Creepiest Star Trek Episode

[Cocytus]

What's the Star Trek episode, TNG, DS9, whatever, that consistently sends chills down your spine, or makes you wonder whether you locked the door?

I was browsing through TNG Season 4 the other night and I thought, "wow, some of these are pretty creepy." It seems nowadays that the lion's share of horror fare is about gore and blood, and the limitations of television prevented Star Trek from going too far down that road (though God knows Voyager tried). Anyway, here are the ones that stick most in my mind:

"Night Terrors," TNG S4. Obvious choice, since the whole theme is nightmares. There are lots of creepy scenes, with Riker in his quarters being a good one. Troi's nightmare isn't frightening at all to me, but the best scene is Crusher seeing the corpses sit up on their tables in the cargo bay. That one never fails to unnerve me.

"Schisms," TNG S6. Another pretty obvious choice, as the theme here is alien abduction and experimentation. We're never really shown the results of the experiments, though. The scene where Beverly discovers Riker's injury is far more unnerving to me than it would have been had we actually seen Riker's severed stump of an arm. The scene that takes the cake is the holodeck recreation of the lab. "We've all been here before." *Shudder* The actual aliens, once we see them, aren't particularly scary. They're still humanoid aliens, even through there's absolutely no reason for them to be. They have somewhat frog-like faces and shuffle awkwardly around in golden robes that look like they have veterinary E-collars on. They were much more frightening when we didn't see them, and the whole episode building up to them is very unsettling.

"Riddles," VOY S6. There really isn't anything creepy about this episode except the scene where they use Naroq's photolytic converter to light up the Baneth ghost image on the Delta Flyer, a pretty good scene. There really isn't anything from Voyager that I would call definitely creepy.

"The Alternate," DS9 S2. This episode features Odo turning into a monster and running amok on the station. The actual monster is just a CGI blob, but the lead up to it is pretty good, especially when Odo starts to melt in his office.

But the creepiest episode of Star Trek to me is:

"Identity Crisis," TNG S4. Like Schisms, the aliens in this one aren't particularly scary once we see them. Googly-eyed neon lizards? Definitely not getting chills from those. But the lead-up to them is excellent. People have started behaving strangely for no apparent reason, with no discernible causal link between them. The first scene on Tarchannen starts off creepy, with Worf dead certain the away team is being watched. Geordi and Susan's uncertainty and apprehension is well done, with no one sure what is going to happen to them until it starts happening. But the best scene is Geordi's recreation of Tarchannen in the holodeck, with the featureless form that suddenly materializes in front of him. It's the holodeck, but right then and there he starts to change, as if the mere image of the unseen alien has some strange power. The best creepy Star Trek episode in my opinion.

[Khas]

TOS: "Obsession". First saw it as a rerun when I was 5, and boy, did it scare me shitless. Just the thought that a cloud could be a vampire was, disturbing, to say the least.

VOY: "Scorpion". Hear me out on this one. While most of the episode was awesome instead of creepy, the part that was creepy was what Species 8472's immune system did to Harry.

TNG: "Conspiracy". Do I really need to explain this one?

[Kor_Dahar_Master]

BOBW

While voyager amoung other things helped screw up the borg BOBW protrayed them as incredibly chilling, the acting, the music and the way they were treated in regards to not giving us a abundance of info on them all added up to a really great episode.

Even the music as they had in the background during "Best of both worlds pt1" as they move to intercept and first approached and engaged the borg was awsome in its application and chilling in its effect.

Even now that i know its all gonna work out ect the score by Ron Jones brings a real feeling of anticipation and almost unholy dread into that one short clip that was perfectly combined with the cube looming larger on the view screen as they approached it.

That simple combo and the way the actors treated it did more to convey just how seriously fucked things were going to get than any other scene or event in the entire franchise where they perhaps kill a red/yellow shirt or blow summat up to try and do the same.

0:14-1:23

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XieBX6B2 ... re=related

1 in and 9 seconds in total and as i said god damn chilling.

[Praeothmin]

Yup, I would also have to say "Conspiracy".
When Remmick is killed and explodes, this was downright discusting and scary...

[2046]

Most of the time "creepy" comes out as "stupid" to me, but I will say the mystery shadow and its reconstruction on the holodeck in "identity Crisis" elevated an otherwise forgettable episode. Even if you know it's telegraphed by the fact that no other away mission has a videographer, there's something about a shadow with no name.

[Cocytus]

Most of the time "creepy" comes out as "stupid" to me

Amusingly enough, this is my exact problem with "Conspiracy," and why I didn't list it. The episode starts off great, with the emergency transmission from Picard's visibly frightened old friend, the secret meeting and subsequent mysterious destruction of the Horatio. But some integral parts of the premise strain my suspension of disbelief too much. The parasites have tremendous control over bodily systems and functions, to the point of making an old human a match for a Klingon, but cannot properly access memory patterns? That's an enormous weakness. Since the parasites are apparently powerless on their own, their whole scheme depends on secrecy, and memory loss is a glaringly obvious trigger for suspicion. Also, the aliens can apparently mask their presence from cursory scans, as Dr. Crusher cannot find anything in Admiral Quinn without doing a full internal scan, but there's a spike sticking about an inch out the back of every infested person's neck, and no-one noticed this ever? How long has this infestation been going on? Months? It was alluded to by Quinn himself in "Coming of Age." Lastly, Picard states in his closing log that the creatures could not survive without the mother creature. So killing the mother caused them all to die? Which implies some sort of sustaining relationship, either physical or mental. If physical, do the creatures need to return to her every so often for sustenance, leaving their hosts? If mental, which seems a more likely case, since the creatures were able to derive sustenance from having their hosts eat bugs, apparently (more on that in a second) then why weren't they able to see through Riker's deception? Or if this relationship is some sort of collective, does it only work from mother to drone, and not vice versa?

