Darkest episodes

[hux]

"Lower decks" (TNG) had a pretty depressing ending and the dillemma facing Janeway in "Tuvix" (Voyager) had a profoundly disturbing conclusion too (excellent episode though)

So what are the darkest episodes?

(I'm not talking about death tallies or war themed darkness but rather, episodes that are dark in tone; depressing even)

 

[Harvey]

"Year of Hell, Part I" is pretty grim.

I'm not sure what you mean by excluding "war themed darkness," though. "In the Pale Moonlight" is sure a dark hour of STAR TREK, but do you want to exclude every episode that touches upon the Dominion War, or some other criteria?

 

[Mr Silver]

Hmm...where to begin

Mirror, Mirror (TOS)
The Drumhead (TNG)
Yesterdays Enterprise (TNG)
Chain Of Command Parts 1 And 2 (TNG)
In The Pale Moonlight (DS9)
Extreme Measures (DS9)
Living Witness (VOY)
Equinox Parts 1 And 2 (VOY)

These are among the "Darkest" episodes I can think off of the top of my head, most of them contain very "Un-Trek" material

 

[Galileo7]

DS9 Empok Nor , DS9 Waltz

 

[I am not Spock]

TOS- 'Obsession', 'Mirror Mirror'
TNG- 'The Drumhead', 'Chain of Command'
DS9- 'In The Pale Moonlight', 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges'
VOY- 'Living Witness', 'Memorial', 'Repentence'
ENT- 'In a Mirror Darkly', 'Damage'

 

[King Bob!]

The Enemy Within
Gamesters of Triskelion
The Cage

Star Trek: The Original Series was far darker than modern audiences give it credit for.

 

[stj]

Voyager's Course: Oblivion wins, I think. It says you'll die and be forgotten. Unlike those DS9 episodes that say human nature makes war and killing inevitable, this is actually true. That makes it even harder to accept.

 

[TheGodBen]

Unlike those DS9 episodes that say human nature makes war and killing inevitable...

Some oppressive aliens came to our section of the galaxy and tried to conquer everyone, and we fought back to protect our freedoms... and this makes humans violent warmongers? What a curious interpretation of events you have.

 

[sonak]

TOS: The Empath, Conscience of the King
TNG: Chain of Command Part 2, Dark Page, The Offspring, Silicon Avatar
DS9: Whispers, Hard Time, Things Past
Voy: Tuvix, Resistance, Remember
Ent: Dear Doctor

 

[DonIago]

I wouldn't say that defending ourselves against the Dominion made anyone a 'violent warmonger' but some of the defenders did cross more typical ethical boundaries than others.

I'll add BoBW, Part I.

 

[Greg Cox]

Gotta go with "Chain of Command, Part Two." Watching Picard get sadistically tortured for most of an episode is about as dark as Trek gets.

Great episode, though.

 

[kes7]

VOY -- Nemesis had a depressing ending. All about how irrational cultural hatred (especially the kind that's systematically encouraged) is near impossible to put aside.

 

[Captrek]

I wouldn't say that defending ourselves against the Dominion made anyone a 'violent warmonger' but some of the defenders did cross more typical ethical boundaries than others.

With the talk of DS9’s defenders of the UFP crossing ethical boundaries in the interests of security, we must certainly mention what is arguably Trek’s most extreme example of this: Archer stealing the warp coil from the Illyrians in ENTamage, knowing that he might in so doing condemn a shipful of innocent people to slow death, because the Enterprise’s mission absolutely could not be allowed to fail. Interesting that we never learn what became of the Illyrians.

 

[DonIago]

^Already mentioned in post #5, but yeah, certainly not one of Our Heroes' more shining moments from an ethical standpoint.

From a realism standpoint it would have been interesting to see them again, but I just can't imagine how it could be done without some serious repercussions. Based on the Illyrians' encounter with Enterprise they have every reason to think the worst possible of Starfleet.

It's probably easier though more depressing to assume that ship never made it home.

 

[MikeS]

I think I've seen Damage but I can't remember the details. What was the explanation for "our heroes" not being able to take the Illyrians onboard and drop them off at a latter date?

My vote goes to TNG's Dark Page.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

^Already mentioned in post #5, but yeah, certainly not one of Our Heroes' more shining moments from an ethical standpoint.

From a realism standpoint it would have been interesting to see them again, but I just can't imagine how it could be done without some serious repercussions. Based on the Illyrians' encounter with Enterprise they have every reason to think the worst possible of Starfleet.

It's probably easier though more depressing to assume that ship never made it home.

In Ent: Damage, the stealing of a warp coil from the illyrian ship made the difference between earth/humanity gone (seen in Ent: Twilight) and the actual outcome of the xindi crisis.


But there's another point worth mentioning - you mentioned future encounters between humans and illyrians:

If that illyrian ship never makes it home, there's every chance these encounters will be friendly/rosy/etc, the episode from Ent: Damage being forgotten, its only trace some highly classified starfleet files (and that only if even those were't deleted - just in case).
But, if the illyrian ship makes it home, chances are future encounters between humans and illyrians will be hostile/filled with mistrust.

So - the best way to ensure future peaceful relations with the illyrans would be for Archer/Enterprise to blow the illyran ship out of the sky after he stole the warp coil.

Isn't that twisted?

 

[hux]

I'm not sure what you mean by excluding "war themed darkness," though. "In the Pale Moonlight" is sure a dark hour of STAR TREK, but do you want to exclude every episode that touches upon the Dominion War, or some other criteria?

War is obviously going to include darker themes so many DS9 episodes are easy to include - i was thinking more about ethical dillemas where the outcome is unexpected - i chose Tuvix for example because a traditional "trek world" ending would have been to find a way for Tuvok, Neelix and Tuvix to survive - when i first saw that episode, i fully expected the crew to discover a way of seperating Tuvok and Neelix then duplicating Tuvix so he could go off and live on a nice planet happily ever after - when the end came and Janeway makes her decision and walks away down the corridor, i was genuinely surprised at that ending (very un-trek) but more powerful as a consequence

Likewise, in "Lower decks" the darkest part was not the young junior Bajoran officers death but rather the fact that the senior officers are well aware of the danger they are ordering her to face (i felt that a more experienced officer could have done this)

I guess when i say dark, i mean episodes that are more about ethical and moral decisions that are taken which contradict the star trek philosophy (pale moonlight is a good example as deep down, i always felt that Sisko knew what he was getting into with Garak)

So dark in the sense of going against the optimistic star trek philosophy

 

[CommanderRaytas]

The Enemy Within
Gamesters of Triskelion
The Cage

Star Trek: The Original Series was far darker than modern audiences give it credit for.

Edward Cullen suffers a similar prejudice. I'd say it's because it's so sparkly and shiny and colourful.

...Star Trek, not Edward.

 

[Capt_Pickirk]

Voyager's The Thaw comes to mind. Some of the themes it had in it were pretty dark. And that bit with holographic janeway at the end is creepy as hell

 

[DonIago]

So - the best way to ensure future peaceful relations with the illyrans would be for Archer/Enterprise to blow the illyran ship out of the sky after he stole the warp coil.

Isn't that twisted?

Not that surprising. The most sure-fire way to get away with a crime is to eliminate all of the evidence.

Kirk said it himself - "First rule of assassination - kill the assassins."