to fight, because almost nobody who sees a Gorn lives to tell the tale. And as if the Gorn weren't already scary enough, we get introduced to some baby Gorn whose design is clearly inspired by the frightening xenomorph from Alien .

3. “The Haunting of Deck Twelve” – Star Trek: Voyager

If you happen to be a Star Trek fan who is also into cozy horror, then you might want to curl up with the Voyager episode "The Haunting of Deck Twelve." The plot involves ship's cook Neelix having to deal with Borg children (yeah, Voyager gets weird) who accidentally woke up early due to a power surge, and he decides to regale them with a spooky tale of a murderous entity on (you guessed it) Deck 12. While Neelix is likely fabricating the entire story, we are still treated to shocking sights, quite literally: the mysterious entity zaps anyone that gets in its way, and it's not afraid to threaten Janeway with brutal suffocation.

2. “Vanishing Point” – Star Trek: Enterprise

It took a bit of time for Star Trek: Enterprise to find its footing, but when it did, this series could tell horror stories just as gripping as any other show in the franchise. Perhaps our favorite is "Vanishing Point," in which Hoshi goes through the transporter for the first time and then effectively becomes invisible, with the crew eventually declaring her dead. Meanwhile, we see Hoshi deal with everything from an existential crisis to alien sabotage, all while she wonders (in the fine tradition of Dr. McCoy) just what the hell the transporter did to her.

1. “Conspiracy” – Star Trek: The Next Generation

As we noted before, Star Trek often focuses more on psychological horror, but in The Next Generation episode "Conspiracy," the franchise veers into full creature feature mode. After getting a priority one call, Picard and his crew become embroiled in the titular conspiracy after discovering that alien parasites have begun to take over key Starfleet officers, and the aliens aren't afraid to destroy entire ships to cover their tracks. All of this culminates in a showdown with the head alien, and trust us when we say that you'll see more bloody violence and gore in this ep than you will for the rest of the entire series.

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1. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Genesis (1994)

TV-PG | 46 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

When a new torpedo guidance system malfunctions, Picard and Data go chasing after it into an asteroid field, while the crew is left behind to deal with their own strange behaviors.

Director: Gates McFadden | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 3,027

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Schisms (1992)

TV-PG | 45 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Commander Riker's inability to fall asleep begins to show in other members of the crew in other forms, putting the Enterprise on the trail of a mystery.

Director: Robert Wiemer | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 3,125

3. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005) Episode: Impulse (2003)

TV-PG | 43 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Enterprise answers a distress signal from a stranded Vulcan ship, only when arriving they find the ship completely desolate, wrecked - and filled with Vulcan zombies.

Director: David Livingston | Stars: Scott Bakula , John Billingsley , Jolene Blalock , Dominic Keating

Votes: 1,661

4. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Night Terrors (1991)

The Enterprise gets trapped in a Tyken's Rift, an energy-absorbing rupture in space, where all but Data, Troi and Guinan experience rising hallucinations and paranoia.

Director: Les Landau | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 3,199

5. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) Episode: Empok Nor (1997)

While salvaging components from DS9's sister station, the crew run afoul of a "surprise" left behind by the Cardassians.

Director: Michael Vejar | Stars: Avery Brooks , Rene Auberjonois , Michael Dorn , Terry Farrell

Votes: 2,013

6. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Juggernaut (1999)

Voyager must prevent a toxic waste freighter from exploding, lethally contaminating a vast sector of space. Unfortunately, there could be an alien boogeyman aboard the heavily irradiated ship.

Director: Allan Kroeker | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,687

7. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) Episode: Whispers (1994)

Chief O'Brien's world is turned upside down when for no reason whatsoever he is being ignored by his family and friends and is being closed out of every essential job on the station.

Director: Les Landau | Stars: Avery Brooks , Rene Auberjonois , Alexander Siddig , Terry Farrell

Votes: 2,473

8. Star Trek (1966–1969) Episode: The Enemy Within (1966)

TV-PG | 50 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot be beamed up to the ship until a problem is fixed.