And lastly, eating bugs? Why would they eat bugs? These admirals obviously are expected to interact with uninfested people at Starfleet. Even if the admirals are able to sequester themselves at mealtime, it's hard to believe with all the formal stuff admirals do they wouldn't have to have dinner with uninfested people sometime. If so, they should be able to consume normal food just fine. Maybe bugs are more nourishing to the parasites, but what about the hosts? The parasites can mask their presence, this we know, but wouldn't a medical scan reveal they were eating, um, unusual things? Another source of suspicion. And if they kept putting off or avoiding medical scans? Yet another source of suspicion. I guess they ate bugs just to fuck with Picard, (and with us, the audience) but it always made me think of those Halloween haunted houses where you stick your fingers in "brains" and "eyeballs" and whatnot.

Eh, maybe I'm just overthinking this.

[Praeothmin]

Yes, yes you are... ;)

[Mike DiCenso]

You are assuming that the parasites need to eat the mealworms all the time. For all we know, those worms are a delicacy and would be no different to them than a human relishing caviar.

As for the most chilling episode, it all depends on your defintion of such a thing. I find parts of TOS' "The Doomsday Machine" to be chilling, especially when Decker tells of how he had to listen helplessly to the begging of his stranded crew, trapped on the third planet after the Constellation's transporter was knocked out, and with the planet killer moving in to devour it.
-Mike

[User1601]

Yup, I would also have to say "Conspiracy".
When Remmick is killed and explodes, this was downright discusting and scary...

I felt they did that just to be deliberately gross; the original TOS phasers never left any marks, since they didn't need guts&gore to make a cheap impression; it's far more impressive when a weapon is so powerful and mysterious that it can cause someone to just glow and vanish. In contrast, a simple bullet can make a head explode.

That whole episode was a rip-off of RAH's "The Puppet Masters" anyway, i.e. an invasion by mind-controlling alien parasites... in fact that explains why they conveniently were never mentioned again, despite being hailed as an incoming invasion ala the Borg: i.e. cease-and-desist orders from RAH's estate.

Most of the time "creepy" comes out as "stupid" to me, but I will say the mystery shadow and its reconstruction on the holodeck in "identity Crisis" elevated an otherwise forgettable episode. Even if you know it's telegraphed by the fact that no other away mission has a videographer, there's something about a shadow with no name.

Except for the plot-hole of explaining why an invisible object would have a shadow-- and if it did, why the thing itself wouldn't simply show up in the hologram itself to some degree.
Likewise, it's pretty silly that there wouldn't be more complex sensors on the Enterprise than being able to see things; motion, thermal-imaging and all other types of security would seem redundant to stop some "Predator" from getting onboard.

I've never seen a TNG episode that didn't come off as sheerly pretentious and self-indulgent, deliberately serving warmed-over, tired old sci-fi and horror-movie plots as something new, deep and profound (like TOS actually was), simply by tacking on a preachy moral after a deus ex machina ending. This was the bane of TOS-- of which TNG was just a weak, pretentious, overplayed version anyway.... beginning with the introduction of the Gay Gazoo in Episode 1, tying the series-arc to a single lame gimmick-- which became an unfortunate habit for all the later spin-offs as well.

[Picard]

Well, main saving grace of TNG is Captain Picard. And Borg, plus some really good episodes and arcs ("Defector", "Best of Both Worlds", Borg introduction arc, "Darmok", Q's usual lessons, etc).

[Mike DiCenso]

Except for the plot-hole of explaining why an invisible object would have a shadow-- and if it did, why the thing itself wouldn't simply show up in the hologram itself to some degree.

Likewise, it's pretty silly that there wouldn't be more complex sensors on the Enterprise than being able to see things; motion, thermal-imaging and all other types of security would seem redundant to stop some "Predator" from getting onboard.

That doesn't work in the context of the episode. There are plenty of reasons why there would be a "shadow" from a supposedly invisible object, first and foremost is that it is not a true shadow in the sense we understand, but light that is distorted around the creature in much the same way as light passing through a window.

As for security, we know they have tons of sensors that can scan aboard the ship, except when the plot requires it. Even in TOS there were plenty of incidents that show up this happening, like "The Enemy Within" (just scan internally to find Evil Kirk and be done with it) or "The Doomsday Machine" (no one detects Decker stealing a shuttle until it's too late), ect.
-Mike

[TheRainKing777]

The scariest episode of ST is probably the ferbie episode.

[mojo]

i have to turn off the tv, unplug it, and hide it in the freezer every time they play the episode where rain's girlfriend can be briefly seen walking through the background. the first time i saw that, i was so scared that i shit HIS pants.

[TheRainKing777]

Why are you following me? Did Mike DeCenso put you up to this?

[mojo]

Why are you following me? Did Mike DeCenso put you up to this?

UNLIKELY!

i'm following you because every time you post, mike dicenso can be heard weeping softly as you destroy another piece of his soul. it scares the shit out of me EVERY SINGLE TIME.
i thought my house was haunted YOU JACKASS!