Since it’s inception Star Trek hasn’t just been a sci fi show, but a show that used it’s science fiction setting to tell a variety of stories from a large pool of themes and styles. And since we’re officially in ‘Spooky Season’ on the countdown to Halloween, why not take a look at some of Star Trek’s best dives into darkness?
EMPOK NOR
DEEP SPACE NINE, SEASON 5
Deep Space Nine is falling apart and thanks to the war, O’Brien can’t exactly ask the Cardassians for spare parts. But he has a plan. Along with Nog and Garak, O’Brien leads an engineering crew to another abandoned Cardassian station to salvage what they can. Only problem is… there’s a reason it was abandoned…
Possibly the most straight forward horror story in the series, Empok Nor was host to an experiment gone wrong. The Cardassians left behind three super soldiers, with only one surviving to pick off the crew one by one before Garak falls to the airborne virus that turned the soldier into a bit of an unhinged killer. As Garak taunts O’Brien about his career as a soldier, famously against the Cardassians during conflict, everyone’s favourite engineer has to find a way to take Garak down and save a captured Cadet Nog.
Using the usually colourful and busy DS9 sets as a dimly lit empty shell, along with a deadly killer playing cat and mouse game added to the tension of using a classic format in Star Trek’s world.
SCHISMS
THE NEXT GENERATION, SEASON 6
Suffering through seemingly sleepless nights and drowsing off on duty, Riker feels a little bit off until he find out he’s not alone. Several members of the Enterprise crew are feeling the same. A full nights rest, but waking up exhausted. Not only that, small moments and interactions give them a vague sense of fear and panic of something they can’t place or remember and the deeper they look into it, the weirder it gets. Including Riker finding out that his arm had somehow been amputated and reattached without him knowing…
In what’s pretty much an alien abduction episode, Schisms carries a certain unsettling sensation as the crew piece together what’s happening to them before Riker tries to turn the tables wbefore he gets probed to death…
THE MAN TRAP
THE ORIGINAL SERIES, SEASON 1
It might not have the Bewitched style charm of Catspaw, or the flying pancakes of doom from Operation Annihilate, but the Man Trap is technically speaking the episode that kicked off Star Trek on screen with it being chosen as the first to broadcast in place of the actual pilot Where No Man Has Gone Before.
Space might be big, but even then McCoy bumps into an old flame as she works on an archaeological site on the remote planet M-113. Or so he thinks. In reality it’s a shape shifting creature who takes the form of someone you can trust and the moment you’re close by, it sucks all the salt out of your body. Most of the episode takes place on the Enterprise, giving us a first glimpse of the now legendary ship as the Salt Vampire shapeshifts it’s way through breakfast, lunch and dinner, leaving a trail of dead crew in it’s wake.
MELD
VOYAGER SEASON 2
A murder investigation comes to a swift end when Tuvok finds the killer who has no qualms about admitting his guilt. Mostly because he doesn’t really care. Lon Sudar joined the Maquis and was good in battle. So good Chakotay felt a little uncomfortable about his casual approach to slaughtering Cardassians. Now integrated into Voyagers crew, Sudar can’t hide his casual approach to deadly violence and Tuvok can’t accept a motivation that’s so flippant.
Reaching into larger questions, Meld uses the dilemma of Voyager being stranded to find a solution to the sudden arrival of a serial killer. There’s no judge, no legal process and no way they can keep him in the brig indefinitely. So Tuvok, in a move that perhaps wasn’t the smartest, decides to mind meld some Vulcan calm into Sudar not realising that his incredibly violent thoughts and sociopathic nature might just trigger all that repressed Vulcan rage….
FRAME OF MIND
THE NEXT GENERATION, SEASON 6
Another creepy episode, another one for Riker! Frame of Mind is a psychological horror that has Riker questioning what reality for him really is. Shifting between Commander Riker rehearsing a play, and not-Commander Riker stuck in an asylum, the episode keeps a really nice balance in shifting between the two perceptions as he finds himself stuck between both worlds unable to find out which is real.
His entire instability is thanks to an alien probe trying to get information. His mind tries to hold on to reality through the play helping him push through the new reality being written for him. Compared to other entries in TNG’s darker side, Frame of Minds setting and editing set it apart as a genuinely uncomfortable experience through Rikers struggle.
Did we miss out your Favourite creepy episode? Get engaged and let us know at Starbase Europa!
