The best Star Trek episodes for Halloween

Star Trek isn't the first thing that comes to most people's minds when it comes to horror, but there are plenty of episodes that straddle the sci-fi into the terrifying and unusual. Considering how many television series are attributed to the IP, at least a few of them include the creepy and scary, making them ideal for Halloween.

Some of the best Star Trek Halloween episodes feature new twists on old stories like ghost ships and zombies, while others play on the multitude of new terrors that are possible in the cold nothingness of space. Star Trek the writers have experimented with other Halloween-related concepts that are also worth including, such as psychological horror and dark fantasy.

7 Charlie X

TOS: Season 1 Episode 2

• Directed by: Lawrence Dobkin
• Guest Star: Robert Walker, Charles J. Stewart, Dallas Mitchell, Patricia McNulty
• Broadcast date: September 15, 1966

You have fans The twilight zone he might recall a similar tragic story about a kid who sent people who tried their patience “into the cornfield.” This time, however, that adorable child has an entire galaxy under his control, and once he begins to feel his power, only outside intervention can keep the Enterprise from being held hostage by his godlike powers.

Charlie X was found stranded on a desolate, lifeless planet among the wreckage of the crash where he was the sole survivor. However, he did not survive alone, but was rescued by a group of benevolent, non-corporeal aliens with devastating psychic powers. Inheriting these powers saved his life, but at the terrible cost of isolating him from other human beings forever.

6 Bride of Chaos!

Voyager: Season 5, Episode 12

• Directed by: Allan Kroeker
• Guest stars: Martin Rayner, Nicholas Worth, Paul F. O'Brien
• Broadcast date: Season 5 Episode 12

For those who love Halloween fun, in the spirit of traditions such as Rocky Horrorone of the best Halloween episodes is Voyageris “The Chaotic Bride!” Holodeck episodes can be tedious, but this is one of the few that isn't, another reason why it's worth it Star Trek fan time even if it's not Halloween.

Tom Paris and Harry Kim are enjoying another fun episode of The Adventures of Captain Proton on the Holodeck when an emergency calls, leaving the program running. An alien race that exists in a photonic state crosses into the holodeck using an interdimensional spatial anomaly.

The antagonist of the Captain Proton program, Dr. Chaotica, wages war with them at their expense Voyagerhis team, who must play their roles in the simulation to defeat him. The best part is Janeway as Queen Arachnia, who is destined to be Dr. Chaotica's bride.

5 The vanishing point

Enterprise: Season 2 Episode 10

• Directed by: David Straiton
• Guest stars: Keone Young, Gary Riotto, Ric Sarabi
• Broadcast date: November 27, 2002

This is an era when transporter technology was fairly new and not very reliable, so naturally Hoshi is nervous about using one, even for an escape. Her fears are well founded, and after using the transporter to return to the ship, she experiences moments where she seems to disappear. After a while, she disappears completely, and what makes it worse is that her fellow crew members assume she is dead.

There are a few Star Trek episodes that use the “transporter gone wrong” motif, and this one from Enterprise is one of the most terrifying. It is not just the terror of becoming invisible, but of watching the process slowly unfold and being powerless to stop it.

4 Hard time

DS9: April 15, 1996

• Directed by: Alexander Singer
• Guest stars: Rosalind Chao, Margot Rose, Hana Hatae, FJ Rio
• Broadcast date: Season 4, Episode 19

The worst terrors always come from the darkest and most secret recesses of the human mind and continue to haunt us long after the experience is over. The people of the planet Argratha took this lesson to heart and modeled their correctional facilities on the same concept.

When O'Brien is convicted of murder, the Argrathians sentence him to 20 years in prison for his crimes, but the time served is in his head as a memory. He's been living through all the horrors of a real prison sentence for two decades, and even though it's only a memory implant, his trauma, nightmares, and depression are very real.

3 Genesis

TNG: Season 7 Episode 19

• Directed by: Gates McFadden
• Guest stars: Dwight Schultz, Patti Yasutake, Carlos Ferro, Majel Barrett
• Broadcast date: March 19, 1994

Movies like Fly and working take on the true terror of body horror and human devolution and The next generation uses the same idea in “Genesis.” It's not just a scary story, it's also bizarre and grotesque, so it's no surprise that this episode was nominated for no fewer than 10 Emmy Awards in the category of “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series.”

It all starts with an innocent flu shot for the ever-unthreatening Reginald Barclay, but it activates his dormant genes and begins to evolve into a spider. To make matters worse, his condition is contagious and it doesn't take long to infect the entire ship. When Picard and Data return from a distant mission, they find the ship floating dead in space and the crew transformed into monkeys, lizards and other terrifying creatures.

2 momentum

Enterprise: Season 3 Episode 5

• Directed by: Season 3 Episode 5
• Guest Star: Sean McGowan
• Broadcast date: October 8, 2003

The Enterprise the episode “Impulse” includes some of the best things about both Star Trek and horror: a ghost ship, zombies and volcanoes. The story begins with a rescue mission in response to a distress call from the cruiser Vulcan Seleya. Another Vulcan ship, the Vaankara, had previously responded, but the crew had been overcome by a mysterious, aggressive madness that turned them against each other, resulting in the ship's destruction.

The behavior of Seleyea's Vulcan crew bears all the hallmarks of common undead madness, along with other physical indicators such as mottled skin and lack of speech, but the mystery of their suffering becomes clearer when only T'Pol begins to show the same. terrible symptoms. Eventually, it was revealed that the ore that had been mined on the nearby asteroids was a deadly neurotoxin to the volcanoes. T'Pol's brief exposure means he can recover, but the other Vulcans cannot be saved.

1 Night terrors

TNG: Season 4, Episode 17

• Directed by: Les Landau
• Guest stars: Rosalind Chao, John Vickery, Duke Moosekian, Craig Hurley
• Broadcast date: Season 4, Episode 17

Another take on the haunted ship idea, “Night Terrors,” is more about fear of the unseen than zombies. The crew goes on a search and rescue mission for the USS Brattain, and when they find her, she is dead in space and every crew member is dead except for one, but he is catatonic. The survivor Andrus Hagan also happens to be a Betazoid, so Troi is tasked with trying to reach him telepathically while the other officers search the derelict ship.

Then Troi's nightmares begin, Crusher discovers that the crew have killed each other, and Geordi can't find anything wrong with the ship, but still won't budge. Troy's dreams are eerie visions of distant lights and disembodied voices repeating words that don't seem to make sense. The resolution of this episode is painfully scientific, despite the mystery that underpins the plot.