Star Trek: What are the scariest episodes?
The episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “All Those Who Wander” featured the scariest approach yet to the Gorn, first seen in The Original Series with Kirk (William Shatner) battling a man in a rubber suit. The new episode clearly borrowed heavily from the classic space horror movie Alien.
Below, find a couple of videos—including a clip from the Strange New Worlds horror episode, as well as clips from other scary Star Trek episodes. There’s also a checklist below to help you grab the episodes and watch them.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Spock’s Rage | Paramount+
After a Gorn kills a newly-minted lieutenant and the Enterprise away team is forced to fight for their lives, Spock (Ethan Peck) has no choice but to find his anger…
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Star Trek’s Scariest Episodes | Paramount+
In honor of the Strange New Worlds episode, this video shows several more scary examples from the larger Star Trek saga.
Episodes highlighted in “Star Trek’s Scariest Episodes”
Star Trek: The Original Series
“The Devil in the Dark” (Season 1 | Episode 25)—Answering a distress call, Captain Kirk and Mr Spock beam down to the planet Janus IV where more than 50 workers have been hideously slain by an unknown monster. As they investigate, Spock learns they are not dealing with a mindless beast. “When ‘The Devil in the Dark’ premiered on March 9, 1967, it demonstrated why Star Trek was different from most other science fiction programs on television,” notes StarTrek.com. “It was a monster story, to be certain, but instead of the monster being simplistically evil and being destroyed in the end, the Horta was instead an intelligent individual with understandable motivations and one which cooperation was possible. In that way, ‘The Devil in the Dark’ is a quintessential Star Trek episode thematically.”
“Wolf in the Fold” (Season 2 | Episode 14)—Three women on the planet Argelius are apparently murdered by Scotty, the Enterprise’s chief engineer—what the hell?!? Soon, the crew of the Enterprise find their own lives are at risk from an evil energy being that feeds on fear and panic. The episode was written by horror writer Robert Bloch, whose 1959 novel Psycho was adapted into the 1960 movie.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
“Conspiracy” (Season 1 | Episode 25)—Picard must deal with suspicions that there is a growing conspiracy within the upper ranks of Starfleet. “Writer Tracy Tormé, adapting a story by Robert Sabaroff to The Next Generation, had hoped to make ‘Conspiracy’ a commentary on the Iran/Contra Affair, but this potentially controversial notion was nixed,” according to Memory Alpha. “A plot by Starfleet officers out to undermine the Prime Directive (already introduced six episodes before, in ‘Coming of Age’), turned out to be the result of an infestation of alien insects, not part of Tormé's original approach.”
“Night Terrors” (Season 4 | Episode 17)—As the Enterprise investigates a derelict starship, Deanna Troi has strange dreams. When the crew becomes trapped in a space rift—with the crew slowly going insane—only Data and Troi are left to find a way to save the Enterprise.
“Schisms” (Season 6 | Episode 5)—Adjustments to the subspace sensor array inadvertently establish a link to aliens who begin kidnapping crew members for experiments. “Although hardly the first Trek episode in which characters have been abducted by aliens,” notes Memory Alpha, “‘Schisms’ marks Trek’s first foray into the phenomenon of alien abduction in the popular sense.”
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Empok Nor” (Season 5 | Episode 24)—A foray to an abandoned Cardassian space station for needed parts finds two Cardassians in stasis tubes, and a drug that turns Garak into a killer. “Empok Nor is effectively a slasher movie. It is Bryan Fuller’s second story credit for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and it shares a number of tonal and thematic similarities with his story for ‘The Darkness and the Light,’” remarks The Movie Blog. “Both episodes are essentially pitched as serial killer horror movies, in which monsters from the past stalk our lead characters. These are fascinating tonal departures for the Rick Berman era of the Star Trek franchise, even if they feel like the logical extension of early horror-tinged episodes like ‘The Man Trap’ or ‘Charlie X’ or ‘The Enemy Within.’”
Star Trek: Voyager
“The Thaw” (Season 2 | Episode 23)—When the Voyager crew finds Kohl settlers in artificial hibernation, Torres and Kim are sent inside the program to investigate—and are soon horrified by the very weird circumstances that have happened. “Very bizarre, but it works,” notes Jammer’s Reviews. “Scores points for being different, featuring intriguing surreal qualities.” I won’t give away the ending, but Captain Janeway has a great scene when she confronts the enemy.
Enterprise
“Impulse” (Season 3 | Episode 5)—Archer and his team board a damaged Vulcan vessel adrift in an asteroid field and filled with zombie-like creatures. “Rick Berman offered this episode to director David Livingston who was excited to do a horror movie instead of the normally very Star Trek themed episodes,” according to Memory Alpha.
Star Trek: Discovery
“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. She overhears Lieutenant Paul Stamets, an astromycologist who is leading the assignment, discuss an upcoming experiment with a colleague serving on another starship; Lorca is soon informed of an incident on the Discovery’s sister ship, the USS Glenn, that killed its crew. Stamets leads a boarding party, including Burnham, to investigate and finds the dead crew hideously twisted and malformed, as well as a group of Klingons who were killed by an unknown creature. When it attacks the boarding party, Burnham devises a plan to outwit the creature, allowing the rest of the party to escape to the shuttle. “Aaron Harberts expressed the themes of this episode in his own words,” remarks Memory Alpha. “‘This was an episode about secrets and mysteries, and a version of Starfleet that is at war, and a science vessel conscripted for that purpose.’”