Director: Leo Penn | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , Grace Lee Whitney

Votes: 4,900

9. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005) Episode: Doctor's Orders (2004)

While in command of Enterprise because the entire crew is in a coma, Dr. Phlox starts hearing some strange sounds.

Director: Roxann Dawson | Stars: Scott Bakula , John Billingsley , Jolene Blalock , Dominic Keating

Votes: 1,629

10. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Macrocosm (1996)

After returning from a first contact mission, Janeway, Neelix and the Doctor must retake Voyager from an infestation of microorganisms that grow to an alarming size.

Director: Alexander Singer | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Jennifer Lien

Votes: 1,897

11. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Prey (1998)

Helping a wounded Hirogen, Janeway finds that their prey has boarded Voyager, a member of species 8472.

Director: Allan Eastman | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,890

12. Star Trek (1966–1969) Episode: Wolf in the Fold (1967)

Kirk and the Enterprise computer become detectives after Scotty is accused of murdering women on a pleasure planet.

Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , John Fiedler

Votes: 3,341

13. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Scientific Method (1997)

A string of bizarre illnesses afflicts the Voyager crew. The Doctor and Seven of Nine uncover a team of alien researchers existing out of phase performing medical experiments on the ship's crew.

Director: David Livingston | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,054

14. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Frame of Mind (1993)

Riker begins to question reality when he finds himself in an alien insane asylum and faces the prospect his life on the Enterprise has been a delusion.

Director: James L. Conway | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 3,396

15. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Conspiracy (1988)

After diverting to a secret meeting with an old friend and some of Starfleet's finest commanders, Picard finds the Horatio blown to bits just hours after the meeting and he returns the Enterprise to Earth looking for answers.

Director: Cliff Bole | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Denise Crosby

Votes: 4,279

16. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005) Episode: Dead Stop (2002)

Enterprise seeks repairs from their encounters with the Romulans, where they stop at a desolate but idyllic repair station. But all is not what it seems when Mayweather is suddenly found dead.

Votes: 1,899

17. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: The Thaw (1996)

Voyager finds a group of people in connected stasis chambers where something has gone terribly wrong.

Director: Marvin V. Rush | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Jennifer Lien

Votes: 2,307

18. Star Trek (1966–1969) Episode: The Man Trap (1966)

Dr. McCoy discovers his old flame is not what she seems after crew members begin dying from a sudden lack of salt in their bodies.

Director: Marc Daniels | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , Jeanne Bal , Alfred Ryder

Votes: 5,841

19. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: The Haunting of Deck Twelve (2000)

TV-PG | 44 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Neelix engages the four ex-Borg children in a ghost story to keep them calm during a ship-wide power shutdown.

Votes: 1,693

20. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) Episode: Distant Voices (1995)

After being attacked in the infirmary, Dr. Bashir has a dual mystery on his hands: what has happened to the station while he was out and why is he aging so rapidly now?

Director: Alexander Singer | Stars: Avery Brooks , Rene Auberjonois , Alexander Siddig , Terry Farrell

Votes: 2,060

21. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Darkling (1997)

As Kes develops a relationship with a Mikhal Traveler, a member of Voyager's crew develops a dangerously ruthless split personality with a fixation on Kes.

Votes: 1,730

22. Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024) Episode: Context Is for Kings (2017)

TV-MA | 48 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Burnham finds herself aboard the U.S.S. Discovery, where she quickly realizes things are not as they seem, including the mysterious Captain Gabriel Lorca.

Director: Akiva Goldsman | Stars: Sonequa Martin-Green , Doug Jones , Shazad Latif , Anthony Rapp

Votes: 6,721

23. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005) Episode: Fight or Flight (2001)

Captain Archer wants to convert curiosity into deeds and decides to enter a ship floating in space. Hoshi has trouble adjusting to life on Enterprise.

