Scary Star Trek tales

[STEPhon IT]

I'm in the spirit for Halloween, and I've been watching a sort of Halloween themed tv shows and movies such as The Twilight Zone, R.I. Stine material, HBO's Tales From the Crypt and some Disney materials like Ichabod Crane. I'm opening this thread to know and endeavor materials which had these scary themes in Star Trek; this can be Star Trek episodes you liked and literature and also maybe some un-produced scripts or treatments I or forum members haven't had light of. "Catspaw" was an interesting episode was there more material out there you'll love to share?

 

[Farscape One]

TNG - "Where Silence Has Lease", "The Royale", "Remember Me", "Night Terrors", "Schisms", "Frame of Mind", "Phantasms", "Genesis"

DS9 - "DISTANT VOICES", "EMPOK NOR"

VGR - "CATHEXIS", "FACES", "PERSISTENCE OF VISION", "THRESHOLD", "MELD", "THE THAW", "THE HAUNTING OF DECK TWELVE"

All of these have a horror or creepy vibe or are very TWILIGHT ZONE-like.

 

[STEPhon IT]

TNG - "Where Silence Has Lease", "The Royale", "Remember Me", "Night Terrors", "Schisms", "Frame of Mind", "Phantasms", "Genesis"

DS9 - "DISTANT VOICES", "EMPOK NOR"

VGR - "CATHEXIS", "FACES", "PERSISTENCE OF VISION", "THRESHOLD", "MELD", "THE THAW", "THE HAUNTING OF DECK TWELVE"

All of these have a horror or creepy vibe or are very TWILIGHT ZONE-like.

What did you like or dislike about them? You don't have to share your thoughts to all but the ones that captivated you? If it was all then COOL, please share?

 

[Damian]

"Catspaw" is an obvious for the original series. Don't think that one needs any explanation. "The Man Trap" from season 1 and "And the Children Shall Lead" form season 3 also have varying elements of 'scare' to them.

For TNG "Night Terrors" come to mind. I always loved the scene when Crusher is in the cargo bay and the corpses are all sitting up. "Schisms" is another, the aliens there were always a bit freaky, and the whole idea of being abducted in your sleep and only remembering fragments is creepy.

For DS9 "Empok Nor" comes to mind. Murderous Cardassians sneaking around a darkened, abandoned Cardassian station, and also having to watch out for booby traps.

Voyager may be a bit obvious, but "The Haunting of Deck 12" is tailor made for Halloween. Also, I can't remember the name of the episode off hand but it was the one with the clown. When they had to get into the minds of survivors who are being held hostage by a paranoid computer. Was it "The Thaw" maybe?

Enterprise I would probably pick "Impulse." Sure, zombie-like Vulcans might seem a bit obvious, but it wasn't just that, the way they filmed the episode added an element of terror. The fast close ups, the make up work. The idea of losing one's mind and emotional control for a species that prided itself on it's emotional control. Then add in the darkened ship, the random sparks and flashing lights, the constant pummeling of the ship by the asteroids, and the asteroids themselves twisting and turning due to the anomalies.

I don't know if I could really pick anything out from Discovery. Maybe the episode where Harry Mudd forces the Discovery into a time loop and time repeats.

With Picard the one thing I found terrifying was whatever was starting to come through that wormhole. I don't know what it was but whatever it was looked decidedly unpleasant.

 

[STEPhon IT]

PICARD I thought blew it with that climax of tentacles because it reminded me of Marvel's The Avengers. I could've thought of something more interesting than what was aped off from a movie. Star Trek is so much more than super threats, I don't know how you reacted to the tentacles but I laughed out loud shaking my head at how uninspiring that reveal was. It was empty for me.

DS9 had some mysterious themes all through out, some could be considered scary. An interesting world DS9 was, imagine what other things could've been explored if it wasn't hampered by a predictable war?

Zombie Vulcans sounds interesting, outside of "Impulse" I think Star Trek should explore more of Vulcan mysticism or other alien races mysticism or myths.

 

[1001001]

Every Halloween we watch The Haunting of Deck Twelve.

Love that episode.

 

[Farscape One]

What did you like or dislike about them? You don't have to share your thoughts to all but the ones that captivated you? If it was all then COOL, please share?

For all the ones listed except "Remember Me" (which was truly a TWILIGHT ZONE concept and execution, which is why it's on this list), it's a combination of horror/creepy story, lighting, execution, and atmosphere. When I think of Halloween, it's always much more than scares and frights. The mood... the ambience... the atmosphere. Those things go farther than any straight up horror story.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Star Trek is such an open canvas, like Batman, it seems like a writer can do anything with the concept. Space to me is scary in itself, I'm still trying to rack my brain about "Dark Matter", it is the big mystery and we haven't scratched the surface. "Remember Me" is a scary one for me because Crusher keeps seeing her colleagues disappear and the narrative just adjust whoever is left to keep going. Chilling episode.

 

[There Be Whales Here]

For the TOS, "Catspaw" was an obvious one and was meant to be the series Halloween episode. But in some ways I always found "The Doomsday Machine" to be more frightening, as it was like the Borg of it's day by being an almost unstoppable killing machine that took practically everything thrown at it to defeat. I would have loved to have seen a sequel to that episode where the Enterprise came across an even more powerful version, perhaps from the other side of the interstellar conflict that created the first one and it would have been even more horrifying.