About the author
A Fistful of Spooky Encounters
Since it's inception Star Trek hasn't just been a sci fi show, but a show that used it's science fiction setting to tell a variety of stories from a large pool of themes and styles. And since we're officially in 'Spooky Season' on the countdown to Halloween, why not take a look at some of Star Trek's best dives into darkness? EMPOK NOR DEEP SPACE NINE, SEASON 5 Deep Space Nine is falling apart and thanks to the war, O'Brien can't exactly ask the Cardassians for spare parts. But he has a plan. Along with Nog and Garak, O'Brien leads an engineering crew to another abandoned Cardassian station to salvage what they can. Only problem is... there's a reason it was abandoned... Possibly the most straight forward horror story in the series, Empok Nor was host to an experiment gone […]
Delta Quarter Promotions & Citations: September 2026
Throughout it’s entire existence SFC has grown, evolved and thrived due to the commitment and passion of our officers and crew. Keen members can make a huge difference within their unit or the fleet as a whole, and we like to ensure members are rewarded and recognised for all they bring to the organisation. Starting this year, we're opening every new period within the fleet celebrating those who have made an impact and engaged in being a positive influence in their unit or in Q2 overall. And while we're getting in a little bit earlier, we'd like to introduce our Delta Quarter awards. While promotion is one of the most visible awards available to members, one of the most vital are our commendations. Commendations are a formal recognition awarded to members of Quadrant 2 who have shown commendable service and […]
What If…. the Whales Were Never Extinct?
Fondly remembered as the lightest, more comedic entries in Star Trek's film offerings, The Voyage Home is the story of an alien probe coming to Earth to talk to it's whale pen pal, a little bit miffed that they've not had a letter in a while. In the 21st century, those pen pals – Humpback Whales – had been hunted to extinction. Meanwhile, Kirk and his disgraced crew were on the way home to stand trial and through some time warp shenanigans, take a stolen Bird of Prey back to the 20th century, kidnap some whales, and take them to the 23rd century to save the day. The charges against Kirk were a fairly big deal. Previously Kirk had stolen a soon to be retired Enterprise, went against orders and along with support from his long standing command crew barged […]
[Retro Review] The Doomsday Machine
Responding to a distress call from the USS Constellation, the Enterprise race to the rescue but they arrive too late to save the day. Coming under fire from an alien entity, the Constellation has been heavily damaged and with only one survivor within it's charred shell; Commodore Matt Decker... Still in shock from the attack, Decker isn't able to say if it was an alien ship, or a creature that tore his ship apart. It doesn't take long to track the aliens flight path. It's not from around these parts, entering the Galaxy and on course towards populated areas that would undoubtedly be next in it's devastating path. Beaming on board with an away team, Kirk aims to try and get whats left of the ship back up and running while getting Decker to safety. But during the transit, the […]
Under Pressure: ‘Orders Of Magnitude’, Strange New Worlds S4E08
Boarding as a hero and legend, Admiral Joe Reeger arrives, take command and leaves Pike stranded as he leads the remaining Enterprise crew on an urgent mission. With a visiting (again!) James Kirk picked out as first officer, Reegers mission and motivations come into question and puts Kirk's leadership to task... Writers: Alan B McElroy Director: Sharon Lewis One thing about season four that's been a highlight through some uneven episodes is how it's guiding it's characters form our first contact with them in this series, and how we originally met them sixty years earlier. While it's been more obvious with Spock's pivot towards being closer to his logical side, we've had Chapel make the choice to become a permanent part of the Enterprise and Scotty's move towards being the 'miracle worker'. Even Pike seems to be on the […]
Days of Our Unreal Lives: ‘Like Chronitons Through The Hourglass’, Strange New Worlds S4E07
Waking up in sickbay with a comical bandage on his head following a shuttle accident, Pike quickly notices things are a bit off. The lights are too bright. The medical staff are behaving oddly with dramatic pauses aplenty. And he's fairly certain space madness isn't a genuine diagnosis. As the hour continues with devious secret siblings, dramatic feats of medicine and family drama aplenty, Pike is drawn further into the strangest of all worlds; the soap opera. Writers: Dana Horgan and Bill WolkoffDirector: Anna Dozoka Soap opera's are mental. And for a theme it's even more mental than it seems. But considering soap opera's are basically just overly dramatic premises with long lost relatives you'd never before heard of, absolutely insane scenario's that make Maggie Simpson shooting Mr Burns seem normal and plot twists so insane you genuinely have to […]