Director: Allan Kroeker | Stars: Scott Bakula , John Billingsley , Jolene Blalock , Dominic Keating

Votes: 2,032

24. Star Trek (1966–1969) Episode: Catspaw (1967)

Very alien visitors to our galaxy attempt to connect with human consciousness but miss, winding up tapping into the regions of human nightmares instead.

Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , Antoinette Bower

Votes: 3,574

25. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Identity Crisis (1991)

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge and an old friend fight to defeat a parasite that is trying to transform them into another species.

Director: Winrich Kolbe | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 3,032

26. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Skin of Evil (1988)

Counselor Troi is held captive on a deserted planet by a slick, black, oily, sentient and immortal puddle of evil.

Director: Joseph L. Scanlan | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Denise Crosby

Votes: 4,039

27. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) Episode: Phantasms (1993)

Data deals with his new ability to experience nightmares as the Enterprise deals with the installation of a new warp core that won't work as expected.

Director: Patrick Stewart | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn

Votes: 2,941

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Published Oct 31, 2023

What Were Star Trek's Creepiest Creatures?

We recall nine entities our various, intrepid crews faced that brought the chills and thrills.

StarTrek.com

In honor of Halloween, let’s ignite a little debate.

What were Star Trek ’s freakiest/scariest creatures or characters? We’re talking about everyone and everything across the entire franchise, from The Original Series to the present.

Below are several of our favorites, in no particular order whatsoever. We’re just trying to get the party started.

The M-113 Creature aka The Salt Vampire

"The Man Trap"

Oh man, the old-timers out there can’t forget this one. And how could they? The salt-craving entity from “ The Man Trap ” — the very first Star Trek episode that aired on NBC — stands the test of time.

It’s creepy and horrific and effective all these years later. The last of a vaguely humanoid species was willing to kill to satiate its own hunger.

Zombie Vulcans

"Impulse"

We can all debate the merits of the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “ Impulse ” and whether or not the zombie Vulcans were thoroughly scary or completely laughable, but come on, folks, you’ve got to appreciate the fact that the writers and producers went there.

However, for the crew of the Seleya , the Trellium-D that they were exposed to in an asteroid field started to poisoning their Vulcan nervous system. Our level-headed, unemotional Vulcans have been reduced to a homocidal, zombie-like shell of what they used to be. "Impulse" takes us on a journey as we witness T'Pol slow descent into emotional paranoia as her condition deteriorates.

"Darkling"

Everyone’s favorite EMH was usually cranky and impatient and pretty much forever holier-than-thou. But in the “ Darkling ” episode of Star Trek: Voyager , Robert Picardo took his always-superb performance as The Doctor to a whole new level, adding a layer of genuine menace once he fiddles with his program and ends up becoming far more Mr. Hyde than Dr. Jekyll.

Bonus points for UPN’s teaser trailer, which promises “Diagnosis: Terror.”

Redjac aka Jack the Ripper

"Wolf in the Fold"

The Original Series episode “ Wolf in the Fold ” remains one of the show’s finest hours, at once compelling and scary as hell. Of course, it helped to have a Robert Bloch teleplay, Joseph Pevney directing, James Doohan delivering one of his best-ever performances as Scotty, and a thoroughly engrossing guest-star turn from the late John Fiedler as Hengist/Redjac/Jack the Ripper.

The non-corporeal lifeform survived for centuries by journeying from planet to planet and feeding off fear he created during his murdering sprees. Among the murderous identities Redjac has held are Jack the Ripper on Earth, Kesla on Deben II, and Beratis on Rigel IV.

Bonus scariest fact of all — Fielder was probably best known as the voice of… the adorable Piglet in many of Walt Disney’s Winnie the Pooh film and TV productions.

