Get Your Halloween Watchlist Ready With Our List of the Scariest 'Star Trek' Episodes

Images: Paramount.

OCTOBER 10, 2023 - If you’re anything like me, you like to spend your Octobers getting into the Halloween spirit. What better way to do that than watch scary movies and shows? So, to help us get in the Halloween spirit and stay true to our Trekkie roots, I’ve prepared a list of the top 10 scariest Star Trek episodes for you to watch leading up to October 31st. 

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10:  Star Trek: Voyager Season 6 Episode 25 “The Haunting of Deck 12”

This episode isn’t even that scary, however it does involve spooky ghost stories and therefore it is number 10. This episode is great to watch if you want to get into the Halloween spirit. After the power goes out on the USS Voyager Neelix has to entertain the Borg children, thus he decides to tell them a ghost story about what caused the power to go out. However, that story may not be just a story… 

9. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 Episode 19 “Genesis”

This is such an awful episode that I cannot justify putting it any higher on the list. The body horror in this episode is absolutely terrifying. In this episode the crew of the Enterprise contract a virus that causes them to de-evolve.

8. Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 Episode 5 “The Man Trap”

This episode isn’t as much scary in plot as it is disturbing. The makeup is absolutely terrifying. In this episode the crew of the Enterprise encounters a beautiful woman when visiting an archeological research site. However, this woman appears different to everyone who sees her. She seduces people by appearing beautiful to them so that she can suck the salt out of their bodies to support her.

7. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 Episode 21 “Frame Of Mind”

I absolutely love this episode. The entire time you’re watching it you’re questioning your reality. In this episode, Riker performs a role in a play where he’s a man who’s kept locked up, drugged, and experiencing a mental breakdown. Then Riker gets kidnapped by aliens, locked up, drugged, and experiences a mental breakdown. In this episode, we jump between Riker’s role in the play and him locked up. It becomes difficult to discern what is real and what is fake. Jonathan Frakes’ performance in this episode is impeccable and will make your head spin, leaving you as confused as Riker.

6. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 Episode 6 “Phantasams”

This episode gets a lot of flack for being the Troi-cake episode (if you know you know), however, it is one of my favorite TNG episodes. In this episode, Data suddenly begins having nightmares. This episode isn’t necessarily scary but it is unsettling and quite wacky. I acknowledge my bias towards Data as he’s my favorite, however, this is my list of the top 10 scariest episodes and thus I will include “Phantasams.”

5. Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 Episode 11 “Miri”

This episode may only be on this list because I find small children slightly unsettling. However, I still think it is a great Halloween watch. The whole episode has a very Black Mirror/Twilight Zone vibe that I quite like. In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise beams down to a planet inhabited by aggressive children. It turns out that the children are all infected with a virus that keeps them young.

4. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Season 5 Episode 24 “Empok Nor”

This episode is your classic abandoned haunted house horror, however this time it’s an abandoned Space Station. You know it’s going to go bad from the beginning when a handful of characters who, in the Original Series, would have been red-shirts join a handful of returning characters on their mission to investigate this abandoned space station. 

3. Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 3 “Context is for Kings”

In this episode, Michael Burnham and a group of other members of the Discovery crew investigate the abandoned ship of Stament’s colleague. When they enter the ship they find that they are surrounded by the mutilated remains of the ship’s crew. Throughout this whole episode, I was sitting on the edge of my seat. It is the first episode on this list that actually feels like a horror movie. 

2. Star Trek: Picard season 2 episode 7 “Monsters”

This episode is truly terrifying. Picard is stuck in a coma and Tallinn has to mind-meld with him and guide him through his deepest fears. We get a look into Picard’s life and all he’s suffered, through the guise of exploring his childhood home. I love it. The use of “Non, je ne regrette rien” in this episode is genius.

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The number one scariest Star Trek episode of all time is…..

1. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 9 “All Those Who Wander”

Everyone I’ve talked to has said this episode terrified them It really is filmed like a horror movie. In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise are stranded on a planet with a Gorn breeding colony. The crew has to face both the terrifying Gorn and their inner demons.