For the TNG, I second "Night Terrors" as it had some truly unnerving scenes (as well as the one of Troi "flying" in her leotard, but that's another subject). Being someone who has suffered from bad insomnia and would also struggle to stay awake during my years working night shifts, what the Enterprise crew was going through really hit home for me as sleep-deprived hallucinations are a real and uncomfortable thing.

"Conspiracy" had it's scary moments in that the aliens' true origins and motivities were never clear and it really needed a sequel. As well as the obvious and totally unexpected for Star Trek, death of Remick at the end.

"Schisms" also was an unsettling episode parroting the whole alien abduction belief as well as the premise of Riker's arm being severed and then re-attached I found disturbing.

The entity in "Where Silence Has Lease" and "Time Squared" with Picard's doppelganger also seemed to have an unsettling atmosphere throughout.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

"Man Trap" and "Moist Vessel" have that creature-feature vibe to them. The salt creature is a great combination of temptress and shape-shifting. Moist Vessel reminds me of the all-consuming horrors of The Blob or The Fog.

Things Past and Barge of the Dead are more confrontations with death and truth in nightmare scenarios. Neither has a mystery to solve. Both are relative tame, but could have had the horror content increased. Indeed, I could see Barge looking more like a Hellraiser film.

 

[Brobdingnag]

Let's not forget Macrocosm, it's pretty scary when you stop to think about it.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Let's not forget Macrocosm, it's pretty scary when you stop to think about it.

Is that the one where Barley is consumed by space organisms?

 

[Damian]

PICARD I thought blew it with that climax of tentacles because it reminded me of Marvel's The Avengers. I could've thought of something more interesting than what was aped off from a movie. Star Trek is so much more than super threats, I don't know how you reacted to the tentacles but I laughed out loud shaking my head at how uninspiring that reveal was. It was empty for me.

DS9 had some mysterious themes all through out, some could be considered scary. An interesting world DS9 was, imagine what other things could've been explored if it wasn't hampered by a predictable war?

Zombie Vulcans sounds interesting, outside of "Impulse" I think Star Trek should explore more of Vulcan mysticism or other alien races mysticism or myths.

I never saw The Avengers so that may account for my differing opinion. Not much of a Marvels fan. Perhaps if I did I might feel differently.

Is that the one where Barley is consumed by space organisms?

I believe that is a Voyager episode where giant viruses hunt the crew. It was a bit creepy.

 

[dupersuper]

Let's not forget Macrocosm, it's pretty scary when you stop to think about it.

I find it more scary when you don't stop to think about it...once you do that it's more preposterous.

 

[Farscape One]

The same thing can be said about "Genesis". Funny enough, both were written by Brannon Braga. Coincidence?

(That wasn't really a dig at him, because he truly had a marvelous imagination with his high concepts throughout most of his tenure in the franchise. I just found it funny because I thought the same thing about both episodes.)

 

[Damian]

I find it more scary when you don't stop to think about it...once you do that it's more preposterous.

The same thing can be said about "Genesis". Funny enough, both were written by Brannon Braga. Coincidence?

(That wasn't really a dig at him, because he truly had a marvelous imagination with his high concepts throughout most of his tenure in the franchise. I just found it funny because I thought the same thing about both episodes.)

Yeah, sometimes you just have to go with it and try not to think about it too much. Both episodes could be equal parts creepy, suspenseful and ridiculous.

I watch a lot of horror and slasher films, so I have learned the art of suspension of disbelief pretty well, LOL. If it keeps me engaged and it's entertaining otherwise, I can forgive some of the ridiculous. Both episodes had enough entertainment value that I could forgive their excesses. I mean, they'll never rank as best episodes for me, but they're not "Threshold" level bad

Braga does get knocked around a bit here. But while he has a few clunkers, he also wrote some great Trek episodes, some of the best in fact. And I give him credit. He owns up to his mistakes. He has no problems admitting "Threshold" was not his best hour.

 

[Damian]

Star Trek is such an open canvas, like Batman, it seems like a writer can do anything with the concept. Space to me is scary in itself, I'm still trying to rack my brain about "Dark Matter", it is the big mystery and we haven't scratched the surface. "Remember Me" is a scary one for me because Crusher keeps seeing her colleagues disappear and the narrative just adjust whoever is left to keep going. Chilling episode.

"Frame of Mind" is another that comes to mind for chilling. Psychological thrillers can sometimes be the scariest. Is Riker losing his mind? What is real and what is just a dream or nightmare?

That episode does a good job making us wonder about that. I'd actually probably add that to any Halloween Star Trek watch list.

 

[STEPhon IT]

The same thing can be said about "Genesis". Funny enough, both were written by Brannon Braga. Coincidence?

(That wasn't really a dig at him, because he truly had a marvelous imagination with his high concepts throughout most of his tenure in the franchise. I just found it funny because I thought the same thing about both episodes.)

That episode was scary, the crew were de-evolving into ancient beasts from their genetic ancestry. Wow. Barkley became a human spider. What an episode?

 

[STEPhon IT]

"Frame of Mind" is another that comes to mind for chilling. Psychological thrillers can sometimes be the scariest. Is Riker losing his mind? What is real and what is just a dream or nightmare?

That episode does a good job making us wonder about that. I'd actually probably add that to any Halloween Star Trek watch list.

I get confused with that episode and the one where Riker's hand was severed by those fish aliens. Another chilling episode.

 

[Brobdingnag]

I get confused with that episode and the one where Riker's hand was severed by those fish aliens. Another chilling episode.

Severed and then put back with impossible precision... 0.02 Microns!! That's one-tenth of the smaller cell in our body! Why do they have to say things this ridiculous?