The Borg Queen

Star Trek: First Contact

Though the Borg were eventually humanized, so to speak, by the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation and certainly on Voyager, for a long time they served as TNG’s most fearsome enemy. Fans argue non-stop about which Borg induced the most goosebumps, and a case can definitely be made for the ones in “ The Best of Both Worlds ,” but we’ll go with the Borg Queen as portrayed by Alice Krige in Star Trek: First Contact . The actress made the character simultaneously creepy, sensual, repulsive, and magnetic, and there was just no taking your eyes off her any time she was on-screen.

The enigmatic Borg Queen is the central locus of the Borg Collective. She brings order to the legions of voices within the Hive mind and provides a common direction. The Queen spends much of her time in her "lair" with her head and spinal column residing in a special alcove. When she emerges, she will "re-assemble" herself into a predominantly artificial body — the arms, legs and torso appearing to be entirely synthetic, while the head and shoulders seeming to be organic, but with substantial cybernetic implants.

The Ceti Eel

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

OK, we know that there are lots of other Star Trek aliens and creatures that gave us the heebie-jeebies, from Garak to the Devidian and from The Clown to Balok. And we know there are lots of other frightening Star Trek adventures, ranging from episodes like “The Lights of Zetar,” “Catspaw” and “Frame of Mind” to “Sub Rosa,” “Night Terrors” and “Schisms.”

But, honestly, nothing can top the squirm-inducing, scream-worthy Ceti Eel as seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . It’s disturbing to watch them enter the ears of Chekov and Terrell, terrifying to hear Chekov's scream, and then, later, just plain gross to look on as one, covered in blood, plops out of Chekov’s ear. That's because it wraps itself around their cerebral cortex. Oh, and for the record, the similar creature that Nero trotted out in Star Trek (2009) was a Centaurian slug, not a Ceti eel.

The Vidiians

"Phage"

Nothing is more terrifying than wearing the flesh of another.

The Vidiians are grotesque as they are depraved. First introduced in " Phage ," the once space-faring species known as educators, explorers, and artists became afflicted with a disease that killed thousands each day. The only way to stave off the phage that eats away at their tissue and organs is to harvest organs. In dire circumstances, they've shown the lack of conscience, as they've become cold and unrelenting after suffering from nearly two millennia, shunning the arts in pursuit of fighting the virus.

In one vile act, a Vidiian surgeon splits B'Elanna Torres, in " Faces ," into two — her Klingon form and her human one. After that violation, the surgeon kills off one of B'Elanna's crewmate and wears the skin of his face in an effort to seduce the Klingon B'Elanna.

"Hegemony"

The antagonistic Gorn are more than just fierce combatants. As seen in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , we soon discover the formidable species views any sentient being that isn't Gorn as a potential food source or host, with the Gorn luring and trapping other species on their breeding planets.

From birth, they are vicious as they are violent, with hatchlings bursting out of their hosts' bodies before fighting among each other for dominance, to ensure only the strongest of their kind survives. As they grow, they soon develop venom ducts that allow them to blind and infect future hosts with parasitic eggs, perpetuating the cycle.

Mother Parasite

As seen in The Next Generation 's " Conspiracy ," Captain Picard and the Enterprise -D learn something is rattling the highest levels of Starfleet. At a nauseating dinner, Picard learns Starfleet Command has been infiltrated and controlled by parasites. Unfortunately for the Starfleet victims, the parasites wrap itself around their host's brainstem, whereupon removal would instantly kill the host.

With the dinner ruse interrupted, Picard and Riker chase down a parasite and find it entering inside another officer. As they set their phasers to kill, the beam begins to dissolve the officer's chest cavity, exposing the large, aggravated Mother parasite which was living inside the officer along with a number of its offspring.

We'll never know how deep the invasion ran as the Mother parasite was able to send a homing beacon to an unexplored region of our galaxy before being destroyed.

OK, so what are YOUR favorite scary Star Trek creatures or characters?

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From Discovery to Picard to Lower Decks , Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds , there's a lot of New Star Trek to love.

