Sixteen Screams For Halloween: Day 13 (Even More Spooky Star Trek Episodes)

Captain's log, Stardate 75887.3. Yet again for a Halloween marathon, we find ourselves boldly going to the darker corners of a sci-fi franchise that equal parts inspires and infuriates me over its long run. No, it is not Doctor Who, but Star Trek. You pegged that already, so well done. This time around, having done the immediate standouts to me, I decided to do a little research and Google what other folks thought were the scariest Star Trek episodes. In doing so, I found three stories from three different series to talk about. Let's boldly go right on back into space utopia and see what spooky bullshit awaits.

STAR TREK TNG 6X05- SCHISMS

The short version: Hey you guys know that show The X-Files? What if we did some of that on Star Trek?

This one was rather high on the list I found, and while it's usually cause for alarm when you're agreeing with popular Star Trek consensus, I've always remembered it as a pretty solid TNG episode. The first half really lets the dwelling paranoia and anxiety linger, as Commander Riker can't get a good night's sleep and Worf is distressed by his barber's scissors. The episode doesn't tip its hat to what it's about, instead letting that mystery linger and have the characters unable to explain their sudden loss of time and inability to get a good night's sleep. There's a great bit in the middle where, to reveal the mystery and the repressed anxiety these characters are having, they basically go to a group therapy session with Counselor Troi and use the holodeck to recreate their hazy memories from a nightmare about a table they were strapped to. Very much my kind of wheelhouse, mixing the horror with a theraputic attempt to heal and understand the fear and anxiety together. It turns out it's aliens from a subspace universe who have been abducting these people to experiment and examine humans in order to learn how to adapt and survive in our universe. The spookiest bits are the implications and asides, like how Riker's goddamn arm was cut off and reattached perfectly according to a medical scan, or one poor guy having his blood replaced with liquid polymer. The climax where we see the alien lab is sufficiently spooky, with strange insectoid aliens performing the experiments. It gives a real good alien abduction vibe, and that middle part's pretty great too. A solid TNG episode with some good scares in it. Just what you want for the spooky season.

STAR TREK VOYAGER 2X23- THE THAW

The short version: I am EVERYTHING you EVER were AFRAID OF!

Well, well, well. So it's come to this. I'm talking about Star Trek Voyager on this blog. Look, I don't go here, okay? This is some blind boldly going we're undergoing here, so let's get into it and see what's ticking. I mean, I know what's ticking because this episode definitely gives me vibes of other stories and their elements thrown into a stew to see what mixes. I like that approach, as I'm a Doctor Who fan, and this Voyager episode pulls it off well. The crew of the Voyager find survivors of a planetary calamity who put themselves into statis and uploaded their minds into a computer program to entertain themselves. Unfortunately for the survivors, the computer program has reformed itself based on their fears into a spooky clown with a macabre circus cavalcade, a program which refuses to let the people go because if they leave then the program ceases to exist. Instead it aims to torture them with their worst fears for the rest of their lives, because it's somehow a pure manifestation of fear itself given computer form. It's Nightmare On Elm Street meets It meets I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. The clown man himself is pretty tame compared to some other monster clowns I could think of, as are the fears, but it's the neat concept of a program taking on the quality of fear which sticks out to me. It's a neat episode that gives you scenes of a fear clown negotiating hostage release terms with Robert Picardo's Doctor, and it has some interesting musings on the dual nature of fear as an emotion: both as self-preservation against some danger (be it physical or emotional) and the thrill-seeking nature. The final scene, with the fear clown feeling fear itself, is quite intriguing. Trust me. I watched the latter half of Enterprise. I have seen a hell of a lot worse than this episode. It's fine. Hey, speaking of!

ENTERPRISE 2x04- DEAD STOP

The short version: Instant repairs and polite automated hospitality? What's the catch? OH GOD THAT'S THE CATCH??

Ah, Enterprise. Hello again. Didn't I magically banish the last bit of you into nostalgic oblivion? Eh, whatever, this is one of the good bits. It was admittedly lower on the list I found, and if I wanted more of a genre pastiche I could have done the Vulcan zombie episode from Season 3. Why in the name of God would I go back to Season 3 willingly though? No, better to hang out here. Enterprise has been fucked up from a space minefield, but helpfully finds an automated repair station with technology far beyond theirs that offers to fix the ship in a day and a half for the low low price of some warp plasma. Hey, good deal! The station's pretty neat, too. It has replicators, which blow the minds of the NX-01 crew 'cause it's like 2152 and humanity hasn't invented that stuff yet. There are mild suspicions of the deal being too good to be true, and they're proven right as helmsman Mayweather is soon found dead, lured to an off-limits section by a faked message. They really lay on the grief and sadness at his death for a bit before they get you with the reveal that this is a fake dead body. The automated station's dark little secret is its dozens of bodies hooked up to its computer core to boost its efficiency, and Mayweather was the next addition to the collection. It's pretty horrific and sneaky, and the sudden shock I had when Archer unplugs him and blood spritzes all over his uniform is one I did not expect. When I did this as part of To Boldly Step Forward, I thought it was going to be the Borg and was a little disappointed it wasn't. Oh, you sweet summer child. First of all, the Borg story in Enterprise was a little later and was alright. Secondly, and more importantly... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BE PLEASED YOU GOT AN ORIGINAL ENTERPRISE STORY! ONE THAT DIDN'T TRY TO WHAP YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH REFERENCES TO 1967! That's the real horror lurking within Enterprise, and though this one only leaned into the conceptual body horror of being hooked to a space station computer at the end, it's still a decent episode of the show. Like I said, you could do a lot worse. That's all for Star Trek land this time around. See you next time for whatever the hell I delve into next.