Related
A Fistful of Undercover Operations
Occasionally when exploring the wonders of deep space, our heroes of Trek have been summoned to - or by sheer accident - become another person to fulfil their mission. Whether it's O'Brien mixing with gangsters or Picard becoming a mercenary, Star Trek's filled with episodes where our favourite explorers have to become someone else to save the day.... FACE OF THE ENEMY The Next Generation Season 6 Waking up on the Warbird Khazara, Deanna Troi finds herself in a bit of a pickle. Kidnapped and surgically altered to take the place of a Tal Shiar Commander she finds herself led by her handler, N'Vek, to lead a secret mission after the Commander had been killed. Out of her comfort zone, Troi has to convince the crew she's the real deal despite the ships skipper knowing something's not quite right.... In […]
A Fistful of Down To Earth Adventures
Warping through the stars always searching for the next adventure, it's rare that Star Trek ever comes home to Earth. Through all the series, and highlighted in Enterprise, the third rock from our sun is kinda important in the grand scheme of things but our eyes are always far beyond the stars. So for no particular reason at all - certainly not any recent new series launching - we're taking a look at Trek's more Earthbound moments.... Homefront/Paradise Lost Deep Space Nine Season 4 The Founders said they were everywhere. Now we know they're on Earth. Recordings revealed a founder during the bombing of a Federation meeting on the home-world and Sisko is recalled. His knowledge and experience with the Dominion is vital to securing Earth against the inevitable war. But while the Dominion may be the enemy, they aren't […]
A Fistful of ‘Spirk’
We've been spoiled with Spock in the past few years with Discovery introducing a younger iteration of the character long before he became the refined man of logic that made him famous, and continued that story through Strange New Worlds and his time under Captain Pike's command. As Strange New Worlds continues, giving more history to the original series line up and the early meetings of Spock and Kirk as it makes way for the beginning of the Kirk era, we thought we'd look back at some moments that made the partnership one of the most popular combinations in science fiction. JOURNEY TO BABEL TOS Season 2 Spock's got a bit of an issue with sharing. Secret brother who was shunned. Secret sister who's fate was classified. And despite trusting the Enterprise crew with his life, it was clearly only […]
A Fistful of O’Brien
Entering the Star Trek world as an unnamed extra with a few bits of dialogue, O'Brien soon became a fixture on the Enterprise D as it's transporter chief before moving to Deep Space Nine to head up engineering and operations on what was thought to be a backwater outpost before it became one of the most strategically important stations in the quadrant!As the only enlisted or non commissioned officer to feature in the main cast of any Star Trek show to date, O'Brien stands as the only working class hero in the Star Trek universe with a vast and varied career taking from the front lines of the Cardassian war as a soldier, to the front lines of the Dominion War as an engineer, retrofitting DS9, keeping the Defiant from blowing itself apart, and even sniping Dominion troops. All in […]
A Fistful of Justice
Although it's one of the worlds most legendary science fiction shows, Star Trek has always dabbled with format and genre's, all dressed up behind deep space adventures. Whether using the holodeck for a touch of fantasy, or diving into the horrors of war through Deep Space Nine's run, the variety of story telling never seems to fit one mould. But out of all the different tales told in the wonderful world of Starfleet, one that always promises to deliver is the court room drama. This month we're diving into the most captivating of Star Trek's courtroom drama's with a Fistful of Justice! AD ASTRA PER ASPERA Strange New Worlds, Season 2 One of the most modern examples of Strar Trek's court room drama saw Pike's own Number One, Una-Chin Reilly, under court martial for a serious breach of Starfleet regulation […]
A Fistful of Sisko
In the past few years, Star Trek has made several nods to it's past. But while The NExt Generation and Voyager had their continuations, Deep Space Nine continued to 'black sheep' of the family with it's history and name drops being few and far between. Until Academy when we had an entire episode based around the legend of Starfleet's most complex captains. Starting his show as a widower and single parent, Benjamin Sisko started his time in Star Trek as a reluctant hero turned religious icon who's become a prime figure in Bajoran history, the Federation-Dominion war and much more. If you missed his series, first of.... why?! And also, if you want a quick intro - here's our Sisko top five to see what the fuss is all about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzBkvzPoofQ IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT Season 6, Episode 13 Lets […]