Seven years ago, in 2017, after a 12-year absence, the Star Trek franchise returned to TV. On Sept. 24, 2017, the two-episode debut of Star Trek: Discovery was risky, bold, and, up until it dropped, shrouded in secrecy and more than a little bit of behind-the-scenes drama.

But, the Star Trek franchise survived this rocky start. After all, The Next Generation had several different writing staffs and production teams until it finally stabilized around 1990. And of course, The Original Series had its fair share of big production pivots across its three seasons. Radical change is built into the DNA of all Star Trek, though for some haters, the “NuTrek” that began with Discovery wasn’t what they wanted. Maybe it was the paywall on CBS All-Access. Maybe it was those all-blue uniforms in the first two seasons of Discovery . Or it was a million other, totally unfair complaints trolls had against the new Trek regime under Alex Kurtzman.

But, now, we’re nearly a decade into this brave (and strange) new world of Star Trek on TV. And, even for the most stubborn Trekkie, there are, in fact, episodes of so-called “NuTrek” that can convert a hater into a lover.

With representatives from every single new series, here are 10 episodes from the new era of Star Trek, all of which are just as good as great episodes from the classic eras that came before. Very mild spoilers ahead.

Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 2: “I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Flee”

The Moospy is coming!

With a title liberally stolen from Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” the sci-fi deep-cuts in this brilliant Lower Decks romp are never-ending. When the USS Cerritos encounters an alien zoo (classic!), the most deadly creature may also be the cutest.

Brilliantly, this Lower Decks takes a common Trek trope about misunderstood monsters and flips it on its head. The most dangerous creatures in this episode aren’t the aliens, but instead, well, you can guess.

This Lower Decks episode is also essential because it introduced the aforementioned bone-sucking (but otherwise adorable ) alien monster known as the Moopsy. Forget facehuggers from Alien. Moopsy will destroy all of them.

Prodigy Season 1, Episode 13: “All the World’s a Stage”

The kids of Prodigy discover the shuttlecraft Galileo from the classic USS Enterprise .

Can Star Trek do a version of Galaxy Quest ? The closest proof that the answer is yes, exists in the form of this extremely charming episode of Prodigy .

In “All the World's a Stage,” the kids of the USS Protostar roll up on the planet in which the inhabitants are all pretty much cosplaying as members of Starfleet from The Original Series . But, something has been lost in translation, because these folks call themselves “Enderprizians,” and refer to Starfleet as “Star Flight.”

Eventually, we learn that Ensign Garrovick, a redshirt Kirk saved in the episode “Obsession,” crashed a shuttle on this planet over a century prior. The Protostar tweens have to band together with these in-universe TOS fans to save the planet, and themselves. It’s a smart cross-generational story that sends a love letter to 1960s Trek fandom, while telling a great story that non-Trekkie kids can love, too.

Discovery Season 2, Episode 14: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”

Spock gets ready to send his sister Michael where no Trek time traveler has gone before.

With Discovery Season 5 taking place roughly in the year 3191, it’s hard to remember that the first two seasons happened in the 2250s. While Season 1 alternated between the depression of the Klingon War and the bleakness of the Mirror Universe, Season 2 was the moment in which Discovery actively moved closer to the ethos of The Original Series , with a dash of J.J. Abrams-reboot zest.

While the universe-destroying killer AI called “Control” feels like a rough draft of several other Trek villains, the emotional core of Discovery Season 2 — mostly focused on Spock and Burnham — truly delivers in this epic finale. When the classic USS Enterprise has to team up with the USS Discovery , the sensibilities of various Star Trek aesthetics collide. This was the moment when Discovery jumped into a new future to reboot itself for Season 3, and the moment that Discovery also created what became the proto-pilot episode for Strange New Worlds .

Picard Season 3, Episode 6: “The Bounty”

All your favorite characters await the arrival of even more of your favorite characters.

Midway through Picard Season 3, just when you thought the sweet nostalgia couldn’t get any sweeter, we get this episode. Even explaining why this episode is called “The Bounty” is, oddly, a really cool spoiler.

While it's fashionable to complain about fan service in a big geek franchise, “The Bounty” (and Picard Season 3 in general) proves how fan service can be done well by making massive Easter eggs integral to a real and heartfelt story.

Bottom line: between the Fleet Museum of awesome starships and the Daystrom Institute’s vault of strange devices and creatures (and apparently, the bones of Captain Kirk!) this episode has so many Star Trek goodies in it that it feels like opening a pack of trading cards or something. Did we mention the holographic Moriarty is in this one and an HD flashback to the first Next Generation episode, ever? If ever even had a passing interest in Star Trek, this episode will remind you why just the basic stuff in this universe is so damn cool.

Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 5: “Spock Amok”

Chapel and Spock discuss just how bad Spock is at being engaged.

Star Trek meets Freaky Friday in perhaps the most tender and hilarious body-swap sci-fi TV episode, ever. In order to work out their relationship problems, Spock and T’Pring decide to swap katras, and briefly inhabit each other’s bodies. But, of course, the swap seems permanent, and so, Spock has to pretend to be T’Pring, while T’Pring has to convince everyone’s she’s Spock.

While Ethan Peck’s take on Spock has been pretty much spot-on since the ending of Discovery , Gia Sandhu was put in the unique position of not only having to play T’Pring in this episode, but Spock too! Sandhu was more than up to the challenge, and this episode solidified her as one of the most memorable Strange New Worlds recurring guest stars.

But “Spock Amok” isn’t just about body-swapping shenanigans. There’s also a great subplot here involving Pike trying to work out a bizarre diplomatic problem, while another delightful storyline focuses on La’an and Una playing “Enterprise Bingo.” So, come for the body swap that leads to the Chapel-Spock-T’Pring love triangle, but stay for an episode that will give you all the warm and fuzzy Trekkie feelings.

Short Treks Episode 5: “Q&A”

Number One AKA Una (Rebecca Romijn) shines in a one-of-a-kind minisode.

Although the anthology format of Short Treks seems to have not stuck long term, the fifth episode, “Q&A,” represents perfectly why the concept is so great. Do we need an entire episode that explores Spock’s very first day on the USS Enterprise in 2253? Probably not! But, in the anthology world of Short Treks , this small, very specific story could be told without too much fuss.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (and Picard co-creator) Michael Chabon, “Q&A” finds Spock (Ethan Peck) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) trapped together after a turbolift malfunctions. Here, Michael Chabon specifically attacked a real-life truth and combined it with a slick retcon. In Gene Roddenberry’s original conception of Star Trek , Number One would have been more like Spock. But when “The Cage” was rejected as a series pilot, and Roddenberry retooled the concept of Spock, many of Number One’s personality traits were given to Spock.

So, how does that work in canon? “Q&A” provides the answer. Spock clearly looks to Number One as his North Star when it comes to balancing his outward persona with his innermost feelings. Strange New Worlds has slightly walked back some of these themes more recently, but then again, several years have passed between “Q&A,” “The Cage,” and the most recent Number One-centric episode, “Ad Astra per Aspera.”

Discovery Season 1, Episode 7: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”

Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson) stops by Discovery to shake things up with a time loop.

Despite being the NuTrek series that launched the entire franchise, the serialized nature of Discovery makes it difficult to pick out just one episode, since so many episodes rely on dense season-long arcs. However, smack-dab in the middle of Discovery’s first season is a wonderful stand-alone episode called “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.”

In it, Rainn Wilson makes his second appearance as Harry Mudd, a reboot (pre-boot?) of an actual mustache-twirling villain from Star Trek: The Original Series . This version of Mudd has time crystals, which allow him to turn the whole episode into a delightful time loop story. If more Discovery Season 1 episodes had been like this one, the show probably wouldn’t have faced such early opposition from fans and critics. This was an instant classic in 2017, and it holds up still.

Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 10: “No Small Parts”

The Easter egg in this opening scene is one of the deepest, and best cuts in all of Lower Decks . You either know who Landru is...or you’re not of the body.

Although you could populate this entire list with Lower Decks episodes that would convert cranky or confused fans, the Season 1 finale of the show might remain the most impressive. Although the internet will tell you that Lower Decks is just Rick and Morty with Trekkie jokes, nothing could be further from the truth. With “No Small Parts,” showrunner Mike McMahan took the structure of a TNG season finale and married that sensibility with the ethos of what the series is all about.

The crew of the USS Cerritos is often doing the mop-up chores of Starfleet, and so it makes sense that their greatest nemesis would be extremely silly alien pieces from TNG . And yet, when things really start to hit the fan, Lower Deck pulls out the big phasers with an unforgettable cameo that will put a smile on the face of even the most casual or jaded Star Trek fan. After you watch “No Small Parts,” you’ll immediately want to watch the next season, and guess what? You’ll find most Lower Decks episodes are just as good.

Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 9: “Subspace Rhapsody”

Captain Pike, seconds before hearing Klingons burst into song.

Although the notion of a Star Trek musical episode might sound like the ultimate example of NuTrek jumping the space shark, the truth is, the zany premise of “Subspace Rhapsody” is exactly the kind of concept The Original Series would have floated if it had had the budget.

When the Enterprise gets hit by an improbability field from a subspace fold, suddenly, they’re enveloped in a kind of reality that operates on the rules of a musical. Getting to the end of this musical reality is the goal of the episode, meaning the musical premise is what drives the entire episode.

That said, “Subspace Rhapsody” does an incredible amount of character work for nearly every member of the crew. This episode establishes the canonical fact that Nurse Chapel has to leave the Enterprise at some point in order to make sense of her wonky TOS chronology. Plus, Chapel dumping Spock in the song “I’m Ready” leads to Spock’s lament “I’m the X,” which effectively retcons the more emotional Spock we’ve seen throughout this series, Discovery , and the 1964 pilot episode “The Cage.”

All in all, “Subspace Rhapsody” represents what Strange New Worlds does best: it takes a huge risk by playing it safe. Or maybe it's the other way around.

Picard Season 3, Episode 10: “The Last Generation”

Raffi and Seven take charge of the USS Titan, which may have a totally different name now, but no spoilers!

The series finale of Picard is a weird episode to watch as your very first episode of NuTrek but, for longtime fans of the 1990s version of the franchise (which is an era that lasted from 1987 to 2005), this big, bold episode will remind you of all your favorite Star Trek toys.

While watching this episode out of context with the rest of Picard Season 3 could be disorienting, combined with its predecessor — the penultimate episode “Võx” — you’re getting a TNG movie that is much better than most of the actual TNG movies. Heartfelt, action-packed, and with nods to all corners of Trek fandom, “The Last Generation” is also a not-so-secret backdoor pilot for yet another Trek series that has yet to materialize. Fans and showrunner Terry Matalas have dubbed this hypothetical spinoff show as Star Trek: Legacy . Will we ever see it? There are always possibilities, but for now, the most crowd-pleasing NuTrek episode of them all will remain this absolute banger.

Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Discovery all stream on Paramount+. Prodigy streams on Netflix.

• Science Fiction

Screen Rant

Star trek: voyager predicted ai-generated art 23 years ago.

Star Trek: Voyager season 7 seems to argue in favor of AI-generated artwork, but what does Star Trek really have to say about generative AI?

• Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor raises questions about AI rights in art, highlighting the ethical issues of AI-generated artwork.
• The Doctor's holonovel dilemma parallels today's AI art landscape, where AI-generated work lacks copyright protection.
• The future of AI in Star Trek lies in the holodeck, acting as a more advanced form of generative AI compared to the Doctor.

Today's debates around AI-generated art were predicted by Star Trek: Voyager 23 years ago. In Voyager season 7, episode 20, "Author, Author", Voyager's holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo) writes a holonovel called "Photons Be Free", which draws heavy inspiration from the Doctor's own experiences interacting with the crew of the USS Voyager . The novel is a hit in the Alpha Quadrant, but there's a wrinkle when the unfavorable depiction of the Voyager crew prompts the Doctor to reconsider his artistic approach. The Doctor resolves to make revisions to the program's characters but discovers that he's legally unable to do so.

As an artificial life form, the Doctor can be compared to characters like Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner). Data's personhood was legally determined in TNG season 2, episode 19, "The Measure of a Man", which provided the blueprint for future Star Trek courtroom dramas debating the rights of life forms that don't fit the default human model. Starfleet determines that Data is a person, and entitled to all the rights thereof, so the precedent set in "The Measure of a Man" implies that Star Trek is in favor of civil rights for artificial intelligence. But what does Star Trek have to say about AI art?

Star Trek: Voyager’s 15 Best Doctor Episodes

How star trek: voyager's doctor compares to modern generative ai, the emergency medical hologram creates art more like a human..

Star Trek: Voyager 's question about whether AI like the Doctor has rights as an artist feels unusually prescient in today's AI-saturated art landscape. With characters clearly based on Voyager's crew and events in the novel echoing familiar Star Trek: Voyager stories, the Doctor's holonovel is derivative in a way that resembles today's AI-generated artwork, particularly because modern AI must be trained on a body of work created by humans who haven't consented to the use of their creations -- or, like on Voyager , their likenesses. Just like the publisher arguing the Doctor has no legal claim to "Photons Be Free", artwork created by AI today can't be copyrighted.

There's a vast difference between the AI that generates artwork in the 2020s and Star Trek: Voyager 's Doctor. Today's AI models rely heavily on pattern recognition to algorithmically generate work based on the examples that they've been trained on. Generative AI uses those examples to predict what words or pixels are most likely to appear in proximity to one another, given the data it has access to. Sentient holograms on Star Trek , however, are narrative stand-ins for marginalized groups. The Doctor gains some civil rights because Star Trek: Voyager 's story is actually saying that human artists should have control of their work , not that AI models are people.

Data's rights as a creator were called into question in TNG season 3, episode 16, "The Offspring", after Data created his daughter, Lal (Hallie Todd), but the inconclusive nature of Lal's case means there's no precedent for the Doctor's petition for holographic rights.

The Real Future Of Generative AI On Star Trek Is The Holodeck

The holodeck is like an advanced form of today's ai learning models..

The future of generative AI on Star Trek isn't in its characters, but the holodeck. Like modern AI models, the holodeck generates work based on user prompts, with personal programs containing parameters for specific story elements like characters, environment, and narratives. Star Trek 's holodecks , like those on the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the USS Voyager, are essentially trained on information from ships' databases to predict what happens, and what that looks like in fully-realized, immersive 3D. Privately-owned holosuites like on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine may rely on smaller data sets, but can still only generate characters based on pre-existing parameters.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , season 3, episode 8, "Meridian", Quark (Armin Shimerman) must get a scan of Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) to satisfy a customer's desire to put Kira in a holosuite program.

The holodeck is a far better example of AI-generated art in action than the Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager . In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3, episode 8, "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus", Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) provides insufficient input, so, just like modern AI confidently "hallucinating" output, the holodeck generates nonsense like the character Knicknac (Ben Rodgers) and Ki-ty-ha's platitudes like "the purpose of life is… a life of purpose." The Doctor, however, learns like a person by doing research and correcting mistakes. By proving the Doctor is a sentient life form and not just a program, Star Trek: Voyager champions the rights of human artists today, not AI.

Star Trek: Voyager is streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Voyager